Price$29.99
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJul 28, 2011
Jump
Zheng, Frank
RSVP - Russ Stevens
(Based on 1 review)
The DVD features seven routines, including the amazing Balloon Burst effect that everyone is talking about. Imagine borrow any balloon and then burst it without touching it (your hands can be examined before and after the effect). This is bound to be used by working magicians everywhere. Also featured are some stunning routines using both coins and cards, again material that Frank uses every night in his professional work.
Yet again another magician that we at rsvpmagic are proud to bring to your attention, as this DVD features magic that you WILL use!
Contents Include:
BALLOON BURST
This is the effect that everyone is talking about. The perfect routine that gets attention from everyone in the room. Imagine asking the spectator to choose ANY balloon, which can then be examined. The balloon is blown up and held by the spectator. The magician now asks that they check his hands don't have sharp objects or chemicals concealed anywhere. This is confirmed. The magician now moves his hands slowly towards the balloon and without touching it, the balloon bursts in the spectators hands! This is a brilliant idea that uses a gimmick already in most magicians' arsenals. Best of all it re-sets almost instantly! Worth the price of the DVD alone and something that you will use all the time.
!CR
Frank's mainstay coin routine that builds and builds to a superb 3-fly piece that will leave your audiences stunned. Uses a gaff coin made by Todd Laser, but sections can be learned using just a regular coin if you wish.
BIRTHDAY CARD MAGIC
Frank's handling of the birthday card packet trick. A brilliant routine using just four cards and one very strong emotional hook!
COIN MATRIX WITH HANDS
Using your bare hands, make four coins jump from place to place in this amazing piece of magic. Using
CCD
A brilliant multi-phase routine for all card magicians.
3 COIN ROUTINE
Using three regular, ungimmicked coins and one card, you'll be able perform amazing feats of magic that will blow your audience away.
HEARTS
A performance only of Frank's Hearts Routine that shows how to make your magic different and memorable.
MATRIX WITH CARDS
A stunning four card matrix routine that you will use!
HEARTS
A performance only of Frank's Hearts Routine that shows how to make your magic different and memorable.
COIN TRANSPO
A super clean transposition of a coin into a Chinese coin, after which you can show your hands clean!
RUNNING TIME - 2 HOURS
Worldwide Playback
Reviews
(Top ▲)
For $30 you get 9 effects, a well produced DVD with no menu or lighting issues to speak of. This DVD's all going to boil down to how good are the effects.
Let me first get the minor annoyances out of the way. Though Frank Zheng is a super nice guy and a very skilled technician, he has some annoying habits. First, he seems to think that because his friend in China told him about a move that it should be credited to that same friend.
Second, he's been infected with magician-vernacular-itis . . . as in, "do me a favor, say stop" and "do me a favor and sign this card" or my all time "favorite" after a card has been signed "very good" or "fantastic" or "good job."
These are things you say to your 2 year old when they make their first poopie in the toilet, not to a spectator when they sign their name.
Finally, Zheng has an annoying habit of making whistling sounds and tongue clicks, mouth pops, etc., when the magic moment is happening . . . it was not magical, but rather quite annoying.
Minor annoyances aside, how were the effects? Below is a brief commentary preceded by a star rating on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is best; 1 is worst).
1CR (3.5 stars):
I've said it before and I'll say it again! I HATE flurry. It's not magical; It's confusing; it's a magician showing off what he thinks is his skill at coin moves that neither your audience nor I care about. So, for this effect, ignore the flurry crap.
However, there is a nice coin production and a pretty sweet moment where the one coin suddenly becomes three. The catch is that you have to own/buy a very expensive coin gimmick. If you have that gimmick or are willing to spent the $100 or so to get one, you've got a really pretty way to produce three coins for a routine.
Balloon Burst (3.5 stars):
This has the potential to be quite creepy. You literally burst a balloon without touching it. However, you have to own/buy to fairly expensive props and then break one of them. That aside, this could become a strong piece in your repertoire.
3 coins - 1 card (3.5 stars):
Using only three coins and a playing card, this is a very pretty production of three coins. However, I've seen this done before by many magicians . . . roll the card over and over and each time a coin appears under it. So it's not original and it's not credited.
Matrix with Cards (2 stars):
This is very pretty to watch . . . from one angle. It's pretty ugly from another. There's really nothing new here. It's pretty standard matrix stuff with some bad angles. The explanation was extremely painful. He over explained everything to the point where I think my blood pressure actually went up. The "backfire" at the end is pretty decent, but all in all, there's really nothing new here, and it requires that expensive coin gimmick again.
CD (3.5 stars):
This routine has it's moments. However, the overall piece is very much contrived in quite a few places. The problem with color changing deck routines is usually that you spend a lot of time "proving" the color of the deck and doing a bunch of stuff that feels overly concocted. However - and this is a big fat "however" - there are some really cool things in this routine as well. For example there is a color change of one card to another that is extremely stunning and not that hard to do. I tried it while watching the video, and with just a couple of minutes I was able to get the basic handling to work . . . certainly I'll need a ton more practice before I show it to anyone, but it seems very doable.
There's another moment where 1 card magically becomes four . . . very cool moment. The final kicker is nice as well, and allows a very free handling of a deck not allowed in most color changing deck routines. Then he had to go and ruin it by putting in two sandwich effects that are overly formulated and overly handled. It's a lot of prep work and not meant for the strolling magician. However, if you tweak the sandwiches and put some work into this, it could become a pretty solid piece in a set show.
Sponge Hearts (2 stars):
In this presentation-only section, we see a very short and standard sponge ball routine with lots of patter, very little magic and some pretty poor spectator management. You also discover that Zheng (at least in this effect) is not very good at connecting with spectators. He seems more interested in getting through the phases of the routine. Of course, the irony here is that he is using sponge hearts rather than sponge balls, and he claims that his intentions were to show us how to make a sponge ball routine very very special. However there's nothing special about getting through the phases of a sponge ball routine and not connecting with your audience. That happens all the time. Also showing his symptoms of magician-vernacular-itis he says (paraphrasing) "examine this sponge heart . . . it's a normal sponge heart, right . . ." Really? There is nothing normal about a sponge heart. Stuff like that drives me crazy. You won't learn much from watching this other than a couple of decent lines that give some justification to the props.
Matrix (Just Hands) (1 star):
I think he meant to call this one, "Michael Ammar's Shadow Coins with the addition of an expensive gimmick that takes away from the purity of the effect." It's pretty, but it's nothing new.
Birthday Card Magic (2 stars):
Zheng's handling on a marketed item is . . . well . . . ridiculously contrived. The display and handling are just ridiculous - I just can't think of a better word. If you have four cards and you want to show the faces and then lay them down on the table, you would NEVER do it anything like it's done in this effect. There are some nice moves during the color changing sequences. However, the real value for me was that I now know that this product exists. I'll use my own handling. The product is a Wild Card style effect using cards with pictures of unlit candles that become lit, and one becomes a birthday cake. It's a very good and logical presentation for Wild Card. However, I would not use Zheng's handling (with maybe one or two exceptions)
Bonus Move - Color Change Coin (1.5 stars):
Yet another use for our friend the expensive coin gimmick. This and the matrix effects using this gimmick could work with another coin gimmick that's not as expensive. However, either way, this particular change of one coin into another is not the cleanest I've seen and it's a bit noisy. It's also very familiar feeling like a lot of Zheng's material on this DVD
The average rating of each effect is 2.5 stars. The average cost of each trick is $3.33 each. Or if you count only the ones with a good star rating, then it's $7.50 per trick. That's a little steep for tricks that only got a 3.5 star rating.
Because there were some good ideas on here and some new moves, I think that this DVD just might be worth investigating. However, all the decent stuff will require further investment on your part, so we end here with a final verdict of 2.5 stars with a Stone Status of grubble (a fair amount of gem mixed in with a fair amount of rubble).
Let me first get the minor annoyances out of the way. Though Frank Zheng is a super nice guy and a very skilled technician, he has some annoying habits. First, he seems to think that because his friend in China told him about a move that it should be credited to that same friend.
Second, he's been infected with magician-vernacular-itis . . . as in, "do me a favor, say stop" and "do me a favor and sign this card" or my all time "favorite" after a card has been signed "very good" or "fantastic" or "good job."
These are things you say to your 2 year old when they make their first poopie in the toilet, not to a spectator when they sign their name.
Finally, Zheng has an annoying habit of making whistling sounds and tongue clicks, mouth pops, etc., when the magic moment is happening . . . it was not magical, but rather quite annoying.
Minor annoyances aside, how were the effects? Below is a brief commentary preceded by a star rating on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is best; 1 is worst).
1CR (3.5 stars):
I've said it before and I'll say it again! I HATE flurry. It's not magical; It's confusing; it's a magician showing off what he thinks is his skill at coin moves that neither your audience nor I care about. So, for this effect, ignore the flurry crap.
However, there is a nice coin production and a pretty sweet moment where the one coin suddenly becomes three. The catch is that you have to own/buy a very expensive coin gimmick. If you have that gimmick or are willing to spent the $100 or so to get one, you've got a really pretty way to produce three coins for a routine.
Balloon Burst (3.5 stars):
This has the potential to be quite creepy. You literally burst a balloon without touching it. However, you have to own/buy to fairly expensive props and then break one of them. That aside, this could become a strong piece in your repertoire.
3 coins - 1 card (3.5 stars):
Using only three coins and a playing card, this is a very pretty production of three coins. However, I've seen this done before by many magicians . . . roll the card over and over and each time a coin appears under it. So it's not original and it's not credited.
Matrix with Cards (2 stars):
This is very pretty to watch . . . from one angle. It's pretty ugly from another. There's really nothing new here. It's pretty standard matrix stuff with some bad angles. The explanation was extremely painful. He over explained everything to the point where I think my blood pressure actually went up. The "backfire" at the end is pretty decent, but all in all, there's really nothing new here, and it requires that expensive coin gimmick again.
CD (3.5 stars):
This routine has it's moments. However, the overall piece is very much contrived in quite a few places. The problem with color changing deck routines is usually that you spend a lot of time "proving" the color of the deck and doing a bunch of stuff that feels overly concocted. However - and this is a big fat "however" - there are some really cool things in this routine as well. For example there is a color change of one card to another that is extremely stunning and not that hard to do. I tried it while watching the video, and with just a couple of minutes I was able to get the basic handling to work . . . certainly I'll need a ton more practice before I show it to anyone, but it seems very doable.
There's another moment where 1 card magically becomes four . . . very cool moment. The final kicker is nice as well, and allows a very free handling of a deck not allowed in most color changing deck routines. Then he had to go and ruin it by putting in two sandwich effects that are overly formulated and overly handled. It's a lot of prep work and not meant for the strolling magician. However, if you tweak the sandwiches and put some work into this, it could become a pretty solid piece in a set show.
Sponge Hearts (2 stars):
In this presentation-only section, we see a very short and standard sponge ball routine with lots of patter, very little magic and some pretty poor spectator management. You also discover that Zheng (at least in this effect) is not very good at connecting with spectators. He seems more interested in getting through the phases of the routine. Of course, the irony here is that he is using sponge hearts rather than sponge balls, and he claims that his intentions were to show us how to make a sponge ball routine very very special. However there's nothing special about getting through the phases of a sponge ball routine and not connecting with your audience. That happens all the time. Also showing his symptoms of magician-vernacular-itis he says (paraphrasing) "examine this sponge heart . . . it's a normal sponge heart, right . . ." Really? There is nothing normal about a sponge heart. Stuff like that drives me crazy. You won't learn much from watching this other than a couple of decent lines that give some justification to the props.
Matrix (Just Hands) (1 star):
I think he meant to call this one, "Michael Ammar's Shadow Coins with the addition of an expensive gimmick that takes away from the purity of the effect." It's pretty, but it's nothing new.
Birthday Card Magic (2 stars):
Zheng's handling on a marketed item is . . . well . . . ridiculously contrived. The display and handling are just ridiculous - I just can't think of a better word. If you have four cards and you want to show the faces and then lay them down on the table, you would NEVER do it anything like it's done in this effect. There are some nice moves during the color changing sequences. However, the real value for me was that I now know that this product exists. I'll use my own handling. The product is a Wild Card style effect using cards with pictures of unlit candles that become lit, and one becomes a birthday cake. It's a very good and logical presentation for Wild Card. However, I would not use Zheng's handling (with maybe one or two exceptions)
Bonus Move - Color Change Coin (1.5 stars):
Yet another use for our friend the expensive coin gimmick. This and the matrix effects using this gimmick could work with another coin gimmick that's not as expensive. However, either way, this particular change of one coin into another is not the cleanest I've seen and it's a bit noisy. It's also very familiar feeling like a lot of Zheng's material on this DVD
The average rating of each effect is 2.5 stars. The average cost of each trick is $3.33 each. Or if you count only the ones with a good star rating, then it's $7.50 per trick. That's a little steep for tricks that only got a 3.5 star rating.
Because there were some good ideas on here and some new moves, I think that this DVD just might be worth investigating. However, all the decent stuff will require further investment on your part, so we end here with a final verdict of 2.5 stars with a Stone Status of grubble (a fair amount of gem mixed in with a fair amount of rubble).