Month: August 2019

Here is a beauty based on Magiro’s amazing and clever Spirit Dice.

Magic Wagon haven’t really changed anything about the mechanics for this clever item. They have effectively added a box around the whole mechanism and made the effect out of teak. It does look nice and works very well. However, as I have mentioned before, part of the beauty of Magiro’s work was the utter simplicity and lack of anything extra or flashy.  It was the extreme austerity of his props that made the effects so amazing.  That being said, no one makes cool magic boxes like Magic Wagon and they did a marvelous job with this one.

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When you’ve see a bunch of similar penetration effects, no matter how well made or how cool they are it is easy to get kind of jaded with them.  That is until you see a great and entertaining video from Madison Hagler which wakes you up, and you say: “What? How did that happen?”  Even though this had been out for a couple of years I just missed it or ignored it the first time around.  It works differently from any other similar penetration and really is quite amazing.

Just watch any of the videos very closely and you’ll swear that the block actually penetrates the solid plate.  Nothing is added or taken away.  The tower and plate are ungimmicked and  although the block is gimmicked (sorry it is not real magic!) the freedom with which you can handle it and spin it around is amazing.  A really excellent job Thomas Pohle, the talented German craftsman who even after seeing all of these effects continues to surprise and amaze me 🙂

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In 1994, Rich Block and Nick Ruggiero released one of the most prized creations in the Collectors’ Workshop stable: Silver Odyssey II.  It was a real beauty to behold.  Now Twenty-Five years later George Robinson has created Silver Odyssey III and it looks and works perfectly. 

Internally it does not look quite as stunning – gone are all the gleaming brass and copper components – but noone but the performer ever saw this anyway and it now it works perfectly and more reliably than ever before.  Like the previous versions it does not come with any way to vanish the coins (?).  My suggestions would be to use one of these devices:

• Powell Stevens Otto Mauer Coin Casket
• Coin Stand by Tony Karpinski
• Trabucco Holdout

If you have ever dreamed of performing this effect then I suggest you contact George – he has already sold out twice this year and I don’t know how many more runs he will be making.  It is most certainly the perfect Coins To Glass effect.

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One of my favorite Alan Warner effects is Mini Mental and I still think it is one of the cleanest and cleverest pieces of mentalism that Alan (or anyone else) has produced.  In 2016 Magic Wagon released their Elite Premonition which took Alan’s idea and made it easier to perform. The great German craftsman Will Wessel also created his wonderful version called Colored Number Blocks.

Now Thomas Pohle has released what is probably the cleverest version of all. It is different from all of the above versions and is easily the cleanest and most perplexing I have seen.  No matter how closely you look everything looks 100% above board – you can look from all angles there is nothing to see and nothing to hide.   And yet no matter which order of blocks and numbers the spectator chooses the magicians prediction is always correct. 

Even if you are familiar with the other versions, you will likely still be fooled by this version. You will marvel at how smoothly this bad boy operates – it is amazing!

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Gimpy has released a new version of his very popular Mighty Mini that now allows you to show the bottom of the box. To be fair there is still an impression on the bottom of the box, which is meant to fade over time according to the instructions though I did not see any evidence of this, so you wouldn’t want to spend too long on the bottom, but a quick flash at any time is fine.  Which is a significant improvement from the original because there was no way you could get close to the bottom before.

This version of the box seems to stay better too.  This is a very nice improvement to an already wonderful and practical version of this effect.

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What a wonderful upgrade to Paul McCaig’s amazing Mind’s Eye Box, J.C. Moore (Mooreni) has really outdone himself with this beauty. The original version definitely had some old world charm but this deluxe version is much more solidly built and really takes your breath away. If you look at the last few photos you can see how this compares with the original box and it is a little taller and larger all around, which makes it more useful to store items for your act. If you had a choice you would always pick this version of the Mind’s Eye Box – it is beautiful and practical.

What impresses me about this box is that there are no moving parts, no electronics, no magnets, nothing to add to take away, no reset, and yet you are ready to go right away – arrive at the event, pull out your box, take our your tarot cards and other things you store in the box and straight away you can start to read their minds.  What a lovely idea, and will last a lifetime – even if you leave it on your shelf for years before using it!

Inspired by Magnuson’s Devil Device box, as featured in Theodore Annemann’s book Practical Mental Magic (Effects) and also described in The Jinx #89 But unlike the Devil Device there are no moving parts, or the need to touch the box after the spectator had placed their written details inside.  It also doesn’t have some of the angle issues that the original Devil Device had.

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One of the earliest tricks I purchased was a version of Ribbon Fantastique by the amazing Ed Massey. This version has an interesting approach, looks great, and has a great patter story.

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What a unique idea from Jenzo Harmonics. The tiles seem to have all these random markings and yet during the routine you tall an interesting little story and show all 4 suits and the court cards and end with a kicker prediction. Great stuff!

The effect involves a final reveal of a particular (forced) card. The routine includes an engaging story with the tiles showing several symbols and images before revealing a spectator’s card.

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