Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”This Friday was suh-weeeet! You know why? Fire. That’s why. Jamie was in our office and showed us this lighter he had just bought and explained how he hated that Warning Label sticker that comes on them. So he pulls it off the lighter and asks us if we want to see something cool. “He!!s yes!”, we said. Well, he actually sets the Warning Label on fire, no kidding! The thing goes *poof* but, get this, it reappears back on the lighter in a %^$%$^^# flash!!! I don’t know what else to say! Lighter, sticker off, fire, sticker on. It was awesomely crazy!”

How It Went:

You could probably go outside, right now, light something, anything for that matter, on fire and get a crowd. People love fire. It’s that simple. Now- go outside, light the sticker on your lighter on fire, and make it magically reappear back on the lighter and you’ll get a crowd that’s going crazy, lol. And it really is simple!

Holy Smokes I love this trick! (Ha, ha, get it? I said, “Holy Smokes” and we’re talking about fi…ahem…never mind). It totally rocked it all day Friday. It’s just such a brilliant way to introduce something that we all know plays so well. And people just couldn’t believe the restoration. Almost every single person or group I showed this too demanded to see the lighter after. They just couldn’t believe it. Well done.

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Close Up | View Comments

Kevin Reylek has had his review selected for iTricks Raves. Would you like to see your review here? Email Reviews@iTricks.com

I received Lit back in November, and I’ve since performed it for magicians and lay-folks.

I love that the DVD comes with 14 different gimmicks. Refills are available, which I think this is important because this effect just begs to be given away!

Paper Crane did a very nice job with the video editing and DVD authoring. The teaching on the DVD is clear and concise.

We’re taught handlings for the effect by both Dan Hauss and Dan White. I think both handlings are effective. As a lucky coincidence, I have a one-way forcing deck that matches one of my gimmicks, so I’ve tried a few ideas with that as well.
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Close Up, DVD | View Comments

Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”Dude, I am loving the card tricks! Anyone who says they don’t like card tricks just needs to come over and see my man here. This guy is good with a capital “G”. This Friday, for example, he had me pick a card, any card, and sign my name across the face. Well, he puts it into the deck and then, BOOM, it’s not in the deck anymore. Nuh-unh. He had some crazy-%## spirits come fly over from Amazing Man Land and steal the card out of the deck somehow, probably eat a few souls on the way back, and dropped my card into an impossible location- the box the cards came from!!! Are you hearing me here? My card went into the deck- I saw it- and then a second later it’s in the ^&$&&$^ box instead!!! Jamie is off the gri-hi-zid with this stuff!!! I love it!

How It Went:

Believe it or not, Card to Box was the first trick I ever learned. No kidding. I was in Grade 3 or something and I have no idea how I learned it. All I remember is that it involved a f*%ce that took about 18 steps and then I would go through the deck, pull out three incorrect cards and state that one of them was their card. While they were looking of the three cards on the table, I would quickly find their card, pull it out, and put it into the box, and walk across the room and throw the box as far away as I could. You wouldn’t believe the number of times it worked….Once! But man, it killed that kid.

Anyways, I always loved that trick and here comes David Forrest with one of the (if not simply the) best solution I’ve ever come across. It’s easy, fast, resettable, and amazing. I dare say it’s perfect.

I don’t think I’ve done one card trick as many times as I did Encased on Friday. I did this trick over and over and over and every single time it fried people. I mean, it’s just so clean. I don’t know even what to tell you, really. There were so many reactions that it’s hard to pinpoint any from the others- they were all great. You know its funny- this is a card to Impossible Location plot but for whatever reason it plays out more than you would think. I mean, Card to Wallet is obviously a wonderful effect but there’s something special about Card to Box. Maybe it’s because it’s a bit more organic and the fact that all the items are in full view the entire time? Or maybe it’s just me. Whatever the encase (ha ha. Get it? Encase? Instead of “whatever the case”, I said, “whatever the en…”ahem..carrying on then), this Friday went down as one of the all time great card days.

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Card Magic | View Comments

Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”Today, I saw the impossible, man. It was unbelievable! Check it out, right. Jamie comes bustin’ in and says that he’s done it. I guess these crazy magicians have some things that even they can’t do, and Jamie says that ever since the late 1800s every magician has tried to solve the problem of creating a “Flying Coin” , whatever the ^#^%# that is.

Anyways, he showed us these two huge coins that were American Silver Dollars from the 1920s and described how Houdini himself had tried to take a couple of coins, exactly like the ones he was holding, and make one of them go from one hand to the other. He said that there were lots of ways to do it, but that Houdini had wanted to use real magic, and now Jamie thought he had figured out how to do it. B#&&sh&*, right? Wrong! The absolute truth! Jamie is real magic. He took a coin, one in each hand, and then, *poof!* he turned into a leopard! Okay, not really, but he might have welled (welled?). Because, when he opened up his right hand, the coin was gone, and in his left hand were two. That coin travelled though the Spiritland and went into his other hand. And these coins were big man, there’s no way that Dollar got by me. No, it travelled by magic. Real magic. Leopard $^#% magic. This guy is fo real!

How It Went:

Wow, what a great day Friday was! Blackout took no prisoners! From first thing in the morning right up until the very end, this effect rocked and socked all day long. It’s not too often that I come across something that is so clean and can be repeated so quickly. You want to see it again? No problem. Boom! Coin gone. What’s that? Again? Sure! Boom! Coin’s in the other hand! Pure sweetness.

I basically did the simple handling all day, as well. I gave the whole Flying Coin Houdini presentation but, at the end of the day, I was making one coin go from one hand to the other. That’s it. Now I know there’s a whole bunch of ways we can do this, but Blackout is by far the easiest. I didn’t have to do a sleight all day! I just Blacked Out (that’s my past tense of performing Blackout) all day long. It went so well, that I’ve been setup all weekend, too. It’s a good thing I like black shirts!
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Coin | View Comments

Corey Martin is a regular contributor to iTricks Raves.

Wayne Houchin has been called “A cross between a con-man and a street-magician. A fascinating live performer!” by Synthesis Magazine. He has created some of the most mind-blowing effects in magic as well as produced and directed some of the biggest magic DVDs of the past few years. His latest project, ‘Art Of Magic’ is a collection of five effects that showcase not only Houchin’s brilliance as a performer, but the beauty of magic in it’s most simple form. What is even more valuable on this DVD are the interviews and advice that is given by Houchin, Dan and Dave Buck, David Regal, an Aaron Fisher. Each tell personal stories about how magic has come into their lives, and what they find the beauty of magic to be. They encourage the viewer to always remember that magic is an experience, it is more about what the audience sees and remembers, and it is your job as the magician to create that experience

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DVD | View Comments

Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”Man, today was kinda cool. Jamie told us that he has started collecting coins and that he’s pretty pumped about his new collection. When he pulled out his coin holder, however, he only had two coins, lol. Anyways, he puts them both into my hand- there was a Chinese coin and some American coin- and asks me to shake them up. He then reaches into my cupped hands and pulls out the American silver coin and puts it onto the back of my hand. He asks me if I can remember the date, without looking. Of course I can’t, so he asked me if I can tell him how big the hole in the coin is, instead. Well, there isn’t a hole in the American coin, right? But check it out! On my hand was the black Chinese coin and the American coin was in my cupped hands! They had switched places! It was awesome!

How It Went:

I love Wayne Dobson- I think he’s an awesome guy and that his magic rocks. I also really like, not love, but really like, his new effect- Metamorphosis. I’ll be honest- this didn’t change anyone’s life on Friday. Don’t get me wrong, it played well and is super strong. It just isn’t a life changer.

Now here’s the thing- I don’t want all the magic I do to be crazy intense super crazy unbelievable mind blowing stuff. Sometimes I want to just be able to bust something out that says, “Hey, I’m a fun guy and I’d like to show you something that’s cool.” And Metamorphosis does just that. The thing I really like about it is that it’s such a worker. I mean, all day I was ending super clean because of everyone’s focus on the back of there hand. It was just such a no brainer. I also really like the fact that the two coins come out of a small business card wallet and that they are completely examinable.

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Coin | View Comments

Mark Tirone has had his review selected for iTricks Raves. Would you like to see your review here? Email Reviews@iTricks.com

Marion Boykin (MB), has been releasing solid offerings to the magic community both in text and video form for…years(?). I have had the great pleasure to watch him succeed almost every step of the way and have a few inside looks as to what he will be knocking us down with again in the future. With just a quick Google search to his name, you will be able to find all of the information you will ever need regarding The Crimp Change, or The Crimp Move.
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Close Up, Coin | View Comments

Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”Yo, you want to know what I saw, right? Yeah? You sure? Because I saw the devil, man! Or maybe not! Maybe he’s a miracle worker! Who the %#^# knows what the heck Jamie is! He probably doesn’t even know!!! Check it- he puts a deck of cards on the table, right. He NEVER touches them again; I swear to you it’s true. He doesn’t touch the things. Instead he has me and Big Ted come up with a card. We chose the 2 of Clubs. BOOM! It’s gone, he says. We count the cards. There’s only 51. Big Ted starts to giggle. I start to get nervous. He tells us to turn the cards face up and find the 2 of Clubs. Well, guess what? Yeah, I know you know! The 2 of Clubs isn’t in the deck and the %^$^^$%^^$ pulls it out of his shoe! I couldn’t believe it! Big Ted started doing jumping jacks! Me? I just got the heck out of there before the Seven Horsemen showed up. It was awesome!!!”

How It Went:

I’ve reviewed a Ben Harris effect in the past and gave it a great Rating (Enlightenment) and I’m about to do it again. You know, the thing I liked about Enlightenment was that it was something that I wouldn’t use all the time- it’s something unique that I can break out on special occasions. The Crossroads deck, however, doesn’t fall into that category because I will be using this all the time. I mean, it was almost made for Magic Friday- self working and instantly resettable = awesome.

Everyone loved it, as well. The thing that makes this so impossible is the fact that I never touched the cards. It’s just so surreal. And I didn’t play it like, “I knew you were going to pick the [card]”. Instead, I played it like, “Voila. I just made your card vanish from the deck.” And it killed. Over and over again.

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Card Magic, Close Up, Visual | View Comments

Corey Martin is a regular contributor to iTricks Raves.

We have all seen it. The Magician shows a box that has been hanging in full view the entire performance, is sealed, anything in the box can be seen. Random selections are made, be it a card from a deck or a set of numbers or even a word from a page of newsprint. The box is carefully opened, one part at a time to insure that it has not been tampered with in any way. The prediction inside the box matches that of the selection made on stage. The crowd is stunned. The Magician smiles and takes his bow. The stage goes dark….

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Book, Mentalism, Standup/Stage | View Comments