http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TogBivhs2......embedded

Can anybody tell me what kind of chair he uses at the end?

One version is called the King Chair...I believe Hank Lee has them on his website.

I was going to say "painful"

Seriously though, am I the only one who finds effects like this very weak?

All sanity tells you the effect is fake, and that immediately starts you thinking about the mechanics. In college I remember seeing Blackstone Jr perform the naked-back version of Buzz Saw and I had exactly the same reaction.

You can't get me to suspend disbelief because I don't WANT to believe its real.

Am I unusual in this?

No, you're not. But magicians have this unexplainable knack for not seeing things as laypeople see them. Without naming specifics, there are effects that are so lame that any thinking 6 year old could explain them. However, the magic circle gets turning, and one after another every magician within 3000 miles is extolling the virtures of said effect. Some third party needs to intervene and let them know they're only fooling themselves.

Jim

So, I didn't watch the rest of his act and maybe I should... but it also seems an odd and inappropriate way to end Snowstorm. Every time I've ever seen it done it was a really sweet, magical, fairy-tale like effect. "Oh yeah, and for an encore, Ill ram a pole up my a--" just seems *wrong*.

Wrong perhaps, but it is an original presentation that few are likely to copy.

He starts out by saying he's not going to do a sweet, fairy-tale trick. The whole routine is kind of tongue-in-cheek.

Jim

Okay, well it probably makes more sense in context

I guess it was more cheek than tongue.

This is one expensive and gigantic prop. It would be very dufficult to get your money's worth out of it unless you do lots of stage shows. It is also a kinda hoaky trick.

Yeah as I said above its not very believable.

And even as a joke its pretty juvenile.

The king chair is something else, and it only costs a mere $350. This snow storm chair costs substantially more. I'm not sure what this trick is called, but it will cost you four figures.

Ah. Which is probably why Ive never even looked twice at it

About the only prop that expensive Ive ever lusted after was an Axtel animatroinc... and that's more cause I'm into the mechanics and electronics then as performing tool.

With the Axtel animatronic doll you can just phone in your performance.