I have owned both Ninja 1 and Ninja 2 for a while now, and have never seen reviews that do them justice. I know there aren't any on theory 11, so I decided to write a very in dept one. Hope you enjoy. This will be very long.
NINJA 1
Teaching: I have never had any real problem with Brad's teaching. I have heard complains that he rushes this DVD. He does, but everything is covered and that's what the rewind button is for. I got through all the material well enough.
Quality: No issues with the quality. Everything is shown clearly and The DVD's are easy to navigate and watch.
Intro: Brad says that you should be pretty advanced before you buy this, and already know the basic pass. So I don't know why I've heard so many complains about not learning the pass from this. He goes over it briefly but trust me, this is not the place to learn it initially.
Material: This is a description of everything on the DVD in order of appearance.
Basics: Brad talks about the mechanics grip and demonstrates it, just to make sure everyone is doing it correctly. He offers advice on speed and practice which I found to be very helpful.
Basic Pass: He briefly demonstrates the pass. I already knew this but I picked up a few tips that helped me improve mine. He has a slightly different handling then most professionals I have seen, and i use it now, its just easier for me.
False Cuts: Brad teaches two different false cut, one is used for table work and the other is completely in your hands. They are basically fancy double undercuts, and they look cool. I really like the table one, and I use it often.
Bullet Deal: Fun way to deal the cards. This allows you to use one hand to launch cards several feet on a table. It is really fun for card games, but doesn't serve a lot of purpose in magic for me.
Invisible Pass 1: This is a classic pass with a hand movement that makes it invisible for people staring right at your hands. It simulates squaring the cards. This is one of my favorite things from the DVD, very useful.
Alternate Passes: A few more ways of disguising the pass. I have seen more effective methods but they work pretty well. I came up with some really good moves using these ideas.
Riffle Pass: Pass that simulates riffling the cards. This takes alot of speed, which I don't have yet, but it looks excellent for someone looking straight down at your hands.
Card Control Using Jogs: Brad teaches the throw jog which is probably the most useful jog I have ever used. Very casual and works great. He also teaches the fan jog. A card is inserted into a fan and remains jogged upon squaring. I don't use this because it doesn't fit my style but I am sure alot of people will like it.
Three Cut Rotation: Another false cut, this one looks very natural and simple.
Trick Using Jog Control: Very simple trick using the previously taught jog controls. Basic way of having the spectator name a card and a number and after shuffling the card is the that number down in the deck. Kinda useless. I never used this, probably wont. It doesn't fit in with the more advanced material.
Four Ace Control and Trick: Brad teaches how to find the four aces secretly from a borrowed deck, then using false cuts to find them. Again very basic, but useful to some extent. He also gives a very terrible explanation of the erdsnase change. But its not a problem really, no one should be learning that from him.
Next he shows how to have all four aces places in different parts of the deck and controlling them. I have never seen anything like this control before, it is very cool but I don't think I will use it.
One handed Pass: I don't want to say much about it, because I don't want to reveal it. This is a very useful tool and one of my favorite passes. He offers a whole routine using this.
Vegas Card Cheat Routine: This is probably my favorite thing that I learned from this DVD. One card is displayed outjogged on the bottom of the deck, it is placed on the table and switched with another card in that process. Very easy, looks amazing, I use it all the time.
Spin Change: Interesting color change. One card is spun around in your hand and changes as it spins. Fairly difficult to do well, and kinda pointless. There are better changes out there. I use the Jonas change instead.
Live Performances: Brad has an extremely cheesy clip of him performing the one handed pass routine for a group. Looks dumb, looks staged, but hey I just skipped over this part.
Overall: I learned a lot from this DVD. It had a little of everything, I was satisfied with the purchase. I liked how it was not just a bunch of tricks. It teaches moves that can be applied to many many tricks. The price is now 30 bucks, and that seems reasonable to me.
I am working on the review for ninja 2 it will be posted soon. Thanks for reading!
NINJA 1
Teaching: I have never had any real problem with Brad's teaching. I have heard complains that he rushes this DVD. He does, but everything is covered and that's what the rewind button is for. I got through all the material well enough.
Quality: No issues with the quality. Everything is shown clearly and The DVD's are easy to navigate and watch.
Intro: Brad says that you should be pretty advanced before you buy this, and already know the basic pass. So I don't know why I've heard so many complains about not learning the pass from this. He goes over it briefly but trust me, this is not the place to learn it initially.
Material: This is a description of everything on the DVD in order of appearance.
Basics: Brad talks about the mechanics grip and demonstrates it, just to make sure everyone is doing it correctly. He offers advice on speed and practice which I found to be very helpful.
Basic Pass: He briefly demonstrates the pass. I already knew this but I picked up a few tips that helped me improve mine. He has a slightly different handling then most professionals I have seen, and i use it now, its just easier for me.
False Cuts: Brad teaches two different false cut, one is used for table work and the other is completely in your hands. They are basically fancy double undercuts, and they look cool. I really like the table one, and I use it often.
Bullet Deal: Fun way to deal the cards. This allows you to use one hand to launch cards several feet on a table. It is really fun for card games, but doesn't serve a lot of purpose in magic for me.
Invisible Pass 1: This is a classic pass with a hand movement that makes it invisible for people staring right at your hands. It simulates squaring the cards. This is one of my favorite things from the DVD, very useful.
Alternate Passes: A few more ways of disguising the pass. I have seen more effective methods but they work pretty well. I came up with some really good moves using these ideas.
Riffle Pass: Pass that simulates riffling the cards. This takes alot of speed, which I don't have yet, but it looks excellent for someone looking straight down at your hands.
Card Control Using Jogs: Brad teaches the throw jog which is probably the most useful jog I have ever used. Very casual and works great. He also teaches the fan jog. A card is inserted into a fan and remains jogged upon squaring. I don't use this because it doesn't fit my style but I am sure alot of people will like it.
Three Cut Rotation: Another false cut, this one looks very natural and simple.
Trick Using Jog Control: Very simple trick using the previously taught jog controls. Basic way of having the spectator name a card and a number and after shuffling the card is the that number down in the deck. Kinda useless. I never used this, probably wont. It doesn't fit in with the more advanced material.
Four Ace Control and Trick: Brad teaches how to find the four aces secretly from a borrowed deck, then using false cuts to find them. Again very basic, but useful to some extent. He also gives a very terrible explanation of the erdsnase change. But its not a problem really, no one should be learning that from him.
Next he shows how to have all four aces places in different parts of the deck and controlling them. I have never seen anything like this control before, it is very cool but I don't think I will use it.
One handed Pass: I don't want to say much about it, because I don't want to reveal it. This is a very useful tool and one of my favorite passes. He offers a whole routine using this.
Vegas Card Cheat Routine: This is probably my favorite thing that I learned from this DVD. One card is displayed outjogged on the bottom of the deck, it is placed on the table and switched with another card in that process. Very easy, looks amazing, I use it all the time.
Spin Change: Interesting color change. One card is spun around in your hand and changes as it spins. Fairly difficult to do well, and kinda pointless. There are better changes out there. I use the Jonas change instead.
Live Performances: Brad has an extremely cheesy clip of him performing the one handed pass routine for a group. Looks dumb, looks staged, but hey I just skipped over this part.
Overall: I learned a lot from this DVD. It had a little of everything, I was satisfied with the purchase. I liked how it was not just a bunch of tricks. It teaches moves that can be applied to many many tricks. The price is now 30 bucks, and that seems reasonable to me.
I am working on the review for ninja 2 it will be posted soon. Thanks for reading!
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