Month: March 2006

Cute-Cute-Cute

Here’s an over-looked novelty.
It’s probably best done with an assistant to operate the rising cards and the surprise finale`, but it’s sure to delight both children and adults.
To be sure, this is NOT the rising cards effect for a solely adult crowd, but it lends itself well to use with easy-to-identify alphabet cards for the kiddies.
It’s small to pack, but easily seen and very light weight.
Look at the photo: It’s a good looking prop.

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Use Your Imagination

I’ve owned one of these for years and used it with children for a very funny reaction. It is NOT a trick in itself, but a supporting prop. In this use it’s a humorous item.
It’s also been featured in my annual Halloween show with an adult, but in a much different, darker manner. It was not —and wasn’t meant to be— funny at all.
It’s well made and works well, too.

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Creativity+Prop=Entertainment

When this prop arrived it failed completely almost immediately. A replacement was sent and has worked fine.
Suggestion: Obtain ‘flashers’ from your hardware store that drop into light sockets so the bulbs flash for animation.
This prop does what it’s advertised to do, but it requires clever and original thinking to make it entertaining.

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Tepid Imitation

The original Thayer Rice, Orange & Checkers has spawned some imitations. This one is weak.
The elegant beauty of the original design is not reproduced in the cheap MAK Magic version. And, the clever vase for vanishing the rice has been replaced by something less effective and much less beautiful.
I’m all for bright, showy —even gaudy— props. Some might take offense at the yellow faces, but my distaste for this is NOT based on that.
If Hollywood was making a motion picture that featured a young, bumbling wanna-be magician, this is the gear the prop man would furnish to set the sequence.
Compare this to the original Rings’N’Things’ Mandarin Transformation (now a multi-thousand dollar collectors’ item) and its much simpler —and much better— look.
Or, invest in either the too-small traditional Rice, Orange & Checkers still produced by California’s Owen Magic Supreme or their terrific stage-sized Rice, Grapefruit & Checkers (you’ll be taking out a 2nd mortgage for this one!).
I own all three and use the Mandarin Transformation and Rice, Grapefruit & Checkers frequently.

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A Winner

If you want the Cadillac —or Rolls Royce— of Flexible Mirror props, this is the one for you.
It’s beautifully crafted and features hidden gimmicks so it can be shown freely on both sides (unlike some other versions).
This pricy prop may be a bargain in the long run as —once purchased— you’ll never buy another one!

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Really Terrific

If you can create a clever presentation, this is a very well thought out prop that —with one exception— works exceedingly well.
The clever arrangement that allows a non-forced —but signed— card to wind up in the serpent’s mouth is genius. However, the concept hasn’t been engineered to the degree of being foolproof. The very smart inventor devised a method for the signed card to appear along with the serpent, but the thread that facilitates this tangled with the coiled spring of the snake. My personal routine, using children and alphabet cards, doesn’t require the actual selected card to be in the snake’s mouth so I just removed the thread.
The supplied basket is fine, but I found a more exotic one. The self-contained mechanism can be placed into anything.
The SUDDEN appearance of the snake is a high point for audience reaction.
This is a great prop.

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