Elosernist: Who are they kidding?

Yes guys, it's Ellusionist.com. The best thing since sliced bread. Leading edge "street magic" you can perform erm... on the street. You can also perform it in the comfort of your own bedroom, or better still shove it in your bottom drawer and forget about it. At least then you won't keep reminding yourself how you blew a huge wad of cash on nothing more than marketing hype, dry ice smoke, and some snappy music.

Confused? Let's elaborate:

1. Mindbender: Card bends by itself. Lick the back of your hand and the moisture curls the card (eventually). If it doesn't bend enough, you give it a good hard crimp while hiding it behind your other open hand, in the act of showing the hand empty. Why you need to show your other hand empty heaven knows. Did you just vanish something? All the while, you patter on about how you are not touching the card which you blatantly are. Pathetic. Especially designed for spectators who enjoy watching paint dry. Ding ....$20 please.

2. Infusion: Coin penetrates glass. Except you quickly turn the glass mouth up over the coin and flick it in there. Relies on a variation of David Williamson's strike vanish move. Recommended for parties where you want to get them laughing... at you. Ding....$20 please.

3. Box Monster: Oh my God! The rising card; that's got to be a "new" leading edge street magic effect, for sure. Does it use elastic thread loops? Nope this is a totally "different" concept. This uses invisible elastic thread loops. The innovation is totally gobsmacking. You'll certainly get in plenty of of hours with this one; mainly comprised of making up fiddly elastic thread gimmicks which have a delightful habit of breaking in performance. Ding....$25 please.

4. The Revolution Vanish: A coin or object vanishes off the back of your hand at waist level. Hmmm, well that's a natural position. Did holding at waist level have anything to do with the fact you hover it just above your gaping front trouser pocket? Go to The Learned Pig, download the public domain Bobo's Modern Coin Magic, and you can learn something similar and more natural for free, along with 500 other effects, Bobo's doesn't come with dramatic street magic music, but then it doesn't cost you $20 either.

5. Stigmata. Marks appear on your arm predicting a card. A typical rehash of an old classic effect. Published in 1967 as the blood writing test and dating back to the US Civil War before that where it sold for around $1 you'll pay $30 for the Ellusionist rewrite. To be fair, this is not bad, but you can get it for less as the principle is public domain. As for the effect, it's as simple as scratching your arm beforehand with AC and forcing the ace of clubs. When you hold your wrist, the blood shows up in the scratches. How much did you say?

6. Indecent. A selected card appears inside a plastic bag. Well that's what some demos show. The only thing indecent about this is the price and the marketing. The card is actually stuck on the back of the bag with chapstick and they view it through the two layers of plastic. You can make it appear inside the bag by asking your audience to look away to simulate a camera edit. Then you quickly sneak the card inside, and when they look back you can remove the card from in the bag so it plays exactly as described. Not even half-decent, but $25 will buy you this lesson on getting ripped off.

To be honest, you'd be better off necking a bucket of rancid skunk's entrails than spending money on some of these. In conclusion, there's many places we'd recommend for value magic. Unfortunately, Ellusionist isn't one of them.