talkmagic.co.uk

They say:
In November of 2006, Homer Liwag released a DVD that would forever change the standard of magic videos. CoinONE set the bar, pushed the envelope and earned critical praise. MAGIC Magazine called it "magical... a work of art." Today, we raise the bar with Homer's third release, The Rice Papers. Homer presents three of his favorite original creations on one DVD. Complete with clear performances, concise face to face teaching, and carefully directed camera work for an unparalleled learning experience. Real world magic straight from one of the most creative minds in modern close-up magic.


A giant contact lens materializes at your fingertips - followed by a pair of eye glasses from nowhere.
A selected playing card slowly appears on a blank card.
A marker is extracted from its own cap, a ball bearing drops from the tip, and the marker transforms into your cell phone!


Every prop needed to perform these tricks can be easily made or found.


Cost: £17.99 at http://www.dudethatscoolmagic.co.uk/acatalog/Rice_Papers_by_Homer_Liwag.html



Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Difficult one to say this...it's a 3 or 5, weirdly. Some sleights are used but they are NOT particularly difficult sleights, or at least, sleights that somebody who has been in magic a few years wouldn't already know or be able to pull off. The real issue is that the routines use a lot of misdirection and audience management.
You'll really have to know your way around an audience as without misdirection and impeccable timing, you'll get caught red handed.



Review:
If you have ever seen Homer Liwag work, you know that he is an absolute genius. CoinONE and CoinTWO were incredible both from effect and teaching point of views. If you haven't, check youtube for some trailers and clips of his magic and you'll be suitably impressed.
The DVD contains three routines. Body Contact, Fogged and Marksmanship.

Body Contact: The performer approaches a table and as he begins his opening effect stops in discomfort. His contact lens is playing up and he tried to remove it. Once doing so, he itches his eye and upon looking back at the contact lens left on his hand, it is a gigantic comedy lens. He shows that luckily it is an incredibly soft and flexible lens and with a click, it becomes rock solid..plastic or glass, depending on your prop.
He puts the lens away and absolutely out of nowhere, produces his glasses at his finger tips.

Opinions: This is really very clever. It works very well as an opener and for somebody who doesn't perform regularly, could be an excellent bit of magic when in the pub or hanging out with friends as with a little bit of acting, it really does sound like you're just adjusting your contact lenses. Homer also goes over a number of different ways to play out the effect if you don't wear glasses using various gags etc.
Method wise, it's pretty simple. There aren't many moves...a p**m and a production that is barely a move, just excellent timing. The routine is not easy however. To produce the lens on your palm is essentially very easy but everybody will spot it unless you master the carefully orchestrated misdirection and timing. It is worth it though as the pay off is great. Homer goes over a number of variations on the contact lens plot as it has been used by many magicians but almost always as a direct production. Homer's method is a lot more subtle and has a Tommy Wonder feel about it, as the lens appears right under your nose.

Finally, Homer gives an absolutely excellent way to obtain a giant contact lens, or at least, something that appears exactly like one. It would only cost £5 or so, which means no need to buy an overpriced gimmicky product.

Fogged: A card is selected by a spectator and shown to everybody, including the performer, who openly places it on the face of the deck. He brings the cards up to his mouth and breathes heavily onto the card, effectively "fogging" it up...then displaying a blank card in place of the selection. The performer then rubs the top quarter of the card and the selection becomes ever so slightly visible. He takes the single card in his hands, rubs again and now half the card is visible...another rub, and three quarters are showing and finally, the whole card is back.

Opinion: This is a very clever routine. It is technically the most difficult as it requires multiple colour changes and is pretty angley. If you like the concept of the routine, this is the best you're going to get. However, it probably won't persuade you to learn it if not.
For me, a key part of this routine is that after the first change, you take the mostly fogged card off of the deck and whole it at your finger tips, without a deck. It is clearly a single card and you handle it that way. It then changes twice more which is extremely visual. The price to pay is the sleights required are quite difficult. Again, nothing an experienced magician or card handler couldn't manage, but certainly not for the beginner. Because some of the changes are commonplace, they aren't taught in extreme detail, but definitely enough to learn from.

Finally, the cards.Naturally they are custom which put me off. However, you don't have to buy anything! He teaches you how to create a blank card from your regular deck and then the subsequent fogged cards in the various stages.

Marksmanship: The performer displays a mini sharpie, he visibly pulls the body out of the cap, which is a full sized sharpie. The spectator signs a playing card/coin/whatever and returns the sharpie. The performer jams the whole pen into the tiny lid and then pulls it out again and says "It's weird, this pen has been playing up. I think it's because it's a ballpoint pen.." He removes the cap and dumps out a huge ball bearing from the cap. As the spectator reacts, the performer is holding the pen between his two hands...he slowly rotates the pen and it becomes his iPhone. Absolute incredible.

Opinions: Forgetting everything but pure effect, this is absolutely brilliant. It's essentially just a little extra magic whilst waiting for a card to be signed but so so much happens. Pens grow and shrink, a ball bearing is produced and then the pen visibly changes into your phone, or any other object.
The actual sleights involved are all pretty easy. You'll need to wear a jacket but other than that, it really is versatile. Pretty much everything is customizable. All the loads can be tailored to anything you want...you can produce anything from the cap, although a steel ball bearing or any kind of ball works with the ballpoint pen gag and the final transformation need not be an iPhone, but it really, really works well. If you can find a clip of the routine, the final production will completely fool you.
As with the first routine, the sleights themselves are quite ordinary to most magicians but it's the timing, misdirection and loading sequences that will take a lot of work. Anybody who hands out a sharpie for a card to be signed really should get this. So much magic happens with compromising the original effect.


Overall: I love the way Homer performs, he is a brilliant thinker and his sleights are flawless. Out of the three routines explained on the DVD, two are absolute phenomenal; Body Contact and Marksmanship. I genuinely believe that a large percentage of magicians would immediately put one of these two, if not both, in their set. They really are that good and often complement other material without overshadowing or distracting from the other routines.
The card routine Fogged is excellent, if the effect interests you. However for me, it's just not something I would perform.

The teaching is absolutely first class. Everything you need to know about the routines is explained in detail and has clearly been worked. The DVD production quality is second to none. All the menu screens are very creatively explained and easy to navigate and the performance and explanation footage is shot in a well lit studio from multiple angles.

Rating: 9/10 from me. Every routine is excellent in it's own right, two being very versatile and the third, still excellent, but for a smaller market.

I pretty much have to agree with the above. Got it on a whim as it was on offer, and it's just fantastic, even to my feeble abilities.
I've been trying to perfect Marksmanship except the last part, and it's brilliant.
Fogged is great if you are fine with making your own gaffs, but it's still a pretty nice effect.
I haven't tried doing Body Contact as of yet, but again it looks great and needs grande cojones to work, which I lack.

For those of you too lazy, here's the trailer, via the YouTubes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC7quC6YdSc