Signed card effects have always been a favorite of mine. They tend to add another layer of impossibility to an effect. The mind tends to cancel out any thought of duplicates or the like. Another favorite of mine has been card to impossible locations. Like wallets or pockets. So imagine my surprise when along comes The Casonova Concept by Steve Haynes. It combines both aspects to create an impossible reality in the mind of the audience.

  Here’s what happens:

  You have two cards initialed by someone. Then they take one of the signed cards and put it in their wallet. You put the other signed card in the middle of the deck. Instantly the signed card appears in your wallet.

  Now things start to get a little weird. You put the signed card in the middle of the deck again and ask if they want to see you do it again. You pull out your wallet and this time the card that was in their wallet is in your wallet. When they take the card that was in their wallet out, it’s the card that had been in your wallet the first time. The signed cards transposed from your wallet to their wallet. I love it!

  Many of you will ask how hard this is. Well, the good news is that this is within the realm of anybody who has even just a little bit of experience with cards. It will take some practice but the routine is so strongly structured that you really don’t have a whole lot to worry about. Just master one or two easy moves (you may have them mastered already) and you can do this.

  There are two versions of this routine on the DVD. One uses a gimmicked wallet and one uses a regular wallet. I prefer the gimmicked wallet version but the non gimmicked wallet works just fine.

  Their is a signed card through glass table that is startlingly visual and pretty easy to do. They see their signed card go right through the table. Pretty cool stuff. Also on the DVD is a torn and restored signed business card and a few other cool card tricks.

  My head was spinning after watching it at the possibilities that the actual concept provided one with. There is a lot that can be done once you learn the basic idea.

  And this is a DVD that actually had some really funny dialogue to go along with what can sometimes be boring instruction. I had a lot of fun watching this be performed and explained by David Forrest.

  I’d have to say that this was one of my best buys so far this year. Let me know what you think.

Recently I’ve been having a lot of fun with Close Up Illusion. It’s super simple and visually looks really impossible. I do it as sort of a one off and have been getting great reactions. There is a good explanation of it on Michael Ammar’s Easy To Master Card Miracles, I think it’s on Volume 6 and is a Larry Jennings creation.

  If you don’t know the trick, the basic premise is that you have 3 cards and one of the card keeps melting into the middle and out of the middle. No sneaky moves or unnaturalness here. Very deliberate simple handling. I love it. Here’s a quick video of a decent version on YouTube:
 Note: The performer in this video has taken the liberty of renaming it Houdini’s 3 Cards.

Looking over the Ammar Easy to Master Series, I see that they have a few DVD’s that I haven’t seen yet. I tell you, these are some of the best DVD’s for learning Card Tricks. You get a good education on card sleights and you learn some of the best card tricks ever created. I have to take a look at the later volumes to see what tricks they teach. If you’re new to card magic this is a set you might want to look into.

If you have any of these DVD’s let me know which tricks are your favorites!

Richard Sanders Fiber Optic has finally arrived, after much fanfare. I can’t believe that he’s not using gimmicked rope to perform this. This is undoubtedly the smoothest rope routine that has ever been created. I know a lot of people are salivating to see this released.
Now I don’t normally do rope magic but this routine just looks so nice. Will report back with my findings…

What do you think?

Well hello! So, if you’re like me you’ve got these things called loops on you at all times. And you may have come up with some cool little quick handlings to use. But did you know that just recently, the world’s greatest Loops handlers have released 3 DVD’s giving the full work and thoughts behind all their routines. Finn Jon and Yigal Mesika have released Loops The 2 DVD Set and Reflections.

  The 2 DVD set has Finn Jon performing (which is a hoot to see a grand master of the art in a casual setting) some of his most prized levitation’s and animations using Loops. Then he sits down and tells anecdotes and thinking behind a lot of the routines. It’s a fascinating look inside the mind of one of the most interesting characters in magic.

  Then Yigal Mesika performs for a group of people. It’s great to see him sitting on a couch surrounded by folks and doing a 15 minute act with nothing more than some everyday items and his trusty Loops. Then we sit down again and hear these gentleman talk candidly about their experiences with Loops over the years.

Effects explained on this 2 DVD set include:

Floating Cigarette
Bending Knife
Floating Bubble
Jumping Bill
PK Touch
Floating Card
Phenomenal Fork
World’s Best Haunted Pack
Floating Ring
The Force
Floating Bill
Mystery Glasses

  You also get a handy credit card looking thing to safely store your loops on. So now you can keep extras in your wallet or pocket and not have to ever worry about getting caught without your Loops. I love it!

And released as a sequel to these DVD’s is Reflections. We join Yigal and Finn as they explain the secrets behind:

Jumping Cigarette
Boomerang Card
One-hand Floating Bill                                                                  
Spinning Bulb
Secret Loop Move                                                     

  These 3 DVD’s are by far the definitive word on the practice and theory of performing with Loops. The surprising thing is that I enjoyed hearing about the history and the stories that these men told more so than learning the actual tricks. Fascinating stuff.

  If you’ve seen these or have any questions, leave a comment and let me know what you think!