Review: At the Table by Tomas Medina

Here are twelve tricks that require no formal props or preparation - literally, "anytime magic." And as the title implies, the tricks rely on objects found around the dinner table. Many are well known staples that are often found in beginning magic books, but Tomas Media adds a strong twist to some.

Experienced magicians will undoubtedly know most of the tricks, but newcomers can make some fun discoveries. All are easy to learn and execute and none require any preparation or gimmicking. Some do require minimal sleight-of-hand.

In the Bottle Production, you take off your jacket and produce a bottle from seemingly nowhere. This is a well known production.

Sleight of Arm is the classic "do as I do" where spectators clasp their hands and can't do everything that you do. Sugar Packets offers an intriguing bit of mentalism. You collect three sugar packets and ask a spectator to mark them. One is selected and even though your back is turned, you can always tell the one the spectator chose. This one was new to me.

If you want to appear to shove a butter knife down your throat, Medina shows you how in Knife Swallow. In contrast, in Knife from Bread, you appear to pull a butter knife from out of an ordinary dinner roll. An offbeat effect, in Bounce a Roll, you remove an ordinary dinner roll from a basket and appear to bounce it off the floor.

Torn/Restored Napkin is actually more of a matrix style routine with balls of napkins that mysteriously gather under your hands. At the end, the balls form into a single napkin.

Here's another classic from basic magic books. In Vanishing Shot Glass, you cover a shot glass with a napkin and somehow make it disappear. Taking the concept further, Medina teaches Sucker Salt Shaker where a pepper shaker turns into a salt shaker while it's shrouded in a napkin.

Table It

Medina offers two coin effects: Coin on Hand and Coin Under Watch. In both effects, a coin vanishes and is discovered in the location named in each title. The "Coin Under Watch," in particular, is a strong trick. Finally, with Toothpick, Medina causes a toothpick to suddenly jump up.

Tricks that you can perform almost anytime at a dinner table are good to know. On this DVD, Tomas Medina offers a fun collection. But if have been into magic awhile, you can pretty much reconstruct the tricks by the descriptions here (which isn't my intent) or find most of them in basic magic books.

If you're new to magic, on the other hand, you may enjoy this collection.