Month: July 2018

Recently I have become addicted to Chris Wasshuber’s phenomenal contribution to magic in the form of his vast library of magic books in electronic form at the amazing Lybrary.com. I keep finding periodicals and out of print books that I either had once and have sold or never owned. I use these ebooks primarily for research to find out about old magic items and performers, but invariably every time I open an issue I get sucked down some rabbit hole to read about some wonderful effect or magician from the past.

The price of these ebooks is so reasonable there is no excuse to not have copies of all your favorite books and periodicals. Although I warn you once you start you might find it hard to stop, and before you know it will need more disk space! That being said Chris has made all the right decisions when offering his service with PDF’s as the primary ebook format, unlimited downloads and a list of all the ebooks you have ever purchased available on your own Digital Shelf. Chris has even added a useful Magic Knowledge Base Search that allows you to instantly search all of the ebooks you have purchased from him.

Lybrary.com might look a little outdated, which I believe even Chris would admit too, but this is one example where you can’t judge the book by the cover, because there is simply nothing else like this on the web today. Most of the ebooks that Chris is offering are not available elsewhere and the contents is certainly not available on Google.

Thank-you Chris for providing such a wonderful resource for us all, I’ll be back many more times. And although I have not mentioned the Sphinx once so far, you can read plenty about The Sphinx here.

Click here for more information.

80+ years and still going strong – wow what an achievement! And Chris Wasshuber with the assistance of Richard Kaufman, of course, provides such easy access to it all. Hard to put into words how useful and amazing having all of these back issues available at the touch of a button is. If you are looking for articles, trick effects, reviews, history, stage craft, opinion, gossip, and everything in between it is all here. The most useful resource to me when working on the History Project (https://www.martinsmagic.com/the-history-project/) is this magazine.

Read more about Lybrary.com here and Genii here.

Click here for more information.

This is the pocket-sized version of Buma’s popular shamanistic effect: Ju Ju Man. I think the smaller size makes this more practical and easier to do too.

With reset in seconds, nothing to replace or wear out, and fully self contained this item is perfect for walk-around and table hopping situations. The little men are adorable and intriguing to lay people and this could be the perfect non-card effect you have been looking for.

Click here for more information.

Another beauty from Magic Wagon using five really elegant mummies that the spectator can freely choose from and place secretly inside the beautiful and intricate sarcophagus. Regardless of which one they choose the performer can always divine which one it is.

And better still the performer touches nothing, there are no electronics, always ready to work with zero reset, and completely self-contained.

Is it just me or are Magic Wagon actually getting better over time? You’ll love this one!

Click here for more information.

Another clever beauty from the prolific German craftsman Thomas Pohle. Thomas continues to amaze me with his incredibly precise and intricate magic. This is very different from normal die boxes in that there are no typical shells and or double doors, but you are still able to show the block inside the box at any time or vanish it completely! Thomas has made the gimmicks to such tight tolerances you can be watching this right up close but you’ll still not see a thing. Really beautiful work.

Now if only we could get Thomas to squeeze his demo videos down by 50% then we’d be laughing 🙂

Recommended for lovers of clever magic everywhere.

Click here for more information.

Another rare and collectible item from 1987 by the great German craftsman Willi Wessel.  Unlike his fellow countryman, Thomas Pohle, Willi has retired from creating magic some years ago, so his magic is getting harder and harder to find.  This is one of his best items.

What I like about Willi’s routines is that he extracts every inch of magic from his props.  This set comes with a great routine translated perfectly by Wolfgang Wollet. The routine involves:

• Red Chinese tokens appearing on the paddle and doubling
• Then you raise the stakes and use Western Money which then doubles
• Then some Chinese writing appears on the paddle
• And finally the tokens change color

Willi packs a lot in to the routine!  Comes with everything needed (use your own dollar bills) and fits neatly in the presentation case.

Click here for more information.

I’ve had quite a few Ribbon Restoration effects over the years but I particularly like this one for these main reasons:

• The ribbon can be signed at both ends of the ribbon
• The set-up is simple
• There is no cabinet and everything looks clean

So if you tired of ribbon effects I think you’ll find this a breath of fresh air.

Click here for more information.

What a unique and scarce nest of four boxes from the Scottish manufacturer: Silray Magic Co. circa 1950s.  Silray, run by Jack Silver, specialized in lucite (Perspex) plastic props, and these are a great example of the medium.  Not only do these high-quality boxes look great they use an approach that is different to all of the nests of boxes I have seen. They use a variation of the Berg method with the big difference that you can briefly show the bottom of the third box and it appears to be whole. This is accomplished by a clever locking mechanism that traps the smaller box inside precisely at the right location so that it looks like the actual base of the box.

This is the first time I have even seen these boxes and they would look perfect in your collection. Complete with ribbons and key for the outer lock. Highly Recommended for collectors of fine, vintage magic.

Click here for more information.