As a freelance video producer by day, I'm possibly a bit biased on this subject, but...
I've found that having revived my interest in magic, I'm discovering what a wonderful medium instructional videos and DVDs are.
As a kid, most of my learning was done from books. And unless you're a practicing musician too, and understand the wornders of music stands, just learning to hold a book and manipulate a deck of cards can be a challenge in itself. And when I bought magic tricks (which, of course, I bought a lot of), they'd always come with printed instructions.
That's all well and good, except for a few key points:
When you buy a trick purely on the basis of recommendation, you may never have seen it performed. As soon as you unpack the aparatus, you're presented with the solution straight away, and never actually get to experience it as a piece of magic first. Never having been wowed by it yourself, it can be difficult to confidently sell it as a miracle.
Good books do a reasonable job of emphasising the importance of presentation and handling, but even the best text won't compare to seeing an effect performed by an expert again and again on demand. They help highlight the speed at which necessary sleights should be performed and how to best cover them. What seems clumsy and disjointed when you practice them step-by-step from a book can make a lot more sense when you're following a fluid performance.
Despite investing in loads of Dover Publications' reproductions of classic texts, I never really took a great liking to sleight of hand. Just last week, I treated myself to the DVD presentations of the Royal Road to Card Magic and Modern Coin Magic, and I'm now hooked. It makes so much more sense to me.
If I'd simply been given written instructions on how to perform Sinful, I'd have binned them, believing that noone could ever be fooled by it. But having watched the performance and presentation on video, I now see it as one of the cheekiest and craftiest routines I've ever seen. And I love it to bits.
In short, I'm delighted to have found a context in which video can surpass the written word so completely. Being able to see an effect from the audience's perspective reaffirms your confidence in it. And watching from the magician's viewpoint as an expert performs it is a fantastic catalyst for ironing out your own performance.
Looks like my DVD collection is going to develop a whole new section!
