Ultimate AmbitioXs Card By Ellusionist

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Ultimate AmbitioXs Card By Ellusionist

Postby KardAdict » Sep 28th, '06, 21:41



The Effect

A DVD (or download) that teaches you the moves and presentation on how to constuct your own personal routine of the card classic, the ambitious card.

Cost

$40 from Ellusionist.com. I strongly recomend purchasing this from here as the dollar s currently very weak. And other Brittish sites have for some reason added on an extra £5 to the actual price.

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

I'd say moves range from 2 to 4. Fairly suitable for a beginer.

Review

I perchase this as a download and was anxious about buying. But after the polava of the download I was very impressed. Brad's teaching is detailed, and nothing is left untaught about each move. In total there is about 20 different moves taught which give you a wide variety of routines to choose from. As being someone who already performed the ACR often, there where many sleights which I was already farmiliar with, however many of them I had never been taught in this much depth. It has also helped to top up my aresenal of moves which I had never heard of eg. lepaul Bluff Pass, the loading move etc.

What I also like about this, is that there is soooo much more material than just the "purist" card coming to the top. I mean there is a torn and resored handling, the Tenkai, the Erdnase colour change, a knee vanish and an air flipover. It's all hear.

However, thare are a few very small downsides. The pass is not actually taught here, so anyone not farmilar, with the pass, will learn nothing. Also, ig you look at the full contents list, and find some interesting things like "Mahal" or "Jackass" these are NOT moves, these are simply the names of the spectators when brad hits the streets.

Overall

I am increadably impressed with this purchass. But my ACR has not changed all that much. But with the sheer potential of this DVD is amazing.

One more thing, I STRONGLY recomend purchasing Mindbender with this DVD/Download. MB is a perfect ent to an ACR, and an entire act.

Good luck in magic,

Joe.

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Postby krazy ace » Sep 28th, '06, 22:31

ladies and gentlemen we have our fist happy ellusionist customer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Postby J0kerz » Sep 28th, '06, 23:17

Does This Dvd is also known as Crash course 2? or im wrong?

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Postby J0kerz » Sep 28th, '06, 23:31

This dvd is great if you wanna increase the potential of your ACR. :wink:

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Postby krazy ace » Sep 29th, '06, 18:26

is crash course 1 any good?

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Postby KardAdict » Oct 1st, '06, 17:08

krazy ace wrote:ladies and gentlemen we have our fist happy ellusionist customer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Lol! :lol:

I have to admit I do hate the way that ellusionist market magic. I was always hopping that some Brittish site would soon release some of their products. When Magicsop.co.uk did, I discovered that the price was WAY rong, I'm talkin like £7. So I just downloaded ACR and Mindbender, and both are pretty good.

Also another thing that I like about Ellusionist is that I have managed to work out two effects that they sell just by studying the demo. They are Mercury and Infusion, they are now in my routine. :twisted: 8)

Joe.

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Postby I.D » Oct 20th, '06, 17:42

I actually purchased crash course 1, crash course 2 ( ACR ) and street magic... and plenty more before I saw sense..

They are all fairly well done.. but majorly majorly overhyped!!

And I recently bought Royal road to card magic... and I realised even my shuffle wasn't what it should have been!! :oops: I now.. finally.. agree that you learn so much more from a book .. and at the fraction of the price..

Im sure ellusionist use 'stooges' just to market their products and give rave reviews ' Oh my god!! You will never get teaching anywhere like this! The DVD came through and I wanted to kiss it.. it felt like silk!! Brad Christian is Jesus!! ' type reviews :lol:

I very much doubt people really felt this way when purchasing their products!! And why do they also go on like Ellusionist is the ONLY magic training centre in the world.. I understand perfectly marketing their own products.. but all you hear in videos and reviews is.. ' Yes, now to the shapeshifter.. available from ellusionist.. ok, the d/l.. you can learn this exclusively from ellusionist.. you want to learn anything related to magic.. ellusionist sells it for ONLY twice as much as what its worth.. Buy it now!! '

:roll: saying that, take the hype away.. its fairly good material.. I started there.. but dont even browse there anymore

www.youtube.com/brum2redmagic !! Youtube Project started.. early days

Reading: Nothing right now
Studying: loving band redemption
Performing: Speechless, Stand up Monte, Coinvexed,
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Postby Nickson » Oct 22nd, '06, 10:17

I downloaded this too and I was impressed.
Their "Trouble" interface is also good, but i was wondering if I had wasted my money by not getting it on DVD instead of downloadeing it digitally.

Its all good though!

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Postby I.D » Oct 22nd, '06, 15:39

Theres nothing necessary on the dvd that isnt on the download

www.youtube.com/brum2redmagic !! Youtube Project started.. early days

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Postby Nickson » Oct 22nd, '06, 15:52

But you have a proper hard copy without worrying about licenses etc.

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Postby KardAdict » Oct 22nd, '06, 17:20

Yeah I downloaded too.

It's pretty good, but yes, very over marketed and over hyped. I think this just must be their "style" of marketing. Although Penguin magic seem to sell a lot of effects that are just complete copys. I saw a hped effect that was "created by so and so" but looked very much like a rip off mercury, I mean it's Aces and kings with an aceno spread. But I've also heard that mecury is just a rip off a Saunders packet trick!

I also think that trouble maker is cool. But they really need to think about the name and icon. If you've got it then you'll know what I mean. The icon is a red background witha black skull, and with "troble maker interface" underneath, my mate thought that I was makin viruses!!

I am also pretty hacked off with the misleading "moves" that are taught (i mentioned this in the review).

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Postby unr3stricted » Oct 24th, '06, 07:41

I.D wrote:I actually purchased crash course 1, crash course 2 ( ACR ) and street magic... and plenty more before I saw sense..

They are all fairly well done.. but majorly majorly overhyped!!

And I recently bought Royal road to card magic... and I realised even my shuffle wasn't what it should have been!! :oops: I now.. finally.. agree that you learn so much more from a book .. and at the fraction of the price..

Im sure ellusionist use 'stooges' just to market their products and give rave reviews ' Oh my god!! You will never get teaching anywhere like this! The DVD came through and I wanted to kiss it.. it felt like silk!! Brad Christian is Jesus!! ' type reviews :lol:

I very much doubt people really felt this way when purchasing their products!! And why do they also go on like Ellusionist is the ONLY magic training centre in the world.. I understand perfectly marketing their own products.. but all you hear in videos and reviews is.. ' Yes, now to the shapeshifter.. available from ellusionist.. ok, the d/l.. you can learn this exclusively from ellusionist.. you want to learn anything related to magic.. ellusionist sells it for ONLY twice as much as what its worth.. Buy it now!! '

:roll: saying that, take the hype away.. its fairly good material.. I started there.. but dont even browse there anymore


Ok, this is from a total newb to magic, but what is better than ellusionist? I just started recently and bought a dvd from penguin magic and it was (IMO) c*** (not the best). I bought a few dvds from ellusionist, and they helped me immensly. I haven't visited many other sites, but thats because I don't know of many other sites.

So, if Ellusionist is so bad, what site is good? What product is good? What will teach me to use card magic well?

I used Born to Perform, and found his teaching to be very poor. He went to fast, skipped some parts, and never really taught the detailed parts of tricks.

On ellusionist, while the tricks seemed to be simple (i only had CC1 and the Street Magic Dvd) they went over every detail. EVERY DETAIL. I had a hard time following the Born to Perform dvd (as a beginner) but once I watched CC1 and the Street Magic DVD from Ellusionist... I totally understood Born to Perform.

I think ellusionist is good, but as I've said, I have 3 dvds total, so I couldn't possibly know. If you have better suggestions, please list them

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Postby bronz » Oct 24th, '06, 09:24

There's a sticky somewhere on this site (seek and ye shall find) that explains much of what a beginner needs to know about getting somewhere with your magic.

As for ellusionist vs penguin etc, you'll see topics like this on every forum everywhere. The main point is that though the ellusionist material is very good from the teaching point of view, and you do learn good tricks, it's overpriced for what you get (ie, you can get a lot more for your money elsewhere even as a total beginner) and the way their effects are advertised would lead someone who didn't know better into thinking they were purchasing the hidden grail of magic that Brad Kristian himself had wrestled from the evil Magic Circle secrecy dragon.

So then, read around this site (which is the best forum for beginners that I've come across) and absorb what you read. But more importantly, try things out for yourself, buy from different places and learn from as wide a variety of sources as possible. It could well be that you discover that you're best suited to books written before 1956, or after some time spent browsing it turns out that actually ellusionist is the best site for what you want/need, if so stick with it. It's your hobby.

Oh, and never forget that you can achieve absolute wonders by doing nothing more than pointing to something with your left hand while your right puts something else under another thing. Puts a lot in perspective.

The artist who does not rise, descends.
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Postby Jerome the French » Oct 24th, '06, 10:42

KardAdict wrote:I have to admit I do hate the way that ellusionist market magic.

That's because Brad Christian's wearing eyeliner!
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I think they have a few good videos, but it is more targetted to the beginner. They are quite complete, and you can learn great visual tricks..
However, Brad Christian gets on my nerves. You know, they sell an effect, and Brad always has something to say about the trick. That gets on my nerves.
And his eyeliner too.

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Postby IAIN » Oct 24th, '06, 11:32

yeah, that eye-liner...and the tight t-shirts...

still, if you have cash to spare and are curious, buy one or two and make up your own minds...

i bought two out of curiousity, but i soon realised i'd be better spending it on booze...oh and eyeliner...

i did like mindbender admittedly, especially if you're talking about PK, and you ask them to select a card and rest it on their hand as you talk a little...then you take that card off them and try it...b-e-n-d...

destroys all doubt that its a "funny" card...

oh i've rambled again...sorry...

ambitious card routines arent really for me, they're good for practicing though, patter, storyline, d-l's, passes, colour changes, misdirection and so on...but i'd say - learn your sleights, then make up your own :wink:

on the general subject of ellusionist though, i found it very poor on one recent dvd they show a small group of people how cardies "cheat" and actually show them all the basic pass! all during your magic-routine...i hope that doesnt start a trend...i was gobsmacked to be honest....

revealling a very powerful sleight just to gain a tiny bit of misdirection...rubbish...very poor indeed...bad brad.... :evil:

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