Gutbuster Review
Gutbuster by Andrew Mayne
Price: $75.00
Available from: weirdthings.com
To me, Gutbuster is a very interesting and versatile product. You receive a gimmick that allows you to put your arm through an assistant, your assistant to put his arm through you, a random spectator to put their arm through you, A solo version where an arm bursts from your chest, and instructions for ungimmicked versions of your arm through assistant, assistant’s arm through you, and your arm through random spectator. Whew. That was a mouthful. I hope everyone followed that.
Gutbuster contains an instructional DVD and the materials to make the gimmick. You’re going to need a couple other things, but they’re household items. Scissors and something flat, I believe. You will require a trip to the magic shop to purchase something else for the solo version, but honestly, I don’t think it’s worth it. It looks like complete crap.
Although the DVD is short, it covers everything you’re going to need to know about constructing the gimmick and performing the various gut-busts. It doesn’t take a long time to make (I’d say 20 minutes, and that’s if you’re slow) and only minimal practice is required to get it looking good. You’re obviously going to need to make sure things are looking the way they should look before you perform this for anyone, but it’s not something that’s going to take a lot of work.
The gimmick is not something that I would set up and wear on me on speculation that I may want to do Gutbuster. This isn’t a Raven or Topit that you can just install and forget about. However, it’s not at all cumbersome or uncomfortable. You could definitely wear it if you knew you had a show or were planning to do some street performing. It’s not necessarily an “opener-only” effect.
To be perfectly honest, the ungimmicked version is my favorite. It could easily be a stand-alone release along the lines of something like Pocket Sawing In Half or Bisection. Instead, it’s included here as a wonderful bonus. If you’re a fan of Andrew Mayne and this style of magic appeals to you, I think Gutbuster is worth a look.
Andster
July 10th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
It’s best with two people. My friend and I came up with a terrific routine with this and performed it for a roomful of about 60 people. He jammed his hand through my gut while I moaned and shrieked.
It KILLED. Very funny and visual bit.
Did you notice that Chris Angel performed a version of this in his recent Mindfreak episode? Truthfully, it looked better when we did it!
July 10th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Incidentally, the ungimmicked version seems great in principle, but I’d stick with his simple, deceptive gimmick. Great stuff!