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“Sankey Unleashed” by Jon Racherbaumer
£24.99 from www.magicbox.uk.com
Difficulty 1-5 - lots of effects at all levels.

This is the latest book from (well about anyway) Sankey. It’s written by Jon Racherbaumer and published by Squash Publishing.

It’s beautifully produced with thick glossy paper, a deep red hardback with gold lettering covered with a smooth, matt flysheet. Text is well laid out. Illustrations are clear and well done. It looks and feels like a quality product. When one is spending c.£25 on a single book I think it should be of this quality.

Unleashed is a book-of-tricks book. It’s not a teaching manual and it doesn’t dwell on Sankey’s magical philosophy or greater thinking. What you get is over 80 effects covering cards, coins, rings, fruit, eggs, balls, notes and other sundy items. He also teaches sleights including his Witchita Slip (a nice, natural force of a card) and also the sleights that are required for an effect. He’s not about to teach you a DL but he will cover sleights that are specific to a trick including passes, shuffles and quite a few very useful moves.

I’ve not had it long so I can’t comment on all the effects. I’ve read all of them but only tried a few. They are generally of a high quality and almost all “doable”. Not too many pipedreams or unfinished ideas. Highlights include “Back in Time” - a sort of in the hands Triumph effect with a strong presentational hook that plays well, and “Leaving Hom”e – a door key on a loop of string is magically pulled off and then thrown back on (this is demoed on the web as a separate effect if you are interested). I like “Hot Tomato” – quite a silly effect where you take out a folded-up packet of tomato seeds, tear it open and put a drop of water in and immediately pour out 2 tomatoes!. “Unscrewed” (along with two other similar effects) shows some nice thinking on the bill-switch theme – you borrow a note and twist it until it appears to unscrew (or “rip” into two pieces) which you then “screw” back together. There are so many effects I can’t do justice to it really.

Here is a list of the contents which includes the effects and the sleights:

Back in Time
Slop Shuffle (Sid Lorraine)
Fragile Harbor
The Erdnase Change (S.W. Erdnase)
Leaving Home
The Striking Vanish (David Williamson)
Big Time
Slick Splits
Push Button
Versa-Pitch
Coin Roll Hang Ping Chien
Pop Outs (David Roth)
Hot Tomato
Wichita Slip
Wham Bam!
Vernon Strip-Out Switch
Unscrewed
Divine
Forbidden Fruit
Extended Credit
Jaw-Dropper
Hunter’s Distant Misdirection Palm (Rudy Hunter)
One-Hand Top Palm
Going Down
Card To Card Case (Ed Marlo)
Inside Trading
Yo-Yo Mon
Short Fuse
Just Joking
The Riffle Pass
The Biddle Steal
Two-As-Three Count
The Revolution Count
The Bluff Tent Vanish
Seven
Bon Bon
Palm-Down Retention Vanish
Pocket Drop Vanish
Electric Candy
Holistic Medecine
The Bobo Switch (J.B. Bobo)
Palm Change
Spellbound Change Variant
Topper Tack
Annemann/Christ Alignment Move
Group Hypnosis
A Stronger Magnet
Monte Move
The Paint Brush Change
Vernon Depth Illusion
Broken English
Family Tree
Mightier Than The Sword
The “Snapper” Move
Through and Through
Crocodile Tear
Personal Check
Cornered
Geometrick
Genuine Counterfeit
Voodoo
Mercury Card Fold
Swiddle Kings
The Swiddle Move
A Clear Impossibility
Hofsinzer Wild-Card Move
Through-The-Fist Flourish (Dai Vernon)
Power Lunch
Healed
XXX-Rated
Sleeves-Up Bluff Pass
Amateur Versus Professional
Reverse Double Undercut (Jennings/Elias)
Sugar Rush
Strange Journey
Hard To Swallow
Touch of Evil
Turnover Pass
World’s Smallest Magic Wand
Shuttle Pass
Fire Down Below
Firefly
Lightning Bolt
Vernon Depth Illusion
Once in a Lifetime
What’s In A Name?
Prime Time Bend
Silver Lining
Spinach
Twister
Between The Sheets
Merger
Drew As I Drew
Paging Ben Franklin
Ghost
Creamed
Secret Passages
Hot Knife
Shanghai Change
Homing Band
Sure-Shot Vanish
Special Delivery
Greed
A Delicate Balance
20th Century Fox
Nightcap
House Bound
The Blues
Box ‘N Ring
Stretching It
The Hustler
Glass in Steel
U.F.O
Black Stack
Bouncing Baby
Paper Cloud

So any downside? – Well that depends on how much Sankey stuff you own already. A LOT of the effects are to be found elsewhere on Sankey tapes and in lecture notes etc. There is a lot of stuff from “The Vest Best of…” range and his Amazing Tricks booklet. You can easily check before you buy. If you don’t have the effects then it surely represents excellent value. You are bound to find things you like and the book teaches them more than adequately. For me it was a good buy.

I splashed out some extra cash and bought the limited edition edition (100 copies) - these are leather bound and contain 1 of the original hand drawn illustrations from the book signed by the author and artist. The book is a great reference for Sankey fans. As Neil says there is alot of repetition if you already own alot of Sankeys DVD's / effects but I still feel this was money well spent.

It sounds like an excellent book, especially the leather bound special edition. I'm not even going to ask how much you paid for that!

Great review. Thanks.

Also reviewed here

Neil wrote:“The Vest Best of…”

"This is, without doubt, the strongest vest I have ever released..."

Sexton Blake wrote:

Neil wrote:“The Vest Best of…”

"This is, without doubt, the strongest vest I have ever released..."

this looks alright, haven't got any previous sankey stuff so I may have to put this on my wish list

You mean you're going to invest in this book ?

Mandrake wrote:You mean you're going to invest in this book ?

"Groan of the Year" award goes to Mandrake.

beeno wrote:

Mandrake wrote:You mean you're going to invest in this book ?

"Groan of the Year" award goes to Mandrake.

doesnt it always?

We must remember, he was born before humour was invented!!

I.D wrote:We must remember, he was born before humour was invented!!

That's so true, in my day it was all good ol' fashioned pounds, shilings and pence humour with sixteen giggles to the chuckle, fourteen chuckles to the laugh and if you were really lucky or saved up for it, one hundred and twelve laughs to the guffaw. Far better than all this new fangled metric stuff !

Mandrake wrote:one hundred and twelve laughs to the guffaw.

If I said whats a Guffaw? You would say "Faw Guffing with" wouldn't you?

I would indeed and I'd then go on to ask 'What's a Grecian Urn?' !

(seige detects many younger TM users sitting in front of their computers, hearing the wind whistling and seeing balls of tumbleweed passing by...)

Remember the famous hardware shop sketch by the 2 Ronnies?

'Four candles?'
'Alf inch washers?'

It finally ends with a frustrated argument and a reference to 'Bill Hooks'.

4 hours later and Im still none the wiser!! I do remember the ronnies.. although a man of my age.. neither young nor old.. prime of my life I reckon.. found no humour in any of them or the pre-80's comedy era.

However, I still find rising damp one of best comedies of that time..

Oh Miss Jones!!

come on I.D, even I remember the four candles sketch

just cos us young uns are lacking a few years doesn't mean we don't have taste in comedy. I don't like a lot of pre-young ones stuff, but the two ronnies are good, morcambe and wise are even better