review of Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magic Set
I recently bought a copy of the Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magic Set, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had two reasons for purchasing the kit — first, to review for this site; something I’ve done before is to look at inexpensive “children’s” magic props to see if they would work for clowning, before purchasing the more expensive “professional” model. The second is, my daughter Trudy is interested in Egyptology, and the set has an Egyptian theme. The set of magic tricks is wooden, not cheap plastic, and the individual pieces look nice on the whole and seem to be well made.
In my mind, magical props fall into one of two categories — those that do only one thing, and those that are versatile. I definitely prefer those that are versatile, and can be used in a variety of ways. The other question, of course, is how usable is this for a clown performance? The included props are as follows:
- The Great Escape
- Without giving too much away, it’s a method of making a colorful cube seemingly disappear from within a “cage” — it’s effectively a ”one-use only” trick, and I doubt that it’s something that I’d use in my clowning. For a magician, it would be fine for a children’s show.
- Magic Number Prediction
- Something that I’ve seen before in several places (including Karl Fulves’ books, which I recommend), it’s a set of six wooden cards, with seeming random numbers on them — the magician has an assistant pick a number, and then take every card that contains that number, and the magician reveals the number. A very nice close-up magic trick, with the method not being easily guessed. Again, not something that would lend itself to clowning, however.
- Disappearing Ball
- Effectively a one-trick pony, using a gimmicked ring to make a ball disappear. I frankly can’t see anyone (except children) using this.
- Vanishing Coin
- A very nice version of the old “coin slide” trick, where you put a coin in one end of this rectangular box, close the doors (which leaves a slight gap between the two sides), and tilt it to one side; the audience can see the coin rolling to the other side, while the clown/magician declares that he’s made it vanish. The audience will have none of it, of course, and the clown opens the doors (milking this for all it’s worth), eventually revealing that the coin is, indeed, still there — what David Ginn refers to as “the magician in trouble syndrome”. Closing the doors and tilting it the other way, it appears to be the same thing, until both doors are opened, and the coin is now vanished. A very nice, small trick, excellent as a pocket trick, suitable for either a clown or a comedy magician.
- Cylinder Squeeze
- A cute little walkaround trick, where the magician “magically” makes small colored cylinders change place. It probably doesn’t lend itself to clowning.
- Magic Coin Box
- The Magic Coin Box is one of the tricks that does only one thing – but it does it extremely well. Mark Wilson describes a homemade way of doing this with a matchbox and a ball of yarn in Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic, which I’ve used, and this is simply a set of stacking wooden boxes that do the same thing – have a coin marked by the audience, it “magically” appears inside a small bag sealed shut, which is inside a small box, nested inside another (and other) small wooden box, sealed by rubber bands. It’s a wonderful piece of magic, and it’s made very well, but it doesn’t lend itself to clowning very easily. Although I could certainly see using it in a clown skit where one clown “steals” a coin from another clown, etc.
- Secret Silks (aka. Zippered Change Bag)
- This is my personal favorite. It’s nicely made, and a very versatile prop. It’s a way of exchanging one small object for another. For example, at Clown Camp many years ago, two clown students used a change bag, a toy mouse, and colored silks to make a “green mouse” (a frog) appear. There’s a very popular routine with silks known as the Mis-matched Flag that works very well with a change bag. Or to turn paper into a dollar bill, to turn a quarter into a chocolate coin, etc. In a nutshell, it has hundreds of uses and works well for the clown, the comedy magician, or children’s entertainer. One nice thing that this change bag has is a zipper at the bottom, so the clown/magician can reach his hand through the bag and “prove” that it’s empty. It lends itself well to a clown, for example leaving the zipper open as you put items into the bag, and seemingly don’t notice the items falling to the floor.
- Vanishing Zone
- I had a little toy bank, many years ago, that this mirror-based puzzle reminds me of; I can’t see anyone (except children) using this is a performance since it’s far too easy to divulge the secret of how it works by tilting it just a bit.
- Money Maker
- A small bowl gimmicked to secretly hold multiple coins inside. The included instructions only suggest 1 trick for this – having a coin put into the bowl and pouring multiple into your hand. However, it’s slightly more flexible than that. For example, you could put a quarter in the bowl, and have two dimes and nickel appear, etc.
- Egyptian Prediction
- A cute little prediction gimmick, shaped like an Egyptian sarcophagus, using the “one ahead” method of predicting the order of little disks that the audience participant puts into the sarcophagus. It’s cute, this is all that it’s good for (except, perhaps, for setting a theme), and really doesn’t lend itself to clowning.
All in all, it’s a nice collection, well made, and (at the time of this writing) relatively inexpensive. Will I use any of it for clowning? I’ll definitely use the zippered change bag. The vanishing coin box will start going in my pocket for walkaround events. And I’m probably going to work up a skit using the magic coin box. The rest? I’ll let my daughter have 🙂
I rate it 3 clowns out of 5. If I were rating individual items, I’d rate the Zippered Change Bag and Vanishing Coin Box both 5’s.
Product Description of Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magic Set From the Manufacturer
Amazing multi-piece sets feature amusing illusions and crafty slight-of-hand tricks for the young magician to practice and perform. These easy-to-learn tricks are the same ones used by professional magicians: disappearing objects; multiplying coins; magic boxes; prediction tricks; a secret change bag and more. And the wooden storage chest magically transforms into a performance table ¿with a secret compartment!
Product Description of Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magic Set
This Deluxe Magic Set provides hours of fun and professional tricks for the beginner. The set is made of solid wood, and the tricks are easy to perform. Includes the following tricks: Disappearing Ball, Vanishing Coin, Magic Coin Box, Cylinder Squeeze, Secret Silks, Vanishing Zone, Egyptian Prediction, Magic Number Prediction, Money Maker and the Great Escape.