So much of the magic on YouTube does damage to the performing art of magic; finally there is real magic on YouTube. Jay Sankey has began adding comedy videos to his blog a couple of days ago and yesterday he began posting those same videos (and a few product deoms) to YouTube.

Of the three comedy videos he has produced so far, the one above is my favorite (The Amazing Larry #1 is a hoot too).

Enjoy.

Jay Sankey is an amazing performer. Few magicians today affect their audience as positively and profoundly as Jay. In this DVD, Jay takes a look at The Invisible Deck and applied his years of performing experience to one of the few trick decks real magicians actually use.

I should first like to corroborate Jay’s sell-job of the Invisible Deck seen above and add that for the $10 price tag, you’d be hard pressed to find a more powerful and magical effect than this deck. If you don’t own an Invisible Deck, you really should. If you’re starting in magic, this deck should be one of your first purchases.

Now—the DVD. Jay demonstrates the “classic” handling of the Invisible Deck (and even then he can’t help but add his own spin) as well as a few handlings that are available in a rather inexpensive book called “Invisible Secrets Revealed.” On top of all that, he adds many of his own ideas and, in so doing, adds that trademark Jay Sankey blend of simple brilliance and insanity to the mix. These routines and ideas are well worth the $20 to $30 price tag. If you’ve grown bored with the old ID routines, this DVD might bring some new life to your performances or even give you ideas from which you can springboard and create your own innovative ideas.

So, get the Invisible Deck and learn how it works. Perform (as opposed to “demonstrate”) it for your audiences. Once you’re ready for the next level, give Jay Sanky’s DVD a look.

I’ll leave you with what is probably the most familiar performance of the Invisible Deck that has been made in the last decade—David Blaine and his mind boggled friend.

I had the pleasure of receiving my Ellusionist Custom 6 Deck Sample Pack in the mail last week. Ellusionist has done an exceptional job with these cards. I don’t know who they got to do the artwork on the Aces of Spades and Jokers but these are especially nice.

The cards meet the quality standards of any Bicycle deck and far exceed them in the case of the two Masters’ Edition Decks.

In all, you get a Black Tiger Deck with Red Pips (a beautiful black deck), the Ghost Deck (like the Tiger but ghostly white), the Tally-Ho Viper Deck (another black deck with red pips and silver ink), a red “Vintage” 1800 Deck (gorgeous weathered looking deck…this one might even get better with age), the Masters Edition Deck (a standard Bicycle deck with signature Ellusionist touches on a heavy card stock), and a Shadow Masters Deck (like the standard Masters Edition, but dark and moody).

These are not your run of the mill practice decks. These are strictly for performance or for collecting. A must have collection at USD$36.00.

In a recent delivery of magic tricks I had ordered, my local magic shop threw in a few freebies. One of them was this rather unimpressive looking box of cards with the equally unimpressive name “It’s Magic ‘Blank’ Deck of Cards.” The trick is actually pretty good (the kid in this video isn’t performing it as instructed). Easy to learn (basic Svengali deck). Hard to screw up and the price was certainly right.