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The Effect
Nine cose-up routines designed for children:

The Sponge Balls
A classic that Bill uses as a perfect opener for kids.

The Shadow
An extremely visual card change that happens three times in the participant's own hands.

The Autograph
A motivated card in-wallet routine that leaves a child with a true collector's item they will treasure forever.

The Ninja Card Trick
Bill's favourite card effect that features finding a selected card at the point of a miniature ninja sword.

The Mental Photograph
A very strong promotional tool, where a mentally thought of playing card appears on your business card being held by the spectator.

Edwin Alonzo Boyd
A rivetting tale about a real-life jail break demonstrated with a photograph of the criminal that becomes permanently altered at the conclusion.

The Great Game
A routine with many application limited only by your imagination A freely selected prize is predicted in advance by the performer, and is given to the child to keep at the end.

Flash
Bill's closing effect that features an original presentation for the ashes on palm. This effect has built a reputation for Bill with lay audiences.

Card On Forehead
The classic effect redesigned for young children with an hilarious finish

Cost
£22.99 from Kidshowmagic.co.uk

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)

2 - 3 depending on your familiarity with common sleights.

Review

Bill Abbot's reputation seems untouchable, and having watched this DVD I can see why. It's not because of any technical brilliance or mindblowing originality - it's because he's a first-rate entertainer who knows how to create a great routine. His stand-up DVD has already been reviewed on this site, but I tyhink that the close-up set shows Abbott at his best, as he's working one-to-one with his spectators, and really builds a great rapport.

This is a two-disc set too - with the performances and three explanations on disc one, and the remaining explanations on disc two. Also unlike the stand-up DVD, this is delivered on DVD-R (which, like the DVD that accompanies The Thing, refused to play on my set-top DVD player, and left me watching it on one of my PCs). If you're in any way interested, the DVDs were authored in Apple's iDVD. I know this because the Apple watermark has been left on the menu screens, and you don't get that with DVD Studio Pro. I'm a video tech nerd.

Picture and sound quality of the performance videos is rather poor. It's shot in a restaurant with dim lighting, no additional lamps, and what sounds like the camcorder's own built-in microphone. The result is footage that's low in colour and high in noise, and flat, lifeless sound that's contantly competing with background chatter. Abbott's explanation for this is that he wanted to capture the spontaneous nature of performances given for real kids rather than setting something up in the studio. He's right about that, of course, but investment in a better directional microphone would still have made a world of difference and wouldn't have interfered with the performance one bit. In fact, I would have gone one further and given Bill a tie clip mic. But then that's just me. At the end of the day, the footage is still watchable and audible, so it's not the end of the world. I'm just a video tech nerd.

On the plus side, quality of the explanations is top-notch. It's clear, well lit and sound is good. A lot of thought has gone into presentation too. Rather than try to verbally explain each sleight, Abbott simply shows it again and again and again using different close-up angles. This is possibly one of the most visually thorough magic DVDs I've seen, and while the repetition slows the pace, it removes practically all ambiguity with regard to technique.

The routines themselves are great fun.

Bill's sponges routine is quick and to the point. It really only makes use of one sleight, but has good momentum and works as a good ice breaker with the spectators, getting them involved in the magic straight away. I know sponges are a love 'em or hate 'em thing (apart from the fact that I find myself oddly indifferent to them), but you can't deny that they are fun when presented right.

The Shadow is a three stage card change routine. I was actually quite apprehensive about this DVD because of the number of card tricks on it - and being unsure whether kids would really respond well to them, but this is a good example of how they can be made to work. The Shadow is a purely visual routine in which one card changes to another, and the spectator can make the final piece of magic happen. Nice stuff. It uses a few sleights that card novices will possibly find a little daunting, but on the whole it's a straightforward one to master.

The Autograph is a signed card to wallet routine. Bill has wrapped it up in the idea of collecting autographs, and the fact that the spectator has to sign their chosen card helps avoid any danger than the little 'un won't know what their card was at the end of the routine.

The Ninja Card Trick is one that I remember from magic books I had when I was ten. But again, those books covered the technique, while it's Abbott's presentation that makes it shine. A card is chosen, lost in the deck, the deck is placed in a paper bag, and a letter opener is plunged into the side of the bag, accurately stabbing the chosen card through the centre. Quick, direct, violent and great fun.

The Mental Photograph - another card trick. The spectator signs the performer's business card, chooses a card from a deck, and the image of that card appears on the business card. I'm not 100% sure about the kid appeal on this one, but Bill pulls it off with little effort.

Edwin Alonzo Boyd is not a card trick. Hurrah! It's based on the story of a jailbreak, which children should enjoy, but the method will be very obvious to any practicing magician or lateral thinker. It's still good fun though.

The Great Game - a card trick. cards have the names of prizes on their backs, and the one a spectator chooses is the one that the magician has on the table. Again, it avoids the problems of having children that don't know how to recognise cards, but with a deck prepared in adcance (with the names of prizes written on the back of each card) it's not one that you can do with your normal pack of cards. And if you're going to bring along a specific prop for a kids' routine, my first choice wouldn't be a deck of cards.

Flash is ashes on palm wrapped up in a story about the performer's dead dog. It's a good laugh and plays well, giving the performer a nice excuse to use flash paper.


Card on Forehead - take a wild guess what happens with this one.

In total, this DVD set runs for about three hours, and is packed with material that most table-hoppers will find useful if not invaluable. I'm still disappointed by the dominance of card tricks, as I feel that playing cards don't make as much immediate sense to children as they are to adults. But I haven't been entertaining kids as long as Bill Abbott, so I'll bite my tongue, withold my criticism, sulk in a corner and kick the cat.

Overall
This is a great DVD. Yes, it teaches tricks. But the techniques at play are ones that most of us are already well familar with. And as magicians, you'll probably see right through the routines at the performance stage. That doesn't matter a jot. Presentation and routining are everything here, and there's an awful lot that can be learned from Bill's style. He's fun, informal and engaging. At no point does he go for 'magician in trouble' comedy schtick that's so easy to overuse in childrens' shows. He always seems to be in control of his magic, but at the same time, he doesn't lord it over the kids either. He's genuinely funny rather than being outlandishly silly, and somehow manages to stay on an equal footing to his audience - being neither an idiot nor a sensible grown-up.

I've got technical grumbles about the DVD, but it's quite clearly a DIY production, and that's something that should be supported and heralded rather than criticised or discouraged. The content is fab and the routines are incredibly well taught. Along with some useful routines, Bill gives us a lot to think about regarding performance style - and that alone is worth the £23 asking price.

9/10

An excellent review, pcwells. It is much appreciated.

Thanks for that too... a good present idea for my younger brother's upcoming birthday!