Alright, I've been meaning to put up a review for this PDF that Casey kindly sent me, but I slacked off. I apologize. 
This is a collection of 5 effects that Casey has created and is a part of a larger PDF. Now onto the review.
Layout
The entire PDF was just text. The explanations for each effect was just one long paragraph detailing what to do. No photos or anything like that. Not a huge problem, but it made everything a bit difficult to follow along. At least separating them into paragraphs would be nice, but I'm sure that this will not be a problem when the final product is put out. After all, this is just a rough draft.
Effects
Conspiracy- A collectors routine where the 4 jacks find 3 selected cards. The 3 selections are placed back inside the deck outjogged while you hold the jacks. The jacks then change into the 3 selections and the outjogged cards are found to be the jacks.
Opinion- This is cool. I am not a fan of collectors routines, but this was kind of interesting. What I don't like is that for the first phase, you're basically using the same move 3 times in a row which I think is not a good idea. You could alter it to vanish it however you want; in fact, I personally don't like the way he suggests. The phase where the cards transpose was cool and something I will play around with. A decent effect.
Just Lines- A card is selected and lost.You take out your iphone/itouch and use the whiteboard app to draw random lines. You toss your device in the air the the lines form into the shape of the selected card.
Opinion- I don't own an itouch/iphone so I cannot comment on this. It uses a one time setup to make it completely impromptu. It seems like a good idea, but again, I cannot say as I can't try this.
Face in the Dirt- This is a sort of, slop shuffle type of triumph. A selected card is placed faceup in the deck and outjog as packets of cards are flipped faceup and facedown around them to create a mess of cards. With a snap, all the cards are fixed.
Opinion- I do not like this. I don't think that this is the most elegant approach towards Triumph. I think that there are better ways to approach it. It just didn't get me excited or really impress me.
Avarice- A variation on Doc Daley's last trick. The 4 aces are shown. The 2 black aces are handed to the spectator to hold while you hold onto the red ones. With a snap, the aces change places.
Opinion- I have quite a few things to say about this. One, in effect, this is the exact same thing as Doc Daley's Last Trick. To a layperson, they would look exactly the same. Two, this effect is considerably more difficult than the original without any reason for it being. This adds nothing more to the effect. There are so many extra moves added to this that it really made me wonder "why?" Third, this uses a move by Kostya Kimlat that many of you may know *coughdananddavecough* and I wondered whether or not he was given permission to teach it. In fact, Casey put up a tutorial of Avarice which also teaches this move on youtube. Hopefully he can clear this up. Overall, this handling is not the best handling of Doc Daley's Last trick and you'd much better off be using the original imo.
Making Scents- Casey's take on the Marcus Eddie's Tic-Tac effect found on T11's FIVE. A coin is slammed inside a tic-tac container and everything's handed out for examination.
Opinion- Do I like this effect? Yes. Is it original? Probably not. This is just a variation on the above effect. It's a good way to approach it, but nothing revolutionary. I like it though and is something I'll probably be using.
Overall
I think this PDF is okay. I promised to review it honestly, and I think a lot of these effects are just minor touches and changes on existing effects. I liked it, I just didn't like it a lot. Nothing truly excited me and none of them are truly original. If the finished New Beginnings book is filled with effects similar to these, I would personally hold off.
- Raymond
This is a collection of 5 effects that Casey has created and is a part of a larger PDF. Now onto the review.Layout
The entire PDF was just text. The explanations for each effect was just one long paragraph detailing what to do. No photos or anything like that. Not a huge problem, but it made everything a bit difficult to follow along. At least separating them into paragraphs would be nice, but I'm sure that this will not be a problem when the final product is put out. After all, this is just a rough draft.
Effects
Conspiracy- A collectors routine where the 4 jacks find 3 selected cards. The 3 selections are placed back inside the deck outjogged while you hold the jacks. The jacks then change into the 3 selections and the outjogged cards are found to be the jacks.
Opinion- This is cool. I am not a fan of collectors routines, but this was kind of interesting. What I don't like is that for the first phase, you're basically using the same move 3 times in a row which I think is not a good idea. You could alter it to vanish it however you want; in fact, I personally don't like the way he suggests. The phase where the cards transpose was cool and something I will play around with. A decent effect.
Just Lines- A card is selected and lost.You take out your iphone/itouch and use the whiteboard app to draw random lines. You toss your device in the air the the lines form into the shape of the selected card.
Opinion- I don't own an itouch/iphone so I cannot comment on this. It uses a one time setup to make it completely impromptu. It seems like a good idea, but again, I cannot say as I can't try this.
Face in the Dirt- This is a sort of, slop shuffle type of triumph. A selected card is placed faceup in the deck and outjog as packets of cards are flipped faceup and facedown around them to create a mess of cards. With a snap, all the cards are fixed.
Opinion- I do not like this. I don't think that this is the most elegant approach towards Triumph. I think that there are better ways to approach it. It just didn't get me excited or really impress me.
Avarice- A variation on Doc Daley's last trick. The 4 aces are shown. The 2 black aces are handed to the spectator to hold while you hold onto the red ones. With a snap, the aces change places.
Opinion- I have quite a few things to say about this. One, in effect, this is the exact same thing as Doc Daley's Last Trick. To a layperson, they would look exactly the same. Two, this effect is considerably more difficult than the original without any reason for it being. This adds nothing more to the effect. There are so many extra moves added to this that it really made me wonder "why?" Third, this uses a move by Kostya Kimlat that many of you may know *coughdananddavecough* and I wondered whether or not he was given permission to teach it. In fact, Casey put up a tutorial of Avarice which also teaches this move on youtube. Hopefully he can clear this up. Overall, this handling is not the best handling of Doc Daley's Last trick and you'd much better off be using the original imo.
Making Scents- Casey's take on the Marcus Eddie's Tic-Tac effect found on T11's FIVE. A coin is slammed inside a tic-tac container and everything's handed out for examination.
Opinion- Do I like this effect? Yes. Is it original? Probably not. This is just a variation on the above effect. It's a good way to approach it, but nothing revolutionary. I like it though and is something I'll probably be using.
Overall
I think this PDF is okay. I promised to review it honestly, and I think a lot of these effects are just minor touches and changes on existing effects. I liked it, I just didn't like it a lot. Nothing truly excited me and none of them are truly original. If the finished New Beginnings book is filled with effects similar to these, I would personally hold off.
- Raymond