Professional Opportunist by James Brown - My Review

[akirafist]

Professional Opportunist by James Brown - My Review

Buy it:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/specialorderproduct.php?ID=11852
http://www.penguinmagic.com/specialorderproduct.php?ID=11853

Demos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKK4E2rNxn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpk_myMvPIM

Price: $47 for both, after discount

I certainly love James Brown (not the singer). His misdirection is precisely timed, techniques are practiced into perfection and his actual tricks aren't all that complex. In fact most are easy to learn, but take a while to master while still capturing the imagination of the audience. James thrives on stun-building as I call it, which is hit the spectator with something amazing, then again, and again until their mind is blown. Backtracking is impossible when you're confused throughout the entire effect.

My only complaint is the price. Bullets After Dark (2 disc) was $26, Party Animal (2 disc) was $41. And here's the kicker, if you had ordered it off Russ Steven's site, it costs $70 for both, which is the same price as Paul Gordon's Card Startlers 3-DVD set which contains 47 tricks and 5 hours of commercial material.

Enter Professional Opportunist ...

The DVD Volume 1 - One hour, 52 minutes

Production value on the DVD is AMAZING. Russ Stevens if he's actually doing the post-production has mastered a whole new level of Adobe After Effects. The 3-D cubes whirling around showing video inside each individual square, zooming sounds, everything is beautiful. Music is OK to average, and sounds like something you'd download at freeplaymusic.com.

The DVD is shot in Illusions Magic Bar (explanations are done at the bar after 3am):

http://www.illusionsmagicbar.co.uk

Which is billed as "the UK's only Magic Bar". Lighting is perfect, camera work is excellent and of course James picks out the hot blonde girls with big boobs as much as possible.

Introduction
Box Clever - Performance 1
Box Clever - Performance 2
Box Clever Explained
Box Clever - The Side Steal

Box Clever - 13 mins

Standard James Brown effect. Card is selected, jammed under the box, then the pack is under the box, then the card is in the box, and finally the pack is inside the box. This appears to be "Card Under Box" from "Still Fancy A Pot Of Jam?" with some added features. Requires a side steal:

http://archive.denisbehr.de/archive/resultbook.php?book=89

Ithwich Performance
Ithwich Explained

Ithwich - 17 mins

Stands for "In the hands sandwich". A card is selected and appears between the two queens inside the spectator's hands. James uses this because he wanted a very clean sandwich effect to happen inside the spectator's hands. Inspired by John Carey, and also uses the Convincing Control which is an easy sleight:

http://archive.denisbehr.de/archive/route/entries.php?url=10,745,463,543,544

Beautiful, quick effect to stun the audience. Commercial in every way, and reactions are huge.

Ithwich - controlling a spectator

Ravi Meyer joins James Brown in explaining the psychological aspects of Ithwich, which is necessary because the effect happens inside the spectator's hands. He also introduces some waking hypnosis principles (repeatedly telling the spec what to do). Not sure if I prefer them squishing the Jesus out of my cards as opposed to just instructing them to not open their hands, but ok.

Omni Present - Performance 1
Omni Present - Performance 2

He tells the blondes with huge boobs "thanks for bringing the misdirection with you!" ... haha

Omni Present - Performance 3

He adds in a watch steal (which gets 3x better reaction than the actual trick), and gets a kiss (awww).

Omni Present Explained

Omni Presentithwich

Spectator freely chooses a card, which then appears inside their hand along with the Omni Deck (which is out of stock at Hocus Pocus, MJM and Penguin):

http://www.penguinmagic.com/specialorderproduct.php?ID=3389

instead of the regular deck of cards, which has disappeared.

Ravi Meyer joins James Brown again for the explanation section (I like him, he asks good questions). Very easy effect with a nice kicker end.

Caught Three Times - Performance

Two performances, one at a bar and one standing with a group of people. James does Card Under Watch on the 2nd performance (which goes back to James' comment in Fancy A Pot Of Jam? to the effect of "If you're not doing Card Under Watch, you're on crack". Or something similar.

Caught Three Times - Alternate Ending
Caught Three Times Explained

Caught Three Timesithwich

Three different spectators choose a card, memorize it then place back into the deck anywhere they'd like. One by one each card appears sandwiched between two face up cards in the deck. Uses culling, but thankfully only one card at a time and is fairly simple/easy. The routine looks squeaky clean, almost like the magician is not doing anything at all with the cards. Each phase reinforces this by becoming more hands off for you, and into the spectator's hands. Great presentational wording and timing makes this a winner.

Reverse Engineering Performance
Reverse Engineering Explained

Reverse Engineeringithwich

Thought of card to pocket, but with two cards. The first spectator memorizes a random card from the deck, then the second names a random thought of card. You then reveal the first card, and better yet, the second card's been in your pocket the whole time. Not sure if I'll ever use this, not my style.

Cerebral Steal Performance
Cerebral Steal Explained

Cerebral Stealithwich

Spectator looks at a card, then you cause them to forget it. Afterwards, spectator names a random card from their mind, and it turns out to be the one inside their hand. Uses timing, wording, NLP principles, poking the spectator upside the head and hypnosis speech for the amnesia. Also uses an idea from Kenrick Cleveland on instant amnesia. The whole idea cracks me up since spectators DO forget cards - a lot. So now you're assisting in a natural process! Now keep in mind, this IS NOT Manchurian Approach style. Instead, it's presented as more of a magic effect byproduct with the cards.

James spends a lot of time on "when tricks go horribly wrong" and includes a video of Cerebral Steal epic failing during a performance at the bar. Dunno why but they include a loud and very annoying springing sound over and over during this. Afterwards, James zooms back into the studio to explain what to do after a failure.


The DVD Volume 2 - One hour, 37 minutes

Thought Of Triumph
Thought Of Triumph Explained
Thought Of Triumph - Alternate Ending
Taking Advantage of a Situation

Thought Of Triumph

Based off Kostya Kimlat's "Culligula Triumph" (2001) from his Roadrunner Cull DVD. Spectator selects a card at random from their mind, then watches as the magician mixes face up into face down cards, making a mess. He then spreads the cards, asking if they can see their card in the face up pile. The cards all magically turn the same direction, sans one card which is the spectator's thought of card.

Multiple culling combined with another sleight make this an effect I won't ever use. Even the audience looked bored.

2 Color Separation

Performance of Kostya Kimlat's "Unshuffling the Colors" (2001) from his Roadrunner Cull DVD

Hypnotic Induction using magic

Performance of an impromptu hypnosis session at the bar. Uses material from the ever so popular Manchurian Approach DVD set, which I reviewed here:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=154958

This literally lasts forever, like 17 minutes between the two "performance only" sections. Damn ...

Thought Stealer

You utilize the hypnosis principles to peek at a thought of word. But what's missing is the HOW TO HYPNOTIZE THEM part, eh? Plus if they're not wearing a jacket, now you're reaching into their pants pocket which is awkward at best (and will get you slapped at worst). Especially if the hypnosis epic fails, which it probably will unless you've practiced it a lot, and obtained another DVD or book with instructions on the HOW TO.

Burn Performance
Burn Explained

Burn

Very simple trick where the spectator picks a card, then holds it between their hands. You give them instructions on their hands getting hot, and their inability to separate them. I laughed when he kept saying "hotter and tighter", but hey I'm dirty like that. If I'm gonna pre-burn a card, I'd rather do Sankey's burned card effect which is 5x better than this simplistic one. Also uses "touch a card" which I hate, since every spectator with a pulse tries to take it instead. I was not even remotely impressed.

Triple Whack Performance
Triple Whack Explained

 

[akirafist]

Triple Whack

Three spectators "touch a card" then peek at it by lowering their heads to see under the deck. You explain that they should perform some type of "whack a mole" ritual on the card if they see it go down on the table. Everybody whacks at once, revealing they all chose the same card. Then you point to the ceiling to show the card has disappeared, and magically is glued up there.

Based on Paul Harris' Whack My Pack. Kinda cute trick, but I started laughing when their card that mysteriously zoomed to the ceiling was signed by "Tim" when in reality it wasn't signed at all as the spectators saw it. Kinda cute I guess.

Underhanded Performance
Underhanded Explained

Underhanded

Spectator chooses a card as you riffle through, then is given the deck to shuffle. After he imagines the card moving to his other hand, he looks over to see there's a card suddenly under their other hand, which of course is their chosen card.

Cool, easy and bold trick. I loved this.

Thought Of Card Under Watch Performance 1
Thought Of Card Under Watch Performance 2
Thought Of Card Under Watch Performance 3
Thought Of Card Under Watch Explained

Thought Of Card Under Watch

Spectator thinks of any card, which magically appears folded under their watch. Excellent trick and quite easy to do as well. Almost makes up for the incredible amount of padding at the beginning of DVD 2. The misdirection is perfectly timed, during a huge moment where everybody is gaping at this card that suddenly appeared under their watch. I'm definitely using this. No doubts.

Professional Opportunist?

James explains the title of this DVD set.

Production Credits

Conclusion

DVD #1 was WELL WORTH the $23. Caught Three Times by itself was enough to justify my purchase. However DVD #2's good tricks were not enough to stop the sinking ship of padding that filled the remainder of that DVD.

Overall I highly recommend DVD #1, skip the second.


The official spam:

Along the way watch as James makes cards appear underneath people's hands, makes a playing card held by the spectator HOT, makes the entire deck sort itself out and then makes a THOUGHT of card appear under the spectator's watch. ANY CARD! This is reputation making magic and you'll see just how great it really is by the reactions they get! After the performances, stay after hours and join James and as they discuss every routine in intricate detail.

These DVDs are without doubt some of the finest that we at rsvpmagic have produced. Every routine is a usable piece for every working magician and best of all is that you only need to supply a deck of cards!

Contents Include:

BOX CLEVER
A freely chosen card, which can be signed, vanishes from the deck multiple times, appearing under the card case, inside the card case and finally the entire deck jumps into the case! ALL DONE WHILST THE SPECTATOR IS HOLDING THE CARD CASE!

ITHWICH
Two cards are cleanly shown and placed onto the spectators hands. AFTER this a card is freely chosen and almost instantly vanishes from the entire deck and appears BETWEEN the two they are holding! Superb stuff.

OMNI PRESENTITHWICH
A card is chosen and SIGNED. The spectator is now given the deck to hold and told to imagine that the entire deck has suddenly become transparent and that the only card they can see, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DECK is their card! A fantasic pseudo hypnosis routine.

CAUGHT THREE TIMESITHWICH
Three selected cards appear sandwiched, one at a time, between two court cards under impossible conditions!

REVERSE ENGINEERINGITHWICH
Two thought of cards are devined under impossible conditions. James now takes the audience back in time showing that one card placed in his pocket at the start of the routine is one of the selections!

CEREBRAL STEALITHWICH
The spectator choses a card and is then made to lose all memory of it! This is then followed by an impossible mind read by the magician. Strong and reputation making magic!

PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNISTITHWICH
Learn just what it means to be a "Professional Opportunist". Join James and Ravi for a bonus section in which they discuss how to make the most of your environments when performing magic.

CONTROLLING A SPECTATORITHWICH
James and Ravi discuss and explain just how to attain perfect audience management from your spectators at all times. Using a mixture of magicial techniques and body movements, you'll learn just how to make these techniques work for you too.

THOUGHT OF TRIUMPH
The deck is shuffled face up into face down and the spectator THINKS of one card. The whole deck now turns face down except for their selection!

BURN
A card is selected and placed onto the spectator's hand. Suddenly their hands are now stuck together and slowly heat up. When they open their palms, the selected card is now seen to have a burn mark on it. A superb update on the old ash trick.

TRIPLE WHACK
Three cards are freely selected by three people. The cards are dealt onto the table for the spectators to slam their hands onto their cards when they see them. All spectators chose the same card! This card (signed) instantly vanishes and appears on the ceiling above them... Stunning magic!!!

UNDERHANDED
A chosen card appears UNDER the spectators hand!

2 COLOR SEPERATION
A card is selected and shuffled into the deck. The cards are shown face up by the magician and cut into two piles. Amazingly, they have now seperated into Reds and Blacks and their card is now in the pile they freely choose as the only card of that color in the spread! PERFORMANCE ONLY - JAMES BROWN'S TAKE ON KOSTYA KIMLAT'S "UNSHUFFLING THE COLORS" FROM "ROADRUNNER CULL' DVD

HYPNOTIC INDUCTION
Watch James use some of the magic explained on Volume 1 to induce a hypnotic state. Features a brilliant version of 'Cerebral Steal' using a thought of word. Great stuff!

THOUGHT OF CARD UNDER WATCH
Card under watch goes to another level! The spectator freely THINKS of any card which instantly appears UNDER THEIR WATCH. Simple, clean and direct as it reads... SUPERB!