Hi everyone,
I was wondering what everyone thought about the portable Asrah by Stevens Magic Emporium. I have never did busness with them so I was wondering how well it was made.

Robinson

I havn't seen the prop, but I have done lots of business with Joe Stevens over the years and he's a good guy and a straight shooter. If the "portable" asrah is one of the one man units, be warned that these are not easy to do well. I think I've only seen a couple of performs do them over the years: Al Wheatley (Chop Chop) and Goldfinger and Dove. Expect to work had and practice a lot to get the thing to look good.

I must agree with loomis. I have seen the portable Asrah many times but I have never seen it really done well. The only person who I felt did it a bit of justice is Goldfinger.

I think the reason is just in the way it has to be handled. The way your arm is and the way it makes your body positioned is not a natural looking move or posture.

Often times it looks phoney and as if the magician is working way too hard for something that is to appear effortless.

Good luck if you decide to pursue this. If you do, work very hard at it and make it look as natural as you can.

It really is a lot of hard work for a minimal applause at best. Go for the real deal and by a normal Asrah. You will be happy you did.

Patrick

Gossamer Flight is the Asrah that Goldfinger uses. It is made by Owen Magic. It is also performed by John Shryock. I have seen the Asrah from Stevens made by Julio Lipan. I personally think to one from Owen Magic is a better product. You will pay top dollar for this. I agree with the other posts. You need to practice this is a given. To many performers tend to over handle a portable Asrah thus making it look too light and fake. You don't see performes do this with a normal Asrah so why do it with a portable one. Keep the moves to a minimum. In this case 'less is more'.

Attached is a clip of John Shryock. Starts at 1.30. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_......ature=iv

Geoffrey Durham has a portable version that is completely different in it's construction from any other Asrah forms out there. It was designed as a one man operated version and to my knowledge was used only by it's inventor.

It's something that you'd have to make up yourself as I'm sure Geoffrey never had any of these made other than for his own use. It can be found in his lecture notes which I imagine are available from him directly.

There is a video of Barry and Stuart using a variation of the Geoffrey Durham asrah, but not for a levitation, just as a vanish from a woman held in one of their arms. It was on the beginning of one of their tv shows. It may be on youtube. I've always wanted to see a video of it performed as a levitation though, since I read Geoffrey's book.

You might want to give Jim Sommers a call. He's made a very inexpensive version of the Ashra that packs flat and plays big. In fact Brett Daniels uses the collapsible form made by Jim .. no joke. If it's good enough for Brett .. then you should check it out.

Give him a call he'll be happy to help you out: Jim Sommmers 847.546.5324

Tell him I sent ya ..

Steve

There is one on the Magic Auction website. About the 10th item down the list. Check it out.

http://magicauction.com/Mag_auc/ForeignIllusionsknown.htm

Steve,
Do you know the e-mail of Jim Sommmers?
Thanks
Alberto

Shryock's handling is great. Clever use of the male assistant.

That TV version is NOT the same as the Klamm/Sommers. It is Owen's Gossimer Flight, and I wrote an extensive review of it here on the Café between Thanksgiving and Christmas if you can dig it up. Two very different things that have different systems, ease of working, and performance success. Walt

Walt, thanks for your review. Do you know the price for the Owen's one?

It is not inexpensive, but a wonder of masterful and imaginative construction, and will last a lifetime.
It is beautiful, deceptive, moves smoothly, vanishes small. I *think* they are about 7.5K,
but a 100 times more impressive and workable than the european model.

Walt

Hi there,

I acquired the European Levitation from Mark Stevens and used it for a live TV broadcast in which I had to magically reveal the 5 finalists for the largest Latin Baauty Pageant in the world. Fun project - designed the illusions from scratch, besides the ending levitation. I wanted to do a "regular" Asrah, however time and setup didn't allow for that. The illusion neeeded a little bit of "tweaking" for it to work right - and some practice. That should be a given anyhow.

The illusion can be seen towards the end of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w9qxqJ3Woc

Enjoy - for obvious reasons;)

PM me if you are interested, I might consider selling it. It's only used once, and as I said - I spent quite some time optimizing it.

You certainly did put a great deal of work into the piece and the presentation!

To clarify, the is the one carried by Stevens Magic Emporium,
and not the one spoken about above, the Sommers version through Klamm Magic.

As nicely as your Asrah was prepared and presented,
it would have been far easier for you to maneuver and present with a Gossamer Flight.

Thanks for posting your link,
Walt

I'm just curious, is there a link of Goldfinger and Dove performing this? I cant seem to find this on the tubes.

No Goldfinger and Dove has not been filmed doing this.

However here is a good version, it begins at 3 min 40 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnE9imOLeyM&feature=related


Walt

The video starts at 0:00