Description: If you don't know who Derren Brown is... Go. Go now and YouTube him, he's one of the scariest men on the planet. And here on this DVD is a collect of some of his old card magic and mentalist material. Contained on this 2 disc set, is the stuff that he rarely if at all performs anymore - This is not to say that the stuff is weak... By no means is that the case as we will see.
What You Get: This is a 2 disc set, one disc focuses solely on card magic - six effects to be precise - whilst the other disc will make you grow taller. I kid, the other disc actually contains a spider. No, not really, the second disc is actually 6 effects focusing on the psychological side of things.
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Disc 1 - Conjuring
Introduction: The DVD opens, with Peter Clifford walking around and stumbling over - those of you who have seen the London Collection by Guy Hollingworth just imagine a spoof of that. He then walks up to what appears to be a section of a small castle and goes inside where he meets with Derren and they begin to discuss what's on the DVD. The rapport going on between the two is like two friends just getting together and having a chat about magic, they can get very funny in places (be warned there is a tiny bit of adult humour in one place)
3 Card Routine: The first routine we come across is the longest effect in the whole set. This one has multiple phases and is designed so that you can stop at any point in the routine and it'll be a nice little climax - it is however in my opinion fantastic if you get to the end of it. The routining within it is fantastic and full of twists and turns including a psychological stop, a card at any number and cards under and into a box! This is one lengthy but well worth the learning routine.
Mike's Move: This is a utility move to control a card to the bottom of the deck. It's very quick, very smooth and done under cover of a natural motion - when done properly it renders it almost invisible (I say almost because if it was invisible no-one would be able to see it period.)
Card Under Box: No prizes for guessing what happens here! This card under box routine is a fantastic demonstration of misdirection and methodology. After the card appears under the box under impossible conditions twice, the card is kept under the spectators hand and the box placed in the performers inside coat pocket. He snaps his fingers and the card under the hand is still there... But it's no longer the selection... And on the table is now the box with the selection beneath it!
Oil and Water: This is Derren's handling of the old Oil and Water plot. It's very direct handling and very fun to perform, your spectators will swear that everything was legit! For those of you that don't know - 8 cards are used, 4 red and 4 black and they are interlaced reds and blacks. The interlaced spread is separated into two halves, each containing mixed reds and blacks and the spectator can see this. With spectators hands over the two halves, the colours are said to have separated and when they are shown this is the case! There's a second phase to this, where an extra red and black card are added and the packet mixed. The spectator selects 5 cards they think are the same colour... You've guessed it, they are. The separated packets are placed on top of each other and with a click they immediately mix up again!
Zamiel's Rose: Wow... What an effect. This one has the power to gain a physically visible emotional response from your spectators depending on who they are. The spectator picks a card and loses it in the deck - the performer tells a sob-story of how he got into the magic scene by attempting a rose production and messing up badly with petals on the floor et al. He rolls up his sleeves and proceeds to vanish the deck, then brings it back again... But this time only one card - no lapping, no topit or anything
. It's not the spectators card so he puts it away, and produces another card from nowhere.. nope, not that one... maybe another one, and another and another it's beautiful to watch. Eventually he settles on one and it is the right card. With a flick of the card, the card almost seems to melt into rose petals which fall to the floor gracefully. Just like way back when. The method behind this is stunning and you can truly see how he gets physical reactions out of this. The principle behind it also opens up for other effects such as Torn and Restored.
Smoke: One of the main reasons a lot of people buy this DVD. In Smoke a deck of cards is spread and the spectator is asked to merely think of one card that they see. When the cards are gathered up, the performer attempts to read their mind and they do, correctly naming the thought of card. One step further and the spectator can then see that there isn't actually that card in the deck even though they swear they saw it there... Nope... it's the cigarette that the performer is smoking. I love this, it's absolutely wonderful in method and it's just a really great trick overall.
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Disc 2 - Psychological
Out of This World: This one is one for the ages. It's same in effect of the original Out of This World trick in which the spectator divides the deck into reds and blacks despite the fact that they can't see the cards faces and can deal any which way they like. One thing I really like about Derren's handling of this and what I think makes it stand out is that the spectator can shuffle the deck before the trick starts. There are also some other things along the way that kind of seemingly make it truly scary.
Double Think: Now this is where we get into the gritty "omg how the hell did u do dat" world of Derren Brown. I'll briefly describe what happens. 2 Spectators are asked to think of a card, one sees one in the deck and the other merely thinks of one. The performer places two cards on the table and when they are turned face up - away from the deck I might add - they are the two cards that the spectators thought of! the method behind this is crazy... When I first saw the workings behind it I got all excited at the thought of it haha. It's 100% guaranteed to work so don't worry - this one is great for practicing predicting what people might think.
Extreme Mental Effort: My absolute all time uber "omg you crazy man" favourite effect on the DVD... It's just.. Wow. The spectator shuffles the deck, and then looks at a card by lifting up anywhere they want and looking at a card, no-one sees it but them. They shuffle the cards again and begin dealing from the top of the deck as the performer tries to read their mind as they slowly begin to get the card they shout "Now!" and the card the spectator is on is dealt to the table. They finally name the card and when the card stopped at on the table is turned face up it is also the selection. This is absolutely diabolical... It's mind shattering, really - the first time you see it you won't believe you're going to learn it and when you learn it you won't believe that you know it.
Invisible Deal: Ok, here comes the fun stuff and if you're anything like me, probably the stuff you've been waiting for. The spectator, in their minds through the process of elimination thinks of a card, no-one knows it but them. The performer makes a prediction and lays it on the table... When they reveal the thought of card, it matches the prediction. The method behind this is amazing... it's super easy and has a really high success rate you're not going to get it 100% of the time but I'd say around 97-98%.
Invisible Deal Force: This is kind of the opposite of the Invisible Deal, in that you help guide them towards choosing a card. Again when the prediction is revealed it matches. This is very similar to Invisible Deal but has a lower success rate. The method for the Invisible Deal is a much more solid method if you ask me, but this one is definitely fun to try out and see if you can get it.
Mental Forces: The final bit on Disc 2 gives you 2 verbal forces of two cards. The 3 of Diamonds and the 4 of Hearts. Derren pulls these of flawlessly, and you'd be forgiven for thinking of the cards yourself. The method is not 100% but when you get it, it feels great. Depending on the way you present it, can affect the success rate but that's explained in the DVD.
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Teaching: The teaching on the DVD is good, but can feel a little cramped at times. The two gentlemen are sat at what appears to be a study table that has a very confined space to it, and with only one camera angle it can sometimes be hard to see exactly what is happening. You are expected to know quite a bit about card handling as I don't think any one sleight is described in explicit detail. This DVD is probably moe suited for those intermediate card handlers and mentalists.
Quality: The quality of the DVD is extremely high, it's not Theory11 quality, but it's not '1fps Publishing Presents'.
Final Thoughts: This DVD is pretty cool, eh teaches good effects and doesn't afraid of anything. Seriously though, there are some absolute gems on this DVD and no doubt at least one of the items on Disc 2 will get people calling you Derren Brown.
Hope you've enjoyed the review and if there are any questions please feel free to ask. I believe there are a number of owners of this DVD around the forums so you're bound to get an answer soon!
- Sean
What You Get: This is a 2 disc set, one disc focuses solely on card magic - six effects to be precise - whilst the other disc will make you grow taller. I kid, the other disc actually contains a spider. No, not really, the second disc is actually 6 effects focusing on the psychological side of things.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc 1 - Conjuring
Introduction: The DVD opens, with Peter Clifford walking around and stumbling over - those of you who have seen the London Collection by Guy Hollingworth just imagine a spoof of that. He then walks up to what appears to be a section of a small castle and goes inside where he meets with Derren and they begin to discuss what's on the DVD. The rapport going on between the two is like two friends just getting together and having a chat about magic, they can get very funny in places (be warned there is a tiny bit of adult humour in one place)
3 Card Routine: The first routine we come across is the longest effect in the whole set. This one has multiple phases and is designed so that you can stop at any point in the routine and it'll be a nice little climax - it is however in my opinion fantastic if you get to the end of it. The routining within it is fantastic and full of twists and turns including a psychological stop, a card at any number and cards under and into a box! This is one lengthy but well worth the learning routine.
Mike's Move: This is a utility move to control a card to the bottom of the deck. It's very quick, very smooth and done under cover of a natural motion - when done properly it renders it almost invisible (I say almost because if it was invisible no-one would be able to see it period.)
Card Under Box: No prizes for guessing what happens here! This card under box routine is a fantastic demonstration of misdirection and methodology. After the card appears under the box under impossible conditions twice, the card is kept under the spectators hand and the box placed in the performers inside coat pocket. He snaps his fingers and the card under the hand is still there... But it's no longer the selection... And on the table is now the box with the selection beneath it!
Oil and Water: This is Derren's handling of the old Oil and Water plot. It's very direct handling and very fun to perform, your spectators will swear that everything was legit! For those of you that don't know - 8 cards are used, 4 red and 4 black and they are interlaced reds and blacks. The interlaced spread is separated into two halves, each containing mixed reds and blacks and the spectator can see this. With spectators hands over the two halves, the colours are said to have separated and when they are shown this is the case! There's a second phase to this, where an extra red and black card are added and the packet mixed. The spectator selects 5 cards they think are the same colour... You've guessed it, they are. The separated packets are placed on top of each other and with a click they immediately mix up again!
Zamiel's Rose: Wow... What an effect. This one has the power to gain a physically visible emotional response from your spectators depending on who they are. The spectator picks a card and loses it in the deck - the performer tells a sob-story of how he got into the magic scene by attempting a rose production and messing up badly with petals on the floor et al. He rolls up his sleeves and proceeds to vanish the deck, then brings it back again... But this time only one card - no lapping, no topit or anything
. It's not the spectators card so he puts it away, and produces another card from nowhere.. nope, not that one... maybe another one, and another and another it's beautiful to watch. Eventually he settles on one and it is the right card. With a flick of the card, the card almost seems to melt into rose petals which fall to the floor gracefully. Just like way back when. The method behind this is stunning and you can truly see how he gets physical reactions out of this. The principle behind it also opens up for other effects such as Torn and Restored.Smoke: One of the main reasons a lot of people buy this DVD. In Smoke a deck of cards is spread and the spectator is asked to merely think of one card that they see. When the cards are gathered up, the performer attempts to read their mind and they do, correctly naming the thought of card. One step further and the spectator can then see that there isn't actually that card in the deck even though they swear they saw it there... Nope... it's the cigarette that the performer is smoking. I love this, it's absolutely wonderful in method and it's just a really great trick overall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc 2 - Psychological
Out of This World: This one is one for the ages. It's same in effect of the original Out of This World trick in which the spectator divides the deck into reds and blacks despite the fact that they can't see the cards faces and can deal any which way they like. One thing I really like about Derren's handling of this and what I think makes it stand out is that the spectator can shuffle the deck before the trick starts. There are also some other things along the way that kind of seemingly make it truly scary.
Double Think: Now this is where we get into the gritty "omg how the hell did u do dat" world of Derren Brown. I'll briefly describe what happens. 2 Spectators are asked to think of a card, one sees one in the deck and the other merely thinks of one. The performer places two cards on the table and when they are turned face up - away from the deck I might add - they are the two cards that the spectators thought of! the method behind this is crazy... When I first saw the workings behind it I got all excited at the thought of it haha. It's 100% guaranteed to work so don't worry - this one is great for practicing predicting what people might think.
Extreme Mental Effort: My absolute all time uber "omg you crazy man" favourite effect on the DVD... It's just.. Wow. The spectator shuffles the deck, and then looks at a card by lifting up anywhere they want and looking at a card, no-one sees it but them. They shuffle the cards again and begin dealing from the top of the deck as the performer tries to read their mind as they slowly begin to get the card they shout "Now!" and the card the spectator is on is dealt to the table. They finally name the card and when the card stopped at on the table is turned face up it is also the selection. This is absolutely diabolical... It's mind shattering, really - the first time you see it you won't believe you're going to learn it and when you learn it you won't believe that you know it.
Invisible Deal: Ok, here comes the fun stuff and if you're anything like me, probably the stuff you've been waiting for. The spectator, in their minds through the process of elimination thinks of a card, no-one knows it but them. The performer makes a prediction and lays it on the table... When they reveal the thought of card, it matches the prediction. The method behind this is amazing... it's super easy and has a really high success rate you're not going to get it 100% of the time but I'd say around 97-98%.
Invisible Deal Force: This is kind of the opposite of the Invisible Deal, in that you help guide them towards choosing a card. Again when the prediction is revealed it matches. This is very similar to Invisible Deal but has a lower success rate. The method for the Invisible Deal is a much more solid method if you ask me, but this one is definitely fun to try out and see if you can get it.
Mental Forces: The final bit on Disc 2 gives you 2 verbal forces of two cards. The 3 of Diamonds and the 4 of Hearts. Derren pulls these of flawlessly, and you'd be forgiven for thinking of the cards yourself. The method is not 100% but when you get it, it feels great. Depending on the way you present it, can affect the success rate but that's explained in the DVD.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teaching: The teaching on the DVD is good, but can feel a little cramped at times. The two gentlemen are sat at what appears to be a study table that has a very confined space to it, and with only one camera angle it can sometimes be hard to see exactly what is happening. You are expected to know quite a bit about card handling as I don't think any one sleight is described in explicit detail. This DVD is probably moe suited for those intermediate card handlers and mentalists.
Quality: The quality of the DVD is extremely high, it's not Theory11 quality, but it's not '1fps Publishing Presents'.
Final Thoughts: This DVD is pretty cool, eh teaches good effects and doesn't afraid of anything. Seriously though, there are some absolute gems on this DVD and no doubt at least one of the items on Disc 2 will get people calling you Derren Brown.
Hope you've enjoyed the review and if there are any questions please feel free to ask.
I believe there are a number of owners of this DVD around the forums so you're bound to get an answer soon!- Sean
