Donny Orbit, Mona Lisa, Spiritualism, The Plot Thickens

Inside the Head of Donny Orbit (MSRP: $20.00)
Reviewed By Jeff Stone

I reviewed Donny’s book many many moons ago. I did in the early days of my blog when I thought that I’d be keeping reviews on there.

However, now that I’ve decided to keep all of my reviews in the Magazine, I figured I go ahead re publish this review for those who missed it the first go-round.

Below is a highlight of some of the effects along with some of my thoughts on them. First are the effects copied exactly as found in the e-book:

SUPERMAN - A drawing of a lump of coal is squeezed in the magicians hand where it changes to a drawing of a diamond! The drawing then becomes a REAL DIAMOND!

FUTURE BURN – A spectator chooses any finger on a drawing of a hand. The magician opens a sealed envelope and reveals that he correctly predicted which finger would be chosen. Then he reveals a REAL BLISTER on his own corresponding finger!

SOUPED CAN – Two selected cards are lost into the pack. Both cards are then found through a random number offered by the spectators. The cards are lost for a second time and the spectators proceed to find both cards with the deck in their own hands!

JUST IN CASE – Three cards are chosen and returned to the pack. One card appears under the card case but, it’s the wrong card. With a snap, another card appears under the case and this time, it IS a selection! Then, the first ‘wrong’ card changes into a selection and finally the whole deck appears under the card case except for the final selection!

FOILED – The magician demonstrates how an impression of a coin can be made in tin foil. Then he proceeds to ‘mint’ a second coin right out of the mold! Cautioning that it is a fake he then SCREWS THE COIN INTO A TIN FOIL BALL AND HANDS IT OUT FOR EXAMINATION!

CHERRY THING - The stalk of a cherry is plucked from the fruit and knotted in the magicians mouth! The knotted stalk is then magically.

My Thoughts:

Superman:
I love this idea! I love it for several reasons. First, I’m a huge Superman/Smallville fan, so the name alone wins points. I really dig the presentational hook of being able to use superhuman strength to accomplish something, then having the drawing change, then having it change into something real.

There are so many moments of magic that are happening here. I’m guessing that the method was inspired by Jay Sankey’s effect from Secret Files called “What if?”

I liked the effect from Jay, but I never saw the potential of using that method for any other effect. Now that I’ve seen Donny’s idea, my mind has been opened to the thought of “what else can be done with that method?”

Future Burn:
Yet another cool idea. One thing that mentalism lacks is a visual element. This effect takes mentalism and adds some visual and psuedo-mind-over-matter stuff by causing your skin to “grow a blister” or a burn mark. They freak out, “Hey he knew which finger I would choose.” But then they reaaaaaly freak out, “Hey, he has a REAL burn on that same finger!!!!!!!!!”

Foiled:
Excellent presentation. This is the kind of stuff that I like, a premise that borders on being credible sort of psuedo science that will capture people’s attention.

Cherry Thing:
A torn and restored cherry stem (sort of). Who woulda thought. Very cool. I love how organic and natural this is. During the summer, we always get fresh cherries, so I’m going to have to try this one.

I’m actually pretty good at the whole knot the stem in the mouth thing, and I always do it when there are cherries around, so this will be a nice addition to it. It’ll be like this: “Oh look, Jeff’s showing off again by tying a knot with his tongue. We see it every year… holy crap, did he just reattach that to the cherry!”

Probably my favorite thing about this book fits well with the title “Inside the Head of Donny Orbit.” I really got to see how he thinks about things. That was cool. I also love the presentations he comes up with. That shows a guy who’s a real worker who’s worked for real humans (not magicians).

GEM. Available as a Saddle-Stitched book from your favorite dealer or as an e-book from Lybrary.com.

Mona Lisa’s Secret (MSRP: $26.00)
Reviewed by Jeff Stone

I hate packet tricks! You pull out a packet of gimmicked cards and do something with them; then you put them away, and people say, “can I look at those” and you say, “don’t be retarded… of course not!” Yet, I, Jeff Stone, open just about every close up strolling set with Max Maven’s B’Wav… I’m so conflicted!

So I get “Mona Lisa’s Secret” in the mail and open the package and think that it’s going to be some cheesy printed pictures of art work and some silly routine with a bunch of stupid counting and displays and illogical non-sense… boy is my face red!

This trick Rocks. The effect is simple and straight-forward (more on that in a moment), and has huge presentational potential. On top of that, the cards are beautifully made. They look like canvas paintings, yet they are the same size and texture as Bicycle playing cards… it’s a thing of beauty. It’s $26.00 smackers which you might think is a little high for a packet trick, but when you see the cards, you’ll realize that you got a screamin’ deal.

I’m tempted to buy another set and put the cards into teeny frames and hang them up in my office right next to my shirtless photos of Siegfried and Roy. I hope I didn’t say that out loud!

So here’s the effect in a nut shell: A card is “picked” (if you know what I mean). Four pictures of famous pieces of art are shown (little card-sized pieces of art). One of them is the Mona Lisa. A moment later the Mona Lisa is shown to be holding a playing card which turns out to be the selection.

At first glance, I thought this was just an above-average trick. However, a few moments before writing this review, I had a cool presentational idea that I will be using in my close up work. Sorry, I won’t be sharing that idea… But those who know me, know this… I don’t do packet tricks, so if I’m going to be adding a packet trick to my repertoire, it has to be kick-butt, and this is.

As for the package, you get: A zip lock baggie with the cards you need, plus a few extras so you can change out the “selection” for each performance if you’d like, and you can change the color of the back of the card in the picture… either red or blue. The cards come with a small envelope-style vinyl wallet and full color four page instruction booklet. The instructions are simple and clear.

At the end of the instructions you’ll find some basic info and background on each painting to spark presentational ideas. I see no downside to this one gang. If you like packet tricks (or even if you hate them more than you hate watching Barney do the Hokey Pokey) this is one you’ll want to give some serious consideration to.

GEM!!! Available from Card-Shark.de.

Donna Zuckerbrot’s Spiritualism – The Fox Sisters (MSRP: $20.00)
Reviewed By Jeff Stone

If you’ve read my past reviews about Zukerbrot films, you know I’ll be recommending you drop the $20.00 bones on this one as well. She is the Queen of Documentary on The Fascinating.

In this film, we get a peek at the history and story of the Fox Sisters, the “founders” of the modern spiritualism movement.

As always, we are presented with Interviews from both skeptics and believers. These Zukerbrot films… as amazing and incredible as they are, it’s tough to write a review that does them justice. The best way I can describe is that it’s like watching the history channel for magicians. Just stop reading and fork over the dough.

GEM! Available from your favorite magic dealer.

Oliver Meech’s The Plot Thickens (MSRP: $22.00)
Reviewed By Jeff Stone

“Can you convince someone that they’ve vanished? Paul Harris posed this intriguing question in ‘Nowhere Man’ in The Art of Astonishment Book 3 and it set me thinking. This is the routine that I came up with. I’m sure there are more tricks waiting to be developed using his novel plot.”

How’s that for the opening statement of a trick? Oliver Meech’s book is a top quality production. The above quote is from his effect Invisible Man, the first effect in the book. The premise of the book is that Oliver wants to focus on new or largely untapped plots. His basic thesis is that we spend plenty of time on method and presentational ideas in the published works of today, so focus on new effects instead.

This is quite an ambitious goal. Whether he acheived that goal or not I’ll leave up to you. And you should make a decision which means I think you should buy this book. The effects are great, and the methods are even better. On top of that Oliver really has fun with his readers.

Each effect, Oliver gives the “spectator” a different name. The name is somehow linked to the effect. Part of your job as the reader is to find the link. Don’t fret. If you give up, the answers are in the back. He also takes the time to explain a few minor language differences between the UK and US… for example, in the U.K. what I would call a soda is called a “Fizzy Drink.”

Also, Oliver is a lefty (no wonder he’s brilliant). Knowing, however, that his main readership would likely be righties, he mirror-imaged all the photos to properly reflect a righty’s perspective. The whole production is very thoughtful and thought provoking, and it’s clear he took the time to devlop this properly. He also does an excellent job with credits.

So… let me give you a sense of what’s going on in Oliver’s head. He has an effect called “Touching Transposition.” This effect is a transposition of two objects (a coin and a sugar cube). However, rather than using a visual illusion, he uses a tactile illusion. The audience actually feels the sugar cube in his hand as it’s vanishing… It’s very strange and very clever.

There are just a ton of great ideas in this book, and the writing style and thinking is just plain different from a lot of what we see today in the magic market. It’s worth picking up just for that.

DEFINITE GEM! Available from your favorite magic dealer or directly from Oliver’s Site.