Greetings from all of us at Hank Lee’s Magic Factory, and a very Happy Birthday to me! Every year, it amazes me how many folks remember that the 17th of December is my birthday (mark your calendars) and either call or send an email to wish me a happy one. It does make me feel very special. For those of you who are counting, I can’t tell you exactly how old I am, but the number 58 seems to be rolling around in my mind.
This is the very last email Newsletter you will get before the holidays roll around. So, I want to wish all of you the very happiest and healthiest of holidays. This year, especially, it will be great to spend time with family and friends. As you know, I have been waiting diligently by the mailbox for the promised delivery of hope and change. So far, just bills. But, I have my fingers crossed and in my heart of hearts, I believe that change is coming and next year is going to be great. Amen to that.
This week, we sent out the Conclave billing to everyone who pre-registered for next year’s big event. A lot of people are pre-registered. Early next week, we will be sending out a general mailing letting people know that now is the time to register for next year. So, if you want to make sure there will be a seat for you, it’s time to act. You can register online by clicking on the Conclave Button at www.magicfact.com or you can call us toll free at 800 874 7400 to register. As you know, I think that a Conclave registration makes the perfect holiday gift. And, it’s so easy to wrap.
You are probably wondering if I have finished my holiday shopping. You are, aren’t you? Well, I have not. I did a bunch of shopping online, which I love to do. Shopping in my PJs is the best, really. But, I still have some brick and mortar shopping to do. Does anyone out there know how to wrap a puppy?
And that’s it for this week. Honestly, I am amazed I have been able to write this much. We have been pretty darn busy, and all of the elves, me included, are a little pooped. I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be this time of year. Right?
One more quick note. Are you still getting the weekly email Newsletter in text-only format? Why? The html version is so much better! Full color pictures and everything. Just drop me a note and I will be happy to hook you up for the html version!
Enough of this chitting and chatting. Let’s take a look at this week’s excitement!
FREE SHIPPING CONTINUES: Until Wednesday, the 24th of December at midnight, we are offering free ground shipping on any order over $25.00 to anywhere in the US, including Alaska and Hawaii! Just enter the special code SHIPMEFREE in the Discount Coupon Box at the bottom of the first page of the online checkout at www.magicfact.com. We will happily pick up the ground shipping charges on your order. Of course, if you want your order sent Fedex Three Day (Express Saver), Second Day or Next Day, you will just have to pay the difference.
Note: Your email confirmation from our online system will still list the shipping as free, but we will charge the difference when we ship your order.
Overseas customers will save as well! We will pay one-half of the Air Post shipping charges on your orders until the 24th! Just remember to enter the special code SHIPMEFREE in the Discount Coupon Box, or let the person taking your phone order know when you place your order at 800 874 7400.
Now, let’s take a look at this week’s Hotlist
Six Pack Surprise: The first instant flash appearance of a six pack of bottles!
It looks so real that even you won’t believe it!
You can produce the Six Pack Surprise from all kinds of places. Your jacket. A large envelope. A briefcase, magazine or newspaper. And many other places! Amazing effects and hundreds of applications.
Here are some of the effects possible with Six Pack Surprise:
• Show the audience a flat Birthday Card that you recently received. Ask the audience to guess what your friends sent you for your birthday. Suddenly, produce a full six-pack from inside the card!
• Show an envelope with a prediction inside. Next show several different cards with supermarket products! Ask the spectator to select one. The spectator selects a card with a six pack printed on it. Ask him to name the brand of the six-pack. Immediately, you remove your prediction from the envelope: A card with the barcode of the six pack selected. A big laugh! But, when you turn over the card, the name of the brand is printed on it! But wait, there’s more. Reach into the prediction envelope and produce a full six-pack of bottles!
• Show your hands empty and inflate a balloon. Pop the balloon and produce a full six pack of beer or soda.
• Borrow a jacket from the spectator and, from inside the jacket, you remove a full six pack of beer!
Use these amazing Six Packs for stage, platform, comedy, even close-up
You can remove a real bottle from it and even pour someone a drink!
Comes in two versions: Budweiser Six Pack and the Coke Six Pack.
What you get:
• The Instant Six Pack Flash Appearance (Budweiser or Coke as requested)
• One Instructional DVD by Mr. Daba & George Iglesias with many applications and presentations.
• One specially printed Jumbo Happy Birthday Card to produce the six pack.
* 6 specially printed cards.
* 1 Prediction Envelope.
* Additional gimmicks, and more! Pack flat and plays big!
$98.95 (60.1567) Note: Available for shipment January 15th. Pre-order now, and be one of the first to perform this amazing effect!
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9757&cat=0&page=1)
"So good! So visual! So real! Visual Magic, just as it should be! Bubbling Magic at it's very best! Cheers! Gaetan Bloom
"A new and sensational idea! I love it! Juan Mayoral
Blindspot - Bob Swadling and JB Magic:
Don’t believe everything you see!
Bob Swadling is one of the world’s leading creators of magic effects. Bob has created a revolutionary gimmick for performing the classic coin in bottle effect - Blindspot. Every now and them something very special arrives on the magic scene. This is one of those times. Imagine holding a totally clear bottle and letting a spectator examine both the bottle and the cap, inside and out. Under these impossible circumstances you can still perform the coin in bottle effect.
Blindspot is an incredible new gimmick, that will allow you to perform the coin in bottle on a whole new level.
* No gimmicked bottles
* No gimmicked bottle caps
* Any totally see-through bottle
* No covering the bottle.
* Bottle and cap can be fully examined.
You have to see this, to believe it.
Two routines and handlings fully taught. Step by step instructional DVD. Resets in 5 seconds. Perfect for strolling, restaurants and stand up.
$40.00 (20.406)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9753&cat=0&page=1)
Inferno Card: There has never been a card revelation quite as flashy as this one!
After failing to find a signed, selected card, the magician places the deck face up on the table, and ignites the top card. In a flash of fire, the signed selection is revealed - with burn marks to prove it!
Your spectators will hold on to this keepsake for a long time after seeing your performance.
Includes instructions for three different handlings, and 24 Inferno Cards. $20.00 (30.1397)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9756&cat=0&page=1)
Believe - Aaron Delong:
Any Card. Any Word. Prediction.
The Scene:
After completing an amazing set, one of the guests asks if the magician can read their minds. He admits he cannot but says he is asked that question a lot. So he has something he's learned about psychics that he'd like to share; a technique called cold reading. A card is selected and a word thought of to act as a focal point during the demonstration.
Amazingly, through cold reading, the magician reveals the name of the selected card. But stranger still, even though he does not have psychic powers, he wants to show them something else. A sealed envelope is produced that is signed and dated from the day before. Inside, a card is found. It matches the free selection. But on the back of the card, there is a word written. It is the freely thought of word!
Welcome to Believe!
This DVD is jam-packed with performances, explanations, variations, and a few extra goodies including a stage version of Believe, a Triple Threat Wallet handling and much more. With contributions from Paul Vigil, Jason Dean, Brandon Williams, Marty Miller, Tony Miller, Christopher Williams, and Cody J.H. Pace.
40.00 (30.1398)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9758&cat=0&page=1)
PK Sounds – Alex Vante: Have one spectator think of any song and simultaneously have another spectator hear it!
Bring two spectators to the stage and seat them facing each other, ten feet apart, with their heads down and their eyes closed.
Move to the front of the stage and talk to the audience about different types of supernatural phenomena, between friends or even complete strangers. The experiment begins.
Ask the first spectator try and be aware of all of his senses.
Go to the second spectator and whisper something in his ear. Let some time pass, walk to the front of the stage and snap your fingers.
Ask the first spectator if he heard, felt, smelled, or tasted anything during that time period; he responds that he did hear something. Ask him to elaborate and he explains that he heard a song. Stop him before he can name the song.
Explain that you asked the second spectator to think of any song.
Ask the first spectator what song he heard. He names the song and the first spectator replies that it's the exact song he was sending! A true miracle!
The DVD contains two killer presentations, each with tips, comments and step-by-step instructions.
$49.95 (40.661)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9762&cat=0&page=1)
Seeing Stars – Ron Frost: A magical routine with a startling finish.
Two packets of Dr. Rhine’s ESP cards are shown. One has four Squares the other four Circles.
Two cards from each are switched but the Squares manage to gather to one packet. The packet of Squares is now seen to be all Circles and then magically changes back to a Circle, a Square, a Circle and a Square.
By now the audience must be Seeing Stars! Sure enough the original packet is turned over to show all four cards with Stars all over them.
Comes complete with all necessary cards and photo-illustrated instructions. Everything is examinable. Very easy to learn and perform. $10.00 (30.1396)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9754&cat=0&page=1)
Reel Magic Episode 8 (David Williamson):
Features:
Caught on Tape: David Williamson
John Lovick talks with David Williamson about being willing to fail and the difference between the corporate world and magic conventions
Columns:
• Jon Armstrong Small Things, Big Difference -Everyone should have a trick that kills in 30 seconds.
• Garrett Thomas Try This At Home - Taking your magic to new heights.
• Simon Lovell Simon Said It! - Abuse the audience; lose the audience.
• David Kaye/Silly Billy Kid Show FUNdamentals - An in-depth look at the change bag
• Wayne Kawamoto Choice Cuts - Wayne talks with "Mr. Hospitality" Bob Sheets about his "Bob Does Hospitality" DVDs
• David Regal Tricks of the Trade -Reviews several products released by one gifted, prolific, successful inventor.
Bonus Tricks:
Joshua Jay "Vegas Visit"
Mark Leveridge "Stay at Home Coins"
Eric Jones "Ishkabibble Sandwich"
Move Monkeys:
Danny Archer "Center Card Glimpse"
Justin Miller "JM Click Pass"
Seff Prace "Thumb Pass"
$10.00 (DVD00949)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9755&cat=0&page=1)
Intuition - Hondo :
Place a sealed envelope and a pack of cards on the table.
Ask the spectator to choose a number between 1 and 52. They can change their mind if they like.
The spectator is instructed to pick up the deck of cards and take the cards out of the box. You do not touch the cards. They are instructed to deal the cards face down until they get to their chosen number. They take their card and set it aside. They deal the rest of the cards down showing it is a complete deck.
The spectator turns over his selected card to see what he chose. The remaining deck is spread out to show that their card is not duplicated in the deck and the deck is normal.
The spectator opens the envelope and pours out what is inside. They will find another card face down. When they turn over this card it will match their chosen card!
* Free choice of number
* Spectator handles the deck and deals the cards
* Prediction is examinable
* Prediction can be a card, written on paper, a tattoo, etc.
* Easy to do
* No sleight of hand
* This is just one on the many routine options that you can do with Intuition!
Comes complete with:
- DVD instruction
- Bonus routine options
- PDF written instructions in English and Spanish
- Custom made deck of Bicycle cards
$35.00 (30.1399)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9760&cat=0&page=1)
"The best (BEEP)ing prediction at any number I have ever seen!" - Keith Barry, Professional Magician.
Methods In Magic DVD - Live In The UK - Joshua Jay:
Joshua Jay is truly a phenomenon in magic - host of the Talk About Tricks section of MAGIC Magazine for the last seven years, author of two best-selling trade books (the first published in five languages), star of a series of instructional magic DVDs, Champion at the World Magic Seminar in 1998, TV appearances in no less than eight countries - the list goes on and on...
But for many in the magic community, Joshua Jay's most interesting performance venue is his lecture! Over the past three years he has toured 54 countries, allowing him to hone his lecture into one of the most entertaining and informative programs of its kind. In November 2007 Joshua performed this lecture in Lima, Peru. It subsequently won Joshua "International Magician of the Year" from the Association of Latin American Magicians. On this DVD Joshua brings this polished event to the UK for the first time.
At the heart of this two-hour extravaganza is - method. Joshua Jay dissects and examines the numerous methodological approaches you can apply to your magic. And, of course, each approach is demonstrated with a different, original routine. This is a collection of powerful, workable magic, but more importantly, an examination of the thought process of their construction.
Whether your interests run to cards, coins, close-up, parlor, stage, mentalism or walkaround, Joshua Jay's lecture will simply make your magic better!
You will learn powerful, road tested magic. More importantly, you'll learn the secrets to truly develop your own material.
Contents:
Heightened Senses - a brilliant piece of mentalism that plays for crowds big and small.
Three Coin Vanish - A squeaky clean three-coin vanish. Simple and visual.
A.C.A.A.P.N - A selected card appears at a named page number in a closed book.
Discrete Displacement - It's a force, a control, a switch and MORE!
Vegas Visit - Sam The Bellhop meets Six Card Repeat
Split Decision –Even though two spectators misremember the same card, you find "both" cards and create a most impossible object.
$34.95 (DVD00950)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9759&cat=0&page=1)
"Josh Jay rocks! Great magic, and I loved the intimate insight into the behind the scenes shots while touring with Josh. It feels like watching a real world documentary on topics magicians care about!" - Michael Ammar
At The Table DVD – Tomas Medina: Executive chef Tomas Medina has prepared an unparalleled 12-course meal of magic for your viewing pleasure.
Learn from this master magician the preparations behind an entirely impromptu performance of magic that's ready any time, anywhere, with items available at any table.
A savory selection of magical delights has been made to order. Included are tricks with bread, salt, pepper, olives, bottles, toothpicks and even human flesh! Fava beans are not on the menu, Dr. Lechter. Neither are gimmicks, gaffs or considerable preparation.
Each effect can be performed at a moment's notice, virtually impromptu. No longer will you balk at the request to "do a trick." Now, wherever you're dining, whenever you're at the bar, whenever you're in a crowd, you can do just that -- thanks to Chef Medina's stellar taste. You'll learn every nuance of each effect, too, thanks to his incisive, detailed instructions.
This broadcast-quality DVD features over 12 tricks and is as instructional as it is entertaining. Bon appetit! $15.00 (DVD00951)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9761&cat=0&page=1)
And that’s this week’s What Do You Mean There’s Less Than A Week Left Hotlist. Something for all, even the most last minutes shoppers out there! And, no matter how last minute you order, we can get your order to you in time. Just ask!
As always, I hope you will find some time during this busy holiday season to spend with us either online at www.magicfact.com or in person at 102 North Street in Medford. Either way, we love the company.
Hank
