Let me preface this by saying that over the past year I've been writing a series of reviews about Apocalypse. Essentially the idea was/is to review an issue of Apocalypse every so often. You are getting 60 issues of Apocalypse inside this book. That's because each year/volume there were 12 issue sent out. You get five volumes of Apocalypse inside this mammoth book. There are 720 pages that are TRULY "jam-packed" with excellent magic. There are three other books of this kind, each containing five volumes of Apocalypse. If you bought all four books of Apocalypse (as I have), you would have 2,800 pages of magic that you could literally build your career off of. The Apocalypse books are my absolute best investment in magic...EVER. Here is my first review that I wrote for the first issue of Apocalypse.

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Apocalypse: Vol.1 No.1

History Class... This is a series of reviews which provides a detailed review of one monthly issue of the magazine Apocalypse each week. For anyone who doesn't know, Apocalypse was a magazine started by Harry Lorayne and Richard Kaufman. After the first year, however, Richard Kaufman left the magazine because it was beginning to become a burden on his own pursuits. (He was still in college at the time!) Anyway, Harry Lorayne continued the magazine every month for another 19 years! Apocalypse always provided an average of 7 different close-up effects that usually were very diverse. That's just a little bit of history, but now onto the stuff you really want to hear about; the effects!

Effects-

Interlaced Vanish (Paul Harris)
Three face-down aces are interlaced between four face-up kings and the last ace is placed in between the spectator's filthy, grease-ridden hands. The three interlaced aces instantly vanish in a flash and the ace in the spectator's hands has turned blank! Three of the aces are cut to in the deck and the last one is found in the closed card case, which the magician has not even touched! The vanish of the three aces is truly startling and super convincing. Now, imagine being able to do all of this with no palming, no lapping, impromptu, and no extra cards! What a fantastic start to a fantastic issue!

Visual Drop Switch (Richard Kaufman)
This is a very nice, coin switch that happens as a coin is dropped from the fingertips, to the other hand (or wherever really). This can be used a a visual change like in a Spellbound routine or as a secretive switch.It's so nice because the coin apparently never goes out of view. Plus, it's super easy, in fact, it's practically self-working. You'll fool yourself in the mirror with this! It's definitely one of my favorite coin switches.

Instant Sandwich Catch (Harry Lorayne)
A spectator names any pair of mates and the magician picks a card which he fairly buries into the deck. The two face-up mates are then run through the deck and, of course, they have "caught" the face-down selection between them.There's nothing really new here method wise, but as Harry himself said, "It's the presentation and the handling that fools." It's a layman pleaser and a good effect to do as a "warm up" or just a quick trick.

Chink A Chink (David Roth)
Four coins are placed into the typical square matrix pattern. They jump around the table, and gather into one corner of the square as the magician just simply waves his hands over the coins. This is the standard Chink A Chink that everyone should learn. A lot of magicians have come up with their own versions, but you really need to learn this one. The magic just seems to "happen." It's quick, visual and certainly a crowd pleaser!

Goody Two Choose (J.K. Hartman)
The deck is shuffled by two spectators and they each cut to a card and merely peek at it. This happens as your back is turned. After the spectator allows it to be okay, the magician turns around and looks into the eyes of the spectators. He then is able to divine both of the cards they merely looked at! I really, really like this because of the complete and total fairness of the procedure. They really shuffle the deck and you barely touch the cards at all.If you provide a good presentation with this, man oh man, you are going to FRY some people with this!

Okito Opener (Geoff Latta)
An okito box is shown to be completely empty and then four coins are instantly produced from the box. I don't have an okito box so I couldn't try this out, but if you do have one I think you'll like this. It's quick, and easy for spectator's to understand. It makes for a good "okito opener" *wink* *wink*

Columns-

Editorials (Harry Lorayne and Richard Kaufman)
This isn't an effect obviously. It's just a little letter to the readers from Harry and Richard. They just talk about the starting of Apocalypse and what to expect in the future.

Razzle Dazzle
Here you'll find a brief review of the Tannen's Jubilee magic convention, a story about Martin Nash doing fifth deals, and a short write-up of a move by Geoff Latta to secretly toss a coin into an okito box. This is a fun little section to read, and there isn't really anything else I can say about it.


Additional Comments-
This was a great issue and I think almost everybody will find at least three effects or sleights that you might want to use. Personally, I found five of the items to be useful to me, which is sometimes more than an entire dvd!

I have written ten other reviews just like this on the Penguin Magic forums. I would encourage you to go to the forums and check them out. The link for the reviews section is http://www.penguinmagic.com/discuss/viewforum.php?f=10

Just search for Apocalypse reviews, and you should be able to find them all. Hopefully they will allow you to take a peek inside these great books and allow you to be more informed about the books.

Hi! This is your official PenguinMagic reviewer, B_Magic.

This may well be the best book series in magic ever created! If you are here looking at this book, just add it to cart! It truly is the best!

Apparently, Apocalypse used to be a monthly newsletter that was mailed to magician subscribers back in the day, and boy did those people get a real treat. We're even luckier today that the series has been compiled into 4 books which, for me, are like THE encyclopedia of magic.

There's everything in here, from beginner effects to really advanced and difficult tricks. There's cards, coins, close-up. parlor, essays, theory, and just about everything you could possibly want in a magic resource such as this. Just one book could take a lifetime to learn and master every trick within its pages. THESE BOOKS ARE MASSIVE!

I absolutely love my Apocalypse books and wouldn't trade them for anything. It's a great resource, something fun to read, and a great book to flip through over the years and find some gems. Definitely a must buy!

B_Magic