Recently, my daughter and I went over our magic inventories because I was thinking of getting rid of some of my current Tenyo to trade for other Tenyo—or sell some in order to get some more expensive Tenyo (When I mean ‘expensive’, you’d weep). The one we are reviewing this week is a trick I have forgotten about as we had fun working on together. Suffice it to say, I’m not getting rid of it, in fact, it’s pretty nice to have a trick that is not exactly cut-and-dry and open to all sorts of ideas.
MAGIC POP-UP
Inventor: Kenichi Komiya
Year: 2011
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: Impossible Production + Mental Magic
Skill Level: Intermediate
WHAT YOU GET:
- Envelope
- Greeting Card
- 3 Cards. Each with either a green, orange, or pink dot
- 1 Pink Bouncy Ball
- 1 Orange Bouncy Ball
- 1 Green Bouncy Ball
- 1 Clear Breakaway Ball
EFFECT: You, the magician present 3 cards: one with an orange dot, one with a green dot, and one with a pink dot. You have a member of the audience pick one card and show them an envelope and say that you already know what color they are going to pick and that your prediction is inside the envelope. They pick a card and reveal it to everyone (including you). You take your greeting card out of the envelope and a ‘pop-out’ box folds out. You take a bouncy ball out of the box and it is the SAME COLOR as the card they picked!
REVIEW:
Let’s start with some cons: I HATE tricks that are fragile. I hate tricks that are made of card stock. Both of these are major factors for me because I like to know that my tricks will last a long time. I baby my inventory and I like to see that reflected by their longevity. Something paper cannot do.
However, I LIKE this trick. A LOT.
Yes, this is a neat exception to the rules. It happens. So what’s to LIKE about it?
First of all, there is so much you can do with it that it could be considered a UTILITY prop. You even get a clear breakaway ball that you can place candy in, a ring, coin or coins, paper. Endless possibilities--well, as long as you're aware of the size you are placing inside the ball, that is.
I will say, to help with your brainstorming, the balls are 1.5 inches in diameter, the breakaway ball is ever so slightly bigger. This doesn’t give away anything, it’s just nice for the info because I have asked this question before I bought it. This also means that if you want to use different bouncy balls, or use MORE. You can easily make your own cards as well with blank gaff cards.
You can do it solely as a production effect, a mental magic effect, do it as a combined effect. Even better that the major prop here is a greeting card: an organic prop that people can RELATE TO. The writing on it isn’t like a ‘hello, you just graduated!’ type card. But with a good presentation, that should keep people away from trying to analyze and think that there’s ‘something going on’.
Personally, my presentation with it is doing a prediction ‘wrong’. I do the prediction presentation in the beginning as normal, but the end effect is that I produce a ball that has a Pikachu inside of it. I check their cards, check the ball, act surprised and embarrassed; I slowly put the props away and immediately gain an uncanny amount of enthusiasm as I roll into the next effect.
It has sort of a Tommy Cooper-esque presentation and quality to it. Plus, Pokemon is still popular these days—at least, according to my twins. They were talking about it when they came home from school last Friday.
You could perform it ‘wrong’ with a different colored ball, use the breakaway ball with a sort of ‘fortune cookie’ effect (‘try again later’).
This thing is one of the most fun Tenyo I have had the pleasure in working with in a while.
But wait, we’re not in the clear yet! The cons!
Yes, the shadows that obscure our sunny days. The cons. For without them, an unbiased review cannot be done. And my job here would not be fulfilled.
So I already mentioned the fragility and card-stock issue. It CAN be warped, bent, etc. It’s SLIGHTLY thicker than a regular greeting card because of the ‘pop-up’ box inside the card. I mean, you’re not handing out the card, but from the audiences’ perspective, it’s going to come off as a regular greeting card. Because of the need to practice a bit with it, you MAY have to buy a second one if you are serious about using it, just to have a ‘fresh’ one on hand in case something happens or you want a 'presentation day ONLY' card. I will say, that to counteract this argument, that the trick is EXTREMELY common in the West due to its unpopularity (Outside of Japan, the Tenyo collector-base is more concerned with the complexity of the mechanical Tenyo. This is a pop-up greeting card with a mental magic effect. Do the math).
My complaint against the stock-presentation is that the end effect has TWO effects that happen at the same time. You have an impossible production of a three-dimensional bouncy ball from a near-two dimensional greeting card.
AND you have this ball act as a prediction as well.
I feel that, because the production acts as two completely different effects as the same time, the ‘wow’ factor isn’t as big as it could be. Unfortunately, because of the nature of what you’re working with and how it goes. This seems relatively unavoidable if you do go down this route. However, I have not worked with this effect in a larger group that is not my son, daughter, and dog. So a lot of my conjecture is based on that and my thought-words that I am now converting to typey-words.
Also, I listed this as ‘intermediate’ in difficulty because this is angle-sensitive, presentation-sensitive, and it works better depending on your attire. Attire-sensitive.
Yes, that just got said.
However, even though I JUST said those things, some of you are looking at me going, ‘good lord, Hurley, that’s a deal breaker for me.’
Well, I can't agree that. This isn’t a trick for everyone. I believe this works best in a small show or gathering. Maybe a kids show—birthday party, family, perhaps. Makes sense to me. Plus, most professional workers have the attire and the skills anyway to get an effect like this to happen without a hitch.
So even though Tenyo Magic DOES make magic to cater to the layman to perform for other laymen; I think that ‘Magic Pop-Up’ is something that will require more practice on than a lot of the other products that they come out with.
Despite this, I think that ‘Magic Pop-Up should at least be a consideration for workers. It MIGHT work for you!
MAGIC POP-UP
Inventor: Kenichi Komiya
Year: 2011
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: Impossible Production + Mental Magic
Skill Level: Intermediate
WHAT YOU GET:
- Envelope
- Greeting Card
- 3 Cards. Each with either a green, orange, or pink dot
- 1 Pink Bouncy Ball
- 1 Orange Bouncy Ball
- 1 Green Bouncy Ball
- 1 Clear Breakaway Ball
EFFECT: You, the magician present 3 cards: one with an orange dot, one with a green dot, and one with a pink dot. You have a member of the audience pick one card and show them an envelope and say that you already know what color they are going to pick and that your prediction is inside the envelope. They pick a card and reveal it to everyone (including you). You take your greeting card out of the envelope and a ‘pop-out’ box folds out. You take a bouncy ball out of the box and it is the SAME COLOR as the card they picked!
REVIEW:
Let’s start with some cons: I HATE tricks that are fragile. I hate tricks that are made of card stock. Both of these are major factors for me because I like to know that my tricks will last a long time. I baby my inventory and I like to see that reflected by their longevity. Something paper cannot do.
However, I LIKE this trick. A LOT.
Yes, this is a neat exception to the rules. It happens. So what’s to LIKE about it?
First of all, there is so much you can do with it that it could be considered a UTILITY prop. You even get a clear breakaway ball that you can place candy in, a ring, coin or coins, paper. Endless possibilities--well, as long as you're aware of the size you are placing inside the ball, that is.
I will say, to help with your brainstorming, the balls are 1.5 inches in diameter, the breakaway ball is ever so slightly bigger. This doesn’t give away anything, it’s just nice for the info because I have asked this question before I bought it. This also means that if you want to use different bouncy balls, or use MORE. You can easily make your own cards as well with blank gaff cards.
You can do it solely as a production effect, a mental magic effect, do it as a combined effect. Even better that the major prop here is a greeting card: an organic prop that people can RELATE TO. The writing on it isn’t like a ‘hello, you just graduated!’ type card. But with a good presentation, that should keep people away from trying to analyze and think that there’s ‘something going on’.
Personally, my presentation with it is doing a prediction ‘wrong’. I do the prediction presentation in the beginning as normal, but the end effect is that I produce a ball that has a Pikachu inside of it. I check their cards, check the ball, act surprised and embarrassed; I slowly put the props away and immediately gain an uncanny amount of enthusiasm as I roll into the next effect.
It has sort of a Tommy Cooper-esque presentation and quality to it. Plus, Pokemon is still popular these days—at least, according to my twins. They were talking about it when they came home from school last Friday.
You could perform it ‘wrong’ with a different colored ball, use the breakaway ball with a sort of ‘fortune cookie’ effect (‘try again later’).
This thing is one of the most fun Tenyo I have had the pleasure in working with in a while.
But wait, we’re not in the clear yet! The cons!
Yes, the shadows that obscure our sunny days. The cons. For without them, an unbiased review cannot be done. And my job here would not be fulfilled.
So I already mentioned the fragility and card-stock issue. It CAN be warped, bent, etc. It’s SLIGHTLY thicker than a regular greeting card because of the ‘pop-up’ box inside the card. I mean, you’re not handing out the card, but from the audiences’ perspective, it’s going to come off as a regular greeting card. Because of the need to practice a bit with it, you MAY have to buy a second one if you are serious about using it, just to have a ‘fresh’ one on hand in case something happens or you want a 'presentation day ONLY' card. I will say, that to counteract this argument, that the trick is EXTREMELY common in the West due to its unpopularity (Outside of Japan, the Tenyo collector-base is more concerned with the complexity of the mechanical Tenyo. This is a pop-up greeting card with a mental magic effect. Do the math).
My complaint against the stock-presentation is that the end effect has TWO effects that happen at the same time. You have an impossible production of a three-dimensional bouncy ball from a near-two dimensional greeting card.
AND you have this ball act as a prediction as well.
I feel that, because the production acts as two completely different effects as the same time, the ‘wow’ factor isn’t as big as it could be. Unfortunately, because of the nature of what you’re working with and how it goes. This seems relatively unavoidable if you do go down this route. However, I have not worked with this effect in a larger group that is not my son, daughter, and dog. So a lot of my conjecture is based on that and my thought-words that I am now converting to typey-words.
Also, I listed this as ‘intermediate’ in difficulty because this is angle-sensitive, presentation-sensitive, and it works better depending on your attire. Attire-sensitive.
Yes, that just got said.
However, even though I JUST said those things, some of you are looking at me going, ‘good lord, Hurley, that’s a deal breaker for me.’
Well, I can't agree that. This isn’t a trick for everyone. I believe this works best in a small show or gathering. Maybe a kids show—birthday party, family, perhaps. Makes sense to me. Plus, most professional workers have the attire and the skills anyway to get an effect like this to happen without a hitch.
So even though Tenyo Magic DOES make magic to cater to the layman to perform for other laymen; I think that ‘Magic Pop-Up’ is something that will require more practice on than a lot of the other products that they come out with.
Despite this, I think that ‘Magic Pop-Up should at least be a consideration for workers. It MIGHT work for you!
