talkmagic.co.uk

Theres been a basic review of this elsewhere but thought id do a slightly more indepth one, if thats ok, for my first review.

eddy ray:- sleight of hand with cards

Format:- DVD

I got this of ebay for £13 plus postage - but the price varies depending where you go.

Ok, got this with pretty high expectations, and wasnt to dissapointed. The Sleights and flourishes in general are very well taught, giving several angles and verbal instructions making picking them up very easy, although id like to point out that some of them are tricky and all of them need practice as ever.
After watching the first disc only once id added a new card production to my reportoire which I think I can do with confidence, its that well taught.

On the downside, while it says 4 discs, ( bearing in mind ive only watched disc one do far ) they do seem to be quite short - theres a wealth of info on them, but you cant help thinking they could have squeezed it on to less discs, bringing the price down a little.

If you buy this wanting to learn tricks, dont bother - theres maybe one or two small tricks on there, but the aim of it is to teach you the sleights necessary to come up with your own tricks... which of course is the best way.

overall a quality dvd, at the price I paid it was a bargain but I wouldnt go much over £18 to £20 for it.



Clarity of instructions:- An slick 5 out of 5, each move is clearly explained.

Quality of techniques taught:- again 5, you wont use everything on the discs, but what you do use will be top notch.

Ease of learning the techniques:- 4 out of 5, as with any sleights they require LOTS of practice, but saying that some of the productions you'l pick up easily - or refine if you already know them.

Overall score:- Im gonna give this 4 out of 5, If id paid full price itd be less, but for £13 you definatly cant go wrong with this dvd

[edit] theres mainly stage routine material on discs 2 and 3, using the sleights from disc 1, so you dont really learn anything new from them apart from the odd piece here and there, so im docking a point for this review. 3 out of 5

You can few a short demo of some of the techniques taught then performed by myself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrDW5yyg3hU
( ignore the first title screen I reviewed this for another forum originally )

It might just be me but I feel that this is just another guy doing exactly what Jeff Mcbride does on the Art of Card Manipulation series that was published much earlier than this guy