Merry Christmas and Holiday Greetings from all of us at Hank Lee’s Magic Factory. Thanks to Mother Nature, it will be a white Christmas, at least here in the Northeast. Which make it all the more merry. Enjoy the day.
My boys have been home now for a week, and the time is just flying by. I am really glad that this is a three day weekend, so that I can spend some quality time with the kids. By the end of the weekend, I suspect that they will have had their fill of Dad. For me, I can never get enough of those two guys.
This week, Tuesday to be exact, I spent the morning getting a very special Holiday Colonoscopy. It was so cute the way they attached Mistletoe to the Colonoscope. Such an excellent way to spend a holiday morning. Since I am over 50 (way over, I must say), the doctors say that a routine Colonoscopy is essential. It is not the most fun you can have, but as it turns out it’s really not that big a deal. The procedure is done while the patient is under Sodium Pentathol. So, not only do I have no memory of the actual procedure, the doctors now know all of my most-guarded secrets. But, they’ll never tell. Right? If you are turning 50, you should definitely schedule a Colonoscopy for yourself. It can detect any early problems and get rid of them before they become big problems. You will be happy to know (I hope) that the results of mine were excellent. A very healthy colon in my getting older every day body.
I don’t want to keep you one minute longer from unwrapping your presents. So, go. Go unwrap them. And, once you try on the sweaters and the gloves and look in amazement at the ties, come on back and check out this week’s Holiday Hotlist! No gloves, no shirts, no ties, no sweaters, just great magic!
Now to this week’s excitement!
FREE SHIPPING EXTENDED: Our holiday gift to you! Until Thursday, the 31st of December at midnight, we are offering free ground shipping on any order over $30.00 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 31st! 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
(1) Cesaral Color Prediction: With this great new item from Cesaral, you will be able to know instantly and remotely, what crayons were used to draw on a Post-It note.
Ask an audience member to think about an imaginary country, an ideal country.
Ask the audience member to put some crayons in his pocket and to take them out one by one, in a random way, and draw the flag of that country on a Post-It note. The flag may have any number of colors and thus there are many possible combinations.
Your back is turned while the flag is drawn. You can even be out of the room. When you return, without seeing the drawing, you are able to reveal the colors used and their order.
You could also figure out something about the audience member’s personality according to the randomly selected colors.
Many effects are possible with this great tool!
Important points:
• Large detection surface within the wooden base
• You have easy access to the information detected. It could not be simpler or cleaner
• Can be combined with other products like “Skully, the Lifeless Assistant”.
• The tool is an open door for many new effects.
• It is very easy to do, allowing you to concentrate on the presentation!
• All the elements are powered by Lithium Polymer rechargeable batteries. A charger is included.
• Comes complete with wooden gimmicked base, 8 digit receptor, charger and 5 crayons.
Introductory price until February 28th. $650.00 (40.702)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=1235&cat=0&page=1)
(2) Mercury Coin: A completely new and impossible Pen Through Coin effect where the coin can be shown before and after the penetration. On both sides!
Show a Half Dollar on both sides. Bring out a pen, hold the coin between your fingers and slowly push the pen through the center of the coin until the coin is clearly seen in the middle of the pen..
Now, while holding both ends of the pen at your finger tips with the coin in the middle, slowly turn the pen around to show the other side of the coin. It looks exactly the same from the front with the pen penetrating the coin. There are no trapdoors, no mirrors, no switching of the coin.
Finally, you slowly remove the coin from the pen and immediately show both sides of the coin to be solid. The very same coin.
Comes with the special coin, special pen and full instructions. $99.50 (20.437)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=1395&cat=0&page=1)
(3) Up Levitation: A deck of cards cuts itself by levitation to reveal a spectator's selected card or to magically find your favorite four of a kind.
If you have ever wanted to perform a levitation close up and personal, without the many drawbacks of prior methods, now you can!
No more threads
No more magnets
No more gimmicked decks (yes, you can just as easily use a borrowed deck!)
Michael Boden and Troy Hooser are releasing the Up Levitation gimmick to the magic community with the realization that, yes a levitation that looks this good can easily be accomplished by the everyday performer.
The gimmick's brilliant design takes the worry out of "is this a levitation I will actually use?"
The gimmick has been designed to be worry-free of extensive set ups or concealment. Now you can use a normal deck of cards that has been in play, or even borrow one, without having to worry about how difficult it is to get in and out of the effect.
The spectator's freely selected card is returned to the deck and the deck is openly ribbon spread on the table, (showing the lack of card control and hand concealment of any kind) the deck is then squared and openly held in your left hand as the magic begins. The deck slowly separates, levitating upwards, dividing itself into two halves. Then just as eerily the top half of the deck floats back down into the palm of your waiting hand. The deck is then separated at the point of separation to reveal that the spectator's selected card has been found by levitation.
Finding your favorite four of a kind has never been more magical. The deck slowly separates once again, levitating upwards into two halves, but this time you take the bottom half completely away as the top half slowly floats down into your empty waiting left palm! Now the two halves of the levitated deck are tabled and displayed to reveal four Aces at the point of separation.
The gimmick's unique design stabilizes the up and down movement of the deck for you and its streamline shape makes it easily added to any deck of cards. Michael and Troy's DVD will teach you with step-by-step instruction, just how easily this amazing levitation is to perform.
Bonus effect includes Michael's The Vanish. Now you see it, now you don't. has never been more visually real, as you watch Michael's vanish of a full deck of cards!
Learn how to make your own gimmick that will let you display a full deck of cards and, without anything more than between the hands cover, the deck instantly vanishes and is found in your pocket!
$30.00 (30.1463)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=1290&cat=0&page=1)
(4) Control 2.0 – Wayne Houchin: An impromptu technique for creating the illusion of slowing down and stopping your heart.
Demonstrating control over life and death is one of the most powerful things you can do. In this comprehensive DVD, Wayne Houchin (Sinful, Thread and Stigmata) takes you through the entire effect, from incredible live performances to the technique and subtleties that allow you to transform this routine from a trick into a miracle.
Effect: A volunteer holds your wrist and takes your pulse. They feel your heart beating a steady rhythm and you ask them to count along with it. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. Your volunteer feels your pulse gradually slow down and completely stop. Nothing. After a few deep breaths your heart starts beating again and they feel your pulse gradually return.
Control 2.0 is entirely safe and requires no gimmicks. Nothing is placed under your arm and the effect may be performed at any time.
This Special Director's Cut has been re-mastered and loaded with new ideas, new interviews and more. Featuring Daniel Garcia, Dexter (Criss Angel: Mindfreak), and the triumphant return of Randall.
Bonus Effect: Also featured on the DVD is Stop - a technique created by Daniel Garcia that allows someone to hear your heart slow down and stop. Safe and impromptu.
By carefully using the secrets revealed on this DVD it is entirely possible to convince a crowd of people that you have the ability to completely stop your heart.
Live performances, detailed instruction, practice tips and more
143 minutes with special features. $29.95 (DVD00910)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9548&cat=0&page=1)
(5) Bamboo Chest And Glass Mystery: From the U.F. Grant Treasure Trove. A return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when men were men, women were women and magic was Magic!
Display a beautiful Chinese chest and a tall glass tumbler of water.
The tumbler is placed in the center of the chest and locked in so that it cannot move.
Four solid steel blades are pushed thru the cabinet.
Then a solid pole is pushed thru the center, from side to side.
This leaves no place inside for the glass of water. Yet, it is there!
To prove the tumbler is still there, the pole and blades are removed, the front of the cabinet is opened, and there is the glass, still locked in position. It is removed and the water is poured out.
Quality from start to finish, beautifully decorated and, most important, a real fooler.
Can be worked both close up and surrounded. Complete with patter. You supply the water. $75.00 (60.1640)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=6830&cat=0&page=1)
(6) Intimiste – 3 DVD Set – Dominique Duvivier:
the drink
the magician drink
the feeling
the invisible palm
the absolute palm
the 4 queens
the coins into the glass
the Duvivier coin box
the deck that shuffles itself
the spontaneous trick
the wild card
the safety pins
Eddy Taytelbaum's dice
Persi of D
Johnny Paul's cups and balls
the flying carpet
$99.95 (DVD01088)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=8371&cat=0&page=1)
We can recognize masterpieces from the precision given to details: With Duvivier, we remain speechless in front of the structure of his performances based on a diabolical choreography naturally linking steps ahead of the audience. A great lesson. - David Stone
As a rocket, Dominique has been developing his very own spirit of Magic... Some of his favorite shows are called "INTIMISTE".... All of them are "state of the Art" and a great source of inspiration... This is just real Magic... - Gaëtan Bloom
One of the most creative thinkers and performers in magic. - Paul Gertner
Imagine a man whose aim in life is to help others lose their understanding of the world for a few moments, that man is Dominique Duvivier. My friend Dominique is like the spider; he spends his days spinning a powerful but invisible web of secrets and mysteries. Being trapped in his web is a privilege - he has been watching you with his 1000 eyes, knowing what you will think, understanding your next move before you do. He deceives you with his eight arms, reaching around the things you know and believe, approaching you from every side at the same moment. And when he goes in for the kill, there is no use in struggling, you will be fooled. You would be wise to be a little careful, smart to be a little afraid and correct to be very thankful that he chooses to share some of his deadly secrets with the rest of us. - Michael Weber
(7) Magic’s Most Amazing Stories – Compiled by Ivan Amodei: This book has no effects, no tricks to learn and no moves to master. Filled with inspiring, hilarious, gripping, remarkable and shocking stories for all!
Over 75 contributors, over 100 stories, beautifully illustrated, completely in full-color and over 250 pages of incredible stories, crazy facts, great anecdotes and fantastic tales about famous magicians of the past and present.
Magicians of the past and current magicians including: Houdini, Doug Henning, Dai Vernon, Larry Jennings, Charlie Miller, Tony Slydini, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Grippo, Martin Nash, Harry & Gay Blackstone, Billy McComb, Jeff Hobson, Mac King, Mike Finney, Dana Daniels, Tom Burgoon, Tom Ogden, Gazzo and so many more.
Reports from the road, at the airport, technical problems, hecklers, lost props, fire, animal mishaps and anything else you can think of is all here! Get an inside look to what happens to the pros while they travel and work in this exciting profession. Great entertainment and a fantastic read for the entire family.
You are going to love this book! 256 pages. Softbound. $24.95 (BK01689)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=1390&cat=0&page=1)
(8) Live From London, It’s Meir Yedid: Meir Yedid is the first person to ever win the Society of American Magicians' Close-Up Magic Championship more than once (1981 and 1988). His magic has been performed by many leading magicians. Many of the routines on this DVD have been used by Meir and others on stage, close-up, and on television. This is your opportunity to see him in action and experience his wacky style, creativity, and humor. This is a live one-hour lecture given in London, England.
As a special bonus the DVD also includes Meir's Stand-Up Pop-Jump routine which was originally released as a separate video.
Includes performances and explanations to:
• Hal Meyer's Laser Splice: A selected card is found by cutting it in half with a toy laser gun.
• Tip Top Aces: An impromptu card routine where four aces placed in four different parts of the deck rise to the top.
• W.O.W. Book Test II: A spectator thinks of the first word on a freely selected page and you reveal it with 100% accuracy.
• Cardinal Cards: A card's back and face are ripped off so it is blank on both sides. This new card, The Cardinal Card, is now used to turn six other cards into duplicates of itself.
• Zig-Zag Thumb: An impromptu finger trick where the center of your thumb vanishes leaving the tip and the base in full view.
• Card Marx: A twisting the aces type effect where the kicker ending has all the cards' backs change color and pictures of the Marx Brothers appear — proving that it was done with marked cards.
• Point The Way: The deck is spread to show that an arrow points to the selected card, which is the only odd backed card in the deck.
• Biting Sensations: A selected card is pulled out of the deck between your teeth as you bite a chunk out of the deck.
• Index Finger Vanish: A detailed explanation on how to make your index finger disappear.
• Stand-Up, Pop-Jump (originally released as a separate video): This is the quick, direct and visual routine that Meir uses to open all of his formal close-up shows. Four Queens are magically produced. Each Queen is then sandwiched between two face-down cards. One-at-a-time each Queen vanishes from between its cards and magically and visually appears in the center of the table. Your hands are repeatedly shown empty throughout the routine. This routine is a reputation maker.
Techniques explained within routines: Hamman Count, Flushtration Count, Vernon Strip-Out, Slip Force, Riffle Force, Meir Mix, Four Card Production, False Kick Cut, Zarrow-Biddle Steal, Longitudinal Steal, Utility Swipe, Unit Grip, and more. $29.95 (DVD01087)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9959&cat=0&page=1)
(9) Bamboozlers Vol. 2 - Diamond Jim Tyler:
The Second Book of Bankable Bar Betchas, Brain Bogglers, Belly Busters & Bewitchery. 75 more amazing and funny things with common objects found around the house or in a restaurant. It is a collection of bar bets, brain teasers, jokes, puzzles and magic effects that Diamond Jim Tyler has collected over the last 20 years. Many of the classics between these covers have been injected with DJ's own twists and sense of humor.
The book measures 3 by 5 inches, has a black faux leather-binding, has silver gilded edges, a black ribbon marker, etc. There are 75 effects, with 136 pages and over 100 illustrations.
The book was designed as a reference guide to fit in one's shirt or pants pocket when out for a fun night on the town.
Pages 136 - Leather Bound (Pocket Sized Book) $20.00 (BK01688)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=6750&cat=0&page=1)
(10) Reel Magic Episode 14 – Wayne Dobson:
Feature:
Wayne Dobson
Wayne Kawamoto talks with Dobson about how Multiple Sclerosis has affected his approach to magic, changed his career — and redirected his life
Daniel Garcia:
Part Two of Kozmo’s talk with Daniel at MAGIC Live! Daniel discusses working with David Blaine
Columns:
Small Things, Big Difference - Jon Armstrong:
Gambling moves for the non-gambler: Hand Mucking
Try This At Home - Garrett Thomas:
Practice Techniques for a better Top Change.
Kid Show FUNdamentals - David Kaye a.k.a. Silly Billy:
To look, but not to see.
Simon Said It! - Simon Lovell:
Perfectly, or not at all.
Be My Guest – Roy Kueppers
How to repair a bent shell.
Reel Comedy – David Kaye and Mac King
Reviews:
Tricks of the Trade - David Regal:
Tricks that scream “Merry Christmas” to me
Tricks:
Lonnie Chevrie – “Bob”
Bill Goodwin – “Hold The Mayo.”
Kenton Knepper – “Headache Free”
Move Monkeys:
Mike Patrick – “Cointality"
Miles Santoro – The Monkey Change"
Ryan Schlutz – “Pivotal Peel"
$9.95 (DVD01089)
(http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=9960&cat=0&page=1)
And, that’s this week’s Way Better Than Any Necktie Hotlist! Some great new items just for you! We all hope you have a great Christmas, and we look forward to a Happy and Healthy 2010! As always, I cannot thank you enough for taking time out of your busy schedules to visit us either online at www.magicfact.com or in person at 102 North Street in Medford (where we will be open the day after Christmas for your post-holiday shopping!)
Hank
