So here’s the story: I reviewed two DVDs by Cameron Francis, and didn’t really like either of his products. I reviewed two DVDs by David Forrest, and really liked both of his products. So here is a two DVD set featuring material from both men! I was curious. Would Forrest’s material suffer, or would he help raise the level of material from Francis? The result? Francis was still weak, and Forrest was still strong.

While you can see both men are having a good time, and that they value each other’s feedback, Francis should start learning more from Forrest. In the performances for live people, Forrest is casual, charming, and gets great reactions from his material. His ideas are fresh, his material is solid, and his card chops are world class.

However, Francis has rehashed ideas that aren’t as good as the originals, his chops aren’t as strong as they could be, and his live performances are barely mediocre. He drops cards, admits to lame jokes and weak magic moments, and his audience just sits staring through his set. In comparison to Forrest’s set, it seems even worse, because Forrest does such a great job.

Unfortunately, some of these negative traits rub off on Forrest throughout both DVDs. For example, he presents us with a coin trick where the moves are sloppy, and his hands are so cramped you’d think he was holding out several coins instead of just one. He only performs this for Francis, probably because they knew it would not fool any real person. There are also some complicated card effects that are unclear and cluttered. These moments aside, Forrest comes out on top and delivers a decent amount of smart, unique material.

As a result, I only found his material worth the asking price on these disks, so here are a few of my favorites from Forrest, since I have none from Francis.

Vol. 1

Hadron Collider: This has some funky visuals, and some interesting ideas. I’m not a fan of pretending to ‘miss’ finding a selected card, however this idea is interesting enough to use the premise as a starting point.

Limelight: This uses a simple gaff you can make yourself, and it blends a few ‘beginner’ effects into one professional grade effect.

Vol. 2

Void Voyage: An incredible visual moment that completely fooled me, combined with magic happening in the spectator’s hands. The woman in the live performance screams at the end of this routine.

The Colour of Money: This is a powerhouse routine based around using a deck of cards for a game of pool. It has several funny and powerful moments, that concludes with removing a signed card from your pocket with empty hands, then changing it into an eight ball at the end. It all makes sense from beginning to end, and if you work in a bar with pool tables, you can say hello to your new closer!

The final lesson these DVDs teach us is what to do, and what not to do. If you model yourself after Forrest, and look at Francis for what NOT to do, then you will get a real education about how to work with an audience. Everyone, including Francis, has something they can learn from Forrest on both these disks.

The material from Forrest is four star worthy, but Francis gets only one star, so the over all rating for this entire set will be three stars.