5 Stars

The Baking a Cake routine is still one of the best things you can perform to entertain children of all ages.  I used to always end my children’s show with my baking a care routine.  Until I re-watched the video from 2010 for this post I had forgotten how much fun I used to have with a live audience 🙂

There are other more expensive Dove Pans on the market but for me the Morrissey one is perfect and I used the same one for my first children’s show when I was 12 years old until my last one when I was 47.  I still have my set waiting for some grandchildren to arrive 🙂

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I have never seen one of these clever boxes before and I must say I was quite impressed when I received it.  It was designed by Peter Quinsee who was co-owner of the British magic manufacturing company Premier Magic and later Camtryx.  Quinsee was responsible for creating many of the Supreme effects including: Vanishing Radio, The Torture Rack,  Rice-Rice-Rice, Candle Thru Arm Plus, and Cabaret Dove in Balloon Cabinet.

The Bar-None Box looks great and works very smoothly and what is special about the box is it can be used to vanish, produce and exchange items and if desired the whole chest can be examined and there is nothing to find.

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I always know when I’m in the presence of greatness, when no matter how hard I try my photos just never do justice to the beauty of the effect. This set of coins created by the artist and master craftsman, Todd Lassen, in conjunction with his good friend David Neighbors is truly a revelation.

The gimmick, if that word can be applied here, is just breath taking. This is the Deluxe version which comes with an extra Chinese coin and shell, such that you can use a Chinese coin with a hole instead of the Victorian Crown.

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This is Willi’s beautiful Die Penetration.  It is made of solid wood, looks and works perfectly and everything can be examined if you so desire.  Willi shows how to do it using a very simple sleight, but it is quite possible to perform without any sleights, though you are not quite as clean.  The choice is up to you.

Thomas Pohle’s Super Block Penetration uses the exact same method and Willi granted Thomas permission to use the idea at the time.  It is also the same method used by Vienna Magic with the Mini Die Penetration.  Willi was not familiar with Vienna Magic’s version and he got the idea from an old J.G. Thompson effect in a book, but cannot recall the name of the effect unfortunately.

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From Master Craftsman Louie Gaynor comes a close-up version of the Misers Dream! The Miser’s Dream Box is a unique effect. Each and every box is a pain-staking labor of love, which requires eight hours of work and 28 individual pieces to assemble. Each box is constructed from the finest hardwoods – and no two boxes are exactly alike.

This version also comes with a custom gimmicked Collectors’ Workshop ShWand (that I purchased and gimmicked just for this effect) as shown in the photo. In my opinion the ShWand is a much better wand than the one provided by Louis Gaynor in his 2013 release of this effect as can be seen here. As Louie realized in 2013 using a wand is a far better way to perform the effect. The ShWand is beautifully crafted and also doubles as a Sharpie which is used to make a prediction of the two cards.

Each box is engineered with amazing repulsion technology that will allow you to perform a myriad of routines that will work either on their own, or as the perfect accessory to the famous and recently re-popularized Misers Dream thanks to my performance in the Porcupine 🙂

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This clever and beautiful prop was created by Joe Porper and R. Paul Wilson in 2004, and as with most of Joe’s items it is made perfectly with some ingenious ideas.

I’ve always liked the idea of the Miser’s dream but most coin ladder’s and similar devices that try to make the work simple do a great job of display and sound but don’t do too much to remove the skill and sleight of hand element. Also they are large and require a stage to perform on.  Some people really like Bob Solari’s Miser Miracle but the downside is you don’t actually get to see lots of coins 🙁

Joe Porper and R. Paul Wilson have done a really good job here to provide the props to perform an entertaining routine with almost no sleight of hand in a relatively close-up situation.  You have to be able to pull off a vanish and appearance of a coin which does take some practice, but if you put in 30 minutes a day for a week you’d be golden.

The cocktail shaker itself is a work of art and really is well constructed with a clever way to deliver nine coins with or without any sleights.  The dropper is another innovative design that works very smoothly.  The coin wand is perfect for the task, and even the rattle gimmick is very clever.  I did not use it in the video because it was one more thing for me to practice and I was pushing my limits in the time I had already

My video performance had me practicing for about 2 hours total – so I could certainly do more, but it is starting to get fairly smooth – another week I think it would look even better 🙂Click here for more information.

These are really beautiful looking coins from Meir Yedid and designed by Akemi Yoshida.  They look and feel amazing.  It also comes with a really great coins across routine that would be worth mastering if you wanted to get real about your coin magic 🙂

Great job Meir and Akemi 🙂

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Perfection attained 🙂

In 1997, to celebrate 25 years of Alan Warner Mini Magic, the Flight of the Falcon was created as a limited edition of just 25 units.  To this day Flight of The Falcon is my favorite single piece of Alan’s magic.  In my opinion it best demonstrates his incredible craftsmanship, design talent, and ingenuity.

The wood work is exquisite as always, but more intricate than usual with some incredible inlay work.  There is lots of color too and it is securely housed in a beautiful presentation case.

The effect is simple: any one of the 3 chosen falcons disappear from the casket and reappear in the Reliquary.  No force is involved and it can be repeated with a different outcome on another occasion.

Apart from the sheer beauty of this item I like how Alan came up with an elegant way to start with the lid on the casket and use it as  a way to show the falcon in the reliquary.  It achieves two things and although it seems simple and even obvious when you see it, I don’t think other creators would have necessarily created such an elegant solution to the problem.

I am glad to be able to add this incredible item back into my collection after an absence of twenty years and finally able to update my photos and add a video from when I first purchased this in 2002. My heart still skips a beat when I see those wings on the casket.

Alan, you have created more impressive collections of magic, but for me this is you at your very best, I love this beautiful effect 🙂

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What a unique and clever item from Charles T. Jordan.  It was first released directly by Jordan c. 1923 and then published in Jinx c. 1935 and then Max Holden released it c. 1943.  This appears to be the version released by Max Holden c, 1943.

It is well made and the effect is easy to do.  There are three different cards that can appear (yes you do need to force a card, but even the Cross-Cut Force will work well here due to the time misdirection) and each thread has a different force card.  I like the fact they can choose any spool of thread.

If you’re looking for a card revelation that is colorful, easy to do, self contained, and very different you’ve found it 🙂

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