Month: March 2021

This neat item was designed and produced by, Magical Concepts Plus, Wood Dale, Illinois c. 1990.  It is a hand-crafted, walnut and maple case that houses various magical effects. It also came originally with an instruction video.  I received no instructions or video when I obtained this.  It appears to come with the following items:

1. Custom Walnut version of Ed Massey’s Ribbon Fantastique (I’ll include instructions for a previous version).
2. A wonderful version of Heath’s Mystic Tappit but with a clever ruse which means you don’t need to remember any colors.  (I’ll write up instructions for this – it is an amazing and simple to perform item that is always ready to go and works perfectly!)
3. Pair of normal dice
4. Deck of regular playing cards

I don’t know if there was anything else – it feels pretty snug so I’m not sure if they could fit much more in the box. 

On the front of the box it has the Latin phrase: “Omne Quod Videt Non Est” – searching online did not give a meaningful translation, but I’m guessing it says something along the lines of: “Everything is not what it seems” (though I could be wildly wrong here!).

Click here for more information.

The Conway Cigarette Case is based upon the effect The Card and Cigarette Case by American Close-up Magician Bert Allerton in his book The Close-up Magician  c. 1958. However, Bert Allerton’s idea used an ungimmicked Cigarette Case. Pat Conway created the perfect gaff to make the case still look normal, but also much easier and more convincing to perform. 

Ken Brooke purchased the rights to Pat’s approach and produced this beautiful and innocent looking Cigarette Case.  The early versions sold by Ken required an elastic band to be used but Fred Lowe suggested a modification which removed the need.  This is the final version after all the improvements and suggestions and it is perfect and easily one of the best items produced by Ken Brooke 🙂

I’ve always wanted to get one of these but had no clue how cool it was until I received it.  It does not work like any other card box you have seen and there are no flaps … yet you can do pretty much anything any other card box can do, but in a much more natural and clean way 🙂

I’ve included the full Card in Chewing Gum instructions from Roy Johnson’s amazing book The Roy Johnson Experience and along with some extra tweaks that are included with the instructions for the Conway you will have the perfect routine you’ll use in every show.

The only problem I had is that I don’t smoke and the last thing I wanted to do was buy some real cigarettes to perform this.  Luckily Amazon came to the rescue and I was able to get a pack of herbal cigarettes that are tobacco and nicotine free and look and work perfectly.

Included:

• The amazing Conway Cigarette Case in like new condition.
• Six pages of tips and instructions.
• The full six page routine for Card in Chewing Gum from Roy’s book.
• A pack of herbal cigarettes which look perfect (of course you can use real cigarettes too!).

This is really an amazing and innocent looking switching device for cards, billets, cash, business cards and anything else that will fit inside the case that you will find many uses for.

Click here for more information.

You can always rely on the amazing Eddy Taytelbaum to produce a beautiful version of a standard effect.  Here he takes on the Coin Slide and in this version Eddy has created one with no moving parts. In fact the slide can be examined if desired 🙂

It is a simple effect, but Eddy still manages to create a work of art from it.  The secret to appreciating Eddy’s items is not just to look a them, but to hold them and use them.  You’ll find most of the time that they work as beautifully and flawlessly as they look.  This little slide is no exception.

Thayer’s Mystic Coin Slide c. 1921 appears to have been the first version of this type of effect, followed by Carl Brema’s Coin Slide or Magic Mint c. 1925. The term “coin slide” should not be confused with the gimmick used to load a coin into the center of a ball of wool (or in nest of box routines) which was used much earlier.

Click here for more information.