Greetings from all of us at Hank Lee’s Magic Factory. As I look out my window, it feels like I am in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. We have truly been snowed upon. And, it’s the kind of snow that stays on the trees and the electric wires and creates general havoc with life as we know it. But, we’re hardy. We’re tough. We’re used to this kind of adversity. So, we shovel and plow and blow and we get to work and get to school and, in Bonnie’s case, get to the mall. Just another day in New England. And another day closer to spring!
Speaking of spring, and I apologize for this shameless plug and terrible segue, don’t forget that the Conclave is coming up sooner than you think. The dates are April 4th – 6th, and you know the rest. Register online at www.magicfact.com or call us at 800 874 7400 to register. We’d love to see you there.
Today Lucas begins the grueling audition season. His first is at Boston University, this morning. I have listened to his repertoire for the past, well forever, and I have listened and watched him grow as both a singer and as a person. My prediction is that he will absolutely nail the auditions. But, that’s just my opinion. And, who am I? Who am I? 24601. Sorry, wrong show.
On the home front, we have been suffering from mechanical breakdown. It seems to come about this time every year. The kitchen sink is stopped up. I have now poured every sink-clearing compound known to man in the drain, to no avail. We may have to break down and call the plumber. Which rhymes with bummer, if you know what I mean. And, then there’s the cook top in the kitchen. It is a gas cook top with those electric sparkers that light the burner when you turn the knob. Only now, the sparkers keep sparking whether the burners are turn on or off. Spark, spark, spark. I did my best. I cleaned them and polished them and still the sparking continued. So, I unplugged the power to the sparkers and handed Bonnie a book of matches. For the moment, she will have to light the burners the old fashioned way. I can only deal with one crisis at a time.
On the brighter side, here’s this week’s excitement.
DVD GIVEAWAY: This week it’s a plain old giveaway. You got it. A DVD Giveaway! For the next seven days, from right now until Thursday, January 24th, at midnight, you have the opportunity to get DVDs for free! But, you have to get them the old fashioned way. You have to earn them.
Here's the way it works. For every order of $100 or more, you get one free DVD (your choice of any single DVD that sells for $35.00 or less). If you spend $200 or more, you get two free DVDs (again, your choice). $300 or more gets you three free DVDs. And on it goes. The more you buy, the more you get for free! It's an incredible deal when you figure that the average price of a DVD is $35.00! In order to claim your free DVD, just put the name of the DVD in the Customer Notes Box at the bottom of the second page of the online checkout (after you fill in your name, address, etc.) at www.magicfact.com. If you phone your order in to our toll free number at 800 874 7400, just let the order-person know what free DVD you want. If you FAX the order to us at 781 395 2034, same thing. Just let us know which ones you want. Remember, the giveaway ends on Thursday, January 24th, at midnight!
Now, let’s take a peek at this week’s Hotlist!
Bending: The Bending Fork was one of the most exciting psycho-kinesis items to grace the magic market. It was available for a while, and then it was gone.
Now, our friend Super Rex, has produced four different items, using the same brilliant method as the original Bending Fork.
Each set includes: The Key, The Fork, The Wire and The Spoon.
In the realm of metal-bending effects, this is the top. The ultimate. If you want them to believe you truly possess psychic powers, this set is the one for you.
Hand a spectator one of the four items to hold at her fingertips. At your command, the item begins to bend! It actually bends right in the spectator's hand! You never touch it!
The fork or key or spoon bends over slowly until it is almost bent in half. It looks like real magic! They will not believe their eyes.
You can also hold the item in your hands. With no movement of any kind, it will bend. Or put it on the table and watch it bend. A powerful effect. People will think you have the "power."
The Spoon is about 6-1/2 inches long and 2-1/2 inches wide at the bowl.
The Fork is about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide.
The Key is about 2-1/4 inch long and 1 inch wide.
The Wire is almost 7 inches long, and will bend at slightly over room temperature!
No chemicals. No threads. No sleights. A little preparation and you are ready to go. Easy to do. Perform it close-up and completely surrounded. You receive everything you need to perform this miracle: all accessories, special fork, spoon, key and wire and instructional DVD. $540.00 (40.606)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9231&cat=0&page=1)
Chinese Choice: Now is your chance to perform one of the most talked about routines from the critically acclaimed “Educating Archer” DVD. John Archer’s Chinese Choice is not just a trick – it is a powerhouse of a routine that blends comedy and mentalism to perfection.
Three spectators are brought on stage and invited to take a traditional Chinese meal in a way they used to do thousands of years ago.
Explain that the ancient Chinese were great mathematicians and believers in numerology. Often numbers were used to help make even the most mundane of choices. Why else would all the items on a Chinese menu be numbered? Hence you explain that you are going to show them how the ancient Chinese would decide what to do when going out for a meal.
One of the spectators is given a small packet of plastic number cards to shuffle. They now choose one person who will be in charge of the menu, while the other two are in charge of setting the amount they will pay for the meal.
The menu is shown as representing the restaurant they will visit. The three spectators are given three cards each and two of them take turns to make up three two-digit numbers.
These two digit numbers are added together to arrive at a total and a decimal point is added to form a price to spend on the meal – but alas! It is incredibly low! 1.65! The prospect of a good meal does not look hopeful!
The third spectator now adds up his three cards to come up with a number, to represent a dish on the menu. When they check out the menu they see that all other menu items are normal, however item number 15 is an ‘Eat as much as you like buffet for three people, cost - 1.65.’
Includes two custom-printed menus, a large one for stage and a pocket sized version for close-up, plastic number cards, full instructions and routine.
The menus have been printed without currency symbols on the menu (£,$ etc) so that they are universal and can be used anywhere in the world!
$39.95 (60.1499)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9226&cat=0&page=1)
Pyro Kinesis: Matches spontaneously combust, in your hands!
Just imagine, pick up any unprepared matchbook and unfold it. Now, with just the matchbook at your fingertips, ask for silence as you stare intently. After a moment, without warning, the entire book of matches spontaneously self-combusts. It's Pyro Kinesis! Check out the online video - it will leave a burning impression.
People are doubly shocked because they just touched the matches a moment before. All they can claim witness to is you, the borrowed matches, and your awesome mental powers.
Pyro Kinesis allows you to make any book of matches spontaneously combust, at a moment's notice. Pyro Kinesis is completely self-contained - there're no chemicals and you control exactly when the matches catch fire.
The possibilities are positively frightening - light a cigarette with the burning matches, or rub the burnt match heads across your arm to reveal a spooky prediction. You could even order custom printed matchbooks, and hand out the burnt matches as your business card - they'll never forget you or the macabre miracle you just performed.
Pyro Kinesis comes with everything you need including a video CD explaining everything. You'll be up and running in just 5 minutes and reset time is just a few seconds. Additionally, Krisjian Pipho's clever handling and insights allow you to accomplish the effect invisibly and effortlessly.
No sleeves. No pulls. No pipedreams.
Because of the nature of this effect, Pyro Kinesis can only be sold to adults. Flash paper (a very tiny amount is needed) sold separately. $50.00 (60.1501)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9235&cat=0&page=1)
iKnow – Jason Palter: Hear the music in someone’s mind!
A spectator is invited to listen to as many songs as they'd like from your favorite playlist (a folder that contains a compilation of 60-70 songs) on your iPod or MP3 player. They are all different.
The spectator is asked to scroll through and randomly stop at any song in the playlist, while the iPod is out of site - behind their back or under the table.
They are now encouraged to remove the headphones and sing the tune in their mind. Not out loud, just in their head. You can be in another room as this happens.
Now for the mind-blowing climax: You bring your ear close to theirs. Explain that you are listening for the beat and melody of the tune that is still reverberating off their eardrums, and vibrating in their head. To the absolute disbelief of the spectator, bit by bit you start to hum the tune they are thinking of, and then suddenly you name the selected song!
Some key points to remember:
* Easy to do.
* Always ready to go.
* Instantly repeatable.
* Nothing is added or taken away during the performance–it's completely self-contained within the iPod itself!
* Your iPod is not gimmicked, and can function as a regular playing unit at all times.
* Full instructional DVD guides you through every step of the preparation, including full presentation and bonus ideas.
* Use your own music & playlists.
* Works with iPods and most other MP3 players, that have display screens.
$19.95 (40.605)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9229&cat=0&page=1)
Revolutionary Coin Magic DVD 2.0 - Jay Sankey:
The wait is over! The mind-blowing companion DVD to the world-wide bestseller, Revolutionary Coin Magic, is here!
Over two and a half hours of wild new coin magic featuring a parade of breath-taking new techniques including the Mephisto Change, Sickle Switch, Corkscrew Vanish, Merlin Sequence, Body Shift Production, Shaker Vanish, Messiah Clean-up, Drop Zone Production, Airborne Vanish, Wave Load, Snatch Production, Steeplechase Change, Blow Away Vanish, Freefall Transfer, Tumbleweed Production, Radar Switch, Duet Production, P.O.V. Change, Bangkok Vanish, Blink Crossing, Submarine Vanish and so much more!
Jay also shares the "real work" behind several brand new full-length coin routines including: Java Transpo, Recurrency, Stand-Up Twilight, Strike Three, Holy Cross and Collector’s Item.
Along with a detailed psychological analysis of many of the sleights and routines, Jay also discusses such essential subjects as body language, misdirection through scripting, managing spheres of focus, making the most of different performing environments, the ballet of coin magic and more!
$40.00 (DVD00818)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9230&cat=0&page=1)
Fade DVD - Titanas
Fade is a topitless, lapless, propless way to vanish, secretly exchange or visually switch a coin.
Titanas brings you a fundamental technique that every magician performing with coins or small objects needs to have in their magic armory.
Forget about gimmicks and contraptions to do your work! Put your pulls, threads, magnets and reels back in your magic draw, Fade gives you a radical yet simple, impromptu yet powerful, easy to do technique and explores everything it can bring to your magic.
Effects:
* Knee Penetration
* Coin Bending #1
* Simple Coin Vanish
* Coin Transposition
Fade takes a simple to perform 'move' and elaborates on it to make it easier to grasp the deeper mechanics for astonishing results. But the most important benefit that Fade offers is a technique that can easily be incorporated into your existing routines with coins or small items. Your use of Fade can be adapted to your own performing style. Learn effects taught on the video or combine its use within your own routines for that little extra that will send your spectators into insanity!
The video covers a whole series of moves, then multiple variations are discussed and presented in depth. Titanas teaches you everything you need to get the most out of this technique and presents additional tips & tricks that we know you will really love.
Once you have understood the basic Fade move, you will be taken on to develop more applications for the technique including:
* Coin Bending #2
* One Handed
* Surrounded
* Coin through Glass
* Coin to Matchbox
* Advanced
$30.00 (DVD00819)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9234&cat=0&page=1)
Houdini Unbound - Houdini:
Two CDs containing 10 Books in pdf format.
Over 2500 pages of material! Ten complete books by Houdini. The complete Houdini's Conjurers' Monthly Magazine. Hundreds of Houdini's secrets of escapes and magic Rare historic illustrations. A must for the Houdini fan and serious magic student!
Uncover Houdini's secrets and the story of his life and death in these essential works, previously scarce and expensive, now collected on two CDs!
Volume One: Houdini's Pen
Ten of Harry Houdini's hard-to-find books, now digitized:
The Right Way to Do Wrong (1906): Houdini's eye-raising inquiry into the ways of criminals and swindlers
The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin (1908): One of the best collections of historical magic illustrations, wrapped in Houdini's controversial viewpoints
Handcuff Secrets (1910): Houdini's personal secrets of picking locks and escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets, and chains
Magical Rope Ties and Escapes (1915): The secrets of 36 of Houdini's most puzzling escapes, from simple rope ties to spectacular stunts.
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (1920): A fascinating look at "fire eaters, heat resisters, poison eaters, venomous reptile defiers, sword swallowers, human ostriches, strong men, etc."
The Adventurous Life of a Versatile Artist (1922): The rare booklet of tales on Houdini's life and most famous escapes
Houdini's Paper Magic (1922): A compendium of magic effects including the beautiful Japanese Butterflies and tricks from masters like Felicien Trewey
Elliott's Last Legacy: Secrets of the King of All Kard Kings (1923): 150 card sleights and magic effects from Houdini's one-time rival as world-champion card magician
A Magician Among the Spirits (1924): Houdini's exposé of fraudulent spirit mediums, psychics, slate writers, spiritualistic photographers, ectoplasm producers, and the like
Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the Boston Medium "Margery" (1924): The clever methods of Houdini's frustrating nemesis, the charming spirit medium Margery.
Volume Two: Houdini's Conjurers' Monthly Magazine
All 24 issues of Houdini's Conjurers' Monthly Magazine (1906-1908) on fully searchable pdfs containing handcuff secrets, historical articles, biographies, news and Houdini's writings. A priceless historical treasure trove! $50.00 (CD0056)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9227&cat=0&page=1)
Magic Tricks Fore Golfers DVD – Byrd & Coats: If you love the game of golf, then this DVD is for you! Join professional magicians, Byrd and Coats, as they perform and teach you easy step-by-step magic tricks that will fit right into your golf game.
Learn golf magic that will transform your golf game into something fun and amazing for you and your friends. All of the magic is themed around the game of golf. Whether you're entertaining a client, distracting others from your 30+ handicap, or just out to have fun, this is for you! $24.95 (DVD00817)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9225&cat=0&page=1)
Tops Magazine – The CD: Over 8400 pages of material!
Two CDs with hundreds of historic articles and illustrations.
The classic magazine now available as a searchable CD set!
All 255 issues of this classic magazine are included on these CDs. It's one of the best records of the North American magic world of the time, and it's never before been available in reprint or multimedia. Now it's yours, by arrangement with Abbott's Magic, the original publisher of this charming journal.
Over 8000 pages covering the 1930s to 1950s, including long-lost effects and routines, news and columns by some of magic's most brilliant thinkers, including Stewart James, Ed Marlo, Sid Lorraine, Ormond McGill, U. F. Grant, Joe Berg, and the legendary enigma Winston Freer. $50.00 (CD0057)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9232&cat=0&page=1)
Red Carpet Bonus Feature: After many requests, Jason Palter has finally released The Bonus Feature kit for use with your Red Carpet. With this kit, you will be able to force an additional 3 characters from your sketchbook!
All of these characters were chosen as they are recognized by almost everyone around the world.
The kit includes everything you need for the 3 extra reveals, including instructions, a presentation idea, and the additional 3 sets of 40 custom-embossed yellow numbered discs that exactly match the ones in the original trick (120 extra discs total).
$110.00 (60.1500)
Note: Red Carpet is required and must be purchased separately.
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9228&cat=0&page=1)
Reel Magic Quarterly DVD Issue 3 - January 2008:
Jay Sankey
Features:
Caught On Tape - Jonathan Pendragon
Jonathan tells the amazing story of the time he rescued a dog from death row and how the dog returned the favor.
Columns:
Andrew Pinard – Continuum: Andrew goes to Canada and speaks with Jay Sankey about magic and creativityr
Off the Shelf: John Luka talks about his new book Uncovered and performs and explains his fantastic card effect "The Invisible Palm"
Jon Armstrong - Small Things, Big Difference: How to Make your Break Smaller
Simon Lovell - Simon Said It: The ever-controversial Simon Lovell sounds off on video versus reading
Garrett Thomas with Try This At Home
Reviews:
David Regal - Tricks of the Trade
Wayne Kawamoto - Choice Cuts: Wayne focuses on the work of Danny Garcia with a LIVE interview
Bonus Tricks:
A brand new effect called "Hold Out". Gimmicks included!
Big Blind Media's David Forrest performs and explains "8 of 2 kinds", an ace production from his upcoming DVD 4 by 4."
John Luka's "The Invisible Palm" - Performed and explained.
Danny Garcia's "Quarters" - A relentlessly impossible, extremely visual coin through glass routine.
$9.00 (DVD00820)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9236&cat=0&page=1)
Triangle - Patrick G. Redford:
The secret is out! Not just one secret, but three new routines from Patrick Redford. Triangle is the first in a new series of booklets, dedicated to "passing on the power." Not only will you be able to memorize a deck of cards in thirty seconds, be able to divine the amount of change shaken to your ear and identify information on dollar bills that you've never touched, you can pass these powers onto your audience members. And, they won't know how they know! Did I mention all of these routines are impromptu? This means anywhere and anytime!
Each effect has been detailed in comic book format. You actually see the effect performed on the page. In addition the entire booklet has been printed in full color.
Contents:
* Divine Number - A very "hands off" Serial Number Divination.
* A Sound Change - Identify how much change is simply shaken to your ear.
* Rain King - Memorize a deck of cards in 30 seconds.
Pages 32 - Saddle Stitched
$40.00 (BK01557)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9233&cat=0&page=1)
And that’s all the hot stuff for this very cold week in January. Not bad. Not bad at all. I hope you will find something that you just can’t live without! And, remember, we are giving away free DVDs all week long! So, get in on the action.
As always, I hope you will find some time to spend with us either online at www.magicfact.com or in person at 102 North Street in Medford. Either way, we do love the company.
Hank Lee
