Apocalypse Vol.1 No.2

Intro: Well, I'm back with the second edition of this continuing series of reviews. If you haven't seen the first review, you can find it here. Vol. 1 No. 1. I won't bore you any longer, so let's get on with the review, shall we?

Effects-

Poker Challenge (Harry Lorayne)
Five hands of poker are dealt and one card and it's position is remembered. For example, the second card in the second hand, which we'll say is the queen of spades. These piles are gathered up and the magician explains how if a sixth person were to join a poker game at the last moment, it would ruin the gambler's full stack. The magician deals six poker hands fairly and shows that he has controlled the second card in the second hand to still be the queen of spades. He then shows that the rest of the second hand is a royal flush. To me the magic is not that impressive and it seems like there are much better gambling routines out there. I passed on this one. UPDATE: Check three posts down from this one to see what Harry Lorayne had to say. I think this is a routine that just doesn't fit me personally.

Sokito Box (David Roth)
At the end of an okito box routine, the magician causes the four coins in the box to penetrate through the table. Then when the spectator tries to pick up the box, it has transformed into a solid piece of brass. If I did an okito box routine, I would TOTALLY end with this! It's so unexpected, and it solves the, "can I look at that box" problem. You must be working on a table. The switch is invisible and you might find it useful for other things. You do have to specially make the gimmick, of course, but I think it's worth it.

Card in Balloon (Derek Dingle)
A card is freely selected and signed. Then it is fairly shuffled into the deck, and placed into the case, which goes inside your jacket pocket. Three not-blown-up (I can’t think of the word) balloons are shown and each is blown up. You ask a spectator to select a balloon and after some comedy, you pop the balloon between your hands and there is the spectator’s selected card. This is a funny routine that is pretty easy to do and the openness of your hands really makes this look good. You do have to make a simple gimmick which is made out of household materials. You do also have to be wearing a jacket. It’s a very funny and fooling standup piece!

Four Coin Vanishes (Ken Krenzel)
This is actually four different items, as you probably already guessed. The effect is pretty much the same in each one; a coin vanishes in some way. I’ll review them separately.
-Rear Exit-This is my favorite of the four. The coin vanishes super cleanly with the help of a “magic wand” (pen).
-Hookless Hook Coin-The coin vanishes as it is thrown into the air. Mimics the use of a hook coin, but there are no gimmicks. Seemed a bit awkward to me, but who knows, maybe somebody will come along and fool me with it someday.
-Kicked Thru!-Pick up a coin from your open hand and it vanishes. Angles are a biggie on this vanish. Plan to do some mirror work.
-Persistence Placement-A retention type vanish that looks super good. This is my second favorite, and it may come in handy in some other routines.

Columns-

Razzle Dazzle
Here you get a funny story about Frank Garcia and Harry going to a seance and wrecking havoc. Also, Richard Kaufman writes three short reviews of The Magic Book by Harry Lorayne, Paul Harris's Super Magic, and Wildcard Miracles by Frank Garcia.

Additional Comments-
Since I'm a big "card-guy", I didn't like this issue as much as the first one, but I have to admit that there's some good stuff in this issue.

Here's just an overview; I don't really like Poker Challenge because it's not that magical and I don't usually go for gambling routines, I can't do Sokito Box because I don't have an okito box, I can't use Card in Balloon cause I don't wear a jacket, and I won't use the Four Coin Vanishes that much because I don't do much coin work, but the coin vanishes might come in handy sometime. As you can see, most of this material IS good, a lot of it just doesn't really fit me for the above reasons. Others of you will use this material way more than me.

As always you can find this issue, and all of the issues that I'll be reviewing inside of the first volume of Apocalypse, which I've provided a link to at the bottom of the page. If you have any suggestions or comments about what you would like to see more or less of in the future, feel free to post them below.

Until next week, go through your magic books and read them again! (Always good advice)

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