talkmagic.co.uk

DVD: Daryl’s Fooler Doolers Vol 1.

DVD: £28.99 from :// www.alakazam.co.uk (£75 for all 3)
http://www.alakazam.co.uk/acatalog/Videos_27.html#a865

The Review

This is the first of the 3 DVD’s in Daryl’s “Fooler Doolers” series. Most people will already be very aware of who Daryl is, his style and his abundant enthusiasm for magic and so you won’t be surprised (and I doubt if I’ll be contradicted) if I say I think he is one of the most entertaining magicians out there.

I am also aware that these aren’t by any means the latest DVD’s available at the moment but I have only fairly recently discovered them. As is normal with this type of DVD they are split into a performance section and an explanations section.

I think the tricks on this DVD and indeed the other two are on the whole aimed at the beginner, but they are none the less entertaining for that.

They cover a wide range of different magic genres, which again makes it very suitable for the beginner who is still experimenting with the type of magic that they wish to specialise in.

As with all L&L publishing videos that I have seen, the quality, camera angles and close up shots make learning the tricks that Daryl teaches as easy as they possibly can be, and remember it’s not just how to do the tricks we learn from DVDs like this it is also the presentation and no one could argue that Daryl is a true master when it comes to presentation.

Of course the standard L&L publishing audience is there again with all their usual enthusiasm, and I really couldn’t let any review go by without giving them at least one mention (One day I’ll do a review of just the L&L audience).

Difficulty.
The first DVD shows 12 tricks of varying difficulty. I will grade each tricks difficulty using the following scale.
1=Easy peasy lemon squeasy, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used, 4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

The Tricks

1. Bennett’s Boner (Horace Bennett)
Difficulty: 2-3
This is a classic torn and restored napkin effect with a standard “sucker” finish. It’s done with a napkin (or two) and a plastic cup and starts off with the trick apparently going wrong and the magician saying that as it had gone wrong he will explain how it’s done. The explanation of course is the misdirection for the actual magic.

I love sucker type effects, and of course spectators always love it when they feel you are showing them how the trick is done, so this works on many levels. It is fairly easy and of course is a trick that can be done in many impromptu situations.

2. Instantaneous Knot.
Difficulty. 1/5
I already knew about this simple trick, and yet, seeing Daryl’s performance of it and how much fun he had with it, really brought home the importance of presentation.

You take one end of a piece of rope in one hand, and the other end in the other hand and with nothing more than a slight sneeze[sleight sneeze? Oh please yourselves…], a fully examinable knot magically drops on to the rope.

This is repeated a few times, and the rope is then handed out to a spectator who is asked to try it for themselves (in true “do as I do” fashion”). In fact at the end of the routine several ropes of various colours have been produced with many spectators shaking the rope and sneezing.

Now, it could be argued that this is a bar trick more than an out and out magic trick, and yet it is just so damn entertaining. Magic isn’t just about showing impressive tricks, its also about the audience and consequently the performer enjoying themselves. This is a trick that has always gone down very well indeed for me. And they certainly don’t come any easier than this.

Another thing I will add here is that this (in my humble experience) goes down very well with doing another impossible knot routine, namely “The do as I do Not!” aka “The impossible Knot” aka “G. W. Hunters puzzle knot”

3. Pretzel Knot.
Difficulty. 2/5
This is where you openly tie a normal looking knot on a rope, and yet if you give the rope a quick shake or hold the knot in your hand, it can be made to dissolve.

I initially found this a little tricky – but at the time I was toying with using a nice flashy piece of gold curtain cord (It was just a silly phase I was going through) and frankly it wasn’t working. When I reverted to using standard magicians rope I no longer had a problem.

The pretzel knot itself is more of a technique that can be used as part of other routines rather than a standalone trick. In fact Daryl used it here as an ending to the previous trick, and he also used it later on one of the other “Fooler Dooler” DVDs as part of another rope routine he was demonstrating.

4. Dai Vernon's Climax to a Dice Routine (Dai Vernon)
Difficulty. 2/5
This is a lot of fun where one die, becomes two, becomes three, and then one of them changes size (drastically). Again this is another great little impromptu trick.

The techniques shown for this trick are all very basic conjuring moves and as such is very useful to be included on a DVD such as this one. I feel that when you learn tricks such as this you are learning a lot about magic in general.

5. Daryl's Color Changing Knives (Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 3/5
A yellow penknife is shown on both sides. It is pushed into the hand and comes out red. The red penknife is shown on both sides. It is pushed into the hand and comes out yellow.

This is repeated through various stages until it is shown that if you stop half way through the colour only changes on one side, and then a second knife is produced (red on both sides), that when pulled only half way out of the hand, the colour only changes halfway up the knife.

I think it will be fairly obvious to most magicians how this trick is done, and for me I had always been a little put off by tricks such as these, as being too obvious. Well I can tell you know. It’s only obvious if you don’t do it properly and it will be no surprise to learn that Daryl does it very properly indeed.

I have now renewed my ideas about this sort of trick, and with Daryl’s teaching skill and the addition of some of his own moves, I have already had some very pleasing results with doing this.

6. Four of a Kind (Dai Vernon)
Difficulty. An easy 3/5
This is a “do as I do” type of card trick, that certainly had me (and the L&L crew left open mothed).

You fan a deck of cards showing them to be all different. You shuffle them, split them in half and hand one half to a spectator. You then ask the spectator to do as you do.

You each shuffle your cards, and then select two face down cards from anywhere in the half deck. You place your two cards face down in the spectators face up deck, and you take their two cards and place them face down in your face up deck.

The two halves are then spread, and funnily enough – by some bizarre coincidence, the two face down cards in your half are two aces and the two in the other half are also two aces.

This is very much in the “What the heck is going on there…” category of tricks.


7. The Trick Question (Brother John Hamman, Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 3/5
You explain that you are going to ask the spectator 3 questions, two simple ones and one trick one. You take out the four aces from the deck and show them to a spectator.

You turn over the top one, the Ace of clubs and ask them what colour it is. Black. Simple question one. You place the ace face down in front of them.

You turn over the next top one, the Ace of spades and ask them what colour it is. Black. Simple question two.

You place the ace face down underneath the other ace, and say now for the trick question.

“Which ace is on top, spades or clubs?”

With a little thought they will say the ace of clubs – to which you say wrong, it was the “trick question”. You then turn over the top card in your hand to show it is the ace of spades. You show the one underneath is the ace of clubs. To their utmost surprise, the two in front of them are the two red aces.

This is an awesome trick – by anyones standards.

8. Chinese Laundryman (Eric D. Widger)
Difficulty. An easy 1/5
This routine has a nice line in patter in that it tells the story of a Chinese laundryman and how he ties a piece of laundry (a silk) on to a laundry line (rope). In fact it all seems very fair, the rope is tied around the silk, the silk is also tied around the rope.

He then claims that just in case it rains, the laundryman would need to take the laundry off the line very quickly, and to do this he needs a “hole”. Luckily for Daryl he had a “hole” in his pocket (well I thought it was very funny – but then I am easily pleased). The hole is placed on the rope, the silk is slid up to the hole and then just plucked off.

Very effective. I love rope magic anyway – so I liked this a lot.

9. Mystery of the Travelling Marbles (Silent Mora, Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 2/5
Well this for me was magic at it’s purest. The original effect was supposedly done with marbles and two hats. Daryl showed it with sugar cubes and napkins but to be honest it could be done with a variety of objects.

Four cubes one side of the table are covered with a napkin, another napkin is placed on the other side of the table. A cube is magically plucked from under one napkin and placed under the other one.

The napkins are lifted and indeed there are three one side now, and one the other side,

This is repeated 3 more times until all four cubes have travelled across.

As I said this is magic happening in front of your eyes. Remarkably simple, and yet strong enough that you actual break a magicians rule and show effectively the same trick four times.

For me, this was the best trick on the tape. I want to do magic that clean, and with Daryl’s help, I now can (well I’m getting there).

10. As Many and As Much As You (Jon Racherbaumer, Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 1/5
This is simply a money prediction. You predict not only how many coins the spectator has, but how much it all adds up to.

I don’t think I am out of line in saying that this is just a simple case of mathematics, and so consequently I had it sussed out from the beginning. For that reason I probably won’t use it myself.

In saying that though it did seem to impress the Lavacious L&L Lot.

11. Sponge Ball Routine (Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 3/5
This is the standard comedy sponge ball routine, but done with Daryl’s amazing presentational skills it is quite special.

I have seen various people do this routine or at least a very similar one, and it is none the less impressive seeing it again.

It starts off with a purse frame and a sponge ball production. The sponge ball is magically split into two. The spectator takes one in their hand and it magically swaps with the one in the magicians hand (yes very clever – but we all know spectators love that), and then they take it again, and this time the one in the magicians hand disappears only to appear in the spectators hand with their ball.

As I said, standard stuff, but if you have never done any sponge ball magic, and were looking to break into the genre – then look no further for inspiration and insruction.

I will add here though that since first watching this tape, I have seen Scott Guinn’s version of this routine called “Peanut, Butter and Jelly” which so far in my opinion is the single best routine of it’s kind. Possibly a little more complex than the Daryl one – but very clever and very funny.

12. Cup and Ball Routine (Daryl)
Difficulty. An easy 3/5
This is nothing but a very fun chop cup routine done with a coffee cup, a borrowed bill (rolled up into a ball) and an impromptu wand – in this case a knife.

As with the other teachings on this amazing DVD – this is an ideal introduction to a chop cup routine for any magician, and it just goes to show you don’t need any high priced 24 carat brass cups and crotched balls to do it with,

Fantastic, and again very impromptu. My kind of magic.

Rating. Effect/item: 10/10, Quality of goods: 10/10, Value for money: 10/10

Bottom Line.
I hope I don’t lose any credibility when I rate so many DVDs so highly, but really I couldn’t have given this anything less.

To sum it up, I’d say that it is a “Mark Wilson’s Complete course in magic” type of a DVD. For sure it is aimed at the beginner but Daryl is going to be entertaining to absolutely anyone.

I loved the pure variety of genres it covered, so many basic techniques that are useful not just for these tricks, but also for many many more.

I can't recommend it high enough.

I’m a little surprised that more people don’t own these 3 DVDs. They really are a great introduction into many genres of magic, plus the great presentation of Daryl.

The first one alone contains good solid examples of:-

• Sponge ball magic
• Rope magic
• Cup and Ball Magic
• Coins (actually not so much on DVD 1, its covered more on the others)
• Paddle Magic
• Card magic

I know I keep harping on about it but these really are a great way of getting into some of the different genres. They are also DVDs I keep coming back to.

Hopefully I will also be reviewing the other two dvd’s

I own Volume 1 of Foolers Doolers and I love it. Although every trick performed is very easy to do. His performing style and way of delivering his tricks is so smooth that it makes everything seem that much better. I also rate this DVD about a 9 out of 10 its a great DVD and provides great routines that will give your cards a little bit of a break.

ALSO DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN PURCHASE DARYLS COLOR CHANGING KNIVES or any color changing knives for that matter

Daryl has a website which sells all his stuff - do a Google search and you should find his Fooler Doolers website. Failing that, most online suppliers will sell colour changing knives.

i own all 3 and i think they are great, hes easy to understand and does pretty simple stuff

Ill check out hit site for those knives. I have looked at other color changing knives and the gimmicks do not provide the half and half knife which i feel is a great asset to that routine