Andy Martin

One of Johnson’s Best!

So we all think of Johnson Products as being all about coins and coin gimmicks. Well this was one of their early non-coin effects, that was made 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 basic effect is as follows: You introduce a small black bag and out of the bag take a deck of cards, a small wallet and a blank card sealed between two heavy perspex plaques. The spectator chooses a card and it is placed face down in a clip on the outside of the plaques. Then you show some blue backed cards, with blank faces and take one of these and also slide it under the clip facing the red card.

You then place it in the empty bag for a few seconds to develop and when the plaques are removed the blank card now has the red face on it and the card sealed inside the plaques has the chosn card. They are free to examine the plaques as much as they want – the card really is sealed in there.

Very lovely props and a clean simple method that will impress you.

Higly Recommended!

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Great Entertainment, and lots of Magic!

This is a great kids/comedy effect that involves two bags and two colored wands. The bags have a blue and red spot on them and you place a matching blue and red wand into each bag. Now the fun begins.

The wands change places, they turn into the same color, they turn into different colors, and finally they transform in to huge 5 feet straws!

There is a lot of potential with this outfit – you have all the usual turn it around gags for the kids, and due to the number of changes you really are left with a startling piece of magic.

If I was doing kids magic as much these days, I just know this would be a hit with my audiences. It is fun for kids and for adults too!

The whole outfit is very nicely made, plays big, and packs almost flat too!

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Very nicely made and a fooler!

This is a nice utility item from MIkame Craft, that allows you to force a number of dice, transform them and even make dice appear and dissappear.

It is very simple in operation, but really quite clever and comes with 17 dice to give you a number of options for routines. As with most Mikame Craft items it is also very beautifully made and finished!

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Simple but Still Effective.

This was a bit of a plesant surprise. The props are very simple looking, and yet without any funny moves at all you can always tell which can the coin is placed into.

There are no gimmicks and everything can be examined before and after and you can repeat it with a different outcome immediately. You don’t even have to touch the cans.

Very nice!

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So close to a real Winner!

El Duco frequently has some great ideas – I am not sure this is one of his however. Unfortunately, not all of his ideas are manufactured to the the standards that I would like. This particular effect is so close to being a real winner but I fould the manufacture only ok. I also think there are at least two other versions of this effect that are basically the same – one in brass and one in wood that probably should be checked also.

The idea is cool since it is the standard Cups and Coins effect, where the coins travel from one cup to the other, one by one. But with this version the coins are normal and the cups look pretty close to normal too. The two main problems I have with this unit are: 1) it should work with half dollars, but sometimes in practice it did not due to the quality of the finishout for the gaff, 2) the quality of the cups is good all round, but inside they are not finished properly and I’m not sure why.

This being said, if you do it with quarters or halves (assuming I just have a poor cup) it is much easier than the other version and there is no banging of the cup on the table, or any such madness!

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An unusual idea and a fooler!

Here we have another El Duco effect that is unusual and a fooler. The props are workable, just not beautiful.

The effect is you show a hand in a stand and borrow a ring from a member of the audience. Under cover of a hanky you then place the ring on one of the fingers – without the spectator knowing which one. They now are given a pen and a small white board with the shape of a hand on it and are asked to circle just one finger. They have a totally free choice, and yet when you remove the hanky there is the ring on the correct finger. This works everytime and can be repeated if you so desire.

Once you have the knack it is easy to do, but does take some practice at first and cannot be done totally surrounded.

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Ton is always Great!

Ton Onosaka consistently produces very fine quality plastic effects that are different and clever. This one from Ton is great with 5 transformations and very clean method to make them all come about.

The quality is superb as usual, and the mechanism is very solid so you could be performing this for years to come!

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Great Stage Magic!

Harrie’s of Sweden make some very nice mid-range magic. This piece is no exception, made very well and really quite a fooler!

You show a large die from all sides, place it in a clearly empty perspex box, that sits on a small stand – which can also be shown. Then you cover the whole thing with a "silk". In a second you remove the silk and now filling the perpex box is pretty much any load you fancy – a rabbit, doves, candy, etc.

Very easy to do, very well made, and perfect if you are trying to produce a large load.

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One of Nick’s Best!

Ok so I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with the work of Nick de Palma. However, this one is pretty much perfect. It looks good, is made well, without any tell tale signs of glue or pencil, and is nice and clever!

In effect, you show a box with two dice, two brass rings and a small silver "atomic" ball in the middle. You take each of these out and clearly show the box is empty. Then you close the box and place the rings and dice on top of the box – with the ball in the middle. When the top die is placed over the ball the first time the die sticks up a bit because of the ball. But with a magical incantation, the die is replaced a second time and this time it moves right down flush with the rings. The atomic ball has vanished. You cleanly take away the rings and show the dice, and then when the box is opened the atomic ball is found to have returned to its rightful place.

A great trick with zero sleight of hand.

Highly Recommended!

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Closer to the Original Curry Genius

For some reason there has been a flurry of Out of This World like effects recently. I am still a 30+ year performer of the classic by Paul Curry, and have looked at some of the new offerings. I was unimpressed with "A New World", since it uses a gimmicked deck and to me part of the beauty of the original was that you could do it anytime and anywhere with a borrowed deck.

So along comes Greg Rostami with his version called Cosmos. He offers a non-gimmicked version and a simple gimmicked version. There are times when you might want to perform the gimmicked version, but for the most part you should have no problems performing the impromptu version. What I like about Greg’s version is that it maintains the simiplicity of the original and at the same time enhances the fairness – with multiple shuffles, the ability to stop anywhere instead of going through the whole deck, and no pause in the middle to switch color cards. It does involve two people not one and is presented as a competition between them seeing who can get the most reds and blacks correct. This presentation works very well. There are no real moves, and just one simple piece of misdirection is required so mechanically it is almost as easy as the original. It does require a bit more nerve than the original – but if you follow Greg’s directions you’ll find it all very easy.

I am the first to admit that I have been happily performing Out of This World for so long that I am reluctant to change, but if I were to change this would be the version I would change too. I would like to see real printed instructions come with this effect, rather than just a video explanation – in fact one of the things that A New World does superbly is the instruction booklet that comes with the effect. But apart from the lack of printed directions this is a wonderful effect to have in your repotoire.

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