The Effect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4KVcdh7L8
What they say:
Created By Mark Calabrese, this is the low down dirty secret that will instantly elevate your card prowess!
DVS is a brilliantly simple concept that allows you to perform utterly impossible card magic that transcends sleight of hand!
It's very easy to learn, regardless of skill level, and the best part... EVERY effect can be performed with a borrowed deck!
If you perform card magic you must get DVS.
With DVS, you can:
-Locate a freely chosen card from a BORROWED, SHUFFLED deck...BLINDFOLDED!
-Predict what card a spectator will choose from a BORROWED, SHUFFLED deck...OPENLY!
-Cause someone to stop dealing, at their card...From a BORROWED, SHUFFLED deck!
All this and more is possible with DVS; you are limited only by your imagination!
On this DVD, Mark walks you through 6 of his favorite effects utilizing the DVS technique, and once learned, you will be inspired to come up with your own applications and effects!
This is Mark Calabrese's Dirty Little Secret, And The Next Generation Of Card Magic.
This is DVS.
Cost £19.99. Appears to only be available at Alakazam in the UK.
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'll give this a 2. Some misdirection required but fairly basic stuff.
Review
I did request a review on this: sutra451154.php but no takers so I went out and bought it anyway.
Based on the rather expensive promo vid I was very impressed. Not least with the amount of money they spend on promo vids these days, but also on how impossible the effect looked. Can you achieve the effects as shown in the promo vid???
The first one you can - ish, but personally I find it a bit awkward/hit and miss. It requires some practice which is fine but even then, I'm not 100% sold on the idea. But that's just me. In actual fact, the dirty work of the method appears deliberately removed from the promo - unless of course, he's using a method that I didn't see on the DVD?? Lets just put in another way shal we, No - the way it is performed in the promo, is NOT taught. A different method is taught, admittedly just as convincing but different nevertheless. False advertising??? MMmmm? Nearly but not quite. I was satisfied with the explanation given on the DVD. However............
The second one: - Unless someone can tell me what I'm missing, this effect is not on the DVD. The DVD does NOT teach you how to perform this as shown. It shows you something good, admittedly, but NOT the effect as shown on the promo vid, which I find highly annoying, highly misleading, and I would argue, boardering on illegal. The second part of this DVD should not be used to advertise it. Again, if anyone owns this and can point me in the direction of where this is taught then I'll edit my post. As far as I'm concerned, the promo vid contains blatent false advertising. I will admit that if you're a knowledgeable magician, there is a way to replicate the effect as shown, but if a promo vid shows you something, it shouldn't be the purchasers job to guess/invent their own ways to make it work. It should be taught, or not included in the promo. I can replicate this effect, but only because I have a reasonable idea of what I'm doing. I shouldn't have to fill in the gaps. Rant over.
There are SIX efects taught on the DVD. Being lazy I stole this from the cafe which is fairly accurate save for one piece of information around the effect Kopykat - which is the second effect in the promo - the one that has irritated me:
Blind Peek - The first effect on the promo. He teaches it like the demo (at the Luxor), but with a little thinking, you can replicate the promo version.
Kopykat- The second effect on the promo. He teaches this one a little differently as well, with a card that is merely thought of that ends up reversed in the deck, but again it is an easy matter to copy the promo video exactly as seen, although I will say that there is a little ‘work’ involved either before the effect starts, or before you hand the deck to the spectator. From here on out, though, it is EXACTLY as the promo shows, which is pretty awesome. Great thinking here!
Halt- Spectator selects a card, shuffles, and then deals down until you shout "stop!" You take the top card from the talon and it is their selection!
CSD- Similar to halt, presentationally, but in this case, the cards are shuffled, dealt face down by you, and the spectator calls stop, right on the chosen card. This can be a little less surefire than the others, but is well-constructed, and all the odds and ends are covered so you have an astounding effect no matter what.
3rd Eye- I really liked the thinking here. The spectator shuffles, selects a card, burns it into their mind, and loses it back into the deck, shuffling again. The cards are spread, and you then take "3" cards out of a spread, none are theirs. Messing the cards up on the table, you show the 3 cards, and they magically change into one card, their selection.
Vision- The spectator shuffles, and you then cut the cards into 3 packets. The spectator picks a packet, chooses a card, cuts it into the middle, shuffles, and sets the packet back down. Then, let them mix the packets on the table 3-card monte style. All of this while your back is turned and eyes closed. Then, you turn around, identify which packet their card is in. After that, you tell them how deep in the packet their card will be. Deal down, and the card is at that number. Again, Mark has some very clever thinking in this routine. This is one of my favorites on the DVD.
Overall
When this arrived I was very excited. I opened the parcel and found a DVD and a gimmick, if you can call it a gimmick? I let out a bit of a sigh for reasons I won't go into as it would reveal the method. I then watched the DVD. I became more and more infuriated as I realised that the effects in the promo vid were not taught as advertised. Having said that you can fill in the blanks and work around it. That said, there are several applications taught for the gimmick, one of which I will definitely use. Funnily enough I was thumbing through the encyclopedia of card magic last night and I found a predition effect that I really liked but it seemd to convoluted. I was thinking of a solution to it when the fates intervened and DVS arrived. It's almost perfect - no - it is a perfect solution. I may even film it and post it on here.
Without doubt the standout effect for me is Kopykat. It's relatively easy to do and will fry anyone's brains I'm sure. You can replicate the one on the promo with some thought. If you buy DVS and you get stuck, just PM me and I'll give you my solution. The gimmick is not limited to just these effects and could certainly make other knucklebusting tricks easier to perform
FINALLY - I may have come across rather negative in this review but please don't let that fool you. I really like the concept and the possibilities of this. If used sparingly this could be a real magician fooler. It's not really suited to walkaround but I guess you could invent effects where it could be. Overall I like it, but I really struggled to get beyond the promo vid issues. IMHO, if you show a trick done a certain way in a promo vid, you've got to teach that method on the DVD. This loses points on that basis alone. That said, I do like it.
And if you want to see lots of people arguing then see the review of this on the Cafe.
7 out of 10. Buy it, make it your own!
K
