talkmagic.co.uk

Thought I would give a quick review of my Fav DVD in my collection.


The Effect
The DVD teaches several amazing flourishes which include.

Flipback - Deck travels to the back of your hand in a flash. EASY, visual, and a great stepping stone to many more difficult stunts.

Flipback vanish - A packet vanish from the BACK of your hand! One of the cleanest most visual packet vanishes ever! See it on the trailers!

Flipback Fan - The most uniquely formed fans ever! The first you see this you will be blown away. See it in the trailer!

Birdy Fan - This is just AWESOME! The first time you do it you will be showing everyone. Very simple to do, and very cool. Can be used as a floating fan, or a stepping stone.

Smooth Opener - An unreal way to remove the deck from the box. -see it in the trailers.

Cradle to Grave routine-De'vos own routine he uses, which is very cool!( sorry thats all I can say about it)

BONUS - Heaven Display - another underground masterpiece from De'vo. When the pros first heard about this, none of them believed it could be done. This has to be seen to be believed, very smart indeed.( again I cannot tell you exactly what it is you will have to get the vid, sorry)



Cost
$49.99+ postage
Here is the exact link to where you can get it http://www.xtremehandz.com/catalog/item ... 671669.htm



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)

2-4 as all the moves require a lot of practice.

Review
This DVD is awesome, it is very high quality, has an awesome sound track and is fun to learn from. The teaching method is unique as there is no spoken words in the whole DVD, sounds weird I know but this method really works. All the angles are covered so you should have no questions to ask about the moves. The menu system very good and navergating the DVD is a doddle. The DVD also has a couple of trailers for future DVD's by De'vo.
These flourishes are not easy to learn but not imposible it will be only a matter of time before you get them down. Also worth a mention is the atmosphire the DVD creates when you watch it, like it tells you crank up the volume and enjoy, its quite errie!
$49.99 may seem quite a lot but when you buy it you gain access to a special forum on De'vo's website where he will answer any questions you have about the moves etc.. also there are a couple of bonus vids in the site for CTG owners covering fanning techniques and such like so you are getting a lot of support with the product.

Overall
I am really glad I got this DVD I cannont praise it enough, the buying experiance was also top notch from de'vos website, very fast delivery from the States, also I asked De'vo to sign it for me and he did, he also included a signed Black Tactical Bike which I thought was pretty cool, how often is it you get emails from the author of anything thanking you for buying it etc..
Like I said I love it but I dont think it will be for everyone, if you are quite old school you will probably hate it, but if you looking for something a bit different and want to learn some flourishes other than Sybil cuts I think you will like it.
You can find out more about this at www.handlordz.com also on the site are couple of free flourishes to learn, but if you join the forum a word of warning do not talk about Magic or you will be banned.
Below are some links to the trailers of CTG and one other vid by De'vo, they will give you a feel for what the DVD is like.( the file sizes are quite big!)

http://www.superhandz.com/images/teaser.mp4
http://www.superhandz.com/images/fulltrailer.mp4
http://www.devo.hoverfrog.com/blackdeckmp4.mp4

Thanks for reading, regards Mr M.Hatter

Well what are you waiting for go and check it out

Thanks for the review Madasa. I too have heard very good things about this DVD.

If flourishes is your thing, then you may want to check out the superb and beautifully produced book, "The Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes"

http://www.flourishman.com/

Actually check out the website. There should be some really nice vid clips their as well.

And on the subject of flourishes, it may be worth checking out these related threads too...

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic3068.php
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic3775.php

The thing I like with flourishes is I can just sit all by my lonesome and impress myself with them, where as with magic I think its only fun when you show other people IMO, I guess you pays ya money and takes your choice.( I am not trying to start another magic v flourishing debate!)
I will get the encyclopedia of flourishes, but with the postage it is very expensive.
Also I have Show Off 2 by Brian Tudor, this is quite good and worth a look although I think it is overpriced, cost £25.
Do not buy C4 Cap Cuts by Cap Casino as the DVD is terrible his teaching technique sucks and it is very low quality and I find him very anoying to watch.
I am awaiting Xtreme cuts by Keone, so I will stick up a review of that shortly.
Also if you are into flourishing another goodsite to have a look at is www.dananddave.com it has quite a few cool demos on there, and they are about to release a DVD with flourishes and Magic called the Dan and Dave System I think.

Xtreme cuts arrived today if any one is else is intersted in it or thinking of getting it, I will stick up a review of it, let me know.

Reviews are always good. Especially to the high standard of this one.

Nice review - Ive been looking at buying this dvd - I think I will having read this (and other reviews).

To enter the whole flourish arguement- I think theyre fantastic- even if you dont use them as part of your routine- if you can do a variety of flourishes it always imporves your card handling abilities which is useful for other sleights. Plus it looks cool.

Anyway, thanks for the review

Madasahatter wrote:The thing I like with flourishes is I can just sit all by my lonesome and impress myself with them

Now this is my first ever post with a quote, so it might not work

But Madasahatter's quote worries me Are you a friend of Michael Jackson by any chance ?? I worry that a magician impresses himself with his abilities ?? Do others sit and watch themselves Ahhh, now I'm sussing out the reason for having a vid cam Watch out for Tenko's bath and DL at the side of Emerdale

Tenko the point of your post is what?

I got this as a birthday present last summer, and im still trying to master some of the moves. Some of this stuff is very advanced and can take a while to get the hang of, I wouldnt recommend this to people just starting to get into cards, but there are 1 or 2 effects which are easy enough and you can be doing them smoothly in a couple of hours. The flip back vanish is one that comes to mind,The actual intructions and camera work is fantastic, you really get a feel of how to do the move this alone sets this dvd apart from its competitors. For instance Brian tudor has some great moves in his show off series but i found that the angles and camera work just didnt do him justice and made the whole thing alot more difficult than it should have been. So if ya have the spare cash lying around and are competent already with a deck of cards then I would throughly recommend this to you. You'll end up looking like the god dam king of cards if ya master this material

Madasahatter,

I'm sorry but I just can't see any point in learning fancy flourishes that take x amount of hours to learn, unless you are entering a magic competition or wanting to impress fellow magicians.

Joe public are impressed with the way that you speak to them and put over your effects. The actual skill levels needed to surprise and entertain them are far less than you would realise.

And impressing yourself with your flourishes Do you learn these flourishes just to please yourself ?? That I could understand. That's not a dig at you, If I decided to learn a sleight that was going to take me 3 months to learn it would be for my own self gratification, not because I believed that it would impress everyone at my next performance.

Damn, damn, damn.

Nobody knows any way of curing C.U.P.S., do they?

must have dvd, must have dvd

Kati

Having read the review and done my homework, I bought this dvd. As hoped, its top notch- Dont by any means think you'll learn the material overnight, but if you want something to work on to really improve your card handling skills this is really really good.

The thing with some of the stuff on this dvd is that once you master it, it will have as much of a 'wow' factor as any trick using a gimmick you can buy, but has the added advantage of personal satisfaction, and if any other wannabe magicians see you do this stuff it will really blow them away.

I'd say that even the easiest stuff on the disk would take several days to get to perfomance level, and longer if youre a novice, but those lonely evenings just fly by
Madasahatter, I take my hat off to you.

This now available (signed) from Merchant of Magic.

Mine's is in the post...

how much did you pay
and is the cradle to the grave routine any good?

This IS an EXCELLANT DVD just got it myself a few days ago.

Even if you don't realy do flourishes you still need this in your life i've never dropped so many cards.

Well not since i got the DAN and DAVE SYSTEM.