Meir’s Muses
MyMagic eNewsletter #1,356
November 29, 2025
It is no surprise that I like magical puzzles and impossible objects. I have written about them and offered them for sale many times throughout the years.
I just received a beautiful book about the subject full of color photos and excellent historical research. It even discusses Kirigami which I mentioned in the last newsletter.
There is also a big section about my friend Harry Eng who is considered the Godfather of Impossible Bottles (might also be an early adapter of Kirigami with playing cards). Harry was part of the magic community, and you probably didn’t know that Paul Harris dedicated his SuperMagic book to him.
I got to know Harry through the g4g conferences and his friend Mark Setteducati. Harry used to visit and stay with Mark a few times a year and we would hang out. I once asked him what he does when he is in New York and he said that he has a rich customer who buys many of his bottles and gives them out as gifts. May years later I found out that the guy he was visiting was my friend Harvey Leeds who was an executive at Epic Records and Sony Music.
Over the years I bugged Harry to make me a gambling themed bottle and mentioned what I wanted inside. It took him more than three years to figure out how to get everything inside. But he confessed that he had to cheat on one of the items!
Below you will find the new book, the Infinity Link plus a few other related items that I like.
►Impossibilia:
“Why do certain objects have an extraordinary ability to fascinate us and spark wonder, while others do not?”
This coffee-table book studies the genesis, history, development, and modern-day mania surrounding objects that interrupt the logical mind and confound the senses. These impossible objects he has dubbed impossiblia.
Readers will journey through the lands and minds of great artists, puzzle makers, ship-in-bottle builders, optical illusion designers, craftsmen, magicians, and creative problem solvers.
Watch and buy: HERE
►Infinity Link:
The Infinity Link Card is a topological, impossible object made from a Bicycle playing card. Once the impossible object is made you can then borrow a finger ring and link it to the card, turning it into a puzzle.
Most of the time the spectator will have to rip the card to remove the ring. But you are better off unlinking the ring and giving the impossible card as a souvenir.
All previously taught impossible playing cards that use Kirigami (Origami folds that use cuts to the paper) were difficult to make because you must use scissors and knives to make them, which was time consuming and inaccurate.
This is a major innovation in this process since each card was micro-perforated, which allows you to make it quickly and in front of your friends.
Watch and buy: HERE
►Puzzling Chocolate:
An impossible puzzle that gives the impression of magic. You show a bar of Mini Chocolates with 70 pieces of chocolate. You remove one piece leaving 69.
You then rearrange the pieces so it looks like you still have 70 pieces left — an impossibility.
But that is not all. You repeat the sequence two more times so a total of three pieces are removed and left in plain sight yet the chocolate bar is still complete with 70 countable pieces!
Watch and buy: HERE
►Sakkaku Scale Puzzle:
As you talk about optical illusions you show three plastic strips. Two of the strips have cats printed on them and one has a ruler. Using the ruler you show that all are the same size.
Then the cats appear to get shorter and longer and each time you use the ruler to show that they apparently did change in size. This looks so impossible that you will fool yourself every time you demonstrate it.
Watch and buy: HERE
►LATEST MY MAGIC RELEASE:
►Printing On Demand:
This is one of David Solomon’s favorite packet tricks. It full of visual transformations and multiple climaxes.
Themed around how everything is now being printed on demand… even playing cards. You place a blank Bicycle card to one side.
You then show four Jokers with blank backs. One by one you print four different colorful backs on them. After the four backs are printed, you magically cause all the Joker faces to vanish, leaving you with four blank cards with different backs. As a surprise ending, the blank card you placed aside at the beginning now has all four Jokers.
Watch and buy: HERE
►eBay Auctions:
I keep adding more books to my eBay auctions without discretion. Most auctions start out at $9.95 or $19.95 unless I know the value. They are expiring throughout the week but I try to have most end on Sunday. I am trying to list new stuff on a more regular basis until the end of the year.
►A direct link to the auctions: HERE
►A direct link to my eBay store: HERE
►UPCOMING APPEARANCES:
►DEC 7: Spinnato’s Comedy Magic Show at Comix @ Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. Tickets: HERE
►JAN 18: Spinnato’s Comedy Magic Show at Comix @ Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. Tickets: HERE
To view all my upcoming appearances, go: HERE
Stay happy, Meir
PS: I previously wrote about Harry Eng and his bottles in my Muses in 1996! You can read that article: HERE
PS2: If you did not watch my interview, to learn how I think, you can catch it: HERE
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“It is not easy to give the impression that something is impossible, but to make it work, the complexity has to remain hidden.”
…Davide P. Fumagalli (Impossibilia, 2025)
