VISUANTICS BY JIM PACE
Description: Visuantics is a DVD featuring a collection of brief, to the point, visual quickies by Jim Pace. Some effects are original to Jim, others are stunts collected for various sources.
Review: I'd been eyeing this DVD for a while... it looked to be right up my alley, as I love visual quickie effects and stunts. I finally buckled and bought the DVD. It didn't disappoint me, nor did it enthrall me.
The DVD lacks good editing, good structure, and is frankly rather boring to watch. The video demo for this DVD is very upbeat, fast-paced, and exciting... the DVD itself simply isn't. The picture and sound quality is fine, although the sound is rather robotic. Jim Pace performs the effects well, but doesn't teach well on this DVD. It's enough to grasp the basics of the effects but he does not go in-depth in any sense. Luckily, most of the effects are extremely easy so his instruction is not particularly confusing (with the exception of "Quick-A-Chink" which forced me to rewind and rewatch). Jim also lacks enthusiasm during the DVD... he's very quiet and seems bored for the most part. Maybe that's his personality but that added to the very monotone feel of the DVD.
The effects themselves are a mixed bag... mostly visual stuff with a bunch of sight gags and stunts thrown into the mix. It's hard to tell exactly which venue some of these effects are suited to, but I'm getting into nit-pick territory here... so, I shall move on to the effects themselves.
Crushed: This is an impromptu vanish and reproduction of a real bottle... no topits, no holdouts, no ditching. Jim teaches two methods... one with a silk and one with bare hands. In my eyes, this is painfully obvious with bare hands. But with a silk it is very effective. The DVD claims this to be a revolutionary concept but all in all, it's not that exciting method-wise. Still, I can see this playing nicely in the right venues. 7/10
Freaky Fork: A fork bending effect, naturally, in which a borrowed fork apparently bends three times. Again, nothing new and exciting, but it makes for a nice fork bending sequence. There are plenty of better bends out there. 6/10
Hat Trick: One of the highlights of the DVD, and the main reason I purchased the DVD... It's a very original quickie in which the performer visually shoves his entire arm down into a borrowed hat. This looks almost cartoonish and is extremely easy to do and practical. You'll have this one in no time. 9/10
Impromptu Princess: The old Princess Card Trick done completely impromptu with a borrowed, shuffled deck. All in all, a decent effect. I've never liked Princess in general as I feel it's a dead end trick that doesn't really seem to go anywhere. However, Jim has provided a nice version of it for an anytime, anywhere situation. 7/10
Impossible Colour Change: A downright beautiful change inspired by Jerry Andrus. This looks fantastic and is not to difficult to accomplish. It has a Winter Change feel to it. I can see a lot of people at least trying this. 9/10
Magic List: An extremely gutsy magic effect in which an object freely thought of off a list is divined by the magician. This is a risky one as the method is hidden in plain sight. However, it is very clever and Jim provides a very natural handling of it. 8/10
Mental Card Stab: A card merely thought of is grabbed out of the air among a shower of airbourne cards. Another risky one, and not 100% in effectiveness but this is another great mental quickie you can do completely impromptu. 8/10
Penzoil and Water: A great Oil and Water technique to add to your existing routine. I'm not sure how well this would play as a stand-alone but this woule be great as part of a full routine. The method is quite clever as well and flows very nicely. 8/10
Parallel Sleeve Vanish: a bare handed coin vanish that ends clean. This looks fantastic, really, and the method is satisfying, yet a tad knacky. Visually, it looks wonderful and it's overall very pleasing to pull off. 9/10
Peripheral Bounce: Jim provides the "real work" on apparently bouncing non-bouncable objects off the floow. Jim has added some worthwhile subtleties to this classic gag. It's worth your time and you may even start using the technique. I, personally, will not. 7/10
Qucik-O-Chink: A great, instantaneous coin matrix in which all four coins isn'tantly jump right up to one corner of the table. This looks great, is very surprising, and is a great addition to any coin matrix routine. I love this one. 9/10
Pocket Pen Vanish: A complete canish of a pen. You must be wearing a jacket or dress shirt to pull this off and it's not surefire. I personally did not find it visually pleasing although I'm sure, with work, it could be made into something visually beautiful. Jim's handling on the DVD seems jerky and unnecessary. 6/10
Shrinking Pen: A borrowed pen visually shrinks in to magician's hands and is visually stretched back to normal size right after. All can be examined. This is a wonderful little bit with a pen... it's a complete optical illusion but it's extremely convincing and, in my experience, always evokes laughter and looks of disbelief. 9/10
Stealing Away: A glass off a dinner table is magicall produced twice in a row. This is very standard and is my least favourite item on the DVD. It's also rather unconvincing in my opinion. Jim's objective was to apparently make the same glass appear behind a napkin twice however it is a different glass each time. I feel this to be a rather transparent effect. 4/10
The Bet: After three cards are selected and lost into the deck, the deck vanishes and those selections are visually plucked from the air. This is gutsy, along with being rather confusing. Everything happens so quickly and implicitly that's it can be hard to tell exactly what's going on, at least in the DVD performance. Someone might make good use for this but it was not my cup of tea. 6/10
BS Prediction: The magician divines a serial number on a borrowed bill... actually, he had previously predicted it! I really like this and it makes good use of a classic move. Great for restaurant work and it's also quite flexible. 8/10
TV Coin Vanish: This will take some practice... it's a bare handed coin vanish, with short sleeves. It looks great in Jim's hands and has a nice, visual reproduction too. It is, however, pretty knacky, angle sensitive, and quite similar to other coin vanishes that accomplish the same visual effect. 7/10
Walter Gibson: A super practical divination of a freely thoight-of cardm in which three cards, one of which is believed to be the spectator's freely selected card, are narrowed down to one card and that single card is indeed the free selection. There are no peeks or forces of any kind, and the magician legitimately does not know which card the spectator selected. This is extremely clever in method and very practical. My favourite part about it is that it instantly resets! You could keep doing it over and over endlessly. I love this. 9/19
World's Fastest Card Trick: A merely thought of card appears impossibly in the magician's hand. This one is not 100% surefire at all, and is also extremely gutsy. The technique is quite obvious, in my opinion, and there are much better and less confusing ways of pulling this effect off. 5/10
Honk: A technique to vocally produce a comical squeek... like an impromptu squeeker. This sounds hilarious and could be useful to some magicians, especially sponge ball junkies. I will not use this. 7/10
Overall, this is a nice offering of practical, visual, and super fast magic and stunts. Most of the material is simply decent but there are a couple of really great effects here that are worth your attention. All in all, I feel this was worth the investment. This gets an overall rating of 7/10 for me. Recommended to restaurant workers or anyone who loves impromptu quickies.
This is available at www.penguinmagic.com
Michael Kras
Description: Visuantics is a DVD featuring a collection of brief, to the point, visual quickies by Jim Pace. Some effects are original to Jim, others are stunts collected for various sources.
Review: I'd been eyeing this DVD for a while... it looked to be right up my alley, as I love visual quickie effects and stunts. I finally buckled and bought the DVD. It didn't disappoint me, nor did it enthrall me.
The DVD lacks good editing, good structure, and is frankly rather boring to watch. The video demo for this DVD is very upbeat, fast-paced, and exciting... the DVD itself simply isn't. The picture and sound quality is fine, although the sound is rather robotic. Jim Pace performs the effects well, but doesn't teach well on this DVD. It's enough to grasp the basics of the effects but he does not go in-depth in any sense. Luckily, most of the effects are extremely easy so his instruction is not particularly confusing (with the exception of "Quick-A-Chink" which forced me to rewind and rewatch). Jim also lacks enthusiasm during the DVD... he's very quiet and seems bored for the most part. Maybe that's his personality but that added to the very monotone feel of the DVD.
The effects themselves are a mixed bag... mostly visual stuff with a bunch of sight gags and stunts thrown into the mix. It's hard to tell exactly which venue some of these effects are suited to, but I'm getting into nit-pick territory here... so, I shall move on to the effects themselves.
Crushed: This is an impromptu vanish and reproduction of a real bottle... no topits, no holdouts, no ditching. Jim teaches two methods... one with a silk and one with bare hands. In my eyes, this is painfully obvious with bare hands. But with a silk it is very effective. The DVD claims this to be a revolutionary concept but all in all, it's not that exciting method-wise. Still, I can see this playing nicely in the right venues. 7/10
Freaky Fork: A fork bending effect, naturally, in which a borrowed fork apparently bends three times. Again, nothing new and exciting, but it makes for a nice fork bending sequence. There are plenty of better bends out there. 6/10
Hat Trick: One of the highlights of the DVD, and the main reason I purchased the DVD... It's a very original quickie in which the performer visually shoves his entire arm down into a borrowed hat. This looks almost cartoonish and is extremely easy to do and practical. You'll have this one in no time. 9/10
Impromptu Princess: The old Princess Card Trick done completely impromptu with a borrowed, shuffled deck. All in all, a decent effect. I've never liked Princess in general as I feel it's a dead end trick that doesn't really seem to go anywhere. However, Jim has provided a nice version of it for an anytime, anywhere situation. 7/10
Impossible Colour Change: A downright beautiful change inspired by Jerry Andrus. This looks fantastic and is not to difficult to accomplish. It has a Winter Change feel to it. I can see a lot of people at least trying this. 9/10
Magic List: An extremely gutsy magic effect in which an object freely thought of off a list is divined by the magician. This is a risky one as the method is hidden in plain sight. However, it is very clever and Jim provides a very natural handling of it. 8/10
Mental Card Stab: A card merely thought of is grabbed out of the air among a shower of airbourne cards. Another risky one, and not 100% in effectiveness but this is another great mental quickie you can do completely impromptu. 8/10
Penzoil and Water: A great Oil and Water technique to add to your existing routine. I'm not sure how well this would play as a stand-alone but this woule be great as part of a full routine. The method is quite clever as well and flows very nicely. 8/10
Parallel Sleeve Vanish: a bare handed coin vanish that ends clean. This looks fantastic, really, and the method is satisfying, yet a tad knacky. Visually, it looks wonderful and it's overall very pleasing to pull off. 9/10
Peripheral Bounce: Jim provides the "real work" on apparently bouncing non-bouncable objects off the floow. Jim has added some worthwhile subtleties to this classic gag. It's worth your time and you may even start using the technique. I, personally, will not. 7/10
Qucik-O-Chink: A great, instantaneous coin matrix in which all four coins isn'tantly jump right up to one corner of the table. This looks great, is very surprising, and is a great addition to any coin matrix routine. I love this one. 9/10
Pocket Pen Vanish: A complete canish of a pen. You must be wearing a jacket or dress shirt to pull this off and it's not surefire. I personally did not find it visually pleasing although I'm sure, with work, it could be made into something visually beautiful. Jim's handling on the DVD seems jerky and unnecessary. 6/10
Shrinking Pen: A borrowed pen visually shrinks in to magician's hands and is visually stretched back to normal size right after. All can be examined. This is a wonderful little bit with a pen... it's a complete optical illusion but it's extremely convincing and, in my experience, always evokes laughter and looks of disbelief. 9/10
Stealing Away: A glass off a dinner table is magicall produced twice in a row. This is very standard and is my least favourite item on the DVD. It's also rather unconvincing in my opinion. Jim's objective was to apparently make the same glass appear behind a napkin twice however it is a different glass each time. I feel this to be a rather transparent effect. 4/10
The Bet: After three cards are selected and lost into the deck, the deck vanishes and those selections are visually plucked from the air. This is gutsy, along with being rather confusing. Everything happens so quickly and implicitly that's it can be hard to tell exactly what's going on, at least in the DVD performance. Someone might make good use for this but it was not my cup of tea. 6/10
BS Prediction: The magician divines a serial number on a borrowed bill... actually, he had previously predicted it! I really like this and it makes good use of a classic move. Great for restaurant work and it's also quite flexible. 8/10
TV Coin Vanish: This will take some practice... it's a bare handed coin vanish, with short sleeves. It looks great in Jim's hands and has a nice, visual reproduction too. It is, however, pretty knacky, angle sensitive, and quite similar to other coin vanishes that accomplish the same visual effect. 7/10
Walter Gibson: A super practical divination of a freely thoight-of cardm in which three cards, one of which is believed to be the spectator's freely selected card, are narrowed down to one card and that single card is indeed the free selection. There are no peeks or forces of any kind, and the magician legitimately does not know which card the spectator selected. This is extremely clever in method and very practical. My favourite part about it is that it instantly resets! You could keep doing it over and over endlessly. I love this. 9/19
World's Fastest Card Trick: A merely thought of card appears impossibly in the magician's hand. This one is not 100% surefire at all, and is also extremely gutsy. The technique is quite obvious, in my opinion, and there are much better and less confusing ways of pulling this effect off. 5/10
Honk: A technique to vocally produce a comical squeek... like an impromptu squeeker. This sounds hilarious and could be useful to some magicians, especially sponge ball junkies. I will not use this. 7/10
Overall, this is a nice offering of practical, visual, and super fast magic and stunts. Most of the material is simply decent but there are a couple of really great effects here that are worth your attention. All in all, I feel this was worth the investment. This gets an overall rating of 7/10 for me. Recommended to restaurant workers or anyone who loves impromptu quickies.
This is available at www.penguinmagic.com
Michael Kras