Oh boy. It's has been a r-o-u-g-h week, and the hits keep on comin'. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but it's like Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes. It's like when he falls off a cliff--or sees something above him about to drop on his head and protects himself with a tiny parasol; an anvil drops on him, then a car, then a plane, then the Titanic to top it all off.
All I wanted was a Pepsi. And they wouldn't give it to me! Just one Pepsi!
And I ended up with the Titanic right in the dome.
But let's get to business! I know I said I need to review older Tenyo in my queue, but honestly, it's been a hard week. I need something that's relatively easier for me to write about. So I'm reviewing one of the two Tenyo I just received.
SHRINKING PEN
Inventor: Naohisa Inaba
Year: 2009
Cost: $30-$40
Type of Effect: Transformation
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- One lonely red pen
EFFECT: You introduce to your audience a red pen. Have one of your audience members hold out their hand and you, the magician, place a handkerchief on their palm. You then take the red pen underneath the handkerchief and have them grip the top of the pen. The audience member is then able to slowly COMPRESS THE PEN, as well as be in contact with it the entire time! When the handkerchief is taken out of their hand, all that is left is a tiny red pen that they just shrunk! THEY DO THE MAGIC!
REVIEW:
All right, let's get this out of the way first. We have yet another Tenyo whose instructions call for a handkerchief and one is not supplied. To my knowledge, only FOUR tricks have Tenyo released that involved a handkerchief (not counting silks): 'Invisible Man', 'Phantoma', 'Mystery Poodle', 'Ghost Camera' (that trick is literally a single handkerchief). How many other handkerchief tricks are there? Much much more. And that's not counting ones where you have the option of using a handkerchief ('Magic Butterfly' and 'Impossible Pen' to name a couple).
Maybe this is a grudge I should probably drop. Especially when the usage of a handkerchief does allow itself to a bit of customization, aesthetic-wise, for performance purposes on the magicians part. Give and take.
Okay! So! There is ONLY ONE OTHER TRICK in the entire Tenyo line that does anything similar to what 'Shrinking Pen' does: 'Undercover Cube'. Both tricks use nothing but participation and deprives an audience members sense of vision. They must use other senses (namely their sense of touch. 'Mystery Poodle' KIND OF fits in this category as its a trick that works off of sound. But I'm only counting the ones that require the sense of touch for simplicity, and because I 'feel' like it. Pun intended).
Because of the use of very heavy involvement, 'Shrinking Pen' has the potential to be incredibly strong, as they are handling the pen the entire time--despite it being covered by a handkerchief.
What makes it even better is that 'Shrinking Pen' resembles an object that people immediately recognize: ...a pen.
So you can carry it on you in full sight and be ready to go whenever you need to. It's a PEN. Who's going to question a pen?
Also! And this is really neat. The pen can WRITE! It's not just a stationary prop. It can write and you can then further use the pen into more of a routine if you intend to. That was one thing I didn't know before I got it, I was pleasantly surprised. I wish it wrote in black instead of red. But it's a red pen, makes sense. But now I'm splitting hairs.
The gimmick. It's brilliant in the sense that it's something you wouldn't expect, but the more you think about it, the more you will appreciate the ingenuity behind it. And trust me, you'll get a kick out of it.
Now. 'Undercover Cube'. We mentioned it earlier. It also works off of the same premise of the deprivation of one sense and having to use other senses to make the magic happen. Both deprive the sense of sight (by usage of a handkerchief) and make an audience member use the sense of touch to accomplish the magic.
Both tricks are good and bad in their own senses. 'Undercover Cube', you're working with a clear box and lid along with a orange cube. The thing with 'Cube is that there's SEVERAL ways of achieving A FEW DIFFERENT EFFECTS. The trick is REALLY versatile, but the consequence is that:
1) You need a table. This can either be a moot point if you do a lot of table-work or a bad point if you do a lot of standing-room-only work. But it's a null and moot, at best.
2) it could be considered an 'odd prop' by your audience, in which it justifiably is. You're working with a clear box, clear lid, and a plastic orange cube.
With 'Shrinking Pen', you completely lose the 'odd prop' stigma into an actual recognizable prop. HOWEVER, because of this, you're a lot more limited in what you can actually do with the pen. With 'Cube, you can make it penetrate through things, you can make the cube disappear, you can even do a transformation if you have the cojones for it.
With 'Pen, you can only make the pen shrink. However, you can do a lot more PRESENTATION-WISE with the fact that it's a pen. And the writing aspect of it lends itself to usage further in routines, as I mentioned earlier. Might be driving the point home too far with the whole 'HEY! IT's a REAL PEN, buddy!', but it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.
But one big important factor, I think, is that you can do the trick STANDING UP. It's not a trick where you're chained to the table!
My biggest problem with the trick is that it's expensive. It runs for as much as TWO TENYO that have been recently released. This is also considering that 'Shrinking Pen' is also a relatively new trick that was released almost 7 years ago.
Also released the same year was 'Illusion Truck', which is a trick that sells for $60+ if you can find it online. And don't get me started about how much people are selling it for on EBay, sheesh, people are nuts with that one.
Anyway, the trick goes for quite a hefty price tag despite it being relatively new--in fact all the tricks in entire 2009 line carry quite a tag on them. I tried researching a bit as to why, because the entire 2009 line is REALLY common to find in virtually ANY online or brick-and-mortar shop except for 'Illusion Truck' (still researching why that one is one of the harder to find Tenyo, despite being so relatively new), yet it's so ridiculously expensive. The ONLY thing I can think of is that during this time--actually for a long time. A lot of Tenyo were released in both a Japanese version and an English version. It's not uncommon to go to places and buy the product and get translated instructions. But I believe that the English versions are harder to come by--especially Tenyo that were really popular, but 2009 didn't have a lot of popularity in the collectors market. In fact, the 2009 wields the MOST POLARIZING TENYO EVER RELEASED: 'China Surprise'. 'Surprise was the best selling Tenyo of the 2009 IN JAPAN that year. Because it's more of a cultural reference (basically, you turn a napkin into a dumpling. A food that is immediately recognizable in Japan), everyone outside of Japan VIRULENTLY HATED the darn thing. I think it's funny that the Japanese market loves one Tenyo of that year and everywhere else goes after a completely different Tenyo in the same line. There's only 4 tricks in the mainline for a year (in rarer occurrences, 5), so there's not a lot to pick from. But it's crazy how both markets are so completely different in taste. Anyway!
I think the reason for the price hike in the outside-of-japan market might have been an importing issue at the time. Maybe there weren't nearly as many English versions as there were Japanese versions made. It's a bit hard to say from where I am sitting. I got into Tenyo quite late in the game. I'm sure if I got into it much earlier--like 2009 earlier, maybe I'd have been more in the loop on it or asked these sort of questions (and got a LOT of older Tenyo for cheaper, sheesh). I even tried researching Tenyo related posts during that time, and I barely have anything to base ANY guess-work off of. Nothing I can pin-point and go 'THAT'S IT!'
Back to 'Pen. I love 'Shrinking Pen'. I love very involved, audience-centric tricks and 'Shrinking Pen' fits the bill. It's also a trick that is REALLY not easy to figure out--especially since it plays the role of an innocuous pen doing something pens shouldn't do--at least without bursting the ink well.
I can do nothing but give glowing recommendations for it, if this sounds remotely interesting, get one! You won't be disappointed. However, I'd do some research first and see if you can find it for cheaper, since they are very common. You CAN get it for cheaper from Japan, but you'd only be saving about 10 bucks and you don't get English instructions (unless you can read Japanese. More power to you!). There might be a shop that sells it for cheaper than $30. I don't know. I got mine for $30. I see them normally for $35. Regardless, you want a neat trick with heavy audience involvement in a completely innocent looking package? Do yourself a favor and get 'Shrinking Pen'.
All I wanted was a Pepsi. And they wouldn't give it to me! Just one Pepsi!
And I ended up with the Titanic right in the dome.
But let's get to business! I know I said I need to review older Tenyo in my queue, but honestly, it's been a hard week. I need something that's relatively easier for me to write about. So I'm reviewing one of the two Tenyo I just received.
SHRINKING PEN
Inventor: Naohisa Inaba
Year: 2009
Cost: $30-$40
Type of Effect: Transformation
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- One lonely red pen
EFFECT: You introduce to your audience a red pen. Have one of your audience members hold out their hand and you, the magician, place a handkerchief on their palm. You then take the red pen underneath the handkerchief and have them grip the top of the pen. The audience member is then able to slowly COMPRESS THE PEN, as well as be in contact with it the entire time! When the handkerchief is taken out of their hand, all that is left is a tiny red pen that they just shrunk! THEY DO THE MAGIC!
REVIEW:
All right, let's get this out of the way first. We have yet another Tenyo whose instructions call for a handkerchief and one is not supplied. To my knowledge, only FOUR tricks have Tenyo released that involved a handkerchief (not counting silks): 'Invisible Man', 'Phantoma', 'Mystery Poodle', 'Ghost Camera' (that trick is literally a single handkerchief). How many other handkerchief tricks are there? Much much more. And that's not counting ones where you have the option of using a handkerchief ('Magic Butterfly' and 'Impossible Pen' to name a couple).
Maybe this is a grudge I should probably drop. Especially when the usage of a handkerchief does allow itself to a bit of customization, aesthetic-wise, for performance purposes on the magicians part. Give and take.
Okay! So! There is ONLY ONE OTHER TRICK in the entire Tenyo line that does anything similar to what 'Shrinking Pen' does: 'Undercover Cube'. Both tricks use nothing but participation and deprives an audience members sense of vision. They must use other senses (namely their sense of touch. 'Mystery Poodle' KIND OF fits in this category as its a trick that works off of sound. But I'm only counting the ones that require the sense of touch for simplicity, and because I 'feel' like it. Pun intended).
Because of the use of very heavy involvement, 'Shrinking Pen' has the potential to be incredibly strong, as they are handling the pen the entire time--despite it being covered by a handkerchief.
What makes it even better is that 'Shrinking Pen' resembles an object that people immediately recognize: ...a pen.
So you can carry it on you in full sight and be ready to go whenever you need to. It's a PEN. Who's going to question a pen?
Also! And this is really neat. The pen can WRITE! It's not just a stationary prop. It can write and you can then further use the pen into more of a routine if you intend to. That was one thing I didn't know before I got it, I was pleasantly surprised. I wish it wrote in black instead of red. But it's a red pen, makes sense. But now I'm splitting hairs.
The gimmick. It's brilliant in the sense that it's something you wouldn't expect, but the more you think about it, the more you will appreciate the ingenuity behind it. And trust me, you'll get a kick out of it.
Now. 'Undercover Cube'. We mentioned it earlier. It also works off of the same premise of the deprivation of one sense and having to use other senses to make the magic happen. Both deprive the sense of sight (by usage of a handkerchief) and make an audience member use the sense of touch to accomplish the magic.
Both tricks are good and bad in their own senses. 'Undercover Cube', you're working with a clear box and lid along with a orange cube. The thing with 'Cube is that there's SEVERAL ways of achieving A FEW DIFFERENT EFFECTS. The trick is REALLY versatile, but the consequence is that:
1) You need a table. This can either be a moot point if you do a lot of table-work or a bad point if you do a lot of standing-room-only work. But it's a null and moot, at best.
2) it could be considered an 'odd prop' by your audience, in which it justifiably is. You're working with a clear box, clear lid, and a plastic orange cube.
With 'Shrinking Pen', you completely lose the 'odd prop' stigma into an actual recognizable prop. HOWEVER, because of this, you're a lot more limited in what you can actually do with the pen. With 'Cube, you can make it penetrate through things, you can make the cube disappear, you can even do a transformation if you have the cojones for it.
With 'Pen, you can only make the pen shrink. However, you can do a lot more PRESENTATION-WISE with the fact that it's a pen. And the writing aspect of it lends itself to usage further in routines, as I mentioned earlier. Might be driving the point home too far with the whole 'HEY! IT's a REAL PEN, buddy!', but it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.
But one big important factor, I think, is that you can do the trick STANDING UP. It's not a trick where you're chained to the table!
My biggest problem with the trick is that it's expensive. It runs for as much as TWO TENYO that have been recently released. This is also considering that 'Shrinking Pen' is also a relatively new trick that was released almost 7 years ago.
Also released the same year was 'Illusion Truck', which is a trick that sells for $60+ if you can find it online. And don't get me started about how much people are selling it for on EBay, sheesh, people are nuts with that one.
Anyway, the trick goes for quite a hefty price tag despite it being relatively new--in fact all the tricks in entire 2009 line carry quite a tag on them. I tried researching a bit as to why, because the entire 2009 line is REALLY common to find in virtually ANY online or brick-and-mortar shop except for 'Illusion Truck' (still researching why that one is one of the harder to find Tenyo, despite being so relatively new), yet it's so ridiculously expensive. The ONLY thing I can think of is that during this time--actually for a long time. A lot of Tenyo were released in both a Japanese version and an English version. It's not uncommon to go to places and buy the product and get translated instructions. But I believe that the English versions are harder to come by--especially Tenyo that were really popular, but 2009 didn't have a lot of popularity in the collectors market. In fact, the 2009 wields the MOST POLARIZING TENYO EVER RELEASED: 'China Surprise'. 'Surprise was the best selling Tenyo of the 2009 IN JAPAN that year. Because it's more of a cultural reference (basically, you turn a napkin into a dumpling. A food that is immediately recognizable in Japan), everyone outside of Japan VIRULENTLY HATED the darn thing. I think it's funny that the Japanese market loves one Tenyo of that year and everywhere else goes after a completely different Tenyo in the same line. There's only 4 tricks in the mainline for a year (in rarer occurrences, 5), so there's not a lot to pick from. But it's crazy how both markets are so completely different in taste. Anyway!
I think the reason for the price hike in the outside-of-japan market might have been an importing issue at the time. Maybe there weren't nearly as many English versions as there were Japanese versions made. It's a bit hard to say from where I am sitting. I got into Tenyo quite late in the game. I'm sure if I got into it much earlier--like 2009 earlier, maybe I'd have been more in the loop on it or asked these sort of questions (and got a LOT of older Tenyo for cheaper, sheesh). I even tried researching Tenyo related posts during that time, and I barely have anything to base ANY guess-work off of. Nothing I can pin-point and go 'THAT'S IT!'
Back to 'Pen. I love 'Shrinking Pen'. I love very involved, audience-centric tricks and 'Shrinking Pen' fits the bill. It's also a trick that is REALLY not easy to figure out--especially since it plays the role of an innocuous pen doing something pens shouldn't do--at least without bursting the ink well.
I can do nothing but give glowing recommendations for it, if this sounds remotely interesting, get one! You won't be disappointed. However, I'd do some research first and see if you can find it for cheaper, since they are very common. You CAN get it for cheaper from Japan, but you'd only be saving about 10 bucks and you don't get English instructions (unless you can read Japanese. More power to you!). There might be a shop that sells it for cheaper than $30. I don't know. I got mine for $30. I see them normally for $35. Regardless, you want a neat trick with heavy audience involvement in a completely innocent looking package? Do yourself a favor and get 'Shrinking Pen'.
