talkmagic.co.uk

1 Deck ,14 Tricks 24 Hours by Matthew J. Dowden
http://www.alakazam.co.uk

How Much: £15 per volume (two volumes)

What You Get:
Two DVD’s (although they can be brought separately).

What the critics say
These DVD’s have already attracted a fair amount of controversy – not to mention criticism.

The main point seems to be that as professional magicians we shouldn’t be advocating anyone go out and perform a trick just 24 hours after learning it (let alone 14 tricks!).

My answer to this is that those that make those criticisms almost certainly do not own the DVD’s in question and they are in fact missing the point.

Possibly this isn’t totally their fault though, as on the whole I tend to agree with the general sentiment. I do believe though that it is not the DVD itself they are criticising, merely the title, and perhaps the concept that the title implies.

I do work professionally and I do own both these DVD’s. I freely admit that I was initially a little dubious about how useful these DVD’s would be, however having now watched them I will say that they are undoubtedly a very worthwhile addition to my collection.

Who is it aimed at?

To clarify for those that are still unsure – the point of these DVDs (as I see it) are twofold.

a). On the simplest level – they are a set of DVD’s aimed at the same people that buy Steve Beam’s “Semi Automatic Card Tricks”, Nick Trost’s “The Card Magic of Nick Trost” or indeed, Karl Fulves’ “Self Working Card Magic”.

All books incidentally that I am proud to own myself. However, as much as I love books, the advantage this set of DVD’s has in that you see a consummate professional like the very charismatic Matthew J. Dowden out there in the real world performing the effects to a real public (by which I mean genuine members of the public and not the usual L&L style crowds we sometimes get on other DVD’s). (Not that I have anything against L&L audiences. I love them all. Truly I do)

What I am trying to say is that all the effects get great reactions, proving that the strength of an effect has nothing to do with how difficult it is to perform.

b). Now a DVD of Semi Automatic card magic is by itself a good enough reason for many people to buy these DVD’s, however as someone once said before me, “It goes further than that”.

The reason Matthew gives for the DVD is that it is also useful for the professional close-up worker as a set of really powerful backup effects that can be performed anywhere, anytime (even if need be, with a borrowed deck of cards) when you are in a situation that requires you to perform for longer than you anticipated.

Imagine the situation. You have been paid to do an hours close up magic at tables. You were anticipating 6 minutes per table, and to keep pocket space low you have the bare minimum on you. When you arrive – you find that in fact (due to cancellations) there are just two tables, and suddenly you need to find an extra 30 minutes of magic from somewhere. I am confident that I am not alone when I say that I have on occasion found myself in a similar situation.

Or perhaps, you are at the bar after the gig, having a quiet drink when you are inundated with requests to show something else.

In any of these situations, or 1001 similar ones, all of the effects on these DVD’s will suit, and being easy to perform, makes them very easy to remember.

The Review

All the effects talked about on these DVD’s are strong, especially (but not exclusively) from a layperson’s perspective. In addition, all the effects are easy to perform and even better, easy to remember.

So going back to the title briefly (”1 Deck, 14 Tricks, 24 Hours”), I doubt there is any professional card magician out there who couldn’t learn all these effects in 24 hours, but more importantly, I am sure they would all be happy to perform them in a real world situation after that time. There. I said it. Am I evil incarnate now? Will I be shunned by the magic community? Have I lost all credibility? I do hope not.

I admit that most of the effects were not new to me, but that didn’t put me off in the slightest. Why? Well simply because over the years I have for whatever reason, one by one put them aside and forgotten about them. I see now this is sacrilege. A huge waste and above all, a damn (‘scuse my French) shame.

As with Matthew Dowden’s other DVD “Party Animal”, this set has renewed my enthusiasm for card magic and although quite possible few of these effects will appear in my regular 6 minute close up sets I do know that I will be performing all of them over and over again as time goes on.

They have been forgotten once, but not again.

The only criticism I have is that more of the effects weren’t credited. I always think that is a nice touch and a shame when it isn’t done.

The Bottom Line

All in all, I have no hesitation in thoroughly recommending these DVD’s to everyone from the rank beginner, to the full time professional. It is not often that I can make a recommendation quite as weeping as that.

Well done, Matthew J. Dowden.

Great review, I was hoping someone would get round to this one. I have been looking at buying his Party Animal DVD recently after seeing the trailer and this looked good too. Think I'll end up with both of them now!

You'll not be disapointed with either Freddie, Great review by the way, you're right on the skill level and a few of the tricks I'd never use but it's a great reminder that a "simple" trick can slay when presented right.

Mathew is very entertaining to watch and I think i'd be highly entertained if he were performing for me. His Party Animal DVD set is worth every penny and I've started learning a lot of his material from there. It's certainly got me practicing the one handed top palm.

Quite a comprehensive review, thanks. I'd buy these if I wasn't completely skint.

[Note to self: do not read reviews shortly after Christmas!]

They're only a hour long each, seems quite dear for self workers. I would advise people to buy Card College Lite instead.

Lenoir wrote:

They're only a hour long each, seems quite dear for self workers. I would advise people to buy Card College Lite instead

Books are always going to be better value for money though aren't they - due to the different natures of their production costs. I'm certainly not going to argue against anyone buying Card College Lite (card college 1-5 is the centre piece of my book collection), but the value of this DVD for me is being able to actually see what effect these, essentially self-working, tricks have on the spectators. Also Matthew comes across so well (as a charming performer and an excellent teacher) that I was persuaded to buy his Party Animal DVD straight away.

As for the tricks themselves... I've probably performed 'Ripped' more than any other card trick and it always gets a great reaction (I think people for some reason never get over the initial fact that you're destroying some cards just for them!!).

The Party Animal DVD is also great - more advanced but all very useable and practical.

The great thing about the 14 Tricks... DVD is as mentioned - it proves that showmanship and focusing/interacting with the specs is far more important than knuckle-busting sleights. "Match.com" went straight into my performances and always goes down very well - and it's so easy I know it's always got my back in "impromptu" situations.

Obviously not as "good value" as a book but then with a book you don't get the chance to see the effect being used in the real world - I love DVDs like those of Matthew J. Dowden, Harry Robson etc. where the performances are done infront of a real world audience. Ok, they're not going to show any of the times it went wrong (actually, Harry Robson does on his "magic under fire" DVD) but you get an idea of how the effect plays out, the offbeats etc. and moreover you can trust that someone else has really tested it in a hired situation.

I'm sure we've all come to have our favourite members of the L&L audience (God bless you, Scotty and Corey) but let's face it - just because the L&L guys clap and squeal... it means nothing, frankly. On some of the DVDs you can even catch them shooting each other "hmmm... I think I saw that..." glances.

So yeah - go buy the Matthew Dowden DVDs, you won't be disappointed. Plus - annoyingly - as well as being dashingly handsome, he's also a really nice bloke, and happy to discuss the effects if you get in touch with him.