AM/PM :: Review

jprace

jprace

Sep 7, 2008
608
0
Arson- This effect is kind of confusing to explain. Here we go: A spectator selects any random card (really!) and can sign it. A lighter is introduced, and vanished in a clean manner. You spread through the cards, and there is a large burnt mark on the back of a card. It’s the selected card! You then proceed to pluck the lighter out of the card leaving no more burnt marks.

I’m on the fence about this one. It’s very similar in effect and method to Kissed and the newly released Squash! I must admit again, the lighter vanish fooled me. Once again, I thought reels or pulls, but was happily wrong. The method has been used before to ditch, vanish, and produce objects, but the creator did it very well. Overall, I think I am going to stick to Kissed because it makes more sense to me, and leaves the spectator with a nice, tasty souvenir.

Under and Out- A card is placed underneath the empty card box and a spectator puts their hand on top. When they remove their hand, and the magician removes the box, the card has seemed to vanish. It then reappears inside the magician’s wallet.

There are better Card to Wallets out there. Really. I have always enjoyed Mama in my Wallet. Anyway, the method is quite clever here. It uses a gimmicked card which has been produced or you can make yourself. Also, it uses a magic prop that can be obtained from any good magic store. I feel that the payoff is not worth the use of all of the gimmicks, this is not very practical, and cannot be used regularly. Although it looks great, it’s not for me.

That’s all ten effects. I talked about the production quality already, so let’s get into the teaching. To sum it up: excellent. The teaching was very good, and I can’t complain.

Overall:

In the end, this DVD was okay. Nothing too special, but certainly not bad. I do think it was a little high priced, but considering the one-trick DVD approach now, it is pretty reasonable. I feel like some of these effects should not have been included, and brought my overall opinion of the DVD down. Maybe some more research should have been done. One more positive, the bloopers were funny. This has some interesting ideas, but nothing earth shattering and nothing to get too excited over. I felt Alex Pandrea’s magic was way better than that of Jonathan Price, but that’s just my personal opinion. I rate this a 7/10.
 
A

Alex_Pandrea

Creator / <a href="http://www.theory11.com/1on1/#a
Sep 28, 2008
81
0
New York
hey JPMagic

thanks for the in-depth review!!

just wanted to make a few statements about AM/PM. When deciding what material to put on the DVD, Jon and I picked routines and put them together in a way that would cover a little bit of everything (or as much as we could) in the close-up genre. We wanted these routines to be adapted to any environment, and at any time- whether it be a walk around gig in the middle of the day, or a club/bar party at 3am in the morning- hence the name AM/PM. Since we tried have a little bit of everything it is only natural that some effects wont fit a persons style. With that said i hope i can clarify some of what JPMagic was referring to.

4OUR- the main thing I think people will get out of this is the 2 card production at the beginning of the effect- a visual face up "simple switch" if you will. Its definitely a finger flicking "look at me" routine, but sometimes I feel it is good to throw these in once in a while.

Papermate- I definitely agree with the statement that JPMagic said, that the flipstick move can be overused, however I feel that is the case when you are performing the flipstick move over and over in the same way. I like this routine because every time the pen vanishes, it is in completely different way from the previous vanish. Of course you do not have to perform all the phases shown in the routine. Break it down to just your favorites and mix it up. I can see how the kicker ending may not make sense when seeing me performing it in front of a house with "apple juice" haha, but believe me, when you are out at a bar, where having a drink is actually normal, this ending totally catches the audience off guard. Another great application of the kicker ending (dont remember if I mentioned this in the explanation) is to go backwards from the straw to a pen. Say you need to write something down. Pull out the straw and all of a sudden you are writing with it. Give it a try

Domino Effect- Since JPMagic was wondering about the clean-up for this one- the easiest and most practical thing to do is to have a sweet and low in your pocket, and at the end of the routine place both back in your pocket and say "actually I dont need them" or something to that extent, and in the meanwhile, switching the packets in the pocket and placing them back onto the table where they came from. But i will be perfectly honest- I do not switch the packets because the audience never asks to see the packets. This might be because they feel that they have already examined the packets since they had both in their hands. Also, at the end of the routine, they seem to gravitate more toward the sugar packet in their hands, rather than the one in mine. Weird but true!

Cash back- Above i spoke for myself, and my own routines, however...Jons "cashbak" has to be one of my favorite routines, not only on this DVD, but out of the magic i perform on a day to day basis. All i can say is to give this a try and then see the reactions you get from this. We've all had this- effects that dont seem that great up front, and then we perform it and get incredible reactions- and then you begin to realize that laymen and magicians think, and like different things. What wont be that impressive to a magician can be KILLER to a lay person. Just take a look at the reaction of the crowd on the DVD. It was the best reaction of the whole DVD :)

Arson- Prob my favorite effect from this DVD. JPMagic stated that it is similar to "kissed" and "squash!" which is true, however arson is soooo much stronger. No offense, but i cannot stand that kiss trick!! I dont know if cheesy would be the right word to use, but come on! Plus, we are not selling this as a stand-alone ;-) . I just recently performed Arson for numerous people at a convention, and the words that came out of their mouth were "ok that sold me", which was followed by the purchase of AM/PM :))

Overall, I truly feel that everyone will find more than a few effects which fits them, and by the look of things in a magic world today, those few effects will be worth more than the price of the DVD!! The most important thing I want to stress in this post is to keep in mind the saying "dont knock it until you try it", or something to that extent. You never know what effects laymen will go crazy over, and after all, we are performing for them :))

again, JPMagic, thank you so much for the honest review- Definitely let me know if you perform any of the effects I would love to hear how about it


Alex^
 
K

KevinReylek

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2007
106
0
NY
www.newyorkmagicproject.com
Sorry for the delayed reply. We've been moving the NYMP headquarters to a new location, and I was out of state for a few days for the Easter holiday, so my forum time hasn't quite been what I'd like it to be.

Thanks Jeff for the thorough and honest review. I know it's not always easy to send out what's on your mind. I'm glad you found the quality of the teaching and production in general to be up to your standards. We do strive for excellent production values on all of our products.

As for the effects themselves, I can't say that I wasn't expecting some reviews like yours to pop up. With 10 effects, and such a variety, we knew we wouldn't be able to please everyone with everything. Some folks like cards, some like coins, some like gimmicks, and some like sleight of hand. We do think that anyone should be able to find a handful of effects on AM/PM that they enjoy, and it sounds like you've done that.

As for the effects you didn't like, I do hope that you try them out. I think we've all experienced situations where our first impression of an effect wasn't all that strong, but when we tried it out for an audience, found it to be a real worker. All of the material on AM/PM is stuff that Alex and Jon use to make a living in front of real people. As Alex mentioned, he recently performed some of his AM/PM material at a convention we attended, and several folks decided to buy the DVD on the spot.

Effects like 4OUR and AKT I aren't for everyone, but we wanted to include them for a couple of reasons. Because several of the effects on the DVD involve some type of setup or gimmickery, we like that both of these effects can be done anytime, anywhere with nothing more than a deck of cards. They're quick and visual, and ideal for the bar/nightclub scene. I've seen many locals ask Alex for tips on his "Simple Shot" move, so we also wanted to include that routine due to popular demand. With that said, I can see where the flashy/skill type of routines don't appeal to everyone, and can appreciate that they're not your cup of tea.

I also like the Kiss trick and other tricks where items "pop out" of a card. However, I find Arson to be ultimately more practical than the kiss trick, especially for walkaround, because you don't have to carry chocolates and worry about them getting melted. I've not seen Squash, as it was released pretty much at the same time as AM/PM, so I can't really say anything about that effect.

The only area where I have to disagree with you is on the price. With many items coming out on today's market that offer a single effect for $20-30, we feel that offering 10 effects for $35 is quite the bargain. We feel that everyone will find several items on the DVD that they'll like and use, which we think is very valuable. Each of these effects winds up being less expensive than most instant downloads from various sites. As you brought up, Arson is a similar effect to the recently-released Squash, which is sold as a stand-alone for $25. With AM/PM, you get Arson plus 9 other effects, so I can't see how it's priced too highly. But maybe that's just me.

Overall, I appreciate the time and effort you put into your review, and I'm glad that your overall impressions were positive and that you found several of the effects to be worthwhile. And again, if you do decide to test out the few effects you weren't crazy about, I hope you'll update us with some stories to see if you feel the same or different about them.

Thanks!

Kevin
 
jprace

jprace

Sep 7, 2008
608
0
Kevin, I later said the price was reasonable.
I see why you wanted to include AKT I, it's a very good trick. The problem is that it's not remotely original.
 
K

KevinReylek

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2007
106
0
NY
www.newyorkmagicproject.com
Hi Jeff. I just figured I'd expound on why we think the price is reasonable, since your "priced high" and "reasonable" comments were back to back.

My mistake on the AKT I bit. I was trying to reply to your post mostly from memory. We do take research and crediting seriously, and think it's important to offer new and fresh approaches to plots and methods. We make sure to workshop and show material around to many many well-respected and very knowledgeable magicians in the NYC area and elsewhere before coming to market. With that said, it's often hard to catch everything, and until now we'd gotten nothing but solid feedback regarding the presentation and method for AKT I. I'll look into the resources you listed, thanks for the heads up!

Kevin
 
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