Magic Reviews
From Magician FX.
This Magic Review service is there to help you the valuable customer. It aims to help you with all your future Magic Purchases and tell you the full Truth on Magic products.
Skill Level Grades are based on what level it is to Learn and Perform. So, on 1 being very Easy and 5 being Hard.
5 out of 5 is an Excellent product review and the highest accolade
grade possible.
1 is a very low and poor grade given and the lowest grade given.
Magician FX and other items that are new and old on the Magic scene.
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Hawk: A very well sought after trick DVD that comes with an in depth instructional DVD, showing many different methods and approaches to the overall effect. Alexander Kolle shows the 2 x Gimmicked bicycle cards you receive and shows you how they work and to set them, also how to prepare other gimmicks for future use and renewal for years to come as you get spare something special for renewal og the gimmick card. The actual effect is a card is selected and signed along the length of the cards both sides (Front & Back) by the spectator and Magician. After some simple card moves the deck is placed on the floor (No threads) or on a table far away from the Magician and the signed card appears face up on top of the deck in the blink of an eye it is so visual and excellent to watch. No threads, hook ups or any kind of connection to anything around you, it is all self contained within the deck and well constructed cards. The gimmicked card is quite easy to 'Double Lift' from the deck and make the deck clean and free to perform with after the effect. If you are looking for a quality visual effect that is easy to do and manage as a performer you will be hard pushed to beat Hawk by Alexander Kolle, its eye popping visual and will fool you the first time it appears at the top of the deck after being placed in the middle. The gimmicked cards are well made and well within the skill level of an avergae magician to repair or make more in the future. Its a great and visual effect that allows you to be free from threads and wow your audiences and maybe get you future work with the visual aspect of things. I will say it is a 4 out of 5 Overall and a 3 on Skill Level to perform as it is not hard to perform.
Extreme Burn 2.0 by Richard Sanders: A revised edition on New and improved performances of this highly visual effects of 2010. A thinner gimmick comes with the package and a plastic wallet comes with it also so you can perform and improved handling of giving the changed bank notes out for examination after you have finished. Richard sanders never fails to amaze me with his wicked thinking with InterLace, Tagged, Ten, Picture This and more great effects and DVDs. This new Extreme Burn 2.0 is a great investment and is a great effect to add to your Close Up arsenal of tricks, that is easy to do, blows your audiences minds and is an effect they will ask to see again and again on the same night. With these improved handlings it is a much better and cleaner effect to work professionally.
5 out of 5 for outstanding reaction it receives and 3 out of 5 on the skill level needed to Perform this easy effect.
Odd Quad by Daryl: A simple 4 card trick effect that packs a wallop and has several great climaxes for 4 quality cards provided. The 4 cards are displayed and the spectator is asked to name a number 1,2,3 or 4 and there is no magicians force here, what number they say thats what you count to. When you pick up the remaining 3 card they are found to be Bue cards for example and the card they chose at that freely selected number si red. The 4 cards are again picked up and another number is chosen freely, again the same actions take place and the cards are shown to be all red this time and the selected card is found to be Blue. As the spectators think you are playing with tricks cards, you agree and push the two remaining cards through your hand to find they are Yellow and Green. You then hand out 4 cards without any moves at all and you reset and ready to go again in seconds. This is taughts in a realxed and in depth manner By daryl in High quailty instructional DVD with a second handling if you choose to use it but i would stick with the 1st option and daryl agrees. Excellent product, Quality Bicycle Type Cards, DVD, Paper instructions. 4 out of 5 for effect and 2 out of 5 for skill level required to perform it.
Cell By David Stone: An outstanding signed card trick to an impossible location. This as taken over and finished off where many other signed tricks have failed. A spectator freely chooses a random card from the deck of 52 cards and signs it on the face and returns it to the deck. After some by play between the Magician and spectator the Magician fails to find the card, when all of a sudden the magician says he has a message coming through on his ohone but the phone fails to work, the Magician looks to see what is wrong and looks in the battery part of the Mobile phone to find a folded red Bicycle card, this is flip out of the battery section into the magicians waiting hand. The card is slowly unfolded by the spectator to find out it is in fact the signed card they selected and signed earlier on, WOW what a perfect miracle... This effect is a clever gimmick that is made to last for hundreds of performances and resets in seconds in the Mobile Phone battery section. It does require some good skill level of card magic to pull this effect of well but if you follow the DVd instructions well and insert the gimmick well in the battery section of the Mobile you have a professional miracle that will blow your audience minds. 5 out of 5 for the oustanding effect and 4 out 5 on skill and practice level. Comes with two well made Bicycle Gimmicks made to last and Instructional DVD
Chain Gang by Marc DeSouza: This old carnival game and con is taught in depth by master Magician Marc DeSouza, on a quality Instructional DVD. You recieve the full length DVD, A Small Felt Bag and a Gold Looped Chain to perform the routine Marc teaches you. At first Marc performs a short and interesting routine to two spectators either side of him, giving them Poker Chips to wage each time, all the time they try to snag and hook the correct loop on the table set out by the Magician or Con man, try as they may but both spectators soon have no Poker Chips left as they have bet and lost each time. Concluding the routine Marc allows each spectator to win on the chain coming loose and allowing them to choose two fingers at times but all the time the spectators loose. marc sets out to show how this Con game was perform by Con Men to cheat people of their hard earned money and shows how it was always impossible to win, while presenting his own unique routine. Marc does an excellent job on making the routine fun and highly entertaining throughout and makes the routine just long enough not to go on too long. Each and every move is shown and taught to you and his credit is given to the magicians who come up with certain moves and layouts. If you are lloking for something different over Cards, Coins etc.. this routine has it all, you use Poker chips and people always like to hear a good story and alos like to think they can out wit and win something. As stated all the above is provided and i give this my highest rating as its a great product, value for money and not too difficult to learn if you watch the DVD. 5 out 5 Overall and 3.5 on the Skill Level Needed to perform it.
Ghost Tag: A clever and very useable effect. You recieve a Keyring with a Victoria photo of a Gentleman with a face down card in his top jacket pocket. You proceed to force a card that matches the gimmick and with the special something change the photo and time. When you turn the keyring photo over the face down card is now seen to be face up in the photo and everything can be examined.
The gimmick is totally self contained within the keyring and the gimmick gets ditched onto your keys, so you have nothing to palm or hold. It is simply amazing and very easy to use and always handy to have on your bunch of keys. Magician FX have come up with an additional routine where you do not need a pack of cards to force the matching card in the Photo
4 out of 5 Stars and 2 for Ease of Use.
Mastermind Deck: Another great card effect that has been used by many great Magicians on TV specials. This single deck miracle allows you to place down a blue card has a prediction and ask the spectator to name any card between 1 to 52 and you do count to that exact number, nothing messy or false about the above statement. After you have dealt to the spectators chosen number you turn over the card at that number and your face down prediction card and they are both found to match 100%. A very easy and strong effect to perform and is an ideal effect as a closing effect.
3 out of 5 Stars and 2 for Ease of Use.
Fan2c by R Paul Wilson and Dan and Dave Buck: Can you all remember the excellent card trick Rob Bromley invented called Zapped. This card effect was used by a lot of famous magicians on TV shows to show quick and visual magic but it had one flaw, it caould not be given out to be examined as the cards were gimmicked big time, well with Fan2C you can give the cards out straight after the effect with nothing to hide. Paul Wilson performs on this excellent produced DVD by Dan and Dave Buck (The Twins). Paul sets out to show you the classic Zapped plot first and then shows you about 5 more different ways of doing the change of normal cards into a Royal Flush with different presentations. I think the the first method he shows with a small gimmick you can easily thumb palm/clip or ditch to a pocket is the best. The gimmicked is made in minutes on the DVD by Paul Wilson just like Blue Peter, he talks about the gimmick in detail and how it makes all the methods work and how to make one in minutes if needed. This effect has high value visual pay off and can be performed to a live audience, so do not be put off but there is a bit of timing and parctice needed to make it looks 100% visual and if you can do a Double Lift you can do this trick. 4 out of 5 stars for effect and 4 out of 5 for skill and practice needed to perform this effect.
13 Steps to Mentalism DVDs Richard Osterlind: This has to be the best set of DVDs L&L Publishing have ever produced and released. They carry on from where the book started the bible of Mentalism off. These 6 DVD set has 12 hours of footage on all aspects of mentalism, taught in detail by Richard Osterling and further discussed by Jim Sisti. Many effects are show to a L&L audience and then broken down and explained piece by piece by Richard and Jim. There is enough information to build several acts from this raft of material, tips, tricks, moves and know how. You need these DVDs in your collection, you will not regret it, they are Brilliant and worth every penny and more....5 out of 5 Stars and a 3 for varied levels of use for the tons of material shown and explained.
By Choice and By Chance by Paul Richards: A realistic and pocket version dictionary word test for strolling magic and table hopping. This easy to do effect should not be underated or dismissed by well skilled and knowledgable Magicians. As it packs small but plays big to laymen and trust me they do have a clue has they are totally misdirected at the point you are doing the move required to perform this minor miracle. You receive a nice small pocket sized Dictionary of about 600 pages with bold and clear words at the top of each page, along with numbers. Dice are provided but I either allow them to throw some invisible dice or use their fingers to devine a two digit number because on experience if you use dice spectators have enough savvy to think the dice are loaded when they are clearley not in this routine, so why argue use my suggestions above. After showing the audience the dictionary and the bold words and numbers beside them at the top of each page, you state they have the choice of hundreds of words approx 1200 iin fact. After you had the dictionary back you introduce a blank lined notebook and flick through it and show it to be empty and free of any trickery. You state that you will make your prediction of the word you think the spectator will choose by page ahead of time. The spectator devines their number page with their fingers or invisible dice all while you clearly write a single world and fold it before they find the actual page number they have devined. After the spectator is asked to say aloud the word they freely chose, you ask them to unfold your prediction you wrote before they even found the page the word was on and it is found to match 100% correct. This effect fits into your inside pocket where the notebook can be used for other drawing duplications, predictions etc,, and the dictionary is small enough to carry but big enough to read and see by your spectators in dim lit rooms. The effect is 100% self working and as one very simple action to take place just after they have announced their page number. to their friends. It works very well on audiences and is a reall fooler when played the correct way in a fun and relaxed manner. It is a break from cards and coins and is ideal pocket Mentalism you can use in the field of table hopping without any moves, moving parts, no maths to do, no memory work just sit back and let the two props do all the work for you. 4 out of 5 for the overall effect and use in the real world. 1 out of 5 for ease of use and skill required, it's 100% self working so it's a breeze to use.
Reel Magic DVDs: These 6 a year Video magazines, always edge out on the time level off 2 hours long. Put them in your DVD player sit back and enjoy 2 hours of high quality Magic with the following areas.
They have DVDs reviews, clips and tricks perfomed and explained from about 4 x DVDs and approx 4 clips are shown so you can learn from them. Also, you get on average 3 x Move Monkeys Moves shown and taught also, these are awesome moves to learn from. David Regal takes on Tricks of the Trade and reviews the latests HOT Tricks, DVDs, Books etc... Jon Armstrong has a section of Small Things Make the Big Difference and shows in detail moves we take for granted and shows them and talks about them in fine detail and explains how we can improve our technique. Silly Billy david Kaye shows Kid Shows fundamentals and goes into alsort of Kids tricks and bits of business to make your Childrensa act even better. Also, Thomas Garrat, shows a section called Try this at Home and oes into fine detail about things we have in out bottom drawers or things we use like Shells, Gimmicks etc.. and shows us how to use them correctly. Simon Lovell rants on each month about something magicians do wrong in relation to our image, attitude etc..You get odd adverts of Tricks, Books, DVDs etc.. Finally, each DVD episode has a good length interview with a famous Magicians like Dean Dill, Max Maven, Dan & Dave, Eugene Burger and so on...In these modern times we live in, Reel DVDs are a great buy at £6.50 for 2 hours of quality material along with clips we can learn from and are a pleasure to watch. Trust me once you buy one you will continue to buy more they are that good. 5 out of 5 for these outstanding products.
21st Century Phantom by Oz PearlmanTrick DVD and Resources: This was the highlight of Oz Pearlmans UK Tour a few years ago. The effect is a quite novel effect that commands a lot of interest from your audience, as shows skills from two allied arts rolled into one, Magic and cutting out Silhouettes. The Magician shows blank faced cards with the names of very famous movie and music celebrities from all over the world past and present from Al Pacino to Elvis Presley to name a couple. The Magician spreads through an array of diifferent male and female names showing all the cards to be different and then turns them face down and offers them out to a spectator to select a card therfore choosing a celebrity only known by them and their friends. The Magician / Mentalist removes a Business card and some small scissors and starts to snip away cutting at the business card, folding it, creasing it while talking about poignant facts about the chosen celebrity while not really getting anywhere with his facts... After a lot of cutting and folding of the Magicians buisness card the card is secretly held close to the magicians dark suit or tie with his hand held over it. He then proceeds to ask one final question to the spectator, who was the celebrity to chose from the selection of cards? They respond with Elvis Presley, you looked shocked and say "That is really good because that who is the person I cut an exact silhouette for" showing the cut out profile image of the celebrity face through the cut outs against your dark suit or tie. The business card is then left with your spectator as a small gift of the moment with your details on the reverse of the card.
Please note that the DVD you recieve shows you many varied presentations by OZ in different settings, with a different celebrity revealed each time according to the age and generation of the audience in front of him. The DVD comes with four different negative images on paper inside already of 4 different celebrities. Oz teaches how you can make up about 5 or more small sets of different business cards that will force a different celebrity each time with no card skill at all, it's that easy. Oz shows the workings of the pre show you can do way ahead of time with the cut out silhouette and the workings you have to do, tips and hints to make this effect the most requested effect OZ performs and OZ is a Great card worker with excellent skill level. So, it shows how hard this effect hits home. I know aftet watching the DVD through and doing a small amount of prep work you will be able to perform this effect in a matter of hours and be able to fit this into your act almost straight away and start getting your business card in their hand and it being kept because its a novel cut of Elvis or another famous celebrity they like. Its easy to perform, takes little time to prepare when you know what and how and is a gem of an effect that they will remember for a long time and you can repeat it quite a few times a night with a different outcome and there are not a lot effects that allow you to do that. 4.5 out of 5 for an awesome effect and 2.5 for ease to learn and perform.
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