Director's Cut - by (our very own )Simon Shaw
Cost & Availability:
£24.99, available from www.alakazam.co.uk - short demo vid on there showing just a small part of the routine.
Difficulty:
1 in terms of there being no need for skilled finger flinging but this is a seriously powerful effect!
(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)
What it says on the tin:
"Director's Cut" has been getting some serious attention on the underground mentalism scene for well over a year with big names such as Richard Osterlind giving his endorsement to it!
So what is "Director's Cut"? It's a set of movie poster cards that have been perfectly printed in full colour and laminated so they should last you a lifetime of performances! You also receive a DVD which features Routines, Tips and Ideas to use with the cards. Now you will be able to perform some seriously strong mentalism with an interesting and popular premise.
"Director's Cut" is Mentalism in its purest form. It's a whole act in your pocket. If you love the idea of using films as part of a routine then the Director's Cut is definitely for you. It can be used strolling, close-up or even parlour. Once you try it you will never leave home without it. No gaffs, no markings, super clean, resets instantly and best of all everything is examinable!
"Directors Cut" can be used with a range of effects such as Mind reading body language, drawing duplications, remote viewing, predictions and muscle reading, in fact the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Simple to perform and strong reactions. What more could you ask from a performance? There is plenty of room for fun, drama and good old fashioned presentation.
Review:
The above says it all really, I was honoured to receive a set of Simon's hand made ( and therefore now highly valuable and collectable!) cards almost 18 months ago to try then out and have enjoyed performing Director's Cut many times since then. I've been gagging to spread the word about this for ages so I'm chuffed to be finally be able to offer a Review. The cards are beautifully produced and remain faithful to the originals, the DVD is excellent with filmed interviews, demos and performances and includes the PDF Instruction manual which is full of presentation tips, hints and alternatives, there's a large fact file about the various films shown on the cards to give you plenty of information to baffle and confound the spectators. If I mention that Simon also includes a line about a porn movie (in the best possible tatse), you'll see that there's plenty of scope for 'personalisation'!
In effect you display a packet of 'some 30 or so' cards - not marked or gaffed in any way - each one has a different classic film poster on one side, completely blank on the other, and the theme is one of iconic art, how it promotes the movie and often stays in the mind long after the movie has been forgotten. The packet is visibly mixed up as many times as you like, the spec selects one truly at random, concentrates on the card, and Mr Mystic (that's you!) divines which one and reveals it in any of many different ways. There's even a version (my favourite!) where the spec does the mixing, the packet is hidden from sight under a table, further mixed, a card selected and despite all this you can still reveal it without ever touching the cards. For the older movie buffs ones out there, you can do a Barry Norman on this, for the younger ones perhaps a Jonathon Ross and for anyone else, just reveal the selection in as imaginative way as possible.
Overall:
Obviously I'm biased through having had this for some time and being very comfortable with it but it's truly well worth having. The thing I like about Director's Cut is that it's not a card trick, more of a trick with cards, but not using playing cards so there's no initial 'oh we've seem it' attitude which sometimes greets the production of a packet or deck of cards. If your specs are in to movies, they'll love this even more than non-movie goers as it's 'their' field of interest. Your knowledge of the various films is easy to acquire from Simon's instructions and there are plenty of movie databases on line if you want more data to work with. Even if the specs don't; go to the cinema, there's an excellent chance that they will have seen the moves on TV or rented the DVD so you're on a winner anyway. 'the method is diabolically simple which means you can really concentrate of the presentation; before performing you'll need to do a little bit of work and it took me less than 15 minutes to get to the point where I was ready for the first showing. Nothing difficult is involved and even the fumble fingered eeejits like me can produce a creditable performance.
Rating:
10/10 - excellent value for money and plenty of scope for personalisation or using the props for other effects.