INCOMING!: Finally received a haul of Tenyo

[Brett H]

I'm finally receiving my long awaited Tenyo shipment I'd be using for a children's hospital magic show.
I'll finally have a sizable collection to actually participate in the Tenyo review sections! I'm excited.

So here's what the haul has brought in no particular order:

Magic Pop-Up
Zone Infinity
Hanky Panky
Trap Box
Impossible Pen
Soft Coins
Psychic Money
Cloud Money
Ultimate Shocking Pen
Ghost Card
Magic Butterfly
Security Lock
Ghost Lamp
Crash Dice
Phantoma
Money Splash
The Third Eye


I' have ALMOST got through all the Tenyo. IIRC, I haven't messed with 5 of them. Let's get to it!



MAGIC-POP UP: First things first. We're moving to Texas next month. With that in mind, I won't be doing Magic Pop-Up until we actually move there, as I'm afraid that taking it all out of the box is going to destroy it. On top of that, the way I'm intending to use it won't be the prediction method at all--I'll be using the cards, but I'll have a Pokemon bouncing ball inside the card.
In my head, I think it would be funny for kids to see that I not only failed a prediction--but managed to 'predict' a Pikachu in the process

TRAP BOX: All right, after reading on the forums and Jimmy Z's help, I realized I was doing it wrong. And mine works like a champ. It's certainly one that, I believe would need quite a bit of practice to look amazing. I tried it with my wedding band and mine is just too thick for the whole thing to work properly.

ZONE INFINITY: I am impressed with this one. Extremely clever and literally works right out of the box. However, I did not know that the coin holder was all rubber. I'm not sure if this will become an issue with sanitation if I have other kiddos perform the effect (now that I know how it works, I'm trying to figure out how to make that happen). But wow, what a visual treat.

HANKY PANKY: Very clever method and gimmick. I will give it that. Although after performing it once, I'm DEATHLY afraid of using it. Reason being is that I want the kids to perform the magic in their hands. And Hanky Panky certainly fits the bill. I'm just terrified that it would break easily during a performance. It's back in the box and I'm on the fence of trading or selling it.

IMPOSSIBLE PEN: I got this one with the explicit reason to trade or sell it. However, after my daughter saw that it and recognized it as its one of the MANY Tenyo videos I have shown her, she immediately wanted to take it out of the box. Thing is, she loves everything Tenyo related and this one certainly landed in front of her (I have Ghost Card for her. But her wanting the 'Pen is certainly a surprise for me). It's still in its box. And I have a second 'Pen coming in the mail (I want to see if the package of the second 'Pen will be banged up. Which has happened to me once by Houdini Magic). So at the very least, I'll at least have one that I'll certainly part away with.

SOFT COINS: This is another Tenyo that I MOSTLY knew how it worked. AND it works out of the box just as much as Zone Infinity does. I even got a second one for my daughter as she loves coin magic--especially if it has to do with quarters. What I especially like about it, is that you can hand the case out after a performance. I've performed it three times already and everyone loves punching the holes through. Thinking of getting some colorful Hello Kitty pencils to make it a bit more fun. It's good, but (so far) isn't the best 'knockout' trick compared to others. I blame quite a bit of it on performance.

PSYCHIC MONEY: I was surprised to see it come out of the box and immediately see that it comes with a CD. That was a bit surprising--especially when all it comes with are TWO PENCILS! Gave it a go and it's another Tenyo that requires a bit of practice and performance exposure to make it a great effect. I haven't tried it on anyone yet. I know HOW I want to use it. I just need practice for it. More on it later.

CLOUD MONEY:

ULTIMATE SHOCKING PEN: Let's get one thing out there: My wife doesn't like magic. It's not that she dislikes the entire premise of it or what magicians do. Let's put it this way; for you Brits, she's like Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock. She sees anything I do and runs around 15 possible explanations for what is going on. She doesn't like magic because she's not able to sit and enjoy it; she's busy dissecting it. So when the twins and I were on our Tenyo rampage, she saw that I pulled a mere 'pen' out of one of the boxes. She asked what it did and I told her that it goes through dollar bills.
She then asks if 'it comes with special bills'. I tell her 'no'. Then, I got to see the gears in her head going, and I immediately put the 'Pen away. I've practiced it around 12 times, but I'm REALLY holding myself back so that I can REALLY fry her with this one. Ultimate Shocking Pen is really a kick in the teeth. It's inspectable (to a point), and it WRITES. That's what got me right there. But it's one of those that requires a bit of practice (Tenyo requiring practice out of the box? Nooooo) to make it a knockout effect, I think.

GHOST CARD: I got this one strictly for my daughter. See, we watch a LOT of Tenyo demonstration videos together. And up to around 2 weeks ago, we ONLY watched videos of tricks that cost less than $40. Because if I showed her an Ultratube video and she happens to enjoy it. It would be a very costly mistake for me. So of all the Tenyo that we have watched, Ghost Card is the ONLY one that we have watched 50 times with her trying to figure it out (just like her mommy). She claims it's 'real magic'. I thought I had the gimmick figures out. But I should have taken a hint at the front of the box and seeing a smilin' Lubor Fiedler. The gimmick was NOTHING like I was expecting. And no where NEAR the difficulty in presentation or ingenuity of the gimmick. Holy hell. Of ALL the Tenyo I received. ALL the Lubor tricks threw me for a loop. This one let me down a bit because I know a 6 year old wouldn't be able to properly handle this thing very quickly. But we're working on it. I've only practiced it a few times and boy does it need a lot of elbow grease to sell it to the spectator and keep them off your trail. I like it, but if Tenyo tricks had a difficulty scale, Ghost Card would rank up there pretty high. It's definitely not travel friendly, I will say that much.

MAGIC BUTTERFLY: My kids love this. I've performed this for other kids, and some of our therapists. Everyone loves Magic Butterfly. It's not the easiest out-of-the-box there is, but boy is it a good one to perform. I will say I need to work on my presentation a bit on this one, but I like some of the alternative routines you can do. I even prefer using a handkerchief than the box it comes with. Even though one of them is super risky and you'll end up buying a new one if you do it wrong.

SECURITY LOCK: Initially, I thought that this one could be done in 'reverse'. Where the magician can't get it out but the spectator can. Which it still COULD, but its definitely build to be more of a puzzle than anything else. And what a diabolical puzzle it is by the late Lubor Fiedler. My analytical wife figurds it out, but the only reason this trick will ever fail is because of audience management, which I did not do so well in this case. I didn't take it back soon enough. But for older audiences, this one is guaranteed to surprise and stump. AND it plays from the pockets!

GHOST LAMP:

CRASH DICE: My kids LOVE Crash Dice. Which is surprising to me. Initially, I was intending to perform this in a hospital routine, but do it 'wrong'. I would say that I would change the color of the dice, 'sneeze' and activate the gimmick. And have the dice 'explode into pieces', look surprised, and have a child do a completely different trick. My kids love this because it's another one they can perform out of the box. Anyone can perform this one. It's very well made and sturdy (much sturdier than the 'Dice Bomb' from Houdini Magic). But after seeing my kids reactions to it, I'm much more inclined to have a child perform it 'right', than have me do it 'wrong'.

PHANTOMA: There's not much to Phantoma, I'll admit, I knew how the whole thing worked. And it's not bad. Its one of the few Tenyo that's more routine based than it is gimmick based. There's a lot of Tenyo that you can integrate into a Phantoma routine. The Purple house it a bit harder to utilize than the really well made Glorpy handkerchief. The handkerchief alone is worth the purchase. I'm practicing it right now as this is my sons favorite trick at the moment. But I think there's A LOT of potential using the Glorpy with other Tenyo than Ghost Pet and Ghost Lamp

MONEY SPLASH: I initially bought this believing that it could hold the US gold dollar coins. Not so. Best it can hold is quarters. In any case, I gave it a go this morning and I didn't have much of a problem with the performance--once I actually read the instructions a few times and got it to operate correctly. It requires quite the set-up though and I can see why people have a bit of a hard time with it. I'm trying to work it into more of a mental magic trick--but first, I have to figure out the ins-and-outs of the gimmick and handing the prop to the spectator. I think it has potential--especially if you have it in a routine with Vault Vision. I can see why it gets complaints.

THE THIRD EYE: I'll say this now. I LOVE the stuff Lubor has put out there. Looks like I'm going to get Parabox in the future after all.
The gimmick and the idea is brilliant. The presentation and the involvement of multiple spectators AND stumping them both on a 'prediction' effect of all things while the magician gets to wipe their hands clean. The problem I have with it, and I should have known better, is that 'eye'. It could probably trigger epilepsy--namely mine and my sons. So me having this one, is a bit of a head-scratcher as to 'why did I buy this to begin with?'. Even worse that I probably won't be able to utilize this in a children's hospital show for the very same reason.
In any case, I think it would be good as one of those conversation starter tricks that I think we all have.

[Richard Kaufman]

Trap Box requires a good hard pull to get it loosened up the first time. And you will always have to pull the bottom pretty strongly in order to get the rattle. Should work, though.

[Brett H]

Trap Box requires a good hard pull to get it loosened up the first time. And you will always have to pull the bottom pretty strongly in order to get the rattle. Should work, though.

Got it to work finally. Turns out, I wasn't doing it right. It works like a champ. Just operator error!

Thank you!

[Brett H]

I've been practicing the handling A LOT more with Money Splash (when the missus is away so she doesn't have to hear the massive coin *thuds*. PERFECT time to practice). The handling in the instructions is way off. So I've been messing around with it and I've stumbled myself into a couple ways to get it to work 9 times out of 10.
The missus came home so I can't FULLY test it out to see if it works 10 out of 10 times.

My goal is to have SOMEONE ELSE handle the tube and turn it into a mental magic routine, but I think it's possible, but MAN, of all the Tenyo I have; THIS, Ghost Lamp, and Ghost Card require a LOT of practice just to get RIGHT.

Looking to get in Koornwinders Kar, Shrinking Pen, Ultraslice, and Infinitum soon (once funds come in)

Also, can SOMEONE ELSE handle Infinitum and it would still work? Or can only the magician handle it? I'm worried that it'd be like another Zone Infinity in which the handling makes it very difficult for someone else to handle.

[AlexBrazil]

Brett, I loved your crash dice routine! I will certainly incorporate it in my little show.

[Brett H]

That's awesome! Go for it.

I have an idea for Magic Pop Up that I want to try out. You do the routine as you normally would, except that your final prediction/ball would be a Pokemon Power Ball (or you could put something inside the clear ball that the box provides. And act surprised.

There's a thread about performing Tenyo 'wrong' that might be up your alley. But so far, Crash Dice is by far the easiest to perform this way. And probably one of the easiest Tenyo to perform in general.