magic inc – MagicShow.Tips

Chattering Teeth by Doug Malloy and Terry Seabrooke

Last year, I picked up a Chattering Teeth by Doug Malloy (routine by Terry Seabrooke). This is Terry’s routine that I first saw in the mid 1990s on a VHS tape of his called The Vidiot and the basic routine is also in his lecture notes that are still available from Magic Inc for about $6.

I thought the fan in my unit was broken, it had two AA batteries in it, and I changed it to a 9v battery, and it started whirring…but was super loud! I changed out the fan and here’s a before and after video:

I thought the unit I had was unusually loud when I got it, but after posting that video, I have the impression that all of them were pretty loud! This isn’t a knock at the maker, it was made with 1990s technology, and it appears Doug fabricated the fan from scratch!

When I changed the fan, I also added a remote control to it. The remote is two channels, so my remote control chattering teeth and the fan can run off a single remote contol!

Here’s what it looks like:

I’m glad I finally got around to updating the Chattering Teeth prop! Working on this set is actually a stepping stone for a version of the trick that I want to build for myself.

-Louie

Theseus – review

Over the summer I drove through Chicago and stopped at Magic Inc and picked up Theseus by Nathan Colwell. The book is on a single trick, but has multiple methods and a bit about the journey that Nathan took to get to the different solutions to figure out the different methods.

The effect is a card is signed and torn into four pieces. Each piece is replaced by a turn corner from four different cards. When the four replaced pieces of card are turned over, they are the original signed card.

I really like the premise of the trick. It’s based on the Ship of Theseus thought problem. Essentially it’s if you took all of the parts of a ship and replaced them, is it the same ship? It’s a hell of a premise for a card transposition and great presentational connection that Nathan made!

The methods are good, and there are many of them. Just a heads up, this isn’t an self working trick to do, you will need to do some sleight of hand. That said the methods aren’t that hard if you’re not afraid to put in a little bit of work. Honestly it’s not that hard to palm a quarter of a card.

My big complaint with the book is that Nathan uses a lot of non standard techniques and unless you already know them or own the original source material, you’d have to spend and additional couple of hundred dollars on books/videos to correctly learn each method correctly. An example of this is you end up in “master palm” position. If you don’t know the palm, you don’t know if you’re doing it correctly. Nathan does give a credits and where to find the info, however a quick description of the master palm position would be helpful.

With the lack of complete descriptions considered, I still think the premise of the trick is great and if it appeals to you, get the book. There’s enough info in the book to kinda figure out the moves you don’t know, or at least get from point a to point b. That’ll give you a feel for that particular method and you can decide to invest in the source material for the moves you don’t know.

-Louie

Magic Inc!

I’ve wanted to visit Magic Inc for a long time, however every time I’ve been in Chicago it’s been closed. I finally made it to Chicago when it was open.

Inside I noticed they had my Evaporation trick in stock! It’s always fun to see my trick out there in magic shops.

While I was there I picked up a copy of Theseus by Nathan Colwell.

It’s an interesting idea, it’s basically a book that’s just one trick, with a lot of methods for it. It sounds like it’s a bit of a journey through how the trick was created. I haven’t really had a chance to dig into it yet, but I’m excited to read it!