New to TM, but thought I'd ad a couple reviews for some of the videos I have, so starting off with Visions of Wonder by Tommy Wonder
The Effect
Visions of Wonder: Volume 1 DVD by L&L publishing
Includes:
The Ring, Watch and Wallet
Magic Ranch
Through the eye of the needle
The Tamed Card
Two cup routine
Cost
30,58 $ at Penguinmagic.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)
I'd have to say from 2 to 5. I'm just a newcomer, so I don't know what you concider to be level 5 really, but one of the tricks are defenately not for the easy minded.
Review
I bought this only because of the annoying fact that I couldn't figure out how on earth he did his Tamed Card-routine, and because Tommy Wonder is by far my favorite magician.
Tricks and performance:
The tricks I'd say rate from OK tricks to great tricks. Like the Two Cup Routine is a classic, and the tamed cards is defenately going into my routine. Through the eye of the needle is not my style, but if you're into those kind of slow paced tricks I guess it's good. His performance is of course great and it at least got me inspired to be a magician of that skill level.
Explanations:
In the DVD Max Maven is included as a co-host to take part in some of the tricks explanations. Some are just Tommy explaining the trick, and some are a kind of conversation between Tommy and Max. I like it those kind of magic videos because they add a second view on the psychology etc of the tricks. All over it's clean and no bad camera production (as with some of Sankey's videos... yes, offence).
The explanations are not for people new to magic because there are some moves that are never explained and implicitly taken for granted you already know. The Ring, Watch and Wallet explanation is really more of an exposure rather than a real explanation (I have the book too, and that explanation is much better). The rest is quite ok, but you have to know some basic skills.
The explanation of the two cup routine is great and there's a lot on the psychology of misdirection. I learnt a lot from it, although it's probably some time until I'll dare or even be able to perform it.
There are some extra material that's quite enjoyable to watch and there's an interesting story on how Tommy fooled the entire Obie O'brien's FFF-convention.
Overall:
I love the tricks and I'd say it's a 9/10 just because you learn some really great pieces of magic. I'd say the explanations are a 6/10 because they are somewhat lacking, but you just don't learn the tricks in this DVD, you get a lot of great advice on the psychology of magic and magic in general.
All in all, it's a 9/10
By the way, this is my first review on this page, so do give me some feedback
Much appreciated.
