Review: Sankey's Best Magic w/Ordinary Objects by Jay Sankey

This DVD presents 20 of Jay Sankey's favorite close-up routines with ordinary household objects such as corks, silly putty, spoons, drinking straws, keys and more, and even one that involves Alka-Seltzer. The close-up effects are solid ones from his creative and fertile mind. If Sankey were a singer, this would be like a "Greatest Hits" album. Best of all, refreshingly, there are no tricks with playing cards.

With Alchemy Seltzer, you appear to swallow and restore a signed Alka-Seltzer tablet. You bring out a tablet that is signed by a spectator and dropped into a nearby glass of water. After the tablet has dissolved, you drink the tablet and water. In the end, you cough up the spectator's signed tablet.

This one is easy to perform and only requires a basic sleight. The dissolving takes awhile, which creates some dead time in the routine. Also, you do have to drink the Alka Seltzer, which isn't pleasant, but hey, we all have to suffer for our art. I find this one intriguing, but not real practical for real world settings.

Tying the Knot is a visual quickie. Here, a borrowed finger ring and dollar bill penetrate each other two times. An ordinary dollar bill is tightly rolled-up, a borrowed finger ring is threaded onto it and the bill is tied into a knot around the ring. In no time, you separate the ring from the bill and then throw it back on. This one has lots of potential for strolling.

Not to be confused with the recent effect by Simon Shaw of the same name (click here to read my review), with Director's Cut, you bring out an envelope with three items: scissors, a strip of paper and a mystery item that is not shown and remains in the envelope.

You show that the strip of paper has lots of different objects listed on it. You turn the strip around and run the scissors up and down and ask a spectator to randomly call out 'stop.' You cut the strip at the designated spot, which selects an object on the list.

When you dump out the envelope, the mystery object turns out to match the word at the point where the strip is cut. There's a whimsical twist on the revealed object and Sankey adds a nice extra to the traditional method. This one is great for strolling.

In Cut & Restrawed, Sankey applies the classic cut and restored plot to a drinking straw. You cut a drinking straw in half while it’s still in its wrapper. When you pull the straw out, it’s full size. This one has a fast setup and is easy to learn and perform.

One of my favorites on this disc, which I was familiar with from an earlier Sankey video, is Stirring Silver. In this two-phased routine, you take an ordinary spoon and pull its bowl through a borrowed finger ring. The visuals and the sound are quite convincing. There's also a spoon bending sequence at the start of this one.

An effect with rubber bands, actually it's probably best used to introduce two rubber bands, in Simple Division, you visually split one band into two. In Circumference, you bring out a round piece of paper from an envelope that immediately transforms into a ping pong ball. A moment later, it turns back into an ordinary piece of paper.

In the offbeat 20th Century Fox, you take three paper raffle tickets, the kind that come on a roll and are torn off, and ask a spectator to initial one. You tear off and separate the tickets. At the end, the three tickets are found to be together as if they were never torn and the spectator's ticket is found in the center of the three tickets.

A clever application of the paddle move, in Seeing Red, you place stickers on one side of a lighter and the stickers replicate themselves on both sides. For the finale, the stickers grow in size. I like the fact that you’re using a real object, a lighter, and not an odd magic prop that is usually employed in most paddle effects. Hot Wax offers a broken and restored crayon effect that is a good one to perform for kids, particularly in restaurants.

Duet offers a "sound" transposition between two jingle bells. You show a small jingle bell that doesn't ring when you shake it. You rest the bell on the table. You bring out a second bell that rings when it is shaken. In the end, the bell that originally didn't ring, now rings. And the bell that did ring now does not. At the end, the spectators can examine everything.