5 Stars

This is a very funny routine created by Roy Roth.  Roy had already marketed Lubor Fiedler’s Red Hot Wire (with permission) as Hot Line c. 1972 and came up with this funny routine that really made the most of the wire gimmick.

I’ve always liked the premise behind Hot Cross Cards, but there were a few weaknesses in the original offering:

1. An ESP symbol needs to be forced out of the five cards and the only force given was “The Classic Force.”.  Which is fine, but not going to work for a lot of people.  So I added a full deck of ESP cards (26 cards) and created a bank of 12 cards that were all the same, so now you could casually show the cards apparently different, but also easily force the correct one.  (For a while I even created a Svengali ESP deck but that actually proved to be problematic as part of the routine requires you to deal out the five ESP cards which proved to be difficult with a Svengali deck.)
2. The effect required the use of five slices of real bread which were messy and required replacement frequently.  Luckily these days it is possible to get fake slices of bread that look and feel real from a short distance, without the downsides of flaking and going moldy which is what I supplied.
3. I also upgraded the ring box that housed the red hot wire as the original cardboard one was prone to damage.
4. I added a nice red velvet bag to hold the slices of bread to improve the delivery of the joke regarding fine engraved leather covers all the way from Italy.
5. A minor annoyance was the original instructions did not include the routine that appeared in the first adverts that were released to sell this effect. So I also included a full routine with patter based on the advert and the instructions for easy reference.

With these changes you now have an almost perfect and truly offbeat effect which I think Roy Roth would be happy with.  It is a really fun item 🙂

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The wallet is a pocket secretary type wallet with a pocket on the exterior of the wallet to hold an identification card. This pocket has a transparent window.  

Just like all of Roy Roth’s wallets, it is a very made and works smoothly.  The Billy Me Comb routine is quite different because it uses a credit card instead of a playing card.  But as Billy explains below the use of a credit card has a lot going for it.

Billy McComb’s routine which follows uses the wallet and a borrowed credit card. It is a well thought out professional presentation and does not require any reset. Despite Billy’s strong argument for using the credit card, and with different routining, the wallet could, of course be used for a playing card to wallet effect.

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I remember purchasing one of these from Roy Roth himself at one of Ron MacMillan’s One Day Conventions (Ron’s Day) back in the 1970’s and have always loved the premise.  No one makes wallets as unique as Roy Roth.

The Piatnik rainbow deck that was supplied with the original did not spread very well so I replaced it with a better one from the United States Playing Card Company.  I also cleaned up the routine a bit as in the original you just choose the card off the top of the deck instead of having the spectator choose a card, which seemed a little lame to me 🙁

The routine you see in the video seems to flow pretty smoothly and is certainly something I could see myself doing.

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The first version of this effect was released by Floyd Thayer as Coin Go c. 1926.  However, as far as I can ascertain, that version was permanently attached to a palming coin rather than the gimmick provided here, which can be added and removed in an instant and works with many coins.

This version is a great gimmick that works perfectly.  I had something similar when I was a teenager in the UK, but this gimmick is 90% smaller and just as reliable.  It works perfectly with half dollars and probably quite a few other coins too. 

You can borrow a half dollar or use your own that can be examined, and it takes but a second to be ready to go.  Then whenever you want you can vanish that bad boy, and look like a pro sleight of hand expert.  The audience will have no clue. One of the other nice things about this gimmick is unlike The Raven it works with normal half dollars.

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When you’ve been playing with magic tricks for 50 years it gets pretty hard to bother to add one more item to your regular performing roster.  But Freak by Dave Forrest is easily one that I could see myself doing.  Dave is a smart guy with some very clever ideas and if you look at how much nuance he jams into what seems like pretty basic props you’ll agree with me.

This effect requires a little bit of one-time prep work when you get it (tear in half three pictures, a tiny bit of gluing, 3 scratches on some cards, and a cut a tiny hole in some paper).  But also if you want to change or upgrade any part (the pictures, the names, the envelope, the story) all are possible, and you’ll still be left with the very clever structure that Dave has devised.

You have to listen to Dave explain the method and you’ll immediately appreciate this beauty.

I have zero time these days to add any new effects to my performances and this was going straight into my auction next month, but I have decided to keep it and perform it one day hopefully soon.  It is easy to do, very convincing and can easily be modified to suit a lot of presentations. 

Thanks for putting the effort in Dave – you have a real miracle here and I look forward to performing it soon in the Porcupine 🙂

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The method for this beautiful version of this classic effect was invented by Boston magician Frank Appleton and expertly manufactured by Petrie-Lewis. 

P&L and Appleton created the perfect version of an effect that began in Professor Hoffmann’s Later Magic c. 1904 (pg. 91), and was first performed on stage by David Devant (c. 1908) at the Third Annual Banquet of The Magic Circle in London’s Frascati’s Restaurant using a table like the one described by Hoffmann.  The effect continued to be worked on and a tray version became popular c. 1916-1921 including a version created by The Bretma Manufacturing Co. and performed by Louis Nikola c. 1921. Other variations were created during the 1920’s with various pedestals and trays from the likes of Floyd Thayer but it wasn’t until c. 1933  Petrie-Lewis manufactured this version that the effect and method became really practical without a special table or tray.

The original glass that was  shipped with this item is quite small (see the photo with two glasses and a deck of cards for comparison), in addition they supplied an extra gimmick.  I found by using a different (larger) glass, you don’t need to use the extra gimmick and it still looks more impressive because of the larger glass and less fumbling 🙂

When done well it is a real fooler and a very beautiful effect.

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The Turntable Stand first appeared in Thayer’s Magical Woodcraft Catalog c. 1913.  Depending on application it could be used for formal close-up, parlor and stage.  This was originally released as just the turntable itself and I devised the routine you see in the video after reading the instructions.

The video shows an easy to do effect and involves the following items:

• The Turntable Stand
• Vintage Enardoe’s Mirror Glass (actually made from plastic, but looks great) (bonus).
• A Gimmicked heavy quality silk handkerchief to vanish a coin (bonus).
• About 200 0.8″ Chinese coin tokens (bonus).
• A single half dollar sized Chinese coin (bonus).
• A stiff red paper tube with red paper-clips (bonus).
• Use your own wand.

This is a beautiful looking stand that works perfectly for this miracle and others requiring a silent and secret half turn of a pedestal 🙂

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In the 1970’s, the German inventive powerhouse Herbert Martin Paufler created a number of versions of the Mummy.  In 1980 he showed them to his friend, the prolific and creative, Tony Lackner who in 1982 went on to create one of the most popular and widespread versions of the Wandering Mummy (Die Wandernde Mumie) which was released by Harold Voit and Zauber Zentrale (and also later the Ace Place).

This was the first Wandering Mummy that I ever saw, and I was instantly smitten, like so many before and after me.  I have owned five sets of this version of the wandering mummy and this is the best one yet.

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This wonderful effect was invented by Al Baker c. 1932 using a simple but extremely effective method. P&L were the first company to manufacture a version of Mr. Baker’s effect and it remained the gold standard for decades afterwards. The method was first described in Greater Magic c. 1938 (pg. 512). and it is also discussed in Dr. Albo Vol. 3.

The method has been used in many other card effects over the years and a few of them can be seen here.

Two of the good features in this P&L version are the stand is easy to swivel around so that the audience can choose the queen without any fumbling and the backs of the gimmicks are cleverly painted to blend in to the stand.

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