Month: October 2021

I love these beautiful brass bullet wands from Shawn Reida 🙂

Shawn has been the resident pro and right hand man of Mark Stevens at Stevens Magic for many years.  He has created a few items over the years, some of which have been sold directly by Stevens Magic and some are sold on at his store on eBay.

But my favorite of his items are easily these hand-made brass bullet wands.  They come in four main models:

1. Standard Size
2. Standard Size with magnetic tips
3. Mini Size (7″) (this one)
4. Mini Size (7″) with magnetic tips

Shawn will also customize the location of the magnet if you don’t want it directly in the tip and he’s a really nice guy to work with, and will go out of his way to make you happy.

Click here for more information.

I love these beautiful brass bullet wands from Shawn Reida 🙂

Shawn has been the resident pro and right hand man of Mark Stevens at Stevens Magic for many years.  He has created a few items over the years, some of which have been sold directly by Stevens Magic and some are sold on at his store on eBay.

But my favorite of his items are easily these hand-made brass bullet wands.  They come in four main models:

1. Standard Size
2. Standard Size with magnetic tips (this one)
3. Mini Size (7″)
4. Mini Size (7″) with magnetic tips

Shawn will also customize the location of the magnet if you don’t want it directly in the tip and he’s a really nice guy to work with, and will go out of his way to make you happy.

Click here for more information.

I love these beautiful brass bullet wands from Shawn Reida 🙂

Shawn has been the resident pro and right hand man of Mark Stevens at Stevens Magic for many years.  He has created a few items over the years, some of which have been sold directly by Stevens Magic and some are sold on at his store on eBay.

But my favorite of his items are easily these hand-made brass bullet wands.  They come in four main models:

1. Standard Size (this one)
2. Standard Size with magnetic tips
3. Mini Size (7″)
4. Mini Size (7″) with magnetic tips

Shawn will also customize the location of the magnet if you don’t want it directly in the tip and he’s a really nice guy to work with, and will go out of his way to make you happy.

Click here for more information.

This is U.F. Grant’s wonderful and overlooked Improved Proxy Substitution Chest. The original version released c. 1946 used just a single chest, but an improved version was introduced c. 1966 using two chests.  This is the latter kind.  It doesn’t look very much when you get it but it is a very convincing transposition that is embarrassingly easy to do.  The basic plot is that two items borrowed from the audience, an item from a lady and an item from a man, change places in a very clean manner.

I thought it would it would be perfect for a Batman and Superman ultimate Smackdown contest …

The chests have plenty of cosmetic marks and scratches  but they work perfectly.  If I was to perform this regularly I would probably repaint them in blacks and browns to represent buildings or maybe green and red for Kryptonite, but as they are they work perfectly too.  Of course you don’t have to use Batman and Superman – any two small items under about 6″ would work.

Click here for more information.

It is not clear who invented the original version of the Prayer Vase  but ads started appearing in the 1930’s.  Davenport’s called it the Demon Enchanted Vase (c. 1934), Floyd Thayer called it The Chinese Jug and Rope (c. 1936) and Abbott’s called it The Oriental Vase Mystery (c. 1936).  In the Abbott’s adverts they say it was of Oriental origin and that it was first introduced to America by Percy Abbott.

This beauty was created by George Robinson of Viking Mfg. and it is turned of white gumwood and painted with several coats of lacquer.  Hand cut decals are then applied with three finishing coats of clear lacquer and a final waxing to complete the process. 

The vase does not use the standard method and when it was released it did not even include a rope and original gimmick.  To my mind it better if you can do the original rope version first then introduce the wand and use the new method to give an overall better effect.  So I’ve included a rope, gimmick and instructions for the original.

Click here for more information.