Andy Martin

Another great close-up item from the German Magic Craftsman: Thomas Pohle.  This is based on Hoffman’s Obedient Ball as featured in Professor Hoffman’s Modern Magic.  Though this effect is of Japanese origin and is sometimes known as the Japanese Ball. The most popular version of this effect is Tenyo’s Cubio.  Colin Rose created a very nice version that is shown here.

One feature with Thomas’ version is that the cubes can be set live in front of the audience so that everything can 100% be examined. This same feature was also present in Brema’s Triple Mystery Cube c. 1932 and later in Carl’s son William Brema’s Cubio c.1946. Thomas’ version takes a little knack to be able to set these blocks so that they can stop and start on demand.  Doing this live in front of the audience might be tricky, or at least I found it so.

One approach is to set both blocks before you begin.  Then have then select either block at first and show the stop and start with that block.  Then release it and hand it to the spectator to do the same thing.  They can’t of course. Then you still have the second block ready to go to do the do as I do.

Of course with practice you will be able to hook up live with ease, but I found that some trial and error is required at first.

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Howard Westgate invented the wonderful Westgate Bowl Production when he was at highschool c. 1939.  In 1951 Bev Taylor’s Town House Magic released their Improved Westgate Bowl Production and included the wonderful silk production before the bowl and goldfish were produced.

This version was made by Warren Hamilton c. 1964 (yes famous for Jo-Anne) and he incorporated the improvements from Town House Magic and created the definitive version of this clever effect.

What a clever and beautiful version this is.  If you were looking for a version of The Westgate Bowl Production this is the only one to get, whether it is for performance or your collection you can’t go wrong with this beauty 🙂

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There is no doubt this is a stunning display and so easy to use. But the price has really sky rocketed from the first ones produced c. 1948 at $57.50 to $4,000 today in 20024! Not sure how many they are selling at the current $4,000 price – I guess they don’t want to make them anymore.

There is a lot of work in these beauties and there is no doubt the end product really does look amazing. I was also surprised how easy they are to set, no rings or extra utilities. Just fold them down with one hand and place the cone over them.

If you want to add some breathtaking color to your act time to start saving ?

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This effect was created by the Swedish Amateur Mentalist and Stage Magician Goran Klyve in 1987. Goran started working for Harries in 1985 and has created a number of effects for Harries.

Harries of Sweden make some great magic props for Parlor and Stage. Their quality is not that of Milson-Worth or Michael Baker but they fall in line with other premium brand European manufacturers such as: Magic Hands and Mephisto-Huis and have consistently produced great magic.

This effect uses large props suitable for parlor or a small stage and allows for the very clean prediction of a number that is chosen by the spectator throwing a dart at the board. Plenty of byplay opportunity with the dart (it is a real dart) and the work is all done by the props. It even allows for a different outcome for repeat performances. They simply throw the dart and you turn around the card at the number they hit, and it is the same as the card in the prediction envelope – which can be held and opened by a member of the audience.

This is a great effect but it is a large prop and so remember it is not really designed for close-up.

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This Ring Box works well and is quite clever.  However, it has two main flaws for simply vanishing a ring:

• The box is quite large. If you compare it with Sans Minds’ Vanishing Ring (see last two photos), you’ll see how much bigger it is.
• You cannot retrieve the ring secretly from the bottom.  So you vanish the ring – how do you extract it?

That being said as a result of these issues it can be used to vanish AND appear rings and small items which might be what you are looking for.  I can see it being useful if you want to make a ring appear inside the box. You can also do this repeatedly should you want some sort of running gag, but I’m think it would become less convincing if repeated.

The box does work well and the mechanism seems solid and reliable.  But I would not get this if you mainly want to vanish a ring – I would use Sans Minds Vanishing Ring hands down for that.

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This is a well thought out wallet that is professionally made, looks good and, best of all, the price is very reasonable 🙂

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This is a wonderful outfit which is made well and looks great.  There have been so many versions of John Kennedy’s Mystery Box since it won Trick of the Year 1997 in The Magic Menu and although some of them are worth the time for me I’m still happy with John’s version 2.

I do like David Penn’s solution here and really can’t fault it. But for me it doesn’t really add any more to the impact on the audience and I like the simplicity and compactness of the Mystery Box.

I will add once you have been performing an effect for ten or more years it gets harder and harder to change.  For three years  I was performing Mystery Blox instead of Mystery Box, but I ran into some reliability issues and switched back in 2023. It is unlikely anything will ever come along that convinces me to change.  This doesn’t mean one is better or worse, it is just too much effort to change unless it is a huge improvement, and so far I have not seen one.

But I will still check out new ideas from time to time 🙂

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This is another nice wooden prop made by TCC Magic.  Their Magic is well made and well priced.  I like this box but I would probably not use it just for a single card.

If you watch the TCC trailer video they often use items that have a little more thickness than a single card.  This to me is the real value of this box – you can do card box routines with items thicker than single cards, which is what many card boxes are designed for.

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You can’t keep a good man down and Dave Powell knows what the people want 🙂

This was a custom order that Dave only made six of.  It is slightly larger than his standard Victorian Ring Box which is 2″ x 2″ x 1.75″ and this larger one is: 2.5″ x 2.5″ x 2.5″.  The extra size helps you place other small objects inside without being too cumbersome.

This box works very smoothly and looks perfect doing it 🙂

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This amazing prop was created by Val Evans and this is why I love tracking down these old props 🙂

What a clever, clever item that really defies explanation.  Look at these test conditions:

• The tray has huge slats in it so you can see through the whole trick.
• You can cleanly show the tray on both sides.
• Then you take a normal hanky (which can be borrowed if desired) and cover the slats.
• Then you hand the deck of cards to the spectators and have 3 cards chosen.
• The cards are normal and they can choose any cards (no forcing).
• The houlette can be examined to.
• The cards are inserted into the houlette and slotted into the tray over the hanky.
• Everything is self-contained with nothing added or taken away.

There is no way these cards are going to rise.  But rise they do 🙂

I love this clever prop and you’ll never find the same joy in any of the modern electronic items available today.  This is how real magic should look.  A very clever method that magicians will love and a very perplexing effect that the audience will love 🙂

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