What did YOU miss this weekend? Chances are, you didn’t go to the Tenyo Festival in Japan. Might have been busy. Prior engagements. Or the whole THOUSANDS of miles of distance between the festival and your home. It’s okay! I didn’t go either. Something about having a brain injury and being mostly homebound. But if you haven’t seen the new 4 Tenyo being released, you are wrong. Check out THIS THREAD and make yourself right again.
So. Theory11 released ‘Invisible Card’ last week; and last week we reviewed Tenyo’s ‘Ghost Card’. To keep up with the invisible…ghosty-ish theme; Ghost Lamp! Why not?
GHOST LAMP
Inventor: Scotty York
Year: 2015
Cost: $30-$75
Type of Effect: 1st effect: ‘Impossible feat’ + card production. 2nd effect: ‘impossible feat’
Skill Level: Beginner
CONTENTS:
- 1 Tiny light bulb
- 1 deck of cards
EFFECT #1: You, the magician, present a deck of cards and have your audience pick 1 card. They memorize it and put it back in the deck. You then shuffle the deck and separate it into 4 piles. You then hand the member a light bulb and place it inside a handkerchief. The member then waves the handkerchief over each pile until the light bulb activates all on its own!
You then take the top card off that pile and it’s the selected card that the audience chose!
EFFECT #2: After the selected card has been found, you turn off the light bulb by using scissors/hand in the shape of scissors’ and ‘cut the lights’.
REVIEW:
Before we go ANYWHERE in this review, you must understand this: You are NOT buying a trick to show others in passing. This is not a quick trick, it’s rather lengthy. In fact, of all the Tenyo I own—and actually KNOW of, this is one of the LONGEST Tenyo routines. Sure you can string 2-3 Tenyo together and make one BIG routine, but Ghost Lamp is a routine that comes right out of the box!
That’s what you’re buying here: a ROUTINE. Not a trick! A self-contained routine.
That said, with the knowledge that you’re working with a routine, I believe we can write off some scenarios in which that this could be used. And results may vary, but I’m going to call that strolling and impromptu are out the door. I say ‘results may vary’ because I’m approximating that, if you’re strolling, you have less than 5 minutes with someone or a group of people. On top of that, you need to also carry a pair of scissors, carry the deck, light bulb, and handkerchief. Play big, it will. But can your pockets afford the room for ONE trick that requires a reset?
As far as the whole ‘LONGEST Tenyo routine’ goes. The whole shebang, at the very minimum of just stating the obvious of what the props are doing or what has just been done, will take you AT LEAST two minutes to do.
The video on Youtube clocks it in less than a minute, but they cut out all the boring stuff. ‘Ghost Lamp’ will take you a couple minutes to pull off comfortably.
Throw in your own creative patter and routine and you could EASILY stretch this to 5-6 minutes. In terms of a routine, that’s pretty good milage for a show.
And it’s at this point in the review that I realize that we haven’t covered the PROPS! Oh noes!
We have two dissimilar items here: A light bulb…and a deck of cards. And they are forced to work together in a magical way. In fact, if you do some searching around, there are A LOT of ‘find card with___noun___’ effects out there. Seems to be the thing to do. I’m even working on an impromptu effect that has the audience find a chosen card with a roman candle.
So far it’s been noisy. I’ve set off some car alarms, acquired a couple of noise complaints. And our H.O.A. has me on an ‘on notice’ list.
BUT I’M DETERMINED!
In that respect, what makes ‘Ghost Lamp’ different? Better? Or what?
First of all, I believe that yes, you are working with two dissimilar items, but they are rather ‘organic’ items. Who wouldn’t recognize a deck of cards (magicians trademark) and a light bulb (something virtually everyone except the Amish have in their homes)?
The motif of a possessed light bulb finding a chosen card lends itself to a LOT of presentation versatility. You can go one way and make it silly and lighthearted. Go the other way and you practically have a séance.
Then again, a ghost who has managed to ‘make it to the other side’ and does nothing but inhabit a tiny light bulb with the sole purpose of finding selected cards; gives me the impression that the ghost in question is a delightfully mischievous gambler. But since all it wants to do is predict cards, I am diagnosing some obsessive compulsive disorder.
Regardless of the past life of the ghost, its mental health issues, and probable lack of medication; the lamp does its job and does it well. Since we’re working with, what is sold as a ‘toy’ in Japan, you’re not working with a glass bulb. The one here is plastic. And it lights up like crazy when it works!
Let’s get to brass tacks. You’re not working with a lot.
A deck…And a bulb.
Both WILL work without a hitch (a deck is a deck. And the lightbulb works when its supposed to), but you MUST READ the instructions carefully. This isn’t something that works right out of the box. Dare I say, you must READ and HEED.
You need to be patient and experiment with the parameters that the instructions tell you to. If you already know some card-work, even better, you could probably get this thing to work within half an hour. For the rest of us, like me, who don’t know much about cards other than ‘if the cards have letters in them, you’re holding a good hand’; you’re going to need to read the instructions some more and learn, learn, learn. Again, you need to be patient and you need to follow the instructions. Yet again, you are working with an entire ROUTINE, not an ‘instant results’ trick.
Not a whole lot else I can say without exposing it. But I will say that there is a storage issue involved with the props you get.
I paid about $40 for the darn thing. I baby the thing like it’s one of those blown-glass animals.
But even in consideration of what you paid for it—read the instructions. There is a bit of a storage issue. Doesn’t make a WHOLE LOT of sense now. But when, and if you get it, you’ll say, ‘Oh man, Hurley was right!’
Don’t worry, you don’t need a modified humidor to carry it around in. It’s really not that big of a deal; more of a ‘nature of the beast’ sort of things.
On top of that, I don’t like it when you have to provide other props; MUCH LESS portable props in order to make the trick work. In this case, a pair of scissors for the second effect to turn the light off. You CAN work around that, but you’ll have to go a bit ‘beyond the instructions’ for that.
And the price! Oh dear! The price. If you look on virtually any American magic site, Ghost Lamp goes for quite a hefty chunk of change. Go to Ebay, look up some Japanese sellers; you can get it for under 40 and that’s the best you can do. ‘Ghost Lamp’ is one of the more expensive Tenyo you’re going to come across. It’s just inherently expensive. But I bet in about 5 years, you’ll be lucky to get your hands on one. Just saying.
I’m not sure as to WHY its so expensive. ‘Ghost Lamp’ is RARELY spoken of in Tenyo circles and I don’t understand why prices on it on American magic sites have the price SO HIGH.
So, is ‘Ghost Lamp’ worth it? At least for around $40 bucks?
The trick itself is good. Lengthy, but good. It depends on the medium of magic that you wish to perform for. Impromptu? Get away from ‘Ghost Lamp’. You do close-up shows? Go right after it. It’s the lack of this sort of versatility that makes it hard for me to recommend overall, and it’s more of a case-by-case basis.
Overall, it’s rather easy to work once you get the mechanics of the card work down and it performs as advertised!
However, this is considering that you are willing to accept the limitations of it being a rather lengthy effect. It’s limitations on how and where you can perform this. The fact that it’s not the quickest to learn trick on the world. And that you’ll have to be patient with working at it.
When you accept these, you are left with an effect that lends itself to presentation versatility and length that can work for almost every age group (we had a guy on the Tenyo forums use it at a kids birthday show last year to amazingly positive response. A card prediction with kids?! Get outta here!).
But because of its higher price than other Tenyo, I’d advise that, if you’re considering this, make sure that this is something you’ll actually use in your repertoire and not because it ‘looks cool’. I’d hate for anyone to read what I write and make a purchase they would later regret.
So. Theory11 released ‘Invisible Card’ last week; and last week we reviewed Tenyo’s ‘Ghost Card’. To keep up with the invisible…ghosty-ish theme; Ghost Lamp! Why not?
GHOST LAMP
Inventor: Scotty York
Year: 2015
Cost: $30-$75
Type of Effect: 1st effect: ‘Impossible feat’ + card production. 2nd effect: ‘impossible feat’
Skill Level: Beginner
CONTENTS:
- 1 Tiny light bulb
- 1 deck of cards
EFFECT #1: You, the magician, present a deck of cards and have your audience pick 1 card. They memorize it and put it back in the deck. You then shuffle the deck and separate it into 4 piles. You then hand the member a light bulb and place it inside a handkerchief. The member then waves the handkerchief over each pile until the light bulb activates all on its own!
You then take the top card off that pile and it’s the selected card that the audience chose!
EFFECT #2: After the selected card has been found, you turn off the light bulb by using scissors/hand in the shape of scissors’ and ‘cut the lights’.
REVIEW:
Before we go ANYWHERE in this review, you must understand this: You are NOT buying a trick to show others in passing. This is not a quick trick, it’s rather lengthy. In fact, of all the Tenyo I own—and actually KNOW of, this is one of the LONGEST Tenyo routines. Sure you can string 2-3 Tenyo together and make one BIG routine, but Ghost Lamp is a routine that comes right out of the box!
That’s what you’re buying here: a ROUTINE. Not a trick! A self-contained routine.
That said, with the knowledge that you’re working with a routine, I believe we can write off some scenarios in which that this could be used. And results may vary, but I’m going to call that strolling and impromptu are out the door. I say ‘results may vary’ because I’m approximating that, if you’re strolling, you have less than 5 minutes with someone or a group of people. On top of that, you need to also carry a pair of scissors, carry the deck, light bulb, and handkerchief. Play big, it will. But can your pockets afford the room for ONE trick that requires a reset?
As far as the whole ‘LONGEST Tenyo routine’ goes. The whole shebang, at the very minimum of just stating the obvious of what the props are doing or what has just been done, will take you AT LEAST two minutes to do.
The video on Youtube clocks it in less than a minute, but they cut out all the boring stuff. ‘Ghost Lamp’ will take you a couple minutes to pull off comfortably.
Throw in your own creative patter and routine and you could EASILY stretch this to 5-6 minutes. In terms of a routine, that’s pretty good milage for a show.
And it’s at this point in the review that I realize that we haven’t covered the PROPS! Oh noes!
We have two dissimilar items here: A light bulb…and a deck of cards. And they are forced to work together in a magical way. In fact, if you do some searching around, there are A LOT of ‘find card with___noun___’ effects out there. Seems to be the thing to do. I’m even working on an impromptu effect that has the audience find a chosen card with a roman candle.
So far it’s been noisy. I’ve set off some car alarms, acquired a couple of noise complaints. And our H.O.A. has me on an ‘on notice’ list.
BUT I’M DETERMINED!
In that respect, what makes ‘Ghost Lamp’ different? Better? Or what?
First of all, I believe that yes, you are working with two dissimilar items, but they are rather ‘organic’ items. Who wouldn’t recognize a deck of cards (magicians trademark) and a light bulb (something virtually everyone except the Amish have in their homes)?
The motif of a possessed light bulb finding a chosen card lends itself to a LOT of presentation versatility. You can go one way and make it silly and lighthearted. Go the other way and you practically have a séance.
Then again, a ghost who has managed to ‘make it to the other side’ and does nothing but inhabit a tiny light bulb with the sole purpose of finding selected cards; gives me the impression that the ghost in question is a delightfully mischievous gambler. But since all it wants to do is predict cards, I am diagnosing some obsessive compulsive disorder.
Regardless of the past life of the ghost, its mental health issues, and probable lack of medication; the lamp does its job and does it well. Since we’re working with, what is sold as a ‘toy’ in Japan, you’re not working with a glass bulb. The one here is plastic. And it lights up like crazy when it works!
Let’s get to brass tacks. You’re not working with a lot.
A deck…And a bulb.
Both WILL work without a hitch (a deck is a deck. And the lightbulb works when its supposed to), but you MUST READ the instructions carefully. This isn’t something that works right out of the box. Dare I say, you must READ and HEED.
You need to be patient and experiment with the parameters that the instructions tell you to. If you already know some card-work, even better, you could probably get this thing to work within half an hour. For the rest of us, like me, who don’t know much about cards other than ‘if the cards have letters in them, you’re holding a good hand’; you’re going to need to read the instructions some more and learn, learn, learn. Again, you need to be patient and you need to follow the instructions. Yet again, you are working with an entire ROUTINE, not an ‘instant results’ trick.
Not a whole lot else I can say without exposing it. But I will say that there is a storage issue involved with the props you get.
I paid about $40 for the darn thing. I baby the thing like it’s one of those blown-glass animals.
But even in consideration of what you paid for it—read the instructions. There is a bit of a storage issue. Doesn’t make a WHOLE LOT of sense now. But when, and if you get it, you’ll say, ‘Oh man, Hurley was right!’
Don’t worry, you don’t need a modified humidor to carry it around in. It’s really not that big of a deal; more of a ‘nature of the beast’ sort of things.
On top of that, I don’t like it when you have to provide other props; MUCH LESS portable props in order to make the trick work. In this case, a pair of scissors for the second effect to turn the light off. You CAN work around that, but you’ll have to go a bit ‘beyond the instructions’ for that.
And the price! Oh dear! The price. If you look on virtually any American magic site, Ghost Lamp goes for quite a hefty chunk of change. Go to Ebay, look up some Japanese sellers; you can get it for under 40 and that’s the best you can do. ‘Ghost Lamp’ is one of the more expensive Tenyo you’re going to come across. It’s just inherently expensive. But I bet in about 5 years, you’ll be lucky to get your hands on one. Just saying.
I’m not sure as to WHY its so expensive. ‘Ghost Lamp’ is RARELY spoken of in Tenyo circles and I don’t understand why prices on it on American magic sites have the price SO HIGH.
So, is ‘Ghost Lamp’ worth it? At least for around $40 bucks?
The trick itself is good. Lengthy, but good. It depends on the medium of magic that you wish to perform for. Impromptu? Get away from ‘Ghost Lamp’. You do close-up shows? Go right after it. It’s the lack of this sort of versatility that makes it hard for me to recommend overall, and it’s more of a case-by-case basis.
Overall, it’s rather easy to work once you get the mechanics of the card work down and it performs as advertised!
However, this is considering that you are willing to accept the limitations of it being a rather lengthy effect. It’s limitations on how and where you can perform this. The fact that it’s not the quickest to learn trick on the world. And that you’ll have to be patient with working at it.
When you accept these, you are left with an effect that lends itself to presentation versatility and length that can work for almost every age group (we had a guy on the Tenyo forums use it at a kids birthday show last year to amazingly positive response. A card prediction with kids?! Get outta here!).
But because of its higher price than other Tenyo, I’d advise that, if you’re considering this, make sure that this is something you’ll actually use in your repertoire and not because it ‘looks cool’. I’d hate for anyone to read what I write and make a purchase they would later regret.
