Dee Christopher’s Maverick is one of the most recently discussed magic items. Maverick is an EDC pouch designed for magicians and mentalists. There are a handful of features built into it. It is marketed as being able to hold your entire walkaround show.
Its 77 EUR price tag has been the topic of many online discussions. Is it worth the price? What will you get out of it? We decided to find out.
I got Maverick for myself at the end of November 2023. I’ve been carrying it in my bag since.
My name is Pavel, and I am the store manager of Butterfly Magic Store. Welcome to my review of the pouch, its features, and its value. This review aims to give you a better idea if Maverick is the right accessory for you. Let’s get into it!
Build and Quality
Maverick comes in a black box with heavy gold foiling, the trademark packaging for all The 1914 products. It also comes in a black velvet bag. You can use that to store or carry other props.
The pouch is 12 by 10 centimeters and can reach up to 4 cm in width based on how many items you put inside.
The pouch is made of X-Pac® VX21 - a durable and rugged material developed for boat sails. Maverick opens with a high-quality and, I must say, very smooth zipper. It opens more than halfway through the pouch, so you can easily access its contents.
It has a little hook for attaching a carabine. You can then attach the pouch to your belt or the inside of your bag.
One outer side of Maverick offers two slots for credit cards, pocket tricks, or any additional gimmicks. A pen holder lies on top of those. It is short, so if you want to use it, you will need to get a mini Sharpie, for example. I will get to the contents later.
The other side has another credit card pocket but with a window. A hidden pocket beneath it is only good for one piece of paper, as it becomes harder to access the more you load the pouch.
After sitting at my bag and desk for the last two months, it shows absolutely no signs of use or damage. The pockets broke in nicely, making them slightly looser and easier to use.
I can confidently say it is made to last, and there is no need to worry about it breaking or tearing. Given, of course, you handle it with at least a little bit of care.
Features
Index
The inside of Maverick is divided into three parts - one big compartment in the middle and two smaller ones on the sides. One of the smaller pockets comes with a six-part index.
You can put folded billets or playing cards in it. I filled the index with the special cards printed for Dee’s Shadow Wallet. They are six very thin playing cards providing you with outs on all court cards.
Here comes one of my very few complaints about the pouch. Even though there are six slots in the index, you can effectively use just five when using playing cards. The one slot closest to the spine of the pouch is slightly narrower than the rest, making it impossible to use for playing cards. I solved this by putting two cards in one of the remaining slots. It has worked well for me so far.
The index offers almost unlimited possible uses. You can use it for predictions, mind-reading effects, and revealing the spectator’s card, and since you don’t have to use it exclusively for playing cards, you can use it to reveal the spectator’s star sign, for example.
Load
Maverick comes with a secret load. It lets you load different items inside the pouch. In the included tutorial, Dee shows how to create a simple guide to help you load the items inside the pouch.
The load is very well hidden from the outside and inside. It can be used with playing cards for the classic Card to Wallet effect. Loading coins, billets, or other smaller items might be better and easier.
Switch
You can use the window pocket for switching. You switch a randomly chosen playing card with a forced one. You can switch bills for serial number divinations. You can switch coins, keys, billets, etc. The limit here is your imagination and the size of the items. The thinner they are, the better.¨
Video Tutorial
The video tutorial is clear and well shot, and everything is explained in great detail, as expected from The 1914. It begins with an overview of the features and a breakdown of the contents of Dee’s Maverick.
The tutorial teaches three effects: Star Sign, Serial Number, and Lucky Coin.
Star Sign - This effect uses Maverick in combination with an ESP deck. The magician asks the participant what is their star sign. The participant then chooses one of the ESP cards. The magician takes out their prediction, saying, “I will meet a … (star sign), and they will be drawn to the star.” The participant’s card is shown to be the star for the final reveal.
Serial Number - A divination of the serial number of a borrowed bill.
Lucky Coin - The magician tells how they found their lucky coin. They then ask the participant for a random two-digit number. They continue their story linking everything that happened that day to the participant’s number. The magician tries their luck one more time by predicting a simple geometrical shape. They then present their lucky coin to the participant. The coin has their number written on it!
These effects are direct and easy to learn, with Serial Number being the most simple of them (method-wise). Dee included these in the tutorial because they show how to utilize all of Maverick’s features. Remember, these are just ideas to get your creativity started. There are many effects you can achieve using Maverick.
Contents
Let’s find out what you can put inside Maverick. You can find the contents of Dee’s and my Mavericks below. You can see the variety of items you can put into the pouch based on the type of magic you prefer.
Here is a list of items Dee carries in his. I like to call it the “Mentalism Maverick.”
- A stack of 30 billets
- An Eclipse ESP deck
- Three Tyvek envelopes for Three-dimensional telepathy
- The Nightmare Page by David Alnwick
- Thy Will Be Done by Alexander Marsh
- A pendulum
- A Fisher Bullet Space Pen
- A large coin
Now, l will list the contents of my Maverick. This would be “a mixed bag,” but more for card magic.
- A deck of cards
- A stack of around ten billets
- Fraud by Peter Turner
- Shadow Wallet Card Index
- A Fisher Bullet Space Pen
- Himber Tyvek Envelopes by Alan Wong
As card magic is my number one, I must have a deck of cards inside the pouch. This limits the number of props I can put inside, as a classic deck is much thicker than, for example, the Eclipse deck. But still, there are a handful of items inside my pouch that I can use for countless effects.
Experience and Conclusion
I have to say I was skeptical about Maverick at first. I didn’t see the value that comes with it and what you can get from it. But, after using it for two months, I changed my mind.
The pouch is great! It looks good, holds up amazingly, and has fantastic features. But, the main value of Maverick for me lies within the concept of it.
I now carry dozens of magic tricks with me every day, everywhere I go. There is no “I forgot my deck,” “I can’t practice right now,” or “I would like to show you something, but I have my props at home.” Even the thought of having all the props with me makes me think about magic more often and explore ideas of what I could do with them. This, for me, is the most valuable part of having Maverick.
Will Maverick be good for you? It depends on your needs and preferences and if you are an EDC freak like me. It is certainly not for everybody, and not every magician will go crazy about it. But!
If you’re looking for a pouch for your props that can do much more than a classic pouch you could get at almost any store for 10 EUR, consider investing in Maverick.
It is expensive, but quality comes with a price. We have a saying, “We are not rich enough to buy cheap products.”
The End
This was our first in-depth review. We hope you enjoyed it and that it answers at least some of the questions you might have had.
If you have any more questions or if there are more things you would like to learn about Maverick, feel free to send us an e-mail. I’ll be happy to help you.