Reviews: Read What Don Jarrard Is Saying: page 2
14 ★★★★★ reviews
14 ★★★★★ reviews
4 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
Dark Matter Secrets: 80 Years of Spooky Magic
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Could have left out the magic mummy ideas. It's a cheap toy. Otherwise, with over 400 pages there will be at least a dozen tricks I guarantee you will do. Thurston's spirit cabinet, knit picker, rising broom, Sorcar's flying carpet, impromptu devil Hank, devil production box, knife thru thumb, Grant's magic mirror and spirit knot tying, and It floats are the most creative ideas inside and besides the flying carpet using black art and fake legs. Everyone I named I will do. It does not need a creepy feel if you do not like that. Highly recommended.
Annotated Secret Professional Pseudo-Hypnotic Methods
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Good stunts. Some use stooge. The flower trick uses a chemical not available to anyone but surgeons. That is why I gave it 3 stars. If he had other chemical methods. Same with animal hypnosis.
Zenith Spirit Manifestation
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
It is only $3 for a reason. Nobody will do this stunt. It's like sneaking drugs into a jail. There are better chemical tricks.
The Unknown Silence
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Took forever to get the page on my phone. Great idea. Too confused as to why so many letters or words are used for the changing effect. I do not understand it. This should be a video download. But the effect sounds good. How many people have candles out anyway? Should I carry small candles to give away? A lighter is easier. That is the main reason I could not give a higher rating. The red and black letters don't even show up on my phone easy. I do not have a computer or WI-Fi in my area. So I am extremely limited in what I can explore. Why I prefer actual books. They don't freeze up or disappear when my signal goes out. I never get more than 2 bars.
Unbroken
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Long routine. Flash paper and friction pen are needed. Other than that-5 common methods are explained. Great for Halloween or home shows. Professionals can use it. Recommended.
The Uncanny Rising and Floating Iron Bar
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Another trick where something actually happens. Not all his books are dumb. This could be a real winner at a real show. Do not carry a 4-foot pipe for street magic.
Soumya's Brainstorm
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
The lady appearance is great. The mindreading tricks are ingenious. Highly recommend for amateurs or even professionals who can afford at least this price.
Secrets of Floating Mediums
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
I do not recommend it. Mostly a complaint about fake psychics. The only real trick uses a stooge which is not explained enough. My friends would mess the trick up.
Psychic Seed Growth
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
One of his better ideas. Easy to pull off. May even build your reputation if you can youtube or Twitter it. Highly recommended.
Magic Annual 1937 (Hugard's Annual of Magic)
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 21 August, 2022)
Great ideas. Walking through beads was my favorite. The card force is little known. Good book for the price.
Exclusive Magical Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 19 August, 2022)
As an amateur close-up magician, I just seriously got more into illusions. Most books before 1970 had a lot of build-it-yourself tricks. Illusions were expensive and complicated. There are a few using fake legs or some simple sneaky moves. You might find more close-up tricks useful. Maybe 2 illusions at the most. They are no worse than the Osborne illusions or Rand Woodbury books. A lot cheaper really. The history here is the best lesson.
Magic
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 19 August, 2022)
The levitation where you really walk all around the lady and really pass a solid hoop around her is worth a whole lot more than $3. I would never think of that. The other stuff is okay. At least 1 trick I could really use. Need a curtain and a rolling cart. That is all I can say without revealing too much. Oh yeah. 2 chairs and wooden board. I recommend this book a lot.
Tricks and Illusions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 19 August, 2022)
Mostly illusions covered in other old books. There are some winners like the escape ideas not taught by Abbottsmagic. Most illusions you will not build. Same with the small stuff. You will find a few tricks to use. For the price not bad.
How To Move A Mountain
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 15 August, 2022)
Incredible. Now I can move any of the 160 islands in Lake Lanier. It is the largest in Georgia. Created in 1956 by the army. It has the distinction of the most dangerous as 700 people died in it. Great history to go with the trick. I study history so this secret should have been obvious.
Sprung: slinky toy through body
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 15 August, 2022)
Slinkys are not ropes. It does look more amazing. But it will take practice.
Dev-Ray Levitation
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 15 August, 2022)
Had no idea it was a built prop. Can't make it. Hoped to was a super-x type.
Secret of Crying Blood Tears
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 15 August, 2022)
Wow. Knowing Hollywood effects, I never knew of this chemical trick. No! It does not involve rubber tubes under latex skin revealed on YouTube. It's a clear chemical that turns red when salty tears contact it. This can really stop a show. This is highly recommended of all Devin Knight books.
Fandemonium
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 15 August, 2022)
Interesting idea. Yes, I have cheap fans that do what this does. I do not recommend making it yourself. It can hurt stopping the blade. Painting the front with aluminum paint helps. Just find it on eBay. Could be a lot as a collectable. Can be cheap if they need $$ bad enough. This could build a show's value though.
Modern Illusions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 13 August, 2022)
Great value for 2 illusions I thought were ingenious. The Gateway and Spot light girl vanish. Neither requires special stage set up. Spot light is a lady who instantly vanishes from a bag. Gateway is basically the hide behind the door taught by Mark Wilson. But you can see through the picket fence. No objects to hide behind. With the new plastic flower bed borders this could be built for about $50 if the gate was cardboard & wood yardsticks.
Grant's Illusion Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 13 August, 2022)
Amazing. The shower illusion is a modern cabinet easy to build. The big production is good. Park bench vanish was the best. Never would have thought of that. No special backgrounds or mirrors. Any outside bench could be used. Lady does NOT sneak away. There is no lady. Besides the gimmick you may also try a fake hand as it can be put in your jacket easily. Just seeing painted fingernails will help a lot. This would easily be a $20 book if sold by illusion designers. With less content. Well worth the price.
Window Stoppers
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 13 August, 2022)
Had no idea Grant did ad work. The optical illusions fooled me. Real birds underwater. Light bulbs that light not connected. Bulbs move by themselves. Not party stunts. Maybe Halloween. But I could make $$ selling the ideas to stores for publicity purposes. Most corporate stores won't authorize it. But many family stores in the city Square would.
Levitation Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 13 August, 2022)
Again - 4 methods for Asrah. But some ideas are useful. As far as illusion books, you cannot get cheaper. At least 3 methods will not cost even$100. Maybe $50 at the most. All magicians need at least 4 methods. Some are quick to put together or surrounded and 1 to really get the big money.
Sawing Illusion Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 13 August, 2022)
This was better than the levitation book. But it did give good ideas for creating cardboard or corrugated plastic versions. They weigh nothing, fold flat and last years. The miss boots and vertical sawing are the best 2. Both were used by Copperfield in his Blade illusion. Only $2. Some unnamed people would charge $15 for less.
Retro-Gravity
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 12 August, 2022)
Interesting. I had cheap work shoes that made themselves. Passing objects underneath and the mat idea to me are worth the $. The shoe concept works and is easier than zero gravity. The cheap knock-off of Elevator is the best way for instant publicity. But knowing the idea now I can use it. 5 stars for the ideas.
Walking Through a Woman Illusion
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Don Jarrard (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 02 June, 2022)
With Bodies in Orbit and 6 Modern Levitations costing about $6 also - I think this is a fair price for a trick most people can actually pull off. I'm 45 now and reading a lot about illusions, this could be done for $30 at the most. Rubber body parts can be bought on eBay. Walmart sells cheap tables and chairs & beach towels. You probably already have some of that. I thought I knew the method & was 99% right. I just couldn't figure out her secret move. Use light-colored chairs with dark tables. The tables look smaller and chairs look bigger. That way she doesn't look stretched taller. Actually, a ruffled shower curtain sold online would benefit. It would look more like melting through. Don't ask why. It just does.