Andy Martin

Still one of Alan’s Best!

I have reviewed this wonderful effect before and I still love it! I recently acquired another because I noticed how the colors match perfectly those of the light bulbs in the Wellington Mini-Magic Switchboard. This made me realise I could use it in conjunction with that prop as a wonderful way to predict the order of the bulbs at the end for a kicker finish!

Until recently I had every single piece of Teak Mini-Magic that Alan Warner had created, but I sold them earlier in the year due to a cash flow crisis! As things are improving again for me you might find me re-purchasing the odd Warner effect, but this time I am not buying just to have it as a beautiful collectable but to use them in my close-up show.

Alan’s Magic is wonderful and its kind of a shame that its so valuable as it means less people actually perform it. But his magic is very performable and if you can get over the value part try and perform some of it – I believe you will be very happy and get even more out of your investment.

Click here for more information.

What a Great Package!

Ever since I saw Fred Kaps do some dice stacking on his new DVD I decided it was about time I tried it myself! This little package from Frank Starsinic is pefect: it comes with a beautifully made leather cup, 4 dice and two chop cup balls all in a nice drawstring bag.

If you can’t do the dice stacking you still get to use this very functional Chop Cup. This is great value and I look forward to working up a routine with this.

Click here for more information.

Wow! Look at these Beauties!

So if you’re looking for rare quality then look no futher than this wonderful routine by Doug Gorman using some beautiful, unique ball vases created especially for the effect by the quality craftsmanship of Jim Riser. At this time only ten sets have been made, so I suggest you get your order in fast!

Here is the routine:

Two ball vases are introduced, along with two colored stones: one white and one black. A stone is put in front of each vase. The lids are removed to show the balls match the colors of the stones. The balls are put in the performer’s pockets, but they immediately return to their respective vases. The stones’ locations are switched. When the lids are removed, the balls have transposed to match the stones in front of the vases! The balls are again pocketed. The stones are returned to their original locations. When the lids are removed, the balls have returned, again following their respective stones! One last time, the balls are pocketed. The black and white stones are rubbed vigorously between the palms. When they are dropped to the table, they have turned red! The lids are removed from the vases, and the balls have returned again, but this time they, too, are both red!

You receive two Riser ball vases: one in mahogany and one in Brazilian
satinwood. You also receive six balls and four colored stones, plus a DVD and written instructions for the routine. Please note that no shells are included, as they are not needed for the routine. Price is $325.

Click here for more information.

Fred Kaps was The BEST!

If you ever doubted that Fred Kaps was the best all around magician ever, then this video clearly demonstrates it.

When you watch Fred Kaps perform you really do believe in Magic. He was the best of that there is no doubt! This DVD contains great footage of Fred performing on stage, close-up, and interviews.

Click here for more information.

An Explosion of Entertainment Possibilities!

The sub-title for Plastique could not be more accurate: An Explosion of Entertainment Possibilities!. Embodied within these cards are many subtle codes and systems that the mind boggles how Larry Becker and Lee Earle could have come up with so many ideas. Well if you are familiar with their previous output it won’t surprise you at all. These guys are geniuses, and this little collection shows that very clearly.

The package comes with 11 "gimmicked" credit cards, but you would never know. They are amazingly subtle until you know how. The instruction details 5 routines that are wonderful. Some can be combined to bring your audience to a fever pitch. Wherever possible they have incorporated the memory work into the cards themselves, so you have to learn very little to perform any of the effects.

There are no switches or sleights (well one routine has a tiny move, but sleight is too big a name for it!). The other great thing about these cards is because they have so many features built into them creating new routines from them becomes something that is very possible and exciting. These cards are simply frothing with potential!

They are very high quality cards, and easily pass for real cards. You’ve just got to love these guys’ minds!

Click here for more information.

Self Working and Amazing!

One of the great Viking Classics. This effect is built with precision brass props and works like a charm. It appears totally impossible! If you combine this with Field Sobriety you have a totally clean and amazing routine, bigger than both of them and with everything 100% clean!

Click here for more information.

Perfect.

This is a wonderfully useful utility device for the mentalist. It comes with 5 ideas but really can be used for many more with a little imagination.

It looks like and feels like a combination lock. Period. But it is very easy to set it such that the combination can be changed to any number you want. You can dress up almost any routine now that involves 4 numbers or a year.

A wonderful item that you will be sure to use.

Click here for more information.

Never mind the Quality, feel the width!

Ok, so I’m the first to admit that I am totally not a lover of eBooks. I’m sure they will continue to grow in popularity each year since they have four primary advantages over our beloved hardbound originals: they are cheap, they are easy to search, they take up little room, and they last forever. However for me, I want the real thing. Having all my books in some sort of electronic form would be cool too, but for the most part I just want the books.

In the case of The Sphinx, the eBook advantages are huge. These two DVD’s contain almost 17,000 pages or 50 volumes of some of the most important writings in magic history.To buy a full set of The Sphinx, if you can find one, will cost upwards of $5,000 – and then you run the risk of pages falling apart in your hands. Once you do manage to track down a copy that doesn’t fall apart on you, then you have the task of housing them somewhere – a 3 foot shelf is needed!

So this is one eBook that is really worth owning. Chris Wasshuber and his Lybrary.com takes a lot of heat from the book buying magic community, but he is providing a wonderful service to magicians. Particularly for the large or difficult to find volumes. In many cases he is providing access to books that to all intents and purposes cannot be viewed in any other way. When put in that context you can’t argue with the need for eBooks.

Chris is very helpful and dedicated to his task of preserving magic one book at a time. His books primarily ship in an HTML format and I prefer the Adobe PDF format, and he spent quite a lot of time helping me convert my copy into PDF. This was a long and time consuming process, and I thank Chris for helping me do it. However, I do wish he produced these things in PDF up front. I believe that the PDF format and Acrobat is a much better technology and portable platform for eBooks than HTML. Chris has is reasons for using HTML and I’m sure they are fine. But for me PDF is much better, and will continue to get better over time since ADOBE will continue to invest huge resources in it.

This then is my one criticism of the eBook phenomena – it is still early days and the media, software and hardware to view them is still changing. It is not a high-tech, high-gloss world, and particularly in the case of these facsimile versions, where the text itself is not converted, being able to sit down and read them on your computer is not as easy as it could be. You’ll find yourself resizing pages and trying to find the optimum reading set-up.

The Sphinx eBook does come with an impressive index and table of contents which is searchable. If you want to find articles about John Northern Hilliard type it in and 12 articles come back. Of course if you type in John Hilliard nothing comes back which shows up one of the issues with the technology.

I would like to give this 5 stars for time and effort that Chris has put into this. Unfortunately, I believe that as an eBook it could be better and I urge Chris to reconsider using PDF as a medium for his books, and let ADOBE do the development whilst he focuses on finding and converting the books.

Regardless of the technology limitations, this is still a very impressive effort and as a research aid it is invaluable. Just be prepared for the road to be a bit rockier than you might expect. As they say on the old maps: Here there be Dragons …

Click here for more information.

Perfect Audio for the Magician!

I always wanted a portable sound system – even though I rarely need it. This package is beautiful! Wonderful sound in a very small package. You can always take it with you just in case. Play your music too!

Makes you feel like a Vegas performer!

I also added a Mini Disk player that was only available in Japan – it is tiny with a tiny remote control, so that you can now not only have a full PA system you can also play music during your act without once going near the table. A much cheaper alternative to some other units on the market!

Click here for more information.

Ah look at these beauties!

The Criterion Demo Table fills a great void in my close-up magic performances and practice sessions. I have tried a number of different tables and table tops, but when it comes to performing they all fall short of my requirements. When it comes to close-up you need a larger top and more accessible space beneath to place your new and shown items.

Not only does the Criterion Table look beautiful, it works really well too. The size is perfect for any close-up performance I do and with a lot of easily accessible space beneath the table, I can store my whole act and get to it very easily too.

The display of effects on this table were all made by the talented George Robinson, and what better way to show them off than with a very classy demo table. This is the one to impress them all!

Click here for more information.