Month: October 2022

I really like this book test.  The books are very well produced and look like great fun movie coffee table books.  They have lots of cool movie facts and the method is hidden 100% in plain sight with nothing to find at all.  You could spend a month reading over them and would still find nothing. 

I like how they have structured these so you have nothing really to remember.  The method is very easy to learn and just by watching the tutorial video you immediately get it.  There are about five things you can reveal on every page:

1. Movie Title.
2. The # of movie in the franchise (if a franchise movie).
3. # of times this movie has been watched by the reviewer.
4. # of daily only views.
5. Picture of Movie Treat.

But on every page these items are clearly different.  All you need is for the spectator to tell you the simple one line review and the rest reveals itself.

If the movie is part of a franchise (e.g. Harry Potter) the Movie Title is slightly misleading because you can automatically name the movie franchise and the # in the franchise (e.g. Harry Potter 3) but you have to remember the full name of the movie yourself.  Now for many of the franchise movies this is not difficult because they are simply the franchise and the #, but for movies like Harry Potter there is a little more to actually remember – however many people already know the full series anyway.  Like anything else with practice and use you will become more and more polished.

I like these so much I’m putting them behind the bar in The Porcupine and hopefully one day soon I’ll be having fun with movies and some friends over a beer and wowing them at the same time 🙂

Click here for more information.

Don Esposito created this wonderful Checker Cabinet back in the 1970’s.  Don ran a well stocked Magic Studio in the town of Rockville Center, New York that opened c. 1973.  He filled the studio with a lot of great magic some of which was designed and built by Don himself in his Workshop.

This Checker Cabinet is one of the items built in Eposito’s Magic Workshop and it is very simple to use but has a lot going on.  You have plenty of options for dressing up your routine, and below you will see the effect I chose to prepare for my next Speed Demo this weekend 🙂

When I received this cabinet the single lever which is used to cause the change would stick and was fairly noisy.  It would be acceptable for a parlor set-up but not so much formal close-up.  I removed the unit and noticed the wood was scraping against wood.  I think it was probably like this when it was first purchased too.  So I stripped it down and added some industrial dry film graphite lubricant which creates a wonderful slick layer on both sides of the wooden base – now this thing moves smoothly and silently. It is night and day different and the way it should have been from day one.  As a side benefit it covers the unprepared wood with a black coat so now it even looks more pleasing inside (nothing changed from the outside of course).

I then set about working on a routine to maximize the features of this cabinet. I really like this routine and although there are plenty of other things you could do, this works for me.  A really great and colorful item, that is easy to do and has plenty of surprises and action.

Click here for more information.