McBride Magic TV

Who’s got two thumbs and has a monthly spot on Jeff McBride’s McBride Magic TV? This guy, that’s who! Every Monday, there is a new live episode of McBride Magic TV. The first Monday of each month is a free episode hosted by Jeff McBride. In the past, Bryce Kuhlman hosted a review segment on the show. He has officially retired, and I’ve taken over the spot. Once a month, I’ll be reviewing a product in my segment called “Gems and Rubble.” Check out past episodes at the link above.

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. . . And The Winner Is . . .

Congratulations to Stephen Turner! He won this month’s drawing. As a winner, he receives a free copy of Liam Montier’s Ultimate Self-Working Card Tricks and a free DVD (or e-book) from Stone Cold Magic. Congratulations again Stephen! Stay tuned. There will be more upcoming contests and free drawings in the months to come.

The post Haunted Again – Oh My appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

The Challenge

I thought ya’ll might be interested in a challenge I gave myself. I’m putting together a new close up show (non-strolling). The challenge was to do create a complete act with absolutely no playing cards. Obviously, if you know me, I’m not anti-card tricks. I LOVE card tricks. And that’s why I decided to try to do a show without them. I wanted to push myself and challenge myself.

I put together several effects that I felt worked for my style and my requirements. Then I tested out a few of them the other day in a casual setting (Scarnecky and I hanging out at Chili’s). The effects went over well, but as I performed them, I realized that they are all essentially the same effect, namely predictions.

So I went home that night and scrapped about 4 or 5 effects from the set that I really wanted to keep. I cut them, however, because I want the show to be more magic and less “predictions.” Again, I have nothing against predictions, but one cannot do an entire show of predictions now can one. Plus, it’s been a long time since I’ve done “magic” (rather than mentalism).

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Meanwhile, enjoy the August 2012 issue!

The post The Challenge – No Card Tricks appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

Reviews

This past month, I’ve received nearly 50 items to review. I’m reviewing like a madman trying to keep up . . . Check out Magic Reviewed for the latest reviews.
Some of the highlights are The Sanchez Fly, The Ethereal Deck and Shared Dreams.
There are, of course, many others listed, so please dig around and search for the reviews you’re interested in.

The Show Doctor By Jeff McBride

Probably one of the best products I’ve received for review this month is McBride’s latest book, The Show Doctor. The official review is coming soon, but suffice it to say, if you don’t have this it’s a must have. The only person who doesn’t need this book in his/her library is Jeff McBride, and I would argue (and I think Jeff would agree with me) that even he needs it in his library.

Yes . . .

Believe it or not, I’m still working on a few projects . . . “the book” . . . and a couple of stand alone mentalism effects. Someday before I turn 438, I’ll release them.
Enjoy the July issue . . .

The post McBride and More Reviews appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

Back In Genii Again

It would appear that the folks at Genii Magazine are fans of my Frixion Work. The May Issue of Genii Magazine was the second time they asked if they could publish one of my effects. You can see (and buy) the issues here:

• January 2011 (The Houdini Tribute Issue): Burnin’ Time By Jeff Stone
• May 2012 (75th Anniversary Issue): Dropin’ The Bomb by Jeff Stone

The post Stone Cold Magic in Genii Magazine Again appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

You may notice a new section to the right called “paid ads.” These are links to Magic & Mentalism products for sale on other sites. Feel free to click on them and check them out. I personally have not purchased any of the products shown there, so I have not reviewed them. However, most (if not all) of them offer a money back guarantee. So take a peek.

Tome

I’ve been hard at work on my huge book for almost a year now (maybe even longer). I’m hoping to have it finished in about a month or 2, but you never know. It’s becoming so huge that I may have to split it into three volumes. Meanwhile, I’ve released another book to hold you over . . .

Palming The Tarot

This month I released my latest e-book, Palming The Tarot. Though this e-book is full of interesting information and background about palm reading, it is NOT meant to teach you all the ins and outs of Palm Reading. It’s meant to give you a basic overview of Palm Reading with some brief commentary and pointers on how to incorporate the info into your presentations.

I’m offering the book for an introductory price of $9.95 (normally $14.95) or if you haven’t already bought Tarot Below Zero/Spectral Chill already, you can get Palming The Tarot for free with the purchase of Tarot Below Zero/Spectral Chill. Additionally, if you decide to go this route, you’ll be getting Spectral/Tarot for $10 off.

In short, you get both books for only $15.00!

Get ’em Now! This prices go back to normal this Friday at Midnight (June 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM PST).

The post Brand New E-Book appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

Many of you may know Steve Brooks the founder of the Magic Cafe. Recently Steve’s home burned down and he lost his 6 year old son, Lucas in the fire. This is a tragedy I can’t even begin to fathom.

This painful loss is more than anyone should have to go through. I found out about this on the most recent issue of Reel Magic Magazine. Kozmo, a friend of Steve’s, pleaded for our support. He said to take the money you would have spent to renew your subscription to his magazine and donate it to help Steve’s family.

I’ll offer the same suggestion. Please take whatever money you were planning on spending on your next purchase and donate it to help Steve’s family.

Regardless of how you feel about the Magic Cafe, do the right thing and help out a suffering family. You can donate money here:

Steve Brooks Fund.

Any amount his helpful. Even if it’s only a few bucks.

The post Tragedy Strikes a Fellow Magician appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

Goodbye Gems and Rubble – Sort of

Over the years I’ve written several hundred reviews. Many of them are posted here on the e-zine site, and many are posted at My Lovely Assistant. Many of the reviews I’ve written are still unpublished. I typically release them a few at a time each month.

It’s gotten to the point where I have so many products to review and so many people sending me stuff to review that I’ve decided to dedicate an entire site to reviews alone. So for the past 2 weeks, I’ve lived and breathed web code. The result is a brand new site called Magic Reviewed. It’s got 272 reviews on it, 82 of which are live. More and more will go live each week.

Thus, the Gems and Rubble column here at Stone Cold Magic Magazine is officially retired. Over the next several weeks, the reviews will magically disappear from this site and reappear at Magic Reviewed. All of your comments, sadly, will die with the column. Thank you all for your participation in the column.

The post Good Bye To Gems and Rubble appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

Condolences to the Tom Loveridge Family

I’m truly saddened to announce the death of a friend and fellow magi, Tom Loveridge. Tom, a member of the IBM Ring #193 here in Salt Lake City, Utah passed away on Monday (2/6/12) on the day after his 58th birthday. He died during a routine surgery. He was just one of those downright nice guys and will be sorely missed by many. We offer our sincerest condolences to those left behind. You can read his obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scarnecky is Back!

You may remember about a year ago, Stone Cold Magic stopped carrying one of it’s best e-books, Room 538 by Brad “Scarnecky” Gordon . . .

When we dropped the product, I got some polite “hate” mail asking to bring it back. Many people expressed their disappointment that I was no longer carrying it and that it would be a while before Brad made it available again.

We retired it because at the time, Brad was planning on selling it on his site. However, over time, the focus of his site has changed, so even though I thought Room 538 would be gone forever, Brad has generously offered to let us bring it back to the Stone Cold Magic Family of products!

Because of the demand for it and because of the change in Brad’s focus on his site, we are welcoming back this smooth, serenely styled scroll with a 40% discount.

Get Room 538 Now for only $15 bucks!

This offer ends on Friday (2/17/12) at 11:58 PM PST

As always, however, don’t take my word for it.

Check out what people are saying about Scarnecky’s Super Smooth Room 538:

I envision exciting, excellent effects when employing Envisage by Brad Gordon. ‘Reveal Your Design’ is a particularly promising piece with pasteboards for psychic precognition and readings. Get this!
– Dale A. Hildebrandt

After reading through Toddler Pack, I was really exciting about your thinking behind it. I have 2 girls, a 3 year old and a 9 month old that would create a background perfect for this. Very clever thinking and such a charming, disarming premise to present this cool effect.
– Bosco L

This is great material. I really like the psychological side of what you are doing.
-Jason P

In this day and age, it’s near impossible to come up with a new idea using playing cards. Enter Brad Gordon!
– Don Theo III

Hey Mr. Scarnecky I realy love your material.
– Riley B

There is lots of (ready to drive) material here. You also have 2 or 3 things I can’t remember seeing anywhere else. Unique, a word so corrupted in our public-school culture, certainly applies (in its original dictionary meaning) to these effects. Direct and commercial.
– Kevin K “Magic Doc”

I just wanted to write and thank you for this most excellent book, I love the wallet reading idea and used it last night as it works beautifully with a routine I use with tarot cards. I love monk and found bold matches very clever too, thank you.
– Dean D

I bought Envisage for the Wallet Readings, which I think is an excellent idea! But the Toddler Pack and Reveal Your Design are also great pieces. I rarely find ONE idea in a manuscript that I will use, in Envisage I found THREE!
– Ben Salinas

Luck of Astonishment (windfall): Being an avid Paul Harris fan (I have a framed picture of him under my pillow) I really enjoyed this creative add-on from Brad. Those familiar with PH’s effect “Shape of Astonishment” will really want to try this Scarnecky variation on an audience, and that I did. I must admit, I had never tried the original PH effect, but when done with a “twist of Scarnecky” there was a delightful TANG to the effect which left a bitter-sweet taste in my wife’s mouth. Not sure about others thoughts, but there is an almost spiritual mystery about foil and imprinting objects within it.
– Kambiz

The Butterflower: Very artistic. Zen-like simplicity and beauty
– Sean Waters

Remember gang. . . this welcome back price ends next week.

Order it Now.

This offer expires on Friday (2/17/12) at 11:59 PM PST

Win Free Magic Without Buying Stuff

In an effort to further encourage participation in the Magazine, we’re implementing a brand new contest/drawing. We’ll try it out for the month of February and see how it goes. The February winner gets a Karl Fulves three pack of books:

• Self-Working Mental Magic
• Self-Working Coin Magic: 92 Foolproof Tricks
• Self-Working Handkerchief Magic

The game is simple: post comments on the articles for this month (or any past month). For every substantive post that you make, you’re name will be entered into a drawing. At the end of the month (on 3/1/12), a drawing for the three pack of books will be held. The more comments you make (must be posted before 2/29/12 11:59 PM PST), the more chances you have to win.

The post must be meaningful and contribute to the discussion. Simple statements of agreement or disagreement will not suffice. That’s it. Good luck to all. By the way, I own my own personal copy of each of these Fulves books, and they’re excellent, particularly the Mental Magic one . . . there is a ton of stuff that you’ll use.

Good luck folks! Enjoy The February 2012 Issue of Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

The post Monthly Prizes, Return of Scarnecky and The Loss of a Friend appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.

What a headline . . . but it’s true. I entered my effect Quarter Bird into the MagicSeen magazine Master Class Contest. If you liked that effect then vote for me. Of course, to keep things fair, here are my competitors, so if you like their effects better, then vote for them:

From Magicseen Magazine Issue 42:

All the entries for the Masterclass Award 2011 have now been published and we need you, dear Readers, to help us to decide which of the contributions is worthy of receiving the framed Masterclass Award 2011 certificate and the £250 cash prize.

Below you will find listed the entries – what we would like you to do is to send your top 3 favourites, in a 1-2-3 order, via email to markleveridge@magicseen.co.uk. We will then use the votes to help us to declare the winner in the next issue. Your vote must reach us no later than Friday 20th January 2012, and there is only one vote allowed per person. So get your vote in now!

• Pene-sational – Ian Adair (issue 37)
• It’s Right Ear – Michael J. Fitch (issue 37)
• Time Is Of The Essence – Marc Spelmann (issue 38)
• Bullet Catcher – John Bannon (issue 38)
• X-Change Of Mind – Mark Townsend (issue 38)
• 4 Coin Production – Damian Surr (issue 39)
• 1992 – Mike Gancia (issue 39)
• A Fine Chance – Wayne Fox (issue 40)
• Quarter Bird – Jeff Stone (issue 41)
• Spectator-Cut Christ Aces – Paul Gordon (issue 42)
• The Sugar Routine – Dave Bonsall (issue 42)

Free Copies of Magicseen magazine

If you’d like a free issue of Magicseen Magazine, email me your mailing address with the subject line of “Free Magicseen Magazine.” The first three emails will be sent a free copy, courtesy of Lybrary.com

2012 Free Tricks

What Do Max Maven, Paul Harris, David Acer, Wayne Dobson, Larry Hass, Jay Sankey and Steve Beam have in common? Answer: Every single one of them have offered a free trick of the month for the year 2012! That’s right, in upcoming issues, you’ll be learning Free magic from Paul Harris, Max Maven, and all the rest of the gang listed above! As you might have noticed already, we’ve started of January with David Acer’s effect, Ghost In The Machine.

Thank you all for your loyal readership! Enjoy January 2012

The post Free Stuff! appeared first on Stone Cold Magic Magazine.