DREAM TUNNEL

“Dream Tunnel” is a paper tube that is used to transform, say, a $2 bill into a $5 bill, and then into a $10 bill.

It works like a double- change change bag except that it is used to transform small flat items twice.

Like the change bag, you can let the spectators see that the interior of the tube is empty each time you make the transformation.

You receive the black colour paper tube measuring some 8.50 inches X 3.75 inches. It is constructed out of stiff paper so that it will last through dozens of performances. It has an arrow printed on both sides. Mikame Craft of Japan is recognised the world over for its excellent workmanship in wooden magical products. This paper tunnel by MIkame Craft is very well made. The instructions come in the form of a printed and illustrated sheet of paper.

Every time you squeeze the tube so that it opens up like a tunnel, a spectator can see through the interior of the tunnel and it appears to be completely empty, even though there are other pieces of paper hidden in secret compartments inside it. This is because of the clever design and construction of the tube.

Just like the change bag, once you understand how it works and what you can do with it, there are myraids of effects you can perform using this utility device. Here are some of them.

• Magically print a piece of paper into a $5 bill, and then change it into a $10 bill.
• Print a blank piece of paper into a $5 bill. Put in another piece of blank paper this time it changes into a $10 bill.
• Change a piece of paper into a yellow silk. Put in the yellow silk and change it into a red silk.
• Put in a white silk, and cause an outline of the drawing of a superhero to appear on the silk. Put the silk back into the tunnel – this time it emerges with the drawing of the superhero fully coloured.
• Put in a $2 bill inside the Tunnel and it transforms into ten 20 cents coins.
• Change a wrong prediction paper in the Tunnel into a correct one.
• Put in a blank piece of paper into the Tunnel – summon some unseen forces and the correct name of the chosen card is mysteriously printed onto the paper.
• How about performing “snowstorm in China” using the Dream Tunnel? Put a piece of white paper into the Tunnel. Unfold a Japanese fan and fan at one end of the Tunnel. “Snowstorm” pieces of paper come out of the other end of the Tunnel.
• If you use 2 Dream Tunnels and secretly switch one for the other during a performance, you can transform a bill 4 times using the “same” tunnel, and be able to show that the tunnel is empty each time before and after the transformation.

It is a useful utility device that is worth your investment.

Highly recommended!

Rising Up by DK

The rising card is one of the most beautiful feats of magic that can be done to a deck of playing cards. Imagine a selected and signed card that is shuffled back into the deck magically rises by itself from the middle of the deck.

Many methods have been devised to accomplish this effect, most of them employing a gimmick. Although it can also be done with sleight-of-hand, it will not be as clean as if it is carried out with a gimmick of some sort.

“Rising Up” is a gimmick for rising card invented by DK, the clever South Korean magician who has won awards in FISM. This is a small and versatile gimmick that can be used with a borrowed deck. There is no thread or body hook-ups involved. No magnets are used in the gimmick. The deck can be spread widely before and after the rise. The entire effect looks exactly how a chosen card would rise from the middle of a deck if it was done purely by magic. The deck can be returned to the owner and everything can be examined.

You receive the small gimmick and a link to a video tutorial. The video is only 6 minutes long – therefore you can guess that it is not a complicated gimmick to use.

The gimmick is small and it allows you to get it on and ditch it easily afterwards. If you get used to the gimmick, it is very easy to use. There is, of course, some performing angles to be aware of, but nothing very critical. It looks very clean to the audience. No cards need to be forced, you can spread the cards widely, and no one would think that anything else is involved other than the deck of cards which can be borrowed. (Rated 5/5 stars)

Fluke by Wayne Dobson

A.C.A.A.N. or “any card at any number” has become so popular that there are myriad versions of it. “Fluke!!” by Wayne Dobson is another version of A.C.A.A.N. – but this time, the “A” in A.C.A.A.N. means “a (card)” instead of “any (card)”.

In effect, a red deck and a blue deck are shown. A spectator chooses one of the them, say, the blue deck. The performer gives the blue deck to the spectator for safe keeping.

The performer asks the spectator to call out any number from 1 to 52. Assume the spectator says “17”.

The performer takes out the cards from
his red card case, spreads them face upwards to show that there is a face-down card in the deck. This card is turned over face up to show that it is the ten of hearts. The performer says he has taken a ten of hearts and turned it over face downwards in his red deck before the performance.

The spectator takes out the cards from her blue card case. She deals to the 17th card in her deck. It turns out to be the ten of hearts!

You receive several gimmicked cards and an instructional DVD. You have to supply your own red and blue decks with bicycle backs because the gimmicked cards are in red and blue bicycle back designs.

The spectator has a free choice of any number from “1” to “52”. As with all Wayne Dobson’s effects, this one is very easy to do. The method depends on subtlety than on sleight-of-hand. There are no performing angles to worry about. Those moments you have to do “something” to make the trick works are well covered by the misdirections provided with the routine.

This is one of the easiest and most straight-forward A.C.A.A.N. done with 2 decks that I have come across. (Rated 5/5 stars)

ROCKET BOOK by Scott Green

The popular children’s effect entitled “The Colouring Book” uses a clever principle. The effect allows you to show a colouring book that contains black and white illustrations. The crayons inside a box are vanished magically, and now the black and white colouring book is shown to contain the same illustrations, but they are now beautifully coloured in full colour! In another version, the colouring book can then be shown to contain blank pages, giving a total of 3 transformation in the same book.

Here is another creative use of the magic principle. Instead of the black and white illustrations in the book becoming coloured, the illustrations in the book turn upside down, or more correctly, rightside up!

Here is the full effect. The performer shows a book containing an illustrated histroy of rockets. As the performer flips through the pages of the book, the audience gets to see beautiful pictures of rockets on one side, and the names and brief descriptions of each rocket and their history on the facing pages. The book contains 8 different rockets, featuring rockets from USA, Russia and China. The book also contains 3 non-rocket items, but they have “rockets” in their names: they are “Houston Rockets” (a basketball team), “Johnny Rockets” (a burger chain), and Radio City Rockettes (a dance group). Perhaps, they are added in for laughs.

The performer closes the book and turns it upside down. The audience can see that the cover is upside down. When the pages of the book are flipped, the descriptions of the rockets are upside down (as they should be), but all the rockets are seen the correct way up!

The performer now turns the entire book around 90 degrees. He flips through the pages. The wordings on one side of the book are seen with the wrong orientation, but the pictures on the other side of the open book are all in the correct way up! Wow!

Finally, the book is turned back in the correct way up. Every page in the book are shown to be facing the right way up for reading!

You receive the large book, measuring some 12 inches X 12 inches, and the pages are beautifully printed in bright colours. You also receive a card containing a link to a video tutorial.

The book is large enough to be used for stage performances. It can be presented in a kids show or an adult show because the theme is on rockets. Plus, the adults can appreciate the other non-rocket items that have the name of rockets in them.

Scott Green, in the video, teahces you how to trim out the pages of the non-rocket items if you do not wish to show them in the book. Scott also shows you how he performs the Rocket Book in his kids shows. He performs the Rocket Book effect in conjunction with a tupsy-turvy bottle-in-cylinder trick. He also shows you how to take care of the flip book so that it will last for many more shows.

A large and colouful effect that is sure to entertain any audience. The subject matter gives you different ways of performing the effect. (5/5 stars rating)

COLOUR-CHANGING DECK

Surprises are what make a magic trick effective.  To have the backs of every card in a deck in which the performer is using to perform his magic change colour from, say, blue to red, is truly surprising because no one suspects this to happen.  This is why the colour changing deck is a classic in card magic.

There are many versions of colour changing decks.  To enable the cards to change colour, something additional is obviously needed.  Some colour changing decks have the entire deck gaffed.  Others require the use of an additional something.  This second method is the secert of this month’s offering. You receive that special something to be added to your own deck of cards.  The gaff is made of bicycle card.  You need to supply your own deck of either blue or red back bicycle playing cards.  

Your gaff card comes in a small plastic wallet which can be used to keep your packet card tricks.  You also receive a DVD featuring Rudy Hunter.  The DVD is well produced and Rudy’s teaching is concise and clear.  You are also provided with a link to a web tutorial that is the same as the contents of the DVD.

The effect is as follows:  the performer shuffles a blue deck face upwards so that the audience can see that every card is different.  A spectator stops the shuffling at any time and the card stopped at is the freely slected card.  This card chosen from the blue deck is shown to have a red back.  The back of this card is brushed against the deck and now the backs of the entire deck of cards change from blue to red.  The deck can then be used to perform other card tricks.  This is a straight-forward and easy method of performing the colour changing deck.  You are also taught the proper way of doing the hindu shuffle.

With the special gaff, you can perform other interesting card effects.  4 bonus effects are taught in the DVD.

Chicago Opener – this is one of Frank Garcia’s popular effects.  A spectator freely selects a card from a blue back deck.  It is then buried back in the deck.  The performer makes a magical gesture and spreads the deck face downwards.  A red back card makes an appearance in the blue deck.  This red back card is taken out and turned over to show that it is the selected card.  Another magical gesture is made – the chosen card is turned over and its back reverts back to blue colour.

Mine – this is a variation of Chicago Opener.  By adding the word “MINE” on the red colour back, a different presentation can be obtained.  The spectator’s freely selected card turns out to be the performer’s personal card because it has a red colour back with the word “MINE” (performer’s) printed on it.  The performer says that the spectator cannot have “his” (performer’s) card.  Things are put right when the back of the chosen card revert back to blue colour and the word “MINE” has also vanished.

Mental Prediction –  this is an Al Baker’s effect.  A spectator’s freely selected card turns out to be the performer’s predicted card because it is the only red back card in the blue deck.  This red back card can be freely handled.

Imaginery Card In Wallet – this effect contains a little of each of the 3 bonus tricks described above.  A spectator freely selects a card, signs her name on the face, and loses it back into the deck.  A small plastic wallet is shown to contain a prediction card taken from a different colour deck.  When this card is turned over, it is actually the spectator’s signed card.  Just as the audience is trying to recover from this shock, the back of the signed card reverts back to its original back, causing another impossibility to occur in the audience’s eyes.  

At less than $20, this product is an excellent purchase because:

• You get an easy version of the classic colour changing deck effect.
• It requires only a special gaff, which is supplied. You do not have to carry an entire gaffed deck to accomplish the colour changing deck effect.
• The supplied gaff enables you to perform other astounding effects, of which 4 are taught.

Highly recommended!

ANOTHER by Hiroki Tanaka

“Another” is a novel 4way revelation of playing cards.

A deck of cards is shown to contain 52 different playing cards.  2 black prediction cards with cut-outs in them are placed at 2 different locations determined by a spectator in the deck.

The cards next to each of the 2 black cards are taken out as 2 randomly selected cards.

The first black prediction card has a cut out of an 8 and a heart.  The card selected by this prediction card is turned over and it is the 8 of hearts.  The second black card has a cut out of a 3 and a spade.  The card selected by this card is turned over to reveal it is also the 3 of spades.

The performer offers to do it one more time.  Once again, the 2 black cards are placed at 2 different locations in the deck.  The cards next to each of the 2 cards are taken out as the second set of randomly selected cards.

Everyone is waiting to see how the magician is able to predict these 2 newly selected cards, since the previous 2 cards have been taken out of play.

The performer places one prediction card on top of the other prediction card, and the cut out through these 2 cards now show a 6 and a diamond.  One of the selected card is turned over and it is indeed the 6 of diamonds. 

By flipping one prediction card over the other, a new cut out is formed and it shows a 7 and a club.  The second card is turned over and it is indeed the 7 of clubs.

The performer is successful in predicting 4 randomly selected cards by using only 2 prediction cards with cut outs.

You receive the 2 specially punched-out black colour prediction hole cards and 2 pages of illustrated instructions.

It is easy to do and does not require any sleight-of-hand.  Novelty magic such as this one never fails to cause a smile across the faces of your audience.  (Rated 4.5/5 stars)