Easy to Master Magic Tricks by Las Vegas Greatest Magicians

[Bill Duncan]

Easy to Master Magic Tricks by Las Vegas Greatest Magicians (DVD)
Various Artists
MSRP $35.00
Dealers purchase from Murphys Magic Supplies, Inc. (916) 853-9292 www.murphysmagicsupplies.com

Im not really sure if Genii readers will be interested in this video, but with the holiday season only a few short months away who knows? Its a collection of beginners magic tricks, taught by pros from Vegas. Its the sort of thing you might expect to see sold in the lobby of theater thats playing a magic extravaganza somewhere on the strip.

The video teaches tricks you already know, mostly, or at least tricks you already know of. This nice thing about having a video that teaches tricks like this is that if you have never actually tried or seen Clippo, youll finally see what the fuss was about, all those years ago. Often, we read about these tricks in books and remember how they work, but never take the trick to perform them. Seeing them done might change that. Plus its kinda fun to watch folks like Jeff Hobson and Joseph Gabriel doing tricks you learned when you were a Cub Scout.

There are thirteen tricks taught, almost all of which can be done by a beginner with only a bit of practice. There is even some minor sleight of hand taught, which I think broadens the age range who might benefit form this collection. I first began looking for magic books at about twelve. If Id received this video then, I think I would have been very happy with it.

Jason Baney offers a nice bit of mentalism that fooled my magicsavvy wife, and the old Chinese Prayer Vase (here called the Vase of India). Dan Sperry teaches the prediction of a playing card (using the envelope addon), and a pencil through dollar effect that uses a hole, and a topological assumption as its method. Losander teaches the paddle move, and the version of the jumping rubber band when you twist a second band around all four fingertips to lock the first band inside. Jeff Hobson explains a card location and Clipped, the dollar bill and paperclips trick. Joseph Gabriel begins with Clippo, then floats a pencil out of a bottle and causes a finger ring to climb the pencil. Roy Shank teaches a sleight of hand cigarette vanish, and reproduction (using a stick pen instead of a cigarette), and the torn and restored paper. We also see the old gag of vanishing a pen behind your ear while tapping a coin. The coin vanishes too, ditched as you expose the vanish of the pen. Good stuff really.

There is also some good advice on this video. Mr. Sperry, for example, recommends that when you force the card, that you use, say, the two of hearts because you will meet people who dont know what a spade is This sort of stuff doesnt often make it onto beginner instructional media, and it made a positive impression on me.

The instruction is good, the video quality is very good, and the sound levels remain constant. While its sad that I even feel a need to mention these things, its important to know that you are getting a quality product since you may be purchasing this for someone else. The packaging has a tacky look to it, but who knows, that might be part of its charm.