It's very refreshing to see a young magician who has a well-defined, hip character and obviously thinks a lot about his magic. In addition to learning some great material, the viewer really gets a sense of what Rodney Reyes is all about? and that's a good thing.

Reyes is the consummate "street magician." He has great chops, an engaging personality and a nice look.

There are a lot of things to talk about with this tape, so I'm going to break them down into sections:

PRODUCTION
The editing and production are obviously professional. The video has a nice mix of Rodney performing for "real" people (who can be sure?), explaining the material and talking philosophy. There are even some outtakes and bloopers for fun.

Some moments could have used a bit more preparation. Some of the philosophical talks could have used a script (or if there was one, a few more hours of memorization). There's a performance shot where Rodney needs to borrow a watch and the guy he's working with isn't wearing one. Why wasn't this edited out to be replaced with someone who did have a watch? Or else have it setup ahead of time -- this is video, after all.

While they were obviously working with professional quality cameras, I'm not sure the folks using them were always on top of things (or maybe it was the editors). There were quite a few moments where important moves and/or moments were lost. There's also a section of beautiful coin work that suffered from poor lighting.

There's also a bit of profanity from some of the audience members. I mention this only for those who might have children in the room while watching the video.

MATERIAL
Not all of the material was explained. What was explained is definitely not beginner material. Rodney's favorite control is a (well-executed) pass, if that gives you any idea of the difficulty level.

The explanations are terse but complete. You'll be glad that you have rewind and slow-motion buttons on your remote. Among other things, he explains his pass (from Erdnase), a nice false cut and a good double-lift technique.

Then there are the philosophical talks. Rodney has some interesting theories that are worthy of consideration by all magicians. He talks about mimicking other performers to the point of exhaustion as a way to move beyond and into something that is more genuinely you. He has an interesting dramatic structure wherein he consciously uses comedy to "kill" the peak moment and (supposedly) get a longer and stronger response. I'm not convinced, but then I haven't tried it either.

I think my favorite part was his use of music during practice to setup a rhythm. Rodney works at a "hip-hop" pace which matches his favorite style of music. It's a great lesson for any magician.

Overall, I think the philosophy sections make this DVD is worth the price. If you throw a bunch of good material on top of that, you've got something really worth owning.