How To Do Street Magic Review...

[Dylan P.]

Street Magic- and by street magic I mean walking around showing random people tricks- seems to be growing today. What was Brad Christian's goal? To create a video that would help you with street magic. Did he succeed? Let's find out...

GENERAL IDEA BEHIND THE DVD

The general idea and motive behind this DVD was very good. Many people seek help with street magic and Brad decided to give it to them. He wanted to create a DVD that not only would help you with your street magic, but also with your magic repitoir in general. Brad's intentions were good but could he live up to the expectations?

THE TRICKS...

The tricks on this DVD consist of:

Burned (ashes on Arm), Glass Stinger (Glass through table.), Sick Aces (for ace production), Trace unseen ( card to pocket,wallet, etc.), Merger, Trick Switch, Voodoo zone (card warp), Go inside sugar (coin in sugar), Georges old trick, One hand table coin vanish, chance zero, Print, and melted.

Every single trick in this DVD is very easy to pull off with a little bit of practice. However, every single trick hits hard. So just because the tricks are easy don't let that stop you from buying this. This DVD shows true magic at it's best and is very helpful for begginers and pro's alike.

FLOURISHES...

In addition to the brilliant tricks you will learn a few basic flourishes. Many advanced magicians will already know how to do many of these sleights but they are good for people just starting out. They consist of:

Coin Roll
Coin Spread between fingers
Ribbon Spread and Turnover
Charlier cut
2 hand card fan.

This sections is good for that starting magician but intermediate and advanced magicians will be seeking something much harder.

BONUSES...

As a sort of gift...when you recieve the DVD you will find that three bonus effects are taught on it. The three bonus effects are.

Floating dollar as seen on celebracadabra episode 1.
vegas card change (hardest of all three)
and the Balducci levitation ( as performed by david blaine.)

the floating dollar bill is the easiest as long as you have some materials. Balducci levitation is easy if you can get your angles down. And the vegas card change is the hardest due to the angle yo must be at as well as the one fluent motion you must do as you do a secret move. These are great and I really love them.

BRAD'S PRESENTATION...

Brad really knows what he's doing when it comes to presentation. throughout the DVD his showmanship is flawless and he really plays up to the big moent without over doing it. Now the main thing that takes points away is the sort of "Cheezy" little commercials with brads friends in them. I think that when they speak it sounds a little bit too forced like they are just in it for the money. ( this may or may not be true.) Anyway no offence to anyone.

I would also like to add that I thought some of the outfits were either a bit too revealing for the younger kids. Welll, not revealing but let's say they do not look good at all. You'll understand after you watch the DVD.

WHAT I WANTED...

wHEN i FIRST HEARD OF THIS dvd i THOUGHT IT WOULD GIVE ADVICE ON APPROACHING PEOPLE IN THE STREETS as well as advice on what to wear when doing street magic and stuff. But it didn't. This ios the only other area that will lose points.

FINAL THOUGHTS...

This DVD was awsome and is a must have for any magician. The only places where they lost points was with the tacky commercials and the fact that it is just tricks and not actually advice on doing street magic. I thought that the title was misleading do to the fact that street magic wasn't necessarily taught. I would have called it " How to do Magic." Anyway on a scale from 1 to 10 one being the worst and 10 being the best it gets a:

7.5/10

Excellent work guys.

 

[Soldier Magic]

I liked the DVD a long with the free deck and levitation DVD. It was my first of many more to follow. I was looking into what it was about and for a beginner I believe its a great start. It really was enjoying to learn and understand a fundamental take. I still use some of those tricks now and it was fun to impress my friends. If your starting magic or need a good starting point this would be the DVD to get.

Great work!

Soldier Magic!

 

[Jeremy C.]

I have no clue what Brad was thinking when he made those women dress up like that. Gross....there's like a fat lady in a stripper outfit...

 

[Randy]

The DVD kind of sucked and didn't really have Street Magic. Tho it can be forgiven sense it was the first DVD they produced.

 

[ROYm]

i have nothing against brad personaly but i dont like his teaching... he just explains tricks. what about some humor between the words - you want us to be bored to death?

try to compare a dvd with brad teaching to a dvd where dianel garcia is teaching or lee asher or aaron fisher - completly different thing.

most of his dvds are a trick- explenation - name of the next trick - trick - explanation. its just boring. how about some bonus acts in between.
sometimes i fell like im not buying "how to do street magic dvd" but buying "give me your money and learn some tricks" dvd.

they have to understand the differrences between an instant download 8 minuts tutorial and a full dvd - it has to be produced well so people will enjoy it.

[its like that i can sit 6 hours watching dan and dave teaching but after 5 minuts of watching brian tudor teaching i feel that i cant take this anymore. like i said - completly different worlds.

 

[Dude291]

mmm... i dont like dan and dave teaching. Im more use to dany, kenner etc. something funny, where you can see their faces
back on subject, i bought the street magic dvd when it was like 50 bucks... like a year and a couple of months. I would recommend getting 3 great tricks, i heard that form lee and other book, i think corinda (6 with him) and learn them well.

 

[Nickerus]

I have no clue what Brad was thinking when he made those women dress up like that. Gross....there's like a fat lady in a stripper outfit...

Can you explain?

 

[b+w]

Can you explain?

In between each trick there are these women (like, in their thirties or forties) who walk around in like, stripper outfits, and they basically say a quick thing about street magic. Has absolutely nothing to do with the teaching, and something I think the DVD could have done without.

 

[ROYm]

In between each trick there are these women (like, in their thirties or forties) who walk around in like, stripper outfits, and they basically say a quick thing about street magic. Has absolutely nothing to do with the teaching, and something I think the DVD could have done without.

you took words out of my mouth these woman are like 45+ specialy the first one this is just so grose... i think brad didnt have the budget to hire good looking woman to play in his dvd so he took his wife and all her friends... to save money... (is she his wife?)

 

[10magicman21]

brads dvd was the first magic dvd i bought and i thought it was excellent it got me started with good magic and he has some good insight on the psychology behind each trick

 

[Jeremy C.]

you took words out of my mouth these woman are like 45+ specialy the first one this is just so grose... i think brad didnt have the budget to hire good looking woman to play in his dvd so he took his wife and all her friends... to save money... (is she his wife?)

Hahahaha that's exactly what I thought! It was so gross and unexpected, I felt like I had to wash my eyes out with soap.

 

[Cedric Taylor]

i have nothing against brad personaly but i dont like his teaching... he just explains tricks. what about some humor between the words - you want us to be bored to death?

try to compare a dvd with brad teaching to a dvd where dianel garcia is teaching or lee asher or aaron fisher - completly different thing.

most of his dvds are a trick- explenation - name of the next trick - trick - explanation. its just boring. how about some bonus acts in between.
sometimes i fell like im not buying "how to do street magic dvd" but buying "give me your money and learn some tricks" dvd.

they have to understand the differrences between an instant download 8 minuts tutorial and a full dvd - it has to be produced well so people will enjoy it.

[its like that i can sit 6 hours watching dan and dave teaching but after 5 minuts of watching brian tudor teaching i feel that i cant take this anymore. like i said - completly different worlds.

brad to me does a great job.....what more can you ask for, you are there to learn...for that he gets an A....

 

[Randy]

I thought it was OK DVD but not really worth the 50 bucks it cost. They have better DVD's. Crash Course and Crash 2 and both are like 30 bucks..

 

[velcrowe]

I thought it was OK DVD but not really worth the 50 bucks it cost. They have better DVD's. Crash Course and Crash 2 and both are like 30 bucks..

If you paid fifty bucks for it, I think you got had. I've only ever remembered it being 30 bucks.

 

[Dylan P.]

Just to clear up that whole stripper ladies thing, here it is. it's like they took these 60 year old women, one who just so happens to be decently over weight and stick them in stripper boots, revealing clothes, and belly shirts. Then they walk out after each trick and say something TOTALLY UNRELATED to the DVD or magic. they sayt stuff like:

"Sometimes people confuse reality with finction, but where is the line betweenthem? Only Ellusionist knows."

 

[Valhalla76]

The DVD is actually a great value.

This DVD is what got into me into card magic. I never even liked card magic before watching this.

There are three tricks that really appealed to me.

The trick switch force vanish using a gimmicked card. The card trick where use a sleight so the spectator thinks their card is laying face down on the table, but you can produce it at will.

I have done both of those with great results. I also plan to use the burning ashes reveal with other tricks as I get better. I gimmick my card a little different for trick switch. I put the tape on the inside instead of the outside. I use a $9 trimmer device from staples instead of an exacto knife. The gimmicked card is so clean I've actually tricked myself with it.

There is a fourth trick, the glass stinger, that was taught on season one of Mindfreak. I have already been doing that trick for years. Of the 12 main tricks taught, there is only one that I thought was really stupid. The rope and business card trick.

The DVD also taught me the basics of controlling a card. I also learned to do the one handed card cut.

This DVD led me to ordering Extreme Beginners, buying lots of cards, finding Theory 11, and really getting into card tricks and ECM.

Apparently they have added a lot of bonuses to the How To Do Street Magic DVD. Mine had a lot of extras. First the Flourishes section. Then a brief on using invisible thread, then two color changes, a card sleight, and the card throw vanish. At the end, I thought the two color changes were not explained very well. They are also two pretty hard ones. I still can't do one of them at all, but I've learned a lot of easier color changes since then.

About the the comments on the "Magic Girls." There were two that I didn't find very appealing. And one in fact did look like a fat girl in a vinyl stripper outfit. lol.


Overall I'd say the DVD is a good value. Inside Magic, the sequel, is really great also.

 

[treadstone]

I thought this dvd was cool when I first got it, but when I look back at it now I can't bear to watch it.
I was foolish enough to get CC2 later on. When I look at it now, I can't help but noticed the bad techinques for the majority of card sleights taught on there.

I have wanted to sell them, but I just can't bring myself to give someone else rubbish.

Get the tried and tested books of magic and learn the basics properly.

 

[Valhalla76]

There aren't 60. Some of them are fairly attractive. One is way to old for what she's wearing and one is way to fat for what she is wearing. There are at least two that I thought were attractive. They have a teaser for one of their videos that has a really hot redhead. I forget which one. I just remember the girl in the teaser is hotter.

Just to clear up that whole stripper ladies thing, here it is. it's like they took these 60 year old women, one who just so happens to be decently over weight and stick them in stripper boots, revealing clothes, and belly shirts. Then they walk out after each trick and say something TOTALLY UNRELATED to the DVD or magic. they sayt stuff like:

"Sometimes people confuse reality with finction, but where is the line betweenthem? Only Ellusionist knows."

 

[Valhalla76]

How To is definately not rubbish. I learned a lot of the basics and it has led me into a whole new world of card tricks. I always viewed card tricks as the boring long drawn out (non sleight of hand ones) that I don't have the attention span to either perform or watch. So How To introduced me to the fast faced edgy world of sleight of hand card tricks and flourishes.

Before ordering the DVD I was just casually interested in magic. I had the blackstone sets as kid and was terrible. My parents videotaped me doing a magic show in the living room when I was like maybe 3rd or 4th grade. It is so bad it was a running joke in my family for years.

Then when the first season of Criss Angel came out I got really into magic for a little while and ordered some DVDs. The first DVD I got was Sinful because Criss Angel was in it. That introduced me to Wayne Houchin and led to me ordering Stigmata. Sinful and Stigmata are still my two favorite effects. But recently I was looking at stuff online and decided to try the How To DVD. Now my interest is on a whole different level. I'm practicing a little each day, ordering stuff like crazy, watching performances on youtube, and can't get enough info.

I owe it all to the How To DVD. You also get a deck of the Shadow Masters and the King Rising DVD. So really. It's the best value out there as well.


I have not seen CC2. I will say that I bought a bundle of Ellusionist DVDs used on ebay. One is Shapeshifter. I love the Shapeshifter color change, and find it to be easy to perform. The second half the DVD with Brad Christian is great. The first half of the DVD with the guy with the beard is poor quality video and I don't think the guy was a good teacher at all. He rushes through about sick sleights and color changes really fast and it's hard to follow. The shapeshifter DVD could be a lot better.

I thought this dvd was cool when I first got it, but when I look back at it now I can't bear to watch it.
I was foolish enough to get CC2 later on. When I look at it now, I can't help but noticed the bad techinques for the majority of card sleights taught on there.

I have wanted to sell them, but I just can't bring myself to give someone else rubbish.

Get the tried and tested books of magic and learn the basics properly.

 

[treadstone]

How To is definately not rubbish. I learned a lot of the basics

And how do you know that it taught the basics correctly?

Ellusionist sparked my interest in magic too, however it didn't guide me to the right direction on how to approach and further study the art.

I'm practicing a little each day, ordering stuff like crazy, watching performances on youtube, and can't get enough info.

I would be practicing more and ordering less.

It's the best value out there as well.

You only have to broaden your horizon to see that it is not the best value.

I get a ton more value from a single book (which two of the tricks taught in How To originated from, but of course E has to rename them and give little credit)

I will say that I bought a bundle of Ellusionist DVDs used on ebay. One is Shapeshifter. I love the Shapeshifter color change, and find it to be easy to perform. The second half the DVD with Brad Christian is great. The first half of the DVD with the guy with the beard is poor quality video and I don't think the guy was a good teacher at all. He rushes through about sick sleights and color changes really fast and it's hard to follow. The shapeshifter DVD could be a lot better.

That 'guy with the beard' is Marc DeSouza, who is certainly a much more accomplished magician than Brad; you only have to google his name to see that. Granted that Brad is more in-depth in half of what he teaches, but I'd rather learn from someone you can actually do what he teaches well and properly.

That's my opinion, from experiencing a lot of bad magic and misinformation for the past 4-5 years.