Price$29.95
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJan 27, 2004
22 Blows to the Head
Jay Sankey
Sankey Magic
(Based on 1 review)
Each effect is guaranteed to convince your audience that you do indeed possess "psychic powers," and many of the handlings are so INGENIOUSLY SIMPLE they are virtually self-working!
- Graffiti - A spectator's own name appears on a card!
- Homocide - Russian roulette with a hole punch!
- Laying on of Hands - A kick-ass three phase demonstration!
- Mute - Mentalism with jingle bells!
- Simply Divine - So easy, so satisfying!
- Resistance is Futile - The ultimate psychic packet trick!
- Casualties of War - You'll love the presentational "hook!"
- Divided Attention - A picture is worth a thousand words!
- Fade Away - Jay has sold this item alone for 20 bucks!
- Black Market - Mentalism with matches!
- Mercurial Prediction - This drops the most jaded of jaws!
- Symbolic - A very clever variation on a classic!
- Shufflecutdeal - The spectator does everything!
- Formal Affair - Jay's pet handling for bending a spoon!
- Confession - "Out of this World" leaves the galaxy!
- Reinactment - You'll grin like an idiot every performance!
- Vital Statistics - A lean, mean, devastating machine!
- Memory Lapse - Cause a spectator to forget a thought!
- Greed - "Bank Night" with a difference!
- Hide, Keep & Give Away - Three blows to the head!
- Serial Killer - The best "reading" of a borrowed bill ever!
- Locked Room Mystery - A terrifying "over the phone" effect!
Run Time: 140 minutes
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Jay Sankey is one of the most prolific magic inventors of our time. Moreover, in addition to creating interesting, often groundbreaking approaches to classic plots ("Mr. Clean Coins Across," "Stirring Silver," "Paper Clipped," etc.), he has introduced a multitude of original ones to the magic community ("Airtight," "Forgery," "Dough," etc). This is what makes every new Sankey book and DVD so intriguing -- you just never know what mouth-watering flavor he's going to add to our bag of Bertie Botts candy.
22 Blows To The Head is one of Jay's first releases since his work became the exclusive property of Penguin Magic. It is slickly produced (in contrast to some of Jay's earlier videos, which were often shot on a home-video camera in his apartment), but still fairly casual, making for easy, digestible viewing (i.e. you can learn a few tricks, walk away, then come back later and learn a few more).
"Laying On Of Hands" is a beautifully constructed, completely impromptu revelation of two chosen cards, one chosen physically, one mentally. It may also be one of the most powerful card tricks Jay has created in years.
"Symbolic" is an inspired reworking of a classic coin effect. In Jay's version, five quarters are borrowed, then, using a Sharpie, a different symbol is drawn on each -- a star, a heart, letters of the alphabet, whatever, as directed by the audience. The coins are then shaken by a spectator in his or her cupped hands and dumped on the table. Each time, every coin that lands with no symbol showing (i.e. face down) is eliminated, whereupon the remaining coins are scooped up, shaken and dumped once more, until only one remains. A prediction that has been resting on the table from the outset is unfolded, showing the pre-drawn symbol to match the one on the chosen coin!
"Homicide" is an interesting effect in which a sheet of notepaper with a stickman drawn on it (the potential murder victim) is sealed in a coin envelope. Four blank sheets of notepaper are then sealed in four other envelopes, whereupon all five envelopes are mixed. A spectator takes a hole punch (the murder weapon) and punches a hole through any four of the five envelopes. In the end, the only one spared turns out to be the stickman!
"Hide, Keep and Give Away" is a lovely triple-prediction effect in which the magician not only divines three cards that will be chosen by a spectator, but also what he will do with each (i.e. hide, keep and give away).
"Mute," a rare trick with a Christmas theme that doesn't involve snow or Santa Claus, has a spectator freely choosing one of nine small sleigh bells, whereupon he discovers he has chosen the only one that rings. The other eight are shaken vigorously by the remaining spectators, but all are silent.
There are, of course, an additional 17 tricks, for a total of 22, all of which are good, some very good. "Resistance Is Futile" is a packet trick that would do Emerson & West proud; "Black Market" is a simple mental effect with a matchbook that is perfectly suited to bar settings; "Formal Affair" is a multi-layered spoon-bending routine; "Greed" is an intriguing close-up version of Bank Night, though the plot has been Sankey-tized to give it a little more depth; "Fade Away" is a pretty, inverse Mental Photography-type trick with no rough-and-smooth (though if you are averse to even the moderate amount of sleight-of-hand required for this, Jay's engaging presentation could in fact be applied to a standard Mental Photography deck); and the list goes on and on.
With so much original, creative magic on here, I would be very surprised if you didn't find not only effects that you like, but also ones you will actually use.
David Acer
22 Blows To The Head is one of Jay's first releases since his work became the exclusive property of Penguin Magic. It is slickly produced (in contrast to some of Jay's earlier videos, which were often shot on a home-video camera in his apartment), but still fairly casual, making for easy, digestible viewing (i.e. you can learn a few tricks, walk away, then come back later and learn a few more).
"Laying On Of Hands" is a beautifully constructed, completely impromptu revelation of two chosen cards, one chosen physically, one mentally. It may also be one of the most powerful card tricks Jay has created in years.
"Symbolic" is an inspired reworking of a classic coin effect. In Jay's version, five quarters are borrowed, then, using a Sharpie, a different symbol is drawn on each -- a star, a heart, letters of the alphabet, whatever, as directed by the audience. The coins are then shaken by a spectator in his or her cupped hands and dumped on the table. Each time, every coin that lands with no symbol showing (i.e. face down) is eliminated, whereupon the remaining coins are scooped up, shaken and dumped once more, until only one remains. A prediction that has been resting on the table from the outset is unfolded, showing the pre-drawn symbol to match the one on the chosen coin!
"Homicide" is an interesting effect in which a sheet of notepaper with a stickman drawn on it (the potential murder victim) is sealed in a coin envelope. Four blank sheets of notepaper are then sealed in four other envelopes, whereupon all five envelopes are mixed. A spectator takes a hole punch (the murder weapon) and punches a hole through any four of the five envelopes. In the end, the only one spared turns out to be the stickman!
"Hide, Keep and Give Away" is a lovely triple-prediction effect in which the magician not only divines three cards that will be chosen by a spectator, but also what he will do with each (i.e. hide, keep and give away).
"Mute," a rare trick with a Christmas theme that doesn't involve snow or Santa Claus, has a spectator freely choosing one of nine small sleigh bells, whereupon he discovers he has chosen the only one that rings. The other eight are shaken vigorously by the remaining spectators, but all are silent.
There are, of course, an additional 17 tricks, for a total of 22, all of which are good, some very good. "Resistance Is Futile" is a packet trick that would do Emerson & West proud; "Black Market" is a simple mental effect with a matchbook that is perfectly suited to bar settings; "Formal Affair" is a multi-layered spoon-bending routine; "Greed" is an intriguing close-up version of Bank Night, though the plot has been Sankey-tized to give it a little more depth; "Fade Away" is a pretty, inverse Mental Photography-type trick with no rough-and-smooth (though if you are averse to even the moderate amount of sleight-of-hand required for this, Jay's engaging presentation could in fact be applied to a standard Mental Photography deck); and the list goes on and on.
With so much original, creative magic on here, I would be very surprised if you didn't find not only effects that you like, but also ones you will actually use.
David Acer