magic roadshow

OPENERS AND CLOSERS 3 – A Review

July 24, 2017 Rick Carruth

OPENERS AND CLOSERS 3
Paul Lelekis

Triumphs, invisible thread, invisible decks, change bags, nail writers, and almost impromptu mental magic… it’s all in Paul’s OPENERS AND CLOSERS 3. This book has a very decidedly mentalism / mental magic flavor.. which was fine with me, as I love to mess with people’s minds. Paul has also included videos and an abundance of photos in this edition, which is also fine with me, as I am a very visual guy.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is… I thoroughly enjoyed volume 3 of the Openers and Closers series. Paul’s writing ranks up there with the best of them, and his explanations ARE the best.
The 21 Card ESP Trick alone is worth the price. I am very partial to effects that look like big dollar effects and perform almost automatic. I literally went to bed last night playing this effect over and over in my mind and imagining how my fellow magicians will react when I perform it.

Writing about card tricks and magic in general is not extremely difficult. There’s a proverbial ton of material out there to offer fodder for the cause.. But writing about magic in a way that’s inspiring and insightful is very difficult.. and that’s why I respect Paul’s third contribution to the OPENERS & CLOSERS series.

(The parentheses are my thoughts on Paul’s descriptions..).

INTRODUCTION – An opener does NOT have to be a trick!
( Paul offers some seriously funny advice on winning your audience over at the start of your performance. Getting their support and earning their confidence is SO important, and cannot be underestimated.. You’ll learn a little biker humor along the way too.. )

The 21 Card ESP Trick – Show your version of the 21 Card Trick…but you seem to have goofed up! Then you not only deal out one card only, face down, but you also know the name of selection!
( This reminds me so much of an effect you would expect to find in Giobbi’s ‘Card College’ or Scarne’s ‘Scarne on Card Tricks’ – Very efficient, very rewarding and very much a mystery to your audience. There is NO sleight of hand, but you will fool the socks off your spectators..)

Above & Beyond – Three classics of magic combined into one fantastic card trick!
(Based on a Stewart James classic.. modified by three fellow magicians, and combined into a wonderful, sleight less effect by Paul. Above & Beyond does need a false shuffle or two, but I’m sure you guys can pull that off! Another effect you can add to your repertoire right away..)

Voodoo Reversal of Fortune – Here’s an EXCELLENT trick with the Invisible Deck!
( If you can manipulate an Invisible Deck.. you can perform Paul’s original effect with ease. Not only will you learn a convincer and a simple psychological factoid, you will also learn a cool move Paul teaches with an included video..)

Reading a Thought – Here’s is the REAL method for using a Nail-Writer and two different ways to reveal the thought-of selection!
( Not much I can add to this description.. Paul discloses HOW he uses a nail writer to fool his spectator. If you’ve ever used this extremely powerful weapon then you already understand the power. All the psychological aspects are discussed and explained..)

Invisible Thread Ideas – A 5-page treatise on the use and handling of Invisible Thread!
( This is a highly informative tutorial on the intricacies of invisible thread. If you’re afraid of invisible thread, welcome to the majority. It’s my personal experience the only guys swearing by IT are the guys who use it regularly… and they are probably NOT anxious for you to read Paul’s thoughts. He talks about floating bills, napkins, playing cards, and other inanimate objects like glasses and silverware. Paul also includes his thoughts on sellers of IT and the best thread to use. Good, solid thoughts.. )

See-Through Change Bag – Construct you own change bag for pennies and make it in 5 minutes.
( Not trying to direct you too far away from card magic, this is an ideal compliment to your routine, that will allow you to add a bit of mental magic to your already-stellar act. You can create this, as Paul aptly notes, in minutes. The KISS principle personified…)

A Quickie Triumph – Explain to the audience how difficult it is to practice when you drop the cards all the time. Make the cards “right themselves” in a flash…except the selection!
( You’ll need a couple of not-too-difficult sleights to complete this effect. Paul includes a video of Steve Draun’s Midnight Shift to make the process very do-able for even beginners. I am a big fan of Triumph, and this version has the impact… without the mess..)

This is the final version of Paul’s three part Openers & Closers. I think this one might be my favorite. I’m partial to mental magic and this ebook includes several very nice effects that are ideal for any skill level. The most productive $10.00 investment you’ll make in your magic this summer. Openers & Closers 3 will be available for sale at Lybrary.com on 7/24/17..

http://www.lybrary.com/paul-a-lelekis-m-163788.html

(Reviewed by R.Carruth for the Magic Roadshow..)

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Columnist Mike Weatherford Says Goodby to Las Vegas Review-Journal

July 3, 2017 Rick Carruth

(* The Magic Roadshow and Magic News have directed many a reader to Mike’s articles in LVRJ. We have always appreciated his work. Best of Luck in your new endeavors..)

Mike Weatherford, reporter and columnist, poses for a portrait at the Las Vegas Review-Journal photos studio, Las Vegas, Jan. 11, 2017. (Elizabeth Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @EliPagePhoto

By Mike Weatherford – Las Vegas Review-Journal

June 24, 2017 – 10:14 am

Maybe I just don’t like to leave a party that’s still raging. But I’m giving up this column and full-time work for the newspaper. And while the show scene I cover isn’t really one of the reasons for doing this right now, it does seem easier to leave during this lull on the Strip, when concert headliners are replacing investment in original shows.

Does anyone really feel like another “Ka” is in the pipeline? I’ve been battling repetition, though I hope it hasn’t shown up too much in the writing. There’s full-circle pride in having covered Celine Dion’s opening night in 2003, her closing night four years later, and her return in 2011.

But if I’m going to try some creative writing and things I’ve been talking about for years (including a February 2016 podcast of ‘Matt & Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social’)? The little voice is saying, “Run, before she closes again!”

The first column with my face on it, announcing I would follow my friend Michael Paskevich, ran this same month in 2000. Part of it addressed the pending destruction of the old Circus Maximus showroom at CaesarsPalace.

At least I got here in time to close the book on the old Vegas, and even to write a book, “Cult Vegas,” about it. I rolled into town on the same day in October 1987 that Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. last stood on the same Las Vegas stage together.

A flat tire intervened somewhere around Mesquite, I wasn’t actually on the job yet (just apartment hunting), and anyway, I was the young guy hired to cover rock concerts, not the old Vegas cats. So I missed Sinatra’s old pals surprising him.

But the old Vegas reeled me in anyway. I later got to shake Davis’ hand, and to better know Sam Butera, Claude Trenier, Marty Allen and other workaday heroes of the classic-Vegas era. Blackie Hunt and Sonny King came to my book release party, and I’ll never forget Robert Goulet calling my mom to get the answer to a crossword puzzle clue. Neither would she.

Still, “Cult Vegas” was mostly research and interview recollections. My real-time experience was the Cirque du Soleil era and the reinvention of the Strip.

I covered the opening night of The Mirage and would later venture into the tent that sprung up behind it to meet the Cirque du Soleil folk bringing us “Nouvelle Experience.”

“A lot of people are going to be very surprised that Cirque is going to do so well here,” then-Mirage (now MGM Resorts) executive Alan Feldman said in that 1992 story. To assume Cirque was too artsy for Vegas “suggests that people can’t get enough of the old Vegas stuff. If all those shows were doing turn-away business every night, that might be true.”

I chronicled every Cirque show since. But now, doesn’t it seem like Cirque is the “old stuff” and we’re waiting for some new tent full of fresh imagination to pop up somewhere in town?

Throughout this era, I always tried to write credible show reviews and to delve into the business behind the shows. If a mediocre one endures, perhaps it has more to do with the mechanics of ticket discounting. If a Broadway musical didn’t perform, maybe it wasn’t that a “Vegas audience” didn’t get it, but that it toured too much before landing here.

Everyone’s a critic now when it comes to an internet jammed with consumer opinion. But believe it or not, Paskevich was the first Review-Journal staffer to write objective show reviews. (The town was just too small, and those who say it was better when the mob ran it didn’t labor under the threat of someone digging a hole for them in the desert.)

As the second one, I hope I prodded local producers to push forward and aim higher, even if it was sometimes awkward to do both reviews and news columns about the same people. But I needed material, they needed the ink, and with very few exceptions, we all got along.

The Strip seems to have moved beyond loopy self-parodies such as “Nebulae — The Life Force,” and I kind of miss those days. But my snark level toned down over the years as I got to know the people involved, how hard they worked, and how many ways something can go off the rails.

While Las Vegas was just another stop for concert tours, reviewing the unique-to-Vegas shows “seems to be more appreciated by consumers, who likely respect a little straight talk on these pricey attractions,” I wrote in that first 2000 column.

All these years later, I hope you did.

Entertainment columnist Mike Weatherford says farewell to RJ

TAC-TIC-AL – A Review

May 26, 2017 Rick Carruth

The MagicWorld Creative Team has introduced an effect perfect as an opener or an ice breaker. Either a miniature deck of cards -or- a box of Tic Tack mints can be displayed.. and with a toss from one hand to the other, transformed into a full sized deck of cards.

The change is sudden.. and there are no wires, pulls, reels or lapping used to complete the transformation. The item is displayed in one hand, and with a simple toss to the other hand, changes into the Bicycles. The magic happens before the spectator has time to realize you’re about to fool them badly…

I like the idea of using TAC-TIC-AL as an opener because of its sudden action. It’s easy to gage from the response whether you’re in the presence of friends or foes. Lets face it.. not every spectator responds positively to your performance or your offer to perform. TAC-TIC-AL allows you to determine with a glance whether you should continue or politely move on. This in itself makes it a valuable tool in your arsenal.

TAC-TIC-AL uses a gimmick, supplied, that makes the magic possible. Actually, two gimmicks are supplied.. based on whether you want to transform the mints or the miniature deck. You will need to furnish your own deck of red or blue Bicycles, which shouldn’t be a problem. You will also need a small amount of invisible thread, furnished, to make the gimmick functional. The thread is NOT attached to your body, but is only needed in a completely self-working fashion, explained in the video. I’m not a big fan of thread in my performances.. but the use of thread in this performance is both innocuous and innocent.

The teaching method is via video.. and the link and password are supplied. The video runs about 21 minutes and is posted online. There’s nothing to download.. which is a pet peeve of mine when I DO have to download an instructional video. The sound and lighting are both very functional. There are windows behind the team and, as they are recording at night, car lights are an annoyance.. but not to the point where it would affect my ability to learn. There are also two different camera angles, which add a nice variety.

You are taught several different variations of TAC-TIC-AL. There are different ways of ‘tossing’ the deck to complete the transformation. Once the basic initial setup is complete, which should take a couple of minutes, you are good to go. I can see the typical beginner learning all the necessary handling in minutes. Although it’s not actually self-working, it’s very close, with a minimum of effort on your part.

My only problem with TAC-TIC-AL is, like many transformations, it’s angle sensitive. It’s not something you’re going to perform for a room full of people.. although there is an alternative handling that ‘almost’ takes care of this shortcoming. The angle isn’t a big problem because the spectator doesn’t know what’s coming. You can approach a spectator, or three, and ‘tacticalize’ them before they have time to ‘analyze’ you.

If you’re into close up, walk around and table hopping I would recommend TAC-TIC-AL. It’s a great little ice breaker that garners your spectators immediate attention and opens the door for your other effects. Again, it’s one of many tools that working magicians should carry in their toolbox.

Available at all magic retailers that carry the Murphy’s Magic line of products.. $29.95
(Available with Red or Blue Bicycle backs)

www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=59248

(Review by Rick Carruth)

Image result for murphys magic tactical

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