Price$69.99
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedMar 02, 2007
Mix N' Mingle
Shaun McCree
(Based on 1 review)
Featured magic includes:
- MYOPIA - The ultimate comedy contact lens routine. EASY TO DO & FUNNY AS HELL!
- IMAGINATION - Shaun's own presentation of the invisible deck using a normal deck of cards! A REAL REPUTATION MAKER USING A REGULAR DECK!!!
- RAZOR SHARP - Probably the only version of this classic effect that the spectator re-sets for you!
- COLD CUT - Shaun's own one-handed flourish best described as a spin-out cut, where the card doesn't get spun it!
- COLD CUT TRANSPO - A snappy transposition ideal for a table set opening.
- BLENDO SPLIT - A superb multi-phase card splitting routine that will give you the chance to practice your Cold Cut!
- DEAD LETTER CARD - After showing a souvenir from his childhood, the magician knows the card that is selected as it was signed by the spectator in 1973! An amazing, mind-blowing routine.
- SECOND INKSTAIN - A signature fusion effect which is completely impromptu!
- HYPNOSIS - The ultimate sandwich routine.
- THE EVEN MORE PORTABLE HOLE - Fancy doing a version of the classic coin effect in mix and mingle conditions, using only the spectator's hand? Then this is for you!
- CRACKER - The spectator merely thinks of a card and using three random cards, the magician gives an uncanny portrait reading which is accurate enough to tell him the card that they had in their mind! Great for private parties.
- TREBLE TOP - Three cards are selected and found one at a time in this compact "In the hands" piece.
- MULTICHANGE - Shaun's workhorse routine performed under practically every condition, from trade shows to student parties. You will use this!
- WATCHED AMBITIOUS - Shaun's take on the classic card-under-watch concept. This always gets your audience talking!
- WHERE'S THE MATTER - The most talked about routine from Shaun's award-winning act, as two coins appear and vanish as they pass through the slot in a single playing card!
"I have known Shaun McCree ever since he turned pro 20 years ago. Everything I have seen Shaun do has been top-notch. A creator of new and exciting magic using original methods is a rarity. I can't recommend this DVD set highly enough" PETER DUFFIE
14 GREAT ROUTINES!
WORLDWIDE PLAYBACK
SHOT IN HI DEFINITION 16:9
DVD Disk 1 Running Time Approximately 1hr 43min
DVD Disk 2 Running Time Approximately 1hr 44min
Reviews
(Top ▲)
"I can only do this trick when you've had a drink or two, because otherwise you could suffer permanent psychological damage..."
Shaun McCree
These days when I pop in a magic DVD from someone I've never heard of, my expectations are fairly low. As a result, I don't have to suffer as much disappointment in my life, and there's a corresponding increase in the likelihood of my being pleasantly surprised. So how did I feel after watching the two-volume DVD set, Mix N' Mingle? Well, first of all, it's clear from the performance segments, shot in a restaurant with laymen, that Shaun McCree is a capable and affable magician whose relaxed confidence (as opposed to arrogance) puts the people around him at ease. Moreover, unlike many magicians, he listens to his audience, and he's able to react spontaneously in a way that embraces the exchange while at the same time retaining command of it. Finally, he does strong, commercial magic, and despite a tendency to tense up when he executes sleights (an issue that may be more apparent on video than it would be live), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for a real-world show. BUT, having said that, I was 62 minutes into Volume 1 of this DVD set before he convinced me that he had anything to offer magicians other than derivations, variations or adaptations of existing work. That's when he unleashed one of the better new card tricks I've seen in awhile - "Imagination" - wherein a spectator is asked to remove an imaginary card from a real deck, look at it, "remember" it, fold it into quarters (back out), then return it to the center of the deck. The magician then mimes plucking a hair from his head, apparently wraps it around the deck, then hands the non-existent end to another spectator and directs him to pull on it slowly. As he does, a folded card rises out from the middle of the upright (landscape-oriented) deck. The magician removes the card and unfolds it, showing it to be the spectator's thought-of card. The routine is completely impromptu, the rise looks great (a Harry Riser idea), and there's no thread involved.
10 minutes later, you'll find the next stand-out on this set, called "Where's The Matter?," an interesting, Jerry-Andrus type effect wherein a slot is torn in a card, then two coins vanish and reappear in various ways as they pass through it. Like Shaun's "The Even More Portable Hole" on Volume II (in which he places a "portable hole" on the back of his hand to assist in a hybrid coins-across/coin-through-hand routine), it prompted me to explore not only his handling for the effect, but also other possibilities as I was playing with the props.
The remaining two stand-outs are on Volume II - "Razor Sharp" is an extremely clean and commercial version of the Richard Himber/Scotty York razor-deck plot that makes it ideal for walkaround work. It's fully routined and includes some funny (though family-friendly) lines with the razor blades, as well as a great (and practical) stand-up deck switch by Phil Goldstein; and "Myopia" is a very commercial card routine built around the now-classic gag in which the performer suddenly seems to have trouble with his eye, then pries a contact lens from it that's about the size of wine-glass base. In Shaun's routine, the spectator is then directed to use the lens to find her chosen card by looking for her fingerprints on the back, resulting in a handful of related effects, including a great moment in which she raises the lens to look through it at the fanned deck and sees one jumbo card suddenly sticking out from the middle.
So to answer the question posed at the top of the review, I guess I felt pleasantly surprised by the end of the two DVDs, but it was a goddamn freakin' long time getting there. This set could easily have been boiled down to one impressive (four to five star!) DVD featuring "Imagination," "Where's the Matter," "Razor Sharp," "Myopia," "The Even More Portable Hole," and one or two of the remaining (stronger) variations, such as "Second Inkstain" (a real "worker's" handling for Wesley James' fusion plot). As it stands, with the contents both spread out and watered down, and the set priced at $69.50 U.S. rather than the $25 to $35 we would have paid for one DVD - three stars.
David Acer
Shaun McCree
These days when I pop in a magic DVD from someone I've never heard of, my expectations are fairly low. As a result, I don't have to suffer as much disappointment in my life, and there's a corresponding increase in the likelihood of my being pleasantly surprised. So how did I feel after watching the two-volume DVD set, Mix N' Mingle? Well, first of all, it's clear from the performance segments, shot in a restaurant with laymen, that Shaun McCree is a capable and affable magician whose relaxed confidence (as opposed to arrogance) puts the people around him at ease. Moreover, unlike many magicians, he listens to his audience, and he's able to react spontaneously in a way that embraces the exchange while at the same time retaining command of it. Finally, he does strong, commercial magic, and despite a tendency to tense up when he executes sleights (an issue that may be more apparent on video than it would be live), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for a real-world show. BUT, having said that, I was 62 minutes into Volume 1 of this DVD set before he convinced me that he had anything to offer magicians other than derivations, variations or adaptations of existing work. That's when he unleashed one of the better new card tricks I've seen in awhile - "Imagination" - wherein a spectator is asked to remove an imaginary card from a real deck, look at it, "remember" it, fold it into quarters (back out), then return it to the center of the deck. The magician then mimes plucking a hair from his head, apparently wraps it around the deck, then hands the non-existent end to another spectator and directs him to pull on it slowly. As he does, a folded card rises out from the middle of the upright (landscape-oriented) deck. The magician removes the card and unfolds it, showing it to be the spectator's thought-of card. The routine is completely impromptu, the rise looks great (a Harry Riser idea), and there's no thread involved.
10 minutes later, you'll find the next stand-out on this set, called "Where's The Matter?," an interesting, Jerry-Andrus type effect wherein a slot is torn in a card, then two coins vanish and reappear in various ways as they pass through it. Like Shaun's "The Even More Portable Hole" on Volume II (in which he places a "portable hole" on the back of his hand to assist in a hybrid coins-across/coin-through-hand routine), it prompted me to explore not only his handling for the effect, but also other possibilities as I was playing with the props.
The remaining two stand-outs are on Volume II - "Razor Sharp" is an extremely clean and commercial version of the Richard Himber/Scotty York razor-deck plot that makes it ideal for walkaround work. It's fully routined and includes some funny (though family-friendly) lines with the razor blades, as well as a great (and practical) stand-up deck switch by Phil Goldstein; and "Myopia" is a very commercial card routine built around the now-classic gag in which the performer suddenly seems to have trouble with his eye, then pries a contact lens from it that's about the size of wine-glass base. In Shaun's routine, the spectator is then directed to use the lens to find her chosen card by looking for her fingerprints on the back, resulting in a handful of related effects, including a great moment in which she raises the lens to look through it at the fanned deck and sees one jumbo card suddenly sticking out from the middle.
So to answer the question posed at the top of the review, I guess I felt pleasantly surprised by the end of the two DVDs, but it was a goddamn freakin' long time getting there. This set could easily have been boiled down to one impressive (four to five star!) DVD featuring "Imagination," "Where's the Matter," "Razor Sharp," "Myopia," "The Even More Portable Hole," and one or two of the remaining (stronger) variations, such as "Second Inkstain" (a real "worker's" handling for Wesley James' fusion plot). As it stands, with the contents both spread out and watered down, and the set priced at $69.50 U.S. rather than the $25 to $35 we would have paid for one DVD - three stars.
David Acer