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Inside the Head of Donny Orbit

Donny Orbit/Dave Forrest

Dave Forrest

(Based on 1 review)
Donny Orbit has been cropping up all over the place recently having effects published in MAGIC, GENII and ANTINOMY and contributing to Nathan Kranzo's 'Moving Tanline' DVD. Full 52 is pleased to announce the release of his first commercial release - 'Inside the head of Donny Orbit!'

6 amazing close up routines from an extremely offbeat thinker. 'Off the wall' plots with a direct and practical approach. Not only is this magic you'll use, it's magic that'll make you smile, shake your head, kick yourself and swear out loud - all at the same time!

Reviews

Jeff Stone

Official Reviewer

Sep 29, 2009

I received a copy Donny’s e-book a while back and, I must say, I’m impressed. Below is a highlight of some of the effects along with some of my thoughts on them. First are the effects copied exactly as found in the e-book:

SUPERMAN - A drawing of a lump of coal is squeezed in the magicians hand where it changes to a drawing of a diamond! The drawing then becomes a REAL DIAMOND!

FUTURE BURN - A spectator chooses any finger on a drawing of a hand. The magician opens a sealed envelope and reveals that he correctly predicted which finger would be chosen. Then he reveals a REAL BLISTER on his own corresponding finger!

SOUPED CAN - Two selected cards are lost into the pack. Both cards are then found through a random number offered by the spectators. The cards are lost for a second time and the spectators proceed to find both cards with the deck in their own hands!

JUST IN CASE - Three cards are chosen and returned to the pack. One card appears under the card case but, it’s the wrong card. With a snap, another card appears under the case and this time, it IS a selection! Then, the first ‘wrong’ card changes into a selection and finally the whole deck appears under the card case except for the final selection!

FOILED - The magician demonstrates how an impression of a coin can be made in tin foil. Then he proceeds to ‘mint’ a second coin right out of the mold! Cautioning that it is a fake he then SCREWS THE COIN INTO A TIN FOIL BALL AND HANDS IT OUT FOR EXAMINATION!

CHERRY THING - The stalk of a cherry is plucked from the fruit and knotted in the magicians mouth! The knotted stalk is then magically.

My Thoughts:

Superman:
I love this idea! I love it for several reasons. First, I’m a huge Superman/Smallville fan, so the name alone wins points. I really dig the presentational hook of being able to use superhuman strength to accomplish something, then having the drawing change, then having it change into something real.

There are so many moments of magic that are happening here. I’m guessing that the method was inspired by Jay Sankey’s effect from Secret Files called “What if?”

I liked the effect from Jay, but I never saw the potential of using that method for any other effect. Now that I’ve seen Donny’s idea, my mind has been opened to the thought of “what else can be done with that method?”

Future Burn:
Yet another cool idea. One thing that mentalism lacks is a visual element. This effect takes mentalism and adds some visual and psuedo-mind-over-matter stuff by causing your skin to “grow a blister” or a burn mark. They freak out, “Hey he knew which finger I would choose.” But then they reaaaaaly freak out, “Hey, he has a REAL burn on that same finger!”

Foiled:
Excellent presentation. This is the kind of stuff that I like, a premise that borders on being credible sort of psuedo science that will capture people’s attention.

Cherry Thing:
A torn and restored cherry stem (sort of). Who woulda thought. Very cool. I love how organic and natural this is. During the summer, we always get fresh cherries, so I’m going to have to try this one.

I’m actually pretty good at the whole knot the stem in the mouth thing, and I always do it when there are cherries around, so this will be a nice addition to it. It’ll be like this: “Oh look, Jeff’s showing off again by tying a knot with his tongue. We see it every year… holy crap, did he just reattach that to the cherry!”

Probably my favorite thing about this book fits well with the title “Inside the Head of Donny Orbit.” I really got to see how he thinks about things. That was cool. I also love the presentations he comes up with. That shows a guy who’s a real worker who’s worked for real humans (not magicians).
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