Rubber Bang!
Young, Sean
Magic Soul
(Based on 3 reviews)
With Rubber Bang, Sean Yang makes his magical DVD debut to teach you how to do all of this AND MORE. Each trick comes with complete step-by-step instructions, down to such basics as how to select rubber bands and perform a controlled shuffle, so that even the most novice magician will be able to pull these tricks out of his hat in no time flat. The DVD also includes mock performances by Sean Yang himself, so you can see each trick in the hands of an expert magician before putting it in to action on your own. No need to worry about coming up with a new performance script!
With Rubber Bang by Sean Yang, acquiring a new array of energetic and engaging tricks... is a SNAP!
9 Amazing Effects using Rubber Bands and Playing Cards
BASIC Shuffle and Control CONTENT Yang Gun G Spot Snap Shoot Just Blow SeanWich Sy Pyramid Challenger Bang! Bang! Bang! BONUS Sy Change
"Rubber Bang is a real worker. I can see using this one in my own work."
- Eric Jones
"This is the Ultimate Lecture Using Rubber Bands and Cards. These are very very clever tricks. I love them so much."
- Zeki ( the winner of FISM 2012 )
"Pyramid is the coolest and most unique ace production I've seen. I'm definitely performing it at my next show."
-Shin Lim
"Yang Gun is one of the best effect created using rubber band and cards to date."
- G.
"Rubber Bang is so intriguing. I believe it's an exciting trigger for every fan of rubber band magic!"
- Hanson Chien
Reviews
(Top ▲)
PROS
Awesome DVD! This is so unique and creative. I just love what he has done with rubber bands and a deck of cards.
While there are several different uses for the rubber bands and the cards, the card gun effects where the rubber band shoots a card out of a "gun" made of cards is simply brilliant magic!
CONS
The DVD is in Taiwanese with English subtitles. I found the explanation with subtitles totally effective in teaching the effects and routines.
VERDICT
Excellent DVD, very unique and creative use of rubber bands and a deck of cards.
Awesome DVD! This is so unique and creative. I just love what he has done with rubber bands and a deck of cards.
While there are several different uses for the rubber bands and the cards, the card gun effects where the rubber band shoots a card out of a "gun" made of cards is simply brilliant magic!
CONS
The DVD is in Taiwanese with English subtitles. I found the explanation with subtitles totally effective in teaching the effects and routines.
VERDICT
Excellent DVD, very unique and creative use of rubber bands and a deck of cards.
(Top ▲)
Rubber Bang is an excellent and high quality instructional DVD that teaches nine tricks using both rubber bands and playing cards as well as a tenth trick with cards only. The DVD comes with four high quality colored rubber bands so you can get going immediately. At the end of the DVD, Yang credits various magicians including, Ken Krenzel, Charles Jordan, Herb Zarrow, Jay Sankey, Bernard Billis and many others with the presented methods and tricks. The ad copy and promotional video are fair and accurate.
The DVD is in Taiwanese, but the English subtitles are very easy to follow and is better than many English language DVD’s. The DVD is organized by chapters and contains ten effects, each one is demonstrated to a spectator, from the spectator’s point of view and then it is explained, step-by-step from the performer’s point of view. Sometimes, the explanatory phase of the instructions displays several different angles or view points, which is extremely helpful in teaching these great tricks. The video pauses in the correct spots and uses graphic highlighting to focus on what should be done, where to press, where to put your fingers and what to do to perform and set up the trick. This method of instruction is very effective and should be a model for instructional videos. Magic Soul did a top-notch job on the DVD presentation.
The DVD starts off with explanation of different types and sizes of rubber bands and then teaches how to shuffle or control a card to either the top or the bottom. The first effect is Yang Gun, which is a super cool and easy way to reveal a chosen card. Here, the performer quickly makes what looks like a gun with a trigger (all from playing cards) and a single rubber band. The amazing part about this trick is that the spectator’s chosen card literally shoots out of the card gun when the magician pulls the trigger. It shoots so fast and far (if you don’ stop it) that it is surprising. This is a great effect.
G Spot is a great looking effect in which the selected card shoots out of a horizontally and vertically bound deck of cards when the spectator presses the rubber band. I found that the card does not shoot out of the deck as easily as I would have expected and this may require a slight amount of practice.
The third effect, Snap Shoot, is another very visual way to reveal a chosen card when the performer places a squared deck onto top of the card box and then flicks a rubber band behind the card on top of the box. As soon as the performer flicks the rubber band, the selected card flies out of the deck into the performer’s hand.
Just Blow is another phenomenal and easy effect in which the rubber band is visibly wrapped around the deck twice, after a chosen card is lost in the deck. Instantly, the rubber band disappears from around the deck and it is mysteriously found sticking in the middle of the deck wrapped around the chosen card. This is simple, visual and impressive.
The next tricks, SeanWich, Sy Pyramid and SeanWich are very impressive tricks. In SeanWich, a chosen card appears between the two jokers as they shoot away from the deck, bound by a rubber band. There is also a 4 Ace production version of this effect which is super. In Sy Pyramid, another 4 Ace production effect, one Ace shoots out of the deck and the rest of the deck pops into the shape of a triangle, with all the Aces showing. The deck is held together by a rubber band. You have to see this one to believe it because it is absolutely amazing and not that difficult to perform.
SeanSwitch and Challenger are additional 4 Ace production effects, but they are different than the others and with the right amount of misdirection you will be able to fool your audience in a big way. Challenger’s reveal of the fourth Ace is particularly fun and easy and will wow your spectators.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Is yet another very cool trick that can be mastered with a small amount of practice. As a bonus effect, Yang presents Sy Change, a very visual and cool autographed card transposition effect.
Using rubber bands with your card tricks will impress your audience and differentiate you from many others. This is a great DVD, with so many tricks, for a great price.
The DVD is in Taiwanese, but the English subtitles are very easy to follow and is better than many English language DVD’s. The DVD is organized by chapters and contains ten effects, each one is demonstrated to a spectator, from the spectator’s point of view and then it is explained, step-by-step from the performer’s point of view. Sometimes, the explanatory phase of the instructions displays several different angles or view points, which is extremely helpful in teaching these great tricks. The video pauses in the correct spots and uses graphic highlighting to focus on what should be done, where to press, where to put your fingers and what to do to perform and set up the trick. This method of instruction is very effective and should be a model for instructional videos. Magic Soul did a top-notch job on the DVD presentation.
The DVD starts off with explanation of different types and sizes of rubber bands and then teaches how to shuffle or control a card to either the top or the bottom. The first effect is Yang Gun, which is a super cool and easy way to reveal a chosen card. Here, the performer quickly makes what looks like a gun with a trigger (all from playing cards) and a single rubber band. The amazing part about this trick is that the spectator’s chosen card literally shoots out of the card gun when the magician pulls the trigger. It shoots so fast and far (if you don’ stop it) that it is surprising. This is a great effect.
G Spot is a great looking effect in which the selected card shoots out of a horizontally and vertically bound deck of cards when the spectator presses the rubber band. I found that the card does not shoot out of the deck as easily as I would have expected and this may require a slight amount of practice.
The third effect, Snap Shoot, is another very visual way to reveal a chosen card when the performer places a squared deck onto top of the card box and then flicks a rubber band behind the card on top of the box. As soon as the performer flicks the rubber band, the selected card flies out of the deck into the performer’s hand.
Just Blow is another phenomenal and easy effect in which the rubber band is visibly wrapped around the deck twice, after a chosen card is lost in the deck. Instantly, the rubber band disappears from around the deck and it is mysteriously found sticking in the middle of the deck wrapped around the chosen card. This is simple, visual and impressive.
The next tricks, SeanWich, Sy Pyramid and SeanWich are very impressive tricks. In SeanWich, a chosen card appears between the two jokers as they shoot away from the deck, bound by a rubber band. There is also a 4 Ace production version of this effect which is super. In Sy Pyramid, another 4 Ace production effect, one Ace shoots out of the deck and the rest of the deck pops into the shape of a triangle, with all the Aces showing. The deck is held together by a rubber band. You have to see this one to believe it because it is absolutely amazing and not that difficult to perform.
SeanSwitch and Challenger are additional 4 Ace production effects, but they are different than the others and with the right amount of misdirection you will be able to fool your audience in a big way. Challenger’s reveal of the fourth Ace is particularly fun and easy and will wow your spectators.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Is yet another very cool trick that can be mastered with a small amount of practice. As a bonus effect, Yang presents Sy Change, a very visual and cool autographed card transposition effect.
Using rubber bands with your card tricks will impress your audience and differentiate you from many others. This is a great DVD, with so many tricks, for a great price.
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Home by Daughtry
Rubber Bang by Sean Yang Review
One DVD, 10 effects, a few rubber bands and $30 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Included on the is DVD you will find 10 effects, 9 of which combine rubber bands with playing cards to make some visual and animated effects. The 10th effect is two card transpo to pocket routine.
The rubber band stuff is the main focus material, and all of it very visual. Basically you're getting "find the selection" routines and a couple Ace productions. All of which, in my opinion, are commercial routines.
Method
The methods employed are simple. Learn a few tricky ways to wrap a rubber band around the deck and any basic card control technique, and your golden. The methods are a little knacky, but for each one, just a few minutes of playing around with it and I was able to get it to work on a basic level. A little more practice and fiddling, and it'll be ready to go.
The methods are all well within the grasp of even the most basic level performer. Check out the ad trailer, and you'll see all of the effects exactly as they really are. If you like what you see, you'll be happy to know that all of those effects are, very likely, well within your grasp.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy makes no outrageous claims. It is absolutely accurate and legitimate. Even the claim that a beginner can quickly be able to do this stuff. While that's technically true, I would, of course, caution the newbie: don't think that you can just go out and do this without putting in the appropriate practice time and effort.
Product Quality
The DVD is well produced, well lit, shot, mic'd, etc. The menu is easy to navigate even with its typos. "Play" was spelled "Paly." On the DVD cover the word "Presents" is spelled "Persents." I think it's most likely a lost-in-translation moment, but they still could have ad someone who speaks/read English check that. The performer (Sean Yang) performs in Chinese, but you have the option for English, Chinese or Japanese subtitles.
The performance sections are the only places where he speaks. The explanations are done with no voice, just music. It was very well done and easy to learn the effects from the explanations. During the explanations there was the occasional text on the screen to help clarify things. In those cases, the subtitles are very helpful. But in most cases, you don't even need the subtitles because the visual explanations are so clear and easy to follow. You'll have to stop the video a time or two just to get the handling correct, but if you've ever done any kind of rubber band magic, you know that this is just the nature of that beast.
There was one little quirky thing that you'll need to be aware of. During the explanations, they would show the selected card (say Ten of Clubs), then they would change the camera angle to help get a better view of the deck/handling/etc., but the selected card would be different (e.g., Four of Hearts rather than Ten of Clubs). This is due to the fact that they were cutting together two (or more) different takes. As long as you're aware of this and watch for it, you should be fine.
With the DVD, you get a baggie with four or five rubber bands. Frankly, the rubber bands aren't quite the right ones for the stuff in the video. In some cases they were, but others they were not. That, however, is an easy fix. Just buy some rubber bands at your local office supply store. In fact, on the DVD, they cover the various different types of rubber bands to help you decide which kind is best for you. If you find that the included bands work for you, you can get refills for $2.95. With the refill, you get approximately 45 beige, 9 red and 2 green rubber bands.
Lastly, there's a great effect on the DVD, Sy Pyramid. How do I know it's a great effect? Because I published it about 8 or so years ago. On my Stone Cold Magic DVD, is an effect called Triplets which uses Jay Sankey's Pyramid Pop up move from his effect Please Don't Feed The Playing Cards. Triplets is a three card revelation. To be fair, Sean Yang's effect is a four Ace production, but it uses the exact same method/modification of Sankey's "Pyramid" move. Plus Yang added an extra little thing that's pretty cool.
He did credit Sankey, but did not credit me. Personally, I think that's because he, likely, thought of it independently. Further, my DVD is relatively obscure, so he's probably never heard of it or me. Either way, it does not impact the rating of this product.
Final Thoughts
This is how a DVD product should be. 10 or so effects for about $30 bucks with (maybe) an included prop or something. This is a good model and a reasonably priced model. Of course, the other part of this is that the effects have to be practical and doable - these are. Finally, the effects have to be good. That's for you to decide by watching the video trailer. I've given you everything else.
Final Verdict:
5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.