Casshan Wallace is a clever and creative young magician (does that make me sound old?!) coming up with some great ideas – here’s our review of his Camera Tricks DVD. After a slightly drawn out introduction he gets straight into the tricks. So shall we…
C/M is an insanely visual transposition of a signed and folded chosen card into a bank note – the card appearing in the previously shown wallet. I like the premise of the ‘bet’ and the routining is good so that this is easy to do. It does require you to make a gimmick. You are supplied with one element of this which you may not have lying around, but you’ll have to supply some other bits. Construction is not complex but will take you about 20 minutes. Well worth it for the effect involved. I can see this working really well at restaurants or any close up situation.
Spec-Tic-Tacular A ring through tic-tac box. It does what it says on the tin (on the box?). You borrow a ring – and it penetrates into a tic-tac box. You will need to make a gimmicked box (which is relatively straightforward) – but the handling allows for you to hand everything out for examination. Two slightly different versions are taught, though I’m not sure that what he calls the ‘advanced’ version adds much to the effect really.
Change for good 4 quarters visually change into a 1 dollar bill. This is a lovely bit of magic, but for our UK readers you’ll have to work out how to make this work currency wise. Perhaps 5 pound coins could turn into a fiver – though I think the coinage might be a bit thick? This is very straightforward to do, though is quite angle sensitive. But a nice quickie. As with other items some construction of a gimmick is necessary – but very easy to do that.
Fresher Transformation A deck of cards turns into a real packet of (chewing) gum. As with the previous effect, you may have to explore a bit to find the right kind of chewing gum box – though I’ve got to say it’s a long time since I’ve bought any chewing gum so maybe this is what chewing gum boxes look like nowadays! Not got much to say about this one. Its not really the sort of effect that I would use, but if you are young and trendy and chew (and share!) gum – then it’s definitely worth a look. Quite involved in construction for this one – though Casshan describes it as “a lot of fun”!
Boxin’ It Up – the whole deck of cards penetrates the box which can then be shown freely. Again, a fair bit of construction required, and for me, this is one of the weakest effects on the disk. The handling is somewhat awkward and angle-sensitive.
True Link – is a beautiful visual paperclip linking and unlinking routine. The routine is nicely constructed with links and unlinks – including a link in the spectator’s hand and a visual unlink they perform. And you end clean. This is a great little routine which has been nicely constructed to cover all the moves. I can see you having a lot of fun with this if you’re happy to spend the 5 minutes needed to make the gimmick.
Nest of Tech – described as a bonus routine – which always makes it sound like you’re getting something for nothing. A signed coin (or similar small item) visibly turns into a mobile phone battery. When you open your phone there is their coin or ring where the battery should be. You’ll need a suitable phone with a large enough battery (he uses a Galaxy S5).
The verdict?
The strength of all the routines is that they are simple to follow, the methods are direct and they are all very visual – many of them really do look like real life camera tricks! This is the kind of magic I love. The amount of craft work might put some people off, but compared to some releases we’ve seen recently the craft skills required aren’t high – nothing requires much more than a craft knife and some sellotape.
Explanations are at a good pace and very clearly shot, though I dearly wish he said ‘go ahead’ slightly less than he does. Hardly any sleight of hand is required – though many of the effects utilise some kind of shuttle pass to help in clean up.There are some extra hints and wrinkles at the end of the disk which are also helpful.
Casshan comes across as a really nice guy – and is very open to people connecting with him if they have questions or ideas. The stand out effects for me are C/M, Spectictacular and True Link. And the gimmicks supplied and the routines taught may well inspire some of your own creations. Well worth a look.
Available from the lovely people at Merchant of Magic for £27.99 (at the time of writing – and don’t forget they price match!).
Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.
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