Magic Reviews

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em

I consider Jim Coles a friend, even though I never met him in the classic sense. He’s a fellow blogger and a good guy. You only need to look at his postings like The Geek Factor to realize Jim really thinks about and cares about magic.
Jim asked me to read and give my honest opinion [...]

516 and Counting

Without a doubt, Patrick Page’s Easy Money is one of the most reinvented and revised tricks in magic. In all fairness, it was a, somewhat, obscure trick until it was repopularized by Greg Wilson as Hundy 500. Since then we’ve had a number of variations offered. One of the most popular was Heiny 500 [...]

i/m DVD Review - Impervious

OK, let’s get the official stuff out of the way. Here’s the poop from the home office:
If you could perform real magic what would it look like? Could you perform miracles completely unprepared using nothing but borrowed objects? Would you be remembered by your audiences, leaving them in a complete state of astonishment?
Impervious [...]

Oh no you don’t!

Those of us that have been around a while and have been following the Richard James / Linked saga have seen it all before. Non-delivery followed by a string of excuses and stories that never seem to fit together. We’ll be charitable and say the perpetrators are generally less than forthright. It’s so easy to [...]

Quick Review - Jim Steinmeyer’s Bunko

From the web site:
BUNKO
Jim’s new shortchange effect is a remarkable close-up routine. The effect is tremendous, writes Richard Kaufman. Bunko is a perfect example of close up magic theater. An intriguing story draws the spectators in and then wallops them with magic. Twenty dollars in change (five singles, three fives) changes to [...]

Theory11 Followup

Well, Digital Dissolve arrived - well packed and promptly shipped.
I’m not going to take much time here - just the salient points:

It IS Steve Dusheck’s trick - the variations are totally derivative from my perspective
The DVD is amateur hour in production and content - at least the opening logo was mercifully quick
This is not Jamie [...]

Hold Your Nose

Generally, I only post reviews for two categories - Good to Great and Unimaginably Bad. In all honesty, I try to concentrate on the former as they do the most good for everyone. I like good magic and like telling you about it.
However, once in a while there comes along a product so unimaginably bad [...]

Joshua Jay - Talk About Tricks

Let’s get this out front:
I HATE JOSHUA JAY
He’s young, good looking, talented, single and doing exactly what he wants. In short, he’s everything I’m not and never will be.
Even in his very earliest writings, h’s shown an incredible ability, for someone of his age especially, to select quality tricks and sleights. This collection of 3 [...]

A recommended book

Steve Cohen’s Win the Crowd first went on sale 6/14/2005 and the publishers have already remaindered the final stock. They sure don’t wait long any more!
You can find new copies for less than $10, delivered, all over the web – half.com – ebay.com - bookcloseouts.com…..etc. I would imagine it’s also in the bargain bin at [...]

Learning Magic From Sam Snead and Ted Williams

Prodigies and exceptionally gifted people have NO idea how difficult things are for mere mortals.
Sam Snead, the greatest natural golfer I ever saw, was once asked how he made the ball fade (move left to right). He said it was simple, just think right. Of course, to execute a draw, one merely thinks left. Sure, [...]

A DVD I Didn’t Plan To Like

I saw this DVD advertised recently and bought it on a whim:

The DVD doesn’t cover a lot of flourishes:

Ribbon Spread
Ribbon Spread Turnover
Double Ribbon Spread Turnover
Ribbon Scoop
Dribbling
Thumb Fan
Closing Fan
One Handed
Giant Fan
Pressure Fan
Split Fan
Two Handed Split Fan
S-Fan
Corner Spring
Middle Spring
Sideways Spring
Anti Gravity Spring
Waterfall!

but it does a better job than anything else on the market. Moves like the hand [...]

A Recommended DVD

Over the years we all hear of moves which are performed so well by certain magicians that their name becomes synonymous with the sleight or routine:

Albert Goshman - Spellbound
Don Alan - Chop Cup
Ken Krenzel - Classic Pass
Chris Capehart - 3 Ring Routine
Slydini - Lapping
Steve Brooks - His Jabba the Hut imitation

You get the idea. Paul [...]

New Videos Possibly Worth Consideration

I see L & L is announcing 2 new video sets:
Richard Osterlind’s Mind Mysteries Too
Mind Mysteries Too continues on from the high-water mark set by the first Mind Mysteries series, one of the best-selling video sets in magic history. Transcending the [...]

Criss Angel Coin In Soda Can

After returning from some mind numbing business meeting last night, I totally forgot about watching Mindfreak.
It’s possibly surprising that I fall into the “rising tide raises all boats” school and believe Criss is good for magic. Actually, given its moribund state, I don’t think anything could hurt. Criss doesn’t perform the type of magic I [...]