Price$40.00
Media TypeBook
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedNov 06, 2004
Sankey Unleashed
Sankey, Jay
Squash Publishing
(Based on 1 review)
Sankey Unleashed, his newest book, is a testament to Sankey's unmatched creative abilities. The book features and astonishing 81 creations, making it a mother load of magical miracles.
In addition to powerful, direct card and coin magic, Sankey Unleashed details the work on tricks with keys, balls, pens, eggs, books, pencils, business cards, billiard chalk, markers, credit cards, and even tomatoes! With such a wide assortment of materials and such a staggering number of tricks described - at every skill level - Sankey Unleashed truly contains something for everyone.
Highlights include:
* Nightcap - After signing his name on a card, the spectator tries to put the cap back on the marker, only to find that it is now a solid, cylindrical tube!
* Back in Time - a seemingly ordinary pick-a-card trick becomes a time traveling experience. A reality-shaking effect for the lay-public, and incredibly easy to do.
* Stretching It - in which a borrowed finger ring is visibly stretched to three times its length. It then visibly shrinks back to normal, and is returned to its lender.
* Leaving Home - a modern classic, and one that comes as close to real visual magic as possible. Spectators witness the magician visibly plucking a house key off the center of a loop of cord. Just as easily, and perhaps more visually, the key is thrown back on to the cord!
Written by Jon Racherbaumer, illustrated by Earle Oakes. 8.5" x 11", hardbound. 192 pages. A Squash Publishing release.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Five years in the making, and finally published in 2004, Sankey Unleashed is Jay Sankey’s fourth collection of original magic. His first, Sankey Panky, written and illustrated by Richard Kaufman in 1986, was so full of fresh plots and techniques that it continues to be a landmark book.
Similarly, 100% Sankey, Jay’s second collaboration with Richard Kaufman, published four years later, introduced more highly original concepts, many of which have gone on to become, if not classics, certainly widely known.
This book, compiled by Richard Kaufman, was intended to be their third collaboration, but ultimately, the writing was farmed out to Jon Racherbaumer, the illustrations to Earl Oakes and, finally, even the publishing rights were sold to Gabe Fajuri.
Those of you with a naturally suspicious bent might take this as a sign that Kaufman was unimpressed with the quality of the work, and slowly began delegating responsibility to distance himself from the project. But Kaufman has stated publicly that, since acquiring Genii magazine, he simply does not have as much time to publish books, in addition to the fact that the market is both flooded and shrinking.
Happily, Gabe Fajuri was willing to take the reigns, and, under the bannerhead of Squash Publishing, he brings us Sankey Unleashed, slickly designed to emulate the format Kaufman popularized in the nineteen eighties.
With over eighty routines, the book has more than twice the content of its two Kaufman predecessors, but the work is somewhat less consistent. However, there is no shortage of excellent effects, including "Back In Time," quite possibly the best stand-up, walk-around Triumph routine ever devised; "Leaving Home," an eye-popping effect wherein a key visibly links onto a loop of string; "Fragile Harbor," one of the more charming applications for the Erdnase Change you are likely to witness; "Push Button," a striking routine that Jay actually created around the time of Sankey Panky in which four coins placed in a card case visibly penetrate the top of the case one by one; "Extended Credit," a typically Sankeyan broken-and-restored borrowed credit card with a method so cunning, it is sure to make you cackle with glee; "XXX-Rated," an assembly with Xs drawn on the backs of business cards that fooled the bejeezers out of me the first time I saw it; "A Strange Journey," a weird Paul-Harris kind of trick in which a dime is inserted into the end of a thin straw, then travels down through the straw like a pig swallowed by a snake, only to emerge from the other end, with neither the straw nor the dime being any the worse for wear; "Firefly," a terrific adaptation of Milbourne Christopher’s classic "Match Stickler" in which a burnt match held in the magician’s hand changes places with an unburnt match in the matchbook; and more!
In addition, Jay introduces a variety of new and interesting sleights, including "The Sleeves Up Bluff Pass," one of the easiest and most deceptive card controls to come out in a long time; "The Swiddle Move," an invisible switch-out technique that is executed while Biddle-Counting cards; and "Hunter’s Distant Misdirection Palm," Rudy Hunter’s devious approach to executing a one-hand top palm.
On the negative side, I’m not so enamored with "Silver Lining" or "Twister," two fairly uninspired spoon-bending effects; "Merger," a poor second cousin to Jay’s excellent marketed trick, "The Big Finish"; "The Shanghai Change," a color-changing card that strikes me as being transparent (the real problem here is the fact that, during the critical move, the hand at the center of attention, which should remain motionless, does not end up in the same position as it begins); "Bouncing Baby," a ball-to-egg effect that offers nothing particularly new in terms of either presentation or methodology; "U.F.O.," a floating silver-ball-in-test-tube that does little to advance Steve Dusheck’s work in the genre; and "A Delicate Balance," an unengaging plot in which three nuts are balanced one on top of the other, then shown to be glued together.
That said, however, there are more than enough good to excellent routines in this book to make it worth your while. Moreover, purchasing it will have the added benefit of sending a message to the publishing community that there is still a market for well written, well produced magic books.
David Acer
Similarly, 100% Sankey, Jay’s second collaboration with Richard Kaufman, published four years later, introduced more highly original concepts, many of which have gone on to become, if not classics, certainly widely known.
This book, compiled by Richard Kaufman, was intended to be their third collaboration, but ultimately, the writing was farmed out to Jon Racherbaumer, the illustrations to Earl Oakes and, finally, even the publishing rights were sold to Gabe Fajuri.
Those of you with a naturally suspicious bent might take this as a sign that Kaufman was unimpressed with the quality of the work, and slowly began delegating responsibility to distance himself from the project. But Kaufman has stated publicly that, since acquiring Genii magazine, he simply does not have as much time to publish books, in addition to the fact that the market is both flooded and shrinking.
Happily, Gabe Fajuri was willing to take the reigns, and, under the bannerhead of Squash Publishing, he brings us Sankey Unleashed, slickly designed to emulate the format Kaufman popularized in the nineteen eighties.
With over eighty routines, the book has more than twice the content of its two Kaufman predecessors, but the work is somewhat less consistent. However, there is no shortage of excellent effects, including "Back In Time," quite possibly the best stand-up, walk-around Triumph routine ever devised; "Leaving Home," an eye-popping effect wherein a key visibly links onto a loop of string; "Fragile Harbor," one of the more charming applications for the Erdnase Change you are likely to witness; "Push Button," a striking routine that Jay actually created around the time of Sankey Panky in which four coins placed in a card case visibly penetrate the top of the case one by one; "Extended Credit," a typically Sankeyan broken-and-restored borrowed credit card with a method so cunning, it is sure to make you cackle with glee; "XXX-Rated," an assembly with Xs drawn on the backs of business cards that fooled the bejeezers out of me the first time I saw it; "A Strange Journey," a weird Paul-Harris kind of trick in which a dime is inserted into the end of a thin straw, then travels down through the straw like a pig swallowed by a snake, only to emerge from the other end, with neither the straw nor the dime being any the worse for wear; "Firefly," a terrific adaptation of Milbourne Christopher’s classic "Match Stickler" in which a burnt match held in the magician’s hand changes places with an unburnt match in the matchbook; and more!
In addition, Jay introduces a variety of new and interesting sleights, including "The Sleeves Up Bluff Pass," one of the easiest and most deceptive card controls to come out in a long time; "The Swiddle Move," an invisible switch-out technique that is executed while Biddle-Counting cards; and "Hunter’s Distant Misdirection Palm," Rudy Hunter’s devious approach to executing a one-hand top palm.
On the negative side, I’m not so enamored with "Silver Lining" or "Twister," two fairly uninspired spoon-bending effects; "Merger," a poor second cousin to Jay’s excellent marketed trick, "The Big Finish"; "The Shanghai Change," a color-changing card that strikes me as being transparent (the real problem here is the fact that, during the critical move, the hand at the center of attention, which should remain motionless, does not end up in the same position as it begins); "Bouncing Baby," a ball-to-egg effect that offers nothing particularly new in terms of either presentation or methodology; "U.F.O.," a floating silver-ball-in-test-tube that does little to advance Steve Dusheck’s work in the genre; and "A Delicate Balance," an unengaging plot in which three nuts are balanced one on top of the other, then shown to be glued together.
That said, however, there are more than enough good to excellent routines in this book to make it worth your while. Moreover, purchasing it will have the added benefit of sending a message to the publishing community that there is still a market for well written, well produced magic books.
David Acer