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Captured! The Outlaw Magic Of Lonnie Chevrie

Lonnie Chevrie

(Based on 3 reviews)

"A True Outlaw in the Field of Magic"

"Lonnie's Magic is visual, practical, and STRONG. I've been using it for years, and now youcan too! I'll never forget the day Lonnie changed that dollar bill into a hundred! It was like real magic! DO NOT buy this DVD! I've been doing Lonnie's great magic for years, and I want it all to myself! I repeat, do not buy this DVD!" - Chad Long

"Lonnie Chevrie thinks bout his magic from all angles. His style, dry jumaor and practical methods are creative, different, and very direct. When Lonnie's talking I always listen." - Bob Sheets

"Lonnie Chevrei is without a doubbt one of magic's unsung greats." - Brad Henderson

Featuring:

  • Grandpa's Dollar
  • Miss Kitty's favorite card trick
  • Silver City
  • Eleven Card Stud

Reviews

David Acer

Official Reviewer

Nov 05, 2005

Lonnie Chevrie serves up more of his meat-and-potatoes magic on this sequel to Wanted! The Outlaw Magic of Lonnie Chevrie. Like its predecessor, Captured contains a small number of fully developed routines, each of which is Lonnie’s real-world interpretation of a classic plot (i.e., a bill change, card transposition, coins-to-glass routine, and the “11 Card Trick”).

“Grandpa’s Dollar” features a visible change of a one-dollar bill into a hundred-dollar bill. The bill is held unfolded and facing the audience during the change, and there is neither a thumb tip nor a gimmick involved. The technique belongs to Juan Pablo, who is duly credited, but Lonnie has varied the folds a little, in addition to altering the set-up. However, he has also framed the effect with a story about his grandfather, rendering it more of a middle trick than an opener, unlike his excellent paper-to-bill change on Wanted!

“Miss Kitty’s Favorite Card Trick” is a two-card transposition that I find problematic, largely because one of the cards that purportedly transposes suddenly has lip-prints on its face when it is revealed, as a result of a female spectator having blown a kiss at it before the transposition. First of all, Tony Binarelli should have been credited here for his popular effect, “Lips”, which was marketed by The Camirand Academy in 1980 and continues to be widely available today. Secondly, combining “Lips” with a two-card transposition effectively clutters (and partially negates) both plots. How can you claim that two cards have transposed when one card is different at the conclusion?

Next up is “Silver City,” a very magical coins-to-glass routine using four coins and a shell, and finally, “Eleven Card Stud,” Lonnie’s wonderful presentation for Edward Victor’s “11 Card Trick,” and my favorite routine on the DVD. It features an ingenious device to hook an audience off the top of any card trick, but it’s particularly effective here as it comes around full circle at the end and makes a spectator a winner (I can’t be more specific without tipping the idea).

With only four routines on here, I find the content to be a little light, and since one of the four didn’t speak to me, that further skews my evaluation. But Captured does offer at least three very good routines, and (dare I say it), “Eleven Card Stud” might well be worth the price of the DVD.

David Acer
(Top ▲)

John Luka

Jan 21, 2005

Featuring:

Grandpa's Dollar -- An amazing, visible change of a $1 bill to a $100 bill. The magician holds the $1 bill horizontally on the short edges between his thumb and fingers. He brings the bill up to his face to blow on it causing it to visibly change into a $100 bill. Both sides are shown and the spectators can immediately examine it.

Miss Kitty's favorite card trick -- The magician removes a Joker from his pocket, touches a deck of cards with it, causing a previously selected card to jump to the top of the deck. The lady spectator blows a kiss at the selection causing it to turn into the Joker. The Joker on the table turns out to be the selection now embedded with a kiss.

Silver City -- A coins across routine utilizing a drinking glass. This is a visual and clean looking close-up routine.

Eleven Card Stud -- This is Lonnie's version of the 11 card trick. This is not only an excellent routine, but also showcases an outstanding false count. You are able to watch Lonnie perform the count over and over. You will not see any difference between the real and the false count. It's that good.

Wanted!
Lonnie Chevrie

Featuring:

Counterfeiter -- This is an excellent handling of the $100 bill switch with some very nice touches. Lonnie has combined the thumb tip method with the no thumb tip method coming up with a very natural looking switch. The usual "dip" is not there. This looks very good.

String'em up -- Lonnie's presentation of the Gypsy thread utilizing dental floss. This is a very clean and direct presentation of the classic effect. You will like this.

Two bits in a bottle -- This is a charming presentation of the coin in the bottle using a small make-up bottle, a quarter, and a pair of tweezers. At the conclusion of the routine the coin and bottle can be examined.

A stab in the dark -- This is Lonnie's table-to-table version of the Stabbed Deck. After a card is selected and returned to the deck the magician seals the deck inside a letter envelope. The spectator stabs the deck with a letter opener. The selection is found next to the blade of the letter opener. This is very clean and direct from beginning to end.

Game of chance -- A table-to-table chop cup routine that is notably different from the standard chop cup routine.

These videos are studio quality productions. The videos contain both a performance segment and an explanation segment, both of which can be very clearly viewed. Lonnie’s explanations are clear and concise. The camera work is excellent. A variety of camera angles are used to make the explanations as clear as possible.

Not only does the production quality of these videos earn high marks, the effects themselves do as well. Don’t hesitate to go out and purchase these DVD’s. You will be happy you did. Definitely good, quality, commercial magic you will want to add to your repertoire.

John Luka
(Top ▲)

Brad Henderson

Official Reviewer

Jan 14, 2005

Here is the synpopsis: the material is great.

Here is the bad news: A lot of magi will miss the point since Lonnie doesn't have a room of zealous, over eager magic groupies wetting themselves on every minor moment of his routine. Instead you get a couple of West Texas real folk being themselves in front of a camera, which is to say, reserved.

However, the material is rock solid. The Bill Switch is great. I am a die hard "traditional handling" man, but Lonnie's lets you switch a white piece of paper for the bill and it seems like the bill just appears there, right in front of your eyes.

The card stab will fool any real person on the planet, and most magicians.

I have been performing the Chop Cup for years and while mine is very dear to me, what Lonnie has done really is brilliant. Imagine the leanest, meanest chop cup routine ever - with nods to Johnny Paul.

(I should add that Lonnie and I have talked at length about effects in the history of magic which could have been his inspiration. However, Lonnie is completely self taught. It is interesting to see how his stripping bare of these classic ideas may touch on themes some of the greats have explored, but yet are still very unique to him.)

The Dental Floss trick is a worker. It is a shame that that trick's credit got mired in the magical world many years back; but let's hope Lonnie receives the credit he deserves - though interestingly, does not crave.

Finally, his coin in bottle is the perfect solution for walk around performers. It's novel, visual, EASY, and practical.

The tricks on this DVD are all real-world-tested, thought-through pieces which any performer could use. Will they? It depends. They'll probably wait until they see someone else do it at a magic convention before they line up, but that is their loss. Lonnie's magic is strong and it plays for real people in the real world YET is still sophisticated magic you will be proud to perform.

The material is 5 star all the way, however I will give it 4 and a half. The production value is excellent, but I do not think the directing truly conveyed the impact of Lonnie's magic.
(Top ▲)