So I just re-sorted all the Tenyo magic tricks I have to review and intend to acquire within the year (excluding anything from the 2017 line later this year and MAYBE the 2016 ‘redemption’ packet trick). The list has regenerated itself from being a small list of Tenyo that I haven’t reviewed, into a list of 22 tricks. That’s 22 more weeks of Tenyo (and some ‘Not-So-Tenyo’) reviews waiting to go! That SHOULD launch us up through June, but some of the Tenyo are REALLY, REALLY, expensive. AND we have a move coming up (still going to be in Texas), so those expensive Tenyo will have to wait for a while when I can get an actual magic budget when things get to a level of ‘normal’ (as well as acquire some much needed books and DVDs). So the list is more like a realistic 20 with a small possibility of 22—MAYBE 23 if the ‘redemption’ trick this year is up my alley.
HANKY PENETRATION
Inventor: Toru Suzuki
Year: 1996
Cost: $40-$45
Type of Effect: 1st effect: as the name suggests, ‘penetration’!
Skill Level: Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 2 plastic plates
- 2 alligator clips
- 1 white plastic faux pen
EFFECT #1: You the magician present a handkerchief/borrow one. You place a paper over the top of it and sandwich it between the two plastic plates, then you attack the two alligator clips. You then take a white plastic…poker…thing, and you poke it through the paper AND the handkerchief. At the end, when everything is unattached, the paper has a hole in it, but the handkerchief is undamaged!
REVIEW:
I have this odd affinity to handkerchief tricks. Might be the fact that I’m trying to construct a children’s show utilizing handkerchiefs, might be that I think you can get a lot of audience involvement and mileage out of handkerchief tricks. I haven’t quite figured it out. But the moment I watched ‘Hanky Penetration’, it looked impossible and completely interesting. I bought one. But is it worth it? It’s an older Tenyo trick—20 years old, in fact. It’s discontinued, hard to find, and goes for a bit of money. Compared to other discontinued Tenyo, it’s a drop in the bucket. Let’s say you’re on a budget and you’re curious about this one, what do you do?
First off, let’s go over the good.
I impulsively bought this because the effect looked amazing. And you can REALLY milk the effect out for what its worth if you have some time to spare. As much as I hate using stock ‘selling points’ like ‘VISUAL!’ to trick recommendations, ‘Hanky Penetration’ is a very visual trick. Whether you stand up or sit down, you’re jamming a pen through a paper and a handkerchief. I think the effect does a lot of talking on its own, as opposed to most Tenyo where the effect just ‘happens’ and you really can’t do much after that.
You also have a bit of versatility because if you don’t want to use the white ‘poker’. You can use a pen with a cap on it or one of those ‘clicker’ pens (so you don’t actually send a hole through the handkerchief). Leaves a bit of open-ness to hold and wield other Tenyo on you like ‘Ultimate Shocking Pen’. Yeah! That’s a good one!
Do Hanky Penetration, then afterwards, use ‘Ultimate Shocking Pen’ to do a pen-through-bill routine. Take the bill and do ‘Brass Bill Tube’ with the bill AND hanky. Oh yes, instant routine with small props. HIGH FIVE!
Okay. That’s enough. So where can this thing go wrong?
The set-up. You have to have to get your handkerchief then you put a handkerchief on a plate, then put a paper on top of it, sandwich the other plate on top. Then you put on each clip individually. There is nothing fast about this. You’re going to spend up to a minute getting it all together. I hope you’re interesting because that set-up is a real threat to patience for your audience.
The big noteworthy problem for me: FRAGILITY!
There is no secret in the Tenyo community, there are Tenyo tricks that suffer from fragility issues. So these tricks are more along the lines of collector’s items. Neat tricks, mind you; this being one of them. But with fragility (especially in the realm of collector items), this is partially the cause for a slight ramp up in the secondary value. Look up ‘Floating Lady’ and ‘Lucky Rabbit’ to name a couple of fragile Tenyo. E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E!
If you want a performance piece, it’d be best to find one new. As a used one is VERY hard to tell if it’s going to give out on you quickly or not.
Second, for a trick called ‘Hanky Penetration’, you’re ironically not supplied with a handkerchief. You are, instead, encouraged to get a silk handkerchief of your own. Bummer. I mean, silk handkerchiefs are cheap. But if you find and buy ‘Hanky Penetration’ at a shop. You’ll go home and open the box to find this out. And have to go aaaallllllllll the way back to the shop to get a handkerchief if you don’t have one already to go *raises hand*.
There’s not a lot of audience management behind this one because it’s more of a parlour/small show trick. The way it plays out, I do not believe people are going to be making a grab at the props until you separate the clips from the plates if you do it at close range.
To be completely honest, the effect is amazing. It just saddens me that the fragility of it stressed me out too much during performing it to where I couldn’t work with it anymore and ended up selling it off. I’m sure that more experienced workers who have less fear of things and don’t have budget concerns would love to use such a trick.
HANKY PENETRATION
Inventor: Toru Suzuki
Year: 1996
Cost: $40-$45
Type of Effect: 1st effect: as the name suggests, ‘penetration’!
Skill Level: Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 2 plastic plates
- 2 alligator clips
- 1 white plastic faux pen
EFFECT #1: You the magician present a handkerchief/borrow one. You place a paper over the top of it and sandwich it between the two plastic plates, then you attack the two alligator clips. You then take a white plastic…poker…thing, and you poke it through the paper AND the handkerchief. At the end, when everything is unattached, the paper has a hole in it, but the handkerchief is undamaged!
REVIEW:
I have this odd affinity to handkerchief tricks. Might be the fact that I’m trying to construct a children’s show utilizing handkerchiefs, might be that I think you can get a lot of audience involvement and mileage out of handkerchief tricks. I haven’t quite figured it out. But the moment I watched ‘Hanky Penetration’, it looked impossible and completely interesting. I bought one. But is it worth it? It’s an older Tenyo trick—20 years old, in fact. It’s discontinued, hard to find, and goes for a bit of money. Compared to other discontinued Tenyo, it’s a drop in the bucket. Let’s say you’re on a budget and you’re curious about this one, what do you do?
First off, let’s go over the good.
I impulsively bought this because the effect looked amazing. And you can REALLY milk the effect out for what its worth if you have some time to spare. As much as I hate using stock ‘selling points’ like ‘VISUAL!’ to trick recommendations, ‘Hanky Penetration’ is a very visual trick. Whether you stand up or sit down, you’re jamming a pen through a paper and a handkerchief. I think the effect does a lot of talking on its own, as opposed to most Tenyo where the effect just ‘happens’ and you really can’t do much after that.
You also have a bit of versatility because if you don’t want to use the white ‘poker’. You can use a pen with a cap on it or one of those ‘clicker’ pens (so you don’t actually send a hole through the handkerchief). Leaves a bit of open-ness to hold and wield other Tenyo on you like ‘Ultimate Shocking Pen’. Yeah! That’s a good one!
Do Hanky Penetration, then afterwards, use ‘Ultimate Shocking Pen’ to do a pen-through-bill routine. Take the bill and do ‘Brass Bill Tube’ with the bill AND hanky. Oh yes, instant routine with small props. HIGH FIVE!
Okay. That’s enough. So where can this thing go wrong?
The set-up. You have to have to get your handkerchief then you put a handkerchief on a plate, then put a paper on top of it, sandwich the other plate on top. Then you put on each clip individually. There is nothing fast about this. You’re going to spend up to a minute getting it all together. I hope you’re interesting because that set-up is a real threat to patience for your audience.
The big noteworthy problem for me: FRAGILITY!
There is no secret in the Tenyo community, there are Tenyo tricks that suffer from fragility issues. So these tricks are more along the lines of collector’s items. Neat tricks, mind you; this being one of them. But with fragility (especially in the realm of collector items), this is partially the cause for a slight ramp up in the secondary value. Look up ‘Floating Lady’ and ‘Lucky Rabbit’ to name a couple of fragile Tenyo. E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E!
If you want a performance piece, it’d be best to find one new. As a used one is VERY hard to tell if it’s going to give out on you quickly or not.
Second, for a trick called ‘Hanky Penetration’, you’re ironically not supplied with a handkerchief. You are, instead, encouraged to get a silk handkerchief of your own. Bummer. I mean, silk handkerchiefs are cheap. But if you find and buy ‘Hanky Penetration’ at a shop. You’ll go home and open the box to find this out. And have to go aaaallllllllll the way back to the shop to get a handkerchief if you don’t have one already to go *raises hand*.
There’s not a lot of audience management behind this one because it’s more of a parlour/small show trick. The way it plays out, I do not believe people are going to be making a grab at the props until you separate the clips from the plates if you do it at close range.
To be completely honest, the effect is amazing. It just saddens me that the fragility of it stressed me out too much during performing it to where I couldn’t work with it anymore and ended up selling it off. I’m sure that more experienced workers who have less fear of things and don’t have budget concerns would love to use such a trick.