talkmagic.co.uk

Cost - $20 from http://houdiniexperience.com/
Difficulty - n/a

I bought this dvd after getting Dixie Dooleys great escapology dvd set. Unfortunatly this was a real dissapointment. I ordered this along with several dvds of his Vegas shows. The dvds took months to be delivered! When they arrived, they looked very poor quality. The dvd sleeves were fuzzy and didnt fit the cases properly. The images on the dvds themselves were stretched out of proportion and werent centred on the discs. If I hadnt bought them direct, I would have assumed they were pirated dvds somebody had burned on their computer.

The quality of the camera work on this dvd was pretty shocking. The quality of the footage isnt great. The locksmith attempts to hold tools up against his hand so the camera can see them better. Most of the time though, the camera man is too slow to zoom in so by the time he has, Mike's put whatever it was down. A few times the cameras pointed in completely the wrong direction so you cant see whatever it is they are talking about!!!!

The editing is also terrible here. A lot of times Mike or Dixie are cut of mid-sentance when a shot changes.

Dixie talks about the 'shanghai shackles' on here as well as various gimmicked handcuffs, although its irrelevant to lock picking.

The information on this dvd isnt that useful. Plently of times Mike says you can 'rake' various locks hes holding, but he never explains the technique of 'raking' a lock. When discussing opening handcuffs, he basically says to buy a pick, stick it in the keyhole and then play about with it until you open the lock. I was expecting a bit more information for $20

Overall - 3/10

Ouch - something to not put on the Christmas Prezzie list by the sound of it !

For the record, if I remember correctly raking a lock is when you drag the pick repeatably over the pins while trying to rotate the tumbler. You do this in the hope that one of them will catch. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.

That is shocking. I know you pruchased direct, but judging by your description of the DVD case/sleeve, it sounds as if they are pirates. Well, if they aren't, they might as well be going on your description of the quality of the disc itself.

I would email them and complain; not necessarily to get a refund (although under the circumstances...) but to make them aware of your views. If I was Dixie Dooley I would be deeply embarrassed to have my name associated with something as poor as this appears to be. It can't be doing any good for his reputation.