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The Roadrunner Cull DVD by Kostya Kimlat

The Effect

It's not only a method for culling multiple cards, very quickly and invisibly, even up to around half the deck, but a complete introduction to the very principle of Culling. Includes 5 stunning effects. most notably his "Hardcore Triumph".

Cost

£20 i think, from Kostya himself, at his stall at Blackpool.

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)

5 to do it properly.

Review

The second i saw this done live and managed to scrape my jaw off the floor, i instantly handed over the money for a copy of the DVD. I had been shown a version of Triumph where i had shuffled the deck, then shuffled the cards face up into face down myself. This Cull is a thing of beauty, see it in action here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh_B6ZhkmVM

The DVD is superb, it's broken down into bite size sections to help you learn this properly.
All instruction is shown very slowly and clearly, from multiple angles and often done using transparent plastic cards for added clarity.

Section 1. "I'm scared of the Cull: Basic Fundementals

- This section breaks down culling one card, right from the beginning. It goes into depth on the rhythmn, speed and timing of culling and then talks about culling four of a kind.

A brilliant section which highlighted some things i had beed doing wrong for a while and pretty much insantly improved my cull.

Section 2: The Cull and I are getting along: Versatile Applications

This part goes into explaining the different ways Kostya's cull can strengthen your existing arsenal of moves:
- As a control
- As a Key card placement
- As a force
- As a convincing control
- Reverse spreading
- Marked deck work
- As an out

Some great thinking here, especially as a force, and as an out.

Section 3: I want to get intimate with my cull: Advanced handlings.

This is the REALLY good stuff.
- Culling multiple cards
- Full deck seperation
- Troubleshooting
- When cards get out of hand
- When rhythmn breaks
- When the spread breaks
- The wrist tip
- Angle cull seperation (Hardcore)

Section 4: I'm ready to take my cull out on the town: Magic performances and explanations.

- Calligula (Hardcore) Triumph (The effect shown in the Youtube link above)
- Shuffle first, questions later
- Four 4 Following
- And if it all goes wrong
- Unshuffling the colours

(I'll edit this and add descriptions of the effects)
All effects are performed in front of live audiences, so you can get a feel for how they're supposed to look. All are VERY strong, visual and franky inexplicable, just don't expect to be making it look as good as Kostya without some serious dedication.

Overall

Outstanding. As Kostya says, learning this, if nothing else gives you a real feeling of power over a deck of cards. You will find, as i have, dozens uses for such powerful multiple culling. All expertly taught, professionally shot and edited. Kostya is also a very likeable and watchable chap, anyone who chatted to him at Blackpool will agree I'm sure. Highly recommended.

Get ready to practice, A LOT.

10/10 easily

I think the difficulty is 5. There is a danger that non-dedicated magicians attempt the roadrunner cull after say only 1 years practice where it kind of look OK. Are there ANYONE in the world - except Kostya who can do his triumph version under the nose of people?

As an utility move for other effects, the difficulty is maybe 3-4. I agree that the video is 10/10 but this video is not for the ordinary fast gratification seeking individual, who post his/her attempt on You Tube the same afternoon s/he got a trick.

Kostya is amazing. If you have seen his reversing of one half of the deck, faro'ing it perfectly, spreading throgh ridiculously quick to show that they are interweaving, then hands it to Ammar. It had already been perfctly culled.

Im sure he didn't even spread half of the pack properly!

How does this compares to Iain Moran's Cullfather? Anyone seen both and can comment on them? Cheers.

Soren Riis wrote:I think the difficulty is 5. There is a danger that non-dedicated magicians attempt the roadrunner cull after say only 1 years practice where it kind of look OK. Are there ANYONE in the world - except Kostya who can do his triumph version under the nose of people?

As an utility move for other effects, the difficulty is maybe 3-4. I agree that the video is 10/10 but this video is not for the ordinary fast gratification seeking individual, who post his/her attempt on You Tube the same afternoon s/he got a trick.

Hmmm, i think you have a point there, i'll edit it.

I just bought Kostya's lecture notes and "Card Work, Card Play" along with a CD, and I can honestly say that Kostya has almost the best card handling I have ever seen. Without him actually explaining some of his moves, they would actually have been invisible to me.

Card work, card play is excellent, the "Undercover alignment being very very clever". He says in his lecture that he was called the "Sleight Geek" by his magician friends, as he loved to learn all the hardcore sleights, and the hardest methods to try and fool magicians. Paid off though eh?

This or the Cullfather?

This.

Martin in International Magic said something along the lines that this is unnessecary unless you really want to use the cull as a dominate feature in your card work.

Hmmm possibly. I just think that this dvd teaches everything from the Cullfather, and a load more. it's not just the full deck seperation, there's loads on multiple culling, forces, controls, and the like....

Yeah, I see your point, I'm probably going to invest in one of the two on the weekend.

Dag nam it, C.U.P.S has just got the better of me!

I've been considering Cullfather for a while as I learned to cull from 'card college' but don't think it's explained particularly will in there (and I prefer video visual aids rather than drawings).

Soley based upon this review I've gone and purchased the DVD.

Anyone any idea where it's posted from (is it the US) and how long it takes to get to the UK?

As previously mentioned the DVD is very well constructed and each section leads nicely onto then next. Like Majortom my cull also immediately improved (specifically the culling of multiple cards) within minutes of watching the first section.

Kostya is a pleasure to watch and seems to be smiling throughout the recording. He is also very candid when it comes to how quickly he picked the techniques up and goes on to describe the probable bursts and lulls that will inevitably come from learning a new move.

My only bugbear, and it is a small one (Innuendo Bingo), is that considering how much detail he goes into for the most part he fails to cover what to do if the card(s) you want to cull are in the first one or two in the spread.

Having chosen this rather than Cullfather I cannot comment on which is better. I can, however, say that I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD and my culling is (slowly) getting better and better.

9/10

The progressive nature of the DVD is very good, but I have two gripes which make me want to give it 9/10

The first is that the "what to when it goes wrong" bits are in the Advanced section, when they should really be more obviously placed for beginners.

The second is that the routines are a bit repetitive and unstructured, as if thrown on the end. I'd have preferred them to be associated with the levels and more effect/method structured, as we traditionally expect.

Other than that, the teaching style, detail and presentation is excellent. I particularly like multiple angles with clear cards.

I'd range the difficulty up to 5 for the full deck cull, but the beginner material is only 3. It's progressive and an excellent resource for beginning culling.

I own both culling DVDs and I like both of them.

I bought mine from http://www.kostyamagic.com/ for $45 and Cullfather from somewhere for £20. I suggest that they are both worth their money and watching both will allow you to make use of culling in many circumstances and at many levels.