Name: Dai Vernon’s Revelations, Volumes 1 & 2 (1 DVD)
Cost: £24.99 from www.magicbox.uk.com (and lots of other places)
By: L&L Publishing
Difficulty: 0 to 3
Hello all. My first review!
I noticed that elsewhere volumes 5 & 6 of this set are reviewed, but none of the others. Ideally, the review should be the entire 17 volumes (8 DVDs), however the shear amount of material on these discs would make for a monumental task.
I hope I can help to chip a little bit off.
For those that do not know the ‘Revelations’ series, it is essentially an archive of Vernon’s entire life. In 1982, Michael Ammar, Gary Ouellet and Steve Freeman sat down with an ageing Dai Vernon and discussed his life and times. A company called Videonics recorded these and produced 17 volumes on VHS.
Now, L&L Publishing have remastered these and produced an eight DVD set. These are the first two volumes, on one DVD.
The contents of the DVDs:
Volume 1
The Story Behind the Stars of Magic Series
Vernon on Think-of-a-Card,
Brainwave Deck
Vernon on Effects
Triumph-the Vernon Triumph Shuffle
and the Proper Presentation
Story of the Vernon False Shuffle
Practice & Improve Your Magic
Keeping Notes on Your Magic
Cutting the Aces-
Another Vernon Card Classic
Vernon on Passes, False Cuts
Weiner's Opening to Cutting the Aces
The Story is the Entertaining Part of the Trick
Story of the Ambitious Card
Vernon Performs the Ambitious Card
Vernon Explains an Ambitious Card Move
Volume 2
The Vernon DL
The Fingerprint Card Trick
Vernon DL Replacement
On the Strike DL
Vernon's First Intro to the Pass
Spellbound
Story of the Purse Palm
Vernon Demonstrates the Purse Palm &
Spellbound Move
Vernon on Coin Vanishes
The Ring and the Wand
Slow Motion Aces Performance
(Steve Freeman)
Story Behind Slow-Motion Aces
The Slow Motion Card Vanish
Story of the Last Card (Tent Vanish)
Freeman Demonstrates Last Card Vanish
Vernon Explains Slow Motion Aces
Lay Down & Routine
The Force with No Name
Slow Motion Aces for Magicians
What you get:
Dai Vernon’s entire life on eight DVDs.
That says it all really. However, it is impossible to cover Vernon’s ninety years of experience in such a short space, and as such there are a few limitations.
You need to be aware of these limitations. I’ll explain what I mean.
Vernon was 88 when this was filmed and needless to say it needed to be produced in a very informal, conversational style. This is what this DVD is: a long discussion between the magicians. It could easily have been a conversation in a café or in Vernon’s house. In this respect I found the contents a little misleading – a lot of the effects are just discussed. You will not get a DVD in the modern style you may be used to. There is no performance/explanation of each effect, just a long, continuous discussion. This certainly caught me out – I was a bit skint at the time and had I known this I would have bought something that would have kept me busy for a bit longer.
My point is this: If you’re a beginner in magic then you will find this a bit frustrating. A lot of the material will be of little use. On the other hand, the things that Vernon says and the advice he gives are as pertinent today as they were 25 years ago. Therefore If you are serious about your magic, then the discs are worth their weight in gold. You are getting ninety years of magic and performance experience here from the father of modern magic. His anecdotes and advice, everything.
Just be aware of the limitations of trying to squeeze an entire life in a stack of plastic discs a few inches high.
Now then. Look back across the contents of the DVDs. You will see that I have marked some of the entries in bold. These are the effects that are discussed in full, rather then just breezed over or talked about. Here is what I have to say about these.
Volume 1 – Full Effects
Triumph – the original routine
This is actually the reason why I bought these volumes. I wanted to see Vernon doing Triumph. Vernon describes the routine, while Ammar performs and explains it. It’s nice to hear Vernon being his cantankerous old self as he pulls Ammar to pieces over his presentation. All of the original moves are here, including the Triumph shuffle.
Vernon also talks about the history of the Triumph shuffle and why the Triumph is such a good routine.
Cutting the Aces
This is Vernon’s ‘one-handed gambler’ routine in full. It’s an excellent aces production routine with a storyline about a one-handed gambler who has a curious control over the cards. Freeman (if I remember rightly) gets the short straw and has to perform this effect to Vernon. Needless to say Vernon takes no prisoners and Freeman is on the receiving end of some criticism. I was particularly pleased when Freeman tried to argue back. You can almost smell the fear in the air.
The story is engaging and has that typical Vernon style where he neither patronises nor boasts to the audience. Vernon also talks about the different presentations to this routine.
Other effects discussed on Volume 1
Vernon talks about the ideas behind a lot of the performance of magic. He discusses how to improve your magic by keeping proper notes. In particular he talks about how a magician should relate to the audience and how an effect should be presented. He talks about how an effect should not be used to show how skilful the magician is and he leads very nicely into the idea behind the ambitious card and uses this as a good example. You even get an ACR move thrown in, just for good measure.
This really is pure gold. I threw out several of my effects almost immediately after I watched this. It is quite an eye opener if you are honest with yourself.
Volume 2 – Full Effects
The Fingerprint Card Trick
Now here’s an age old problem in magic – how to make a sleight look as close as possible to the normal movement. Here Vernon uses the D/L as an example and shows us the Fingerprint trick to illustrate. This is an excellent example of why Vernon is such a good magician, and gives us an idea of the dedication Vernon had to his magic.
Purse Palm & Spellbound Move
Vernon demonstrates the Purse Palm and Spellbound moves. There is enough here to learn the moves from scratch. Vernon illuminates these moves with several anecdotes - He shows us how the purse palm can be used in scamming and he shows us a very effective use of the Spellbound Move with a spectator.
The Ring and the Wand
A classic linking effect using a magic wand and a borrowed ring. Again, Vernon’s anecdotes are sprinkled liberally. I love this effect, and I am very pleased to see Vernon’s handling. You can have somebody’s life with this one, seriously.
The Slow Motion Aces
Again, Freeman gets the short straw and a ‘no-holds barred’ Vernon keeps a close eye on him. I can’t imagine what it must have been like.
Anyhoo, the Slow Motion Aces is an aces production/assembly routine, again with a typical Vernon flair. There is a lot to learn here, as several variations are discussed including a slightly different handling that will fool magicians. This is a very good assembly. This can be compared to Triumph - although there are loads of assemblies out there, I think it very important to see Vernon’s take on the idea.
Other effects discussed on volume 2
I feel that this volume flows a touch better than the first. I get the impression that Messrs Ammar and Ouellet are getting the ‘hang’ of the professor by now, and are skilfully guiding him around to the topic in question. They manage to build up to every effect quite nicely and Vernon gives a little bit of history and a bit of detail on every move and effect. Each of the discussions flows very nicely into the next. Mr Freeman on the other hand, is neither use nor ornament.
Finally, you get a nice force for your repertoire.
Conclusion
There are two schools of thought here. As I have said the beginner may be a little disappointed. But the aspiring and experienced magicians may feel that these are worth their weight in gold. In either case these will be of use. There is simply no price you can put on the experience and anecdotes that are recorded here. There are ninety years of magical experience here on eight discs and you are certain to find something to improve your magic. You will not find anything that comes close to the content of these discs.
Criticisms? Yes. Firstly, I have to say that these volumes feel rushed in places. You get the impression that the presenters feel that Vernon is on his last legs. This is a bit sad really, he comes across as a bit of a museum piece. There are times when I would have like the conversation to dwell on certain topics, but move on from others.
Secondly, I have to dismiss those people who talk about Vernon’s ‘character’ and laugh it off. He comes across very badly on these discs. I feel like I would hate Dai Vernon if I ever met him. I would respect him of course and I would have loved to have been an understudy of his, but I would never have been his friend. This is a bit trying at times. It’s hard to concentrate when he keeps interrupting. As an 88 year old, I can expect a bit of wandering off-topic, but this just comes across as plain rude.
Thirdly, I would have liked the DVD packaging to have been a bit clearer. L&L do nothing to differentiate this disc from any other instructional DVD and I do not like getting nasty surprises when I put the disc in my machine.
Lastly, the quality. This is 25 year old NTSC VHS transcribed onto disc. Needless to say, neither this nor any of the above criticisms do not detract one bit from the content.
Content: 10/10
Overall, as a disc: 9/10
EDIT: Thanks for the nice comments! Having a re-read though, I feel I must emphasise that this disc is only a very small part of the whole set (2 volumes of 17) and that you have to view it's limitations in that context. I like trashmanf's comment below... I'd forgotten about that one. It pretty much sums it up!
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