Constructing Magic

Video download by Luke Jermay
Price: £24.00£28.80inc VAT
16 reviews
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Constructing Magic
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Nearly four hours of Luke Jermay reconstructing classics of magic into stunning, visual, and amazing gems you’ll want to perform every chance you get.

Luke Jermay is one of the most respected mentalists and magical thinkers in the world. His groundbreaking creations have revolutionized the art of mentalism. Following the passing of his dear friend and mentor, Max Maven, though, Luke decided he wanted to take a short break from mentalism so he could dive deeper into his other biggest passion: card magic.

As a lifelong student of magic, Luke was eager to see how his signature creative approach could be used to drastically enhance the classics of card magic. The result was some of the most amazing magic we’ve ever seen.

For “Constructing Magic”, Luke fully immersed himself in four of the most popular plots in magic. He dove into every resource he could find. Every book. Every video. Every obscure small-run pamphlet. He tested, modified, combined, and rejected methods until he landed on the strongest version of each effect.

Perfectly Constructed & Deeply Fooling

In total, you’re going to learn four stunning tricks in “Constructing Magic”:

  • The Homing Card
  • Cannibal Cards
  • Cassandra
  • Open Traveler

You may have seen these routines before, but never like this. Luke meticulously peeled back each one to its core, and then reconstructed them with the previous flaws and discrepancies removed. By substituting complex sleight of hand with clever thinking and innovative gimmicks, he’s not only streamlined the handlings, but made each effect more deceptive than ever—even for magicians who are familiar with the plots.

Luke also offers a deep analysis of what makes each one special. This exclusive look into the mind of one of our generation’s greatest scholars equips you with the insights needed to get huge reactions and make a lasting impact with not just these routines, but your magic as a whole. Instead of just constructing magic, you’ll be constructing miracles.

Complete Gaff-Making Masterclass Included

Don’t let the fact that gaffs are required prevent you from learning these world-class routines. “Constructing Magic” also comes with the most in-depth gaff building workshop we've ever seen. Even if you’ve never made a gaff in your life, you’ll be able to follow along as Luke spends more than an hour walking you through every single detail needed to make the most popular gaffs in card magic.

These versatile gaff-making techniques can be applied to any deck of cards. That means, if you come across a trick requiring a gaff, you can use your favorite cards instead of being restricted to Bicycles.

You’re just one click away from learning four showstopping effects, as well as the secrets to providing every audience with an unforgettable experience. You'll also walk away with gaff-building skills that will benefit you for the rest of your magic journey. So, what are you waiting for? Download “Constructing Magic” by Luke Jermay today, exclusively at Vanishing Inc.!

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Customer reviews for Constructing Magic

Frank
Very nice video series on card magic with Luke Jermay. Although best known for his outstanding mentalism routines, here he delves into classic card magic. His thorough explanations and love for these effects is infectious. These are all great routines and the versions presented here are quite entertaining and able to be performed by those with modest sleight of hand abilities. This series is highly recommended for lovers of card magic or Luke Jermay.
Benedikt
A bit of fun. But make sure to stay for the end, the conversation between Andi and Luke about this as Luke calls it "palate cleanser", contained many useful points that are applicable far beyond the realms of this card trick.
Sean
The tricks themselves are highly gaffed. Don't expect to perform any of these from a shuffled deck in use. That said, the gaffes make the methods easier and in the case of Cassandra, make them so that us mere mortals can perform a great trick. Lastly, the chapter on constructing the gaffes is fantastic. I'm tempted to say it's worth the price of admission alone. Due to the highly gaffed nature of the effects, I'd perhaps subtract a star, but the construction chapter makes up for it.
Cesar
Luke Jermay is hands down the greatest magician of all time!
Todd
As someone already pointed out, the chapter on making the gimmicks is worth the price by itself. I had never split a card before and was always intimidated by it. But by following along CAREFULLY, I was able to split my first cards and now, just a few days into the process, I am able to easily split cards with no corner damage thanks to a little trick Luke shared., I'm also now able to make high quality double facers, double backers and Hofinszer transparency cards.

As for the tricks, you can watch those and decide for yourself. Here's my take:
- Cannibal Cards: Personally, I bought this download specifically for Cannibal Cards, having seen him perform it live. Now that I know what is involved in making that deck, I am confident that only a few die-hards will actually make it. But it is worth the effort. Cannibal cards obviously requires a deck switch to bring the deck in. However, if is the first or the only card trick you are doing, the ending is a nice resolution as an excuse to open up a fresh deck since the Kings literally eat the other cards and the deck is visibly useless for any other tricks anyway.
- The Cassandra effect is the one effect on the download that does not require any gaffed cards AND you can do that trick with a deck in play. I think this is a great effect and while it does require creation of a gimmick, it is very easy (no card splitting)
- Open Travelers is good, but I didn't feel the gimmick improved the trick enough that I would go through the effort to build it, ring it in and ring it out. I recently attended a lecture by John Luka, and if you have the pleasure to learn his version, do it.
- Homing Card - I didn't like this effect and there are lots of other tricks of this level you can do that don't require a gaff. Luke doesn't claim it is a great effect, and he just uses it as an interlude. But this one was just not for me.

The other big value of this is now that I know how to make these gimmicks, I have some ideas that I can easily execute on for changing or improving other tricks I am doing.

If you ever wanted a specific double facer, or a special double backer with the backs of two different decks (where you can't have an extra thick card), or a half and half card, at $29.95 (aka Thirty dollars), this is worth it. Note however that it will cost you $60-$100 to get the equipment and material you need to properly make the cards. So don't do this if you aren't ready to make that investment because you really do need to do that if you want to make your own high quality gaffs.

Bottom line, the instructions on creating gaffs is great and I got two great tricks out of it that I will do. That is pretty hard to beat.

Great job Luke!
Gary
I picked this up to explore Homing Card. I was not familiar with anything by Jermay. I have not got around to starting on the Homing Card because I have been side-tracked by his brilliant handling of several other pieces in this project. I do mean brilliant! These pieces are very well thought out for performing for real people. I did not expect to learn from the construction part but I was wrong. The tecnique did not involve rubber cement and I like the finished product much better than what I have made in the past. I would love to downgrade my review for the construction not going in as much detail as I would have liked but I can't because I am so impressed by the rest.
Dave
My primary motivation was to learn how to construct custom gaffs using modern materials. His instruction was amazing. The last time I learned about the process was in the 1990's when Don England lectured at Abbott's Magic. Because technology has changed, so has the quality of the result. Luke Jermay's goes into appropriate depth about the materials and the fine details about assembly so that the outcome will be successful. This element alone was worth the price of the download.
Larry
If you are looking for info on how to build gaffs, this is a great source. If you already build gaffed cards, I'm still willing to bet that you'll pick up a tip or two from him. I did.

I basically purchased this for the Cannibal Cards, but unfortunately, his performing environment and mine don't match, so I can't do his. But it doesn't matter. Mr. Jermay exposes you to so many great ideas and principles of scripting and routining, that it's still a great video.

Highly recommend.
Aaron
The last hour is worth the price of the whole. Not only does he go over best practices in gimmick creation he points you to the places where he learned for those who need an even deeper dive into the topic. The thing that makes me happy is how simple the principle of the xray card creation is... and how he points to making things personal to you and your audience with this construct. I already have a fantastic piece for an upcoming gig thanks to this beautiful process.
Jesus
Great buy and great instruction and insight from a great magician. He as broken down and taught some great magic for everyone to preform. I will definitely be adding these nice extras into my show. Very thought provoking on how and what the audience prefer when they see magic.
Edward
I happen to have read this trick in Hollingworth's book years ago. My notes show that I liked the premise but didn't think the method is one that I could perform. This video has a much easier method.
However, there are a c couple of points that almost made me give it two stars. First, the description of how to make the gaffed envelope was atrocious. He used very general terms of what to cut. For instance he'd say "cut this" or "cut here" while he was in a shot so wide, we had no idea of what "this" or "here" meant. Fortunately for me, when he showed how the gaff worked, my familiarity with another type of envelope switch gave me a good idea of what I'll have to do to get this to work. (I hope I'm not wrong.) Anyway, the tearing of the envelope needed an over-the-shoulder close up shot. Or, even better, we might have been provided with an illustrated PDF of how to make the envelope.
Secondly, the torn corner bit might not fly with the group of people I normally perform for. If you want to give a spectator a quarter of a card to keep as a "receipt," you can't let the spectator t tear the card into teeny little pieces. Either the magician must tear the card or the spectator must be carefully guided in the tearing. This problem was briefly mentioned--and glossed over.
Anyhow, I plan to do this trick if I can make the envelope. If I can't, I'll see if I can magically make a couple of stars go away.
James
Luke Jermay always comes up with excellent ideas and these tricks and gimmicks are brilliant. The tricks and gimmick setup are well explained and there is lots to learn here. I haven’t done much gimmick creating but the splitting cards tutorial is very helpful. Luke is a great mentalist but it is good to see him doing some card magic too.
Jack
This is a brilliant and practical update to a favourite Guy Hollingworth routine, and one which I will actually be able to make work in my typical performance environments. Purists might find a few more moving parts than they'd like, but the end result is so absolutely fair.
Richard
Luke’s ideas for how to create your own gimmicks to perform these classic pieces of magic are so inspiring! Now to take his thinking and apply it to other pieces!
Ed
Wow. What an excellent group of effects. Cleaver in construction and presentation. Truly stimulating to the imagination. It left me wondering how I could transform some of my tricks by taking a nonconventional approach. Well done. Great filming. Clear instructions.
William
The section on making your own special cards is worth the cost of this download. The tricks are also of course excellent - real foolers and very well worked out. Luke takes the time to fully explain the construction and the routines.

Community questions about Constructing Magic

Have a question about this product? It's possible others do too. Ask here and other Vanishing Inc. Magic customers will be able to respond with assistance! Alternatively, email us and we can help too.

  • Yann asks: Is there any list or recommendation of products brands to make the gimmicks available in the UK? Science Friction is currently not available so need to wait the next magic convention where card shark will be.. There is a lot of dry mount tissue but a bit at a loss of which one to buy, some of them are expensive.. Can't find anything at hobbycraft..

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Please email us at [email protected] and we can discuss this with you

  • David asks: Is the “Construction Magic” master class tutorial able to be downloaded?

    • 1. Jim responds:Yes.
    Post an answer to this question

  • Philip asks: What items are required for making the gaffs?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Rubber cement, glue stick, scissors, cutting mat, cutting knife for most of the gaffs. Then Luke shows you more advanced techniques that use Dry Mount Tissue.

  • Alexander asks: Not sure but it looks like this is about card magic only. Why is it called constructing magic?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Luke has replaced the difficult sleights in these routines with gimmicks. He not only teaches the tricks, he teaches you how to "construct" the gimmicks too. Hence the name.

  • Erik asks: Does “Cassandra” refer to Guy Hollingworth’s “Cassandra Quandary” from Drawing Room Deceptions?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Yes, it's Luke's take on Guy's trick. Full performance available on the page!

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