DVD Review: Tom Stone Caught on Tape

Swedish magician Tom Stone offers an excellent DVD that offers one stand-up and seven close-up effects. Stone’s take on classics offers great technique, streamlined procedures and strong misdirection. And he dresses his effects with entertaining plots.

I particularly liked his strong and classy opener-a coin routine that ends with a production of a wine bottle; his finesse on linking finger rings and a signed card and paper clip effect. Stone’s effects are for those who are experienced with sleight of hand-intermediate and above magicians.

“A Toast for Charon” is Stone’s powerful stand-up opening effect that initially plays like a combination aerial treasury/miser’s dream style routine. The magician reaches into the air and produces three coins that are collected in a wine glass. After producing the coins, they are poured from the glass into a silk where they disappear.

The magician reproduces the coins, one-by-one, in the silk and then causes the coins to vanish in his hand. At the end, the magician removes a wine bottle from the silk. I thoroughly like this effect. It’s classy and ends with a stunning production. If you can use a great opener for a standup act, this effect alone is worth the price of this DVD.

“Gold Wielder” is Stone’s version of the “Linking Finger Rings.” As in the classic routine, the magician walks into the audience and borrows three finger rings that are linked together into a chain, and each audience member verifies that his or her ring appears in the linked chain.

The effect uses the classic gimmick, but Stone’s method does not rely on a stooge. What he adds to the classic routine is a move and presentation that removes the awkward shifting that is often seen as a magician walks between spectators. This one is convincing and clean.

“Occhamman Now” is an incredible signed card to paperclip routine, Stone’s version of Bro. John Hamman's "The Signed Card." The magician brings out an anonymous playing card with a paperclip attached to it and lays it on the table face down.

Two jokers are removed from the deck and a card is selected by a spectator, signed and replaced in the deck. The jokers are used to “isolate” or surround the signed card. In the end, the signed card is found not in the deck, but to be the card with the paper clip that resides between the jokers.

Just from my description you probably have an idea of when and where the “magic” occurs. However, Stone uses a bold move for the steal that’s masked by strong misdirection. This one is a stunner.

I generally dislike “collector” card effects where four of a kind, usually jacks, somehow locate three selected cards in a deck. Despite this, Stone’s “The Hoarders” is a great effect where the interlacing happens in a flash. The routine is fast and direct and there’s no convoluted cutting and other seemingly unrelated moves that often occur in these types of routines.

A strong transposition effect, “Time Operator” has the magician explaining that when a card from the deck goes missing, he simply writes the name of the missing card on a joker to continue to use the deck. The two (unmarked) jokers are removed from the deck and placed into a card box. A card is selected by a spectator and signed and laid on the table. When the card is turned over, it turns out to be the joker with the name of the selected card on it. The card box is opened and the signed card is found in the box with the second joker.

The power in this effect is a writing technique that Stone uses to secretly mark the first joker as spectators watch. When I watched the effect I thought the card was forced, but it was a free choice. This one also requires a bold loading move that is performed under heat.