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Hi

This is my first review so please go gently - I've tried to follow the template and hope you find it useful.

Bill Malone - Here I go again Volume 2

Content

Thinking Man's Sponge Ball Routine
Marlo's Colour Changing Deck Routine
Mind-Reading Magician
Keeping My Money Safe S.A.N.D.Y
Dealing a Good Hand
The Six-card Trick "sorry for the delay"

Bonus Items

Putting together a stand up show
My trade show pitch
Drilling a good show into your head
Following up with your clients

Ravelli's Waterfall shuffle
Steve Fortes no look aces

Cost

£21.99 from http://www.dudethatscoolmagic.co.uk/aca ... html#aB517 I bought the 3 DVD set from the same site at £59.99
My first order from them and it was great service, very rapid arriving the next day using their free delivery and in stock too.

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 2 - 4 coming from the view of someone with an ok grasp on magical concepts. There are no self workers in here and equally nothing that can't be picked up with a little bit of practice and effort.

Review

Thinking man's sponge ball routine - A fast paced very visual sponge ball routine that has been developed and used by Bill for 25 years. He goes into great detail on this effect and the handling tips and the great thing about the routine as Bill tells you is that it has been designed to be stopped at any point depending on the interest of your audience or the time that you have to carry out the routine. He also adds in some great tips on the vanish of the ball as well. This effect is the reason that I've watched this dvd first. I wasn't disappointed.

Marlo's colour changing deck routine - This is Bill's version of a solid deck change routine. There are in my opinion better deck colour changing routines out there and Bill adds his personal touches with a slight change to the usual ending. He also teaches you how to clean up the deck afterwards though the next effect is a great follow up using the same cards.

Mind reading magician - This is a great follow up to the previous effect and adds Bill's flair to the Chicago Opener/Red Hot Mama. The basic premise is that the spec's card is the only odd colour backed card in a deck while at the end the magicians card and the spec's card transpose. This is an effect that many magicians perform regularly and the 'think of a card' routine rather than 'pick a card' might be a neat touch people will add. Personally it's a fantastic trick and Bill teaches it well although I'm not sure the changes add much to what is already an outstanding piece.

Keep my money safe - S.A.N.D.Y - a very visual coins across routine used in the preview clips advertising the DVD set. It's nice for the coin workers out there but I've never seen the gimmick on sale before. If anyone has seen this DVD and knows where to buy the gimmick can you please let me know. I don't want to say what the gimmick is in case it's classed as exposure.

Dealing a good hand - Again Bill's adaptation of one of the oldies. In this case Marlo-Gardner Poker Deal. It's a gambling effect using the premise of poker as the back drop. I'm not a great fan of poker routines but it might suit many out there. I would say that once again his teaching is first rate and it's probably one of the easier tricks on the DVD to pick up and learn.

The six card trick "sorry for the delay" - a good variation of a 6 card trick which required a little skill in palming. If you're comfortable with this you'll get this in no time, if not you have some practice to do. A little too long for my liking but I guess I could adapt this and shorten it if i thought I would use it. Just personal opinion.

Extras

I feel the extras are a little hit and miss to be honest and a couple add nothing for me, almost like they are fillers to what is a great packed DVD. Some advice is given on putting together a stand up show and trade show pitches. It might be good to hear this from a top pro but better advice to be honest is available from the members on this very site. He also gives some advice on drilling a good show into your head and following up with your clients. This last one is worth hearing and he makes a lot of sense.

The last two bonus items on the dvd are worth the money. A great explanation of the Ravelli's Waterfall Shuffle which is an in the air false riffle shuffle with waterfall cascade that will probably fly by a lot of your magicians friends. He builds it up from the most simple variation of this to what is really the version you should be using. To use any other would be a waste of this great false shuffle.

There is a final effect of Steve Forte's No Look Aces which is a cutting the aces routine. I feel these routines are very good, Sal Piacente does a good version, and allows you to show your skills as a magician. I'd personally use this as a way of producing the aces in a flashy skillful way. It's not too difficult either as far as cutting aces go. A nice addition to the DVD.

Overall

I'm a big big fan of Bill Malone and had to order this as soon as I saw that it was on release. His first DVD from On The Loose is probably the best magic DVD I own. His teaching is first rate and covers most things in great detail. There are some disadvantages of this DVD though.

You probably have to have an itermediate level of knowledge with cards as Bill uses quite a few false shuffles that are not covered in the DVD (Sam the Bellhop will teach you these well from On the Loose Vol 1) and you need a gimmicked coin for one effect. One that I've not seen on sale before and I suspect is not easily available. You'll also need to be confident with palming for some effects and it isn't covered here either. You also have to put up with L&L production which as everyone will know is a little cheesy to say the least.

Minor quibbles on what is a great DVD. I've done this seperately as they are all great stand alone DVDs.

I'd give this 8.5/10 with some very workable effects on the DVD

The gimmicked coin had me baffled too. I'm not sure where I can get one of those from..

Anyway, nice review matey. I have this DVD too and can confirm that's it's jolly good. Bah! I'm going to have to get the third volume as the first two are so good.