Apocalypse Vol.1 No.5

Noah's Mix Up! (Gene Castillon)
Five red backed cards and five blue backed cards are shown. Each card has an animal sticker on its face. You ask two spectators to each think of an animal from the card set they were given. They mix the cards, you mix the cards, and somehow, you are able to tell them the animal they're thinking of! This is pretty cool, and even though the animal stickers may seem childish, there's some great presentation ideas that could revolve around those stickers. Something about how you were going through a box of old stuff from when you were a kid; think about a happy thought from your childhood, these stickers will get you in the childlike state, etc. I imagine this having a good effect on an audience. It's like an ESP card trick but more fun. Obviously, you'll have to decide if it fits your performing style.

Hi Ho Silveroon! (Ken Krenzel)
A card is selected and lost into the deck. A coin is placed on top of the deck and vanished in a very convincing way. You cut the deck and the coin has arrived at the selected card. This is a variation of Paul Harris's "Hi Ho Silver." There aren't any huge differences between the two from what I can tell. The vanish is a nice one, and if you put this into a larger routine, this can be good.

Zigs and Zags (Herb Zarrow)
A spectator thinks of a card at a certain position and the magician does the same thing in the other half of the deck. Both you and the spectator deal to your cards and they transpose. Sounds confusing, doesn't it? Well to be honest, I think it is a little confusing. If you're going to make two cards transpose, why not just show two cards, and make them change places? Instead you have to have a spectator think of the position as well as the name of their card, and your card is not even shown...you get my point. In my opinion, it's just a little too confusing. It would take a very good performer to present this right.

A Bird in the Hand (Sol Stone)
I am not a "coin guy" at all, so I can't compare this to any similar routines or give you the difficulty level on a lot of coin routines. I find most all coin routines to be very difficult for me! So, I'll just describe this effect and give you the stripped down details of it. A silver dollar is split into two half dollars, and then melted back into one silver dollar. That's it. It's a quick effect that you might want to incorporate into a larger routine, or just do it as a "quick trick." There are no gimmicks, and it's based on one fairly simple move.

Dream Deck Switch (Richard Kaufman)
Sorry guys, this is not the perfect deck switch that you all have been trying to find for so long. This is a supposed expose of a deck switch that "a gambler might use under fire." In effect you show a red deck and a blue deck. The blue deck is placed into your pocket and the red deck is on the table. You spread the red deck and when you square it up you, apparently, switch the decks at lightening speed. Now in your hands is the blue deck and in your pocket is the red deck! All can be examined. You have to be standing at a table to do this. It is a startling routine that makes sense and is just good overall. What a great routine this is!

Marksmanship Bill(et) Switch (Dennis Marks)
This is a switch to be used for folded dollar bills (in eighths) or similarly sized billets. It can also be used for coins, although it is harder to execute using coins. This is very nice, and it is great for switching in a flash bill, or for a serial number reading of a bill. And as I said, you can use it with billets, so all you mentalists may find this useful. There is no TT and no folding like the $100 bill switch. This really is a wonderful switch that I will definitely practice up on and put into my "bill switch toolbox."

Columns:

Out To Lunch
Harry tells a story about a bill to lemon routine that he once saw and he also shares his way that he used to make tips "back in the day." Honestly, you could use his approach in a restaurant today!

Additions
Gene Castillon provides several tips to avoid making a mistake when performing Noah's Mix Up. Read this addition if you are going to perform Noah's Mix Up, because it will help you avoid any potentially embarrassing situations.

Tidings
A bunch of upcoming(?) books are listed and comments are made about them. It's slightly useless now, but it still is fun to read.

Closing:
If you are a mentalist, there are two good effects that you can use in this issue, which I think is quite good. Zigs and Zags, as I said earlier, seems confusing to me. Let me know what you think about it, because I feel like maybe I just don't "get it."

We're five weeks into this series and I'm going strong! To be honest, I wasn't sure whether I would get past the first one!

As always feel free to leave your comments about Zigs and Zags, or just anything else, below.

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Past Review Directory:
Apocalypse Vol.1 No.1
Apocalypse Vol.1 No.2
Apocalypse Vol.1 No.3
Apocalypse Vol.1 No.4