"Inside the Head of Donny Orbit" ebook by David Forrest
Suggested Retail GBP£9.99
Available from Full 52 Productions
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

"Inside the Head of Donny Orbit", an ebook by magical mastermind David Forrest, is a collection of six pieces that are wonderfully different, delightfully commercial, and twisted enough to earn a place in many a close-up performers act.

I think the term that I'm looking for is "off-beat". Orbit is that and thankfully so. The plots are straight out of the "Twilight Zone", complete with that surrealistic feel a lot of us love.

In "Inside the Head of Donny Orbit", we're treated to six of his close-up routines. Let's look at each of them as we go.

First up is "Superman". A drawing of a lump of coal is made in a small notebook where it changes to a drawing of a diamond. The drawing, in turn, then changes to a real diamond. Now, I have to tell you, this wasn't my favorite routine in the book, but it's the one I play with the most. Orbit's mechanics here are priceless and the routine, despite my own hesitancies, plays very well. This one'll make it into my working arsenal before too long.

"Future Burn" is Orbit's take on the "Blister" effect. To me, this is a perfect representation of Orbit's thinking. In this one, a drawing is made of a hand and the spectator chooses any one of the fingers. The performer opens an envelope, sealed with wax, and reveals he correctly predicted the chosen finger. Then things go a bit further: the performer, explaining his burnt his finger sealing the prediction, shows a real blister his own finger. Weird, surely it always is, but with the added prediction and a logical rationale for the blister (without going all voodoo on anyone), this is a damn fine version of the classic.

"Souped Can" is next. In this card piece, two selected cards are lost in deck and then found through two random numbers given by spectators. The cards are lost again and this time the spectators deal the cards, stopping when they want, and locating their own cards. While the first part of this seemed contrived to me, this ends up being a powerful effect; it's just plain strong. And oh-so-simple.

"Just In Case", another card piece, follows and it's a good one. Three cards are chosen and returned to the deck. A card appears under the card case, but it's not any of the chosen cards. Another card appears under the case and this time it is the selection. That wrong card? It's changed to another of the selections. For the most surprising of climaxes, the entire deck suddenly appears under the card case, except for the selected card the performer is holding. Again, a powerful routine with great surprises built into it.

"Foiled" is a coin routine and what a coin routine. The performer makes an impression of a coin with a piece of tin foil. From the foil, the performer makes a second coin appear. The performer, stating that this second coin is fake, then wads the coin up into a foil ball. For those that do Paul Harris' coin-and-foil routine, "Shape of Astonishment", this is a great follow-up or substitute. Consider this one worth the price of the book just for the jaw-dropping it garners.

"Cherry Thing" is the final piece in the book and it's a delight. The stem is pulled off a cherry, popped into the mouth, and becomes knotted. Okay, so that's an old one. But then the knotted stem is magically restored back on the cherry. That is what is called "unexpected" and it makes for solid magic.

Well, that should give you an idea of what you're getting here and I have to say it's all stellar stuff. The themes are refreshing, the methods simple, and the level of creativity through the roof. There is no filler here, nothing not worth a look, and certainly enough to make it into many an act (I speak from experience here; I'm not going to tell you how much of this little ebook I ended up doing just in the last week).

It's funny, but the first thing I thought when I read this is exactly what Forrest says in the intro: this is material that would fit perfectly in the legendary "Art of Astonishment" books. All of Orbit's work here smacks of Paul Harris' strange look at magical effects combined with an eye toward simplicity.

I'll put it plainly lest you miss out on something you'll kick yourself for later: "Inside the Head of Donny Orbit" is a mini-masterpiece and I want more from him and so will you.

"Inside the Head of Donny Orbit" ebook by Donny Orbit
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

Material: 10
Orbit's material is something else. As odd as it is commercial, as strange as it is entertaining, there's not one weak link is this chain of magical weirdness. Throw in Orbit's eclectic mixture of props (cards are here, sure, but so are notepads, cherry stems, and tin foil) and you've got an ebook worth every penny to the close-up worker.

Quality: 10
Forrest does a wonderful job of explaining his material; you'll have no problems picking up any of it.

Illustrations: 10
Full color photos are all over the place, really helping explain the workings of things.

Presentation: 10
Logic abounds in Orbit's routines, even if it twisted by the magic. The presentations, concentrating on reason and visuals and an almost striking uniqueness, are wonderfully done.


Shane