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I recently borrowed my friends' collection of Ammar DVD's. Damn this guy rocks! I've seen him before, and thought at the time he was one of my favourites.

His coin stuff is amazing. All of this will keep me occupied for about a year! LOL.

Yeah, Ammar is really good. I've heard a lot of people complain about his laugh, others saying he's a bit "geeky". However, even those people know he has some serious skill.

His DVDs are a veritable treasure trove.

Skeen - check out this thread. You've only just missed it, but all I'm saying is stay good friends with Bananafish and he just might let you go to the next Ammar lecture, whenever it may be (bear in mind it had been seven years since he'd last visited the Ipswich Magical Society!).

I managed to buy a ticket despite not being a member of the society, and had a great time.

I would say that Ammar is one of the best tutors in magic. He's dvds are just marvellous, and his teaching is way better than alot other guys around. BUT I am not sure he has the best tapes/dvds around. He has collected quite some great tricks/routines, but I would love to see more original stuff from him as well. But, Ammar IS great, misunderstand me correctly. And I love watching his old shows, in the earlier age.

So, what do you think about his laughter ?

I have to admit, his laugh is annoying. LOL. I noticed that straight away (shouldn't someone tell the guy about that?).

His technique is just absolutely incredible, all of his moves are so natural it's scary. I remember when I was a little younger -- when I would watch magicians on TV performing tricks, I would know how they were done, and therefore would generally see every move. But with Ammar, I most certainly cannot say the same.

Also, he usually have good patter....

rcarlsen wrote:Also, he usually have good patter....

Meh...that's the problem I have with Ammar. He's great at the technical side of things but has a problem with presentation.

Now, if we could mix Ammar (technical), Greg Wilson (presentation), and Sankey (wackiness) we'd have one kick-ass magician!

Kati

Go and see Michael lecture in a live environment... Sit in the front row about a metre away from the great man. Your views on his presentation and patter will then change radically!!
In my eyes, the man is a god and is probably the best magician I know of!!!

I will second that from Captain Fantastic, I was sitting right next to him at the Ammar lecture!


Cheers

Anyone who thinks Ammar is boring (like I used to) has never seen him perform for a lay audience. Yes, he appears terribly boring (although an excellent teacher) in his vids - but he ain't trying to entertain you, he's trying to teach you.

I rank Ammar in the top ten for entertainment factor, in a real show, for a lay audience. When I saw him last year perform for a real audience, my entire opinion of him changed drastically.

Mike.

Michael Jay wrote:Anyone who thinks Ammar is boring (like I used to) has never seen him perform for a lay audience. Yes, he appears terribly boring (although an excellent teacher) in his vids - but he ain't trying to entertain you, he's trying to teach you.

I rank Ammar in the top ten for entertainment factor, in a real show, for a lay audience. When I saw him last year perform for a real audience, my entire opinion of him changed drastically.

Mike.

I'll go one step further than that, I think Michael Ammar is one of the last Old School magicians and should be classed as such. This has nothing to do with his age but instead his attitude; Ammar studied with the greats and it shows. His whole philosophy of magic leaks from him as he teaches and performs. Also his mastery of his skills is turely awesome, he really lives by the quote I've heard him repeat over and over from another great; "Be natural".

His teaching style is thorough and complete, just look at his lessons on the Cups and Balls or basic Coin Magic. Also his performing style is truely wonderful; he makes his audience feel at ease and enamoured at the same time, he really creates a true sense of wonder in his audiences.

Michael Ammar will go down in the Halls of Magic as a true great who was generous enough to pass his knowledge on to a new generation of magicians all over the world.

More power to him!

MR Ammar is a truly amazing teacher ...and anyone starting out on card magic will realise how much they can learn from this man ....
mim

the best trick of all time is card on ceiling blows laymen apart...and mr ammar does this so well...