Price$29.95
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJun 25, 2014
What The Fork
Dardant, Michael
System 6 Magic
(Based on 3 reviews)
-Shawn Farquhar
Every once in a while you come across a True Original. Someone who does it differently. Someone who does it better. Michael Dardant is a gifted performer who blends incredible magic with a powerful, funny, charismatic persona.
-Murray Hatfield
New Orleans own award winning comedy magician, Michael Dardant aka Magic Mike(Not the... Dancer) brings his Cajun flair to the stage and mesmerizes any audience with ease. In 2012 he became the most decorated magician in North America claiming 16 Championship Awards.
What The Fork is an 1 1/2 HR. breakdown of Michael's Gold Medal Close-Up Act. He performs the routine and then resets in front of the camera!
Next is a riveting and inspiring explanation of the mentality behind every move and every joke. Whether on stage, close-up or even parlor, Every magician will find something new to add to their act!
What are you waiting for? Order your copy today!
Reviews
(Top ▲)
This is the Classic example of Magician's ripping off other magician's Wow! This was the worst thing I have ever purchased & seen! Michael Dardant should be locked up and charged with robbery ($29.95). I got sucked in…. I got the lecture notes too! ($25.00 for Bitten by a Wizard), only because Shawn Fauqwar (his lecture was awesome) but, he was pitching this "What the Fork" DVD and the "Bitten by a Wizard" lecture notes that accompany each other from his own lecture that he did at P.C.A.M. (Pacific Coast Assc. of Magicians) which was another ripoff (don't get me started on that! ) $75.00 for a day pass for what watching a bad magic contest, 1 lecture and, walking around the dealers room that was the size of my apartment seriously, it would be like my local magic shop hitting me with a $75.00 cover charge to walk around…... all involved are guilty of stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny and I am sick of it. I will not buy anything else from these clowns again! Back to the DVD THIS IS AN AWARD WINNING ACT! Holy Shit! I'd like to see the guys that didn't win!…..This DVD was badly produced, The jokes are 6th grade level not funny and, way to inside. He comes out with a jar of thumb tips and says, " This is my tip jar". Must kill at the local S.A.M meeting or the I.B.M. Ring ... Maybe I have high expectations for a DVD that says' The Secrets to a Gold Medal Competition Act! Hardly, I will say this If you ever have reservations or, are nervous about competing in a magic competition watch this DVD it will build your confidence. This guy is a 16 time award winner! He is the most decorated magician in North America WOW! That is what it says on the DVD. I am stunned and feel ripped off..... Jonathan Kamm's $20.00 download for his Toibox card to mint tin is 100 times better than this guys whole act! and he teaches moves two and three moves to complete the same task it is in depth and comprehensive best 20.00 I ever spent. This on the other hand was the worst $55.00 I have ever spent sorry but that is the way I feel and you will too if you buy "What the Fork"
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Foolish Games by Kristin Merlin
Michael Dardant: What the Fork Review
One DVD, one hour, one multi-award winning routine and $30 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect/Method
Michael Dardant has won multiple awards for his act. This video is a performance of his act from start to finish followed by a break down of each effect, why it was chosen, the psychology of each selection and all the thinking behind everything.
The joke is full of every pun imaginable, but it all ties in with a stream of smooth and steady flow from point A to point B, the former being a funny opener with the latter being a powerful and impossible production of everything but the kitchen sink from his hat. He walks out on stage with nothing but a small, deck of card sized briefcase — there are no card tricks in this routine — and a small jar for a site gag. When the routine is over, the table is filled with "stuff" that he produced throughout the show.
You'll, likely, never see it coming and you'll be left wondering, at the very least, where the heck did all that stuff come from! The routine is cleverly constructed, and it's absolutely clear that he took time to consider scripting and choreography and timing and pauses and . . . and . . . and . . .
You may or may not like the effects and/or the routine, but that does not matter. The point here is that you will learn how to build an act that is powerful and well thought out . . . an act that was given the respect and care and thought that our craft so richly deserves yet so infrequently receives. My hat's off to Michael Dardant for that.
The routine itself actually very simple, but is extremely complex (i.e., intricate). My guess is that nobody watching it would go through the effort to recreate it, nor should you. I say this, not because of the hard work that would be involved, but because, you're not Michael Dardant . . . unless you are in which case, you already do the act. What you will and need to learn from this is how to construct a routine. You learn how to think. You learn how to create. You learn all this by example. This is not a case of Dardant telling you, do this and do that. He shows you his journey to success.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy integrity is solid. The only thing weird is that it says the DVD is 1 and a half hours. It's actually only an hour long. Other than that, the ad copy is SOLID!
Product Quality
The DVD is produced very well. Though there were a few lighting issues and occasionally I felt the camera shot was too far away, but for the most part everything was solid. The menu navigation was fine except for the fact that there was no home button, so if you're in the chapter section and you're looking around and decide you want to go back and click "Play All," you can't. You'll have to find the menu root button on your remote to get back there.
Lastly, this next point is not a negative in my opinion, but for the sake of clarity, I'll let you know that the tricks were not explained in great depth. However, they don't need to be for two reasons. One, they're easy enough (for the most part) that a simple gloss over the method will suffice. Secondly, it's not about learning tricks. It's about learning structure, flow, planning, scripting, etc., etc.
Final Thoughts
If you ever plan on competing in a magic competition. This is worth its weight in gold. If you want to have a well structured show that flows the way a show should, this is worth its weight in gold. If you are a hobbyist who occasionally performs in casual settings, I still feel that you'll find great value here.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.
(Top ▲)
This was an interesting DVD because it starts out with a performance of the award-winning act which to me, I did not find as a completely funny act, though there were some clever bits in it.
The act itself in performance is a 9-minute act, which is then followed by about 3.5 minutes of sped-up video showing him resetting the act backed by a normal-speed speech track about the history and evolution of this act. No set-up specifics were shown. Yes, he did reset everything on camera, but he never explicitly shows you where each piece goes.
There are a few gags in the act that I feel are not appropriate for use with laymen. Just too much exposure in my opinion, though he says he uses them and nobody knows what they are. This might be true, but somehow I do not see it.
There is a very nice bit that he does with a finger ring and a ball bearing which had some parts that were reminiscent of the "Rope, Nut & Knot" by Giovanni Livera. Very nice sequence. The explanation of it was rather cursory, but enough information is given for you to develop your own work with it.
The camera never really zooms in or 'gets off the sticks' for anything - it is pretty much a single shot from a set distance throughout the entire video. For things like the ring part, this made it hard to see at times.
At one point Michael said that if you really plan your act well and make it unique, nobody can steal it because they are not 'you' - a very valid point and one which sums up the way I see this DVD. You might find a few clever bits you might like to try, but this DVD feels more like a presentation of, "Here is my act, and this is how I do it." He does not really tell you how to put together an award-winning act. Because 'you' are not Michael Dardant, you would never go out and do this act - this is not the kind of DVD you would by and say, "Okay, I am going to do this act."
For me this DVD is not all here - it is missing some things and there are too many to list. It was nice to see how he does certain things and why he does them, but nothing is really thoroughly explained and the lines are not all that funny (at least to me), but there are some that made me laugh out loud.
One example is that he breaks out a score sheet from a previous competition where he said he got his rear-end handed to him and looked at his scores. He was then able to tell where he needed improvement, based on the scores the judges gave him. The problem was, he never showed you the scores up close or said which areas the low scores were in. He never mentions the various criteria by which various competitions are judged - any of this information would have been of great value in a video like this.
I honestly think you might be able to get something out of this DVD but exactly what, I do not know - it is hard to say.
The act itself in performance is a 9-minute act, which is then followed by about 3.5 minutes of sped-up video showing him resetting the act backed by a normal-speed speech track about the history and evolution of this act. No set-up specifics were shown. Yes, he did reset everything on camera, but he never explicitly shows you where each piece goes.
There are a few gags in the act that I feel are not appropriate for use with laymen. Just too much exposure in my opinion, though he says he uses them and nobody knows what they are. This might be true, but somehow I do not see it.
There is a very nice bit that he does with a finger ring and a ball bearing which had some parts that were reminiscent of the "Rope, Nut & Knot" by Giovanni Livera. Very nice sequence. The explanation of it was rather cursory, but enough information is given for you to develop your own work with it.
The camera never really zooms in or 'gets off the sticks' for anything - it is pretty much a single shot from a set distance throughout the entire video. For things like the ring part, this made it hard to see at times.
At one point Michael said that if you really plan your act well and make it unique, nobody can steal it because they are not 'you' - a very valid point and one which sums up the way I see this DVD. You might find a few clever bits you might like to try, but this DVD feels more like a presentation of, "Here is my act, and this is how I do it." He does not really tell you how to put together an award-winning act. Because 'you' are not Michael Dardant, you would never go out and do this act - this is not the kind of DVD you would by and say, "Okay, I am going to do this act."
For me this DVD is not all here - it is missing some things and there are too many to list. It was nice to see how he does certain things and why he does them, but nothing is really thoroughly explained and the lines are not all that funny (at least to me), but there are some that made me laugh out loud.
One example is that he breaks out a score sheet from a previous competition where he said he got his rear-end handed to him and looked at his scores. He was then able to tell where he needed improvement, based on the scores the judges gave him. The problem was, he never showed you the scores up close or said which areas the low scores were in. He never mentions the various criteria by which various competitions are judged - any of this information would have been of great value in a video like this.
I honestly think you might be able to get something out of this DVD but exactly what, I do not know - it is hard to say.