[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3LvtEVp9dM[/video]
Well, if you are familiar with any products from Magical Sleight then I am sure that you are aware that this is a brand that targets advanced sleight of hand magicians. All the tricks fall somewhere in the area of advanced to very advanced.
From what I understand this DVD is a kind of set of all star lecture notes from a convention put on by Magical Sleight. So you get a mixture of full routines, small sleights, ideas and touches from 10 different magicians. The DVD featured a handful of predominantly non English speakers and I feel like they did very well to explain the magic. Even in the silent tutorials there were highlights and subtitles that helped the explanation to be clear.
John Guastaferro: He teaches what has become sort of a signature piece, it's his Club Sandwich. This is a sandwich routine using 2 selections. I like sandwich routines fine but it seems like there is an overabundance of them out there. This DVD kind of proves my point as there are a handful but I do feel like each routine adds something unique. As far as John's goes, I love that it finds the 2 selections right after each other without having to go back to the deck. There is a nice moment where as he reveals the second selection it suddenly transposes with the other. I do like his ideas on routining as well.
Yoann: Here we have a multi-phase, 2 card transposition, without the deck. When I saw the demo I was sure that there were gaffs involved, but everything that you do can be done with a normal deck. There are some great moments here and it is very visual. The final color change is incredibly hard and pretty close to impossible to perform. This is tough all around but very cool. It has the feeling of a spellbound sequence with cards.
Alexandre Wilmes: He teaches a pretty cool backfire sandwich routine. The card starts sandwiched and invisibly flies over to the box. The best part about this is the utility move. It is a knacky way to control a card that I could see myself using in time. It does require some good timing.
Astone: This is a spellbound routine. There is a certain move in it that shows both hands very convincingly empty besides the one coin. It looks crazy good in his hands, I'd love to learn it but it is tough. The rest is very visual using some fairly classic moves.
Bizau: I love Biz! This guy is crazy creative when it comes to new card moves. He is a really entertaining guy as well. He teaches a color change that is easier to do that you might initially think. It's nothing groundbreaking but he teaches a way to vanish, or change a single card as well as produce 2 cards.
Eric Richardson: This is probably my least favorite effect on the DVD. The audience can?t shuffle the deck, it is very tough to do, there is some memory work to be done and it is no where near hands off. Eric looks like a really entertaining guy but this trick wasn't for me.
Father Alex: He teaches a fairly pure version of the open prediction. I love that this is so true to the original. He teaches a sweet mucking technique here. It looks great and is tough. I'll be messing around with this for a while.
Noel Heath: He teaches a nice flourishy sandwich production here. This one looks like something the Buck twins would have created. It is a quick sandwich with a pop.
Pierre-Marie: He teaches a simple, visual, oil and water routine. This is very nice and I took the time to learn it. It borrows heavily from Guy Hollingworth routine but it has some modern touches that make it all the more visual.
Arthur Chavaudet: This is a four coin production but I have some problems with it. The production of the first coin is performed differently in the demo than it is in the tutorial. I wouldn't mind this if they taught it somewhere else or even referenced it but instead they ignore it. Also the initial setup for this is very awkward. There aren't any ideas on how to get into it provided either.
So, with all of that you could do Bizau's 2 card production, perform John?s Sandwich trick and produce the second selection with Noel's sleight then have it backfire with Alexandre's move and then perform the transpo by Yoann with the selected cards! Joking aside, what you get here feels like a set of lecture notes, which is what I believe it is trying to be. There's some fun stuff for the move monkeys out there but there really isn't anything for beginners.
Some of it is great and some of it falls flat.
Well, if you are familiar with any products from Magical Sleight then I am sure that you are aware that this is a brand that targets advanced sleight of hand magicians. All the tricks fall somewhere in the area of advanced to very advanced.
From what I understand this DVD is a kind of set of all star lecture notes from a convention put on by Magical Sleight. So you get a mixture of full routines, small sleights, ideas and touches from 10 different magicians. The DVD featured a handful of predominantly non English speakers and I feel like they did very well to explain the magic. Even in the silent tutorials there were highlights and subtitles that helped the explanation to be clear.
John Guastaferro: He teaches what has become sort of a signature piece, it's his Club Sandwich. This is a sandwich routine using 2 selections. I like sandwich routines fine but it seems like there is an overabundance of them out there. This DVD kind of proves my point as there are a handful but I do feel like each routine adds something unique. As far as John's goes, I love that it finds the 2 selections right after each other without having to go back to the deck. There is a nice moment where as he reveals the second selection it suddenly transposes with the other. I do like his ideas on routining as well.
Yoann: Here we have a multi-phase, 2 card transposition, without the deck. When I saw the demo I was sure that there were gaffs involved, but everything that you do can be done with a normal deck. There are some great moments here and it is very visual. The final color change is incredibly hard and pretty close to impossible to perform. This is tough all around but very cool. It has the feeling of a spellbound sequence with cards.
Alexandre Wilmes: He teaches a pretty cool backfire sandwich routine. The card starts sandwiched and invisibly flies over to the box. The best part about this is the utility move. It is a knacky way to control a card that I could see myself using in time. It does require some good timing.
Astone: This is a spellbound routine. There is a certain move in it that shows both hands very convincingly empty besides the one coin. It looks crazy good in his hands, I'd love to learn it but it is tough. The rest is very visual using some fairly classic moves.
Bizau: I love Biz! This guy is crazy creative when it comes to new card moves. He is a really entertaining guy as well. He teaches a color change that is easier to do that you might initially think. It's nothing groundbreaking but he teaches a way to vanish, or change a single card as well as produce 2 cards.
Eric Richardson: This is probably my least favorite effect on the DVD. The audience can?t shuffle the deck, it is very tough to do, there is some memory work to be done and it is no where near hands off. Eric looks like a really entertaining guy but this trick wasn't for me.
Father Alex: He teaches a fairly pure version of the open prediction. I love that this is so true to the original. He teaches a sweet mucking technique here. It looks great and is tough. I'll be messing around with this for a while.
Noel Heath: He teaches a nice flourishy sandwich production here. This one looks like something the Buck twins would have created. It is a quick sandwich with a pop.
Pierre-Marie: He teaches a simple, visual, oil and water routine. This is very nice and I took the time to learn it. It borrows heavily from Guy Hollingworth routine but it has some modern touches that make it all the more visual.
Arthur Chavaudet: This is a four coin production but I have some problems with it. The production of the first coin is performed differently in the demo than it is in the tutorial. I wouldn't mind this if they taught it somewhere else or even referenced it but instead they ignore it. Also the initial setup for this is very awkward. There aren't any ideas on how to get into it provided either.
So, with all of that you could do Bizau's 2 card production, perform John?s Sandwich trick and produce the second selection with Noel's sleight then have it backfire with Alexandre's move and then perform the transpo by Yoann with the selected cards! Joking aside, what you get here feels like a set of lecture notes, which is what I believe it is trying to be. There's some fun stuff for the move monkeys out there but there really isn't anything for beginners.
Some of it is great and some of it falls flat.