Andy Martin

Funny and Beautiful

Howard Hale makes some very fine quality woodwork – he’s not always punctual, but is worth waiting for. This is based on the old Jack Hughes Legs Table I guess, and it really is very beautiful, and looks like a real ornate table until the legs fall off. Then where do you go? Out pop those sexy pair of legs, and you have a huge comedy piece!

This is number 1 of a very few. It’s beautiful and rare.

Grab it now!

Click here for more information.

Thanks Fabrice and Joe this truly is a beauty!

This is the original version that looks much less like a magic box and more like a simple keepsake box.

About a year ago I purchased this effect from Fabrice Delaure is way more than the modern day Anverdi, his electronic magic is beautiful, foolproof, and so devoid of any notion of electronics it is perfect.

The effect is simple: you hand the box of giants to the audience and they can take out as many of them as they desire. I have affixed names to the bottom of each giant so you can tell who they are. You then can determine which giants are out even though you were out of the room or blindfolded at the time. I hand a sealed wallet to the audience and they unzip the compartment only to reveal 3 (say) cards with the names of the precise giants chosen.

If you have not checked out the incredible electronic magic of Fabrice Delaure you should do so – it is so amazing. I would like to thank Joe Stevens for putting up with me and giving me a second chance on this baby and Fabrice for his incredible talent – I am very happy to own this again.

Click here for more information.

I love this effect!

This is a very simple and clean prediction effect that looks great and is very reasonably priced. Mikame Craft have thought of everything on this one. Reset is easy, the turned wood box for the chips is a delight and each move in the routine makes perfect sense.

The basic effect is this: you show the box, tip out the 6 chips, place one on the top of the box as your prediction, then spread out the other 5 face down on the mat. The spectator chooses any one and it is stacked on top of your prediction chip. You then show the other 4 are all different colors, and turn over their chip and the prediction chip and they match. There are no sleights and there can be a different result for repeat performances and reset is a few seconds.

The chips are made of a heavy plasic that will last a lifetime, and it is true that it would be nicer if they were made of wood but for the price its really hard to fault this effect. The reason they are using the plastic chips is because the chips were marketed separately as a different effect and all that Mikame have done is add the box. But by adding the box they turn this into a wonderful little piece and make use of the box in a number of ways that ensure the prediction is clean and smooth.

I highly recommend this effect!

Click here for more information.

A bit too heavy for me!

This is a very thorough book about the man who susposedly wrote one of the great card Classics: The Expert at The Card Table by S.W. Erdnase. Unfortunately, for me it was a bit too heavy going. Over 430 pages of fairly small type. I managed the first 100 pages and flipped through the rest.

The conclusions reached by Bart Whaley, Martin Gardner and Jeff Busby are the subject of a great deal of contention and there appears to be a lot of evidence to support the theory that S.W. Erdnase was not Milton Franklin Andrews. A great thread on this whole subject can be found on the Genii Forum by clicking here.

I think you would find this very stimulating reading if you were a big fan of Erdnase, but given that I have not read it yet (oh my word!) its hard for me to get too excited by it. I have however just ordered the 100 year Anniversary edition so maybe I will revisit this book another day after I have emersed myself in the classic itself!

Click here for more information.

The Wolf is Back!

One of the biggest problems with "expensive" magic props is they are frequently delicate, complicated to set-up, more suited to shelves than performances, work inconsistently, and sometimes just don’t work at all. This is great if you just want to have nice things on the shelves, but if you plan on performing them … forget it!

click here to buy this wonderful creation.

Click here for more information.

This is almost a Great Effect!

This prop looks intriguing with these funny looking wizards/witches in a distressed looking box. It’s bascailly the same as Quantimental, but dressed up, and it also uses the same method. When looked at by the spectator the box appears to be finished well. The figures are not the best quality and neither is their paint job, but they suffice.

However, like so many props these days it suffers from some fundamental usability flaws. Firstly, the set-up on this item is tricky and requires some luck and practice to get it right smoothly each time so that the gimmick does not dislodge. Secondly, when the wizards are standing up you cannot close the box. This seems really stupid to me, why have a presentation box that you can’t close. This means that once you set-up this unit you have to carry the box around with the lid open and the wizards balancing. Now for technical reasons the box does need to be a bit deeper than the space taken up by the figures, but why not have different figures that are lying down or something so that they fit the box? Finally, the colors of the wizards do not match the gimmicks that prompt you with the answer and you have to do some mental decoding: purple is white, orange is yellow.

Quantimental does not suffer from these problems and in fact, because it has a stand that is ordinary looking it raises much less suspicion. This Coffer is however very quiet in operation, even quieter than Quantimental.

If only inventors would use their props a bit more and see how impractical some of them are for real performers. Unless, of course they are planning for magicians to never really perform these things. If that is the case then this is actually a very nice prop, as long as you don’t take it apart and look at the glue marks on the underside of the felt!

Click here for more information.

Forget about everything else, this is the one!

I like the fact that Mikame Craft props are much easier to come by than a few years ago, since it gives people a chance to realise what they should be expecting from a magical manufacturer.

This box is heavier than a lot of Mikame’s pieces, beautiful, and very convincing with TWO changes! It’s a wonderful piece with a lot of uses and very quiet. It fits jumbo cards and other flatish items.

The only slight problem I have seen with this item when setting it up is sometimes the flaps fall prematiurely – I have found this usually because the box is not used enough. If you use it on a regular basis this never seems to happen. So the answer is to ensure you get it off the shelf and use it! Once set correctly I have never had any problems with this part however.

Click here for more information.

It’s not Milson Worth, but it is very close!

This is a solid and beautiful arm chopper from Mikame Craft. It has a solid blade and is very well finished. It doesn’t quite match up to the finish and quality of the Milson Worth chopper – but it is much easier to find and is a very fine attempt.

The mechanism is straight forward and classic and allows for a carrot to be placed beneath the arm when the chop is made. It looks very convincing. It also has the blade extend past the stocks to add to the illusion of the chop.

It’s hard to go wrong with Mikame Craft!

Click here for more information.

Great Idea, Ok Props.

This is a really great idea for doing the standard Mental Epic with nothing more than the 3 pens and some cards. It works well and is convincing.

However, my pens could have been gimmicked better … I ended up gluing them myself when they arrived. On talking to the inventor I think I had an isolated case and in fact the pens that are used are good quality markers and once you play with them a while they work fine.

If you love Mental Epic, but want to travel light these are perfect for you!

Click here for more information.

Workable and Beautiful Props!

This is the third item I have from the very talented Mr.Wolf over at Wolf’s Magic. As with the others, it is beautifully made and very functional. It took me about 30 mintues to try this out including opening the well packaged box.

The instructions are bright and very clear and on the very first attempt of trying this effect all the balloons worked exactly the way they should. For a balloon wand/table type effect this is almost unheard of. Every effect I’ve owned up until now has required quite a lot of tweaking to get the balloons to pop and blow away on cue. Not so with this. Chance has clearly thought through the usability aspects of this effect.

Unlike his previous two items this effect does not have quite the same unique, zany routine but it still is a wonderful prop with all the fun of any other Balloon Wand. The set-up is very easy and the props very solid.

What I like about the Wolf’s Magic line I have seen so far is that not only are the props beautifully made, very colorful, and uniquely designed – they actually can be used by real performers for real shows. This is sadly not something I can say about a lot of higher end collectable props.

Wolf’s Magic is certainly turning a few heads in the magic Industry, and about time too – this is the way magic should be built and operate. Highly recommended!

Click here for more information.