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by **Dumpster** » Mar 12th, '11, 17:30

JOHN ARCHER - FURTHER EDUCATION available for Instant Download at Talkmagic TV - click here for details

Hi all - here's my review of the Further Education DVD I picked up at Blackpool this year. I did a quick search and couldn't see one here. There's a review of the similar Educating Archer DVD, but there's no need to see the first one before buying this one.

The box contains two DVD's, the first contains a performance, and the second gives the explanations. There's also a nice little close up presentation as a bonus.

I have very little to criticise on this DVD so I am going to focus the review on the good stuff. I could get bogged down in some of the details - the main performance is not especially well lit and could have been filmed better, but that's true of many magic DVDs, and the reason I like this so much is because of what I've learned from it - presentation. There's good magic here and lots of interesting secrets to be discovered, but the main thing I like about John Archer's work is that he treats the magic as a thing that's going on whilst he is entertaining the audience with his comedy and personality. That's why I'm not going to give any scores here, because the focus on both DVDs is in the presentation.

All the tricks are pretty easy to do, but that does not mean they are not impressive to watch. However, what makes John Archer’s DVDs is the presentation – he does not come across as a traditional magician, and after seeing about 6 tuxedo wearing, dove producing magicians in a row at Blackpool, I wish there were more people out there doing this comedy presentation style. John gives the impression he is realy enjoying what he’s doing and he comes across as a very likeable guy. If you’ve seen Educating Archer you will know what to expect, as he demonstrates (for example) the Tossed Out Deck and Kollosal Killer, both tricks that he didn’t invent, but the manner in which he performs the tricks makes them his own. Also, as a performer, I get tempted to rattle through the tricks as quickly as possible, but John shows how he gets an entertaining 20 minutes out of Kollosal Killer for example. The easygoing, funny, laid back flow of the act is something I think will benefit a lot of magicians - it's given me a lot to think about.

Blank Night: This is brilliant. This is the trick that fooled Penn and Teller on their recent TV Show, and it works brilliantly. Spectators are offered to choose an envelope each, but the one with the money in stays with the magician. The envelopes all have words written on, which allows great funny patter, such as the envelope with SEX written on, (your first volunteer is the only one who's guaranteed to have sex tonight if he wants it!) I had no idea how it worked, and had considered spending £15 on John Archer’s website to buy it as a PDF. However, the PDF is included on disk 2, and as you can simply buy the envelopes from your local stationers, you can print them with whatever words you like. I didn’t want to be seen to be plagiarising someone elses trick, especially now it's been shown on TV. I used different words and my own patter which, once I’d sat down to write it out came very easily. The trick lends itself to a bit of personalisation. Also, the stuff you need to make the trick is all easily available, and the key item is something that most magicians will have. A brilliant trick, very versatile and easy to do, and a killer secret that works far better than you’d imagine.

De-Ja-Tu: Two people are taken from the audience, and they select cards. Lots of really nice stuff happens, and a link is proven between brother and sister / man and wife / boyf and girlf as it shows that one person took a card from the deck which matched the one the other person wrote on a whiteboard. A really simple trick that anyone, I mean anyone would work out if you did it quickly on a table. However, with this presentation you benefit because you get a good 10 minutes out of a simple trick, and also enough misdirection and showmanship tips to make the reveal really impressive. I performed this trick last week for the first time, and sure enough, when the first participant said out loud their card, the other went “Oh My GOD!” just as John said they would on the DVD. I really like this trick, and it’s dead easy to do.
One Lucky Number: A really nice note to wallet routine, with the note being burned. Great combination of a number of smaller effects leaves the audience with the impression they saw something much bigger. Have yet to try this, but I can see it should be a good one to use.

Soundbox – on the DVD as a bonus item as it would require purchase of the John Archer Soundbox prop. Having said that, you can make a lockable box or buy something similar. John allows the spectator to choose keys for a padlock that holds the prize inside the box. Each key is eliminated as one key after another is tried but the box just does not open. I won’t discuss here how it ends because the presentation is the key to what you learn from the DVD. However what we have here is a really nice presentation for the trick that I think would benefit anyone who has the prop. I think the way he demos on the DVD would inspire anyone who does this trick.

Comedy Killer: This is brilliant. John’s version of Kollosal Killer on the previous DVD was a really nice presentation of a well known trick. John tells a story that makes reference to the wallet and strings all the elements of the trick together so that when it comes time to reveal the card in the wallet at the end of the trick, everything seems to make sense. The wallet has been referred to so many times in the trick already, it comes as no suprise when it’s used later. Further Education has a new presentation that has been used by John on stage when the visibility of the wallet and the card would be compromised by the distance of the audience. He demonstrates a new version of the same act as the first DVD, but the references to the wallet are changed and the trick is performed with jumbo cards from an envelope. This is brilliant for me, because the method he reveals means you can do this trick clearly without having to spend the money on the wallet. You can use the information in the DVD to make a Kollosal Killer effect that no-one would suspect, either using the Jumbo Cards as presented here, or by using the same information to make a pocket sized version. Either way, this gives you a really good, funny presentation of his version of Kollosal Killer, along with everything you need to know to make all the props yourself. Brilliant.

Starstruck: A card trick, using photos of famous celebrities instead of cards. The spectator is asked to choose a celeb, and think of a film they
were in, and the performer uses mentalism effects to determine which was picked. A nice idea for a trick, with a secret that is just so clever, really cheeky!

Stick With It: This is a very nice presentation that again, I can’t really discuss here because the presentation is what you’re paying for on the DVD. The trick involves multiple audience members writing a number on paper, someone adds them up and the number is revealed to match the one the magician has previously predicted. The method that John reveals in how to do the trick is good, but the killer is what he does with that number at the end. You’ll wish you’d thought of it. Can’t say any more.

Streetwise: This is included as a bonus item also, as you need to buy John’s Streetwise book to do it. However, there are a few pieces in his presentation that I have applied to my own book test act, and benefitted from. I leafed through the Streetwise book in Blackpool when buying this DVD and it’s very very good. You’d never spot how it works. It’s an A-Z of London and you use it for a book test, which is really clever because it makes a lot of sense that the performer would hand out an A-Z.

The thing is, Streetwise puts the whole booktest routine under the spotlight and it made me question what the spectator sees when I do Mother of all Book Tests and Flashback. Streetwise makes sense - you get the spectator to think of random locations in London, so you helpfully give them a A-Z to refer to. It's logical in a way traditional book tests are not. When I do my book test, I'm basically saying "I can guess any word you can think of - but I need you to choose that word from this book I happen to have brought with me, by an author you've never heard of." Streetwise does away with the barriers to the mentalism act I can think of, and also allows you to add remote viewing to your repertoire. The presentation will benefit you with your own book tests, but after watching, you want to buy the streetwise book yourself.

In summary, there’s gold on this DVD and I can’t recommend it enough. Even if you knew all the tricks, you’d learn such a great deal about presentation and showmanship. I used to find that with the casual, ad-hoc approach to magic that I do, I’d rattle through tricks as quickly as possible to keep the crowd from moving on. Now, I’m taking a much more laid back approach, and getting much more value from each individual trick. I’m funnier and much better at what I do from watching this DVD. Hope this review is useful to fellow magicians.

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by **philipsw** » Mar 13th, '11, 21:47

Thanks for a very thorough review. It's on my wish list....

JOHN ARCHER - FURTHER EDUCATION available for Instant Download at Talkmagic TV - click here for details

by **Magical_Trevor** » Mar 13th, '11, 21:59

philipsw wrote:Thanks for a very thorough review. It's on my wish list....

Mine too - I've got a signed version of Educating Archer from a lecture he did at the Sussex magic Circle a while back ... Im hooked on his approach to mentalism and magic in general, will deffo be getting this come payday

Great review too

Dan

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by **Mr Grumpy** » Sep 25th, '11, 01:45

I totally love John Archer. I want to cuddle his tummy.

I was SO thrilled when John "John" Archer fooled the horrifically over-rated Tenn & Peller.

Very much a poor man's Winnie the Pooh with knobs on.

But, hey -- it's the knobs that count, right?

Adding this to my "to buy" list.

JOHN ARCHER - FURTHER EDUCATION available for Instant Download at Talkmagic TV - click here for details