Monty the Spiv

Garrett, Matthew

Professional Magic

(Based on 1 review)
The effect is you open a brand new deck of cards. You show the card in their new deck order. You shuffle and cut the pack and then tell a story using the cards. Despite the shuffles and repeated cutting of the cards throughout the routine all the cards turn up at the correct place in the story. Repeatedly as you tell the tale, you genuinely lose a card in the middle of the deck and find it again. You are able to include fancy cuts and flourishes during the course of the trick. Every card in the deck is used as you appear to show a mastery of the cards in a highly entertaining routine.

Suitable for beginners and experts. Includes Matthew's original "new deck order" gimmick cards.

DVD Contents

Start
Showcase
Live Performance
Learning the Order
Details of Order
Find the Joker
Going Past the Joker
False Cuts (1-5)
Basic Routine
Fitting Patter
Thumb Fan
Spinning Cards
Blank Fan
Sprining Cards
Pressure Fan
Shapeshifter
KM Move
Double Lift
Push Through Shuffle
Packet Vanish
Waterfall
Multiple Card Production
thumb Count: Finding the Age
Correcting the Order
Deck Switches
Preforming Conditions

"What a great idea for showing a pack in new deck order when it's actually stacked for something completely different." - Daryl The Magician's Magician

Running Time: Approximately 2hrs

Reviews

Joe Diamond

Official Reviewer

Nov 16, 2010

A classic question: Who would win in a fight?

Superman VS Batman

Alien VS Predator

Cowboy VS Astronaut

Freddy VS Jason

Sam the Bellhop VS Monty the Spiv

In the last case, Sam still comes out on top!

This DVD is an incoherent mess. We are never treated to a full performance in front of an audience, just a few clips and sections of the routine performed for different audiences. When we are back in the studio, that’s when we are walked through the whole story. He doesn’t perform it, he just goes through all the cards. Which makes me wonder what the point of the performance was.

The effect is a Sam the Bellhop type story trick that borrows many elements like ending with a straight flush, and including more fancy false cuts than you can shake a stick at. The story isn’t as good as Sam the Bellhop, and isn’t that different.

The moves are executed well enough and taught pretty well in some cases. Matthew Garret has chops, and from the short clips of the trick, he is a also a decent performer. As a teacher, he doesn’t give us the information in a sensible way sometimes. Everything from not showing us a complete performance, to showing us a card production sequence several times, then not teaching it. The moves are well taught, but are taught better in other sources.

The DVD also supplies a gimmick that allows you to apparently show the deck in new deck order fresh out of the case. Now, this is a slight exaggeration, you can only show apparently all the spades in order out of a sealed card case. After that, you can go into the routine almost instantly. This is a worthwhile idea, but it isn’t taught on the main part of the DVD. It’s in a separate bonus section. If you like the sound of that, then this might be worth your consideration.

For those looking to learn a storytelling effect, I’d recommend not picking this up. For the same asking price, you can get Bill Malone’s DVD that teaches you his handling of Sam the Bellhop, plus six other routines. For ten dollars less, you can get L&L’s Storytelling Deck DVD and get several stories that are better.

Tune in next week as Sam the Bellhop takes on Stan, Kate, & Edith!
(Top ▲)