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Completing the Cut

Schultz, Ryan

Vanishing Inc.

(Based on 2 reviews)
Ryan Schlutz is turning heads with his creative, thoughtful brand of card magic. We are pleased Ryan has worked with us on his first DVD collection, Completing the Cut. This DVD is full of deeply mysterious card effects that will amaze audiences, and utterly baffle even seasoned magicians.

For example, take "The Mayhew", an effect where a deck of cards attaches itself to your hands by apparent static charges. The presentation and method work together to amaze audiences thoroughly. Or "Symmetrical Matching," an effect that has fooled many expert magicians and received much praise online.

Completing the Cut is for the serious card enthusiast. It's Ryan working his magic, serving up devilishly clever miracles. But this isn't just a DVD: you even get some custom-made gimmicks to perform "The Mayhew."

Contents of Completing the Cut
  • The Mayhew
  • Insignia
  • E.S. Location
  • Symmetrical Matching
  • Elementary Spoon Bend
  • When In Doubt, Read a Palm
  • Untouchables
  • Sprung Aces
  • Otto Aces
  • Black Hole Popout
  • S.G. Popout
  • Schlutzick
Running Time Approximately: 95min

Contains custom-made gimmicks.

Reviews

Joe Diamond

Official Reviewer

Oct 12, 2013

There are some interesting ideas on this DVD. The creator/performer on the DVD is Ryan Schultz, and he’s a clever inventor. Normally I wouldn’t be able to stand a guy that keeps using lines like, “Pretty cool, huh?” as he mugs to the camera after he’s found a selected card, but the fact many of his ideas are good make up for it.

The material is mostly good, the problem is that he doesn’t know when to stop sometimes. There’s a really commercial routine involving a name badge and a signed card, but he adds a third phase that confused me. It wasn’t clear what the last sequence was supposed to be, and after two very clean, very amazing sequences, it just seems pointless to me. He does this with other multiphase routines on the DVD as well.

That said, many of the ideas and principles are sound. There is one non card effect that combines a spoon bend with the out to lunch principle. As good of an idea this is, Jay Sankey published the idea about a decade ago on his 22 Blows to the Head DVD. Ryan’s effect is slightly different, but a credit to Sankey would have been nice.

He also has an effect that starts in an interesting way, by reading a spectators palm, then abandons the initial premise by doing a card trick that ‘tests a person’s friendship’ then at the end, the ‘palm reading’ card turns out to match a selected card.

He also has an interesting way of getting into a classic version of “Out of This World”

At the end of the day, there’s nothing earth shattering here, but if you’re looking for practical stuff for real world work, this might be worth considering.
(Top ▲)

Jeff Stone

Official Reviewer

Sep 18, 2013

Overview

I'm a big fan of Ryan Schlutz. So far, I've been very impressed with his methods and techniques. He's a very creative thinker and an ok performer. This particular DVD is no exception. I guarantee that you'll be fooled by at least 1 (but likely many more) effect on this DVD. That simply means that the methods are devious. The best part is that his stuff is very easy to do as well. He strikes a solid balance between ease of method and power of effect.

The Ad copy is dead on, 100% accurate. It particularly mentions, Symmetrical Matching as a stand out effect. This takes Will The Cards Match to a whole new level . . . it's a quantum leap. The effect is so deceptive, yet it's self-working, and it seems totally impossible even to the performer, and it's soooooooooooo easy. Further, there are several utility moves that will likely find their way into your repertoires. The bottom line is that this DVD is full of card effects that are very deceptive and are very easy to do.

There is, however, one problem. The DVD comes with the gimmick required to perform one of the effects. However, to perform the effect as shown on the DVD, the gimmicked card needs to have a face and a back. Yet the gimmicked card that came with my DVD is a double backer. Unfortunately with the card being a double backer, the trick that it's meant to be used for cannot be done.

That one thing aside, this is a solid DVD project with very practical stuff that you'll easily be able to add to your repertoire, and you'll likely want to do just that.

Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem
(Top ▲)