We! Are! Back!
We tried something new for the last month. ‘What is it?’ You ask? We dumped a months worth of Ritalin in the air conditioning system. I’m lazy and want to breathe in my meds like Bane. The result is that we ACTUALLY focused on a cohesive theme for a solid FOUR WEEKS. The reason? The release of Theory11’s ‘Invisible Card’!
The theme? All Tenyo (and one NOT-so-Tenyo) that are ghost-like in nature. There’s a few other ‘supernatural’ Tenyo out there, but the lack of funds is strong in this one (I previously landed on Boardwalk with a hotel).
So we’re short a few days before I can get a prescription refill, which means we’re back to doing things according to the original business model: writing names of Tenyo on scrap pieces of paper and throwing darts at them.
What did we land on? It’s time for!:
MAGICIAN’S CLOCK
Inventor: Toru Suzuki
Year: 2008
Cost: ????
Type of Effect: 1st effect: Production
Skill Level: Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 1 Card Box
- 25 number cards
- 1 ‘:’ card or 1 blank card
EFFECT: You, the magician, present 25 cards to your audience; all of them with a simple number on them from 1-12. Through a complex sequence of discarding, shuffling and pile-setting. You, the magician, are able to produce the CURRENT TIME!
REVIEW:
We need to go over a few things before we begin. This is the FIRST Tenyo that we have gone over that isn’t a ‘mainline’ Tenyo trick. ‘Magician’s Clock’ is what is called, a ‘redemption trick’. The way it works is that, you purchase and send in the UPCs for 3-4 of the mainline Tenyo for that year (Which get released in October in the previous year). Around 6 months later (around March or April timeframe) when Tenyo makes the announcement of the ‘redemption trick’. You then send in your UPCs, Tenyo sends the trick, you become a happy camper.
It’s a MUCH cooler cereal box send-away. But instead of a crappy plastic periscope, you get a genius packet trick instead. M-A-G-I-C-I-A-N!
Second. There have only been FOUR redemption tricks that were reprinted due to popularity: ‘Magical Sneakers’, ‘Magical Burger’, ‘Illusion Scale’, & ‘Magical Café’. Notice how I didn’t say ‘Magician’s Clock’? Finding the originals—or just previous years redemption tricks is like ‘snipe hunting’. Either get the redemption trick that same year or try and forget about it. ‘Magician’s Clock’ has been haunting my dreams since October of last year; VERY shortly after I started magic. Within that timeframe, last four years redemption tricks have appeared as much as a shiny Pokemon. Each have appeared ONCE in only ONE AUCTION each, going for amounts that one would consider ‘ridiculous’ for a tiny pocket-sized trick. Tough stuff, my friends.
Third. ‘Magician’s Clock’ has TWO variations. And it all has to do with the ‘:’ card. The first run (a very short printed run) had a blank card in which you, the magician, were to just DRAW a ‘:’ on the card itself. This was quickly deemed unpopular and the next print, the same year, had printed ‘:’ instead of the blank.
The only way to know what variation you have is if you crack open your copy of ‘Magician’s Clock’ and check. Needless to say, even to verify which variation you have is risky gamble. Either you keep it mint-in-package, or you crack it open (doing away with your ‘new in package’ status) to check and probably look like a dummy with your ‘colon’ in your hand.
I actually have the hard-to-find-variant with the blank card. This is not to brag. I had SOLE INTENT to find a way to perform ‘Magician’s Clock’ after seeing the performance. Lo-and-behold, I got the variant with the blank card. At the time, I didn’t know there was a variant.
I assumed that there was a blank card AND a ‘:’ card, and my ‘new’ copy was previously opened and now MISSING it’s ‘colon’. I assumed, due to the large volume of cards, that the blank one was in case you lost one. Sounds like a fair reasoning.
A HUGE fuss was raised about it across two Tenyo forums. Richard Kaufman actually came down and then educated everyone about the variant and how both versions all have 26 cards.
The irony here is that, even though ‘Magician’s Clock’ is now considered a hard-to-find collector’s item in the world of Tenyo, the ONE PERSON who has the intent to PERFORM with it, gets the variant that is LESS performable.
I still haven’t drawn the ‘:’ on the blank card, and I’m not going to. Performance-wise, I think it works out better that way. But I now have a funny story to tell. And I get to say ‘Where’s my colon?!’
That was lengthy. We haven’t even got to the review yet!
*AHEM*. What we’re working with here is 26 cards that are smaller than a standard set of cards. Every redemption trick has some sort of ODD shaped cards. But looking at the pictures, I REALLY believed that they were the same size as Bicycle cards. The smaller size makes them a little ‘off’ to work with. Especially if you’re planning on modifying the handling in any way.
One card is either going to be blank or have a ‘:’, and not do ANYTHING through the majority of the performance. The other 25 ‘workers’ will have plainly printed numbers, going from 1-12. Some are repeated, others not.
As said in the effect, there is a complex shuffling sequence, and I can’t really get into it as that’ll reveal the method, and with the knowledge written up to this point; it’ll reveal enough for you obsessive minds to figure it out.
Not much left to review, right?
WRONG!
We can go over one big glaring detail: the presentation.
‘Magician’s Clock’ is placed at Intermediate on the difficulty scale partially because of ‘what makes the clock tick’. The other part is the wonky presentation.
Here’s the thing, the effect is SO COMPLETELY OUT THERE! It’s a CARD TRICK that produces something that virtually no card trick SHOULD produce: THE CURRENT TIME OF DAY!
That seems absolutely MIND BLOWING!
And with that, a proper presentation should accompany that.
But we are now in our first conflict: The instructions.
Really?
Yes! The way it is presented, producing the current time with ‘Magician’s Clock’ is meant to be a ‘SURPRISE!’ effect.
What…Okay?
So you have to leave the audience in the dark while you lead them on this…timeless journey. Hee hee!
I don’t think that’s the best way to go about it. If there is no context or relevance, the audience is going to get bored with you just ‘doing your thing with the cards’.
Part of the ‘surprise reveal’ is flipping over the ‘:’ card…or the drawn-on blank card (which, mind you, has been face-down and sitting there the entire performance. IT’S NOT EVEN A PART OF THE SHUFFLING SEQUENCE!), and your audience is STILL IN THE DARK at that point. Then you reveal the time at the very end. Whoopie! Even then I STILL don’t think that the ‘surprise! It’s the current time!’ produces a worthwhile effect. At least ones that’s more mind blowing than anything else that’s well done and worth half the effort. Because ‘Magician’s Clock’ WILL take some effort (and a bit of nutjob dedication) to do fluently.
I believe the best way to go ‘Magician’s Clock’ is to make a cohesive presentation. It takes away the surprise factor. But honestly? You don’t need it if you make a journey of the presentation.
The biggest problem with how ‘Magician’s Clock’ works is that, I think this is true for a lot of packet tricks, when you make one of your necessary cuts, shuffles, discarding, set-asides; ONLY the magician knows what is going on. The AUDIENCE has NO IDEA why those actions are being done.
And in the case of ‘Magician’s Clock’, considering you’re working with a whopping 26 CARDS; it’s A LOT HARDER to sneak things by the audience—like doing away with most of the deck. Seriously. It’s like quickly smuggling an elephant inside a Vespa. In fact, the ONE video that I have seen of ‘Magician’s Clock’ being done, as well as going by the instructions (and especially knowing that Tenyo is made for laymen to perform for other laymen), you’re NOT sneaking anything by the audience. Actions just…happen. With no explanation as to why. They just happen, and the audience is left to just accept that being done.
In the real world, it doesn’t work that way. You’re going to NEED to make a cohesive presentation around what you’re doing to keep your audience interested. It’s not that the routine SHOULD be difficult. You ARE working with something that virtually everyone has common knowledge of: Time!
However, in regards to building an original routine with it, and me knowing how it’s done. GOOD FREAKIN’ LUCK!
I think we’ve covered the bases. If you can find this, is it worth getting?
It REALLY depends. There’s only two people who SHOULD get this:
1) Tenyo collectors
2) People who know what ‘Magician’s Clock’ is and what it does and they REALLY REALLY REALLY want to perform with it.
If you’re a collector, easy enough, you buy the trick and put it away; never to see the light of day unless you lose interest in Tenyo or you REALLY need to pay your bills (The absurdity of collecting is amusing. You’re holding onto a desired item for someone else).
Now if you’re STILL interested, here’s a video of this doozy being done. The complex sequence isn’t as tough as I make it seem. But there’s a special something that makes building a performance around it so much more…impractical. I can’t really recommend it for any medium in which you would perform. It is a packet trick, so you COULD use it for strolling, restaurant work, busking, etc. But part of the secret makes it extremely impractical. That said, I’m feverishly working on a method to try and mitigate this pain, but the point still stands. It’s such an awesome effect, and yet it’s so mind bogglingly difficult to utilize in the real world.
At the very least, it’s an extremely fun scripting exercise and quite a fun secret to know.
We tried something new for the last month. ‘What is it?’ You ask? We dumped a months worth of Ritalin in the air conditioning system. I’m lazy and want to breathe in my meds like Bane. The result is that we ACTUALLY focused on a cohesive theme for a solid FOUR WEEKS. The reason? The release of Theory11’s ‘Invisible Card’!
The theme? All Tenyo (and one NOT-so-Tenyo) that are ghost-like in nature. There’s a few other ‘supernatural’ Tenyo out there, but the lack of funds is strong in this one (I previously landed on Boardwalk with a hotel).
So we’re short a few days before I can get a prescription refill, which means we’re back to doing things according to the original business model: writing names of Tenyo on scrap pieces of paper and throwing darts at them.
What did we land on? It’s time for!:
MAGICIAN’S CLOCK
Inventor: Toru Suzuki
Year: 2008
Cost: ????
Type of Effect: 1st effect: Production
Skill Level: Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 1 Card Box
- 25 number cards
- 1 ‘:’ card or 1 blank card
EFFECT: You, the magician, present 25 cards to your audience; all of them with a simple number on them from 1-12. Through a complex sequence of discarding, shuffling and pile-setting. You, the magician, are able to produce the CURRENT TIME!
REVIEW:
We need to go over a few things before we begin. This is the FIRST Tenyo that we have gone over that isn’t a ‘mainline’ Tenyo trick. ‘Magician’s Clock’ is what is called, a ‘redemption trick’. The way it works is that, you purchase and send in the UPCs for 3-4 of the mainline Tenyo for that year (Which get released in October in the previous year). Around 6 months later (around March or April timeframe) when Tenyo makes the announcement of the ‘redemption trick’. You then send in your UPCs, Tenyo sends the trick, you become a happy camper.
It’s a MUCH cooler cereal box send-away. But instead of a crappy plastic periscope, you get a genius packet trick instead. M-A-G-I-C-I-A-N!
Second. There have only been FOUR redemption tricks that were reprinted due to popularity: ‘Magical Sneakers’, ‘Magical Burger’, ‘Illusion Scale’, & ‘Magical Café’. Notice how I didn’t say ‘Magician’s Clock’? Finding the originals—or just previous years redemption tricks is like ‘snipe hunting’. Either get the redemption trick that same year or try and forget about it. ‘Magician’s Clock’ has been haunting my dreams since October of last year; VERY shortly after I started magic. Within that timeframe, last four years redemption tricks have appeared as much as a shiny Pokemon. Each have appeared ONCE in only ONE AUCTION each, going for amounts that one would consider ‘ridiculous’ for a tiny pocket-sized trick. Tough stuff, my friends.
Third. ‘Magician’s Clock’ has TWO variations. And it all has to do with the ‘:’ card. The first run (a very short printed run) had a blank card in which you, the magician, were to just DRAW a ‘:’ on the card itself. This was quickly deemed unpopular and the next print, the same year, had printed ‘:’ instead of the blank.
The only way to know what variation you have is if you crack open your copy of ‘Magician’s Clock’ and check. Needless to say, even to verify which variation you have is risky gamble. Either you keep it mint-in-package, or you crack it open (doing away with your ‘new in package’ status) to check and probably look like a dummy with your ‘colon’ in your hand.
I actually have the hard-to-find-variant with the blank card. This is not to brag. I had SOLE INTENT to find a way to perform ‘Magician’s Clock’ after seeing the performance. Lo-and-behold, I got the variant with the blank card. At the time, I didn’t know there was a variant.
I assumed that there was a blank card AND a ‘:’ card, and my ‘new’ copy was previously opened and now MISSING it’s ‘colon’. I assumed, due to the large volume of cards, that the blank one was in case you lost one. Sounds like a fair reasoning.
A HUGE fuss was raised about it across two Tenyo forums. Richard Kaufman actually came down and then educated everyone about the variant and how both versions all have 26 cards.
The irony here is that, even though ‘Magician’s Clock’ is now considered a hard-to-find collector’s item in the world of Tenyo, the ONE PERSON who has the intent to PERFORM with it, gets the variant that is LESS performable.
I still haven’t drawn the ‘:’ on the blank card, and I’m not going to. Performance-wise, I think it works out better that way. But I now have a funny story to tell. And I get to say ‘Where’s my colon?!’
That was lengthy. We haven’t even got to the review yet!
*AHEM*. What we’re working with here is 26 cards that are smaller than a standard set of cards. Every redemption trick has some sort of ODD shaped cards. But looking at the pictures, I REALLY believed that they were the same size as Bicycle cards. The smaller size makes them a little ‘off’ to work with. Especially if you’re planning on modifying the handling in any way.
One card is either going to be blank or have a ‘:’, and not do ANYTHING through the majority of the performance. The other 25 ‘workers’ will have plainly printed numbers, going from 1-12. Some are repeated, others not.
As said in the effect, there is a complex shuffling sequence, and I can’t really get into it as that’ll reveal the method, and with the knowledge written up to this point; it’ll reveal enough for you obsessive minds to figure it out.
Not much left to review, right?
WRONG!
We can go over one big glaring detail: the presentation.
‘Magician’s Clock’ is placed at Intermediate on the difficulty scale partially because of ‘what makes the clock tick’. The other part is the wonky presentation.
Here’s the thing, the effect is SO COMPLETELY OUT THERE! It’s a CARD TRICK that produces something that virtually no card trick SHOULD produce: THE CURRENT TIME OF DAY!
That seems absolutely MIND BLOWING!
And with that, a proper presentation should accompany that.
But we are now in our first conflict: The instructions.
Really?
Yes! The way it is presented, producing the current time with ‘Magician’s Clock’ is meant to be a ‘SURPRISE!’ effect.
What…Okay?
So you have to leave the audience in the dark while you lead them on this…timeless journey. Hee hee!
I don’t think that’s the best way to go about it. If there is no context or relevance, the audience is going to get bored with you just ‘doing your thing with the cards’.
Part of the ‘surprise reveal’ is flipping over the ‘:’ card…or the drawn-on blank card (which, mind you, has been face-down and sitting there the entire performance. IT’S NOT EVEN A PART OF THE SHUFFLING SEQUENCE!), and your audience is STILL IN THE DARK at that point. Then you reveal the time at the very end. Whoopie! Even then I STILL don’t think that the ‘surprise! It’s the current time!’ produces a worthwhile effect. At least ones that’s more mind blowing than anything else that’s well done and worth half the effort. Because ‘Magician’s Clock’ WILL take some effort (and a bit of nutjob dedication) to do fluently.
I believe the best way to go ‘Magician’s Clock’ is to make a cohesive presentation. It takes away the surprise factor. But honestly? You don’t need it if you make a journey of the presentation.
The biggest problem with how ‘Magician’s Clock’ works is that, I think this is true for a lot of packet tricks, when you make one of your necessary cuts, shuffles, discarding, set-asides; ONLY the magician knows what is going on. The AUDIENCE has NO IDEA why those actions are being done.
And in the case of ‘Magician’s Clock’, considering you’re working with a whopping 26 CARDS; it’s A LOT HARDER to sneak things by the audience—like doing away with most of the deck. Seriously. It’s like quickly smuggling an elephant inside a Vespa. In fact, the ONE video that I have seen of ‘Magician’s Clock’ being done, as well as going by the instructions (and especially knowing that Tenyo is made for laymen to perform for other laymen), you’re NOT sneaking anything by the audience. Actions just…happen. With no explanation as to why. They just happen, and the audience is left to just accept that being done.
In the real world, it doesn’t work that way. You’re going to NEED to make a cohesive presentation around what you’re doing to keep your audience interested. It’s not that the routine SHOULD be difficult. You ARE working with something that virtually everyone has common knowledge of: Time!
However, in regards to building an original routine with it, and me knowing how it’s done. GOOD FREAKIN’ LUCK!
I think we’ve covered the bases. If you can find this, is it worth getting?
It REALLY depends. There’s only two people who SHOULD get this:
1) Tenyo collectors
2) People who know what ‘Magician’s Clock’ is and what it does and they REALLY REALLY REALLY want to perform with it.
If you’re a collector, easy enough, you buy the trick and put it away; never to see the light of day unless you lose interest in Tenyo or you REALLY need to pay your bills (The absurdity of collecting is amusing. You’re holding onto a desired item for someone else).
Now if you’re STILL interested, here’s a video of this doozy being done. The complex sequence isn’t as tough as I make it seem. But there’s a special something that makes building a performance around it so much more…impractical. I can’t really recommend it for any medium in which you would perform. It is a packet trick, so you COULD use it for strolling, restaurant work, busking, etc. But part of the secret makes it extremely impractical. That said, I’m feverishly working on a method to try and mitigate this pain, but the point still stands. It’s such an awesome effect, and yet it’s so mind bogglingly difficult to utilize in the real world.
At the very least, it’s an extremely fun scripting exercise and quite a fun secret to know.