A little bit about me so you understand why I give a trick/book a certain review. I have done magic for about 6 years and perform regularly at a restaurant so I can be called a semi-pro but that's all semantics.
So I am going to give you the table of contents of the book so that you can read the effects yourself and determine whether you would like to purchase the effect/book or not. I am mostly a book guy so it depends if you are willing to put in the time to read the effects when you can easily pick up the DVD teaching similar if not the same exact thing.
Here we go: There might be typos or things that are not easily understood so do not hesitate to PM me.
Introduction: by Jon Allen
Chapter 1: The I.B.M Competition Act
The Big Cig: A two-foot-long solid cigarette is produced from a borrowed jacket.
Travelex: A metal coat hanger vanishes and changes places with three coins
Isolated Isosceles: A clinically clean three-coin Matrix routine
Triumphinity: A Triumph routine where the cards are genuinely mixed face up and face down-they even get shuffled by an audience member
Gluteus Prediction: A funny sight gag precedes an audience member discovering she has been sitting on a card, one which matches a card she picked earlier.
Ring in Party Popper: A borrowed finger ring vanishes and reappears inside a part popper that has been sitting on the table from the beginning of the act.
Chapter 2: Close-up and Walkaround Magic
Ghost: An animated bill routine where the bill is in a cup and the spectator holds the cup. The bill then starts to animate itself and flies out of the cup to land into your other hand!
Freddy’s Dead: A rope routine where three different lengths of rope all become the same length and then all change back slowly and visually.
Citizen Cane: A transposition of brown and white sugar inside their sealed packets.
Striking Ring Switch: After a borrowed ring vanishes, you try to return a cheap costume ring to the owner- however, it is clearly a different ring. You then visibly change it into the borrowed ring.
The Hole: After doing a little puzzle with them, you proceed to push a pen through a borrowed coin!
Unique Coin Bend: A coin bend in their hand.
Weird Science: A spoon bending effect where you contort the spoon handle into different positions and then have them inspect the impossible object!
True Lies: Restoring a rubberband that is actually broken.
E.T.: A simple and direct ring on rubberband effect combined with an effective broken and restored band for a climax.
Burning Rubber: A routine with rubber bands that consists of separate effects.:
Wrist Band: A rubber band penetrates your wrist
Band-It: You penetrate the two rubber bands thus linking them.
Crazy Man’s Handcuffs: The bands are unlinked once in your hands
The finger: The rubber bands unlink while audience members hold on to one of the bands.
Snap Back: More of a stunt- you quickly return the rubber band around your wrist using only one hand.
Wristoration: You break a rubber band and restore it around the participant’s wrist leaving the band for hr to wear forever.
Palm-up Bill Switch: The transformation is both instantaneous and visual. They see the bill change as they see your empty hands manipulate the bill palms up.
Inner Space: Spirits leave a message on a Post-it note inside the bill
Oralgami: A cool way to justify the folding of the paper which has some things written on it.
Chapter 3: Card Tricks
High Society: The person thinks of a card. You then throw the pack up to the ceiling and only one card adheres to the ceiling. Their thought of card.
Thought-of Card in Envelope: They think of a card. You then come out with some envelopes and tell them that if you are wrong you will give them the money that is inside which they can see through the window of the envelope. You then have them sign the envelope. You then proceed to tell them the wrong card. You then tell them that they deserve the money but when they turn over their signed envelope they see that their card is inside the sealed envelope which they can keep as a souvenir!
One Trick Two Names: A red card is placed aside and a card is selected from a blue deck. They sign it. You then turn over the card that is on the table and it is the signed card!
Executive Decision: The cards are dealt randomly into piles, yet the colors are separated. This variation does not require a table.
1709 Walkabout: Two selected cards magically fuse together to form an oddity that we know to be the double-faced card.
The Wedding Trick: You ask the couple to write down on a post-it note what attracted them to the other person at first. You then ask one of them to deal the cards face down into a pile. You then ask the other person to tell their mate when to stop. When they stop place one of the post it notes on top of the pile. You do this again with the couple switching places. The other one deals and the other one says stop. You then place the post it note on the pile. You then spread through the cards and they see that two cards have come together. The post-it notes have been adhered to cards that have their name! A true impossibility as to how hard it is to find the right person when their are so many people out there.
Out of Sight: A card is reversed in the deck, and by studying all the other cards you are able to calculate what the reversed card is!
Against All Odds: An audience member finds the one odd card in a deck by spelling the name of a thought-of person!
Lucky Card: While letting a participant pick a lucky card for herself, you explain that you have your own lucky card- a card, which you display, that literally saved your life by stopping a bullet. Uncannily, your lucky card and the participant’s randomly chosen card match!
The Usual Suspects: Involves a deck of cards with people’s names written on the back of each card. They select a card and you tell them the name of the card is Susy! They look confused but then you show them that each card has a name written on it. You then show that the card they choose is indeed named Susy!
Force of Nature: This is similar to the effect above the but the name that is chosen bears the name of the person who chose the card!
Drop Zone: An imaginary deck of cards and coins become real and then revert back to their imaginary states.
Chapter 4: Stand-up Magic
Grabbit Production: Produce a full bottle from a balloon.
Signal Strength: A routine where you take their cell phone and place it into a large envelope. You then mix it up amongst other envelopes and you then hammer three of the envelopes. You ask someone in the audience to call the cell phone and it begins to ring. You open up the last envelope and show that you have not destroyed their cell phone!
World’s Funniest Joke: You show five envelopes and have them determine the order of the envelopes. You then tell them that inside the envelopes are words that form a joke. You then open up the envelopes and say the joke in perfect order!
Credit Cut: You take some ones credit card and place it in an envelope. You then mix it up amongst the other envelopes. You cut up two of the envelopes leaving only one envelope- the one that contains their credit card!
White Noise: Predicting a headline from a newspaper!
Section 2- Moves, Sequences & Bits of Business
Chapter 5: Cards
Basil: A false multiple packet false cut
The Four Musketeers: The deck is given a triple cut and four Aces appear face up in four separate parts of the deck,
Out of Your Brain: This is a presentational conceit or rationale for switching sides halfway through the dealing procedure in Paul Curry’s “Out of this World.”
Invisible Palm Finale: Jon’s goal was to either eliminate the use of the deck, justify the introduction at that late stage, or use it in a way that is completely deceptive. Here is a combination of all three.
Chapter 6: Miscellaneous
Twins: You borrow a lighter, and with a loud crack, split it into two, producing a replica, which you then proceed to use.
Helicopter Band: A flourish to do with a rubber band.
Latex Genie: You have a balloon that you semi-fill up so that it is bulbous at the bottom. You then take another balloon that is not filled up and stick it inside the bulbous balloon. You then let go of the bulbous balloon and it just dangles their impossibly! The thin balloon is somehow holding the other balloon up. You then take it out and show everything to be normal.
Push Through Move: A ball is dropped into the fist and seems to penetrate the bottom of a cup in a Cups and Balls routine.
Ring off String Move: What it says
Tipless Bill Switch Holdout: A holdout without using a thumbtip.
Coins Across Finale: A way to secretly load a coin into her hand.
Section 3-Taking Things Further
Chapter 7: Presentations & Thoughts on a Few Plots- no effects-just thoughts on multiple things.
Now, the effects as described are how the audience sees the effect. Not you. So be wary of that.
Overall, this book is HIGHLY recommended. This book is mostly non-card and the card material is very good as well. As you can see, there is some stand-up material as well. This book is very much worth every penny I spent on it, and became one of my favorite books overnight. One of those underground and probably overlooked, this book is for those that like to do magic with things mostly other than cards. The difficulty level is advanced beginner and intermediate. Some things (technically speaking) can be done as soon as you read the method.
So I am going to give you the table of contents of the book so that you can read the effects yourself and determine whether you would like to purchase the effect/book or not. I am mostly a book guy so it depends if you are willing to put in the time to read the effects when you can easily pick up the DVD teaching similar if not the same exact thing.
Here we go: There might be typos or things that are not easily understood so do not hesitate to PM me.
Introduction: by Jon Allen
Chapter 1: The I.B.M Competition Act
The Big Cig: A two-foot-long solid cigarette is produced from a borrowed jacket.
Travelex: A metal coat hanger vanishes and changes places with three coins
Isolated Isosceles: A clinically clean three-coin Matrix routine
Triumphinity: A Triumph routine where the cards are genuinely mixed face up and face down-they even get shuffled by an audience member
Gluteus Prediction: A funny sight gag precedes an audience member discovering she has been sitting on a card, one which matches a card she picked earlier.
Ring in Party Popper: A borrowed finger ring vanishes and reappears inside a part popper that has been sitting on the table from the beginning of the act.
Chapter 2: Close-up and Walkaround Magic
Ghost: An animated bill routine where the bill is in a cup and the spectator holds the cup. The bill then starts to animate itself and flies out of the cup to land into your other hand!
Freddy’s Dead: A rope routine where three different lengths of rope all become the same length and then all change back slowly and visually.
Citizen Cane: A transposition of brown and white sugar inside their sealed packets.
Striking Ring Switch: After a borrowed ring vanishes, you try to return a cheap costume ring to the owner- however, it is clearly a different ring. You then visibly change it into the borrowed ring.
The Hole: After doing a little puzzle with them, you proceed to push a pen through a borrowed coin!
Unique Coin Bend: A coin bend in their hand.
Weird Science: A spoon bending effect where you contort the spoon handle into different positions and then have them inspect the impossible object!
True Lies: Restoring a rubberband that is actually broken.
E.T.: A simple and direct ring on rubberband effect combined with an effective broken and restored band for a climax.
Burning Rubber: A routine with rubber bands that consists of separate effects.:
Wrist Band: A rubber band penetrates your wrist
Band-It: You penetrate the two rubber bands thus linking them.
Crazy Man’s Handcuffs: The bands are unlinked once in your hands
The finger: The rubber bands unlink while audience members hold on to one of the bands.
Snap Back: More of a stunt- you quickly return the rubber band around your wrist using only one hand.
Wristoration: You break a rubber band and restore it around the participant’s wrist leaving the band for hr to wear forever.
Palm-up Bill Switch: The transformation is both instantaneous and visual. They see the bill change as they see your empty hands manipulate the bill palms up.
Inner Space: Spirits leave a message on a Post-it note inside the bill
Oralgami: A cool way to justify the folding of the paper which has some things written on it.
Chapter 3: Card Tricks
High Society: The person thinks of a card. You then throw the pack up to the ceiling and only one card adheres to the ceiling. Their thought of card.
Thought-of Card in Envelope: They think of a card. You then come out with some envelopes and tell them that if you are wrong you will give them the money that is inside which they can see through the window of the envelope. You then have them sign the envelope. You then proceed to tell them the wrong card. You then tell them that they deserve the money but when they turn over their signed envelope they see that their card is inside the sealed envelope which they can keep as a souvenir!
One Trick Two Names: A red card is placed aside and a card is selected from a blue deck. They sign it. You then turn over the card that is on the table and it is the signed card!
Executive Decision: The cards are dealt randomly into piles, yet the colors are separated. This variation does not require a table.
1709 Walkabout: Two selected cards magically fuse together to form an oddity that we know to be the double-faced card.
The Wedding Trick: You ask the couple to write down on a post-it note what attracted them to the other person at first. You then ask one of them to deal the cards face down into a pile. You then ask the other person to tell their mate when to stop. When they stop place one of the post it notes on top of the pile. You do this again with the couple switching places. The other one deals and the other one says stop. You then place the post it note on the pile. You then spread through the cards and they see that two cards have come together. The post-it notes have been adhered to cards that have their name! A true impossibility as to how hard it is to find the right person when their are so many people out there.
Out of Sight: A card is reversed in the deck, and by studying all the other cards you are able to calculate what the reversed card is!
Against All Odds: An audience member finds the one odd card in a deck by spelling the name of a thought-of person!
Lucky Card: While letting a participant pick a lucky card for herself, you explain that you have your own lucky card- a card, which you display, that literally saved your life by stopping a bullet. Uncannily, your lucky card and the participant’s randomly chosen card match!
The Usual Suspects: Involves a deck of cards with people’s names written on the back of each card. They select a card and you tell them the name of the card is Susy! They look confused but then you show them that each card has a name written on it. You then show that the card they choose is indeed named Susy!
Force of Nature: This is similar to the effect above the but the name that is chosen bears the name of the person who chose the card!
Drop Zone: An imaginary deck of cards and coins become real and then revert back to their imaginary states.
Chapter 4: Stand-up Magic
Grabbit Production: Produce a full bottle from a balloon.
Signal Strength: A routine where you take their cell phone and place it into a large envelope. You then mix it up amongst other envelopes and you then hammer three of the envelopes. You ask someone in the audience to call the cell phone and it begins to ring. You open up the last envelope and show that you have not destroyed their cell phone!
World’s Funniest Joke: You show five envelopes and have them determine the order of the envelopes. You then tell them that inside the envelopes are words that form a joke. You then open up the envelopes and say the joke in perfect order!
Credit Cut: You take some ones credit card and place it in an envelope. You then mix it up amongst the other envelopes. You cut up two of the envelopes leaving only one envelope- the one that contains their credit card!
White Noise: Predicting a headline from a newspaper!
Section 2- Moves, Sequences & Bits of Business
Chapter 5: Cards
Basil: A false multiple packet false cut
The Four Musketeers: The deck is given a triple cut and four Aces appear face up in four separate parts of the deck,
Out of Your Brain: This is a presentational conceit or rationale for switching sides halfway through the dealing procedure in Paul Curry’s “Out of this World.”
Invisible Palm Finale: Jon’s goal was to either eliminate the use of the deck, justify the introduction at that late stage, or use it in a way that is completely deceptive. Here is a combination of all three.
Chapter 6: Miscellaneous
Twins: You borrow a lighter, and with a loud crack, split it into two, producing a replica, which you then proceed to use.
Helicopter Band: A flourish to do with a rubber band.
Latex Genie: You have a balloon that you semi-fill up so that it is bulbous at the bottom. You then take another balloon that is not filled up and stick it inside the bulbous balloon. You then let go of the bulbous balloon and it just dangles their impossibly! The thin balloon is somehow holding the other balloon up. You then take it out and show everything to be normal.
Push Through Move: A ball is dropped into the fist and seems to penetrate the bottom of a cup in a Cups and Balls routine.
Ring off String Move: What it says
Tipless Bill Switch Holdout: A holdout without using a thumbtip.
Coins Across Finale: A way to secretly load a coin into her hand.
Section 3-Taking Things Further
Chapter 7: Presentations & Thoughts on a Few Plots- no effects-just thoughts on multiple things.
Now, the effects as described are how the audience sees the effect. Not you. So be wary of that.
Overall, this book is HIGHLY recommended. This book is mostly non-card and the card material is very good as well. As you can see, there is some stand-up material as well. This book is very much worth every penny I spent on it, and became one of my favorite books overnight. One of those underground and probably overlooked, this book is for those that like to do magic with things mostly other than cards. The difficulty level is advanced beginner and intermediate. Some things (technically speaking) can be done as soon as you read the method.
