Andy Martin

Looks good, but the quality is not quite there.

Howie and The Trickery have recently been producing some very fine items which culminated in the very, very limited edition of the Definitive Hole in One. So when this new piece came out I was very excited. Unfortunately, this new item is not quite in the same league as the others they have recently produced.

The frame is easy to set and is very reliable. There is a noise, but if you throw the cards at the frame (the preferred thing to do) it is perfectly covered. And the card appears instantly and is quite a surprise. But the finish is not up to the recent standards and to my mind this will detract from pure collectors wanting to buy this item. However, if you are a serious or a casual performer then this will probably not be an issue.

Having said all of this, the price is reasonable for the effect. I just would prefer to pay more for a higher quality item. But paying less for less, is much better than paying more for less as is so often the case.

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Feel the Weight and the Quality!

Wow this Don Alan Chop Cup from the newly reformed Rings ‘N’ Things II is a beauty! Just be careful you don’t drop it – not because it will harm the cup, but because it’ll put a dent in your floor!

It looks gorgeous, and feels so solid in your hands you just feel like a pro when you pick this baby up. The bronze lip and inside lining looks very impressive too. I am told that this is the last run of these and there are only a handful left so I suggest you put your dancing shoes on and get on over to Howie at TheTrickery to pick one of these beauties up.

One of the problems I’ve had with some other Chop Cups in the past is they were too light and so the dislodging of the ball seemed like an unnatural operation. But with this guy there are no problems like that.

We all would like to do the Cups + Balls, but who has time to do it justice? At least if you start with the Chop Cup, you have a chance that you will get to the Cups + Balls some day. And in the process you get to understand why this is such a beatufiul effect. It comes with the classic routine by Don Alan. There are also many fine things to do with the Chop Cup in Mark Wilson’s book: The Chop Cup.

If you want to perform the chop cup then you will be hard pushed to find a more beautiful prop to work with.

Highly recommended!

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Well it’s Cheap but it works very well!

Ok this little ESP Top looks like a cheap little top – and it is! But it is better made than you would imagine and it can be used to force any one of the 6 numbers on its face everytime.

It works like the Spirt Clock Dial and really has some clean uses for forcing the numbers1-6. The audience doesn’t care that it is not made of brass!!!

It works every time too – though is better on hard surfaces.

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Nifty Little Rope Trick

This effect is a version of Bank Night with ropes. The Spectator gets to chose any two ropes out of the three that are available and of course the rope that is left has a knot tied in it, and a $100 bill tied in the knot!

It does not come with the box, but I found it lying around and thought it was stronger if instead of holding the ropes you were hands free and the ropes were all in the box up front. You can do it anyway you want.

Easy to do and surprisingly convincing!

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One of the most effective Card Tricks!

This effect from Zanadu has been around for years but it really is wonderful. Quite simply a card is chosen, the deck is padlocked, and even in the spectators hands, with no palming or funny moves whatsoever – the card dissappears from the locked deck only to appear in a wallet or card box or anywhere you fancy.

Very strong impact on the audience! The wallet does not come with the effect – use your own.

No sleight of hand is required either!

Highly Recommended!

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Wonderful off beat card effect!

When you are tired of doing the same old boring card effects this little gem fits in very nicely.

It uses very cute cards with smiley faces on the backs and a key chain size pistol which lets out a rather loud bang. The ending is a real surprise and guaranteed to get a laugh from your audience.

Great value, easy to do, and a little different!

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Not a Wild Card Routine, But Still Wild!

Just to set things straight when I first saw this effect advertised I thought it was a Wild Card routine. It does have the similarity that 4 different cards change into 4 other cards, but it is called Wild because of it’s talented inventor Boris WIld!

Anyway, you cleanly show 4 cards back and front, turn two cards over – and still cleanly show back and front of all 4 cards, but when you push them together they have now changed to 4 Aces, and you can show all the backs too. There are no half cards, and the cleaness of the change is a joy to behold.

No real sleights, but a little handling practice is required to make this miracle perfect!

Very Wild indeed!

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Wow! Easy, Cheap, And Very Convicing Prediction!

This is a very simple little outfit from Rob Bromley and it is amazingly clean. You show the perspex board with 6 cards attached. You can clearly see through the perspex. The spectator names any number – no force – and you turn over the card at that position. You can take the whole card out and freely show it. This card matches your prediction. You then turn around the board and the other cards are all different.

This is a great value and well made, and will fool the magician’s who know other methods such as Perfect Match and The Animals Came in Two by Two. No sleights or switches.

Of course there is always one issue with magic – it would have been nice if the elastic was not quite as tightly threaded to make it a little easier in placing the cards under them!

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A very nice, well priced Stull Watch

This is a very nice watch that works basically like the old Stull Watches, does not cost an arm and a leg and seems to be very consistent.

Basically you take off your watch and show how the winder freely moves the hand (as it should!), you then turn it over and hand it to them so that they can move the hand to any time without seeing.

You can always predict the time. The other good news is that you can repeat it up to 3 more times without the same number recycling. The watch can be examined before and after and comes with am impressive instruction booklet featuring more than 12 different routines.

The only problem I had with this effect was that the numbers on the box that were meant to be the "random" times this watch stopped on were wrong. This is easy to resolve you just write down the numbers for your watch the first time and then you are done from then on.

If you can’t afford the Richard Gerlitz Prediction Watch, then this is the one for you. One thing to be wary of: some of the early watches actually had the name "Timetrix" on the face – the instructions are printed that way but the watch itself has TmX on the face. When ordering yours you might want to ensure that you have TmX on yours. It seems a bit strange why they would go to the effort of creating what looks like a normal watch, and then stamp the name Timetrix on it!

Highly Recommmended!

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This Miracle isn’t cheap, but it is Beautiful!

This is clearly one of the best of the Modern Joe Porper line. It is beautifully made, it is quite stunning when performed properly and it employs a clever mechanism. So it fills the Craftsmanship, Ingenuity, and Entertainment checklists of the Very Best Magic. Later in the year Digital Cheetah will be developing a new website that just features The Best Magic, and this is precisely the sort of effect you will find there.

It arrives in a solid (and heavy!) hardwood presentation case and comes with a detailed booklet of instructions with lots of photos. To do justice to this effect will take some practice, but that is a good thing as we all know. The moves are certainly not difficult and the killer ending with the Al Koran inspired pen is accomplished all too easily!

The price at $695 is up there! But, unlike some of the other effects in this line, I believe you will be happy with it, and once you perform it you will for sure feel confident you have made a great choice. The dealer ads say this is a limited edition, but no mention is made of how limited the edition is. But if you are tempted to get one I suggest you get one soon – the amount of work to build these is by no means trivial so the supply will eventually run out.

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