ULTIMATE IMPROMPTU CARD MAGIC DVD - CAMERON FRANCIS
From Big Blind Media
The advertising blurb first...
Check this:
A collection of mindblowing card magic that you can perform with ANY borrowed deck. NO SETUPS. NO PROPS. NO GAFFS.
How often has this happened to you - you're at a party and someone comes up and says 'hey, I hear you're a magician… can you show me a trick?'. Your mind goes blank. You have none of your gear with you - no TT, no sharpie, no gaff decks, no magnetic ring, nothing. All you have is a deck of cards. (Or maybe your new friend hands you THEIR deck!).
What do you do?
On Ultimate Impromptu Card Magic Cameron Francis has collected together a host of absolutely KILLER magic that you can unleash at a moment's notice. These 14 routines are easy to perform, but shockingly powerful. Learn these tricks and you'll NEVER be stuck for a spectator frying miracle again!!
Easy to do
No props required (other than a deck of cards)
Perform any time, any where, with anyone's deck (even missing some cards)
No setups needed
All strong material - no filler
1. Ace Thang
2. Sly Cheese
3. A.N. Other Thang
4. Interchangeling
5. Hofwich
6. Zombieland
7. Instinct
8. Killer Trifecta
9. Elevation
10. Wilder
11. Uppers
12. The P***ing Contest
13. Getting Even
14. Selected Assembly
Cost : Dude Thats Cool Magic have this for £21:99
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)
There's quite a few tricks on here, so it varies a little, almost totally 3, but I think there's the odd 4 in here too.
Review
I get a bit fed up seeing a trick (or reading the description) and thinking "Wow! Thats amazing!" then the first thing in the "how to" bit is .. "The set up goes like this..." and you have to place half half the deck in a specific order... I seem to be looking for tricks that really don't need a set up, that I can just grab a deck and go. So I'd been looking forward to this DVD for a little while. I like Camerons stuff generally, and we all now that BBM's products are very nicely presented and of good quality.
And this really is what it says on the tin! It's tricks that require no set ups, no gaffs, no props... not even a sharpie in sight!
And there's some strong things on here to. (Maybe I'd dispute the "No Filler" claim they make, but with 14 tricks, I can excuse that... and also I guess it's down to taste a bit too)
For me there's four tricks in particular that really stand out. The opening routine that Cameron does in a cafe with Liam, Ace Thang, which leads nicely into Sly Cheese. It's a lovely ace revelation trick that is especially remarkable considering that you can do it if someone just throws a deck at you and demands a trick! (OK, so there's a little fumbling and set up as you remove the jokers and the aces, but really, it's so worth it!) It's just a small step up from my own current card skill level, but not much, so I think it's the ideal trick for me to work on next.
Interchangeling is really not the sort of trick I'd even consider attempting, but I think that I have to now reconsider this! It's easy and strong as.... Multiple card changes from impossible locations into a spectators chosen card... This is going to be fun to perform!
The last two tricks on the disc are also particularly good. Getting Even is effectively a 16 card packet trick, a sort of OOTW thing with two spectators. This may well be the trick that I will use the most! It's very, very simple, and at the same time, rather effective.
The finaly, Selected Assembly...not the most imaginative of titles.... is, after a bit of a slow start (a bit to much faffing around really) a seriously sweet transformation piece.
As for the other tricks... well, there's nothing bad on here. If I'm going to be picky, a couple of the tricks feel a little contrived, and there's a bit of similarity in them... to many "And your card is between these two jacks/jokers" and to many double undercuts and double turnovers, but really, would you show your spectators every trick on the DVD? Just pick a favourite and learn it! Wilder, Uppers, Instinct and all the others on here are fine tricks.. just to me none of them stand out like the above four (although, if I had to pick a fifth, I'll take the time to learn Hofwich)
There's nothing on here really that's a magician fooler, but if you want to show card tricks to the public, this could be just the thing!
Overall
One of my favourite card tricks is Bannons "Dead Reckoning". I love this trick. But I very rarely do it! The set up is so fiddly, that really I need to keep a deck set just for it...
This DVD by contrast, is full of stuff that, by it's very nature, is all do-able. I know that I will get a lot of use from it, and also get some very strong reactions. You probably won't learn new sleights, or stun other magicians, but that's not what this disc is about. If you want to be able to perform, at the drop of a hat, for your adoring public...
I like this DVD a lot. Like I said, I'd been waiting for it to come out, and I'm very pleased with it. An excellent product!
Other things
There's two other things that come to mind now. Firstly, there's a thread or two on here about what exactly is impromtu magic is! Can you prepare for it? If you're carrying cards around, then is it impromptu? I decided to avoid that in this review. For me personally, this DVD of tricks fills my own criteria for impromptu, but this may well be very different to other peoples definitions. (Although I will say that I'm just at the end of Ortiz's Strong Magic, and he says something about the value of being prepared for impromptu routines!)
And secondly... If you get this from Dude thats cool magic... at the moment they will also do Cameron Francis Killer Gaff magic dvd to go along side it for only a fiver! (Seems like an odd choice to me, an impromptu set and a completely gaffed and prepared set... but I paid the fiver! It's reviewed elsewhere on TM, so I won't go into it here)
