(Hank) Moorehouse 1934 – 2011 - The Society of American Magicians

featured, or if you are a fan of Dan Harlan, you are sure to enjoy
The Minotaur Final Issue DVDs. If you aren’t familiar with the
Minotaur, the product is worth the money; the discs offer fine
examples of the type of material that was featured within its many
pages. You may even be inspired to try to track down the back
issues. As happy as I am that the Minotaur has been put to bed,
I’m bummed that I’ll have to figure out something else to yell at
Marv the next time I see him.
Tenkai pennies and milliken’s TransposiTion dVd
Available from: www.llpub.com
Distributed by Murphy’s Magic Supplies
Price $20.00
revieW by W.s. dunCan
If you’ve been reading this magazine for a couple of years,
you may have noticed that if I review a DVD from the World’s
Greatest Magic series, it’s likely to be a recommended buy.
From the first DVD of this series, which I
reviewed when I was a staff writer
and Dick Hatch was editing
this column, to the arrival of
the latest volumes, one thing
has remained constant: if the
subject matter of the DVD
is of interest to you, then the
twenty bucks is money well
spent.
Daryl, classicist that he is, does
something I’ve never seen before.
He does the Tenkai Pennies with pennies.
And while I’ve done the trick with quarters,
halves, and even dollar coins (using the method from
Ponta the Smith’s DVD Sick), I have never tried it with pennies.
Turns out, the trick is just as strong with the tiny coins, perhaps
even better, and much easier to perform. Daryl teaches the original
method, which, if you call yourself a magician, you should know.
It’s one of the true classics of close-up and not as demanding as
it seems. Or maybe it’s just that Daryl is an excellent teacher.
No matter. Buy the DVD, learn this, and you have received your
twenty bucks worth.
After learning the original, you can advance to Steve Draun’s
handling, which uses a different, and more advanced, back
clipping method. Draun’s version doesn’t alter the effect, but does
allow you to work with larger coins without the angle problems
raised by the original method when using half dollars.
There is also a short home movie clip of Ross Bertram, in
full kimono, doing the effect with English pennies. There is an
unfortunate cut to show a close-up that occurs before showing
the effect. It makes it appear that the camera edit is the method.
Fans of magic history may be happy to see the legend do some
coin magic, but kids will probably wonder what all the fuss was
about. If you are one of those kids, let me assure you that you do
get to see Bertram do the move, although you may not think so
upon first viewing.
Following Bertram is David Roth teaching his Deep Palm
version of the effect, another method that allows for larger coins.
David then returns to introduce (Harry) Milliken’s Transposition.
This routine uses two pairs of differently sized coins (in Roth’s
demonstration halves and quarters are used, and in Daryl’s presentation,
which follows, halves and copper subway tokens).
In Milliken’s Transposition, you show (for example) two
64 M-U-M Magazine
halves in the right hand and two quarters in the left. After the first
transposition, you have one of each in each hand. At the end, you
have quarters in the right hand and halves in the left hand. It’s
dead simple, but you end dirty. Pairing it with the Tenkai Pennies
allows you to dump the something extra when you put away the
halves to “make things simpler” for the audience to follow.
Combined, the two effects create a nice mini-act with coins
that can be performed with quarters and pennies…nothing more
than pocket change. How many twenty dollar investments will
give you a solid multi-phase routine that you can perform anytime
you can break a dollar at the corner store? More than worth the
money and the time invested.
Tea leaF reading and more 2-dVd seT
by dean monTalbano
Distributed by Murphy’s Magic Supplies
Price $75.00
revieW by Joshua Kane
In several world cultures, serving tea is a ceremony invested
with meaning and involves significant ritual. The observation of
teatime deepens communal bonds and can instill a serene sense
of order. It is a centering process, and allows one to be deeply
present. The antithesis of coffee in a cardboard cup, it encourages
self-reflection and conversation. It can usurp anger and offers
people a face-saving opportunity to reconnect when a day has
been falling apart. It is, in effect, a mini Sabbath; and as such, it
offers the opportunity for participants to create new beginnings.
It also puts people in a receptive state
to be entertained and diverted.
Despite most Americans having
only experienced tea in a bag,
the idea of someone reading
meaning from the dregs of a
cup of tea made with loose
tea is firmly imprinted in
our culture. Even in the
Harry Potter novels, the first
lesson in clairvoyance taught
by Professor Trelawney is the
reading of tea leaves.
We are meaning-making creatures. In
addition to the snap judgments that are initiated by our primitive
survival instincts, we also have the ability, when relaxed, to
daydream a bit and find meaning and images in the most unlikely
places. Which of us has not laid on our backs on a summer day and
looked up at the clouds, discovering bunnies and faces floating
by? Reading tea leaves is largely based on the same principle,
known as pareidolia. (Now there’s a neat Scrabble word!) Pareidolia
is the psychological phenomenon that encourages us to see
bunnies in clouds and images of religious figures on the toasted
bread of a grilled cheese sandwich. For those of you who possess
a pareidolic nature, tea leaf reading will be a quick-to-learn and
fun-to-implement divination system.
Montalbano teaches a thorough introductory course on
the system of reading tea leaves. The instruction is lucid and
engaging. As with his Tarot instruction set, we are once again
treated to a combination of animations and live footage. There are
also printed materials in a DVD-ROM section of the second disc.
There is more than enough information to put you on the road of
learning the basics over a weekend. Recommendations for print
book sources for further education are also provided. In addition