21 - Magic by Sweden (2 Disc Set) - My Review
Buy it: http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=2369
Price: $28 after discount
Demos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmpX6R5xz0
Note: This review is simply MY OPINION on the DVD set.
The DVD
The DVD is super high quality, both in production values and picture clarity. So high quality that one hour consumes over 3.5gb of space on the DVD, which translates to eye-bleeding, push-back-your-chair kinda picture on your TV. In fact you could probably display this signal on the jumbo-tron at your local football stadium, and it would STILL be crystal clear.
The post-production editing revolves around the old "24" television show with a clock ticking. And it's advertised as "this happens in real time from 10am - 11pm. When a performer comes on, you get the clock again, complete with what time they explained the trick. The text fadeouts and subtitles are very attractive, and the whole DVD is enjoyable to watch. Some people have described it as "movie quality", although I wouldn't go THAT far.
It contains a wide mix of tricks, ranging from bending straws to bottle productions, and is billed as "something for everybody". The actual filming takes place in the back of Magic Bar Sweden (http://www.magicbar.se), which is a bar/restaurant based in Stockholm. Since most younger swedes speak better English than most of us, you can clearly understand everything, and there's no real gap in language accents.
The music was created by Kevin MacLeod (http://www.incompetech.com) and sounds great plus blends well with the overall theme of the DVD.
Disc #1 - one hour
Axel Adlercreutz - The Self Bending Straw
Anything this guy releases in the future, I'm buying. Straight up. Cool ideas with a heavy visual twist.
A standard bendy straw flexes down or up at your fingertips using the power of your mind. I love this trick, with a little preparation you can carry it around and do this repeatedly for different tables. The setup requires simple items you can find at WalMart for a dollar (straws + gimmick), and you can easily cover your straw with a paper tube then lap-switch at a restaurant.
Difficulty: 1/10. Requires about 5 minutes to setup per straw. Instantly repeatable.
Rating: 9/10. Very cute. I already made one up and entertain myself in public with it. The kids come over - "WHAAAT ..."
Axel Adlercreutz - Circle Vanish
A coin vanishes while holding it at the fingertips. Very "gravity" kinda move which will take some practice. But best of all, you can do a visual coin switch with this WHICH LOOKS FANTASTIC.
Difficulty: 4/10. You'll need to dedicate some time into this, especially the coin switch.
Rating: 10/10. Worth the price of the DVD. Totally impromptu coin switch IN FULL VIEW at your fingertips.
Axel Adlercreutz - Two rope & ring moves
Cute rope subtleties where the rope becomes unlinked from a standard 3-ring type large steel ring, then magically re-links visually. If you're already doing rope stuff, you'll absolutely love this.
Difficulty: 3/10. Standard rope moves, you'll have them down in no time.
Rating: 8/10. Very visual, great ideas.
Erik Nordvall - Memoradix
"After three increasingly impossible card locations, the deck ends up in new deck order."
Inspired by Juan Tamariz's "The Missing Card" from Mnemonica, this routine is SOOO complex and requires quite a bit of stage time to pull off. Erik is very excited and interactive with the audience, and does get a good reaction, but this whole setup is just too complex.
You need a false riffle shuffle (he uses "The Real Green Shuffle" from Green Magic DVDs), a card separation, a cull separation, and to memorize 3 cards while you're searching through looking for missing ones. Ouch.
Difficulty: 8/10. You'll need to dedicate a large portion of your life to get all the pieces down.
Rating: 4/10. In my opinion, there are so many great card effects out there (even stage-based) that aren't nearly this complex.
Erik Nordvall - The Real Green Shuffle
Here's his variation of the Green Shuffle mentioned above, which looks fantastic. Worth the practice time since it looks super clean.
Johan Ståhl - Sleeveless Sleeving (pen routine)
His great technique for sleeving objects while your sleeves appear to be rolled up. Watch the demo from his DVD here:
http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=S12296
Which features a pen routine taught in this section. Since that DVD is only 40 minutes long, you're receiving like 1/4th of it right here in his section of 21. It's very visual, looks fantastic and is extremely disarming to the spectators. I'll go out on a limb and say it looks like real magic when he does it.
The final phase of the pen routine on the "Sleeveless Sleeving" contains a spoon, but on here it's a jumbo pen. Like it matters, but still.
Difficulty: 4/10. Will take some considerable practice to become as proficient as him, but WELL WORTH IT.
Rating: 10/10. Looks like real magic, and the possibilities of your OWN routines, especially with coins, metal bending, etc using this stuff is endless. I'm giving it a perfect 10.
Johan Ståhl - Sleeveless & Purseless
The same sleeving techniques from above, using a coin purse frame.
Jonas Ljung - Forced Will
Some contraversy over this being similar to Jimmy Fingers "Order of Free Will", although they are said to be different.
Spectator moves objects around the table, and you display a prediction that's been sitting on the table before it started. It shows exactly where the three objects are. Does use equivoque, but it's VERY refined and not noticeable by even the pickiest spectator. They literally pick some objects out of their purse or pockets, move them around, read prediction. Whole trick takes like 1 minute, however does require a table.
Difficulty: 1/10. You only need to memorize two small things, both of which are easy. Requires no outs at all, works 100%.
Rating: 10/10. Everybody is always seeking an impromptu effect that hits hard. This is your ticket. Especially since you can write the prediction on the back of your business cards.
BONUS: Joachim Solberg - JS Card Control, Double Lift and Top Change
JS Card Control: A riffle peek and side steal replacement, that brings the selected card to the bottom.
Double Lift: Paintbrush change variation, NOT a new actual DL technique.
Top Change: Method of inserting a selected card between two jokers.
Out of these three, I was impressed with the Top Change move. The other two reminded me of many moves I've seen before, just combined in a different manner.
Buy it: http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=2369
Price: $28 after discount
Demos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmpX6R5xz0
Note: This review is simply MY OPINION on the DVD set.
The DVD
The DVD is super high quality, both in production values and picture clarity. So high quality that one hour consumes over 3.5gb of space on the DVD, which translates to eye-bleeding, push-back-your-chair kinda picture on your TV. In fact you could probably display this signal on the jumbo-tron at your local football stadium, and it would STILL be crystal clear.
The post-production editing revolves around the old "24" television show with a clock ticking. And it's advertised as "this happens in real time from 10am - 11pm. When a performer comes on, you get the clock again, complete with what time they explained the trick. The text fadeouts and subtitles are very attractive, and the whole DVD is enjoyable to watch. Some people have described it as "movie quality", although I wouldn't go THAT far.
It contains a wide mix of tricks, ranging from bending straws to bottle productions, and is billed as "something for everybody". The actual filming takes place in the back of Magic Bar Sweden (http://www.magicbar.se), which is a bar/restaurant based in Stockholm. Since most younger swedes speak better English than most of us, you can clearly understand everything, and there's no real gap in language accents.
The music was created by Kevin MacLeod (http://www.incompetech.com) and sounds great plus blends well with the overall theme of the DVD.
Disc #1 - one hour
Axel Adlercreutz - The Self Bending Straw
Anything this guy releases in the future, I'm buying. Straight up. Cool ideas with a heavy visual twist.
A standard bendy straw flexes down or up at your fingertips using the power of your mind. I love this trick, with a little preparation you can carry it around and do this repeatedly for different tables. The setup requires simple items you can find at WalMart for a dollar (straws + gimmick), and you can easily cover your straw with a paper tube then lap-switch at a restaurant.
Difficulty: 1/10. Requires about 5 minutes to setup per straw. Instantly repeatable.
Rating: 9/10. Very cute. I already made one up and entertain myself in public with it. The kids come over - "WHAAAT ..."
Axel Adlercreutz - Circle Vanish
A coin vanishes while holding it at the fingertips. Very "gravity" kinda move which will take some practice. But best of all, you can do a visual coin switch with this WHICH LOOKS FANTASTIC.
Difficulty: 4/10. You'll need to dedicate some time into this, especially the coin switch.
Rating: 10/10. Worth the price of the DVD. Totally impromptu coin switch IN FULL VIEW at your fingertips.
Axel Adlercreutz - Two rope & ring moves
Cute rope subtleties where the rope becomes unlinked from a standard 3-ring type large steel ring, then magically re-links visually. If you're already doing rope stuff, you'll absolutely love this.
Difficulty: 3/10. Standard rope moves, you'll have them down in no time.
Rating: 8/10. Very visual, great ideas.
Erik Nordvall - Memoradix
"After three increasingly impossible card locations, the deck ends up in new deck order."
Inspired by Juan Tamariz's "The Missing Card" from Mnemonica, this routine is SOOO complex and requires quite a bit of stage time to pull off. Erik is very excited and interactive with the audience, and does get a good reaction, but this whole setup is just too complex.
You need a false riffle shuffle (he uses "The Real Green Shuffle" from Green Magic DVDs), a card separation, a cull separation, and to memorize 3 cards while you're searching through looking for missing ones. Ouch.
Difficulty: 8/10. You'll need to dedicate a large portion of your life to get all the pieces down.
Rating: 4/10. In my opinion, there are so many great card effects out there (even stage-based) that aren't nearly this complex.
Erik Nordvall - The Real Green Shuffle
Here's his variation of the Green Shuffle mentioned above, which looks fantastic. Worth the practice time since it looks super clean.
Johan Ståhl - Sleeveless Sleeving (pen routine)
His great technique for sleeving objects while your sleeves appear to be rolled up. Watch the demo from his DVD here:
http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=S12296
Which features a pen routine taught in this section. Since that DVD is only 40 minutes long, you're receiving like 1/4th of it right here in his section of 21. It's very visual, looks fantastic and is extremely disarming to the spectators. I'll go out on a limb and say it looks like real magic when he does it.
The final phase of the pen routine on the "Sleeveless Sleeving" contains a spoon, but on here it's a jumbo pen. Like it matters, but still.
Difficulty: 4/10. Will take some considerable practice to become as proficient as him, but WELL WORTH IT.
Rating: 10/10. Looks like real magic, and the possibilities of your OWN routines, especially with coins, metal bending, etc using this stuff is endless. I'm giving it a perfect 10.
Johan Ståhl - Sleeveless & Purseless
The same sleeving techniques from above, using a coin purse frame.
Jonas Ljung - Forced Will
Some contraversy over this being similar to Jimmy Fingers "Order of Free Will", although they are said to be different.
Spectator moves objects around the table, and you display a prediction that's been sitting on the table before it started. It shows exactly where the three objects are. Does use equivoque, but it's VERY refined and not noticeable by even the pickiest spectator. They literally pick some objects out of their purse or pockets, move them around, read prediction. Whole trick takes like 1 minute, however does require a table.
Difficulty: 1/10. You only need to memorize two small things, both of which are easy. Requires no outs at all, works 100%.
Rating: 10/10. Everybody is always seeking an impromptu effect that hits hard. This is your ticket. Especially since you can write the prediction on the back of your business cards.
BONUS: Joachim Solberg - JS Card Control, Double Lift and Top Change
JS Card Control: A riffle peek and side steal replacement, that brings the selected card to the bottom.
Double Lift: Paintbrush change variation, NOT a new actual DL technique.
Top Change: Method of inserting a selected card between two jokers.
Out of these three, I was impressed with the Top Change move. The other two reminded me of many moves I've seen before, just combined in a different manner.
