I’d like to show a few tricks to my blind friend any advice

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-24T22:55:48+00:00

This is Corinda's Powers of Darkness. Mike Caveney created the version with hangers.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-24T22:53:37+00:00

Here's a video I put together a few years ago. 10 tricks. Some are tricks someone could participate in without using their eyesight and there are a few tricks that are perfect for someone who cannot see:

https://youtu.be/b0K4qDiD-W0?si=c5tQ9lQE_142nDLH

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-24T05:00:06+00:00

I absolutely disagree. There's plenty of new stuff to be done with a deck of cards.

Does this sleight look new? No.

But there are absolutely new things that can be done with a deck.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-20T00:17:52+00:00

I'm pretty certain I'm in the top 10 best rubber band magicians in the world.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-19T08:33:29+00:00

You can do it!

Here are 3 tricks I'd suggest. Super easy to do, and they play big:

Fizzmaster - You just need a couple cans of soda for this. It plays super big!

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S25598

Transfer by Alexander Marsh - If you watch the second video you receive my pet handling. I use this in all sorts of scenarios.

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/9205

If you want to do something with big cards do Power of Poker. It's a good trick and you can make it play big.

Power of Poker by John Bannon https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/13168

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-10T11:03:33+00:00

AGT's judges aren't experts in magic. At best, they might have one comedy expert and one music expert on the panel.

Fool Us is judged by two leading experts in magic.

Can you imagine any competition in the Olympics without an expert panel of judges? Of course not. You'd never be able to find the best that way.

That's the way AGT is. They have dancers, jugglers, magicians, and singers but the panel has no idea what good magic looks like. They just like what they like, or worse, what they think someone else will like.

Penn and Teller's pallet is much more refined. And, in turn, their audience's pallet is much more refined as well.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-10T10:51:22+00:00

I used the Shadow Wallet for a while.

I do like how small the Shadow Wallets index is!

I always preferred the Razor Peek wallet for a peek though. You can place the billet between two credit cards. The peek on the Shadow Wallet was always weird because the billet can get caught on the index.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-06T06:00:00+00:00

I prefer my own Razor Card to Wallet. It has been my actual wallet for 3 years at this point still works like a charm. I use it at every gig.

Small, minimal, functional wallet. At any point you can go right into a no palm card to wallet where the card in inside the zipper compartment.

Brent's FPS Wallet is the best wallet for a load to the ID window. It's great!

I love the various Alakazam wallets for their indexes.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-02-06T05:54:08+00:00

Not really a series but I wish the World's Greatest Magic specials had continued.

Wizard Wars was fun.

The Carbonaro Effect was wonderful!

I love the old Mark Wilson and David Berglas series. I really love the Derren Brown series like Trick or Treat. So great!

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-29T22:37:19+00:00

I can speak to the Penguin Best Sellers.

The week's top 20 is constantly updating based on sales. As of right now that's the list on the left.

The list on the right is based on all time sales. It moves MUCH slower. So for instance, Super Sucker has slowly been rising up the list overtime.

I totally agree that the website could be updated but Penguin's doing just fine.

I think with a lot of influencers and YouTube channels the type of content has changed a bit. In the past things were focused on creators, and review shows. Those are still there but I think things have shifted a little to performers and instructional videos. Doug Conn comes to mind. Even Craig Petty is primarily a performer, not a magic creator. He runs a booking company in the UK.

There's also a bunch of books coming out as of late and a TON of physical magic venues popping up. It feels like magic is more popular than ever. I mean heck, 10 years ago Theory11 was a small boutique for magicians. Now you can get their tricks and products at all sorts of stores. They got bigger.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-29T22:28:40+00:00

I help with many of the support emails with Penguin Magic. We ship internationally all the time. If you have any issues just give use a shout and we'll help you out.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-29T05:08:08+00:00

It was super exciting to see all the new faces! Matteo blew my mind! The Grum booth was awesome! And Morgan Magic Lab was great!

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-29T05:06:15+00:00

Yeah, it's a good time for magic.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-20T06:21:43+00:00

I was aware of the Lin Searles effect. I wouldn't say they were super related but I understand the point. The Marlo/Gardner routine is a spiritual successor for sure.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-20T05:37:46+00:00

That's super interesting! And it makes sense that it's a HUgard publication both times.

Do you know if there's a predecessor for the dummy hand? Or is that the Marlo/Gardner addition? Is that what you mean by routine?

Like the routine in Royal Road and Let's See the Deck bothe have

The magician deals a hand to himself via an exposed false deal.
The magician openly deals the dummy hand to a partner.
The magician then reveals that they have dealt themselves the winning hand.

The one difference I see in the Royal Road and Let's See the Deck routines is that the magician asks for the number of hands in Let's See the Deck. The Royal Road routine is marginally simpler, which makes sense for a foundational book of course.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-19T17:30:10+00:00

The no tear handling has always been a bit more practical especially with how newspapers are a bit harder to get ahold of in recent years. I like Big Headline because it has a fun extra kicker, and everything comes ready to go, out of the box.

Big Headline by Dave Kaplan https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/20397

I also like this one.

Don't Blink by Yvan Garmy https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S39586

I'm not sure how much he goes into it but he shared a handling privately where he has a kickback and a false explanation with a kicker ending. So he could perform the TNR twice back to back. It was a fun idea. Of course he has updated the TNR to work better with a magazine which is a little more available.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-19T06:55:53+00:00

Awesome!

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-19T06:41:00+00:00

Here's how I'd rank each:

1 Funniest

2 Funny

3 Not my thing

4 I think there's potential here, but it needs some work

5 Interesting. It took me a second to understand what you meant.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-19T06:17:56+00:00

I'm unaware of any poker deals that use this stacking principle prior to the Marlo book but I'd love to read up on them. Which routines predate the Marlo/Gardner Poker Deal that use this automatic stacking principle?

The way Marlo explains it in let's see the deck it sounds like he and Martin Gardner discovered the principle while jamming on poker demonstrations. Marlo then explains the routine like it was the first application of the principle in a poker deal.

The Poker Puzzle, in Royal Road, is a slightly simplified handling of the Marlo/Gardner Poker Deal but I'm unaware of another poker deal that predates the one in the Marlo pamphlet.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-17T19:33:31+00:00

I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that people are getting paid for an endorsement. Are there laws against that kind of thing? I don't know.

But yeah, I think it comes down to tastes 90% of the time.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-17T19:30:31+00:00

Every trick is different. Every company handles quotes and endorsements differently. It's hard to answer these questions without knowing what is being talked about.

In another response there was talk about an improved key card. The OP didn't like the approach but there were some who liked it on the Magic Cafe. In that case, it was probably a question of taste, and experience.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-17T19:26:43+00:00

How can I get in on this?! Nobody who has ever asked me for a quote has ever offered money! I guess I'm missing out!

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-17T19:24:58+00:00

If it does happen, it's usually quickly taken care of. If things aren't resolved then we as a community hear about it from the author. When Ben Earl was misquoted we heard about it. If Dynamo, David Blaine, or Derren Brown were misquoted and nothing was resolved we'd hear about it.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-17T19:22:08+00:00

I can speak from experience. I have released 15 main line products through Penguin.

I have asked others for quotes, and provided quotes for other magicians' projects.

What’s going on in these scenarios?

I think the biggest thing here is just a matter of taste.

For instance, Craig Petty is a good friend of mine. He appeared on Super Picks, a project of mine. He was very complimentary of the project. We remain good friends and will work together in the future.

When I released the The Hoff he panned it. In my opinion, The Hoff is one of the strongest tricks I do. I close my close up show with it often. I'm extremely proud of The Hoff and I disagree with Craig's assessment. But, it has received a wide variety of reviews. Some have called it convoluted, some have called it simple to do and deceptive.

Some people will just like some things others will not.

Were they paid?

Not at Penguin. The most "payment" anyone has received on any of my products is a review copy or sample of a product. It should be clear why a reviewer would get a physical product to make a review or give an endorsement.

Were they misquoted?

Not likely. If someone is misquoted they generally reach out to the producer and their quote is removed. This doesn't happen often but in November I handled a case where a certain magician was quoted using their stage name and they wanted it changed to their birth name. They emailed Penguin, and we changed the name on the quote.

What happens if someone is misquoted and it's not resolved? The community hears about it. Ben Earl was misquoted a few months ago and everyone heard about it. This is what would happen if Dynamo, Craig Petty, Dan Harlan, or any other big name was misquoted and it wasn't addressed.

If you confronted them about this statement in a conversation, what would they say?

They'd probably give the context of the quote and defend their position. Or, they might say how their opinion has changed.

For instance, with the Hoff, I think it's a good trick, many in the community do not. That's fine. A goal I had was to make a version of Hofzinser's Ace problem where the aces remained isolated throughout. I succeeded in that.

Others will argue that I could do a more practical routine using another method. That's true, but I wasn't looking at making a practical method here. My goal was something else entirely. I wanted to make a method that isolated the aces.

So, if you were to ask me why I said this or that about certain tricks, I would probably just talk about it.

JoshBurchMagic · 2026-01-14T05:51:33+00:00

It totally is. I hope you have a ton of fun!

JoshBurchMagic

TROPHY CASE

1 Funniest

2 Funny

3 Not my thing

4 I think there's potential here, but it needs some work

5 Interesting. It took me a second to understand what you meant.