My intention was to start this review with a standard line: "Cigarette magic is dead." In fact, I've used this line before in reviews.

But my friend Roland bitch-slapped me and knocked some sense into my head. We're very ethnocentric in the US. We seem to forget that there's a whole planet of people that don't live within our narrow-minded social sphere. While cigarettes may be out of fashion here, the same isn't true of the rest of the world.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying smoking is good. My grandfather died of emphysema due to a lifetime of smoking. I've never done it and most of my friends who have smoked have now quit.

But you don't have to smoke to do cigarette magic. Tom Mullica, the star of these videos, quit many years ago.

So here's the bottom line. Know your audience. If you're working venues where smoking is going to turn the audience against you, don't do cigarette magic. It's like doing the Goshman Ding Dong at a kid's birthday party. Not acceptable.

But if you're working gigs where cigarettes are part of the normal lives of your audience, then these videos contain enough material to build as many cigarette acts as you can dream up.

And even if you don't have any interest in doing cigarette magic, these videos are still worthwhile for two reasons:

1. The skills you learn in doing this type of manipulation can be applied to many other objects and situations.

2. Tom Mullica is hilarious!