Month: October 2020

For 2020, Thomas Pohle has created a group of very pretty items known as the Egyptian Series, and this item is another beauty in that series.  It has similarities to Thomas’ previous items: the Chinese Fortune Gate and his Witch Boxes, but is a little different and looks amazing.  Both the vanish of the appearance works very cleanly and you’ll love playing with this bad boy.

What surprised me the most when I received this was the vanish of the amulet has more going on than you imagine.  In particularly, after the vanish the recess in the box is at the same level as before the vanish and the inside of the lid can be freely shown.  It is a very clean vanish.  The appearance is similar to some of Thomas’ other items as mentioned but it works very well.

A very clean and beautiful looking Egyptian miracle 🙂

Click here for more information.

For 2020, Thomas Pohle has created a group of very pretty items known as the Egyptian Series, and this item is a beauty.  The Amazing Ankh Penetration is Thomas Pohle’s version of Jack Hughes’ Think-A-Bell which itself was based on Norman’s Exclusive Triangles. 

It uses the same basic method, but Thomas flipped around when the magician has to hold the box and when not.  What this means is that to show the Ankh’s locked inside the magician has to “perform the move“, and when you want to cause the penetration the magician does not have to “perform the move“.  Given that the box cannot be examined in either version I’m not sure if it makes a lot of difference, but I just wanted to mention it for historical completeness.  Thomas may have had a reason for doing it this way, but I’m not aware of it.

There is no doubt Thomas’ version looks very pretty and works very smoothly.  It is a wonderful forgotten fooler from Jack Hughes and it is good to see this modern version from the German master craftsman who is still going strong after forty years of creating amazing, beautiful magic.

Click here for more information.

The Elusive Rabbits or Hippity-Hop Rabbits was invented by The Great Norman (Norman Hazeldene) c. 1947.

This set is a one of kind custom set that started life as a standard B.C. Magic Mfg. Co. Hippty Hop Rabbits and then Richard (Rick) Heath worked his a magic and captured the real magic of this piece with his paints and brushes.   You can see some of the before and after comparisons in the last few photos.  These are really a beautiful and adorable set of bunnies that are unique and will look amazing in your collection.

The set is made of wood. The bases to the tops of the “chimneys” measure 12.5 inches. The rabbits stand 11 inches tall. The set has been fully restored and is in excellent working conditions. An addition has been given to the base for added stability. It is painted in artists acrylics and represents dozens of hours of detailed work to create a fanciful piece worthy of presenting to an audience or displaying in a fine collection. A Certificate of Authenticity will be included.

Rick, for 35 years the principal artist for the acclaimed Le Grand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company of Beverly, MA. (1977-2012).  He now works independently building, restoring and redecorating illusions and fulfilling commissions for magicians and collectors. In 2002 he received a Special Fellowship Award in Graphic Design from The Academy of Magical Arts, and in 2014 he was honored with the Milbourne Christopher Award for Visual Magic. His work, nearly all one-of-a-kind, hand-painted pieces, either hand-built or restored in his workshop, is highly valued by collectors and now resides in public and private collections from coast to coast.

Click here for more information.

I’ve been a big fan of the Wandering Mummy theme in magic for more than twenty years and wrote a history of the effect here.  One of the big holes in my account was this beautiful and clever version from Kent Bergmann during his Z-Wood Magic days.  This is easily the most sought after effect from Kent’s whole line and since Kent stopped selling them eight years ago I’ve never seen one come up for sale on the secondary market.  And it is easy to see why.

Not only is the effect one of the most popular themes with collectors in close-up magic with versions from Eddy Taytelbaum, Alan Warner, Tony Lackner, Richard Gerlitz, Francois Danis and others. But Kent turned the whole method and story on its head and created something that is still clearly a Wandering Mummy, but with a totally unique approach to the method and the story.  His approach, though based on the others before it has three distinct advantages:

• The two caskets are cleverly gimmicked such that the vampire can appear or disappear at will in either casket as many times as desired.  This allows for more flexibility in the story line.
• Any sounds of the mummy vanishing are covered by the clever idea of rolling the caskets in and out of the main crypt – this is a really nice touch.
• The story line seems a little more logical because we are all familiar (from the movies) with how vampires travel in their secret coffins.

Needless to say Kent’s choice of woods and fine attention to detail, ensure this item looks stunning too. This is a very rare beauty and is very welcome nestled in with all of the other mummy’s 🙂

Click here for more information.

I just received this table from my good friends at Stevens Magic.  Joe + Mark really did a great job tracking down Magician Heather Jay to build to build these beauties.  They are very quick to set-up, feel amazing to the touch, beautiful for spreading cards and other items that benefit from a high quality close-up pad, and much more solid than you would imagine.  They really look elegant, so make sure you look the part too when you perform with one of these.

I purchased this specifically for my Speed Demos but will use it whenever I need to add a bit of class to my performance.  Very happy with this bad boy 🙂

Click here for more information.

This clever deck was built by Devil of France (Monaco) and distributed in the USA exclusively by George Robinson of Viking Mfg.  George had only fifty units made and they all sold out very quickly and he only advertised it twice.  This is the first time I have seen or heard of this item which shows how rare it is.

As issued it comes with two detailed pages of instructions, the gimmicked deck in a standard bicycle deck, and the thick paper clock-face. But to do justice to it you probably want to dress it up with some better themed cards (I use the these Magic ones, but it takes just a minute to switch to your favorite deck). Ideally you should use two decks which you switch smoothly using something like this device or this one.   I also throw in an authentic looking Haunted Key which I use at the beginning to check for the existence of any magic spirits.

This deck works very reliably with easily obtainable batteries (2 x A23 (12v) and 1x 1.5v N size) and a small key fob remote (see final photo).  It is quiet but because it works on vibrations you can hear the vibrations in a totally quiet room.  With a normal amount of ambient noise there is little issue.  However, you do need to perform this on a close-up pad or table with padding because otherwise the vibrations will be exaggerated by the table just like a loud speaker.

Click here for more information.