The Effect
"Nobody will ever teach any effect as perfectly as does Harry Lorayne. He is nothing less than a national treasure."
It was a particular pleasure to watch Harry Lorayne work in front of, and handle, an audience. Its true: When Harry Lorayne teaches on camera, its almost as if hes sitting with you in your own living room, helping you, guiding you. It will be hard for you to decide which you enjoy morethe performances or his explanations.
As he teaches a particular routine, he also teaches each sleight, each move, the psychology, the attitude. Watching Harry Lorayne is watching impromptu close-up magic at its best.
Each and every effect, idea, routine in this entire series can be done with a borrowed deck of cards.
Youll be thrilled by Harry Loraynes performing/teaching ability, by his judgment, selectivity, attention to detail. He never abandons you whatever he teaches, he teaches thoroughly. He walks you through it hand in hand.
Be prepared to sit, watch, enjoyand learn!
DVD 1 includes all the material originally found on VHS Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
24 ROUTINES! OVER 40 SLEIGHTS FULLY EXPLAINED!
Over 3 Hours and 45 Minutes of instruction!
* HaLo Cut
* HaLo Aces
* Aces Royal
* Double Revelation
* Ace Revelation
* 1-2-3-4 Aces
* Faced Aces
* Quadruple False Cut to Table
* Strange Voyage
* Classic and Behind-theBack Force
* DL and Flip-Up DL
* One-Hand and Two-Hand Palm
* How In the World Did You Know
* Spectator Cuts to Aces
* Evolution of a Sleight
* Ace Spell Two-Card Location
* Observation Test Dr. Jacob Daley
* Fantastic Ace Assembly
* Numero Uno performance only
* Rock and Roll Aces Peter Marshall
* To Catch an Ace #5
* Lorayne's Poker Deal #1
* Earthly Powers Richard Vollmer
* Non-Earthly Powers
* The Family Unit
* The Lorayne Force Sandwich
* Almost Perfect
* Magician vs Gambler
* The Great Divide
* Two Shuffles Harry Bro. John Hamman
Running Time Approximately 3hr 51min
Price and availability
About 35 dollars at most magic shops
I got mine at www.magicproshop.com
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)
3-4 The teaching is so good, the "difficult" stuff seems easy.
Review
This is a very good set for begginers/intermediate card magicians. I bought this after reading about Harry Lorayne in a post here praising his memory. Harry's ability to fool magicians who don't know his methods is very impressive. Upon first viewing, I was completely fooled by the majority of the effects in this DVD. When it did get down to the teaching, Harry's as good as anyone at teaching. Harry is thorough, direct, and easy to follow. He teaches many subtleties like timing, misdirection, why some methods are c*** (not the best) * compared to others that are very similar, etc.
A few of the effects taught on the disk. These are my personal favourites.
*HaLo Aces- I was fooled when I saw this. Harry teaches a very clever sleight (HaLo cut) and how to use it for a four of a kind production. The way he layers false shuffles and cuts to make the deck look very well mixed is something card magicians should pay attention to and learn.
*Behind the Back Force- Harry's subtleties on the classic force and why it works better when you do it behind your back. I use this force whenever the situation calls for a classic force.
*Observation Test- This is a great transposition effect. A must for people who want to do 2 card monte without the nonsense actions (like the top change and a triple lift) that are usually necessary to do it.
*The Great Divide- This fooled me upon first viewing and it will probably fool you too. It's a bold, sneaky color separation where the spectator shuffles the deck before the separation. The concept it utilizes is a versatile one that can be the foundations to many other effects, I imagine. By ellusionist standards, this trick alone would be the price of the dvd.
* I just like seeing c*** (not the best) censored
Overall
Teaching- 10/10
Effects for the price- 9/10
Overall- 9.5/10
If you're a year or more into card magic, this is a must.
PS, Lord Freddie, Two Shuffles Harry is taught in great detail here.
