Opticks

Jess

I'm going to write this review on this particular book but first I want to sincerely thank Josh and Andi for making the books they publish available as ebooks. I'm in my 70's and at a stage in my life where I'm liquidating my personal Magic Library because my wife warns me that I won't be taking it with me. As a result I've avoided buying any new physical books. Now I can experience the joy of new material at a very fair price. During their current Black Friday Sale, I've purchased eight ebooks to explore.
This brings me to the Opticks ebook/ videos. The ebook is presented as 26 tricks taught via video performances. Harapan has done a splendid job of presenting his card magic ideas to our community. The tricks are varied and I'm enjoying the paths he's taken. If you enjoy card magic as much as I do, you'll enjoy this offering from Harapan, too.

Ka Kuen Kirito

Great download!!Great Tricks Also!! Brilliant ??

Michael

As an intermediate card magician this was an amazing tutorial! I loved his explanations and intuitive teaching. The tricks were just delightful and I would recommend it for anyone looking to step up their magic! Vanishing Inc sells some amazing things and this is one of them!

Michael

If you crave card magic that feels contemporary and fresh, Harapan Ong brings the goods with Opticks, his follow-up to his exceptional book Principia. While some pieces here will be familiar to those who own that book already, there's also plenty of new stuff to sink your teeth into, and most of it is well within grasp for the intermediate card magician. Original plots and novel takes on well-trodden territory are plentiful here, from transpositions to sandwich effects to ace cutting sequences and beyond.

TED

Great presentation

Orlando

I really enjoy these types of routines. This something you won't get from any book. Transpositions have been around for ages. The creativity behind this and the rest of his work is superb. I love visual card word and this def is worth it.

Branden

This series from Harapan Ong is unreal! I'm so happy I purchased Opticks!!

Guy

Chi Yung

Kerry

Ed

Patrick

David

Dean

Krzysztof

Jorge

Optricks takes great material from Principia as well as new work from Harapan and presents them in full tutorials. Whereas the video portion that accompanied Principia consisted of just performances, Optricks offers complete filmed tutorials! Newtons deck is amazing and the gaff pack features some super interesting cards! 5/5 for me!!

andy

This product is an excellent addition to any magic library. The tricks are great for beginners and advanced card workers. This is a great tool for an introduction to the use of gaff cards and as advertised, it comes with everything you will need for each effect . The video download is segmented up into individual tricks, so you don't have to search for time stamps which is super convenient. It's worth every penny.

Fiona

Kobe

Gerald

This is a comprehensive 26 card trick collection from one of the best card magicians in the world! It is so much value and for some who are not good with books, seeing harapan perform and explain in videos might bring down the difficulty of learning the tricks.

Dean

Cherry

Hendrik

Josh

Harapan does it again! This "book" is such a solid contribution to card magic! Harapan's work is so practical and just makes sense. So many card tricks seem to be for other magicians and this material can really amazing laymen. Simple plots that just make sense. Great job Harapan!!

Koji

Vu

Owen

Smoothly displayed and elegantly explained. I'll have to start working on this one.

Patrick

Daniel

Walter

Very well done! Video instructions are excellent. Something for all levels from beginners to experts. Highly recommend!

James

Philip

Very little work to get a very very nice effect..Especially like the false cut angle

William

William

Jonathan

I have just purchased Opticks, and the effects and routines covered did not let me down. Opticks is great because it is for all skill levels, meaning that there is something here for beginners or more advanced learners.

Marine

Scott

Mark

David

Harold

Fascinating, concise without being overly technical. This was great!

David

Sterling

Excellent production value and clearly explained

Sarah

Jayden

Jay

Everything about this project is just amazing. Opticks is a game changer!! These tricks are fun, engaging, practical, and most of all they aren't too difficult if you have at least some practice with a deck of cards. I couldn't possibly recommend this more. And this isn't even mentioning the deck that comes with it. Such a beautiful and "magical" design. Opticks is perfect for all stages of skill levels from beginners that want somewhere to start or for the professionals looking for something new and fresh to add to their set. For me it's a no Brainerd 10 out of 10!!!!!

Adam

What a download. This guy has some snoozer dealing long process tricks, but also there’s also some real workers. Great teaching and what a fertile mind. Highly recommended.

Carl Gustaf

Jani

salvatore

Aaron

One of the best products in the past few years!

Bartosz

Nicola

Marco

Joe

Lawrence

Harapang is great. The videos are well done and easy to understand . It was a nice collection of 26 different tricks . It comes with the Newton deck and gaff cards for that deck. It also has gaffs cards for The bicycle deck both blue and red . This is a must for card magicians. There are some of the common card tricks with harapang twists and changes to them to keep them fresh.

Jeff

Chris

Beautiful presentation on a self working trick

Jeff L

I emailed Harapan to let him know how elegant “Kaleidoscope” was as the first effect in Opticks. This set of effects is worth every bit of the hype that it received on release. They are practical, creative and and fun! The sleights are useful, the extra gaffed cards are a bonus…

Norman

This product is an excellent addition to principia and with the video format makes learning some things that were difficult to understand reading more digestible.The cards are excellent and I just found out they are fully marked.Absolute must if you like good solid card magic.recommend highly

Jack

Marco

Mike

Harapan's done it once again. He's not only one of the best living card magicians, he's also one of the most inventive creators of new card magic material as well as one of the best teachers of card magic. He knows exactly how to explain every step of his routines in a clear and succinct manner without the excess glut. It's almost like he does this for a living.

Jeffrey

I love the concept of Optics with the video lessons and accompanying cards that Mr. Ong provides. I am a fan of Harapan Ong and bought Principia when it first came out. If Harapan put something out I buy it fast before it sells out. He is a truly gifted magician and teacher and I am grateful that he is associated with Vanishing Inc. The top magic company in the world.

Randy

Jeff

Lorenzo

Martin

While I generally prefer books over video, Opticks is a worthy successor to Principia. The routines from Principia and the many others included in Opticks come alive on the screen. For example, I passed over Kaleidoscope Production in the book – seeing the rhythm of the ace production on video encouraged me to take a second look at learning this very visual ace production. All the effects, at least those I have so far viewed, are thoroughly and thoughtfully taught, perhaps building on Harapan’s teaching ability. Excellent selection of card material performed and taught.

Garry

This comes with videos you can stream, or even download these. The deck comes in a nice presentation box, then on opening this is the cool looking newton triangle Deck Display case, then the Deck itself, which is shown in the add, the Deck has a nice mirrored back design, great for doing Fans and Reverse Fans, also great for doing the Farro Shuffle too, comes with a cool ace spades, plus within the Deck are 3 Gaff Cards matching the Deck and its back design, Also comes with a separate pack off 16 Bicycle Gaff cards too, Great video productions, nice clean back drop on the tutorials, they all start with a demo, followed by the tutorial, Harapan is an excellent teacher, you get 26 seperate video tutorial routines, Harapan goes over the tutorial routines a couple or so times on each one, breaking them down, I needed to do a rewind on a couple, The Bicycle Gaff Cards, say The Four Jokers turn Into The Four Aces Routine, and a couple like this, you could have these set up as Pocket Tricks ready to go. Not all 26 routines use the gaff cards. Been good if this came with a PDF with images off all the deck set ups for the ones using the gaff cards.
Opticks by Harapan, This is a steal off a deal for what you receive in the package.
Plus Harapan is one of my top three favorite teachers and also produce excellent video productions and amazing card magic, along with,
Paul Gordon, and
Bill Goodwin,
You can't any better than these three guys.

Kyle

Andy

I watched the videos they are fantastic. Harapan is a great teacher, as you would expect. :-)
I am looking forward to receiving the accompanying physical products.
The routines are varied with some very interesting plots plus a mixture of differing levels of skill, so something for most magi here.
Highly recommended

Danny

Phillip

Nice performance and explanation of the kaleidoscope ace production. This video is a perfect companion to the Principia book description. The not so obvious false cut aspect is a definite plus. I had planned to open my magic fellowship performance with Kaleidoscope but had a stack effect also. So I didn't perform Kaleidoscope at the fellowship... if only I had known!

All of the videos I have watched so far are excellent. Eager to dive in and master these.

I didn't read the product description closely. I thought Opticks was also a book. But I am very pleased with the videos, and since we get the physical gaffs and the custom deck that is a nice plus.

Very pleased.

Alex

VERY GOOD LOVED THE PRESSNTASON

Daniel

TL;DR - I'm rating this only 4*s for mere nits. Overall this is a really good book-that's-not-a-book.

At first I was rather miffed at the price: $50 for a deck of cards in a box in a box in another box, plus a few standard gaffed cards?!? Oh, and the gaffs don't match the included deck? Ridiculous!
Then I watched the first half-dozen or so vids and I've changed my mind.
Several if not all of these could have been sold separately as single-trick in the $5-$10 range. Thus, if only a few of them are worthwhile, it's actually good value for dollar. Well, the good news is there are several effects that I consider worthwhile, and I suspect I won't be alone thinking this. I've already gotten a couple of tricks that I'll likely use. E.g.
- "Perspective" is a nice non-pick-a-card trick with a lot of opportunity for humorous byplay with the spectator. Nothing earth shattering, but a decent enough trick to warrant the 8-card setup.
- The Dunbury Delusion handling here is again, rather satisfying, and tho it has a 10-card setup, it can be done essentially under the spectator's nose provided you have a half-decent cull.

And remember, I haven't watched the remaining 20 or so vids, so the prospect of finding more cool stuff is essentially assured.

My only (minor) complaints? The packaging is pretty but also pretty ridiculous. But it's also right in line with current trends toward sticking a deck of cards in a box that an iPhone would be happy to occupy plus a URL for a video that could just as well been a 16pp pamphlet.
And I suspect I'll find few if any FASDIU tricks, which are my preference.

Final observation: judging from the vids, Harapan knows several attractive young ladies. Is it him or the tricks?

Make a mark if you've read this far. ;-)

Michael

I'm loving this course so far! There are a few flourishes and sleights I probably won't use but I know how to work around them and the end results are really great. Thank you for this awesome course!

Seung

Most people thought this was a follow up book to Principia. But this is a greatly shot video project fearturing Harapan's unique card magic. The video contains live performances and instructions. A lot are incredibly clever and some are incredibly visual. However, almost all of the routines require setup or gimmicks (provided; but also easily repleaceable). Due to this, I can see myself only performing one or two routines from this project to spectators or including only one into my set. But I also don't see why the giant packaging for a deck of cards and several gaffed cards were needed (the VI orders don't come with a password, instead the instructions are automatically in your account). There are no knuckle busting moves and most intermediate card workers can perform the routines and there is something for everyone. There are a lot of good spins on classics. But just know beforehand that most won't be FASDIU. I see this project like adding spices to an existing set, add one or two that fits you. I would opt for Harapan's books first before this project ex. Principia to understand his thinking and approach to magic first.

Jonathan

I enjoy Harapan Ong’s tricks, but I do not like his patter. I find it to be annoying and it takes away from the effect. In my opinion (and only in my opinion I suppose), he could reduce the patter and have an even better effect. For example, and maybe it’s different for laypeople, no one is going to believe that a deck of cards have magical powers or can think on their own, and such. Audiences are smarter than that. His patter, and a combination of his acting, is rather annoying for me. However, as I mentioned, I do enjoy the tricks. They are different than many tricks I’ve seen. This is only my opinion, maybe it works with you.

Adam

I'm a big fan of Harapan's work. Principia was my favorite magic book of 2019 (released late 2018). I followed Harapan and purchased Spellcheck and The Four Treasures when they were released. So I was super excited for Optricks when it was announced. It is billed as the sequel to Principia, sadly it is not. The project is a collection of effects from Principia and other published work, with a few new effects. The packaging is top notch, the deck of cards and holder that come with the purchase are very cool. The gaffs are nothing special that any magician should not already own (or have from Principia release).
If this is your first purchase of Harapan's work I would recommend it, but only if you don't like magic books, otherwise purchase Principia and get far more then is included here.