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.

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.