Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks
Went, James; Montier, Liam; Moran, Iain; Packard,
Big Blind Media
This DVD is NOTHING LIKE THAT. Big Blind Media have sourced eleven of the greatest card tricks ever invented. Magical effects that will simply SLAY audiences. And each of these tricks just so HAPPENS to be self working. That's the key. These tricks are easy enough for a beginner, but STRONG ENOUGH FOR A WORKING PRO!!! And, even better, a lot of this material is very little known.
There are tricks you can do when a friend hands you half a dog-eared deck... and there are tricks that you can perform for a large group that will knock people's socks through their eyeballs.
You often hear magicians say that one of the tricks on their newly purchased DVD was worth the price of the project on it's own. Well, we firmly believe that these eleven tricks ALL fall into that category.
Presented by James Went (host of CBBC's 'Help, My Supply Teacher Is Magic'), Liam Montier, Iain Moran and Owen Packard, the DVD contains tips & thoughts on how to present these routines, as well as a bonus section of some great false cuts if you want tyo take your magic to the next level. (You don't have to use these. These routines are all 100% sleight free!).
Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks - your magic will never be the same again!
Eleven of the GREATEST self working card tricks ever invented:
Contact Colors (Aldo Colombini)
Impossible (Mike Austin)
Shuffling Lesson (Chad Long)
Henry Sugar (Liam Montier)
Pre-Prefiguration (Larry Jennings / Mark Elsdon)
Your Aces Are Marked (Terry Lagerould)
Shufflebored (Simon Aronson)
The 7/16 Club (Alex Elmsley)
Impossible (Larry Jennings)
4,5,6 (Al Thatcher)
Unbelievable (By Shields, F. Michael And Bascom Jones, Jr)
- None of the material requires any skill.
- Presented by star of the BBC hit magic show 'Help, My Supply Teacher Is Magic', along with Liam Montier, Iain Moran & Owen Packard.
- Interviews with TV personality Paul Zenon, as well as card flourisher Scott Thomson, and top magicians Iain Moran and Liam Montier.
- High production values and excellent in-depth teaching.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
After the effects, a few simple false cuts and shuffles are taught, and there’s a quick Q & A with some professionals about the value and use of self working magic.
That said, I personally like the term “moveless” card magic, and not “self working” because you do need to clearly instruct the spectator on what to do. That aside, all the theory and advice given on the DVD is sound.
The quality of a BBM DVD is set pretty high, and this is no exception. The material is of the same high calibre. I honestly didn’t find a weak effect in the bunch. I only found one or two effects that I personally didn’t like as much the other material, but it’s still deceptive and effective, just not my cup of tea. There’s a triumph routine, aces routines, mental effects, and predictions. Here are a few effects that really stood out to me.
“Henry Sugar” is a really cool mentalism effect. It seems like you have no control of the cards and your back is turned the entire time.
“Pre-Prefiguration” is a great trick to do when someone hands you a deck and says, “Do something!” It looks like the spectator is in complete control, and the fact that you produce a four of a kind from a shuffled deck makes this quite the mini masterpiece.
“4,5,6” absolutely fooled me. It looked too clean. Sure some of the procedure could be slightly justified, but overall, this is a great effect.
Other great effects worth mentioning are “Your Aces Are Marked” which is a lovely, quick triumph effect. Finally, “The 7/16 Club” is a nifty forgotten classic.
The credits for each effects is astounding as well. They are very sure to give all credit where it’s due to all the creators.
If you are a beginner who wants some moveless card magic to polish your presentational and communication skills, this is the DVD for you. If you are a working pro, many of these effects are pure gold, and worth your time and consideration.
(Top ▲)
Them's some big words . . . "Ultimate" . . . "Self-Working" . . .
What is "self-working?" Does that mean that no sleight of hand is involved? Does it mean that there's really no sleight of hand, but you need to know a false shuffle or false cut? Interesting questions. Frankly, I don't have the answers either. So I'll just point out up front that with one exception, none of the routines require any card control. The one routine that does require it is simply a situation of shuffling a card from top to bottom (or vice versa . . . I don't remember at the moment).
As for the material: Killer! They just may have truly lived up to the "Ultimate-ness" that they are claiming. There's a great range of material from totally impromptu borrowed shuffled deck effects to complete full deck stacks. All are worthy of consideration. Some stand out pieces that are unique and bring together some nice components are Chad Long's Shuffling Lesson, Simon Aronson's Shufflebored (duh), Liam Montier's Henry Sugar and several others. I also really like Aldo Colombini's Contact Colors.
Many of the routines are the type where the effect "feels" over . . . then more magic happens . . . then yet even more . . . the structure and drama of this style, particularly as it's applied here, is powerful. Another groovy little thing the BBM folk did was add a nice little overview of each artist who contributed an effect to the DVD. They give you resources where you can find more of their material as well.
Finally, when it comes some self-working effects, the procedure beats the audience over the head with a time slows down stick. Sometimes it feels like a trip to Hell and Back (thank you Metallica) would be quicker and more fun. I think in many cases James Went, Liam Montier and the gang made great strides to make the presentations much more tolerable. In some cases taking it to full-on entertaining and engaging (which is often hard to do with stuff like this). In a few cases, I'd say they did peg the boredom meter, but the effect itself was still relatively interesting and is worth your attention as a student and/or performer.
Take these effects and make them your own. The aforementioned stand out effects, though self-working, give you some very solid presentational angles and some powerful effects on your audience. Montier's effect feels like real mind reading . . . very powerful. The other three effects mentioned seem absolutely impossible . . . after shuffling and cutting and shuffling and mixing . . . the deck is left in an impossible condition that you predict.
I really like Went's presentational idea for Shufflebored and Shuffling Lesson. At this point, I'm rambling. Bottom line: this is a solid collection of self-working effects that are not the typical ones found on compilations of this sort. If you don't have this one in your collection, you should.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!