Old Guys Unite

Accuse me of age nepotism if you must, but I just finished spending a few hours with the best set of DVDs I’ve seen in a long time.

Danny Tong has issued a 2 DVD set with the most practical routines for a restaurant type worker that I have ever seen. Like me, Danny is old as dirt and I’m sure much of what he has to say will be ignored because of that. What a shame.

I strongly suggest anyone study his Egg Bag, Chop Cup and Sponge Ball routines. They show what years of performing and perfecting can do.

Much of the material can be performed without a table which is always a plus.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out a couple of negatives. Danny does use a couple of stale lines that I could certainly do without. Also, the reality is that he has put one DVD worth of material on 2 disks, but that seems to be the norm recently.

Pick these up – you won’t be sorry. 

Here’s what is on the disks:

VOLUME I:

Card To Wallet: A simple no palm approach to get sign “card to wallet” effect.

Bill Matrix (coin assembly): This simple method not only produces the coin assembly effect, it provides two additional effects. (That of a color change and production of a large coin.) However, its main function is to get money on the table. One simple adjustment and you are reset.

Sponge Balls: With 2 visible balls you will perform several effects, including the classic in the spectators hands.

Ring Flight/Ring on Stick: A very strong combination of two classics that make a great closer.

Bonus:
Matrix (additional)

Bills & Bowls: It’s the classic Benson bowl routine done with borrowed bills and a sugar bowl. Like Bill Matrix, the routine was designed to get money on the table.

VOLUME II:

Malini Egg Bag: This 3 phase routine with spectator ends with the production of a glass liquid. Joe Lefler said, “This routine has to be seen to be believed”.

Chop Cup: A short, fast routine with this prop that does not promote a gambling theme.

Card on the Ribbon: A slight change in the presentation of this great Jack Chanin trick creates a second effect and leaves you clean.

Thompson’s Aces: As an opener for a card routine, this in the hands, ace production would be hard to beat. From a shuffled deck, you will produce the four aces, one at a time, while cutting the cards. Combine this production sequence with “Christopher’s Red and Black Aces” (Daley’s Last Trick) and you will have an easy to follow routine that does not require the spectator to take a card.

Ropes: A rope routine that runs the gamut from C & R rope to Professor’s Nightmare to a 3 to 1 restoration. A complete act on it’s own.

Bonus:
Jack: A minor change in this old trick adds another laugh and extends the climax.

  Take care……… 
 

Hello….Hello.…….Hello.……Hello……….

It seems like the magic blog world is now firmly in the throes of death. I went to clean up my links section today and virtually everyone had disappeared or hadn’t been touched in months.

When you click on Magic Enigma you get:

Now I’m the first to admit that I would much rather stare at a hot blonde with serious yabos than read a magic blog, but I realized on a recent trip to Las Vegas that man cannot live by breasts alone. At the end of 4 days I was actually tired of hooters of every shape and size. Hard to believe I know.

I miss the wide variety of blogs – even the disputes as long as no one took them too seriously. Several of the older, well established blogs that I didn’t link to for personal reasons seemed to have tanked – others seem to be drawing their final breaths. I hope it doesn’t continue.

I know readership is way off and comments – even nasty ones, are as rare as truth from the White House. Certainly irregular postings must bear some of the blame, but I wonder if it is something that has just run its course.

Time will tell…….