Brad Christian DVD

Aug 18, 2008
680
3
I had never purchased any of Brad's DVD s before because of all the negative reviews and how is a terrible teacher and terrible magician and such. But recently, I was looking to improve my ambitious card and decided to go with crash course II. I had my doubts, but it looked solid. So i watched the DVD, and guess what? It was excellent! I have been practicing magic for over 10 years. I know a good amount of moves for the ambitious card, and I learned a lot more. The ones I already knew, i learned how to do them better. Brad was a perfectly fine teacher. He went over all the moves in detail, and there were plenty of live performances and tips. I know this is starting to sound like a review, so ill stop there.

My question is, why are so many people against Brad Christian and his teaching DVD's?
 
Sep 2, 2007
1,229
0
Because there are rasicts, sexists, Agists and E-ists. some people hate All Ellusionist products for the simple fact that they are Ellusionist products (This is just my opinion)
 
It's just because people get a little too attached to certain websites. I used to think that t11 was a dumb website because of what I heard about it from other places, but now that I get here the place is pretty sweet!

The bottom line is that you should never trust any person or thing who have an obvious bias. If you don't believe me, go to penguin. There you will see trash talk about t11 and E. Go to E and you and you can't even say the word penguin. Come here and you will see neutrality about penguin, and trash talk about E.
 

James Wise Magic

Elite Member
Dec 28, 2007
1,021
13
I had never purchased any of Brad's DVD s before because of all the negative reviews and how is a terrible teacher and terrible magician and such. But recently, I was looking to improve my ambitious card and decided to go with crash course II. I had my doubts, but it looked solid. So i watched the DVD, and guess what? It was excellent! I have been practicing magic for over 10 years. I know a good amount of moves for the ambitious card, and I learned a lot more. The ones I already knew, i learned how to do them better. Brad was a perfectly fine teacher. He went over all the moves in detail, and there were plenty of live performances and tips. I know this is starting to sound like a review, so ill stop there.

My question is, why are so many people against Brad Christian and his teaching DVD's?

I don't think he's a bad teacher, infact he's a excellent teacher!
But I don't like him only because it seems like he's doing begginer magic that a 12 year old knows and he hypes it up soooooooo much almost like if he just made it look like he just physically vanished the moon or something.
Yeah he's pretty darn good at his sleights BUT I mean with some practice, a child could do the same thing......


Also, when I watch him, I don't feel emotionally connected to him, I feel like I'm watching a trick without being entertained. Instead of creating an emotional experience for the audience I feel like he's only out here to trick us instead of entertain us.

idk if it's like that for anyone else, but that's just my opinion.
 
I don't think he's a bad teacher, infact he's a excellent teacher!
But I don't like him only because it seems like he's doing begginer magic that a 12 year old knows and he hypes it up soooooooo much almost like if he just made it look like he just physically vanished the moon or something.
Yeah he's pretty darn good at his sleights BUT I mean with some practice, a child could do the same thing......


Also, when I watch him, I don't feel emotionally connected to him, I feel like I'm watching a trick without being entertained. Instead of creating an emotional experience for the audience I feel like he's only out here to trick us instead of entertain us.

idk if it's like that for anyone else, but that's just my opinion.

Yeah I feel the same, but he teaches very well, which is the only thing that really effects me.
 
Jan 5, 2008
108
0
Oklahoma
I know no one will admit it, but in my own opinion this negativity towards brad is due to an age gap. A large majority of theory 11 members(not including artists) consists of people 25 and younger. Brad just doesn't have a cool image in the eyes of that particular age demographic. He's not a bad teacher. He's an excellent teacher. I agree that Crash Course II is phenomenal and teaches moves I've never seen anywhere else. I've seen many reviews posted that state Brad is a horrible magician and doesn't do magic properly, yet no one ever specifies what move he does terrible or where he's going wrong. His pass is phenomenal, his double lift is effortless, he comes up with great presentations and patter, and he cares about the people that purchase his products. They aren't over priced, they are the same price and in some case cheaper than theory 11 products. It's just a negative stigma that people have over emphasized. I've also heard people say he looks creepy and he wears make up. It's stupid. Don't listen to the negative reviews, if they say his magic is awful, I'd hate to see their magic. I would even argue that most of the T11 crew appreciate what Brad does and think he's an excellent magician. T11 wouldn't be here without Ellusionist or Brad. The whole Hi-Def dvd concept was his idea first. Don't listen to the young haters. The people that say he's teaching elementary magic probably haven't spent time learning the classics and fundamentals of magic first and are jumping right into modernized effects. Simple tricks might seem like nothing to a magician, but we aren't here to entertain other magicians.


Zack
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jun 24, 2008
163
0
United States
i have gotten both ninja 1 and 2 and they are...well ok
they are good to get you started, but i dont think he takes the time he needs to in order to teach it properly. Ninja got me started on the pass, but i dont think he taught it to its full extent what so ever. Although it did have a few moves i still use day to day(the "one handed pass", which is really called the tipover change)...which brings me to another point.
Brad was absolutley horrible at giving credit to the rightfull magicians...or any one for that matter...he did better w/ Ninja 2, but in Ninja 1, he admitted he didnt even do the research to find out where the moves came from.
But nonetheless, i do not think its all that bad, it helped me tremendously when i was first starting.
P.S haha if you were talking about Houchin w/ the eyeliner, thats all a misunderstanding lol he doesnt wear eyeliner, hes mentioned that before. haha


~Nate
 
Oct 24, 2008
244
0
Savannah, GA
Didn't we have a similar thread like a week or two ago? About Brad?

http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=13324&highlight=brad

There we go.

Well, if you're asking: he's a good teacher, and I think he does a decent job performing. Comes off very "safe", but not too engaging.

Some people don't find him to be a good teacher or a good performer. Some think what he teaches is too simple or not taught correctly. Some people just don't like Ellusionist for whatever reason so they include Brad (being the founder and all).

Fun times.
 
Jan 5, 2008
108
0
Oklahoma
How can they say that Brad doesn't teach things correctly when they didn't know how it was done in the first place? Or if they did know how to do it, and it was taught in a different way than how they learned it, so what? Get over it. It obviously worked for the majority of people that purchased it or E wouldn't be the most profitable magic shop in the U.S. Sponsoring their own reality show on VH1, etc. It reminds me of Wal-mart, once Wal-mart became a mega-power in it's particular market it's stock price stopped doing well and people started negative here-say when in fact they still shopped there weekly. Wal-mart is dissed all the time due to personal bias and it being a large entity in a market that keeps decreasing in size because ma and pa shops are going out of business. E is the largest company in this particular market so negativity will head in it's direction more often than other places.

Zack
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aug 2, 2008
496
0
Cincinnati
Crash Course II is super good. It really got me started in magic and helped me out a ton. I think Brad is a good teach. I think that the problem is he sometimes comes off a bit arrogant at times when he teaches or performs. But I really do think he is a good teacher and performer.
 
Sep 1, 2007
279
1
Yeah, they make a lot of profit so that makes their products good...

I think the way Brad Christian uses/teaches to use the pass ("vegas routine") really sums it up how much he knows about magic.
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
Yeah, they make a lot of profit so that makes their products good...

I think the way Brad Christian uses/teaches to use the pass ("vegas routine") really sums it up how much he knows about magic.

Dude, I use that routine all the time!

I mean, revealing the whole routine at the end... it's f'ing brilliant. ;)
 
Dec 17, 2007
858
2
Canada
Brad Christian's teaching/effect performance style appeals to someone that has no clue about magic, when I was young I thought he was a great teacher because you never had to rewind the tape to see what he taught. But now many of us pick up moves quickly and don't need to watch each little aspect 5 times in a row. So it can get annoying but personally he seems like a cool guy.



-Michael
 
Oct 14, 2008
46
0
I also believe Brad is a good teacher, I do however feel that the "Street Magic" DVD that E sells is a bit misleading, and when I say a bit, I mean alot. It is not very suitable for the streets. However, the Ninja DVD's are really good. I think E is really good at marketing, they have a cool website, their prices are a little on the high side but whenever I've spoken to them on the phone they have been a pleasure to deal with. I can' t however say the same for P*nguin, while their prices are lower, they are always out of stock in a ton of items and they haven't been so great to deal with over the phone.
 
Nov 27, 2008
28
0
Pittsburgh, PA
I have had many different hobbies and vocations in my lifetime. I have also had a lot of different teachers during my years. One thing I learned early on, if you are there to learn, you aint there to get chummy with the teacher. In other words, who cares if the teacher is 'cool'. If they have something to teach, pay attention and learn something. If you learn something then your time was well spent. If you liked the teacher as a person, great; if you didn’t - you still learned something.

Often times we dislike something or someone because it / they hit on something that we don’t like about ourselves (or wish we had more of in ourselves). It may also be that it / they challenge our core beliefs about something.

I have several of E's / Brads DVD's and several of T11's. I have learned something from all of them. I have also hit the fastfwd on the DVD player on DVD's from both places, meaning that the material presented just didn't appeal to me.

If your going to turn away instruction simply because you don't think the teacher looks cool enough, your loss. If you want to skip over something 'basic' simply because you know it so well not to get another take (or more information) on something, too bad. Knowledge is power, and, there is no telling where you may pick up something that will empower you.

My take on E / Brad, Brad is a good teacher. The materials are good quality. I've learned more than a few things from the material.

I see E & T11 as valuable resources, of which I'll use them all.
 
Sep 19, 2007
96
0
Australia
Guys, just take the "he hypes it up so/too much" and "he does what a 12y/o can with some practice" as a "if i can do it, you can do it better" encouragement. Really, he's just showing you how simple a trick/sleight can have such huge impact on spectators. Brad is a fantastic teacher, sure people complaint how he went over and over and over one single freakin easy slieght/move as if he'll never stop until a century later, well, that's HIS way of teaching and making sure that learners of ALL levels (especially beginners and/or first-timers) can learn it properly and thoroughly.

I adore his teaching, i love the way he went over one move ever so detailed, and covered everything you needed to know to make sure you'll learn it right and later perform it correctly. I don't mind paying for a DVD with so much details over one single move, rather than paying for one with oh so little details over a hundred moves.
 
Jul 8, 2008
144
1
35
Tintagel
i've got a few E dvds and i have always found the teaching to be great the amount of time he uses to learn each slight is great. i have never had to rewind he gradually gives you the information.

In the ninja series one of the things said was " the means justifies the end" and i have always kept that in mind. if i was going to perform in public i wouldn't do clipshifts, diagonal palm shifts ect. i would keep it simple because you can put more effort into the presentation and therefore gain better reactions other people may disagree with me but this is how i've always looked at things.

the only thing that ticked me off was in ninja 2 there was that lady that prancing around in a corset talking rubbish that was awful very cringe worthy.

-shudder-

matt
 
Dec 11, 2008
3
0
I am a relatively new to magic having only a few months of any performing under my belt, however I can completely see the value in Brad's style of teaching. Yes, he does spend a lot of time on simple sleights and techniques, but it is great reference material for the fundamentals.

Let's face it most of the magic being performed at all levels today has been written about before by someone in a book. The modernized tech being done today is very impressive, but most are clever variations and combination's of existing ideas. The people coming up with the new material are just very well educated in the classic material. They simply apply it with their years of experience to create "new" effects.

Much like learning mathematics.... you have to get proficient with the basics of addition and subtraction, and division before you can move on to Algebra and on.

The "new" idea of teaching by video is doing nothing more than giving new comers and experienced artists more ability to learn quickly with out having to read through so much material to come up with some good ideas for themselves. Just as books still have a solid place in modern magic to build a foundation on which to build new effects, videos that attempt to teach that same material should not be criticized for their simplicity, but applauded for their attempt to teach "good habits" on which to build your abilities as a magician.

So thank you Brad, and others (T11's awesome 1on1 videos for example), for "over-teaching" your methods, because a simple effect done perfectly will baffle an audience far more often than a difficult "flourishy" one poorly executed.

People don't care if you can do a perfect Pharaoh shuffle... they want you to distract them from the ordinary existence of what is tangible. If just for a second you can suspend their disbelief then you have really done something.

Simple magic is REAL magic.
 
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