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I've just ordered this, so I'll hopefully get it before Christmas. Once I've watched the DVD, I'll do a little comparison with the L&L World's Greatest Magic Sponge Ball DVD for everyone.

Nice one. I don't have the L&L one but it'd be nice to see if it has anything that's not on here. It's pretty comprehensive with tons of tips and material.

Ok, I've just finished watching the Spongeball Toolkit DVD, and I have to say, very impressed, and excellent value for money.

I think the 'Toolkit' is the important thing to remember here. The Spongeball Toolkit's structure is a bit of a hodge-podge, with moves and routines and tips everywhere. As for the contents, you get much more value for money than you do with the L&L World's Greatest Magic Sponge Ball DVD, but I think they do complement each other, if you're looking for different presentation ideas. You'll find pretty much everything move wise on the Spongeball Toolkit that's in the L&L DVD, but more so.

Steve Dacri and co really have put together a very comprehensive collection of moves and routine ideas, that you can mix and match to make up your own routine.

With the L&L DVD, you're given 12 routines, featuring many different styles of performance. Daryl, Eugene Burger and Steve Dacri's Martians routines are the best of the modern ones, with a couple of vintage clips, including the Al Goshman also shown on the Toolkit DVD.

Presentation wise, the L&L DVD is a bit smoother, it hasn't all been recorded in the same place, the same as the Toolkit, but there aren't all the cuts that distract a little in the Toolkit.

Value for money wise, I would give the L&L DVD 7 out of 10. You get a lot of moves and a wide variation of routines for your money, and if you don't like the teaching style of one magician, you can probably be assured that the next one will be more up your street. There is a bit of repetition, as most of the magicians use similar basic moves, adding their own 'touches' and patter, but it all adds up to a very good package, and gives you a very good idea of the different approaches, patter and styles that you can adapt a sponge ball routine to.

If you have the Toolkit, you won't need the L&L DVD, but the additional routines are nice to have, especially Eugene Burgers, if you haven't seen it before.

Value for money with the Toolkit is a simple 10. You really can't get any better for £14.99, simlpy excellent value for money. Yes, you will need to put a little bit of work into creating a longer routine, but there are a few short routines included, and as many sleights as you will ever need, and of course, you get 4 sponge balls, 2 sponge discs, a yellow ball, a rabbit, a purse frame and a silk poke gimmick for vanishes. The only minor criticism, aside from the cuts in the DVD which occasionally distract you a little, is that I would have prefered a Sanada gimmick instead of the silk poke gimmick, but that really is just nit picking.

With the L&L DVD, you only get the DVD, and it costs the same price.

So, for a more structured DVD with more variation in the presentation styles of the various routines, the L&L DVD is hard to beat, but for the sheer number of ideas, sleights, routines and also the included props, and 2+ hours running length, the Spongeball Toolkit is definitely the better value of the two.

I bought the kit when I went back to Canada a few months ago. Probably one of the greatest tricks I have purchased in terms of value.

I found this in the toe of my stocking on christmas morning. Very very impressed with it.

Everything that comes with the kit is good quality and the DVD itself is very good. I love Steve's method of teaching, very easy to follow and good fun too. I picked up loads of new ideas and some brilliant tips for the things I already knew. Top marks from me for this one

Glad you like it.
It's such a worthwhile purchase for a small outlay. Immensely good value. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in, or already performs with, sponge balls. One of my best magic purchases of 2007 and there is so much information on the DVD. After learning the stuff on here you could easily put together a 10-15min routine using sponge balls alone. And that's without the family of bunnies!

Lord Freddie said:

After learning the stuff on here you could easily put together a 10-15min routine using sponge balls alone. And that's without the family of bunnies!

mmmm; does the DVD go into the best way to wake your spectatators up afterwards?

Happy New Year,
John.

john1960uk wrote:Lord Freddie said:

After learning the stuff on here you could easily put together a 10-15min routine using sponge balls alone. And that's without the family of bunnies!

mmmm; does the DVD go into the best way to wake your spectatators up afterwards?

Happy New Year,
John.

No, having some degree of performance skill keeps them interested. PM me if you want to know what this means. You will need to invest in a personality which you cant' buy from a magic shop.

Understanding your audience and how they react to effects, and what a 15min spongeball presentation would probably do to them is something that can't be bought in a magic shop either.

Dragging out brilliant 3 - 5 min effects for 15mins (or in some cases more) has been a problem in Magic for many years. magicians even boast about how long they can pad things out for.

This has probably done more harm to Magic over the years than all the exposure sites, 'youtubers' and 'hip hop magicians' put together.

Have a good day,
John.

I don't see any reason at all why you couldn't run a spongeball routine to 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes might be pushing it but with the right presentation and a good range of effects there's no reason why, with a little thought you couldn't put together an entertaining and fun routine lasting more that 10 minutes.

This week's freebie at www.allmagic.com is a sponge ball item called The Clip Split.

john1960uk wrote:Understanding your audience and how they react to effects, and what a 15min spongeball presentation would probably do to them is something that can't be bought in a magic shop either.

Dragging out brilliant 3 - 5 min effects for 15mins (or in some cases more) has been a problem in Magic for many years. magicians even boast about how long they can pad things out for.

This has probably done more harm to Magic over the years than all the exposure sites, 'youtubers' and 'hip hop magicians' put together.

Have a good day,
John.

If you know how to engage an audience, a 10 min routine can be kept entertaining if you use variety and of course talk to the audience and interact with them. If you have the personality to carry it off, you can do amything rather than robotically perform "tricks" which is what you are implying you do.

Check out cards4magic's New Lines Just In section for their Grey Sponge Hare @ £3.50. Probably more suited for the oldies amongst us (!) but leads to the groan gag of "I looked in the mirror and saw a grey hare!" They also do a green sponge Frog for £3.00 - 'frog in my throat'......

Lord freddie wrote

If you know how to engage an audience, a 10 min routine can be kept entertaining if you use variety and of course talk to the audience and interact with them. If you have the personality to carry it off, you can do amything rather than robotically perform "tricks" which is what you are implying you do.

Actually I'm implying it's what YOU do, dragging out a perfectly good effect, without so much as a thought for the audience, classic case of the magician loving his own routines but not responding to or interacting with his audience on any level.

All the best,
John.

john1960uk wrote:Lord freddie wrote

If you know how to engage an audience, a 10 min routine can be kept entertaining if you use variety and of course talk to the audience and interact with them. If you have the personality to carry it off, you can do amything rather than robotically perform "tricks" which is what you are implying you do.

Actually I'm implying it's what YOU do, dragging out a perfectly good effect, without so much as a thought for the audience, classic case of the magician loving his own routines but not responding to or interacting with his audience on any level.

All the best,
John.

For someone who has never seen my, or anyone else on this forum's routines, you seem to have an arrogant, know-it-all attitude which comes across as pompous and just trying to cause and provoke some kind of reaction.
Some people perform for an hour with just playing cards. If you are imaginative, you can use your props and routines to create a good piece of entertainment rather than slap-dash one minute in yer face wonders which people seem to favour these days.
Obviously, you are implying you have neither the skill or personality to make an effect interesting and enganging an audience with your personality. Stick to your "pick a card...look I've found it" type routines and I'll stick to conversing and creating a rapport with people and entertaining them.