Cherry Cola Queen by Liam Montier

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Cherry Cola Queen by Liam Montier

Postby bananafish » Dec 18th, '07, 14:54



Cherry Cola Queen by Liam Montier

Where From Magic Mirror

How Much: £10

What You Get:
A 48 page manuscript with 17 effects

The Pre-amble
Many of you will already know the name Liam Montier if for no other reason than he penned the wonderful Henry Sugar effect. Which incidentally – if you haven’t heard of Liam or Henry Sugar – I suggest you search now as HS is (imo) one of the must have manuscripts of magic and should be in every library.

Liam is undoubtedly one of the best magic thinkers around, by which I mean he is a very creative soul. If there was a quiz show where two magicians were confronted with a pile of junk and had to come up with a novel and innovative routine using just said junk – then I daresay that Liam would win hands down.

Cherry Cola Queen is his latest opus and is a collection of ideas and thought processes that if nothing else will inspire you to be ore creative yourself.

The Effects
Tatoo
A prediction of where a spectator’s tattoo is, followed by a divination of the design itself.

The beauty of this piece is that it is personal to the person you are performing to and so that much stronger than other similar effects.

Angels in Twilight
The Angel from the back of one half of a playing card visually melts to the other.

This effect is based around Paul Harris’s Twilight Angels effect, which I have to admit I had to dig out from the back of my magic drawer. I now wonder why I left it there in the first place. What a beautiful effect that is. Liam has added a few ideas that really do make it that much stronger which just goes to prove that whenever you buy any effect – always work on it then work on it some more.

Tap Dance
Just imagine the Hot and Cold water taps to magically transpose between your taps.

I have to confess this is not my favourite trick of the bunch as it just isn’t practical to perform to anyone apart from friends or family. I suspect they are just going to suspect you have tinkered with your faucets.

Having said that it does illustrate how Liam’s mind works and is one of those effects that does get your own creative juices flowing.

Sign of the Times
A stack of your business cards are shown to be blank. You sign one. Turn them over. Mix them up. They take one and sign it and it is seen to be the same one you had already signed.

A perfect trick for giving out business cards.

Bang for your Buck
A party popper is popped, only to be magically reloaded and restored.

A perfect impromptu xmas/new year party trick. One I will be using several times.

Where there’s smoke
A weird – but effective trick where you have two cigarettes, and the smoke from cigarette 1 rises from cigarette 2.

This is a kind of impromptu Chinese sticks type of idea, but performed with cigarettes. A shame no one seems to smoke these days. If I ever perform in Holland though, this is one idea I will take with me.

Psychic Twins
Two stickman are drawn on the back of your business cards and they are shown to have Psychic powers.

I won’t describe this effect any further but it was one of my favourite of the bunch and one I will be using regularly. It is a variation of an effect many will already know but what a great variation it is. Apart from anything else it gets two of your business cards out there and is cute. Wonderful.

Look into my eyes
You demonstrate the story about seeing the reflection of a murderer in his victims’ eyes.

Actually that sounds very spooky and this is actually a light hearted fun piece that again leaves a card in the spectators hands.

Be seated
A chair test, where you predict all the chairs the spectators sit in before they sit in.

As chair tests go, this one is up there. The fact that Colin McCleod was also involved in the thinking behind this one should be enough to convince you.

Silk Pop
You show a silk and a party popper – then have the silk turn into party popper ribbons and when the party popper is pulled it is seen to contain the silk.

Another great xmas/new years party effect.

Season’s Greetings
The spectator predicts who your card is from and what else is inside.

Another of my favourite effects from the book. The reason being it is such a novel approach to a tired idea that it would be fun and entertaining to perform. Great thinking Mr. Montier.

Also – what better time of year to perform it?

Shuffle Sandwich
A fairly standard sandwich effect. That makes it sound boring doesn’t it? Well it isn’t. Warning though. Faro’s are required…

Compact Disc Book
A CD/DVD book test if you will. Only Liam could have come up with this.

Use your head
A lose a card find a card trick – with the card on forehead theme. However this one uses two cards and has a nice twist. Funny – and very much a worker.

Snookered
Another very nice themed effect which is effectively just a prediction. I say just – but fair play (did you see what I did there?) it is the theming that makes it all the more entertaining. I love the way Liam thinks about things and comes up with some lovely ideas.

Off Colour
Yes. This is a colour changing deck effect – but it is entertaining and flows very nicely.

Coin Location
To paraphrase the manuscript - A very simple routine where a card is chosen and a line of cards dealt out across the table. You then take a coin and hold it in your left fist, and slowly pass it along the line, “feeling the vibrations”.

You eventually stop at one of the face down cards, commenting that this is the selection. The card is turned over, and confirmed to be the chosen one.

Suddenly, the coin completely vanishes from your left fist. It reappears underneath the selection.

Just imagine that. I have tried it out and it plays very well. Very well indeed.

The Post-Amble
It is always a pleasure to read Liam’s ideas. It is a bonus to come away with effects that I know I will be using.

Recommended.

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bananafish
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Postby bronz » Dec 18th, '07, 18:02

Cheers for alerting us to this Simon, it looks like a great value piece of work. From the descriptions I instantly got a Sankey vibe, what with the variety of effects and items used, how true would you say that was? Not that I mind at all by the way, good Sankey stuff is fantastic.

The artist who does not rise, descends.
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bronz
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Postby Dave Forrest » Dec 18th, '07, 18:25

Liam is a creative minefield - plain and simple. Amazing, practical ideas simply pour out of him.

I find inspiration in his work all the time and I quite selfishly would rather that no one else was privvy to his thoughts and ideas.

An unassuming, humble and exrtemely pleasant young man with a real magical brain that is constantly, effortlessly working overtime. It never fails to amuse me how everyone falls all over themselves about some 'big name' releases when actual GOLD - real TREASURE like Liam's stuff mostly flies silently under the radar. I think that will all change VERY soon...

One of my favourite creators, (can you tell?) you simply cannot go wrong.

Dave.

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Postby Montz » Dec 31st, '07, 12:46

Hi Simon, thanks for reviewing the PDF matey and well chuffed you got some ideas out of it :D

Bronz, I think it would be fair to say there's a similarity to Sankey type magic, in that I try not to limit myself to card items, and often seek to use as many non card and coin effects as possible. We come into contact with SOOOO many items day to day, and yet magician's only ever seem to twist aces... strange!

And hey Dave, thanks matey - all lies are greatly appreciated! hehe!

Happy new year peeps,

Liam.

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