4 Stars

Can I take some credit for this quality?

This new piece from Howie at the Trickery built by his secret craftsman, Paul Lembo, is by far the best piece of quality I have seen from the Trickery since their master craftsman Jerry left the fold. Everything about it has been improved. The finish, the brass fittings, the smoothness of the mechanism.

I can’t help but think that my comments on the last piece from Paul helped? Maybe I’m crazy, but it sure seems that the difference between the two pieces addresses all the areas I was concerned with.

The only issue I have with this piece is price. At $295 I think is overpriced for what it is. It is just a Silk Cabi Box in the end. No innovations, and there have been a slew of them before this. That is really my only issue with it, otherwise it is almost perfect. Take a look at Mel Babcock’s beautiful magic, it is better quality and you get a lot more for your money. There is certainly a market for items of this quality, but I believe you have to look very carefully at the pricing of these items. Mel Babcock, Alan Warner, Chance Wolf, and the new guy in France Francois Danis have it right, and I’m afraid that the Trickery is going the right way with quality, but the wrong way on price.

I would have given this 5 stars for the quality but I knocked one off for the price. Maybe with a little bit of public pressure I can influence the price as I have influenced the quality?

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A clever idea!

If you like the classic Pom-Pom Prayer Stick, this item should appeal to you. It is the same basic effect, but instead of pulling open the stick at the end you can see all the way through the middle of the stick because it is totally clear.

I probably prefer the traditional approach, but this is a great fooler for those who know how the other method works.

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Good use for a Rainbow Deck

This is a fun routine that logically makes sense from R.A.R magic back in the ’80s. I updated it to use Randay Wakeman’s Rainbow Deck II instead of the deck it came with. The wallet is beautiful of course as is all the leather work of Roy Roth, and has 3 color changings.

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The best Rainbow Deck?

Most rainbow decks are made up of a collection of random cards from real decks. Sometimes the colors are wrong, they don’t have borders, they don’t fan smoothly, or they are not all precisely cut to the same size.

This deck is different: it was specially printed to have different backs from the outset. Very well produced and useful for many different card effects if you use your imagination.

The only possible issue I have with it is that some of the designs don’t really look like card backs at all – just 52 almost random images. Not sure if this is really an issue, but if I was to show you some of the designs you would not think it was a card back. Again this might not really be an issue, just a thought.

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What a Great "Natural" Rainbow Deck

Most rainbow decks are made up of a collection of random cards from real decks. Sometimes the colors are wrong, they don’t shuffle smoothly, they don’t fan smoothly, or they are not all precisely cut to the same size.

This deck has been created with cards from The United States Playing Card Company (mostly Bicycle), and the size of the cards are all the same – no long or short cards. So you can shuffle them fine. The faces also look like they come from the same deck. If The USPC made there own custom Rainbow deck it would be better, but not by much. I actually prefer this deck to Randy Wakeman’s Rainbow II deck because it looks more like a real deck.

The only issue I found with this deck was that there were 5 cards without borders – not a big deal for most effects, but if you needed a trick with 100% borders this deck would need to have a few cards removed or switched out.

If you’re looking for a rainbow deck, then this would be the one to purchase!

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Amazing Trick but Cheap Cards!

This is a very clever and convincing effect invented by Dr. Spencer P. Thornton and marketed by Ed Mellon. The props are simple and the revelation quite amazing. However, the cards supplied with this effect are cheap quality and stick together easily. If you want to do this more than once, and I think you will, you’d be wise to invest in some better quality cards.

But regardless of the quality of the cards the effect is quite stunning. You show a deck of alphabet cards that are clearly different and pick 4 that you place in a stand. The audience member now removes any 5 cards from the deck. From these 5 he freely discards any 1 and arranges the 4 that remain in any order to form a word. Amazingly enough when you reveal your previously chosen letters not only do they match the spectator’s but you are also spelling out the same word.

There are no moves and it looks like genuine mentalism. This would be a 5 star effect, but the cards reduced it by one. Contrary to the Ad Copy these are not, in my opinion, printed on heavy card stock.

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