Ronjo Magic Store

Hello friends,

Are you one of those guys who load up 3 shopping bags full of stuff, set up a tray and cover it with a blanket?

If you are, consider taking the next step.

It is unprofessional when you arrive at a gig when you come in looking like a bag man.

You want to be classy and professional. Don’t you?

Too many times, a lot of new performers bring enough equipment to do three forty minute acts.

Bring only what you will be using! Although it may be a good idea to have a couple of extra props as a back up. Just incase, they need you to fill more time or if something breaks or if you were hired to do young children and 90% of the audience is over 20. But there is no need to over pack.

You’ll look clumsy trying to find your next effect or worse someone will see you setting up and then at the end of your show say, “Do the thing with the Duck with the hat!” What’s was that duck I saw before.” Now you are put on the spot. Your show is supposed to be over and you are not set up to do it. And you know it is not a closing effect. Now your off balance and nervous.

There is no reason you should have been in this position in the first place. Don’t let it happen. Period.

Get yourself a nice table. The Viking Magic’s Pro Table, or the Joe Lefler Pro Table are a couple of great choices. This is the one big prop in your show. The only prop on the stage since your show even started, in many cases even before your show starts. And while it really doesn’t do anything, it may be the most important part of your show. It is the focal point of your entire act but not overbearing to take you out of the spotlight.

You do want them looking at you and not the big Dragon, Clown or Chinese Letters for the next 45 minutes.

A good table will last you for your entire career. It will transport your entire show. Be it a child’s party, an ESP show and in some cases a close-up performance.

If you are doing a close up show, there are better choices than the big suitcase tables. Like the Magician’s Choice TM Close-up Case by Ronjo. Combine that with one of our Standard Sized Performance Mats add a Tripod and you have a real classy set up.

They may be pricy but if you are a paid entertainer, this little investment will pay for itself over short periods of time.

Theses cases protect not only protect your props, they make them easy to find and easy to put away when you are done. They make it easy to travel from show to show and turn your set up time from who knows what to nil. They provide security from the curious ones in your audience both before and after your show. And they provide a focal point for your audience.

Here at Ronjo, we will not sell you a mediocre or poor quality table but please be advised that there are several $200.00-$300.00 tables on the market that will not withstand several trips to and from the car. So be careful on what you choose. You want a good quality item with good wheels and stands not one that is made of flake board and will chip and split on you after a few weekend shows.

Hello friends,

So I watched Mindfreak last night. Pretty good program. I was starting to really like the larger than life illusions, its a nice change that Criss got back to basics. It looks like he had a lot of fun doing his close up. The spectators seemed to enjoy it.

Phone In Bottle, though. I already have customers asking me for this one. All I can tell them is it is not a marketed effect at this time.

Criss did an illusion similar to Gut Buster. The effect & method are similar but the “spectator” that was punched was lifted up into the air. With Gut Buster that is not possible. Unless Criss employed two different method here. He may just have a sturdier version of Gut Buster combined physics and strength. I don’t know and I really shouldn’t speculate.

We have had a few clients asking us for Criss Angel merchandise. We carry all seven of his DVDs but he has a lot more. Hats, jewelry, shot glasses, shirts, enough to fill a Spencer’s or Hot Topic type store. These kinds of items we do not normally sell but enough people have been inquiring, we may just have to try some.

I just got off the phone with Criss Angel’s brother J.D.. You’ve seen him on Mindfreak. He is in charge of all of Criss Angel merchandise. So you may see the Criss Angel section in our showroom in the near future. We’ll see.

Anyway, we’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Pete

Hello fiends,

We want you to know that we go out of our way not to promote garbage here.

This will save you money and allows you to keep your faith in us.

We want you to keep coming back to us. That is one of the reasons why you won’t find junk here.

While its true that many items we offer to you won’t appeal to you, many of them will. Those very same items will appeal to some of our other clients and the ones they are not interested in you may be likely to favor.

In case you already didn’t know when you shop online with us we want you to be comfortable with your purchases. If you buy an item from our magic site and you are not satisfied, contact us for an RAN# (Return Authorization Number) and we’ll replace the item, give you a store credit or your money back. All you’ll have to pay for is shipping fees.

There is always the fine print. And that is no returns on intellective property, media (DVDs, CDs, Books, etc.). And no returns on special orders or close outs. Items must say in stock at the time of purchase. For more details see our customer service page.

But that is not what I am getting at. The real story is that in general, you are not going find disappointing items at Ronjo. We always try to give you accurate and detailed descriptions, we offer a customer review link for each and every item and sometimes even provide video clips. These features should make you feel confident in us.

We also go out of our way to find select items that we deem worthwhile to offer prospective shoppers.

We see an awful lot of junk and tons of mediocre products. Just because it exists, doesn’t mean that it should. There is just no need to try to sell you anything and everything. There are plenty of quality items out there!

Occasionally we may accidentally bring in a trashy item. Well we don’t try to pawn them off on you. We send them back to where they came from. Just as you we would expect you to do the same.

I always tell my in store clients that there are really no bad effects, just bad presentations. That’s true and its not true. Generally every effect has the proper time place and audience. Because we meticulously police our inventory, those so called bad effects are not present here.

Occasionally we run across something so bad, it defies explanation as to why it was made in the first place and why our distributors would decide this is a product they want to offer to us dealers.

Friends, the worst product I have ever encountered and I am not trying to pick on anybody, and it is just one persons opinion is a booklet entitled Caffeine Rush by Vincenzo Ravina.

In 1995’s special David Baline: Street Magic, Blaine performed an effect created by Bob Fitch where a homeless man’s full coffee cup was replaced by coins overflowing the cup.

In 2003 Criss Angel’s Supernatural special aired where he made live Cock Roaches appear in peoples coffee’s cups.

In ‘03, Vincenzo Ravina jumped at the chance to write a book on how to make coins or dead bugs appear in someone’s coffee.

We were “guided” to offer you this hot new booklet and decided to take their advice and try some. They were mailed back within the hour.

My God, it looked like a three year old dictated to someone what to right for this book.

I could go on and on on how atrocious I think it really is. There are countless bad reviews on the Magic Cafe about all four of Ravina’s booklets. Thankfully I have only seen this single booklet from Ravina and not the other ones.

It is almost worth buying one for $15.00 (Sorry, we don’t sell it. You’ll have to pick one up from our competition) to see what kinds of things we are protecting you from.

You may just want to waste $15.00 anyway. Give Ravina deep pockets. Because it is so bad you just need to experience for yourself just how bad is bad?

Sorry to pick on Mr. Ravina, but I take pride in finding good, solid products and love the art of magic. We are out to make a buck, but we are not out to take people’s hard earned cash and hand them utterly useless nonsense in return.

The best and most honest review of Caffeine Rush was written by Brad Henderson and can be found here at www.mylovelyassistant.com. Search for Caffeine Rush if it is not the first thing you see.

Please do read Mr Henderson’s post. He explains the full effect, the health risks, the false advertising, the fact that is doesn’t work properly, the un-ethical release of other person’s intellectual property and more.

Have a nice evening.

Thanks for reading.

Pete

Hello friends,

The items I am going to tell you about today make for wonderful card magic.

They are intended for entertainment and magical purposes only.

There are some individuals who would use these materials for cheating at cards. We don’t condone cheating, not one bit. But if you ever find yourself in a card game, you can educate yourself on what to look for if you suspect potential cheaters.

Marked Decks:
We carry several pre made marked decks as well as material to mark your own decks. These range in price as well as deceptiveness. I’ll explain the types to you below.

1. The Eureka Deck has two magic secrets one would be the marked back designs, the other being what is known as a Stripper Deck. The Eureka deck, is a novice deck. The marks are easy to read by the trained eye, but are meant for locating one selected card at a time. It would be very difficult to read whole cards at a poker table. Not to mention the unique back design may be suspect. If you are aware of the rifle test, a method to find marked cards, this deck will not pass. These decks are meant for beginners in card magic and not something a professional cheat would use as a tool. This is the only marked deck that we carry that is also a Stripper Deck. The above link is to a professional Stripper Deck in Bicycle Brand and you can perform many effects that would take years of practice using a Stripper Deck without any hard work.

2. 3-D Playing Cards
This is a deck that you have to train your eyes to see the marks. Once you learn how to view and to alter your depth perception, you will see clear as day in 3-D the Rank & Suit in two places covering 2/3 of the card. The image will appear only when viewing them when the cars backs are vertical to your face. These stereogram cards are the same as the big posters and the calendars that were all over the malls in the mid 1990’s. The size makes them harder to see, but for magic (one selection at a time) is what they are intended for. In a cheating scenario, these cards could come in handy from time to time if you get a glimpse of one or two cards now and again. These are exceptionally deceptive and no one will accidentally find any marks. These card have been examined by casino personal and magicians who could not find the identifying marks and they were told they were marked before hand. Because of the nature of the hidden stereo image, each back design is not identical. However, this will go unnoticed by everyone and the visible differences do look random, like a print error if someone is really looking hard. Give the deck a rifle test will reveal these differences but will not give any insight to marking patterns.

3. The Boris Wild Marked Deck vs. The Ultimate Marked Deck
Both the Boris Deck & The Ultimate Marked Deck have been printed by the United States Playing Card Company. The Boris Wild Marked Deck came out first. Originally a book of magic routines (now out of print) supplied with transfer material to mark your own decks. This deck has the markings right in front of your face and Hidden In Plain Sight. This deck is meant for the professional card magician. If used for cheating purposes, you could easily read an entire table of whole cards at any time, however the marks are visible to the naked eye, so you can’t overuse the technique or you will cause concern. The power to be used maybe once or twice in a night when the time is right. The same viewing and using principles goes for the Ultimate Marked Deck. Both decks are printed blatantly. In fact so blatant that anyone who was looking for it would find it.

I prefer the Ultimate Marked Deck over the Boris Deck. The Boris Deck you need to view the marks in different areas of the back design. The area of location, lets you know the suit, but your eyes are moving up & down to spot it. With the Ultimate Marked Deck, each card is marked in the same place, but you are aware of the rank & suit instantly. With Boris, you will always know the rank after you locate the position and to know the suit you have to remember that position. Marked in a similar fashion, see also Ted Lesley’s Marked Jumbo Deck w/book.

I was unaware of the riffle test when I first saw a hand marked version similar to these many years ago. I could not see the mark, no matter how hard I looked. I was stunned when I finally noticed the card value after quite a while. These will not pass the riffle.

4. Luminous Shade Marking Kit
Now were are getting into the good stuff. This is professional stuff. No one will see the marks you apply. No matter how hard they look unless they view the back of the card with red contact lenses or a red filter (secretly hidden on the inside of your sunglasses). Next time you are playing poker with a red deck and you’ve got guys around you winning who are wearing sunglasses, consider what they might have behind the shades! 100% deceptive.

5. Juice Marked Decks
We carry two formulas of juice. For $25.00 you can get the Juice Card Marking Kit. This set up is for red decks only and while you get several times more of the formula than the professional version, you will waste more cards marking them as the “juice” will often ruin card stock or appear too dark. Once learned however it works pretty good. This stuff here is the real deal, the Juice Marking Fluid Kit. More than four times the cost and for less formula but this stuff works on red or blue cards and you get enough to mark 25 decks of cards and it won’t destroy cards when applying it. Imagine having a spectator select any card from a deck they shuffled and while you are standing 15 feet away from them, reveal the card. And then repeat it with another card! Juice is a marking liquid that can only be seen by a trained eye. It s easiest to see the marks from far away. It is very hard to see them up close. Another way to see the marks is as cards are being dealt, just as they are coming to a stop, a flash may be seen just for a split second, enough for you to identify the cards. Juice does not need a special lens to see. Professional card cheats make their decks light or dark depending on the type of room they are playing in. Often bringing light meters into the room before hand to determine how to apply the juice so they have optimum viewing conditions and make the risk of someone else spotting the marks very minimal. When you are a master at seeing juice, the amount you put on the and the length of time the juice is on te card before you wipe it away will become less and less, making these marks so hard to see, that accidental discovery is impossible. On the odd chance anyone sees something, it will be so fleeting and it will appear as if the lighting reflected off the back of the card in a certain way and it will not been seen again (because the card has stopped moving or their eyes moved away and then back). 95% deceptive.

6. Daub
This stuff is really dangerous. Cards marked with Daub are generally marked while the cards are in play! And the marks wear out overtime or you can “unmark” them when you get a hold of them again. All the evidence will be completely gone. Daub Professional Marking System comes with marking material for red and blue decks. The colored Daub is inside two small metal cups, smaller than a penny and easily hidden in your pocket. Touch the correct color Daub with your finger and run your finger over a specific area of a card. EX: Center line for an Ace. 99% deceptive as long as you keep it to a minimum.

7. Face Marked Deck
Here is a make shift marked deck you can make at home. The type of marking used here uses your sense of touch and not your sense of sight. Take a razor blade and gently slice marks in the hair lines of the Kings, Queens & Jacks. As you are dealing you will feel if any cards have these slices in the hair patterns. While you won’t know the rank or suit, you’ll know who got dealt a court card. 99% deceptive.

Here’s a few other things we offer for your consideration.
Marked For Life by Kirk Charles
Expert At The Card Table by S.W. Erdanase
Billion Dollar Bunko by Simon Lovell
Unreal Work by Jason England & R. Paul Wilson
Weapons Of A Card Shark by Jeff Wessmiller

That’s enough for today.
Thanks for reading!
Until tomorrow,

Pete

Hello Friends,

Today I’ll be talking to you about high ticket items that are the cream of the crop.

There are a few killer effects we carry and they notoriety.

Bazar De Magia’s Celebri-Tie
This is a stunning stage prop. Not for close up. Entertainment at it’s finest.

Just In Case & Key created by Joe Porper & Pete Biro
These props replace the ever popular and always available Al Koran’s Ring Flite & Gaeton Bloom’s Flying Ring. This is the best improvement of the ring flight effect ever. Includes Michael Close’s 5 star routine Ring Fright.
The supplied Key for the transposition is one of the most inventive gimmicks I have ever come across (and the key case is pretty darn fantastic as well). You’ll love it.

Mother Of All Book Tests created by Ted Karmilovitch & The Thirteen
This may be the most effective book test on the market. It is simple and straight forward. It punishes the audiences brain for them having seen you. Is it real or is it M.O.A.B.?

Gravity Box from Doug Malloy
Great for children or adults in small or large venues. Can be played for comedy or serious. Simple to operate. Impossible to analyze. The only stipulation is that a smooth flat surface is required. Gravity Box will keep them talking about you.

Prince Anton’s Racquet created by Anton Corradin
Prince Anton’s Racquet is a marvelous device. It is deceptive and non threatening like it’s little brother the Card Sword. The gimmick that makes the card appear is built into this custom made Tennis Racquet is diabolical. In my opinion superior to a Card Sword. And it’s done with a signed card that is easily removed!

Wellington Enterprises Magic Switchboard created by Bill Schmeelk’s
The Magic Switchboard may be the greatest invention in all of magic. It appeals to everyone from the youngest of children to adults and even the most educated rocket scientists, computer programmers, electricians. It does defy explanation. You’ll need a standard 110 outlet. If you are interested in this made to order contact me at Pete@ronjo.com and enter your email in the “Notify Me When Available” icon in the link above.

Fabric Manipulations Pseudo Psychometry Bag Set by Lynetta Welsh
If you are a working pro then the high ticket won’t scare you off. The bags are very well made and the effect is nothing short of a miracle. Lynetta hand makes beautiful items and this is no exception. However I personally do not think these bags warrant the hefty price tag. I guess I just don’t see the value of the merchandise in this instance. But when you break it down, you are paying less than $40.00 per bag and that is far less than one single product she does make. Because your her $88.00 Egg Bag is worth it every which way. So I guess what I am saying it is worth it. It just seems pricey.

While I feel the above products are fabulous effects and devices, well worth every penny, Of course, this is just my own opinion. Not everything above will appeal to everyone. And that’s a good thing. The products have to compliment you and reflect you as a performer or they will fail and you will fail.

Until tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Pete