True Astonishment

A

aJohnson

Feb 1, 2009
976
0
Manchester, UK.
To be or not to be... Oh nevermind, off topic a bit there. Ok.

I've read reviews ect... But I'd like to know what EVERYBODY who has TA thinks, so here are two questions:

1. On a scale of 1 - 10, what would you rate the products on this dvd?
2. Is it worth the money?

I'm wondering because I'm contemplating buying it.
 
C

cardmagician

Nov 12, 2008
98
0
1. I would rate the products two ways: How difficult the things are and how good they are.

10 and ..... 10.

I seriously do think that all these effects are VERY good.. exceptional.. as long as you don't mind writing on your cards, as most of the effects require it.

2. Is it worth the money... yes and even more. The easter eggs are like... little easter eggs of goodness that are scattered all over the DVD's. Most of them are from the stars of magic DVD's and are in the art of astonishment books. Some of them are new effects. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has the money and is willing to allow spectators to sign there cards. Also there are other effects that do not require cards.. just to let everyone know which are also exceptional.
 
C

cardmagician

Nov 12, 2008
98
0
Sorry about that... its a 1 or 2 on difficulty. Very easy. Things like chengs change and chengs riser are on the more difficult side but not implossible. Sorry about the confusion :p
 
Toby

Toby

Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
38
Belgrade, Serbia
1. I would give effects 9/10, because of two things. First, as stated, a lot of effects requires signed cards, destroying cards, destroying other property etc. Second, most of them requires setup that cannot be done in front of an audience, and you will have to have more than one deck on you if you want to string couple of those effects together.
But I like every effect on the set, and I mean EVERY effect. They are just great to perform and get great reactions.

2. Difficulty is really low. Everything is fairly easy. Even easier if you are intermediate with cards. Cheng's riser and Cheng's change are a bit difficult, but lets say that clipshift is far far more difficult than those things.

3. Yeah, it is totally worth the money. And even more than 300$. You can't go wrong with this set. Only way that you can go wrong is if you are purely a coin guy, because there is only one coin trick on the set, and it is coin bend.
 
shinichikudo992000

shinichikudo992000

Sep 22, 2007
764
0
Magic Mountain
TA is a must have for all magician (in my opinion), the quality of this set is 10/10 no question ask.

how difficult? C'mon it's Paul Harris nothing is that difficult

every single trick in this set make me wanna cry becuse it's too beautiful.

Get it! that's all I can say.

10/10
 
Toby

Toby

Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
38
Belgrade, Serbia
TheoryGV said:
i just think it would have made it a little easier for some tricsk if they had vebal explanations
Click to expand...

I agree, verbal explanations would have been better.
And coin bend is super easy. I don't like the way that they teach you to perform (just the way. I love the performance, if that makes any sense), but you can easily fix this yourself if you want.

But yeah, I also wanted to cry. This set is so great, that words just can't describe it...
 
praetoritevong

praetoritevong

Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
It's only easy because several of the tricks have been "dumbed down" for magicians with less ability to perform them easier. It is possible to argue that this is to the detriment of a few of the effects (but not all). Nonetheless, I do quite enjoy TA, I think it has a lot of very beautiful effects, and I personally feel it is worth the money.
 
Mat La Vore

Mat La Vore

Nov 8, 2007
1,238
3
praetoritevong said:
It's only easy because several of the tricks have been "dumbed down" for magicians with less ability to perform them easier.
Click to expand...

I think you may be misinterpreting why most of the effects are not difficult to perform. It's because they don't need to be. If you listen to what Paul Harris actually says in the interviews throughout TA you'll realize he's much more interested in coming up with a clever method that does away with moves and fishy looking sleight of hand. "The art is to conceal the art"--that whole thing. He seems to be trying to move away from suspicious moves and complex sleights and more toward something a bit more straightforward and magical looking.
 
praetoritevong

praetoritevong

Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
I understand what you're saying, but I disagree. You seem to argue that a difficult method means suspicious moves, which I don't feel is right - the implication being that difficult moves are clever, unnecessary, and suspicious. Believe me, I've watched PH in TA. My argument is simply that firstly, complex sleights do not mean suspicious moves! These sleights were no more suspicious than the current ones if performed correctly. What you're arguing is an (incorrect) generalisation that hard/complex moves = suspicious moves. Aaron Fisher performing the Gravity Half Pass is one example that comes to mind which proves this fallacy incorrect. Secondly - this does not apply to all of TA. But just because a routine is more complex, and more difficult, does not, as you imply, make the moves "fishy looking" - unless you don't practice them! However this is to the detriment to some of the effects. If you practice the difficult moves, they will not look fishy. If you (not you specifically) are like the majority of the kiddies on YouTube, your routine will look suspicious. But it's not the trick's fault. It's not because the trick was faulty - it's your fault.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mat La Vore

Mat La Vore

Nov 8, 2007
1,238
3
All I'm saying is PH's style these days seems to be less about fancy and complex moves and more about using a creative method. I hardly think that makes the material "dumbed down for magicians with less ability."

That's all.

If you disagree, that's fine.

Happy Magic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results