I love a parade. Really, I do. And there is no better time for a parade than the Fourth of July, which if you check your calendar is next Tuesday. This year, I am very honored to have been chosen as the Grand Marshall of the North Street Business Association's Fourth of July Parade. Pay no attention to the fact that there is only one business on North Street. A Grand Marshall is a Grand Marshall. And, I guarantee that the election was fair and square. So, come Tuesday, I will be heading up the big North Street parade. A street so big that it encompasses two towns!
On the home front, it is unbelievably quiet. All family members are gone for the summer. Bonnie and Aron are on Martha's Vineyard. Lucas is being the bigshot CIT at camp. It's only me and Bones the Dog at home. And, even he is leaving for the Vineyard this weekend. If you happen to see a very cute black and white dog on the side of the road, thumbing for a ride, pick him up. He's heading south for the summer.
Now, let's take a look at the Hotlist at www.magicfact.com.
Super Chair: The Super Chair is the most sophisticated electric chair in the world. It employs the most advanced technology and production techniques. It also provides you several choices:
Option 1 - A weak electrical current for children's shows.
Option 2 - Stronger electrical current for adult shows. It's make 'em jump a mile (not quite)!
Option 3 - A vibrating system installed in the seat of the chair. The possibilities are endless! For example, you can convey a message to a volunteer, or you can transmit codes during a telepathy performance.
And, there are no more expensive batteries to buy! The Super Chair is charged directly from your electric wall outlet!
Handcrafted under the most stringent, quality controlled conditions, the robust electrical system is highly reliable and built to last. Made from the most sophisticated electrical components and fully guaranteed.
Exciting and dependable, the Super Chair comes to you complete with a custom case, explanation DVD, charger, and remote control unit. $1500.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8367&cat=0&page=1)
Entourage: After a decade in development, Gordon Bean has finally released Entourage, his most eagerly awaited effect ever. For the past year, visitors, and some notable performers, at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles have served as test audiences, and all have reacted with the sort of enthusiasm reserved for only the very strongest walk-around items.
The effect couldn't be any more straightforward. With a legitimately free choice, a spectator names any one of the four queens. Then, also with a legitimately free choice, the spectator picks any one of four cards trapped between two face-up jokers. Turns out to be the named queen!
Read that again. There is no restriction whatsoever on either the choice of the queen or the face-down card. The effect will work with any queen and any face-down card. And you can repeat it for the same audience with a different choice every time.
The effect doesn't stop with the revelation of the selection, however. As a devastating kicker, the three cards not selected are turned over--if desired, by the spectator himself--and they're all jokers! The named queen is the only one present!
After being field-tested at the Magic Castle for months, Entourage is a real rarity: an effect that is entirely practical and ready to go into the front rank of your repertoire. It's easy to do, and once you're done, it resets instantly, in full view of your audience. And since no table is required, the entire routine can be performed surrounded, with the finale occurring right on the spectator's hand.
Perform it at an upcoming strolling gig. Pretty soon you'll have an Entourage of your own!
Comes complete with cards custom-printed by the U.S. Playing Card Company. $20.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8366&cat=0&page=1)
Dai Vernon: A Biography - David Ben - Dai Vernon turned the clandestine world of conjuring on its ear with virtuoso sleight-of-hand and a dogged pursuit for perfection.
Born in 1894 in Ottawa, the son of a Canadian civil servant, Vernon moved to New York - Manhattan - in 1915, and never looked back. Miracles flowed from his fingertips - effortlessly. The source of his secrets? The underworld and the gamblers, hustlers and con-men that roamed back-room dens of iniquity, bunked in jail cells and walked the streets of America. Vernon sought them out, befriended them, and made their work, their covert methods, his. This book, the first in-depth examination of Vernon's life, traces the first half of his remarkable journey - through Ottawa, Coney Island, Chicago, Manhattan, Kansas City and Colorado Springs - and the celebrities - Houdini, Billy Rose, and Roosevelt, that Vernon encountered along the way.
The book also details the evolution of magic in the 20th century. From the stages of London and Paris to the back rooms of magic emporiums where secrets were bought and sold, Vernon's life and work escort the reader through vaudeville, Broadway theaters, grand magic spectaculars, New York nightspots and the dawn of television. Here, cornerstones of the craft have been laid bare for all to see.
The book overflows with information – new, never-before-published tales and details – and insights into the secret world of sleight-of-hand, a world in which Vernon was the unquestionable king, a world in which his influence will forever be felt.
Hardbound, 370 pages with over 40 rare photographs and a full-color dust jacket. $39.95
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8368&cat=0&page=1)
Billfold Wallet - Jerry O'Connell - Jerry O’Connell’s Billfold Wallet is a small functional hip pocket wallet, made for the Card to Wallet effect.
There are various compartments and small pockets for credit cards, documents and “stuff.” It also has a long money pocket plus a short zipper compartment. On the outside is a flapped pocket, which cleverly hides the secret entrance. The pocket is useable too, for business cards, or even a favorite packet trick.
An everyday wallet; always ready.
Made from genuine leather.
Approximately 4 1/2" x 3 3/4" (11.5cm x 9.5cm) $60.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8369&cat=0&page=1)
Sleight Of Mind - Ian Harling & Martin Nyrup - A mentalist's toolkit of psychological quirks and techniques that anyone can use to enhance their performance and create stunning, original effects. No props and no stooges are required. Just observation and the application of simple methods that will change the way you interact with others - on and off stage - forever.
With respective backgrounds in Hypnosis and NLP, authors Ian Harling and Martin Nyrup have created an indispensable guide to powerful mental trickery. But this is no dry reference manual; instead you'll find this an entertaining and above all, truthful, explanation of a range of techniques - many of which have remained hidden for years. Covering the use of suggestion, waking hypnosis and NLP methods of creating rapport, reading your subjects thoughts, etc, Sleight of Mind is the book for mentalists and magicians at any level. 161 pages. $55.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8367&cat=0&page=1)
Power Reel - Brand new from John Kennedy, the Power Reel will allow you to make silk handkerchiefs, banners, and other objects fly around the room like magic! Power Reel pulls in up to 100 feet of thread.
Built to last, with a powder coated aluminum housing and industrial quality micro motor, just palm the Power Reel in your hand and you're ready to go. $98.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8370&cat=0&page=1)
Nexus - The very latest from Kevin Parker. It's Nexus.
Borrow a keychain and a finger ring. In a blink, visually link the ring onto the keychain.
You know how long and how much work it takes to hook a key onto a keyring. But somehow, mysteriously, you merely touch the borrowed ring to the borrowed keyring and it is on it. This is Nexus.
The instructional video will teach you everything you need to know to perform this illusion. No trick props necessary, this illusion is completely impromptu. Can be done anywhere, anytime, with a borrowed set of keys and a borrowed ring. $24.95
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8360&cat=0&page=1)
byePod - Robert Baxt has really done it this time! Now you can make an apparently real and quite expensive iPod* disappear from inside a paper bag!
The beautifully made fake is indistinguishable from the real thing, even up close. You don’t want to leave this one lying around, lest some creepy thief mistakes it for the real thing and walks off with it!
Comes with real headphones, specially sized paper bags, and replacement parts for many performances; plus Robert’s own dialogue, jokes and handling ideas. It even lights up! An LED light source and battery included
Limited supply at this very special price! $34.95
*iPod is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8359&cat=0&page=1)
Mrs. Brown's Kooky Kookie: A great trick with a gigantic chocolate chip cookie. What could be better!
The trick is classic. Show a really big cookie. About ten inches in diameter. There's only one chocolate chip on the cookie. Bummer.
Turn the cookie over and there are four chips. Better.
Turn it over again and there are now three chips. Once more and there are six chips. Wait a second, this sounds familiar!
Offer to show them how it's done. You cover this one and uncover that one and it looks like one chip or three chips or four chips or six chips.
But, in the end, you truly baffle them, because there are really three chips on one side and six chips on the other. And, when you turn it over one last time there are eight chips!!
It's a great prop. Made of metal, but it looks just like a cookie. The chips are giant and look oh, so real.
It takes up no room in your case, and plays bigger than big! You will love this one. $44.95
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8362&cat=0&page=1)
Geist - Ian Harling & Martin Nyrup - From the authors of “Sleight of Mind” comes a book to inspire you to greater deception. Although containing a wealth of strong, real-world effects and their variations, Geist is also an exploration of how to give your routines more impact by changing them to suit the differing psychologies and beliefs of your subjects, and how to revitalize and lengthen your existing material using simple strategies.
Also includes:
28 effects, many with extensive scripts and handling notes, including a solution to “Reversal”!
At last, a way back to the subject’s original number!
“Concipio” - a clever gaff that will allow you to predict names, numbers, dates, etc, faultlessly every time.
“The Envelope” - an indispensable, ultra-clean gimmick with tons of uses.
An extensive glossary to help you create believable scripts for your effects.
200 pages and over 45 photo-illustrations. $55.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8365&cat=0&page=1)
Chameleon Knives DVD - Joe Mogar - This long-awaited 95-minute DVD reveals Joe Mogar's lifetime of knowledge in the development and performance of the Color Changing Knives! A near-encyclopedic work, it contains 37 moves and 12 routines!
Routines:
• Mogar's Stag Sensation
• Hot Rod Knife
• Basic 3 Knives
• Miracle Plus Routine
• Jumbo Knife Routine
• Multiple Knife Productions
• Knife Routines with Handkerchiefs, and more!
You'll learn the 7 essential moves, 13 color-changes, 4 vanishing- knife moves, 7 switches, and 6 miscellaneous techniques, not to mention Joe's professional applications for the Pocket Pal (a very practical utility device).
Among the many moves included are the Master Twist, the Flip, the Twirl and Shake Change, the Mogar Snap Vanish, the Color Push Change, the Two-Knife Switch, and the Smash Climax.
In addition, to make learning these techniques easier, an over-the-shoulder camera view was used for all the explanations!
This DVD will teach you everything you need to know to practice, perform, and truly entertain an audience with one of close-up magic's most enduring miracles - the Color Changing Knives!
$34.95
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8361&cat=0&page=1)
Plus Wallet - Jerry O'Connell - Jerry O’Connell's Plus Wallet is way ahead of any wallet in the magic world today. Not only is it a practical wallet, equipped to cater to all your everyday needs, it will perform all of the following effects: Card to Wallet, Card to Sealed Envelope, Card to ID Case and even more effects using the No Palm Feature. All these wonderful effects are cleverly built into the design and will not hinder the wallet’s everyday use. Removing everything from the zip compartment makes these effects even more stunning and magical.
Everything a magician needs is in this wallet which has been carefully designed to operate without requiring a lot of skill.
Included with wallet:
ID Case (included with large and small wallets) - An accessory for the Plus wallets, it fits over the chute tongues, is used instead of an envelope.
Wonder Unit (only included with large wallet)- A small note pad which fits easily into the Plus Wallets to add more stunning effects such as Confabulation and Predicta Lottery Ticket.
Bonus DVD - Basic instructions for Plus Wallet and No Palm Wallet. Also contains PDF files for envelope templates and instructions.
Made from genuine leather.
$100.00
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8364&cat=0&page=1)
And that's everything that's anything this week. Lots of great new stuff for a hot week in the summer. I hope you will check it all out, and I hope you will find some time to spend with us either online at www.magicfact.com or in person at our fabulous retail shop at 112 South Street in Boston. Either way we love the company!
Hank Lee
