Price$12.00
Media TypeBook
CategoryClose Up, Stage
Date AddedMar 16, 2003
Touching Sky : A Guide To Levitating
Andrew Mayne
Maynestream Productions
(Based on 2 reviews)
Andrew Mayne, creator of Bisection,Facelifter and Shock FX, presents six ways to defy gravity. Whether you're performing on stage or in the street, there's a method for you.
Along with new presentations for three classic effects, Andrew Mayne presents three all-new levitations:
BroomFlight - Be a real life Harry Potter and float on a borrowed broom!
Airborne - Have a seat 6 feet up in the air.
Floating on the Edge - An impromptu levititation that can be performed virtually anywhere.
Mid-Air - A levitation suitable for stage that will leave your audience amazed and cost you less than $20 and 10 minutes to make.
Suspension of Disbelief - Hypnotize your assistant and make them float five feet in the air.
The Street Levitation - A simple, easy to understand explanation of the levitation seen by millions of people on television - that everyone asks you to do.
A levitation for every situation.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Among the quintessential effects of stage magic, few can be as awe inspiring as levitation. Following David Blaine's cannily edited use of the Balducci Levitation on his first television special, many magicians became eager to leave terra firma and ascend to a higher plane (physically, if not spiritually). Thus was born a cottage industry in levitation knock-offs and cash-ins.
Touching Sky is a thin paper pamphlet in which Andrew Mayne explains six levitation methods he has "played around with." Each method is explained in about five or six brief paragraphs with tiny accompanying photos. Alas, the best of these methods is the Balducci Levitation, explained without credit to its originator, of course. Which prompts the following question:
Has no one a conscience anymore?
The basic principles behind the remaining five methods will be familiar to anyone who has hung around a magic shop in the past century or two. One of them purports to be a "re-working of a classic levitation," but it's difficult to discern where "re-working" enters the picture. The method is exactly as I remember it described in Spooky Tricks, the first book on magic I ever owned.
The larger issue here is that, the Balducci Levitation aside, many of these impromptu--or seemingly impromptu--levitations amount to little more than visual puzzles: The spectator may be surprised for a moment, but in approximately three seconds the brain connects the dots and comes up with the correct solution. That's just what brains do.
The task now is for your brain to decide whether to pony up $12 for this item.
One star.
Touching Sky is a thin paper pamphlet in which Andrew Mayne explains six levitation methods he has "played around with." Each method is explained in about five or six brief paragraphs with tiny accompanying photos. Alas, the best of these methods is the Balducci Levitation, explained without credit to its originator, of course. Which prompts the following question:
Has no one a conscience anymore?
The basic principles behind the remaining five methods will be familiar to anyone who has hung around a magic shop in the past century or two. One of them purports to be a "re-working of a classic levitation," but it's difficult to discern where "re-working" enters the picture. The method is exactly as I remember it described in Spooky Tricks, the first book on magic I ever owned.
The larger issue here is that, the Balducci Levitation aside, many of these impromptu--or seemingly impromptu--levitations amount to little more than visual puzzles: The spectator may be surprised for a moment, but in approximately three seconds the brain connects the dots and comes up with the correct solution. That's just what brains do.
The task now is for your brain to decide whether to pony up $12 for this item.
One star.
(Top ▲)
This one is hard to rate so I gave it just over half of the full 5 stars.
The book is well written, beautifully illustrated (actually it's all photos) and nicely produced. The price? Well there is not much you can get for $12 these days.
So why mark it down? Well despite all this, although the levitations are adapted and improved I just feel that there is nothing NEW here.
Some of the levitations I have seen other magicians perform and thought them a bit obvious. However saying that there are one or two masterstrokes in this booklet especially the Broomflight which I think personally is worth the price of the book!
Have you got $12? Then go buy this book!
The book is well written, beautifully illustrated (actually it's all photos) and nicely produced. The price? Well there is not much you can get for $12 these days.
So why mark it down? Well despite all this, although the levitations are adapted and improved I just feel that there is nothing NEW here.
Some of the levitations I have seen other magicians perform and thought them a bit obvious. However saying that there are one or two masterstrokes in this booklet especially the Broomflight which I think personally is worth the price of the book!
Have you got $12? Then go buy this book!