talkmagic.co.uk

Hey all,

Feels good to post once again - been pulling 15 hour days working two jobs, so magic has taken a back seat. But come Oct when I’m back at uni, I thought I'd venture into the big wide world of pro magic and get myself a nice little residency.

I'm thinking of investing in a magic series so I can put together a really nice card routine, one that will take a while to perform. I’ve always been attracted to the whole 'one trick wonder' gimmicky things that you buy and then end up in a box for the rest of your lifetime, so I think its time I get serious.

Anyway - I want your advice as to which card series to invest in. I heard Daryl's series of card revelations is highly respectable and well known - I have one of his Fooler Dooler Volumes, which was good - covered a lot of material, but doesn’t perform to my style. I have no problem in changing his style of magic to mine (from simply a persona point of view) but it’s always nice to find a magician that performs the way you do.

I see myself as more of a flashier magician. I really hate all the cheesy jokes that some people like (my dad loves that style of magic) but hey, he makes it work for him. I think Daryl is just about bordering in the cheesy section (but he's American, so we expect this ) Really into the smooth cuts and shuffles, with the odd dirty joke thrown in. So to this end I was thinking of going for the less famous Lennart Green series along with Oz Pearlmans Born to Performs, just to bring me up to scratch.

Any comments or advice you have, please let me know. Checked out a few reviews and these are the ones that spring to me. Alternatively, any other card series you particularly think would suit me?

Many thanks,

A

P.S. all sites I’ve checked offer the volumes as singles at about £25 a pop - anyone know of any package deals?

Well, it really depends on what kind of magic you want to do. Personally, if you are looking for a series from one of the best card magicians currently out there (imho, as well as many, many others...) get the "Green Magic" series with Lennart Green. You will be able to impress many a magician even with alot of what you will learn in this neat little package. You can pick it up in most anywhere i think, ellusionist.com has it.

Allen Ackerman has one too that is incredibly comprehensive as well.

Outside of those, maybe the Royal Road to card magic DVDs?

Hope that helps mate.

1011

You probably don't want Born to Perform (is this the first time I've told someone not to get it?!) as it really is beginner oriented - pinkie break, DL, that kind of stuff. It has some decent routines but again, they're pretty basic.

Kati

Have a look at Bill Malones "on the loose" series. This series doesnt get mentioned much but there are some fantastic card routines in there.

If you’re thinking about getting 'Green Magic', then I have some comments on it.

IMO, Lennart Green is not very good at explaining things, so you need to be prepared to watch and rewind over and over again. Also, some of the effects of the DVDs are quite long and drawn out, but some are real stunners, such as Rain Man.

The sleights and techniques that he teaches are excellent, although they are more suited to an audience situation, where you are sitting at a table and they are watching from the front, as some of the sleights are quite angley. Also as I have already mentioned, it is difficult to understand what to do sometimes, and you really need to put your cards down and stare

Don't get me wrong, these DVDs are excellent but you will need to put in a hell of a lot of time just to try and see what you have to do, never mind doing the actual 'move'.

I don't mean to put you off of these DVDs, but if anyone has any other opinions on these DVDs, please tell ultimatecreate as I don't want him not to buy something when this is just my opinion

On Card Revelations: This set is very good; I don't really have anything bad to say about this I learned a lot from Daryl, not only the tricks, but how to perform

As a side note, I know I must be coming across as a bit of a plugger for Derren Brown but get a copy of Absolute Magic before it finally sells out. This is his treatise on close-up magic for the table-hopper and it really is an aladins cave of things he's learned form the school of hard knocks when he was a working a residency. He goes through the whole of the process of walking up to a group of people, getting their attention, being a guide to a magical realm rather than the source of it, and how to show off what lies in that realm in a believable way. There are no tricks in it, just a good, solid model for working groups and tables - and some terrible jokes.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Card college yet...

This is a brilliant series of books, everything (including presentation) istaught really well. It's a good progressive course through from basic moves to more complex ones. It comes with some great sleights and routines. In Volume 2, there is an excellent theory section which gives brilliant advice on routining. Volume 5 is full of great routines which I'm sure you could use.

I'm pretty sure you can get them on a deal if you get all five volumes.

Thanks for the advice guys, but I think I'm fastly becoming more of a DVD man then a book user. Don't mind using them to fall back on, and find them great for long coach journeys to and from Bristol uni, but apart from that would much prefer a solid dvd set.

Jay Sankeys 'The Very Best of' Is one of my favorite DVD sets on card magic