McBride Magic on Stage
Volume 3: Classics of Magic
Quote from a website:
Jeff McBride is recognized as a foremost innovator in the art of magic. His unique fusion of martial arts, dance, Kabuki Theater and stagecraft has inspired thousands of magicians around the world. Now, Jeff shares the secrets of his success and creative process with you! Jeff's extensive travels around the world have given him unique insight into the presentation of these mysteries for modern-day audiences. Jeff will show you how to add color, flash, and mystery to your magic.
Explore the fascinating world of stage magic and learn the professional secrets of magic that packs small and plays big. Jeff not only teaches you how to do each effect, but why, and looks at the philosophy and psychology of a world-class performer.
Price: Depends where you buy it but I bought mine for $35 from my local magic shop. I don't know the British Pound conversion but I assume you can find it on your local magic shops website or from their store.
Difficulty: It's hard to post difficulty seeing as there aren't technically sleights in here; but, it does take some previous stage magic knowledge and experience. I'd post it as a 3 tops...
Review: Now I bought this DVD with no prior Stage Magic experience, I expected to learn something new. Well, I overlooked where it says classic of magic. You learn many things from this DVD: Dancing Cane, Fountain of Silks, Gloves to Flowers, Color Changing Silks, Zombie Ball, and Twentieth Century silks.
All of these are, I won't say necessary, but they are as the title says, classics of stage magic. You get Jeff McBride, who is a very good teacher, teaching you the effects mentioned above with his years of experience. He'll show you his personal routines for these effects and will help you to, either use his routines, or create your own equally good routines. If you on a few of the effects mentioned above, this may be worth buying. McBride's teaching enables you to add some...(as mentioned in the quote) flash to your routines.
If you don't own any of the effects mentioned above though, you're looking at spending some more money as you will need to buy: Silks, Zombie, Appearing Canes, Dancing Canes, Paper Flowers etc.
Again, I bought this DVD with no prior knowledge of stage magic or without owning any of these effects. I was hoping to learn some new stuff to start a stage show with, well...don't buy this DVD with that assumption.
So without rambling and in short, McBride is a great teacher, his teaching style is clear, not so straight to the point but, quick enough that the DVD doesn't drag on.
Now, on to the not so good points of the DVD.
After each effect is taught, and this confused me and weirded (I know that's not a word)me out the first time, It goes to a very bright room with Jeff McBride sitting on a bed with an open book in his lap reading you words of wisdom. Now I know that's something you should expect from Jeff McBride but I didn't know that and I thought it was very strange. Anyways, easily overlooked as it doesn't distract from the quality of the effects. Another peeve of mine is the quality of the picture, it's not that great. It's slightly grainy but it was filmed in 2000. I don't know how far we've come digitally in 9 years but, I didn't like the DVD quality. It may just be my TV but it wasn't great either way.
Alright, so it's a great DVD. Jeff McBride teaches the effects clearly and well. The parts with Jeff McBride crossed legged on the bed reading from a giant book in his brightly lit room were a little bit strange to me. What happened is you would go from the dark studio after watching him with the lights dim, because he's performing the dancing cane, to a bright almost yellow room. Just...strange.
If you're prepared for that though, you'll do fine and enjoy the dvd.
I hope this routine didn't seem to vague. It would've turned out really long if I were to review each individual effect. If you have any questions about the effects ask away.
9/10 for me excellent dvd
!
