Expert assessments of new tricks, books, gear, and performances.
Looking at the cover and the title, you would think this was a theory monograph. It’s actually a card trick. And while most magic releases are engineered to be as easy as possible, this card trick is complicated, hard, and will absolutely not go “right into your show.”
Rubén Villagrand’s salt pour gimmick brings a great deal of R&D to a classic stage and platform effect.
Babu is a nest of wallets effect from Ari Phillips, produced by Grum Leather Crafts. The method is basically the same as the early ones, including Nicholas Einhorn’s, but it has Velcro loading from the side, so the spectator can open the wallets freely, which is great.
In Henry Harrius’ Refilled, the magician places an empty glass beer bottle into a paper bag and goes through the usual jokes of making it “disappear” and “come back” by turning the bag upside down and holding the bottle through the paper.
This is a classic Scotch and Soda set, but made with keys. There have been many other nesting key effects in the last few years, including some released after Scotch and Whiskey, but Hanson Chien really seems to have produced the most realistic-looking key.
Oliver Meech has produced an easy-to-read collection of even-easier-to-do card material. It is quirky in a Paul Harris, Jay Sankey sort of way that screams “don’t take me too seriously.”
Flamenco is the third in the series of “Bewitched Music” following Sonata (1989) and Mnemonica (2004). Distinct from the other celebrated trilogy that deals with magic in a more abstract theoretical way, this book is tricks and sleights from cover to cover.
From the early 19th century to the present, magicians have devised ingenious methods to defy gravity on stage. Intrigued by this graceful form of illusion, David Haversat has assembled a sumptuous visual record of its evolution.
Dr. Simon Carmel’s fourth book of notable biographies of deaf magicians is a fascinating look at an amazing subculture of our art.
This is a well-made gag which uses yet another property of the cell phone (zooming into a portion of a photograph) to create a visual surprise on a box of playing cards.
Magicians don’t need to still be alive to surprise you. Do you want to read hand-written notes from when Mozart (yes, that one) was studying magic tricks? Thanks to Reinhard Müller and Rainer Buland, now you can.
Enclosed in the 242 pages of Aurelio Paviato’s Studies in Deception is the conjuror’s equivalent of Bach etudes: a dozen complete, professionally stage-tested routines that each focuses on a specific set of sleights and techniques for better structuring one’s magic.