Reviews: Read What Others Are Saying: page 4
156 ★★★★★ reviews
111 ★★★★★ reviews
73 ★★★★★ reviews
109 ★★★★★ reviews
ESP Cards with Bicycle Back Marked
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Rory Gullion (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 07 April, 2023)
Fantastic... These are great ESP cards easy to read, even with "old eyes". Although they are easy to read, they are not detectable to the average spectator. In fact, after showing them several other magicians, they weren't able to spot the markings when I shared that they were marked.
Coffee Bones
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by hal barlow (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 31 March, 2023)
You need more than dice and a coffee cup. Not a bad idea, but I didn't think it was worth $10.
Twenty Stunners with a Nail Writer
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
An essential primer for quickie thought reading. Handling and presentation.
13 Steps to Mind Maintenance for Magicians and Mentalists
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Good advice for daily living in general. Why only magicians?
Bill S Kill
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Got to be an easier way to get the needed bills.
Spook Crooks!
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Who cares about corruption? A really well-written history of a sordid, criminal profession.
Coffee Break Mental Magic: Pet Readings for Mind-Readers
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
So so. Shows some thought.
PRIC: Propless Remote Instant Cartomancy
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Boring, confusing.
Snap: A Treatise on Drawing Duplications
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Hate it. Anybody can use stooges.
The Gimmickless Vault Vanish Stunner
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Andrew Baroch (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 29 March, 2023)
Fun mysterious puzzler. I do load into a ring box with a hidden opening.
And I may use tip.
The Art of Body Loading and Productions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Tim Schultz (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 28 March, 2023)
Very Nice publication. Well worth the price of the download. Thank you.
Exhale
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Howard Port (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 25 March, 2023)
This is a great book and I would say that even if it wasn't free. It uses a number of subtleties, some of which are new to me, and which are quite clever and makes the spectator think you couldn't have any knowledge of their card or its whereabouts while in actuality the magician is always in control. He gives some especially good ideas on the interlaced shuffle which is good, I find, for younger folks as not everyone knows how to shuffle cards anymore. I would think a $10 to $15 price for this would have been more than reasonable. As for me, I'm a hobbyist now with a main interest in close-up, especially cards. I haven't been performing a lot recently but used to work quite a bit, including a couple of years at the Forks Hotel with Eddie Fechter.
Stage Up-ers
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Joel Howlett (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 20 March, 2023)
Another enjoyable and informative audio from Barry Mitchell. This encouraging listen, will remind magicians of the basics of stagecraft as well as points on being a professional that many performers may be overlooking. Well done and thank you Barry.
"Outs" Precautions and Challenges
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Peter Vattimo (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 16 March, 2023)
A "classic" with tips and ideas that may save a performance from failure. I actually purchased the hardcopy many years ago and wanted the PDF version for easy access. Worth more than the purchase price after the info saves you just once !!! Add to that, sleights/forces/controls are taught which may be used in multiple effects. If you use cards, this will be of benefit.
The Strolling Magician
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Peter Vattimo (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 16 March, 2023)
Lots of info - Magical effects: A wide variety with some great ideas which can be utilized in multiple genres (cards, coins, close-up, parlor) - Performance and theory: solid discussion and suggestions plus dealing with many different types of situations.
Major value here - I definitely feel like I got "bang for my buck" !!! (I've been into magic for over 50 years and a serious hobbyist for over 30).
Theory, performance tips, actual magic effects - I will re-read this one.
Very pleased with this purchase.
Jinx
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Cheryl Michalson (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 09 March, 2023)
This really is a bargain at less than the cost of one of the hardcover books when they were published. There are some gems here. Skill level I would say is easy in most cases. I like the index, one of the reasons I purchased it as I already have the hardcover books.
I consider myself a hobbyist to a serious amateur.
I would give this 5 stars
Kings over Queens
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by hal barlow (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 09 March, 2023)
Great effect, but his instructions are a bit hard to follow. He gets mixed up at times and can't seem to remember what comes next. His accent does not help the effort. This is a very nice effect overall, but the explanation could have been enhanced with just a bit more effort.
Thought Swiper
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Nique Tan
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 06 March, 2023)
Florida Keys
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by keith marshall (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 24 February, 2023)
His presentation is a little dry, but the effect is really nice close up. I have kept this and a coin in my pocket for 10 years now. I am a hobbyist who mostly entertains the grandchildren, and occasionally still their parents.
Devil's Island
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Douglas Sparkes (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 23 February, 2023)
I love the premise. This type of magic / mentalism appeals to my style and performance. It's not just a trick. It is an audience engaging story and effect. I love the clever buried treasure approach and the fact I can involve up to eight people from the audience. The effect and props can easily be modified from close-up to parlor or even to stage. I must underscore this is a well-constructed piece of mentalism, but as I am a practicing mentalist, I almost immediately recognized the underlying methods used to fool the audience. This is not a complaint. The point is it FOOLED the audience! If the entertainment value is greater than the method, then the method doesn't matter! In this specific case, "Devil's Island" has high audience entertainment value. It is sound mentalism delivered expertly. Additionally, the price for this piece is so reasonable that I appreciated having the short three-page explanation spelling out each step ... saving me reconstruction time (like I said, I know the underlying methods being deployed, but it is not like the steps are crystal clear from a single viewing). The "Devil's Island" concept itself is uniquely entertaining and fun for the audience. I like it a lot, BUT I really love the fact I was also able to rearrange the root premise to fit my own show's approach and style. To be clear, instead of buried treasure I rearranged the foundational method to work with a selection of random movie posters. I do a lot of movie-themed magic, and I believe and hope this will be a nice, entertaining mystery addition for my show. It is a fun piece of mentalism and I highly recommend and commend Mark Leveridge's genius construction.
Easy Touch
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Christian Mach (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 15 February, 2023)
I think Mr Baxter's version of Touch is very good, and I will try this version.
But I removed one star :
- because it is difficult for me to understand the details of one of the moves (I understand the steps of this move on the whole, but I'm not sure of the position of the hands or the cards),
- because I'm not sure to realize how the whole trick must look like.
As in "Himber happening", another very good trick from Mr. Baxter, this trick is based on a choreography and on some misdirection.
And to well understand this choreography, a video would be the best solution. There could at least be pictures.
Fireworks: 12 card revelation routine
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Dan Sherer (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 14 February, 2023)
If you want to start from nothing and learn a multiple revelation routine, this is excellent.
Fundamentally, you learn 3 things: a control, a bunch of revelations, and a routine.
The control is very good. Easy, effective, deceptive. I use it a lot even though I don't do most of the revelations anymore.
The revelations are all good, and would stand alone as one-off reveals. Good to have in the arsenal.
The routine is excellent, not because you should do it (though there's no reason you shouldn't), but because it shows you how a multiple revelation should build and how to keep track of all the moving pieces throughout. If you want to build your own longer or shorter routine, this is a good basis. If you want to do what Doc Eason does and vary the number according to how many people are in the room, well, at least you have a bunch of revelations and a control to be ready.
Highly recommended.
An Evening With Charlie Miller
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Michel Asselin (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 11 February, 2023)
This title is much more a Masterclass than a simple book.
Buried within this gem is a gimmick-less version of the Sympathetic Cards. From Nate Leipzig to Jörg Alexander, Orville Meyer and Derek Dingle, performers went the way of the gimmicked cards. Charlie Miller went… sleight of hand. And it works, it is sound, it is wonderful. And Robert Parrish, the author, does explain the thinking behind this approach.
The first item is a real nugget. Mr. Miller takes an early version of the coin matrix - the two covers and four objects trick, detailed in Henry Hay’s The Amateur Magician’s Handbook - essentially a 2D tabletop effect - and morphs it into a 3D extravaganza which is a deception of the same order as Bob Read’s Bottle Production. With hats and mugs. And hats are coming back in fashion…
You’ll learn an open billet peek, a Sun and Moon variation, and some card effects. Again, with integral dissection from Mr. Parrish.
Highly recommended.
Glass Act: Magic Beyond Series
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Pascal Girod (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 10 February, 2023)
I am sure the effect is great. Unfortunately, the author does not simply teach you the routine. Instead, he structures the instructions in a very complicated way and develops and uses a special glossary on various stratagems and deceptions and whatnot. And there are no pictures or photos to help. The result is instructions that to me are simply impossible to follow. I gave up after two hours. It's a shame because I was really curious if the author could hold up to his claims.
Conjurer Dick
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Steve Sanders (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 09 February, 2023)
A fascinating glimpse into the life of a working conjurer at the beginning of 'The Golden Age of Magic'. Eruditely written by Professor Hoffmann in a humorous style which is still very apt today. An interesting read, a must for all those with an interest in the history of magic.