Andy Martin

Note to self, Cheap is Bad!

Ok I know not to buy the cheap imports from India, but sometimes you forget and a product looks nice on a web page …

This clock actually looks ok when you receive it. But it’s really not a practical implementation. You can hear something turning when you turn the clock hands (that is not the hands) and if you put it on a table the box actually moves!

It was cheap and a good reminder that quality comes at a price. In this case the price is a totally unusable effect!

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Sadly, this is no Al Goshman!

Well this is a nicely produced set of salt shakers from Mikame. They have one primary goal – to make us all look as good as Al Goshman! Well not really, but at least they try to make his signature effect (Salt & Pepper Shaker, Page 39, Magic by Gosh) possible for mere mortals.

To replace all the sleights required for Mr. Goshman’s effect including: The Edge Palm, The Classic Palm, The Clink Pass, The Coin Roll and The Toss Vanish amonst others is a tall order for any mechanical device. And of course even then you just have the mechanics, you’ll never get close to his Performance!

But if you want to produce coins seemingly at will beneath the salt shaker without sleight of hand then this is the outfit that is meant to do it. And when I first tried it out, I tapped four times and each time one coin appeared and I thought wow, this is cool! Unfortunately, as I played with the props more sometimes no coins appeared and other times two or three appeared. So the skill required is knowing how hard to tap. Unfortunately I fear that you will always be worried about the wrong number of coins appearing.

Which leads you back to practicing the actual sleights so you can in fact control precisely when coins appear. So my advice is to buy the Goshman book (for less than these shakers) and practice the effect as it was meant to be seen. This is one item that I don’t feel comfortable leaving to mechanical means.

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Wow! What a Deck!

This has to be one of the finest gimmicked decks I have ever seen. Sean Taylor has really thougt this through so that not only can this be used for a multiude of new and different mentalism effects, it will work well with many, many standard card effects too.

It is really hard to fault the manufacture, thought, and design that went into this deck. The ad copy you read about this incredible deck is spot-on and you will probably end up buying two decks!

I love it!

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Another Winner!

This is a really wonderfully clean piece of Jumbo Card Magic. You show the 4 kings one at a time front and back.

Then without any moves you turn all four cards over and they are the 4 tens! There are no flaps or rough and smooth and it is very easy to do.

The Jumbo version is actually easier to handle than the regular version.

I have a vague memory of the same principle being used in a trick when I was growing up, but don’t remember the details. Even so this is a very smooth handling and a very convicing effect. Reset is almost instant too!

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Better than I remember and a real fooler!

This is a nice little outfit from the medium priced Dove Pan manufacturers Morrissey Magic. I used to have this effect a few years back but didn’t have the instructions so missed half of the routine. And it is a whole new effect when you have the complete story!

Anyway, this is a classic cards across – spectator counts out 10 cards on to the tray and you tip the tray into the previously shown and ungimmicked empty bag (or their jacket pocket). They then count the other 10 onto the tray and cover it with the tray to ensure they can’t get away! Needless to say 3 extra cards appear in the bag and you are left with only 7 cards in the other spectators hands.

What is great about this effect is that the tray does all the work for you with ultimate ease. A great effect and a clean method!

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I love Attaboy, but this is not as convincing.

The inspiration for this effect comes from the old Jack Hughes effect: Attaboy. However, in my opinion it is not as convincing as Attaboy by quite a long margin. The device is made well enough in strong plastic and the art work for the eye is fine.

The idea of taking cards from one side and replacing them on the other until a specator calls stop certainly leads to some interesting routines, one of which is detailed in the instructions. However, I don’t think it looks that convincing – with Attaboy you have 12" or more between the two banks of cards, but with this the cards are right next to each other. Even if it looks like the cards are coming from one side and being replaced at the other – as it does – the cards are just too close to not rule out that you did "something".

In fact, I think you are better off doing The Glide and skipping using the Wink paddle altogether and you can achieve similar results. It is true that multiple cards can be forced easier using the Wink paddle. However, the more that the paddle is used the more the move arouses suspicion.

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Low tech, Low quality, but effect still looks good.

Ok so this is not going to rate as your highest quality effect or as a great new technical marvel or as anything too original – and the deck of cards that comes with the trick should be thrown in the trash as soon as you get them. They are the worst quality I have ever seen!

However, the effect is actually very strong and I think if you do buy this you really could have a fooler on your hands. It is easy to do with no complex sleights or reset. To me it is very like John Cornelius’ Instant Pro replacing the wallet with the picture frame and without the stronger gags. The routine tries to add some fun into the mix, but I think Instant Pro is stronger – and probably easier to perform too.

Basically the effect is as follows: you remove a clear picture frame from a little blue drawstring bag. You then place a card, back showing facing the audience into the frame. They then choose a card (and can sign it) and you cover up the frame with the bag. At a snap of the fingers when you pull away the bag and turnaround the frame their card is seen in the frame. Complete with their signature!

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Clever, Convincing, and Very Well Made

This is a very well made box by the craftsman over at Mikame. Without the instructions I don’t think you will be able to find the secret. It is very well concealed. There is even a locking mechanism that once locked makes it impossible to discover the secret.

You could use it as an X-Ray box where you determine what things have been placed inside, or as a large (very) Lippincott Box where something is vanished and appears inside the box. Alternatively you could vanish items from the box too. With a little imagination you could also use it to switch billets and questions.

There are no electronics involved and nothing is added or taken away. Also, once the box is secretly opened apart from the side direct to the performer there are no angle issues or flaps sticking out. You also don’t have don’t have to hide anything in your hands.

This is one of the nicer Mikame pieces and certainly worth adding to your collection.

Highly Recommended!

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Simple Method and Mystifying Results!

Paul Richards is a nice guy and nearly all the magic that he creates is very deceptive and simple to do. Practical Thinking is no different.

The props and premise are simple: you show 20 different symbol cards that are mixed and you ask 4 different people to freely select a card (no force). For each spectator, without any prompting of any kind, you are able to draw the symbol they chose on a laminated sheet.

You can do this as many times as you want, and it can be repeated with different results. Nothing is added or taken away, and the props will last a long time. There are no sleights or memory work and short of Paul coming over to your house to perform the effect for you, he has made it as easy as possible to perform this miracle.

The cards supplied are in laminated pouches and are not laminated themselves – this makes them a bit more bulky than normal laminated cards. However, it doesn’t make the effect any less real, and in some real sense makes the props seem a bit more normal.

This is a very affordable piece of quality mentalism!

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Wow this is fun and eye popping too!

There have been a number attempts at using gimmicked cards to instantly transform from a normal hand to a royal flush. Until recently the most succesful of these was probably Zapped.

Well move over Zapped as Royal Flash is here. This really is very clean and stunning to watch. The cards cannot be examined but even close up they can be shown front and back and you won’t see the gimmick. And unlike Zapped there is less to see when the transformation takes place so you require much less of a movement to effect the change.

Set-up takes about 2 seconds and you are ready to roll.

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