5 Stars

Ah, such rich and vibrant colors!

I just recieved my new version of Jay Leslie’s Rib Block with the new and dramatically improved yellow paint! This really is a very well produced work of art, the paint job is beautiful, and is right up there with Milson Worth.

If you’re a collector you’ll like this and if you’re a performer you’ll like this too! The effect whilst as old as the hills themselves, is a very clean penetration of the block from the ribbon and its easy to set-up. There are a few angle issues and the clever method takes a bit of practice to do smoothly, but once mastered you have an impossible illusion!

And of course the colors are so rich and vibrant!

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Very Beautiful and You Will Use It!

I have owned a lot of wallets. So why would I drop the unheard of $250 smackers on one more wallet?

Well, because it’s a bloody marvel! It looks like a real wallet, it feels like a real wallet, it can be shown like a real wallet, but it is an incredible utility device that blows away every other wallet I have seen – even one of my favorites the Versadex Wallet.

It can be used to perform countless miracles. It comes with 3 routines but you will quickly use it for more. The first effect that you will do is called Psycho Killer – and this is just pure gold. Grab one now, before they stop making them! Highly recommended!

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Wow, this is amazing!

So maybe you’re ready to move up from Si Stebbins or the Eight Kings to a stacked deck that not only looks like a shuffled deck, but is still easy to learn.

Then Osterlind’s Breakthrough Card System is for you. Just setting the deck up once you very quickly get the idea, and if you just spend an hour dealing out cards you’ll have the stack down. It’s really quite amazing how this works, but it does and I thank Richard Osterlind for publishing it.

Apart from the stack rules, it comes with some extra tips to get very proficient, fast and a selection of effects. Of course there are so many effects that could benefit from a stacked deck that you’ll soon be breathing new life into many old chestnuts.

Highly recommended!

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Great Magic, Great Props, Great Value!

So here is the first effect in the Exclusive line of Martin’s Magic Off the Shelf Craftsmanship Series! Unfortunately, the line is so exclusive there will only be one of each effect made 🙁

The germ of the idea for this effect came from reading an ad for an effect by Dexter – Box of Bombay.

You start by showing a beautiful box that has a top tray with 4 Egyptian Canopic Jars featuring the 4 Sons of Horus: Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef. You take the tray out and remove a deck of mummy shape cards – just to keep the mummy theme going. You also show 4 cards of the jars and without showing the spectator you chose one as a prediction and place it in the bottom part of the box. You then replace the top tray so that noone knows your prediction.

The spectator now chooses a card from the deck, and then selects any one of the 4 jars (no force involved). The tray is lifted out and the spectator reaches in to find the one prediction matching the jar they chose. Now the spectator opens up the jar and finds a prediction in the jar of the card they also chose and we come to the end of a great mystery!

Beautiful, Off the Shelf Craftsmanship, at its finest!

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Now this is more like it!

This is a significant improvement to the original version of this effect. With the help of the radio controlled stylings of Chuck Caputo, who made the radio controlled compass according to my specifications – and if I do say so myself I think its Chuck’s finest work to date, very impressive!

The Magician shows a beautiful box with an ornate brass compass freely revolving around in it. A spectator is chosen and handed the box. A framed compass with glass front is also shown. This is turned away from the audience, but the performer never goes near it again.

The Magician ensures that everyone is familiar with the points of a compass and then asks the spectator to close their eyes and turn around until they are getting dizzy. The magician then asks them to look at where the compass is pointing. They say "North." The magician then turns over the large compass prediction that he used to explain the compass and on the back it says "The Compass will Point North!"

Naturally, the audience are not impressed. So the effect is repeated, and instead of looking at where the compass is pointing this time they look at where the specator is pointing. It can be any of the 8 points of the compass – lets say its South East. The spectator now goes up to the compass frame and the hand is pointing to the exact direction that the spectator said.

Another entertaining mystery comes to an end.

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This is how an Egg Bag Should be made!

I have not performed the Egg Bag for over twenty years. However, recently I was reminded of all my earlier performances by reading Classic Secrets of Magic by Bruce Elliot. Once reminded I then read about the work of Lynetta Welch at Fabric Manipulation so decided to order the Silk Legacy Egg Bag.

And what a beauty it is – very small, very supple, and perfect for all the standard Egg Bag moves and more. I am very excited about getting this true classic back into my act. Thanks Lynetta for doing such a nice job and suggesting the Silk version – it truly is beautiful.

Apart from the quality of seams, material and manufacture there were three other things that caught my eye with this bag: