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Janus: The Magic of Kevin Casaretto

reviewed by Enrico Varella
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 31 August, 2018)

The cover of ‘Janus’ alludes to a hidden message: a lesser-used method/principle in card magic. This two-faced gaff acts as a portal, forwards and backwards, to create a direct pathway between method and effect. The 10 routines featured in these 35 pages are simple to perform, yet they pack a punch on entertainment value – this should appeal to the bold-faced strolling magician. I boldly predict that Kevin Casaretto’s broad body of work on the use of these dubious faces, should receive far more attention through the authorship of Paul Lelekis (with 52 ebooks to his writing credit). I enjoyed the various applications of these tools, especially ‘Magazine Mental Test’, ‘Five Colour Twist’ and ‘Signed, Sealed & Delivered.’ Do buy this book, and ‘ring in the fooler’. I back up this book with a very high recommendation.

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Chapeaugraphy Act

reviewed by Greg Phillips (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 30 August, 2018)

Nothing new in this publication. He mentions "plastic" to make the brims but is more likely speaking of thin foam. Save you $5.

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Janus: The Magic of Kevin Casaretto

reviewed by Roy Eidem
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 25 August, 2018)

If you have never used double back or double face cards before you are truly missing out on some truly magical affects. The diabolical concept of these gaffed cards is something that is not in the psychological realm of laymen. They have nowhere to go. The resulting magic visual & stunning. These "little helpers" streamline and elevate the magical impact well beyond that which even advanced, difficult sleight-of-hand can accomplish. There are some great routines here once you try, you will smile and use.

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Janus: The Magic of Kevin Casaretto

reviewed by Christopher Weber
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 24 August, 2018)

JANUS: The Magic of Kevin Casaretto compiled and written by Paul A. Lelekis is a very welcome addition to the card magicians’ library. All the effects require the use of gimmicked cards that I’m sure most card magicians already have or can easily acquire. These brilliant effects are well written and have really no very complicated moves. They are streamlined and straightforward and they will have maximum impact on your spectators. I really enjoyed working through these effects. They proved to me that with the use of just a few gimmicked cards it can really kick up the overall effect to a whole new level of Wow Factor for your audience. Well worth the effort of having just a few extra cards on hand! I learned some fun new handlings along the way particularly in the effects JANUS, Magazine Mental Test, Turn Over Cards and Card to Wallet. The 2-Card Monte move is awesome; you’ll be fooling yourself in no time. Overall, these are real workers effects that again are not complicated or confusing. The book includes two videos by Paul Lelekis to help you learn two of the moves. Kevin Casaretto has offered effects that are fun to perform and amazing to your audience. I think you’ll find JANUS to be refreshing and well worth finding a few of those cool little gimmick cards. You’ll be happy you did!

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Janus: The Magic of Kevin Casaretto

reviewed by Rick Carruth
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 24 August, 2018)

Janus is the card magic of Kevin Casaretto of Salisbury, South Australia ... as told by Paul Lelekis. Kevin compiled this exceptional collection of original effects through years of hard work and recently contacted Paul with the enviable task of putting everything together into an ebook. There are a total of ten effects and all effects use a simple combination of gaff cards.

Nothing other than double backers, double facers, and red/blue backed cards are used. Nothing is used that you could not create in a minute or two with regular cards and a roll of double backed tape or rub on and/or white children's glue. Of course, you can buy gaffs at most magic shops and online ... and they are very affordable.

I truly appreciate all the time, thought, and effort that went into JANUS ... and I thank Kevin and Paul for their efforts. Well worth your time and money.

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Coins by Roy Volume 1 (download DVD)

reviewed by Paul Lelekis
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 24 August, 2018)

I have known Roy for quite a while and his coin magic is exquisite! When he came to my house a few months ago, there was non-stop magic! I was fooled over and over again! Not only will you learn beautiful moves and routines - but also HOW to execute them flawlessly. Roy Eidem makes coin magic very easy to learn. In my many years of performing, I always noticed the big smiles that coin magic puts on everyone's faces...but when Roy Eidem performs his brand of coin magic, he makes everyone's' jaws DROP! Coin magic should be in every magician's repertoire, and Roy Eidem is the man to learn from. Roy Eidem is THE 21st Century coin magician's, coin magician!

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Bad Influence: Before Computers Series 2

reviewed by Dave Campbell (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 17 August, 2018)

This is a nice packet trick in the theme of Dazzle all that followed. It's fun that the original is as it was in all it's 1970's glory. Ahead of the original there is material including screenshots elaborating on one of the moves used. I was able to quickly make up packets for this from my various open decks, and after a couple tries, it moves quite nicely. Definitely worth the price!

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9-2-1 Prediction

reviewed by Ewen McLachlan (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 16 August, 2018)

I agree with Trevor Fletcher's review. The statement 'The cards are then cut by the spectator and shuffled' is a stretch beyond the limit of how it actually appears. Not worth it.

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9-2-1 Prediction

reviewed by trevor fletcher (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 15 August, 2018)

I rarely write a bad review. That being said, this is an awful "prediction" and left such a bad taste in my mouth I had to say something.

It's too convoluted for such little reward. All these "cuts" and counts for a very "blah" ending. With all the other available packet style tricks out there, this one is just too forgettable.

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In The Hole

reviewed by Jean-Paul Mercier (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 25 July, 2018)

I just paid $7.50 US for this.... Sad !

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The 59 Second Birthday Divination

reviewed by Michael Lyth (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 12 July, 2018)

Carry in your wallet for this on the move working effect guaranteed to amaze.

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XPERT (X Personality Test)

reviewed by Michael Lyth (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 12 July, 2018)

Great and easy to perform if you have the right performing skills which is a must for successful magicians. This fits well in my lybrary of the section marked ''unknown mentalist'' next to 99 more of his works

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1415AD

reviewed by David Burmeister (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 06 July, 2018)

This is another nice deck stack which has been out for awhile. The UNKNOWN MENTALIST has really done a lot of thinking outside the box with this stack. Well done UNKNOWN MENTALIST. I highly recommend this!!!

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Fun Stacks

reviewed by David Burmeister (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 06 July, 2018)

I have known about this type of stack for quite awhile and it is excellent for anyone interested in learning easy stacks which appear to be in a very random order and are easy to learn. Well done UNKNOWN MENTALIST!

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XPERT (X Personality Test)

reviewed by David Burmeister (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 06 July, 2018)

This is another GREAT effect by the UNKNOWN MENTALIST. I see myself doing this (When I get the time to simply write words on the business cards) AND PRACTICE IT. The impact of this effect far exceeds the method used. And for ONE DOLLAR it is a worthwhile investment whether you use it or not. Well done UNKNOWN MENTALIST! I definitely recommend this.

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Optik Deck

reviewed by Simon George (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 29 June, 2018)

The idea, in theory, is great. This is an easy way to memorize the number cards in a deck. However, the description is very misleading.

First, when someone looks at the deck, most of the cards are clumped together with their matching four mates. While there is no "pattern," it's obvious and very suspicious looking. In other words, the deck looks like the cards are placed in a specific order and not random at all. The basic Si Stebbins looks more random than this. Even a quick glance at the cards and they just look wrong. I can't even ribbon spread through the deck in portions because most of the cards are clumped together. In other words, spreading through any six or seven cards will almost always show a four of a kind at any given part of the deck.

Second, there is no "optic" way of memorizing the court cards. The only method is brute memorization. The way he words it in the book is even misleading.

In most cases, the whole point of a memorized deck is for the cards to look like they are in no particular order. If I can't show the faces of a deck, I might as well just use new deck order because that's easier than trying to use this system.

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Psilent Library Psychic Librarian

reviewed by David Burmeister (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 23 June, 2018)

This is another GREAT effect to perform on lay people. I knew about this effect before but the only thing stopping me from using it was I didn't quite like the original patter with the effect but the methodology used was incredible. Where else can you find an effect for this price and be able to predict the total price of the books selected AND pick up the thoughts of the title of the two books the spectators are thinking of?

Years ago I used to do CASINO ROYALE from LARRY BECKER in some of my shows and CRUISE CONTROL from LEE EARLE in other shows. These are both effects with multiple predictions also and the props look great but the price difference was great also.

All I can say is for 18 dollars you have a very nice effect which you can print up the props yourself.

Also with three different presentations you will definitely find the right presentation for you.

As with 99.9% of THE UNKNOWN MENTALIST'S material I recommend this highly.

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Optik Deck

reviewed by David Burmeister (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 23 June, 2018)

First of all I only have two words to say...BUY THIS. (Especially while it's at this price).

As I said before I'm very familiar with deck stacks but I believe this is very similar to other stacks I have used before such as THE SIX HOUR MEMORIZED DECK by MARTIN JOYLE. The deck will definitely seem in a random order to the spectator.

I'm now in a three way tie as to my favorite stack...KARMA DECK, SLOKA DECK, or OPTIK DECK. These are ALL explosive deck stacks. You definitely have dynamic methods here that can be used with about ANY card effect you want to use!

If you haven't guessed this you're not psychic. I definitely recommend this!!!!!

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The Gaff Factory: A comprehensive dry-mounting tutorial

reviewed by Larry Brodahl (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 12 June, 2018)

This book is good. Very good. He gives a clear and thorough explanation of joining cards using dry mount materials. And the method works.

I have not tried everything in his book, as I'm just starting. But I have made double backers and double facers with little effort. A split facer took 1 try.

And because dry mount is used, the cards have the correct feel to them and they coalesce into the deck unlike the rubber cement versions I've built in the past.

I do NOT use his exact method of splitting the cards, nor do I use anyone else's exact method. I think splitting cards is somewhat idiosyncratic, so it might help if you've seen several other tutorials on splitting cards to give you alternative ideas.

But all in all, good book. And if I graduate to the more complicated builds - next up, the Hofzinser card - well, then it's a great book.

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Optik Deck

reviewed by Lucas Carlson (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 11 June, 2018)

Optik Deck is legitimately awesome. Within 10 minutes, I have been able to commit it to memory, every single card. My previous favorite memorized stack was The Solution by Atlas Brookings, but that stack had 6 or 7 cards that didn't fit into the method and had to be committed to rote memory. This one works beautifully for every card in the deck. A+