The "Blown Away" is not discounted, still priced for $10. Or do I have to be a registered member to see the discount price?

Nope- Put on your order what you want to pay for (the "buy" part of the deal). Then add in the comments section of your order form what you want for free (the "Get one free" part of the deal). Rest assured, they'll see what you ant for free in the comments section and you'll get them, they are pretty thorough when it comes to your orders.

So you will pay $10.00 for one item and then list another item you want free, thereby paying just $5.00 each in the end.

I believe they state this too in the top page of the website.

Ah okay, that makes much sense now. So many of them!

Failed,

I know that you have mentioned the horrible exchange rate in your country. That being said, even if you order only ONE Colombini e-book, you get another one FREE for 5.00 USD. And trust me, you will have enough GREAT material to keep you busy

Ahimsa,
Vlad

PS: If you want a good fix from a GREAT magician, go to http://peterduffie.com
On the left side of the page is a section marked FREE TRICK. Peter posts free effects. UNDER the FREE TRICK SECTION is the TRICK ARCHIVE. TONS of GREAT EFFECTS there for FREE. This will turn you on to Peter's GREAT magic and all it will cost you is going to the site! Now, as a thank you to peter, you might want to purchase something. He has effects that are in the 5.00 USD range.

So, I hope this helps!!

Thanks. I'm still browsing through and trying to decide which one I should get. The Blown Away sounds a good trick and do-able by me, and the Packet Trick Treasures DVD also.

I've seen one of his many videos and I think he's a very good tutor. Clear and concise teaching.

>I'm still browsing through and trying to decide which one I should get

I have both and would go for the DVD. If you want an effect a la Blown Away you better choose Joker Dilemma (also on the Colombini site. There are some moves in Blown Away that are not logical for the audience.

Thanks for your suggestion. The thing is, it doesn't have any demo so I really don't know what it looks like. We can only imagine based on the description and sometimes it's shorter or even missing the important parts of the tricks (sleights, etc).

I'll have a look at Joker Dilemma.

I'll second Vlad's thought here. There are a number of EXCELLENT effects available in Duffie's free trick archive. My personal favorite from the bunch is called 'Hofzinser Meets Erdnase'. Simple to execute but the handling (for a variety of reasons I won't delve into) and the impact on spectators is superb.

I contacted Mr Colombini and turned out I have to put an order of at least 3 items for international shipping. Means I would get 6 for the price of 3 but still, it's an amount I -at the moment- can't afford.

6 sounds good even I'm even more confused which one I should put into my cart. Gotta choose another 4 of them.

I don't know which version Rene Lavand used, but his was the most beautiful presentation of Oil and Water that I have ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUohOTXiFks

Failed,

With Colombini, there is no need to be confused. Anything from him is invaluable. I have been a HUGE fan of Aldo forever and I have NEVER EVER been disappointed Another cool thing about Aldo is the same thing you will find with Harry Lorayne, and that is an excellent, engaging writing and teaching style.

I think I have mentioned this before, but, I will again: load up on Lorayne, Colombini, Duffie, Francis, and Guinn! You simply CANNOT go wrong with these five.

Again, I am cognizant of the fact that the exchange rate for you is awful, and I wish there was an easy fix for physical materials and for the exchange rate. What you COULD do is establish a DEEP trust with a magician from the states, and have that person purchase your effects and pay shipping. It WOULD be cheaper! And again, avail yourself of e-books man!! I know and feel your frustration of having to limit your purchases. I can name a TON of books I am DYING for. I also realize that I have a lot of stuff to work on already. ONE quality book will keep you busy for AGES. For example, you could make an investment in just ONE of the Best of Friends books and have an insane amount of material to study for years. Buy just one volume of Apocalypse - each hard bound volume exceeds 700 pages - and you have 3 lifetimes at least right there But, in addition, everything from Aldo is 10.00 per item AND no shipping involved in e-books! So, while finances ARE tight, there ARE always options.

Finally, from quality magicians like those mentioned above, you really do not NEED to "see" what an effect looks like. Their effect descriptions are such that you can easily visualize what the effect will look like. Bear in mind there was a time not long ago when, except for having an actual physical mentor, the only way to visualize effect was to READ it. The advent of video technology has not rendered this timeless method obsolete. Having said that, YouTube is crammed with demos of effects FROM the creators. Actually, I got turned onto Jack Carpenter's work by watching his channel on YouTube. I spoke of Cameron Francis. Go to HIS site and you will see a ton of demos of his effects. You might want to consider his Moment's Notice series of e-books. The quality of effects for the price is a virtual steal. Lybrary.com is a GOLD MINE of magic - ALL affordable.

I know I went a bit off the Oil and Water topic here, but, I am in essence also attempting to answer the very same concerns I have seen you express in other threads. So, for instance, HAVE you gone to Peter Duffie's site and downloaded and or at least viewed on line the huge amount of FREE effects in his archive? All THAT costs is the time to sit and read and to copy and paste the contents into notepad or Word or whatever for offline viewing.

If you can, subscribe to at least ONE of the major magic periodicals. Genii and Magic are excellent and both keep you up to date and offer EXCELLENT effects. Want a bonus? Richard Kaufman announced here at the Café that starting this fall, the yearly subscription price of 54.00 USD not only gets you your regular monthly issues of Genii, but, you ALSO will have access to the COMPLETE file of Genii online dating from the very first issue in 1936!! Man, I am chomping at the bit for THIS opportunity!!

So my friend, you really DO have a LOT of cost effective solutions to your dilemma.

One more resource? You have more than enough posts to access the Secret Sessions portion of the Café. Two REALLY cool sticky bunned threads FULL of magic, and I means TONS of FREE magic waiting for you are: Master Hideo Kato's "Today's Finding" thread, and the excellent thread called "Index to Past Tricks." EACH of these threads contains HUNDREDS of effects. ALL FOR F R E E.

You have options my friend, but, ONLY you can make the decision to avail yourself of them. So many ARE free, so, and I say this respectfully and maybe a little "tough love" - you have only you to blame if you do not avail yourself.

Ahimsa,
Vlad

Great ideas Vlad, and good points. Kinda what our friend Aldo says "Just Do It".

Such a great journey of discovery awaits us when we take those first steps!

A M E N Brother

I have been trying to get Mr Colombini to put out a DVD or book with just Oil and Water tricks for sometime.I thought It was a good idea but no luck yet.


Best
Leo Jr

Leo-
It is a good idea, perhaps when Aldo is past the health issues with Rachel we can ask him again. I know he's always open to requests from people for what new materials they are looking for.

Thank you so much, Vlad. That's true as sometimes I have to wait for days because I'm waiting for the currency exchange to hit a low level. One time I had to wait my items in my shopping cart for a week because of it.

And because I'm basically new to this hobby, I still have this limitless curiosity and hunger for card tricks, gimmicked or ungimmicked. I just love to explore many possible of packet tricks and decide which one is suitable for my skills. I've watched a DVD of Aldo Colombini in my friend's place and I love it.

I feel ashamed that many magicians in my country seem out of touch. While Martini and Aldo will answer our e-mails personally and these guys are pro-magician and well-known inventor or creator of magic tricks. This is one of the reasons I feel so lucky I could join this forum as I learn a lot in here.

Anyway, I definitely will get some of Colombini's materials as some of them are appealing to me and I've seen his teachings. Even there are still some tricks in my wish list, and hopefully every now and then someone will sell them as used item in this forum.

And as I've mentioned above, I have one Oil and Water trick (ungimmicked and ungaffed) with simple handling and using only 6 cards, but I'm looking for a stronger one even with gaffed cards.

Failed,

Also, you really should check out Peter Duffie's site - I THINK this is my third mention of it to you LOTS of FREE, STRONG card magic.

Also... Dave Forrest's http://www.full52.com has some free effects - one of them I am adding to my repertoire.

We all have wishlists my friend. I just want to be sure that you realize there is some quality card magic that is FREE that can tide you over. Since you are, in your words, "basically new", any effect you can practice can only ENHANCE your skill set. Some of the free card magic in Peter Duffie's Free Trick Archive come from some of his great e-books and hard bound books.

Perhaps my other posts weren't clear: these are FREE, NO strings attached, no need to even sign-up!

Jay Sankey does have a sign up on his site - its free to register, and you will find a lot of good, free magic there.

Ahimsa,
Vlad

There is an oil and water routine in Smoke and Mirrors 'Shake Well Before Use' which is a full deck quick effect.

For packet tricks why not get Focus, Small But Deadly and Still Small Still Deadly. These are on my shopping list along with Jerry Mentzer's Counts, Cuts, Moves & Subtlety.

-octave

One of my favorite O&W routines is Dingle's Oil and Vinegar from The Complete Works of Derek Dingle. The Café's own Kent Gunn has a very nice video floating around here that presents the first half of this effect with Kings and Aces instead of black and red but the idea is the same.

I think it's here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-EiHtd8UxY

I like Anthony Owen's version. The version I'm doing I saw Dingle do on TV. He did it better. According to Richard Kaufman the version in the Dingle book is Ricky Jay's.

KG