Foiled Again by Bizzaro

Now available at www.magiciansmagicshop.com

 Everyone's seen someone bite a coin to test if it's real-now you can take that moment to a whole new level. "Foiled Again" is a sweet, surreal piece of visual magic from the wonderfully twisted mind of Bizzaro.

The effect is simple but oh-so-satisfying. You take a shiny silver coin and literally peel off the outer layer like it's foil, revealing a chocolate center underneath. Then, with a quick rub, the foil reseals and the coin instantly turns solid again-ready to hand out.

It's a fast, funny, and totally unexpected moment of magic that works just as well for kids as it does for adults. Best of all, it's super easy to do and slips perfectly into any coin routine or close-up set.

Each "Foiled Again" set comes with everything you need, including gimmicks for a dollar, half dollar, quarter, and a generic coin (about quarter-sized) so you can perform it with most currencies. You'll also get full video instruction from Bizzaro, teaching you every move, detail, and secret behind this delightfully deceptive miracle.

Emojinary by Neta Bresler

 Now available at www.magiciansmagicshop.com

• A universal prediction or mind reading routine. Emojis are recognizable to everyone, everywhere.
• Predict what emojis a spectator randomly types in (on their phone!)
• Or use the deck of emoji cards to perform predictions or reveal information as a kicker ending.
• Includes custom deck of emoji cards and access to the Emojinary app.
• Numerous routines taught.

Description:

An exciting new world of magic and mentalism using something everyone recognizes: Emojis. From predicting the future to reading minds, and even mind control, Emojinary by Neta Bresler and Vanishing Inc. is an easy-to-use tool that you can use anywhere from close-up to stage.

Emojinary is more than a singular trick. It's a practical and customizable system that uses a custom-designed app and set of marked cards to perform a variety of jaw-dropping miracles. You can use them separately or combine them together for one-of-a-kind routines.

Here's just one example of what you can do with Emojinary:

You borrow someone's phone, open the Emoji keyboard and then turn the phone face-down before inviting them to blindly tap some Emojis. They then turn the phone toward themselves and look at the Emojis they hit. Impossibly, you can read their mind and tell them exactly which ones they chose. But that's not all. As an extra kicker, you reveal that their choices were not as random as they seemed. They will freak out when they discover the Emojis spell their name.

This is just one of the 10+ professional routines taught in the incredible 2.5 hour download. You'll learn effects using your phone, a borrowed phone (NFC tags included), or even no phone at all. These easy-to-do effects aren't limited to close-up performances either because you'll also receive the fonts/files needed to create larger predictions for parlor or stage shows.

Emojinary really has limitless possibilities and the private Facebook group you'll gain access to is where many of the best new ones will live.

App Details

Emojinary is an iOS app designed by Joshua Riley that works with iMessage, WhatsApp, the Notes app, email and even Google searches. You can create custom reveals and predictions on the spot or even send them ahead of time.

About the Cards

The Emojinary deck is printed on professional grade stock and handles like a dream. It looks just like an authentic deck of children's game cards. Which is exactly why your audience will never suspect that it also contains a sneaky marking system. Beyond using it in conjunction with the app to create one-of-a-kind predictions and matching effects, you can also use the Emojinary deck to perform unique takes on all your favorite card magic classics.

What You Receive:

• Emojinary app
• Custom marked Emoji deck
• 2.5 hour tutorial
• Fonts/files for larger reveals
• Private Facebook group access

Perform memorable magic and mentalism that leaves a lasting impression. Get Emojinary today!

Cebu Magicians Explain Why Learning the Secret Is Only the Beginning

 Knowing how a magic trick works is very different from knowing how to make an audience care about it.

Three members of the Cebu Magicians Association recently joined SunStar Cebu’s Beyond the Headlines program to discuss the practice, patience and human connection behind a successful magic performance.

During the interview, “Beyond the Illusion: The Art of Magic,” bizarre magician Marvin Cabanes, mentalist Nicel Quezon and close-up magician JV Tagaan described how their different personalities led them toward very different areas of magic.

Despite those differences, all three shared a central belief: the method behind a trick is only the beginning. Creating a memorable experience requires years of practice, an understanding of the audience and the ability to make the magic feel personal.

Different Performers Find Different Forms of Magic

Cabanes has practiced magic for more than 17 years and specializes in bizarre magic. This theatrical branch of the art often replaces familiar playing cards and coins with unusual objects and darker presentations.

The unfamiliar nature of those objects helps create suspense because audiences are unsure what to expect. However, Cabanes stressed that performers must select their material responsibly. Effects involving needles, blades or other potentially dangerous objects may be appropriate for adults but should be changed when performing for children.

Quezon found his place in mentalism, where psychology, verbal cues and observations of human behavior become part of the presentation.

He explained that mentalism is not about genuinely predicting someone’s future or reading thoughts. Instead, it uses communication and audience interaction to create the experience of mind reading.

Tagaan’s outgoing personality drew him toward close-up magic. This style allows him to speak directly with spectators and present short routines at tables, cocktail parties, weddings and corporate events.

Performance Requires More Than Technique

Learning the mechanics of a trick can sometimes happen quickly. Becoming comfortable enough to perform it under real-world conditions is a much longer process.

“Learning the method is easy, but performing it perfectly takes time,” Cabanes explained.

A magician must be able to execute the effect while speaking, managing volunteers, responding to unexpected situations and maintaining the audience’s attention. Nervousness can make even a well-practiced move feel much more difficult when spectators are watching.

Cabanes suggested that fully mastering an individual effect can require between five and seven years of experimentation and performance.

That distinction is important in an age when secrets to thousands of tricks can be found online. Access to a method does not automatically provide the timing, confidence or audience-management skills needed to turn it into entertaining magic.

Making the Experience Personal

Quezon explained that personalization can transform a familiar card trick into a meaningful souvenir. Having someone sign a card, write a birthday on it or add a drawing gives the object a personal connection that remains after the trick is finished.

Tagaan also emphasized the importance of reading body language. Before approaching guests at a private event, a close-up magician must determine whether they are interested, how they are interacting and when it is appropriate to enter their space.

Those observations allow a performer to adjust the pacing and style of the presentation rather than delivering every trick exactly the same way to every group.

Patience, Personality and Human Connection

The conversation offered an important lesson for aspiring magicians: there is no single correct path into magic.

A talkative performer might thrive in close-up magic. Someone interested in psychology may be drawn to mentalism, while a theatrical storyteller might feel at home performing bizarre magic.

Whatever specialty a magician chooses, improvement requires patience. New performers can begin with everyday objects, seek advice from experienced magicians and gradually test their material for real audiences.

The secret may explain how a trick works, but it is the performer’s personality, judgment and relationship with the audience that transforms that trick into an experience.

Source: SunStar Cebu

Michigan Magician Chad Banister Uses Rubik’s Cubes to Create Human Connections

 Michigan magician Chad Banister is using Rubik’s Cubes, storytelling and audience participation to demonstrate that magic can offer more than a moment of amazement—it can bring people together.

During a recent appearance on Indianapolis television station WISH-TV, Banister discussed how his performances use magic as a metaphor for finding connections amid the chaos of everyday life.

School schedules, jobs, bills and countless other responsibilities can make life feel as scrambled as a Rubik’s Cube. Banister’s message is that making even one meaningful connection can begin bringing order to that chaos.

Finding Connections One Side at a Time

The standard 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube has more than 43 quintillion possible combinations, making it an ideal symbol for the complicated choices and challenges people encounter.

During the television segment, Banister demonstrated his skills by solving a scrambled cube while it was concealed inside a bag—a feat he completed in less than two seconds.

The cube’s six sides also support the larger message behind his performance. Finding one connection can lead to another, just as matching the colors on one side eventually leads to completing the entire puzzle.

“Wonder is something we still never outgrow,” Banister told WISH-TV.

That idea is at the heart of his work. Rather than presenting magic simply as a puzzle to be solved, Banister uses each performance to encourage audiences to recognize the wonder and human connections that can easily be overlooked in daily life.

From the Classroom to the Stage

In addition to performing professionally, Banister works as a substitute teacher. His classroom experience helps him communicate with audiences of different ages and backgrounds.

Banister performs at schools, theaters, festivals and corporate events, adapting his combination of magic, storytelling and audience participation to each setting.

His work in education extends beyond performing. Banister also conducts magic workshops where participants can learn classic principles and techniques. During the WISH-TV appearance, he demonstrated a traditional silk effect called Knots on a Silk, which he originally discovered in a magic book.

Teaching effects like this allows Banister to share not only the secret behind a trick but also the history, creativity and practice that make magic an art form.

Magic With a Meaning

Rubik’s Cube magic has become increasingly popular because it is colorful, recognizable and easy for audiences to understand. Everyone knows that solving a cube ordinarily requires time, patience and careful concentration.

Banister takes that familiar object and gives it a deeper purpose. The cube becomes a visual representation of chaos, problem-solving and the connections that gradually bring everything together.

His performance is another example of how magicians can use familiar objects to communicate ideas that reach far beyond the trick itself.

More information about Chad Banister, his upcoming appearances and his magic workshops can be found at ChadBanisterMagic.com and through his Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages.

Source: WISH-TV

Francis Tabary Transforms a Simple Rope into Pure Magic

                                

A talented magician doesn’t always need an elaborate illusion or expensive stage equipment to create something unforgettable. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple piece of rope—and few performers have demonstrated that better than Francis Tabary.

In this performance from FISM Asia 2008, the celebrated French magician presents an elegant rope routine filled with impossible transformations. Pieces of rope apparently change length, separate, reconnect and transform in ways that seem to defy every rule of reality.

The routine lasts approximately eight minutes, but Tabary continually introduces new surprises. Just when the audience believes it understands the rope’s condition, another visual impossibility changes everything.

Taking Rope Magic to Another Level

Rope magic has been performed for generations, with effects such as cutting and restoring a rope becoming classics of the art. Tabary’s work goes far beyond simply presenting a collection of familiar tricks.

Each sequence flows naturally into the next, creating the impression that the rope has taken on a life of its own. Knots appear and vanish, ends seem to travel, and separate sections become whole again directly in front of the audience.

Although the routine is technically demanding, Tabary never allows the technique to overshadow the magic. His movements are careful, controlled and remarkably smooth. The result looks less like a magician manipulating a prop and more like an artist creating a moving sculpture.

A World Champion of Close-Up Magic

Francis Tabary is widely regarded as one of the most influential rope magicians in the world.

In 1991, he received first place in the Micro Magic category at the FISM World Championship of Magic in Lausanne, Switzerland. His award-winning rope work has since been studied by magicians around the world through his performances, books, lectures and instructional videos.

Tabary has also explored visual art through impossible objects, including Penrose-inspired sculptures and three-dimensional ambigrams. That artistic background can be seen throughout his magic. He approaches a piece of rope not simply as a prop, but as a line that can be bent, divided and rearranged to create impossible images.

Why This Performance Still Stands Out

One of the most impressive aspects of this performance is its simplicity. There is no complicated scenery, dramatic story or collection of large props. The audience’s attention remains focused on Tabary and the rope.

That simplicity also makes the magic feel stronger. The spectators can clearly see the rope, the knots and the ends, yet the transformations remain impossible to follow.

Tabary’s FISM Asia performance is a wonderful reminder that great magic does not depend on the size of the prop. It depends on creativity, presentation and the years of practice required to make something extremely difficult appear effortless.

Watch Francis Tabary turn an ordinary piece of rope into an extraordinary display of visual magic.

Andi Gladwin Leads Penn & Teller Through an Impossible Maze

 Some magicians try to fool Penn and Teller with complicated props, elaborate technology or enormous stage illusions. Andi Gladwin took a more personal approach—he created a magical maze inspired by the choices Penn and Teller made throughout their legendary careers.

In this memorable performance from Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Gladwin presents the famous duo with a series of decisions. Each answer determines the direction taken through a maze, creating what appears to be a completely unpredictable journey.

The routine is entertaining on the surface, but its greatest strength is the way Gladwin makes the magic specifically about Penn and Teller. Their history, careers and partnership aren’t simply mentioned during the presentation—they become part of the effect itself.

As the routine progresses, the individual choices begin forming a much larger picture. By the time Gladwin reaches the final revelation, it appears that every decision Penn and Teller made had somehow been anticipated from the beginning.

A Trick Created Especially for Penn and Teller

Gladwin’s official website describes the performance as “a trick designed just for them,” and that personalization is what makes the routine stand out.

Rather than performing a standard trick and changing a few lines for television, Gladwin constructed an experience that could only be presented to Penn and Teller. The maze becomes a metaphor for the many decisions that brought them together and helped create one of the most successful partnerships in magic history.

It is a wonderful example of how storytelling can elevate a magic trick. Even viewers who never stop to consider the method can appreciate the thought that went into making the performance meaningful to its participants.

Creativity Built Through Collaboration

Gladwin also generously credited several people who helped inspire and shape the routine. In the video’s description, he acknowledges an original idea shared by Mark Elsdon, methodical inspiration from work by So Sato and Karl Fulves, and encouragement from Eli Bosnick, Harrison Greenbaum, Joshua Jay and Brent M. Braun to make the presentation more personal.

That willingness to recognize the people behind an idea offers a valuable reminder that magic frequently develops through collaboration. A performance may begin with one concept, but discussion, experimentation and outside encouragement can transform it into something entirely new.

Did Andi Gladwin Fool Penn and Teller?

After watching the performance and discussing its possible workings, Penn and Teller ultimately acknowledged that Gladwin had successfully fooled them.

The victory earned him a coveted Fool Us trophy, but the real accomplishment was creating a performance that remained entertaining even after the question of “How did he do it?” was over.

The video has now received more than 1.6 million views, introducing audiences around the world to Gladwin’s thoughtful and highly personal style of magic.

Andi Gladwin is a British magician, author and cofounder of Vanishing Inc. Magic. He has appeared on several major television programs, including Masters of Illusion, The Next Great Magician and Penn & Teller: Fool Us.

Watch Andi Gladwin lead Penn and Teller through his impossible maze—and successfully fool two of the most knowledgeable magicians in the world.

EQUALIZER by Joao Miranda

 Now available at www.magiciansmagicshop.com

Hearing is one of our most important senses. What if we could alter the perception of it? João Miranda and his team developed, from the ground-up, a state-of-the-art speaker system that will alter your spectator's reality, allowing the magician to perform what appears to be, real magic. The sound quality of Equalizer is unbelievably good. Even crisp sounds like a bell or opening a soda can, become so realistic, that is hard to tell if it's a sound-FX or a real-life sound. The Equalizer unit comprises an internal micro-SD card reader, volume buttons, a three position switch (to select different sounds), a main frontal action button (to play, pause or advance tracks), and a custom magnetic high-grade speaker. The unit has programmable delay activation with vibration feedback, so the performer is always in control. The set comes complete with: Equalizer unit Micro-SD card USB adapter 2 x Connecting cables Gimmicked music box Svengali blank cards set Magnetic belt holder Charging connector Belt clip To get you started we teach you six effects that include professionally studio recorded sounds, designed specifically for each effect: 1. Music box: The magician shows a metal hand crank music mechanism and places it inside its box. The spectator then selects one song and when the magician plays the music, it matches the selection! For the big finish the music apparatus vanishes without a trace! (Equalizer comes with the gimmicked metal music apparatus and it's box and a set of Svengali blank cards, so the performer can customize to his own preferred song). 2. Bell divination: A bell rings by itself, finding the chosen card. Everything can be examined, before and after. 3. Glass disappearance kicker: A revisited classic, where a glass goes thru a table while covered with a newspaper, but this time the audience really "hears" the glass being touched with a coin, right before it disappears without a trace. 4. Vanishing deck: The classic effect where a deck of cards vanishes, except the signed card. Thanks to Equalizer the audience will really believe the whole deck is in the magician hands since they hear a riffle, which takes the illusion to a whole new level. 5. Vanishing Matches (created by Miguel Pinto): The magician opens a matchbox and asks the spectator to grab one match and sign it. The match is returned and mixed with the others. Suddenly all the matches have magically disappeared, except the spectator signed one! 6. AM/FM Radio: The magician draws a radio on a small notepad. Incredibly the pad plays the sound of a radio station! The magician can play our pause at will the sound coming from the pad. At the end the pad is shown to be totally empty and the drawn page can be handed out as a souvenir. PLEASE ensure the instructions are watched completely as this is technically comprehensive gimmick.