Entrapment is so much more than a routine.

Of course, it’s an elegant transposition routine that slides as cleanly as a freshly wiped smartphone screen. It’s a solid routine that includes some sleights that might be new to you. And it can be done with just about any deck of cards you discover. (And for those of you who love the LTD deck, it’s eye candy.)

But Entrapment is much more than an impromptu routine: It’s 21 minutes of magic education. This is beautiful magic, taught by a virtuoso of close-up.

The best teachers do more than show you how to do an effect. They give you avenues of further study. They point out subtleties. They explain why things work. And they light fires in the minds of their students.

Eric Jones has been doing that for years in the underground. The transposition that he teaches in Entrapment is an effect he’s performed at conventions for years. And though he’s impressed a lot of magicians with the effect, it’s also a strong part of his strolling and walkaround arsenal that he uses for corporate, Fortune 500 clients.

Entrapment is available for download right now. This is classic Eric Jones material you shouldn’t miss.

Kranzilla is terrorizing the nation again.

Nathan Kranzo, creator of Box Monster, four effects on Loops and The Card That Can’t Be Palmed and author of “The Gig” (and performance master of the Mind Reading Crotch) is on another lecture tour. More dates are coming, but so far he’s announced three Texas dates happening over the next few days:

• ~ Feb. 4: B Magic Shop in Arlington, Texas. Starts at 2:30 p.m. More information and tickets available here.
• ~ Feb. 5: Texas A&M University Lecture, College Station. Clay will hook you up with tickets. E-mail clay@oai.tamu.edu or call 832-514-1291.
• ~ Feb. 6: At the IHOP, 11654 Research Blvd., in Austin. Magic and pancakes. Yessir.

As you might recall, Kranzo knows his stuff. We caught up with him last year during a lecture in K.C. Of course we recorded it.

The folks behind IMX 2012 have announced more special guests, and our own master prestidigitator is among them.

Eric Jones joins a lineup that includes Dani DaOrtiz, Lennart Green, Patrick Redford, Yu Ho Jin and John van der Put (aka Piff the Magic Dragon). Jones, who is also Ellusionist’s Director of Product Development, has long been known as a close-up virtuoso. His elegant sleight of hand has earned him the reputation of being one of the most stunning magicians in the field today.

The creator of the Metal triolgy, Audio and An Extension of Me has performed for a long list of corporate clients and been a featured performer at the Magic Castle and at Monday Night Magic in New York City. He will teach a number of his secrets, subtleties and strategies during the conference.

IMX 2012 will be held May 21-23 at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas. Last year’s inaugural event made waves for the amount of magic, free scheduling and extras for the price, making it one of magic’s biggest bangs for the buck. The folks behind the conference promise even more this year, and there’s no way we’re missing it.

The Ellusionist crew is in the midst of plan meetings for the upcoming months and years. We are meeting in Brad’s Northern California home and taking tours around the San Francisco area. The moments have included:

• ~ Scratching our heads about why Pier 39 is virtually closed before 9 p.m.
• ~ Wondering why people would make out in front of sea lions. (Says Pete: “Is that really a romantic sound?”)
• ~ Learning to throw cards (and plucking them out of Brad’s light fixtures. Heck of a shot).
• ~ Watching an abso-frickin-beautiful card at any number routine that Eric Jones developed. Seriously. Stunning. (And it ain’t even magic, he’d tell ya.)
• ~ Enjoyed bacon sundaes. Yes. Bacon sundaes.
• ~ Watched Jake chug a glass of pickle brine. He won’t need sodium again until September.

Despite the fun and crazy creativity, a lot of work and planning is getting done. As much as we’d love to fire a list of bullets, filled with all the incredible stuff coming up, we don’t want to drop any hints quite yet. We’ll just say that 2012 and 2013 are going to be pretty epic.

If you’re not a Facebook fan of ours yet, change that now. We’re posting pics like crazy.

The home of the Black Tiger is proud to offer its products to one of the Four Asian Tigers. We are once again able to send packages to Singapore.

Previously, Ellusionist had removed availability to Singapore because of an extremely high number of returned packages, reported as “package could not be delivered” or “address not found.” We come across from time to time, but not at the statistically anomalous levels we were getting. We have worked tirelessly the past few months to resume our service, and finally we’re able to announce that we can again ship to Singapore.

For those who order from Singapore, please be aware that fulfillment of your order may be delayed by up to 24 hours while we verify address and shipping details, to ensure you get your package. That means that if you order after 1 p.m. on a Monday, your order should ship no later than Wednesday of the same week. We apologize in advance for the delay, but it means that you join the ranks of those international customers who get their awesomeness delivered by the postman.

Also noteworthy: Because Singapore is a separate city/state from Malaysia (it’s its own country — it’s like the New York, N.Y. of the South Pacific), we have not been able to do the same for Malaysians yet.