Extremely Ambitious by Jay Sankey, $40
DVD , Close up card magic
Dealers purchase from Murphys Magic Supplies, Inc. (916) 853-9292 www.murphysmagicsupplies.com in the beautiful Sierra Nevada foot hills.
Jay Sankey strikes again with Extremely Ambitious, a DVD made up of many moves that can be used when performing the Ambitious Card routine. There is no specific routine provided so you will have to put together the components yourself and make up your own Ambitious Card routine or you can use the jazz approach and change it to suit your performance needs. The production is average meaning an improvement over what Sankey has put out in the past and not as good as some of the DVDs being put out by other companies. The sound is good and the camera work is fine, pretty well done over all. The menu is well done so you can select the chapters you want to review again, considering the amount of material on this disk this is a good feature to have.
The DVD is divided into sections, first is Essential Sleights, such as double lifts. Next comes openers, these would be sleights that Jay feels are good ways to get into the routine, some are very easy while others will take a great deal of work to get down. Next we have middlers, then closers. One of the closers I really found interesting, a shocking way to present the deck at the end of the routine using Paul Harris Solid Deception as the basis. The bonus material provided at the end of the DVD covers various passes. Crediting is done and Jay not only teaches but gives his thoughts on some of the moves and why they work. With some of the more difficult moves he may have wanted to give a bit more instructions but over all it is adequate.
I enjoyed this DVD and I think those wanting to learn the Ambitious Card and those new to card magic will find it to be of value to them. It isnt complete, of course, there are moves out there that Jay didnt cover including a favorite of mine created by Wesley James. I certainly learned some sleights I didnt know before and will be looking at my Ambitious Card to see if I want to make any changes. Im not a Jay Sankey fan but I think this is one of the best DVDs he has put out for practical material, Ill be watching it a few times more.