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SYLVESTER PITCH '98 by Dan Sylvester

This video of Dan Sylvester is a must have. No doubts about it.

It start with a brief introduction of Sylvester The Jester and a couple of highlights of his performance as a "living cartoon act".

Then, it all goes to Sylvester The Jester. He does a quickie but very astonishing routine about the Sylvester Pitch/Inertia Pass. He continously produces coins, coins, and more coins. Then he proceeds to his very beautiful Miser's Dream Routine. Then he produces things from coins to steel nuts, to jumbo coins and more objects.

Then, he goes serious now. I was surprised on how a great teacher Sylvester was. He really goes into fine detail. He teaches the Ptich/Inertia Pass in thorough detail so you won't have any questions about it.

Then he teaches the psychology behind the trick, how it works and why it works. This part is the core of the move if you want to learn it. It will give you a really broad knowledge on it.

Dan then proceeds on the angles on pitching. He shows how to position your body to get the most visual production from the audience's view. Don't worry, this move is not angle sensitive and can be done surrounded. The move is virtually impossible to be seen by the naked eye if done correctly.

He then proceeds to show a little applications on how to pitch small objects to big objects. This is the funny part.
He pitches coins to more coins to jumbo coins to steel nuts to apples to eggplants to bottles to pepperonis to breads and many more wacky stuff.

The next segment is an explanation of all his routines on the video.
This part can be considered the bonus since the mechanics of the pitch is already enough. Very useful info here. All worth learning. His coins across using the Inertia Pass is superb and his Miser's Dream is really WOW!

Then Sylvester has this segment on "Common Problems with the PitCh"
I really liked this part because he teaches the right way to pitch and corrects the wrong which we usually do.
Then he delves in to practice session and he gives his insights in magic.

This is a very good video. One of the best in my collection. A must have.
I highly recommend it. I give it a 10 out of 10.

Right i have to have this!

Apparently its only available on VHS and my player chews up tapes. Grrrr.
Does anyone know if you can get it on DVD? Or how difficult it would be to transfer VHS to DVD?

This is indeed a fantastic DVD.

What's more, I firmly believe that Sylvester is the inspiration for the Mask movies

Yeah it could well have been! Although it was a very violent graphic novel before being made into a film.

Do you have it on DVD Seige?

No, I have a prized 'video' copy I'm afraid.

This review has prompted me to watch it again

Is this more for stage magic than say, street magic? Sounds like you need a whole loada pockets

LeftEye wrote:Is this more for stage magic than say, street magic? Sounds like you need a whole loada pockets

Nah, the move is used in close up routines mainly, from what i gather.

Ok, this is a pretty difficult move.

But i think its gonna be worth it, when i can eventually pluck obscure objects from thin air.

Does anyone else use this move?

This is an exceptional sleight in my opinion. It looks like real magic. Close up? That depends. You need to be standing and because you move your arms extensively you could end up poking someone's eye out. Greg Wilson came up with a similar move (On the Spot), but didn't know of the original move, so had to title his move "Sylvester Pitch". In many respects Wilson's is not as good but it fits his routine better - I think of it as Sylvester Pitch Lite. The advantage of Wilson's way of doing it is that you can do it closer to the spec, since the arm movements are smaller.
How difficult is the Pitch (originally called the Inertia Pass)? Not that difficult if you put in a bit of practice.

Can you pitch big things like shoes and sausages with the Greg Wilson version?

Isn't the Greg Wilson one the Pitch 'n Ditch? He taught it the other night in his lecture, really nice looking move and not overly tricky. It's mainly a way of changing one small object into another though rather than a production.

No the Pitch 'n' Ditch is on Off the Cuff - it is a completely different move.
Dan Slyvester shows how he uses the Sylvester Pitch for larger objects (bread, vegetables etc) but you would have to be really good to get away with those. When I said that the Sylvester Pitch is not too difficult I was referring to coins. If you are talking about large objects then it's not the move that is any more difficult but your skills as a close up magician and control over your audience/angles would have to be extremely good.

Aha gotcha. Are there any videos around the net of the Sylvester Pitch? I'd like to see it in action but I'm guessing that it might give away the move if you saw it on video?

Yeah! Here's a demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0EDT6hBxcc