Price$34.95
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedMay 24, 2009
Malone Meets Marlo #6
Bill Malone
L&L Publishing
(Based on 1 review)
Ed Marlo, the genius of construction, and the incomparable Bill Malone, the brilliant performer, come together in this landmark anthology, as Bill performs and explains some of Marlo's finest contributions to card magic, compiled by Bill from Ed's writings and their personal sessions!
Join Bill as he guides you step by step through what will undoubtedly become the greatest and best collection of Marlo material...ever. "I'm very excited about this project and I'm sure Ed would have been as well!"
- Muriel Marlo
Contents
Immediate Bottom Deal - Four spectators find the ir cards just by saying stop as the magician deals the cards slowly and fairly to the table!
Diamond Cut Diamond - You will add this to your repertoire! Dave Solomon meets Eddie Marlo!
21-Card Trick - A trick everyone knows brought to another level by Marlo, Draun and Solomon! A great routine!
Surrounded Open Travelers - This one can be done surrounded!
Marlo on the Benzais Spin-Out
The Lessinout Stack / Steve Draun's "Lightning Fast Poker" - A lesson in gambling that will blow them away!
Mental Reverse - A thought-of card reverses itself in the pack! Another Marlo classic.
Direct Transposition, Part One - A transposition like no other!
Visual Transposition, Part Two - This one looks like trick photography! A card in the deck transposes with a card in the magician's pocket!
Professional Ace Cutting - Shuffle the deck and cut to the Aces! Simply one of the best Ace-cutting routines ever created!
Four Burglars - The classic story with a twist at the end!
The Vanishing 11 - A whole packet of cards just disappears! This routine never fails to get a great reaction!
WOW! - A card instantly disappears while trapped between the two red Kings, and it reappears back in the middle of the deck! You will watch this one twice!
Unbelievable Aces - Without a doubt, one of Marlo's finest Ace assemblies!
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Malone does an excellent job of teaching these effects and giving proper credit. In the explanation section, as was typical of Mr. Marlo, Malone gave multiple explanations, variations and bonus handling and effects that weren't shown in the performance segments. The only criticism I have for this set is that many of the presentations are of the "Put and Take" variety, which drives me crazy. However, you still get a generous portion of Malone's crazy style which tempers the Put-and-Take-ness of the presentations. Also, in Malone's defense, he did say, at the beginning of each disk, that he only gave "basic presentations" with the intent to have us create our own. With that as the background, let's look at disk three:
With each effect, I'll give it a rating on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 is best; 1 is worst) and a little bit of commentary:
Immediate Bottom Deal (4.5 stars)
Pretty Darn clean effect from a shuffled deck. With no funny moves, the magicans literally stops dealing where four different people tell him to. And in every case the spectators stopped him at their previously select cards.
Diamond Cut Diamond (3.5 stars)
This is a very baffling trick, but the handling is a little contrived. However, if you can look past that, it's pretty impossible seeming.
21-Card Trick (4.5 stars)
I will quite surprised if this one doesn't fool you. Using the presentation about how Uncle Bob always wants to show you the 21 card trick, you blow away both laymen and magicians alike with this excellent version of the plot. It seems impossible.
Surrounded Open Travelers (4 stars)
It's hard to give this a good rating. It's a 5 star effect, but it's pretty much Paul Harris's handling of the plot. I really didn't see any difference worth mentioning.
The Lessinout Stack (4 stars)
I love tricks where you tell the audience that you're using a formula for shuffling the cards. Then you actually do the crazy formula right in front of them. This is one of those effects. It has the gambling hook. It really feels like you're letting them in on some underground secrets of the gamblers. You do have to be able to do a second deal for this one, but I think it's worth it.
Mental Reverse (4 stars)
I like this effect, but it doesn't seem to play that well for the audience. However, the effect is solid - a mentally thought of card reverses in the deck. And the method is dirt simple.
Direct Transposition (3 stars)
Very angly effect that looks a little fishy, and also has the old "I'm right; you're wrong" presentation which I don't care for. There are two versions taught. The second one is super visual, but still a bit angly.
Professional Ace Cutting (4.5 stars)
This effect fooled me even though the method for this effect was used in several other effects. This is a very powerful routine where you cut to the Aces after shuffling the deck thoroughly. It looks amazing. You have to be able to do some table shuffles and thus must be seated.
Four Burglars (2.5 stars)
This effect is a bit confusing, not very clear and not that entertaining.
The Vanishing 11 (4.5 stars)
Another one that "got" me. A very simple, simple effect that takes some guts, but is very doable . . . 11 cards just vanish . . . poof!
WOW! (3 stars)
I'm not a fan of sandwiches unless they have a pile of meat on them. This particular sandwich effect has fishy contrived handling. It's not bad, but . . . meh.
Unbelievable Aces (2.5 stars)
It's a pretty clean Ace assembly. However, it's very angly and a bit fishy, which makes me think that that's why he performed it without an audience.
If I were to rate this volume strictly on the presentations, I'd give it a 3.7 (the average of each effect's rating) out of 5. However, if you include the history, the stories, the bonus ideas, alternate handling along with the privilege of seeing old Marlo material come to life, I would rate it at least a 4 out of 5.
I might give it a 4.5 if it were priced a little better. I think this could have easily been a 4 disk set rather than a 6 disk set without cutting any material. Stone Status: GEM.