Year: 2004

Low tech, Low quality, but effect still looks good.

Ok so this is not going to rate as your highest quality effect or as a great new technical marvel or as anything too original – and the deck of cards that comes with the trick should be thrown in the trash as soon as you get them. They are the worst quality I have ever seen!

However, the effect is actually very strong and I think if you do buy this you really could have a fooler on your hands. It is easy to do with no complex sleights or reset. To me it is very like John Cornelius’ Instant Pro replacing the wallet with the picture frame and without the stronger gags. The routine tries to add some fun into the mix, but I think Instant Pro is stronger – and probably easier to perform too.

Basically the effect is as follows: you remove a clear picture frame from a little blue drawstring bag. You then place a card, back showing facing the audience into the frame. They then choose a card (and can sign it) and you cover up the frame with the bag. At a snap of the fingers when you pull away the bag and turnaround the frame their card is seen in the frame. Complete with their signature!

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Clever, Convincing, and Very Well Made

This is a very well made box by the craftsman over at Mikame. Without the instructions I don’t think you will be able to find the secret. It is very well concealed. There is even a locking mechanism that once locked makes it impossible to discover the secret.

You could use it as an X-Ray box where you determine what things have been placed inside, or as a large (very) Lippincott Box where something is vanished and appears inside the box. Alternatively you could vanish items from the box too. With a little imagination you could also use it to switch billets and questions.

There are no electronics involved and nothing is added or taken away. Also, once the box is secretly opened apart from the side direct to the performer there are no angle issues or flaps sticking out. You also don’t have don’t have to hide anything in your hands.

This is one of the nicer Mikame pieces and certainly worth adding to your collection.

Highly Recommended!

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Simple Method and Mystifying Results!

Paul Richards is a nice guy and nearly all the magic that he creates is very deceptive and simple to do. Practical Thinking is no different.

The props and premise are simple: you show 20 different symbol cards that are mixed and you ask 4 different people to freely select a card (no force). For each spectator, without any prompting of any kind, you are able to draw the symbol they chose on a laminated sheet.

You can do this as many times as you want, and it can be repeated with different results. Nothing is added or taken away, and the props will last a long time. There are no sleights or memory work and short of Paul coming over to your house to perform the effect for you, he has made it as easy as possible to perform this miracle.

The cards supplied are in laminated pouches and are not laminated themselves – this makes them a bit more bulky than normal laminated cards. However, it doesn’t make the effect any less real, and in some real sense makes the props seem a bit more normal.

This is a very affordable piece of quality mentalism!

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Wow this is fun and eye popping too!

There have been a number attempts at using gimmicked cards to instantly transform from a normal hand to a royal flush. Until recently the most succesful of these was probably Zapped.

Well move over Zapped as Royal Flash is here. This really is very clean and stunning to watch. The cards cannot be examined but even close up they can be shown front and back and you won’t see the gimmick. And unlike Zapped there is less to see when the transformation takes place so you require much less of a movement to effect the change.

Set-up takes about 2 seconds and you are ready to roll.

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Looks good, but the quality is not quite there.

Howie and The Trickery have recently been producing some very fine items which culminated in the very, very limited edition of the Definitive Hole in One. So when this new piece came out I was very excited. Unfortunately, this new item is not quite in the same league as the others they have recently produced.

The frame is easy to set and is very reliable. There is a noise, but if you throw the cards at the frame (the preferred thing to do) it is perfectly covered. And the card appears instantly and is quite a surprise. But the finish is not up to the recent standards and to my mind this will detract from pure collectors wanting to buy this item. However, if you are a serious or a casual performer then this will probably not be an issue.

Having said all of this, the price is reasonable for the effect. I just would prefer to pay more for a higher quality item. But paying less for less, is much better than paying more for less as is so often the case.

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Feel the Weight and the Quality!

Wow this Don Alan Chop Cup from the newly reformed Rings ‘N’ Things II is a beauty! Just be careful you don’t drop it – not because it will harm the cup, but because it’ll put a dent in your floor!

It looks gorgeous, and feels so solid in your hands you just feel like a pro when you pick this baby up. The bronze lip and inside lining looks very impressive too. I am told that this is the last run of these and there are only a handful left so I suggest you put your dancing shoes on and get on over to Howie at TheTrickery to pick one of these beauties up.

One of the problems I’ve had with some other Chop Cups in the past is they were too light and so the dislodging of the ball seemed like an unnatural operation. But with this guy there are no problems like that.

We all would like to do the Cups + Balls, but who has time to do it justice? At least if you start with the Chop Cup, you have a chance that you will get to the Cups + Balls some day. And in the process you get to understand why this is such a beatufiul effect. It comes with the classic routine by Don Alan. There are also many fine things to do with the Chop Cup in Mark Wilson’s book: The Chop Cup.

If you want to perform the chop cup then you will be hard pushed to find a more beautiful prop to work with.

Highly recommended!

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