Andy Martin

The electronics work of Marcelo and Victor Contento is second to none. If you are looking for 100% reliability then their brand will never fail you. Their version of the Jumbo Rising Cards is regarded by many, including myself, as the best version ever created. It is very reliable, with advanced features and incredibly easy to use.

You press a single button once to go up and a single button once to go down from almost anywhere in the room. The cards will then rise or fall to the right height and automatically stop. This was the model that Billy McComb used for years and two of his routines are featured with the instructions.

What I really like about this model is how reliable it is.  That being said over time the cards themselves can get worn out. When this unit arrived the cards that rose were in a pretty bad way and would stick sometimes.  As long as you replace them with the old style, thick bicycle Jumbo cards you should be fine.  The other thing to keep an eye on is how many cards you need to place in the houlette. It has a clever spring in front to maintain the correct tension, but you still must make sure you don’t over fill it with cards, otherwise they can stick.  If you read the instructions, which I know is tricky sometimes, it tells you precisely the right amount of cards to use so this is not hard to achieve.  But if you are having issues it could be because your cards are dirty or you have too many cards jammed in front.

The routines that Billy supplies come with a decent deck switch, which is easy to do and works well, but even Billy himself stopped using the switch over time and just used a small deck for the selection.  This streamlines the operation even more.

The routine I am using is a combination of Billy’s and Marcello’s and I’m very happy with it. So much so that I might even feature this routine for my Holiday shows this Christmas 🙂

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I love this little plastic top 🙂

This was released by Sam c. 2008 and it was based on an earlier device (quite possibly this one) but Sam did not invent it.  He modified his version slightly and thought it would be more useful with colors rather than numbers.  I agree 100% with him, there are plenty of dice you can use to force a number from 1 to 6, but when it comes to colors your options are limited.

When you need to force a color this could not be a simpler approach – just have the spectator spin the top and it will end up on the color you want every time.  It is instant to set and can be handed to the spectator to spin without worrying that they will figure anything out.

When I need to force a color this is the perfect little device I know you will love, thank-you Sam Dalal!

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The Chinese Coin Trick is an old effect (well over one hundred years – the first ad I found for it was from Martinka’s in 1914) and has been known also as The Miracle of Confucius (in Illustrated Magic by Ottokar Fischer).

Francois Danis has created a very pretty version.  The coins and cord fit perfectly in a beautifully crafted and decorated box. The routine requires two simple moves but everything is covered well by the props and routine. And as a result everything can be examined at the end.

This is a real fooler and once you try it a few times you will quickly fall in love with it too.

Great job Francois 🙂

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Johnson Precision Magic or Johnson Products are well known for their fake coins and brass coin gimmicks. But this was one of their early non-coin effects, that was made as equally well as any of their coin work.

This has been long unavailable which is a shame because it really is a wonderful effect. The props are well made and it has a clean simple method that will impress you.

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This is basically a copy of the the effect created by Tony Lackner and Eckhard Boettcher called Mental Chips and used in Bank Night Gone Wrong.  I have added some envelopes with stickers so you can perform almost the same Bank Night effect as the original.  Of course you can also use it as a basic prediction or even a color force.

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This is based upon Herbert Milton’s original idea: A Page of Mystery first published by Percy Naldrett in his book Collected Magic Volume Six (c. 1925). Mr. Emerson extends Mr. Milton’s idea by using three books instead of one and replacing the sand frame for two laminated sheets which are used to write the page and name of the book.

You might have seen this on the last set of DVD’s from Richard Osterlind – the impact on the audience is amazing!

This comes with three classic books, so you can perform this miracle out of the box:

• 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – Jules Verne
• Sense & Sensibility – Jane Austen
• Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

Of course you can use your own books. Once you have the right type of book it takes about 30 minutes to alter all three books after ordering a certain supply from your favorite online store.

When performed well it is a truly stunning effect. The props are a bit on the cheap side, but only magic collectors worry about that, and if anything they enhance the magic.  What I like about this effect is it is so clean, you walk in and are ready to perform this at any time during your show.  The only props you use are the three books, two laminated sheets and marker – nothing is added or taken away.  You can hand them to the spectator to hold and move straight into the routine.  Reset is also almost instant.

This is an effect you will surely perform :

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These umbrellas are very colorful and beautifully made. I was always a big fan of The Magic Hands from Germany. They consistently made high quality magic and had some great ideas.

The Junior Umbrella Production was was one of their big sellers and the quality is amazing.  What is neat about it is you really do start by showing what appears to be each silk very cleanly.  They go the extra mile to make it extra easy and convincing.

The biggest issue when producing these umbrellas is where to place them 🙂

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Owen’s consistently produced some of the most amazing magic for over 100 years from small pocket tricks to large stage sized illusions they are always held up as the standard to beat.

I’ve always loved the Spirit Hand effect and although I’ve tried a few the best ones come from Thayer Quality Magic and Owen Magic Supreme. The key to this effect is it has to look authentic.  The props, the mechanism and the movement.  The early Owen versions look better than the later boards from Owen’s because the board isn’t as  quite as fancy and new.

This board just looks perfect, with just the right amount of distress and it works perfectly.  The board is clean and nothing is added or taken away, and yet the hand raps on demand.

If you ever wanted to perform some sort of seance or communicate with the other side, this is the tool to use. Highly Recommended!

Includes:

• Board and Spirit Hand
• Copy of Thayer’s original instructions

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Here is a unique Silk Cabby from Supreme Magic.  It really is a beauty and like the advert says does work smoothly.  However, since this was created in the 1960’s it still uses the more traditional elevator approach for the gimmick, rather than the even smoother approach employed by some modern Silk Cabbies such as Michael Baker’s here.

Even so it is a solid and convincing prop and the use of a church adds an extra element to enhance various routines.

I was pleasantly surprised by this old Supreme Magic prop when they used to make some really nice wood effects 🙂

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This Passe Passe Bottles from Canada’s Morrissey Magic is a really nice set.  The bottles look great and it comes with three bottles so you can do the extra gag part where the stooge steals away the bottle in the hope to break the trick.  The third bottle also has the space for the liquid so you can pour a glass to start with.

Another really nice feature of this set is everything packs into one tube. That is certainly something you don’t see everyday – Herb Morrissey knew he had to ship everything from Canada so wisely made this prop pack down as much as possible 🙂

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