Year: 2021

The Porcupine was the name of my favorite local pub when I was working in London in the 1980’s.  I was in London in 2017 and The Porcupine is still going strong 🙂

I have many fond memories of going to The Porcupine and a couple of years ago I decided to renovate my old home office into the new Porcupine. My plan was to have a place where I could relax after work,  practice magic, listen to music, entertain a few friends and take all of my Speed Demo videos.

It has taken me most of this year to get something off the ground but I am about finished with the first phase – what is left is mainly small stuff, a few posters, accessories, etc., but all the heavy lifting is done.

I look forward to creating some great videos over the coming years and also to create a set of routines that I can perform when any one asks me in The Porcupine to “show us a trick Andy”.

I’m happy to say that this new Porcupine is my new Happy Place and I spend as much time as I can in here 🙂

Click here for more information.

This is one of Alan’s very early Children’s effects with super large (9.5″ x 4.5″) dominoes so they can be seen by the whole party.  The effect is very similar to the close-up effect do-mini-o though in fact the color change with this effect for the final domino uses all three ribbon colors (The painted close-up effect uses one color each and the teak close-up effect uses two colors.)

What is particularly satisfying about this effect is not only is it very solid, easy to do, and visual but the dominoes have a double locking action so they can be handled freely before and after should you desire.

A rare vintage beauty you don’t see very often and would look great as a backdrop to some of Alan’s smaller domino pieces 🙂

Click here for more information.

I always felt this was an amazing mirror box with a clever way of dumping the evidence and making it 100%  clean,  but the routine it was shipped with was not fully fleshed out.  So I spent sometime and added a few simple items to come up with this routine below which I think does a little more justice to the prop.

I have included:

• The Original Box and Gimmick
• A large 36″ Silk King Studio silk with a Full house beautifully printed on it (a $59 value)
• A Plastic stand
• Some spring flowers
• A deck of cards

Click here for more information.

Jack Hughes, the legendary British Inventor, Craftsman, and Dealer who invented many staples in magic that we take for granted today (including: TV Card Frame (1936), Attaboy (early 1930s), Clatter Box (1951) and many more. He also invented the first visible coins to glass c. 1937, way before Copenetro, even though when Bob Kline introduced his version of Coins in Glass called Copenetro (with the same method) almost 10 years later in 1947, he claimed he had invented it and that Jack Hughes was the pirate.  I think history speaks for itself here and there is little doubt these days that Jack Hughes was the originator of the Visible Coins to Glass effect that many people attribute to Bob Kline. You can read more here.

I used to perform a later version by Jack Hughes  all the time as a teenager and into my 20’s – it was always easy to set, reliable in operation, and a great crowd pleaser.  But this version built by Abbott’s to Jack Hughes’ specifications and under license is the best one I have tried. The reset is simpler than any version of Coins To Glass I have owned and the accuracy is as good as it gets.  Sometimes a coin might miss the inner glass but most fall squarely inside the inner shot glass.

It has a better action than any Copenetro I have tried too.  It is also very small which is really useful when you actually want to amaze your audience 🙂

Click here for more information.

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

These little beauties from Collectors’ Workshop are still the cutest Hip Hop variation I have seen.  Designed by Les Smith of Owen’s Magic over thirty years ago, there still has been nothing created since quite as cute as these little guys.  The covers and bases are solid walnut and the gimmicks are well built and function perfectly. 

Very hard to come by these days and you’ll love them to display in your collection or to show the grand-kids 🙂

Click here for more information.

This is probably Jack Ruda’s finest hour. It is The Temple of Goo, a hand-crafted gem that quickly became a favorite among collectors. Jack created this in two sizes the first had just 3 choices and was know as The Temple of Goo Fong sold by Ron Allesi as a limited edition of 50 units. The second version which was the better of the two was this one with 4 choices.

This version has been altered (for the better in my opinion) from when it was originally released. It used to have a switch in the base to turn the power on and off.  Unfortunately, no attempt was made to hide the switch so you could never show the bottom of the temple.  In this unit the switch has been removed and integrated into the statue of Goo himself.   On the the base is now a lush green felt which is attached by magnets (not screws as before) so when you need to change the batteries you just need to pull the felt away from the magnets. As long as you don’t leave Goo in the temple when you are not performing this the batteries should last for months as the circuit is only completed when Goo is in the temple.

The other thing that sells this is having a prediction in the wallet lying next to the temple before they even make their selection.  The wallet I use in the video and show in the photos is the Viking Working Performer’s Card to Wallet Plus, but many wallets would work and it doesn’t have to be a gimmicked wallet.  The way I use it is no sleights or anything, but you could do that if you fancied, just doesn’t seem necessary.  This wallet works well because it has enough pockets so it looks like the prediction is the only one in the wallet.  Of course this is not the case, but using the wallet is a good convincer that you knew all along they would choose the number.  You could equally have 4 cards in 4 envelopes in your pockets, or use a Himber wallet, or double envelopes etc.  But the clean and simple wallet works for me (so I included it for you to use).  The key thing with the wallet is to have it in view before they choose, and to remove the prediction before their answer is exposed – this way you have to do no extra work, unless you want to.

Click here for more information.

Another popular Rough and Smooth deck this time invented by Ralph W. Hull c. 1934.  As a teenager I started with the Nudist Deck but a few years later I discovered The Phanto Deck.  The Phanto Deck is similar to the Nudist, but there are two other transformations and I have been using ever since.

These are made by Steven Perry who is a professional card mechanic and does an amazing job for just a few dollars more.  These are not bulk manufactured, each deck is made by hand with meticulous attention to quality control and precision.  The roughing is solid and will not let you down under pressure.

If you need any sort of standard or custom gimmick deck I suggest you contact Stevens Magic and I’m confident you will switch too, I know personally I’ll never go back to the mass dealer ones 🙂

Click here for more information.

Created by Burling Hull c. 1909 at the tender age of 15. Like so many magicians before me my very first magic effect was a Svengali Deck – it changed my world 🙂 I’ve just started using the Svengali Deck again recently thanks to a effect by Paul Curry.

These are made by Steven Perry who is a professional card mechanic and does an amazing job for just a few dollars more.  These are not bulk manufactured, each deck is made by hand with meticulous attention to quality control and precision.

If you need any sort of standard or custom gimmick deck I suggest you contact Stevens Magic and I’m confident you will switch too, I know personally I’ll never go back to the mass dealer ones 🙂

Click here for more information.

Belly Strippers were invented by card sharps by 1865, and their main advantage is you can mix them up end for end and always strip out the necessary cards.  These ones allow you to strip out the reds from the blacks effortlessly. So if you ever wanted to do the cleanest version of Paul Curry’s masterpiece: Out of this World, using this deck is the way to go.

These are made by Steven Perry who is a professional card mechanic and does an amazing job for just a few dollars more.  These are not bulk manufactured, each deck is made by hand with meticulous attention to quality control and precision.

If you need any sort of standard or custom gimmick deck I suggest you contact Stevens Magic and I’m confident you will switch too, I know personally I’ll never go back to the mass dealer ones 🙂

Click here for more information.