Someone owes me a secret

I was going over old post after being reminded that this blog exists and in one I had a complaint about how much of a secret I'm buying. And a specific example was that I felt that I was owed more information about the construction of Blackmail utility gimmick by Bobby Motta. 

My complaint at that time was that they didn't give you enough pieces of card stock to practice with much less do the effect. And how at that time there was no way to order more. In the video the person explaining stuff actively stop themselves from giving away any info that would easily allow you to source your own supplies.

Now the effect is no longer available from most places the only place I found it with a lazy google search was the creators website. I reckon this means he's selling till he runs out of whatever production run and then it'll disappear. And the refills on there seem to be only for the envelopes.

For obvious reason this effect has been gathering dust in my cabinet even though it would be of decent use to me if had paper.

Hobo Box

A Great Depression Hauntique

The magic cafe hates you almost as much as they like money.

So there was a thread on the Magic Cafe where a creator was being called out for not honoring his sales. And it filled up with multiple people complaining of the loss of several hundreds of dollars. And  if you've been around long enough you know what happened, the thread was deleted. While I don't know what happened before it was deleted I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the person being called made no post to defend himself. It may be a bit cynical but it I feel it looks like he was just waiting it out knowing that as an advertiser the offending thread would be removed.

Kardar Playing Cards

Chris Gould is a creative genius. One of his many marvelous creations is a reading system known as Kardar. An extension of that is his Kadar Playing cards. He did this by teaming up with another person on kickstarter. If you Google Kadar playing cards you're bound to find some complaints about a lack of communication after funding. None of that had anything to do with Chris and if you find that you would like the Kadar playing cards I urge you to go through him on Alchemy Moon for them.

The Kadar Playing Cards are his efforts to bring his kadar system to full poker deck printed by the US playing card company. I got three decks, the leather case, the coin, and both books. Worth ever penny. It's an interesting system and even if I bought the full reading book I like the system in the little booklet aimed at the average card user (read shut eye if you must) Each card has two short sentence on them bit like a fortune cookie. One sentence is usually more upbeat that the other. The art is superb and there are many secrets. Also there is a private forum with oh so much info. Chris is much more focused on building a community than on cranking out ideas.

Devils Library Vol 1

I really like the idea behind the Devil's Library of a bizarre effect that more affordable. So for the buy in price you get a leather card case that look like a book and a deck of old style cards. And an aged photograph. You also get a paper book and a pdf explaining things.

One of the down sides is that you have to age the deck yourself. The method if fully explained in the pdf. It's not hard but it is a skill and I think I'd need to do more decks to really get a good consistent look but I doubt my efforts as is would ruffle many feathers in performing.

The booklet and PDF leave no stone unturned in explaining the effect Chris Gould devised and it is so very clever. The effect is one of spirit writing and but with the include props and tale it could be so much more. I'm very happy with my purchase even if the effect is not in wheelhouse.

Why would you want a Tshirt with another performers name.

I'm sure that Danial Madison is a stellar performer but I fail to see the point in owning decks with his logo and name. And now Ellusionist released a shirt with an awesome picture and the slogan "I am Danial Madison." I just don't see the appeal in wearing a shirt with some other persons name. And as a professional performer it would be unconscionable to wear an advertisement for another performer.

Bizarre magic not really it's own form of magic.

Theres an old post on here somewhere about what bizarre magic is but I've changes since then. The thing about bizarre magic is that I think it's more a theme now then a style. There are no bizarre magic effects. To me I've notice that most bizarre effects are just some other styles effect with a odd presentation. Take a look at one of the review I did recent for 3 wishes. It's a nice prop with a great story but it's just a copper silver trick dressed up nice.

I'd like to say that it as a style requires more out of a performer than other methods but I think that really most magicians are crud. Like Sturgeon's Law says 90% of everything is bad. Fact of the matter is you don't have to be good performer to do good magic. I remember at one party I was at this guy I don't know comes up to me and takes out a playing card out of his wallet and tells he's kept it there ever since I did the magic. I guarantee whatever effect it was I did was crap. But it was still amazing enough for this guy to carry a reminder and bring it up. I can do way better stuff now. So like all other forms of magic the better a performer creates more magic. That said on the whole most of the people I know that focus on the bizarre side are little more focused on acting ability than on a perfect vanish.