If you're just hearing his name for the first time, and you want a reason to sit up and take notice, all you need to know about Dean Dill is that he performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Soft-spoken, Dean keeps his scripts to a minimum, preferring to make his magic the focus, and usually, the audience is richly rewarded for its attention.

Extreme Dean, Volume I contains 8 coin routines, plus, as a bonus, Dean's appearance on The Tonight Show in its entirety and a performance of his astonishing marketed coin production, Explosion.

There are no wildly original plots here (even The Tonight Show set features mostly personalized versions of standard work), just solid versions of existing ones, primarily coin assemblies (Matrix, Shadow Coins and the like).

Every effect is well executed, but nearly all demand that you be working on a close-up pad (or equivalent). I particularly enjoyed The Dinner Napkin, Parts 1 and 2, wherein four coins are laid out on four corners of a napkin and ultimately assemble under one corner that has been folded over. The effect is immediately repeated with a nice "sucker" dynamic, in that the spectator is led to believe the coins will be reappearing under the corner once more, but in the end, when the corner is flopped open, there is nothing to be found. It's a lovely routine and could be performed in both a formal performance setting, or under more casual circumstances at the dinner table.

Well produced and featuring immaculate performances, Extreme Dean, Volume I is a worthwhile investment for anyone interested in these plots.

David Acer