The Treachery of Tricks
Menotti, Francis
Unknown
Show:
This 35 minute performance includes many signature presentations that have never appeared anywhere else. While some of the effects are taught in the tutorial section, this is much more than just a series of tricks; it is a full experience, included to demonstrate how to create a memorable show.
Audio Commentary:
Francis reveals the nuances and motivation of his show.
Interviews:
Menotti shares his thinking on magic theory- call backs, foreshadowing, theatrical anchor points, scripting, & character development.
Taught Tricks:
effects with unique presentations that Menotti uses in his professional working repertoire.
- vivid- the audience accurately "predicts" the type of coin and its date
- wyrd- turn predictions on their head, anytime, anywhere
- pieces of nothing- a completely new premise for coin magic
- two sides of every coin- a quirky 3 coin routine for any situation
- imaginary coins- a clean 3 coin vanish with devious new moves
- sync- cards find their mates, in increasingly more amazing way
- Kevin James
"Francis always has the knack to twist my brain... A pure joy to any creative lover of our Art."
- Gaetan Bloom
"Francis Menotti is the rare performer that knows exactly who he is, and every moment on stage reflects this knowledge... This video is a true treasure."
- Todd Robbins
Running Time Approximately: 171min
Reviews
(Top ▲)
For forty bucks, you get to learn some excellent tricks, killer ideas for presentations and building a show from an above average (but still rough around the edges) magician.
I really only have two minor complaints on this project. First, during the explanation portion of the effects there was some background . . . er . . . scratch that . . . Foreground music that made it really hard to focus on the education I was attempting to gain.
The second minor complaint was exacerbated by the first. Mr. Menotti is kind of an excited and frantic guy, and so he's a bit "all over the place" yet at the same time (almost paradoxically) his enthusiasm is not as contagious as enthusiasm usually is.
Couple those two things together, and the first DVD was very hard to watch at times. The second did not have the same issues.
In short, the first DVD is 6 effects performed in front of an audience and taught in extensive (sometimes painful) detail. The second DVD is a live full show that contains a few of the pieces taught in the first DVD and a few that are not taught anywhere. Additionally there are few "essays" where Menotti discusses some excellent topics and details several killer ideas. On top of that, the show can be watched with commentary and without. I watched it both ways and found it to be very informative.
One other quick thing . . . there is a moment in the brilliant routine, Imaginary Coins that is a bit confusing even after watching it several times. I think that if you do that effect, you'll need to work on that part a little bit . . . you'll know it when you see it.
Menotti is a brilliant thinker and has an incredible ability to take classic principles, effects, methods, etc. and turn them on their head and make them his own. For those familiar with my free magazine, you know that every month I write a column about this very concept . . . taking roots in magic and branching out with them: Roots and Branches. So I'm always excited to see someone who gets that principle.
I'm not a fan of one coin routines: a coin is here, then it vanishes, then it appears, etc. Yuck. However, Menotti, with his effects Pieces of Nothing and Two Sides of Every Coin completely change the game when it comes to the production and vanishing of a coin (or coins). These two effects alone are extremely beautiful and relatively simple if you're a coin worker. The illusions are perfect. Imagine holding a coin in your bare open left hand. Then with your right hand you claim to be holding an invisible object about the size of a playing card. As you place nothing over the coin, the coin becomes invisible. It looks incredible.
Imagine this pick up a coin and show the heads side, but you claim that it only has one side. As you turn it over to show the back, it becomes invisible. But it becomes visible again when you turn it around. It looks amazing.
Wyrd is an effect that can be done any time you have a pen and paper and an iPhone nearby. It's probably my favorite thing on the DVD, and is moving into my working repertoire. The beauty of this is that it is so incredibly customizable that it can literally work for anyone's personality and style.
He performs it one way on Disk 1. Then in Disk 2 - the full show - he performs it with a slightly different presentation that is very smart.
There are other excellent things on the first Disk, but I think you get the point. It's awesome. Other than the annoying music and his ironically spastic-yet-dry nature during the explanations, this DVD is 5 stars alone.
Moving to the second DVD, the viewer is to learn how to do a show and how to structure it, etc. This DVD is really good as well. Menotti is very good at building a show and making it his own and tying it together from start to finish, and his effects are very good. However, I didn't feel he was that great of a performer. he's a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10. He was very spastic, but it didn't feel like it was intentional. It felt more like he was a bit unsure of himself. I'm ok with that, because his ideas were still super solid. They just weren't a smoothly executed as one might expect. That aside, there is a ton to learn from this DVD. I dare say that even full-time seasoned (and even well known) performers could learn from these DVDs.
Even at the price of $40 bucks, this DVD is easy to recommend. Menotti is clearly someone who puts a lot of effort into his magic and methods and everything. He's still a bit of a diamond in the rough, but there is so much we can all learn from him.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of TOTAL GEM!
(Top ▲)
This project is a two DVD set. DVD 1 is your basic format of here’s a trick here’s the secret and so on. DVD 2 is a mostly a performance DVD with some thoughts on theory, they have even included a commentary for the performance which was so much fun to watch. There’s a rumor going around that Francis was mentored by Teller, as in Penn and Teller. I don’t know if that is true but there is definatly a left of center vibe to his style that is reminiscent of some one like Teller or Paul Harris.
The first effect taught is Vivid. Basically an object is named by the audience and it is found inside of an envelope held by an audience member. This is a very bold piece of mentalism that will fry laymen and most magicians. He teaches this in depth and in a way that you could adapt it to close up, walk around or even a stage setting. The trick itself establishes a call back and foreshadows what will happen later on in the show if you chose to perform his effect Wyrd.
Wyrd is an add a number routine which uses an Iphone. Some Android phones may work but he teaches it for use with an Iphone. His revelation of the number is very unique and the whole concept of why he is predicting the future is very interesting. I have used this revelation to great effect in my own live performances. In one instance I used an add a number pad rather than the Iphone method and it worked just as well.
Those two pieces of magic take up almost half of the space on disc one. Between the two you can create a solid show with these two effects and “bookends” as Menotti says.
The next section is about Menotti’s coin work. It is full of funky new concepts and presentations.
Two Sides of Every Coin is a routine involving the production of three coins under the premise that you are doing magic with coins that are visible on one side but invisible on the other. This routine does require a classic coin gimmick that most magicians will own.
Imaginary coins is the perfect follow up to Two Sides of Every Coin. Three coins vanish one at a time into thin air as if they were only ever imagined. This uses the exact same props as in Two Sides of Every Coin. If you can easily palm a coin you should be able to pick this up in a couple months.
Pieces of nothing uses another great routine with a wonderful premise. The idea is that he places nothing in front of a coin making it invisible. When he removes the piece of nothing the coin comes back. This is basically a one coin routine but the magical premise makes it very entertaining to watch. At one point he produces a coin with a hole in it, besides the regular coin that’s all you need to perform this effect.
Sync is a 3 phase routine in which a selected card finds it’s mate. This is based off of a classic Larry Jennings plot and is a nice way to get a lot out of a single card trick. I’m always looking for impromptu magic that can be turned into something bigger and this fits the bill.
The bonus effect is called Schrodinger's Card and it fooled be badly. It is a very clean card to box and has got to be one of my favorite versions of the effect. There is a lot of dealing and shuffling before the big reveal but the routine is basically completely hands off. The spectator selects a card deals and shuffles and it vanishes from the deck finding its way into the deck.
So over all the tricks are good but not groundbreaking the thoughts and theories though are great and well worth the price of the DVD. Francis is a great magical thinker.
(Top ▲)
What I found interesting about the first effect Menotti teaches, Vivid, is that it is a risk effect. In other words, it is an effect that has the possibility to go wrong. Most beginning magicians tend to avoid such effects, and with good reason, and most magic DVDs only teach “bulletproof effects”. But what I have discovered from talking to master magicians is that risk effects can play a substantial part in their shows. In the case of Max Maven, he performs nothing but risk effects in his show. Experienced magicians are willing to take the chance using risk effects because of the truly magical moments they can create and because they also have the skills required to recover if the effect doesn’t work out. Menotti teaches how to use risk effects like Vivid with confidence, and that lesson alone is worth the price of the DVD for magicians wanting to take their magic to the next level.
Another standout on the DVD was Invisible Coins, where Menotti teaches a coin vanish that looks very much like a vanish performed with the Raven, but uses only sleight of hand and requires no gaffs. It will take practice to do well, but it will give the magician a beautiful impromptu vanish to add to his repertoire.
As strong as the effects are on the first DVD, the real gem of the set, in my opinion, is the second DVD. On it, Menotti performs an entire 35-minute show from beginning to end. I believe that a big mistake many magicians make starting out is that they don’t watch enough live magic performed by other magicians. What makes this performance so valuable is that it also comes with a commentary track. Once the performance is viewed, it can be reviewed again with Menotti explaining how he put the act together, why he does what he does throughout the show, and how he handled certain situations as they came up throughout the show. During the performance something does, in fact, go terribly wrong, and seeing how Menotti recovers is a valuable lesson to new magicians. The commentary track gives an unprecedented perspective on how a working magician plans and performs a show. Also, there are several interviews where Menotti gives his thoughts on how to come up with new presentations, how to structure magic, and much more. Solid information for the magician.
The biggest asset of this set is that both the explanations and the performance are peppered with Menotti’s thoughts on magic. His philosophy is sound and he shares his understanding of magic in a way that is clear and will help any magician deepen and strengthen his or her magic.
(Top ▲)
Treachery of Tricks is a two-DVD offering. The first DVD contains performances taken from a full show in front of a live audience, along with the explanations. You can read one-line descriptions of the effects in the product description, but they really don't do justice to the amount of detail in each routine. Francis presents us with fully-developed routines, not just a collection of tricks and ideas. Furthermore, he explains the reasoning behind all of the little touches that make these routines great.
As someone who has put a lot of work into what started as Max Maven's Positive Negative, I was particularly drawn to vivid. Francis has successfully taken this bit of micro magic and turned it into a piece of stand-up theater that can work for an audience of any size.
If you're a close-up worker, there's a lot on these DVDs for you, as well. In addition to a close-up version of vivid, Francis presents three wonderful, and highly visual, coin routines. In fact, one of my favorite pieces is a "bonus" titled Schrodinger's Card (not to be confused with Jon Allen's routine from his book Experience).
But wait... there's more! The second DVD contains Francis's entire show (performance only), as well as video essays that are worth the price of the product.