The Effect
“Versatile Monte and Beyond”, a DVD by Mark Allen.
There are two parts to this DVD. One comprises a three-card monte routine of Mark’s devising. It is called “The Easter Egg Hunt” and involves three cards with coloured eggs printed on them. The spectator tries to keep track of the egg which is different from the other two. He can’t, of course, and there is a “kicker” finish.
However, the main reason magicians might want this DVD is that Mark shows you how to print your own custom cards, even on Bicycle stock.
Cost
It seems to be available only from Alakazam at the moment (at least in the UK). No, I don’t get commission from them! http://www.alakazam.co.uk/acatalog/DVD_s_17.html
It’s currently £15.99.
Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
As suggested by my profile, at the moment I am not a hugely skilled cardician. The monte routine is quite nice, with a good ending and uses multiple sleights. I’d say that it’s probably a 4 in terms of difficulty overall, but maybe that says more about my skill level. That difficulty level also reflects the fact that you will need to learn more than one move.
Review
The three-card monte routine struck me as a little bland, somehow, but might be good for kids, with the Easter Egg story. You could easily have the same moves, but with cards showing different designs and with this DVD you can pick your designs! The instructions for this part of the DVD aren’t very good, in my opinion. The sleights are skipped over fairly quickly, not shown from multiple angles and aren’t even slowed down that much. I suppose you could learn it from lots and lots of practice with mirrors! It is probably easier if you have a fair bit of cardworking experience behind you.
Now, for the bit you really care about. Custom Bicycle cards.
Mark goes through this in a fair amount of detail. He shows you how to set up and then print cards on your home printer, including tips on how to avoid “bleeding” of colour, how to obtain clear prints, how to feed the cards through your printer, sources for designs for cards (computer programmes, the internet and scanned images), colour-matching and fixing the cards once you have printed them. He claims they handle just like normal Bicycle cards.
The chemicals and processes involved will take some investment and you‘ll need a well-ventilated room or workshop to do some of the things.
Mark uses computer programmes I don’t have and you might not either. Even if you have something similar, you’ll have to figure out how to implement his tips in whatever package you have.
He uses a type of fixative which might not be available in the UK. I’ve searched for it on Google and have found some UK sites that mention it, but didn’t spot one that sells it. If I find a place that does, I’ll let you know. By the way, anyone know where you can get acetone?
There are no designs whatsoever included on the DVD. I suppose it would have racked up the cost of the DVD and there could have been copyright issues too. Having said that, playing card faces presumably aren’t copyrighted (things like the Bicycle Jokers excepted, of course).
While Mark tells you about different sources for art and designs, I think just designing (let alone printing) your own cards is going to require quite a bit of time on your part. On the other hand, you are being given techniques to allow you to print just about whatever you want on proper playing card stock. It really is too much to hope that you could wave a magic wand (!) and have it all ready to go straight “out of the box“.
Overall
I’ll give the monte routine itself 7/10. It left me a little cold, but if you like packet tricks, you might enjoy it. Also, the level of instruction is a bit brief. Again, if you are more skilled with card sleights, you might think it was better than I did. Maybe I am just tough to please.
As to the “real work”, I’ll give it 9/10. It is time-consuming, awkward and none too easy, but sometimes you’ve got to work for something you really want!
I must stress that, due to the variety of materials and other resources needed, I am unlikely to try printing my own cards for a while, so this rating is based solely on my impressions of the ideas involved and how well they seemed to be explained.
However, I feel that Mark Allen has given me enough information to print the particular cards I wanted to make when I bought this DVD. I haven’t given full marks, as I feel that a few more examples could have been given of different cards you could make, or ideas for routines, plus maybe some files of images. Examples of printing on different makes of blanks would also have been nice, even if they were just mentioned briefly.
The DVD isn’t costly of itself, but you will have to buy extra materials and possibly even need to invest in extra software to make full use of the tips given. I’d be interested to hear from someone who “takes the plunge” and tries printing some custom cards.
,i might buy this DVD, as i have resently come into abit of money 
