Jay Sankey has a jam session for a weekend of magic with three unknown magicians named Eric Leclerc (who I was in a magic competition against last week ), Jeff Stone, and Joe Diamond, all whom have created some great magic! There are a few flop effects in here, but my review of each follows:
Uniquely (Sankey): The Torn corner of a selected card and a signed coin transpose impossibly. This is quite possibly one of the best effects on the DVD. ****
Razor Burn (Leclerc): A Shaving razor instantly changes into a real matchbook! Hands empty and all. Fabulous! ****
Jacked Up (Stone): A cool Colour Changing Deck routine. Really great! ****
Super Sharped (Diamond): A cute impromptu effect where a signed coin ends up in the cap of a Sharpie marker, and it is then revealed that the coin is too big to fit in the cap! ***
Shy Guys (Leclerc): An extremely visual Twisting The Aces effect based on that of Guy Hollingworth. *****
King-Side Castling (Stone): After the magician mysteriously and magically removes a signed King from a packet of four kings, all other cards in use are revealed to have been changed to blank cards! Uses a few gaffs, but very simple and very effective. ***
Magi (Sankey): A great Sandwich effect with a twist! ***
Visa Card (Diamond): A great mentalism/comedy effect! ****
This N' That (Leclerc): Eric's version of the 8 Card Brainwave. ****
Dream Vacation (Stone): A signed coin magically appears in a just examined film canister. Really effective and very simple. *****
Solo (Sankey): Strong card effect that is as simple as card magic gets. *****
Great Scott (Diamond): A signed card appears folded up behind the magician's watch! A great little effect. ***
Straight From The Heart (Leclerc): A cool utility item to have on you. Make a business card or virtually anything rise out of your breat pokcet on your jacket. Fantastic! *****
Coolest Ace Trick In The World (Stone): After all of the aces in a packet change to the chosen ace, they take on another stunning transformation. It is a bit flawed, but a very good effect. ****
50:50 (Sankey): Two quarters and a Half Dollar change places in this multi-phased routine. Really good! ****
Loose Ink (Diamond): The ink on a signed card melts onto the face of a black card. Ntohing new here, but Joe's presentation makes it suitable. ***
Key-O-Nee Bul-O-Nee (Stone): A key on a ring of three keys is pulled off, vanished, and shown to have reappeared back onto the keyring among the other two keys. All in the spectators hands! A great impromptu effect! ***
ILUS System (Leclerc): A brilliant comeback for all of those stupid questions and remarks that are made to magicians. Fabulous! *****
T-Bone (Sankey): In a fashion similar to the card set of Card Warp, a card is torwn and restored almost intantly. Fabulous and so easy! ****
Final Cap In Bottle (Leclerc): An almost completely impromptu version of the Cap In Bottle. I indepenently created this EXACT effect, but Leclerc beat me to it. It's a shame too, because it is so darn good! *****
I have done Razor Burn, Jacked Up, Dream Vacation, Super Sharped, Solo, Coolest Ace Trick, and T-bone, all to great reaction. They are just fun little tricks to do whenever, no real worker's pieces on this DVD. I have also done Final Cap In Bottle, but that was before when I thought I had been the first to create it.
Most effects are impromptu, but those that require gaffs are:
ILUS System
Straight From The Heart
King Side Castling
This N That
Loose Ink
Visa Card
Shy Guys
Key-O-Nee Bul-O-Nee
They are very simple gaffs that can be obtained quite easily or made at home. Effects that require a bit of preparation are:
Final Cap In Bottle
Razor Burn
Jacked Up
Uniquely
Coolest Ace Trick
The set up on most is very minimal. The others are almost totally impromptu, which I like.
Overall, I give this DVD a 7/10. Some effects are lacking of some key elements of good magic, while most are great. I recommend you focus on the magic of Stone and Leclerc, because it is the strongest, most original, and best of the bunch.
Diamond has a few good ideas here, but are nothing really too new. However, I did quite like Visa Card and his handling of The Coin In Pen Cap called Super Sharped was quite nice. Loose Ink was basically ripped off, and Great Scott was a good way to produce a signed card from an impossible location that had a good presentation.
Eric Leclerc's material is nothing less than brilliant. He fooled me badly with Razor Burn when I first bought the DVD, and I have laughing long and hard when I went to the Teaching Section moments later. So simple, but genius!. I was watching it at a great magic convention, one that, ironically, I found out he was attending as well. In fact, Leclerc competed against me in Close Up! Anyways, back to the material: Leclerc's ILUS System is very creative and original, something every walkaround magician should have on them. And his Cap In Bottle is great too. I actually indepentently re-created his effect, only later did I find out he had beat me too it. Wish I had thought of it first, it is that good! Shy Guys is a lo-tech version of Guy Hollingworth's Twisting The Aces that is as confusing as hell... but well worth the confusion.
Jeff Stone's material has a very distinctive feel about it... Very raw magic that hits and hits hard. His Coolest Ace Trick is pretty darn cool, and Dream Vacation is a fantastic, interactive routine that can play for as long as you can make it play for. Jacked up is also genius!
Jay Sankey's magic is a mixture of good effects and bad effects. Uniquely is simply great and very simple. I love how all of the item's elements come into play to make the effect more direct and flowing. And the transpo of the card's corner and the signed coin is very cool. Solo is card magic in the simplest form made into a very strong routine. I never knew a simple Double Lift could be so strong. T-Bone is probably the easiest Torn and Restored Card effects around, but it is also very strong. This could be a great phase of a Card Warp routine.
Very creative magic by a bunch of VERY creative guys! I wish Jay would do UNDERGROUND JAM JR. so some of us young creators could get in on the action!
Hope you enjoyed my review! Questions? Comments?
Thank you!
Michael Kras
Uniquely (Sankey): The Torn corner of a selected card and a signed coin transpose impossibly. This is quite possibly one of the best effects on the DVD. ****
Razor Burn (Leclerc): A Shaving razor instantly changes into a real matchbook! Hands empty and all. Fabulous! ****
Jacked Up (Stone): A cool Colour Changing Deck routine. Really great! ****
Super Sharped (Diamond): A cute impromptu effect where a signed coin ends up in the cap of a Sharpie marker, and it is then revealed that the coin is too big to fit in the cap! ***
Shy Guys (Leclerc): An extremely visual Twisting The Aces effect based on that of Guy Hollingworth. *****
King-Side Castling (Stone): After the magician mysteriously and magically removes a signed King from a packet of four kings, all other cards in use are revealed to have been changed to blank cards! Uses a few gaffs, but very simple and very effective. ***
Magi (Sankey): A great Sandwich effect with a twist! ***
Visa Card (Diamond): A great mentalism/comedy effect! ****
This N' That (Leclerc): Eric's version of the 8 Card Brainwave. ****
Dream Vacation (Stone): A signed coin magically appears in a just examined film canister. Really effective and very simple. *****
Solo (Sankey): Strong card effect that is as simple as card magic gets. *****
Great Scott (Diamond): A signed card appears folded up behind the magician's watch! A great little effect. ***
Straight From The Heart (Leclerc): A cool utility item to have on you. Make a business card or virtually anything rise out of your breat pokcet on your jacket. Fantastic! *****
Coolest Ace Trick In The World (Stone): After all of the aces in a packet change to the chosen ace, they take on another stunning transformation. It is a bit flawed, but a very good effect. ****
50:50 (Sankey): Two quarters and a Half Dollar change places in this multi-phased routine. Really good! ****
Loose Ink (Diamond): The ink on a signed card melts onto the face of a black card. Ntohing new here, but Joe's presentation makes it suitable. ***
Key-O-Nee Bul-O-Nee (Stone): A key on a ring of three keys is pulled off, vanished, and shown to have reappeared back onto the keyring among the other two keys. All in the spectators hands! A great impromptu effect! ***
ILUS System (Leclerc): A brilliant comeback for all of those stupid questions and remarks that are made to magicians. Fabulous! *****
T-Bone (Sankey): In a fashion similar to the card set of Card Warp, a card is torwn and restored almost intantly. Fabulous and so easy! ****
Final Cap In Bottle (Leclerc): An almost completely impromptu version of the Cap In Bottle. I indepenently created this EXACT effect, but Leclerc beat me to it. It's a shame too, because it is so darn good! *****
I have done Razor Burn, Jacked Up, Dream Vacation, Super Sharped, Solo, Coolest Ace Trick, and T-bone, all to great reaction. They are just fun little tricks to do whenever, no real worker's pieces on this DVD. I have also done Final Cap In Bottle, but that was before when I thought I had been the first to create it.
Most effects are impromptu, but those that require gaffs are:
ILUS System
Straight From The Heart
King Side Castling
This N That
Loose Ink
Visa Card
Shy Guys
Key-O-Nee Bul-O-Nee
They are very simple gaffs that can be obtained quite easily or made at home. Effects that require a bit of preparation are:
Final Cap In Bottle
Razor Burn
Jacked Up
Uniquely
Coolest Ace Trick
The set up on most is very minimal. The others are almost totally impromptu, which I like.
Overall, I give this DVD a 7/10. Some effects are lacking of some key elements of good magic, while most are great. I recommend you focus on the magic of Stone and Leclerc, because it is the strongest, most original, and best of the bunch.
Diamond has a few good ideas here, but are nothing really too new. However, I did quite like Visa Card and his handling of The Coin In Pen Cap called Super Sharped was quite nice. Loose Ink was basically ripped off, and Great Scott was a good way to produce a signed card from an impossible location that had a good presentation.
Eric Leclerc's material is nothing less than brilliant. He fooled me badly with Razor Burn when I first bought the DVD, and I have laughing long and hard when I went to the Teaching Section moments later. So simple, but genius!. I was watching it at a great magic convention, one that, ironically, I found out he was attending as well. In fact, Leclerc competed against me in Close Up! Anyways, back to the material: Leclerc's ILUS System is very creative and original, something every walkaround magician should have on them. And his Cap In Bottle is great too. I actually indepentently re-created his effect, only later did I find out he had beat me too it. Wish I had thought of it first, it is that good! Shy Guys is a lo-tech version of Guy Hollingworth's Twisting The Aces that is as confusing as hell... but well worth the confusion.
Jeff Stone's material has a very distinctive feel about it... Very raw magic that hits and hits hard. His Coolest Ace Trick is pretty darn cool, and Dream Vacation is a fantastic, interactive routine that can play for as long as you can make it play for. Jacked up is also genius!
Jay Sankey's magic is a mixture of good effects and bad effects. Uniquely is simply great and very simple. I love how all of the item's elements come into play to make the effect more direct and flowing. And the transpo of the card's corner and the signed coin is very cool. Solo is card magic in the simplest form made into a very strong routine. I never knew a simple Double Lift could be so strong. T-Bone is probably the easiest Torn and Restored Card effects around, but it is also very strong. This could be a great phase of a Card Warp routine.
Very creative magic by a bunch of VERY creative guys! I wish Jay would do UNDERGROUND JAM JR. so some of us young creators could get in on the action!
Hope you enjoyed my review! Questions? Comments?
Thank you!
Michael Kras