Reviews

This is easily the best and most original item that John Jurney has created. It is easy to do and looks amazing.

The gimmick is very well made using a Replica Morgan Dollar and comes with a duplicate to switch out during the routine which is eash to do with no real heat on you.

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These coins are basically a revamped version of Johnny Wong’s ground breaking coins that he began c. 2008 with the Dream Coin Set. This particular set is most like Johnny Wong’s Double Face Super Triple Face coins. Apart from the lack of credit for taking Johnny Wong’s idea, the problem I have with this particular set of coins from John Jurney is that they look like a brass washer with a magnet embedded in the middle – which is what they are – they don’t look like Chinese Coins at all.

Not all of John Jurney’s coins are this unrealistic but these ones are the least convincing as far as changing Dollars to Chinese coins is concerned.

Interestingly enough before Johnny Wong released the Super Triple Double Face he released the Perfect Power 3 (Eisenhower Dollar) and these are almost identical to those.  So if I had these coins I would ignore the fact that they are supposed to look like Chinese coins (which they don’t) and just use them as a Perfect Power 3 coin set.  With that in mind they look and work fine but so do Johnny Wong’s original ones too.  Some people say that Jurney’s coins separate smoother but that is easily remedied with Wong’s coins if you use teflon stickers and/or polish them. Also Jurney’s coins tend to be noisier than Wong’s ones (which are silent).

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This is a comprehensive set of coins that are basically uncredited versions of various Dream Coins and Triple Coins released by Johnny Wong c. 2008.

The big difference with John Jurney’s coins is they can talk a little when compared with the original ones released by Johnny Wong.  That being said there are some interesting routines that John Jurney has put together and the price is good for the selection you get.

In addition, the Chinese Coins in this set look more realistic than Johnny Wong’s do.  Finally this set offered here comes with Old English pennies but later releases used Australian pennies.

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Another set of Johnny Wong want to be coins from John Jurney.  They are using the Replica Morgans and from a short distance they do look like poker chips, but not up close – they look like stickers up close, which is what they are.  I think these could have looked a lot better if John Jurney had trimmed down real poker chips and attached them.

That being said this was the first release of these – the later versions he created of these look nothing like poker chips at all (with a big silver 1 in the middle), so if you wanted the poker chips these would be the ones to get.

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This works very smoothly.  There is some noise to cover due to the speed of the vanish, so this is not a close-up trick but it does look good.  It works perfectly with a full size 18″ silk (it does not have to be a diamond cut silk) and comes with two 18″ silks.

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This wonderful effect was invented by Louis Histed.  There was some controversy when this was released (stolen) by Abbott’s as the instructions and adverts said that Dr. H Park Shackleton was the inventor.  Dr Shackleton may have been the first person to perform it in the USA (though Jack Le Dair performed it regularly in the UK years before this).  Anyway, later ads and editorials in Abbott’s own Tops magazine admitted it was Louis Histed so there is no doubt who created it.

It is a great trick and the Chrome version by Abbott’s is a real beauty.  Performance does require about 1.5lbs of white sugar/salt and 1.5lbs of sand or colored salt – partly depends on what your patter will be and what you can obtain.  For my photos and demo I used fine ornamental sand in white and yellow.

You can always spot when a clever inventor is at work because they think about a lot of things, and there are few inventors at the level of Louis Histed.  With Sand and Sugar you will see all of these elements at work:

• Reuse of materials – yes you will loose a few ozs of sand and sugar each time you perform this but a lot less than you might imagine, particularly if you are careful.
• Clean-up – anything dealing with sand is going to be a little messy, but if you have a tray you’ll find it pretty easy to empty out the containers and reset for the next show without too much effort.  There is a convenient hole on the bottom of the large canister which lets the sand flow out freely from the bottom when you are done.
• Effectiveness of illusion – the pouring of the sand/sugar from the small canister to the large is perfect, it takes time (though not too much time) and looks like a lot of grains.
• Simplicity of Method – although there is a lot going on with the effect, the mechanics are surprisingly simple and robust.

You rarely see effects these days with this much thought and with props built so well.  Another really fine effect from almost ninety years ago – they certainly don’t make them like this anymore 🙂

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These beautiful rings were Designed and Manufactured under the direction of Ben Stone (of Delben fame) by the Mid-America Magic Mfg. Company and sold as a package by Joe Stevens back in the 1980’s.  They are hollow stainless steel 12″ rings and they are perfect and look and sound great even even from the back of the stage.  The locking key ring looks amazing even close-up and is easy to lock and unlock.

These rings are lightweight for maximum handling ease and you will quickly prefer their handling if you are only familiar with the heavy style.

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From Vienna Magic comes this beautiful miniature illusion.  Self working and mechanical and works like a charm.  The standard ad copy and the instructions describe a situation where the die appears and then vanishes – but the only way that is possible is if you switch out the appearing die for the vanishing die mid-stream.  If you don’t have the die appearance then this is basically a version of Norman’s Block Vanish with a silk vanish and appearance for good measure.

Both sets I’ve had of this effect (including this one) only come with one die not two – the instructions describe two dice but I am not convinced that is correct, even if you read through the instructions I’m not sure you actually ever get two dice.  Based on the props you get, you can construct an appearing die or a vanishing die but not both at the same time.   The effect looks much better if you start with the die that you can show complete on all six sides, then go into the vanish.  This requires no switching and looks perfect.

I believe the best way to perform this effect is to start with the die in plain sight and then proceed to vanish a silk, then vanish the die and finally have the silk reappear.  If  you use a convincing vanish of the silk (which is not including as standard such as Viking’s Wonder Silk Vanishing Tube) you can perform a real miracle right in front of their eyes.

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This is a great item made well with a good mechanical method.  All I know is it was made in West Germany, but certainly not recently.  Ed Mishell released a similar effect c. 1970 but this set is nicer and I’m sure predates that version.

When performing this I would take all four rods out of the box as I found my fingers too big to easily take each rod out, so that could cause some delays in performance.  This is always ready to go and there is nothing added or taken away.

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