It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!
This past week, well, let's just say my mailman is well acquainted with the Vanishing Inc printed on the side of boxes =P. It was only 3, don't get me wrong, but they were each delivered on separate days, and he had to walk them up to the door each time, so I'm pretty sure he's not the happiest when he pulls up to my house.
First up, I got a new book! Gagnon's Inner Sanctum by Tom Gagnon.
I've had Gagnon Unfiltered sitting on my shelf, unopened, for at least a year now, so I figured "why not buy more!". The reviews for Gagnon's books are really good, and there's a mixture of magic in them -- but from what I can tell, it's mostly card magic. I have a special shelf, and I'm staring at it right now as I type this, that has 9 books (10 if you include Inner Sanctum, which I'll be putting there shortly). This shelf is my "to read" list. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, the stack keeps growing...
Branching away from card magic just a bit, or a lot a bit, I caved and picked up Appearing Glass! While making a glass filled with liquid may be really cool, I might actually end up using it to... you guessed it, make a deck of cards appear. I know that I'll do that, but I think I might give the glass one a try too.
One of my absolute favorite openers is Lennart Green's FISM act opening where he makes a glass full of beer appear right before getting started with his card act. I have the Classic Green Collection where he teaches it, and I've tried it myself, but I didn't quite pull it off that one time. Having two methods of "making a glass appear", I like the idea. This way, if I ever finally pull off Lennart Green's approach, if they ever bring up the idea later I can "repeat" the appearance, but in a completely different and unexpected way. Assuming I'm carrying Appearing Glass with me, of course.
The last physical product I received this past week is Canon by David Regal. This was one of Vanishing Inc's new tricks that they released for Black Friday. It's an any card prediction system. I know, I know. There are a ton of these out there, and I even know a lot of them. But I really like David's work and this one looked good in the trailer. At least, the trailer was made in a way that telegraphed nothing, so either editing was expertly done, or it's that good of a trick.
What also sold me on this was the fact that David says that it can be done in many ways, including ones that I can come up with. So, to me, that says that it's versatile and customizable, something that I look for in a good magic trick.
The packaging for both Canon and Appearing Glass are pretty nice. I haven't watched the tutorials for either trick, nor have I fully examined the contents of either box, so I really hope I'm not disappointed. Expect reviews of each in the coming weeks though!
I also took advantage of Vanishing Inc's $0.99 video download deals on most days. One or two days, I already owned the video, but I did end up snagging a few. And then, I ordered a few other videos that were on my wish list too. All-in-all, this year I picked up the following:
- Three Blank Monte
- My Silly Tricks 2, Hangover Edition
- Aura
- Pluck
- Fringe
- Chromatic Trilogy
- Card on Ceiling
- Undone Delusion
It's going to be a lot to go through and I'm not sure if I'll be able to give thorough reviews for each, but I'll try!
That's about it for last week's haul. I ordered even more things that should arrive this week, so check back next Monday to get the scoop on what things were picked up and my first impressions.
Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!
Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.