1. There's one book that comes to mind which probably references UV light and similar types of magic. In 1993, Dover republished a manual entitled Chemical Magic by Leonard A. Ford, a scientist who also had a reserved interest in magic.
2. Garrett Thomas's Ring Thing can be found in the good old-fashioned Tarbell Course in Magic, Volume 4. Granted, when the effect was originally written back then, it didn't utilize a finger ring. It used thimbles-- but regardless, the mechanics were EXACTLY the same. I wouldn't be surprised if people used rings for ages. When Ring Thing was released, I couldn't believe it was advertised as something new, because I'd known people who've done it for decades prior. That's what you buy the DVD for.
3. Live at the Jailhouse is a great DVD set. There's a lot of versatile material and real-world advice in it. But you'd be foolish to deny the fact that everything on it can also be obtained from a variety of books and lecture notes already on the market. Sponge balls, bottle appearances, basic card techniques, dollar folding-- all have numerous (countless) references in magic literature. Not to say the set ripped off material-- but it just rehashed a lot of what's already been done. Additionally-- if you're looking for specific advice on real world performing, Jim Sisti's The Magic Menu surpasses what this DVD offers ten-fold.
1. Can you confirm that it teaches everything in the Scorpion kit?
2. Garrett does acknowledge that the sleight itself is not original and sites his sources. However the routines, performance techniques, convincers, and other subtleties are his own that he developed through years of real-world work. Personally, I find his principles of making the routine look like trick photography to be a dramatic improvement on the rudimentary sleights.
3. Considering The Magic Menu ran for how many issues? Live at the Jailhouse offers what is essentially 6 lectures in one package, and it has an advantage that books and lecture notes don't have: you actually get to see these professionals perform. You get to witness their own unique ways of interacting with people, and you can watch for all the subtleties that make their performances work. And once you see something work, you can figure out why. This is second only to having one of these men as a mentor.
Again, I ask: How many of you would pay a million dollars to find long lost films of Max Malini performing in the real world? If you would tell me that you would not want to see that, you're a liar.
And you've actually brought up a point I'd like to address.
Opponents of DVDs repeatedly bring up the overlap as if its the nail in the coffin for the medium. But how many books teach how to do a Pass? How many teach how to do a bill switch? More than you or I can name. If overlap in DVDs is a cardinal sin to some of these people, why don't they complain whenever they find another book that teaches a popular utility? I honestly don't get that.
I own numerous books I've gotten a lot out of. Garden of the Strange, At the Mountains of Madness, The Book of Haunted Magick, Capricornian Tales, Mysterious Stranger.
But there's this bizarre notion going around that there not only should be, but already is a competition between books and DVDs. How many collective head wounds in the magic community does it take to buy into such a transparently bogus idea?
