The DVD category has been hard to call.  There are three disks that stand out – all involving more or less self-working magic.  If cards are your thing, then it is hard to judge between two BBM releases – Awesome Self-Working Card Tricks (which we reviewed back in August) and Out of Sleight (from May).  Both full of cracking card material which is very easy to do.  Another close contender was Automata 2 – which is the same kind of quality but with non-card items.  If you don’t have these you really should.

We started off focused entirely on playing cards so it feels appropriate to mention the best deck releases.  When we started the sight we couldn’t possibly imagine how many decks would be produced with the advent of crowdfunding and the like.  However, our top release this year would probably have to be the Luxx Palme (and not just because of my love of Paisley)  with the Number 17 Deck coming in a close second.

For the best tricks of 2015 it is harder to decide – there are really so many to choose from.  But three that stand out, in no particular order, are: Steve Brundage’s amazing Cube 3 – for sheer cleverness and the joy of learning a new skill; Cody Fisher’s Killer Prediction – for an outstanding take on an old effect which makes it a very powerful platform item; and I also rather enjoyed Liam Montier’s Voodoo – for a nice update to another trick with a history.

We’ve only reviewed a couple of books this year, so it doesn’t seem fair to highlight one as a best of 2015, however, as I mentioned last month, this Christmas I have been reading Tom Stone’s Vortex – which is an outstanding book from a professional magician.  The insights into the way he creates his magic, the performance ideas and the routines make this a compelling read for anyone who loves the art of magic.

And finally, our ‘unsung utility’ item of the year goes to the Jaks Wallet – which continues to be a wonderful utility wallet consistently overlooked by people who have only heard of the Card to Wallets made by the same manufacturer.

What would you add to your list of the best tricks of 2015?  What have we missed?  What would you change?  We love to hear from you – either in comments below or on social media.

We’re excited about all the new magic we’re going to be sharing with you in 2016 – the review pile is already a foot high with some very exciting releases in the pipeline.  Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with all our latest posts.

The post Trick of the Month – January 2016 – best tricks of 2015 and more appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

The genius of this routine is that it makes the ID entirely suitable for a platform performance and adds a brilliant kicker ending where some paper balls which have been used to select audience members are unfolded to reveal the name of the freely constructed card written on the sheets before the trick even began.

I am completely sold out on the important magic truism that effect is everything, method is (almost) nothing. And if you’re performing in the real-world for real people you will know this to be the case. Which is one of the things which makes reviewing quite challenging because magicians sometimes take a different view.

But either way, the effect that the audience is left with seems to me extremely strong – and the clever construction of the routine flew past me when I watched it the first time. Cody goes into a lot of detail about why he does things the way he does and so there is much to learn from the DVD. You won’t find any radically new principles here, but there’s some clever thinking and wording going on which adds much to the overall strength of the effect.

On the downside, in addition to the necessary deck (which isn’t supplied – only an instructional DVD), you will also need to make a modest investment to make up the rest of the necessary. But this is a very modest additional expense – and for the overall value of the routine seems to me very worthwhile.

Teaching is clear and detailed, and it is nice to see a live performance included – which always gets a thumbs up from me. He explains a variation using the Brainwave Deck instead of the ID, but for my money I would probably stick to the ID version.

A small excursus on Invisible Decks

On the subject of IDs, I will share my own experience. In spite of our name, I have found Bicycle Invisible Decks to sometimes be a little bit too ‘slippy’ which makes it harder for me to use, so for many years I have favoured the Royal Magic (non Bicycle) version which had a bit more ‘stick’. But I’ve just got my hands on a Card Shark version in a Pheonix Deck and this is my favourite version to date – and will become my regular deck. It has the added advantage that it is made in their ‘Parlour’ size which makes it more visible in a stage setting than a standard Poker deck. End of diversion.

All in all, I like this a lot. Although I don’t do as many platform shows I can see me making this up and adding it to the set, since you get a good amount of magic for a modest investment. It is not difficult to do, so will leave you plenty of time to work on your performance. Which is just the way I like it.
Available from Merchant of Magic for only £31.99 at time of writing.

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

The post Cody Fisher’s Killer Prediction – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.