talkmagic.co.uk

I am thinking of buying this, as all in all it looks like a brilliant set of DVDs. 5 hours of jay sankey- great! The only thing that put me off was the price. I have about £50 stashed away for some great tricks, and was thinking of buying this. But I just wanted a review from someone who has bought the product, and if I should spend my saved up money on it or not? The reviews on penguin all say it is brilliant, except for one really negative review, which kind of put me off-balance.

Thankyou in advance.

Ouch-kabibble

http://www.penguinmagic.com/europe/product.php?ID=1056

Too late- the movie got the better of me. Just watch it once and youll wanna buy it. I did.

Excellent - post a review once you've had a thorough look at it!

I know it will be excellent without seeing it. Of coursae I've seen many other of his DVDs in fact most of them, you will get very strong practical workers for the real world. If you haven't seen too much of Sankey I'd say this would be a great place to start.
( that was just in leu of a review from someone that has seen it )

Well nickery-nackery-noo.

Its just brilliant. Really brilliant. Oh man, I cant explain it, but when you own this set of 3 DVDs, you feel, you feel, oooooaaaahhhhhhhhhh-yyyyeehhh. Even after watching it theres still an aura of, I dunno, you just keep smiling after you've seen it- as for the material, all A star as usual.

So lets check through the tricks. Ive plucked out a few of my favourites

Collect me not-

Three cards selected and returned, a four of a kind are removed to find their selections and they do! Then, all four of a kind vanish back to the pack, leaving you with just the three selections!
I now use a variation of this, and its just beautiful.

No jacket required-

A coins to pockets routine. All four individually vanished, then to be pulled out of your four pockets. Very nice- sneaky method.

Please dont feed the playing cards-

Ha! This is great. Two different ways of animating a deck of cards with elastic bands, including a very clever trick, has a great storyline, and really fun to watch.

V.I.P-

Surely one of my favourite routines on the DVDs. Listen to this- You hand a spectator a pouch, and ask them to hold onto it. Then you ask them to name any word, any word at all. Lets say they say bongo-drums. You then pull out a pack of cards and one is selected, returned. You write down a prediction on a pad of paper, scrumple it up, and ask them to name their card. They say the ten of diamonds. You open up the piece of paper and show that it says the ten of diamonds! Amazing! Now get this- you ask them to open the pouch and to look inside. They see a crumpled up ball of paper. When removed, it has the word BONGO-DRUMS written upon it!
Dear lord.

Hotlink-

Nice presentation, I find it very funny. To hearts link, on a spectators signed card. Very romantic .

Mounteback aces-

A bonus effect, but a damn good one at that. Ace, two,three - follow the ace. You stop, explain that youre a nice guy, so youll give them more chance. You then turn over the cards to show they are now the four aces! Thats right- not only do they change value, but the number of cards change. Super- cool.

Transient-

Again a bonus effect. Soon to be a classic. A coin is borrowed and is clenched tightly in a spectators fist. An X is drawn on the back of the top card, and one is selected, and returned. You rub the X off the top card and throw it towards the spectaors fist. They open the hand, and on their borrowed coin, they find the X. Again, they hold onto the coin and are given the pack of cards. When they touch hands together, the X has vanished from the coin. They search for their selected card in the pack, and it now has the X on it. As I said before, I think this has real potential.

Overall

I have no other recent sankey products to compare this to. But otherwise, its a definite winner. The clips in between are really great, and overall is a great great product. 99.9999989% every time. However, if they chipped a tiny nugget of the price, they can add on that 0.0000011%

Its an overwhelming 5 hours 21 min of magic and hilarity, which in my opinion is one of the best magic products you could buy.

Oh, and dont wash the DVDs. The ink smudges.

Great stuff. But not for me. Sankey's material (tricks) are all probably all level 4 if not 5 on difficulty.

I highly disagree, Blade Master. Sankey actually often goes to GREAT lengths to make his effects more simplified. Sure, his advanced stuff is hard, but he has a TON of effects that are not overly difficult, and some more that are so insanely easy, you almost always slap your head and wonder why you never thought of it.

I find his stuff to be very accessible, well-thought out, and above all, his instructions and presentation suggestions are outstanding.

Some of his standalone effects require almost no sleight of hand skill, and are still powerful.

ie - Killer Key, Astral Projection (which KILLS and requires ZERO card handling ability to pull off), In a Flash (also a KILLER effect with only basic card handling skills required), Compact Compass, In a Bind, Leaving Home, Key deposit, Coin Collector, Fine Print - the list goes on and on.

Check out the DVD Front Row Sankey for some great material. You won't be disappointed. Earplugs is great for a person just trying to get into sponge magic. His greatest hits DVD sounds phenomenal.

Yes, Sankey has and still does offer challenging magic. I'm sure some of the stuff on the greatest hits discs are WELL beyond my range at the moment, but I can almost guarantee more than a few effects will come easily.

Some of his effects are very technically demanding, and his card and coin work is great. However, don't dismiss him entirely. He has, quite literally, a catalogue of magic that anyone of ANY skill level can acquire, and perform to incredible responses.

All the above-true.

Coincidence that the day before you posted this, I ordered front row sankey! All of the more dextrous stuff is pure fun to watch, its inspiring, and can set goals for you. The easiest effects on the DVD are probably:

Colour Blind,
Identifying features,
Fragile Harbor,
V.I.P,
Missing evidence,
X,
Fade away

These are the ones that I consider are very easy, any beginner could pull off one of these with a bit of practice. I myself would say I was quite a good magician, and I could easily do all of these tricks plus many extra on the DVD. Oh, and I forgot the bonus stuff. The effect- 'Spark it up' is just stupidly easy, yet really effective. You melt a snowman in a flash of fire! Woohoo!

ouch-kabibble wrote:Oh, and dont wash the DVDs. The ink smudges.

Sorry, but why would anyone 'wash' the DVDs?

Mine are actually screenprinted, and therefore waterproof... I wonder if you've been sold some 'fakes'???

They werent working in my DVD player (see other post for this) so I gave them a quick wipe down. I sure hope I didnt get any fakes though!