Kronos is a gimmick that allows the magician to control a borrowed battery operated quartz watch while the watch pin is completely covered by a strip of electrician’s tape. The gimmick is unique, easily concealed and very well made. This is the real deal.

Is it worth $250?

The answer to that question is dependent on what you intend to do with Kronos. In the right hands, this effect will be “a reputation maker.”¹ But if you’re just going to post a single video of your poorly practiced routine on YouTube then, no, it’s not worth it. If you are considering buying Kronos (which has become rare due to its manufacturer discontinuing its production) for YouTube use, then the powers that be have set the price too low.

It is my hope that truly amazing and powerful illusions like Kronos will be priced out of reach of the YouTuber magic hacks. It’s unfortunate that the rest of us will have to pay more for them, but at least we’ll do so knowing that we have a very good chance of being able to perform these effects without someone in the crowd shouting out that they’d seen it exposed on YouTube.

If you plan to astonish and inspire audiences with Kronos, your $250 will be well spent. If you just want to be able to freak a few minds here and there, don’t waste your money by disenchanting this amazing gimmick.

Kronos comes with the gimmick, a roll of electrician’s tape, and a micro-disc DVD (French with English subtitles) in a very nice box. If I have one slam to make against Kronos it’s that, in a time where slot-loading DVD drives are so prevalent, the instructions for how to use this gimmick are on a disc that won’t play on anything but a tray-loading DVD player. That’s not a big deal if you intend to watch on a common DVD unit in an entertainment system, but if you want to watch it on a laptop computer, you may need to first find a friend who has a computer with a tray loading optical drive and rip the little DVD’s contents to a digital file you can view in your laptop’s media player².

1. I just threw up a little in my mouth as I typed that phrase
2. which is a good thing to do with all your magic DVDs anyway…back ‘em up, Kreskin

A total utter waste of money. Loops Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Yigal Mesika & Finn Jon is torturous to watch and way too expensive for the level of instruction you get. If you want to know the history of Loops, by all means, pony up the bucks and buy this. If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, play this and you’ll be nodding off in no time. The video above should give you enough idea of what effects you will be taught and none of them are difficult to figure out for anyone who is familiar with Loops…or IT for that matter.

A much better video for your Loop-minded money is The Million Dollar Knot from Penguin Magic. If you’ve played with Loops for longer than a few minutes, you know they break and you only get 5 on the card when you buy them. So you’d be better off buying an inexpensive, “Instant Download” video that teaches a few effects and, more importantly, shows you how you can make your own Loops very easily with two items that should already be in your magician’s case. The Million Dollar Knot also comes with a spool of PET2.0 that, in my experience, is better than Mesika Elastics for stretch, strength and most importantly, invisibility.

Forget Yigal Mesika and Finn Jon (and Luna Shimada¹ for that matter) and steer clear of Loops Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

1. who talks like she’s wearing vampire teeth, but isn’t…odd

It’s been over a year since my last post here, but something has inspired me to come back. That something is Paul Harris’ True Astonishments DVD Boxed Set.

We all know magic can be expensive and that, quite often, you get little for cash you put down. This is not the case here. You get 9 DVDs packed with great effects to amaze and enchant audiences and a bag of goodies to help you do it. It all comes in a beautiful case that you can display proudly.

This DVD set made me want to perform magic again—that’s how good it is.

Buy it. I know it’s expensive, but what else do you think you’re going to spend your money on at the magic store? Another magnetic gimmick that is so pathetic you’ll never have the guts to perform it in front of a real audience? Don’t waste your time. Promise yourself that you won’t buy another magic gimmick for the next 8 months to a year, buy Paul Harris’ True Astonishments, lock yourself in a room with a DVD player and a screen and study…practice…master this stuff—it’s worth it.

Honestly.

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 applies 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 above¹ 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 handlings.

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.

1. sadly this video has been removed and Jay’s own YouTube channel holds nothing useful to put in its place

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.

Any Card Through Window (a.k.a. CTW) routine takes balls and the ability to control your spectator. Is this hard? Not necessarily, but it should be understood before investing in this DVD.

If that warning gave you pause at all, the good news is that Eric James’ Ultimate Card Through Window DVD offers some very clever ideas for taking the risk out of performing this effect. Bonus tricks like “Card to TV,” “Card to Cel Phone” and “Wall Stab” take the genre further while also suggesting directions where you can take CTW with a little creativity of your own.

If you’re interested in adding Card Through Window to your street magic routine, Eric James’ Ultimate Card Through Window DVD will give you the nuts and bolts of the effect and hopefully the encouragement to try a risky but rewarding illusion.

Complete and utter crap. The video here looks quite impressive but I could not get results anywhere near as good as these. And the idea that the trick was designed to be performed in shorts has me baffled—was it also designed to be performed in front of morons? Anyone who sees this effect in person will see how it’s done especially if it is performed in shorts.It is garbage—save your money. There are cheaper and easier ways of achieving a similar effect that is just as ineffective when wearing shorts but are much more effective than this when wearing pants.

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.

As Kevin Parker’s magic tricks go, this one seems a bit more versatile to me than Canz; it’s still angley, but not nearly to the degree of Canz.The trick is fairly easy to get “out” of: when it’s done you aren’t left clean, but you aren’t left with too much difficulty on getting “out.” Getting “in” is a trick in itself. Parker doesn’t give any help on how to get “in” to the trick. Edge pretty much has to be the opener to your street magic routine…you’re “hey you! come watch me!” effect, because there is no subtle way to load the gimmick. And when you’re set to go, you’re useless for anything else.

A great magic trick I wish I hadn’t bought. Canz looks amazing in this video, but Parker never shows the whole live performance only the one he did in his living room in front of a fixed camera. The fixed camera is not nearly as curious to see where the extra cans are coming from and thus it is less likely to see the secret of Canz.Enjoy the video, stay away from this trick.