5 Stars

Here we go again!

At one time I had the pleasure to own all of the beautiful teak effects created by the extremely talented Alan Warner and showcased them on this site. A while back I was forced to sell them all. Well today marks the return of some of Alan Warner’s incredible magic to my collection! But this time the focus will be on actually performing the effects. One of the problems with rare collections of magic, is that you get scared to perform them. But this time I have chosen these effects with the express intention of performing them.

Runic is one of the more overlooked pieces from Alan. It is an incrediblly clean and deceptive force of two runes that is simplicity itself to perform. It even comes with some blank runes to create your own symbols. It is also very easy to adapt the effect to use different symbols other than runes – such as these scrabble tiles. So now you have a truly wonderful forcing device, that looks very clean, is beautifully made, and is easy to do. No wonder I bought it again!

Highly Recommended!

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Clever, Convincing, and Beautifully Made!

This happens to be one of my favorite Alan Warner pieces. It makes use of an old principle to great effect and really produces an outstanding miracle.

Simply stated the effect is this: the box is shown and 2 sets of 5 tiles are tipped out. The spectator gets 5 and the magician gets 5. The magician then starts to place his tiles into the box face down, followed by the spectator one at a time. In each case the magician places his first, but when the box is turned over the order of the tiles match perfectly.

There are no switches or tricky sleights, the tiles and box can be examined, and it really looks this clean. A wonderful miracle from one of Magic’s Master Craftsmen.

Highly Recommended

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Ah! Alan Warner Genius and Beauty Combined!

I’ve always liked the look of these beautiful teak boxes. They are compact and strong and with the the red and blue chinese symbols look very striking.

What is even better about these boxes is that they are a general switching device, anything that fits in one box can be transported into the other box: cards, billets, letters, colors, etc. You could use them in forces, do as I do effects, mind reading effects – the list is long!

There are no switches, flaps or external devices – the boxes are totally self contained and the method is just so very clever.

You will love how they look and how they operate – very different from any othe card boxes I have seen.

Highly Recommended!

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Stronger than you would imagine!

At first glance Checkmate looks like you are predicting a 1 out of 3 outcome, but in fact it is stronger than that since you not only predict which color chess piece they will choose, but also which plaque they will place it on.

There is no forcing of colors, the answer can be different each time, but the effect cannot be repeated. The mulitple outs that are constructed into the wooden tablets are very convincing and not contrived as sometimes is the case.

I used to give this 4 stars, but over the years I have grown to appreciate its simplicy even more so have raised it to a 5.

Highly Recommended!

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Magic Dealers might as well close!

I have spent a fortune on magic tricks and it amuses me how easily Richard Osterlind performs these incredible miracles with such every day objects. When you see him go through classic effects by Koran, Annemann, Corinda, Hoy, and others using precisely the methods and routines that they employed, without all of the "clever" enhancements that have come along over the years, it is really quite mind blowing.

It also becomes very clear, as I pointed out in my book review of Bruce Elliot’s Classic Secrets of Magic, that you really don’t need a lot of money to be a world class magician or mentalist. Just practice and presentation and lots of it.

Now it is fun buying "clever" magic tricks. Just don’t try to convince yourself that you need them to amaze and entertain an audience. You don’t and Richard Osterlind demonstrates this oh so clearly.

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