Horst Paffen

Like the vast majority of Magic Wagon props, these give a lot visually.

A physical error has crept into the instructions, but this does not detract from the trick at all. Of course, facts should always be correct in a presentation if they have a real background. The boiling point of gold is not 2,856 degrees Celsius (5,173 degrees Fahrenheit), but 2970 degrees Celsius (5,378 degrees Fahrenheit).

Since I studied biology and chemistry, I could not let this stand.

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I don’t think there is a nice magic device that Andy doesn’t own or at least can describe.

I started doing magic in 1977, but lost all interest around 1990. Do not ask me why – I do not know myself. On November 11, 2019, on the day of St. Martin, I started again from scratch, because I had given away all the magic utensils and a wall full of books in 2006. In the meantime I have all the beautiful pieces again, including from Tony Lackner the Hand of Cleopatra, the Wandering Mummy and Zodiac Deluxe; only the Mummy Garden I no longer have, but since it never worked completely clean, I do not miss it further.

Until 1990 I had published about 40-50 tricks in Werry’s “Magische Welt”, which was taken over after his death by the magician Wittus, well known in Germany. Since the end of 2019, I have invented over 250 tricks, including many small ones, but also a few really good ones, without being immodest.

I am very glad that Andy runs the wonderful website “Martin’s Magic”, it is always very helpful to me.
Among his magic devices there are “toys”, as some magicians mischievously call them, but also quite fantastic tricks. And Zodiak Exclusiv is one of them.

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I bought this trick in February 2021 on ebay.de. The trick was accompanied only by a copy of an advertising paper from Keyl’s Magic, from a time before the Euro and when typewriters were still used. Since I like to look in at Martin’s Magic, I then found my trick as “Egyptian Paddle”. Andy did suspect Harry Keyl as the manufacturer, which I was then able to confirm by email with a photocopy of the advertising sheet. Since the sequence of a paddle trick can be easily reproduced from the prop, I wrote a routine for it, which Andy has in bumpy English translation from me.

About Harry Keyl and Keyl’s Magic is unfortunately almost nothing to find on the Internet, although there is a H. Keyl in Zwolle (Netherlands) with the address of “Magic-Harry”.

Andy then sent me the instructions for Harry Keyl’s “Turtle Race”. I will make a trick out of it with three rabbits and a hedgehog and playing cards as race track and train cards. In Germany there is a fairy tale of “Hare and Hedgehog”, where the hedgehog tricks the hare instead of a tortoise. Because the hedgehog man and his wife looked completely the same.

Horst M. Paffen
Near Cologne in Germany

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