Continuing with the ‘maybe-I-did-this-too-soon-before-Halloween’ ghost/invisible theme (in lieu of the release of ‘Invisible Card’) is Tenyo Magic’s: ‘Phantoma’!
Otherwise known in Japan (phonetically) as ‘Ghostu Housu’. This one has been quite the bugger as I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to write this one. But who cares about the inner workings, so long as you get a great final result! It’s TENYO TUESDAY!
PHANTOMA
Inventor: Tomoyuki Shimomura
Year: 1996
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: 1st effect: production (I think. You’re producing a ghost ‘noise’) 2nd effect: levitation
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 1 TINY purple house and roof
- 1 handkerchief
ROUTINE: You, the magician, show a tiny house and lift off the roof; showing and explaining that no one lives inside the dilapidated house. But when you place the roof on the house and shake it like a salt shaker, you can hear the ghost rustling around inside! Quickly, you lift off the roof, grab the spooky little bugger, and toss it inside the handkerchief!
You, the magician, quickly wrap up the handkerchief and hold it down to contain it! Even so, the ghost makes the handkerchief rise and fall. The ghost even has the gall to summon all of its strength and make the handkerchief go flying!
REVIEW:
That’s probably the best summary for a Tenyo that I have written thus far! Go me!
Let’s get to it! ‘Phantoma’ was made a LONG time ago, but is still available. However, it’s slowly becoming harder to find and f-a-d-i-n-g a-w-a-y. Ooooowoooooooooo! GHOST NOISE!
I’m lame.
Now, for some of you experienced hats, you may have picked up on what ‘Phantoma’ uses going off of the routine explanation, and I can’t say I would be surprised; one of the things rhymes with ‘schmorpy’. There is not a whole lot to ‘Phantoma’ despite there being two separate tricks: The tiny purple house and the haunted handkerchief.
What you’re getting here is a ROUTINE, not just a trick. Well, sort of. You’re getting one trick and 1 utility item if you boil it down. Not too shabby. All good things.
And yes, we’re doing another Tenyo routine!
It had to do with ghosts. Ghosts are invisible….’Invisible Card’. Yeah, coincidential. Leave me alone.
However, unlike last weeks Tenyo, ‘Ghost Lamp’, you ARE able to use the 2 tricks in ‘Phantoma’ independently of each other and be relatively all right with the separated tricks.
Well, it might be a bit challenging to use the purple house on its own or as a part of another routine. Part of it is that the house is EXTREMELY tiny. I mean, it looks small in the video. Try buying the thing and looking at the house. You’ll think, ‘Wow! Hurley was right…AND he made me buy ‘Phantoma’ when I was unsure of it. That guy is GOOD! Must be a master marketer or something!’
Yes, something along those lines—grandeur and all.
Now, the routine. The basic routine, boiled down, is a lighthearted haunted house and ghost theme. Even if you separate the handkerchief from the house, you MAY be working against the fact that you’re using this black and dark grey handkerchief in your other routines—on top of it being an un-inspectable handkerchief. It depends on what you use and your preference is. It’s a good quality handkerchief for what it is and can do.
The routine, I think, is rather lackluster on its own, like there’s much more that COULD go on. Like the series finale of Sopranos. Thankfully, it’s a Tenyo that’s extremely easy to roll other Tenyo along into it, such as ‘Ghost Pet’ and the previously reviewed ‘Ghost Lamp’, and soon to be reviewed within the next month or two, ‘Ghost Camera’!
You’re tossing a ghost into a handkerchief. You could ‘toss’ the ghost into practically any other Tenyo and make it work, honestly. Just a little adjustment in patter and your ghost can be the reason why many numerous feats can be done. Toss a ghost into ‘Ghost Lamp’. Toss a ghost into ‘Ghost Pet’, Toss a ghost into ‘Security Lock’. Toss a ghost at your sister!
Just seeing if you were paying attention.
While the imaginative part is well intact; the props, where would we be without the props?
The handkerchief is well made, let’s just get that out of our system. It works, but only to the limit of how much you want to work with it and your imagination. The price alone is worth getting just the haunted hanky (if you know what it is and need something like it. Tenyo does not jack around with quality).
The size of the ‘Phantoma’ house is REALLY, REALLY small. Even for a close-up show, it’s extremely tiny—even if we’re talking about scaled down doll-houses. It’s tiny. But very well detailed with broken windows, broken off siding, and the works. It’s just colored COMPLETELY ‘Joker-purple’. Can you handle that, Bat-sy!
The ghost in MY house in VERY uncooperative. I blame that on user error because all week I kept getting it wrong. I had to look over the instructions every time all week to make the ghost do it’s job.
Like it’s in a haunted union, or something.
The other big issue is that both tricks aren’t really much ‘foolers’. As a Tenyo ‘routine’, you need appropriate patter and a script. Without the script, people will be trying to figure out what you’re doing. And with ‘Phantoma’ you REALLY don’t want that, as people will probably figure these out pretty quick. And if they don’t, they’ll at least know something is up and on their way to ‘figure-it-out town’
While it isn’t a strong routine on its own, it can give stronger Tenyo effects a massive shot-in-the-arm. Not that the stronger ones NEED a boost, but ‘Phantoma’ is kind of like how spinach is to Popeye.
By combining ‘Phantoma’ with other effects, it gives the ‘Phantoma’ routine much, much more swing; it’s a ‘symbiotic’ Tenyo. But you honestly have to practice with the handkerchief a bit to give the appearance a much bigger effect. That and you have to work at a brisk, but meaningful, pace with the ‘Phantoma’ props as to keep the audience ‘off your trail’ as you transition into the next effect.
So, as a performance piece. Can I recommend it?
First of all, it’s for close-up show only. You’re GROUNDED to the table and no way to avoid it.
I believe that its weak on its own, but you get a much stronger effect when you loop it into another effect or routine; makes both effects stronger. In the sense of equilibrium, nothing gets taken away from either effect; they will both end out strong. The equilibrium is that you will need to have a longer routine and you’ll have to put more time into working at it, is all. There is a balance. So the real question is this, and this is the massive deal breaker to ‘Phantoma’: Do you NEED a haunted handkerchief routine? If you do, ‘Phantoma’ might work for you. Do you need a ‘Glorpy’? ‘Phantoma’ is for you.
If neither apply? Well, that’s decision making made easy.
Otherwise known in Japan (phonetically) as ‘Ghostu Housu’. This one has been quite the bugger as I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to write this one. But who cares about the inner workings, so long as you get a great final result! It’s TENYO TUESDAY!
PHANTOMA
Inventor: Tomoyuki Shimomura
Year: 1996
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: 1st effect: production (I think. You’re producing a ghost ‘noise’) 2nd effect: levitation
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate
CONTENTS:
- 1 TINY purple house and roof
- 1 handkerchief
ROUTINE: You, the magician, show a tiny house and lift off the roof; showing and explaining that no one lives inside the dilapidated house. But when you place the roof on the house and shake it like a salt shaker, you can hear the ghost rustling around inside! Quickly, you lift off the roof, grab the spooky little bugger, and toss it inside the handkerchief!
You, the magician, quickly wrap up the handkerchief and hold it down to contain it! Even so, the ghost makes the handkerchief rise and fall. The ghost even has the gall to summon all of its strength and make the handkerchief go flying!
REVIEW:
That’s probably the best summary for a Tenyo that I have written thus far! Go me!
Let’s get to it! ‘Phantoma’ was made a LONG time ago, but is still available. However, it’s slowly becoming harder to find and f-a-d-i-n-g a-w-a-y. Ooooowoooooooooo! GHOST NOISE!
I’m lame.
Now, for some of you experienced hats, you may have picked up on what ‘Phantoma’ uses going off of the routine explanation, and I can’t say I would be surprised; one of the things rhymes with ‘schmorpy’. There is not a whole lot to ‘Phantoma’ despite there being two separate tricks: The tiny purple house and the haunted handkerchief.
What you’re getting here is a ROUTINE, not just a trick. Well, sort of. You’re getting one trick and 1 utility item if you boil it down. Not too shabby. All good things.
And yes, we’re doing another Tenyo routine!
It had to do with ghosts. Ghosts are invisible….’Invisible Card’. Yeah, coincidential. Leave me alone.
However, unlike last weeks Tenyo, ‘Ghost Lamp’, you ARE able to use the 2 tricks in ‘Phantoma’ independently of each other and be relatively all right with the separated tricks.
Well, it might be a bit challenging to use the purple house on its own or as a part of another routine. Part of it is that the house is EXTREMELY tiny. I mean, it looks small in the video. Try buying the thing and looking at the house. You’ll think, ‘Wow! Hurley was right…AND he made me buy ‘Phantoma’ when I was unsure of it. That guy is GOOD! Must be a master marketer or something!’
Yes, something along those lines—grandeur and all.
Now, the routine. The basic routine, boiled down, is a lighthearted haunted house and ghost theme. Even if you separate the handkerchief from the house, you MAY be working against the fact that you’re using this black and dark grey handkerchief in your other routines—on top of it being an un-inspectable handkerchief. It depends on what you use and your preference is. It’s a good quality handkerchief for what it is and can do.
The routine, I think, is rather lackluster on its own, like there’s much more that COULD go on. Like the series finale of Sopranos. Thankfully, it’s a Tenyo that’s extremely easy to roll other Tenyo along into it, such as ‘Ghost Pet’ and the previously reviewed ‘Ghost Lamp’, and soon to be reviewed within the next month or two, ‘Ghost Camera’!
You’re tossing a ghost into a handkerchief. You could ‘toss’ the ghost into practically any other Tenyo and make it work, honestly. Just a little adjustment in patter and your ghost can be the reason why many numerous feats can be done. Toss a ghost into ‘Ghost Lamp’. Toss a ghost into ‘Ghost Pet’, Toss a ghost into ‘Security Lock’. Toss a ghost at your sister!
Just seeing if you were paying attention.
While the imaginative part is well intact; the props, where would we be without the props?
The handkerchief is well made, let’s just get that out of our system. It works, but only to the limit of how much you want to work with it and your imagination. The price alone is worth getting just the haunted hanky (if you know what it is and need something like it. Tenyo does not jack around with quality).
The size of the ‘Phantoma’ house is REALLY, REALLY small. Even for a close-up show, it’s extremely tiny—even if we’re talking about scaled down doll-houses. It’s tiny. But very well detailed with broken windows, broken off siding, and the works. It’s just colored COMPLETELY ‘Joker-purple’. Can you handle that, Bat-sy!
The ghost in MY house in VERY uncooperative. I blame that on user error because all week I kept getting it wrong. I had to look over the instructions every time all week to make the ghost do it’s job.
Like it’s in a haunted union, or something.
The other big issue is that both tricks aren’t really much ‘foolers’. As a Tenyo ‘routine’, you need appropriate patter and a script. Without the script, people will be trying to figure out what you’re doing. And with ‘Phantoma’ you REALLY don’t want that, as people will probably figure these out pretty quick. And if they don’t, they’ll at least know something is up and on their way to ‘figure-it-out town’
While it isn’t a strong routine on its own, it can give stronger Tenyo effects a massive shot-in-the-arm. Not that the stronger ones NEED a boost, but ‘Phantoma’ is kind of like how spinach is to Popeye.
By combining ‘Phantoma’ with other effects, it gives the ‘Phantoma’ routine much, much more swing; it’s a ‘symbiotic’ Tenyo. But you honestly have to practice with the handkerchief a bit to give the appearance a much bigger effect. That and you have to work at a brisk, but meaningful, pace with the ‘Phantoma’ props as to keep the audience ‘off your trail’ as you transition into the next effect.
So, as a performance piece. Can I recommend it?
First of all, it’s for close-up show only. You’re GROUNDED to the table and no way to avoid it.
I believe that its weak on its own, but you get a much stronger effect when you loop it into another effect or routine; makes both effects stronger. In the sense of equilibrium, nothing gets taken away from either effect; they will both end out strong. The equilibrium is that you will need to have a longer routine and you’ll have to put more time into working at it, is all. There is a balance. So the real question is this, and this is the massive deal breaker to ‘Phantoma’: Do you NEED a haunted handkerchief routine? If you do, ‘Phantoma’ might work for you. Do you need a ‘Glorpy’? ‘Phantoma’ is for you.
If neither apply? Well, that’s decision making made easy.
