Andy Martin

I wish I could have seen Lou Tannen perform this. It sounds amazing from the ad copy 🙂

After reading the instructions it sounds easy enough but I’m not sure how effective it is until I see a Speed Demo of this bad boy, and I hope to spend some time on this soon to produce one.  I think if you practiced this for a couple of hours you would be able to get the timing down pretty smoothly.  I didn’t have that amount of time for the Speed Demo and it is not perfect but it is ok. If I was performing this on a regular basis I think it would become second nature, but not this time.

The props are well made and this certainly has the potential to be more amazing than an earlier version of this effect called Magic Welding by Louis Nikola, though it does require a couple of moves to achieve the same effect.

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Mel’s rainbow version of the Die Box, is based on an old Thayer design as referenced in Dr Albo Book II as a Thayer Rainbow or Multicolor Die Box.  This style of Rainbow Die box was popularized by Richard Himber’s Rainbow Die Box c. 1955 including an entry in Bart Whaley’s Who’s Who in Magic and many ads in Genii, Hugard’s Magic Monthly.

This is surely the best Die Box Mel has ever made. As with his standard Die Box, the weight and feel of the box is perfect. You have to hold it to really appreciate how well it sits and works in your hands. All the actions are incredibly smooth.

Now for the extra features – the doors and ends of the box have inlayed wood panels which truly look beautiful. In addition you are supplied with two brightly colored and superbly painted dice, which during the course of the routine change places and finally change into two dice of totally different color.

I tried to think of a routine that made sense and I based my Speed Demo on the routine created by Larry Wilfong c. 2006.  I changed a few things and I really like the use of the colored post-it notes.  But the basic routine is all Larry Wilfong.  Thanks Larry!

For the money Mel Babcock probably makes the best die boxes anywhere.

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Here is the final item for now in the “Cleopatra Series” from the talented Dietmar Willert the four that I have are not all that he made but they are the more popular ones (see the final photo for a much larger collection).  This seems to be the rarest of the more common items and is another effect based on an old Wolfgang Grosskopf c. 1965 called ” Der Geheimnisvolle Sarkophag” that first appeared in Zauberkunst #5/65, p6. 13.

When you first read how it works it seems a little complicated but once you try it once it all becomes very clear.  It is a clever idea and employs two different methods to bring about the full effect. This is certainly one that could fool them.

All four of the items made by Dietmar Willert show here are a joy to behold whether you are collecting them or performing them I’m sure you will have plenty of fun with them 🙂

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This is the signature prop from the original Rings ‘n’ Things and although the classic Rice, Orange, and Checkers effect and its variants has been made by many manufacturers,  this is one of the most stunning version ever made.

This version comes with a very a well made travel case built by Rocky Clements with individual slots for each piece to keep them safe which is a perfect addition. The case was not part of the original set, but when Rocky owned this actual set he created the travel case and if you’ve seen Rocky’s work you know how good he is.

The checkers are made of metal and they all move independently which was a first at the time and I’m not sure if they have been made the same way by any others since, it is certainly uncommon. Being able to move, even slightly, all the checkers is a nice convincer they are real.

It is a classic routine for a reason and has stood the test of time 🙂

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Finding the Conway Cigarette Case is getting harder and harder these days which is a shame because they are perfect little switching boxes and do not work like any other card box you have seen as there are no flaps … yet you can do pretty much anything any other card box can do, but in a much more natural and clean way 🙂

The Conway Cigarette Case is based upon the effect The Card and Cigarette Case by American Close-up Magician Bert Allerton in his book The Close-up Magician  c. 1958. However, Bert Allerton’s idea used an ungimmicked Cigarette Case.

Pat Conway created the perfect gaff to make the case still look normal, but also much easier and more convincing to perform. Although, a similar gimmicked cigarette case was released by Harry Stanley and attributed to Al Koran as The Unique Cigarette Case c. 1947. In fact, when The Conway was released Harry Stanley took out an ad in Abra commenting on the “Re-Invention”. And this was not the only predecessor.  Edgar Ralston released an item called the Cig-Card Case c. 1948 which was a sturdy, smart looking polished plastic cigarette case that does everything a card box can do and carries your cigarette’s too.

Ken Brooke purchased the rights to Pat’s approach and produced this beautiful and innocent looking Cigarette Case.  The early versions sold by Ken required an elastic band to be used but Fred Lowe suggested a modification which removed the need.  This is the final version after all the improvements and suggestions and it is perfect and easily one of the best items produced by Ken Brooke 🙂

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Here we have another fine Egyptian styled item from Dietmar Willert, this time a wonderful box that allows you to see the position of a clock dial selected by the spectator.   On the bottom it shows “12/87”.  This does not mean #12 of 87 made but #12 and the year it was manufactured: 1987.

Other props have used similar methods including Bob Kline’s Spirit Time, Martin Breese’s Cyclops Box, Hardini’s Mental Chess,  Jack Ruda’s Temple of Goo, even John Cornelius’ Thought Transmitter and I’m sure there are many others.  Much of Dietmar Willert’s work was based on the work of Jan Gol and I believe this effect was based on his: “The Miracle Clock of the Desert Rabbit“.

The Tomb of Cleopatra is a beautiful looking prop, expertly crafted by hand and works flawlessly.  My collection of Dietmar Willert Cleopatra themed props is almost complete now and what a fine mini-collection they make 🙂

Combine this with something like Larry Becker’s Versadex Wallet and you have an absolute miracle!

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A Beautiful Box and Routine!

This chest really is very beautiful and works very well. One of my favorite routines is this:

You distribute 15 different pieces of paper to them – 5 green, 5 yellow and 5 blue (or whatever colors) – and each member writes a question on their piece of paper – one on travel, one on sports, one on politics (or whatever – basically you ask them to ask a question in a topic area based on the color). They all replace them in a box and then another person chooses one piece of paper for each color and then you write the answers BEFORE they ask the questions.

There are many other effects, but I really like this one. The box looks very clean from all angles and its like a suggestion box.

It comes with a big book of instructions and routines with 21 pages from the ever fertile mind of Larry Becker. A great utility prop. Mikame Craft have a box that looks kind of similar and I was at a dealers store recently and looked at it. Although the Mikame Craft box is nice, it is nothing like this box and certainly cannot do the things you do with this one

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This item is a beautifully crafted from natural hard woods by the Italian performer, inventor, and craftsman Mario Andreoli under the Loran Magic banner and distributed by everybody’s favorite collectible magic dealer: Joe Long.

When I first received this wonderful item from Joe I loved the look, the quality of the the materials, and the method but I thought “Here we go more memory work!” 🙁

If only I’d spent five extra minutes to read the instructions I would have realized there is no memory work after all.  Which immediately changed my view from it being just a beautiful item to a beautiful and amazing item 🙂

The method combines elements from Alan Warner’s The Question Is and Andy Nyman’s “Three Skulls on a Spike” (which of course is based upon Tony Curtis’ Die-Abolical originally created c. 1989) but the final effect seems cleaner and fairer than either.

I love this item and I think you will be more than pleased with it.  Hopefully this won’t be the last time we see some fine wooden magic from Loran Magic and Joe Long 🙂

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Here we have another Egyptian styled item from Dietmar Willert, this time Willert has recreated Wolfgang Grosskopf’s amazing Ring Tower.  And what a wonderful job he has done too.  This is the first one I have seen of these and I’m not sure if they ever arrived in the USA via Joe Stevens when he was promoting a few of Dietmar Willert’s other items c. 1990.  On the bottom it shows “1/88”.  This does not mean 1 of 88 made but #1 and the year it was manufactured: 1988.  So this is likely the first one that Mr. Willert made.

The effect is a really wonderful impossible vanish from the clever mind of Wolfgang Grosskopf.  The thing that is interesting about Grosskopf’s original routine is that it is different from how the later ones from Vienna Magic (and others) were described – instead of a ring penetration, this is a ring vanish and reproduction from impossible location.  You could perform either effect but I prefer the presentation where the ring just completely vanishes and is found somewhere else as I think it gives less clues as to what possibly could have happened.

I found a really cool ring appearance that works very well with this.  However, for the routine I show in the video you would need to have a duplicate ring which was not a problem for me, but might be for you.  In which case you would need to use a different method to retrieve the ring such as a RSVP Hero box.

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This is a wonderful idea and looks amazing.

However, the quality of this prop is a little questionable so I don’t know how long it will last, but it actually works well thus far.  The band thickness you can use is also quite limited, it only works with thin bands and I would not want to give the prop to the spectator to open for very long, but in a controlled environment it can be a really amazing effect.

The remote is small and works very well.  Once you have a ring that fits you’ll find this very easy to perform.

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