Review by Andy Martin for Bauer 18 – Xerox Money by Ron Bauer
5 out of 5
Easy to do and Great Entertainment!
All of the booklets in Ron Bauer’s Private Studies series are a lot more than instructions on how to do the trick. They are complete performance pieces, discussing every move, nuance, and reason why. He takes you through the process so well that at the end, if you practice and follow what he says, you are able to create a performance of the highest calibre.
This effect is great fun, easy to do and really wows the audience. The money turns from blanks to $1, then $2, then to $100, at which point things go wrong and the notes are shown to be counterfeit. Its a blast! Highly recommended!
Review by Andy Martin for Die Box 3" by Mel Babcock
5 out of 5
Die Box old hat? Hardly! And this is Beautiful!
I never really liked the die box effect until I picked this beauty up from Mel Babcock. It has a wonderful weight to it and sounds great. It has the neat door opening feature so that you can show the die in either side of the box at any time during the demostration. This really convinces the audience that the die is still in the box. Very, very highly recommended, as is all of Mel’s beautiful magic!
Question: Is Mel Babcock as good as Owen’s? Answer: In most cases Owen’s is probably a bit better than Mr Mel. However, you can pay anywhere from three to ten times as much at Owen’s so I don’t think its a fair comparison at all. For the price Mel Babcock rules the world, for twice the price Mel Babcock rules the world. For thrice the price he still looks very strong!
Babcock is good, but Owen is, in my opinion, the best. Owen workmanship is supreme on the 3" die box, with beautiful walnut joins, brass trimmings and matt black interior. Expensive though. Babcock very nice too.
Review by Andy Martin for Knotty Knot by Aldo Colombini
5 out of 5
This is a great rope effect!
This effect by Aldo Colombini was recommended to me by Gary Michaels. Its basic form takes a few minutes to read the simple handling and its a great trick. But if you spend a bit more time practicing some extra moves it is even better.
Basically the effect is you start off with a knot in the middle of a rope. It jumps to one end, then the other at which time it turns to red. Then the red knot slides from end to end, but at the climax of the effect you hand the rope out to the audience and there is a real knot tied in the rope and when this is undone the rope is shown to have a red part dyed in it. So how did it move?
Just one rope and no scissors, easy to follow and very visual! Thanks Gary for recommending it – I too would recommend it to anyone, who doesn’t like to bother learning rope tricks. This one is money well spent!
Review by Andy Martin for Mini Square Circle x 2 by Mel Babcock
4 out of 5
Nice Midi Squares and Circles
These are a nice set of Square Circles from that talented craftsman Mel Babcock. I would not call them mini since their size is still quite a lot larger than any of the Alan Warner pieces. However, if you are short on space they are a lot smaller than most of Mel’s other works.
These are nicely made, but I don’t think they are quite up to the same standards that his larger pieces are. Maybe I’ve been too spoilt by Mel in the past …
Still a great piece – buy two like I did for some cool close-up transpositions!
Review by Gary Michaels for Passe-Passe Bottles by Rings 'N Things Magic Co.
5 out of 5
The Best Yet
These have been going for $250 – 400 on EBay lately (as of 3/25/03)…
The RnT Liquor Bottles were more plentiful than the RnT Bubble-Up (7-Up copies) but both sets are very rare, meticulously made and are minor miracles.
The bottles are pure perfection. The tubes are typical RnT: nary a seam to be found, rolled rims and accents, Brazill’s exclusive epoxy-baked miracle finish providing protection that will out-live you (!), realistic labels (when found in mint condition, as mine are) — basically they’re perfectly made.
You won’t find any passe passe bottles better than these.
Review by Gary Michaels for Bauer 05 – Horn Swoggled Again! by Ron Bauer
5 out of 5
Best You Can Do
Caveat: Ron Bauer is a close personal friend of mine; I’m a regular member of his invitation-only Monday Night Roundtable posse in Lake Orion, MI, where many of the members have notebooks out, jotting down everything Ron says.
The guy’s the most gifted underground mind in our business: best friend of Don Alan until his death a few years back (and Milt Kort — no he’s not dead yet!) for 40 years, author, video producer, former serious associate of Louis Falanga (L&L Publishing — until the disastrous Don Alan book, which he was slated to write)… I could go on and on. But I won’t. Apart from revealing the fact that Bauer’s assisting me in writing the authorized Rings ‘n Things book with RnT founder Mike Brazill.
As for the effect:
I’ve been performing the original "Hornswoggled" from J.G. Thompson’s "My Best" since my mentor George Kirkendall taught it to me in 1974.
All of that said…
Ron’s handling is the cleanest yet — no bills are sliced from one end to the other for a spread where you have to watch how far you "spread" the bills — it’s a perfect update.
The patter is smart (and more modern), the preparation very simple, the reset instantaneous.
This is one superior effect which you will use, especially for table-hopping or impromptu. A steal at $12 or whatever Ron’s selling it for now. The bills you’ll use are $30 in real currency so add that to the price of the effect.
One tip: have the "prepared" bills in a money clip, along with some "normal" cash. It’s more convincing, especially impromptu.
Pick this up. And thanks for reading my ramblings 😉
Review by Gary Michaels for Crystal Casket (Crystal Cube) (Spring Loaded) by Ickle Pickle
2 out of 5
More Ickle Pickle (Steve Bender) Trash
I read a cool effect I’d never seen in Tarbell 5 (re-reading the classics is always a good thing!) using a Crystal Casket, a glass with a plasticene insert, a small cylinder to cover same and a white silk –the silk vanishes from the glass (sitting atop the casket) and instantaneously appears inside the latter.
This effect is designed for a much smaller Crystal Casket (such as the British firms — Repro and Supreme — were selling 25 years ago or so). Alas I’d lost my old 4" C.C.
After seeing Andy’s presentation of this effect in his video (seen here), I bought one of the Bender versions.
As expected it was overpriced (although I purchased it at cost) but worse, this is cheaply made: no hinge in the lid, it’s only held together with the mylar tape seen here, which will wear out if you’re performing it more than 50 times; plus the "latch" on the bottom which frees the spring load is literally a bent paper clip — and badly bent at that.
I’m not making this up.
Mine also arrived in Bender’s original box, well-packaged, and STILL had scratches on the plexiglass.
Absolutely unforgiveable for an item that sells for $60+ retail.
Try to find one of the older, well-made Crystal Caskets.
Review by Andy Martin for Copenetro (Early Original) by Bob Kline
5 out of 5
The original is so good!
I used to have another version of Copenetro and liked it. However, this one – an original Bob Kline one – is so much better. The base is thinner and it seems impossible for anything, certainly not 4 coins to be hidden in there, so it makes for a more amazing illusion.
This has always been one of my favorite effects, and now with this outfit its a real fooler too!
Review by George Guerra for The Visible Change by Joe Mogar
5 out of 5
Thanks, Joe, for the knife
This is an interesting knife with three color patterns. My knife has the white/red sectioned handle on one side as pictured and an all black handle on the other side. Top quality as is all of Joe Mogar’s knives. I am particulary grateful to Joe for this knife as he actually gave it to me as a gift on my recent order to him. It wasn’t part of the order so I was quite surprised when I received it. It’s most welcome in my collection. Thanks again, Joe.
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