This is a wonderful outfit which is made well and looks great. There have been so many versions of John Kennedy’s Mystery Box since it won Trick of the Year 1997 in The Magic Menu and although some of them are worth the time for me I’m still happy with John’s version 2.
I do like David Penn’s solution here and really can’t fault it. But for me it doesn’t really add any more to the impact on the audience and I like the simplicity and compactness of the Mystery Box.
I will add once you have been performing an effect for ten or more years it gets harder and harder to change. For three years I was performing Mystery Blox instead of Mystery Box, but I ran into some reliability issues and switched back in 2023. It is unlikely anything will ever come along that convinces me to change. This doesn’t mean one is better or worse, it is just too much effort to change unless it is a huge improvement, and so far I have not seen one.
But I will still check out new ideas from time to time 🙂
Click here for more information.