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The Effect

A DVD from Joe Rindfleisch showing a few dozen band effects

Cost

£25-£28 from most dealers

Difficulty 3
(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)

Review

Joe Rindfleisch is credited with some of the material on Dan Harlan's tapes, as well as the elastrix books. His rubber band credentials are evidently Impeccable.

Many of the effects from elastrix vol2 are demonstrated on this DVD, and there's quite a lot of innovative work, including some ideas that could be used to build other effects. The DVD is professionally produced, with menus allowing easy access to the demos and explanations of each effect, and I found Joe's performance style to be very enjoyable

On most explanations, multiple camera views help show the workings very clearly, but on a couple of effects (see below), more explanation would have been beneficial.

It looks like he's using slightly larger bands than the #19 I use (or maybe just stretchier?) - meaning that some of the tricks might be more comfortable with bigger bands - especially for people with larger hands.

The effects demonstrated are:

Act 1:

Spaghetti up nose flurry

A nice flurry of bands through various bits of his body. Not sure this trick is for everyone.

BAR Band

"Broken and Restored" Band. A nice clean looking broken and restored effect.

Retention Jump

A band appears to jump from one hand to the other, when the fists are closed.

Hand Jump

A band jumps from the fingers of one hand to the other.

Ultimate Jump

A much cleaner version of the trick where bands jump from one set of fingers to the other set.

Stretching it

A band jumps from the fingers of one hand, onto the wrist of the other.


Act 2:

Crazy Penetration

A rubber band - thumb penetration. Looks great, but personally I'm not so keen on the gag with the thumb falling off...

What Not

Another Broken and restored band. This looks incredible, as the band is snapped, tied with a knot, and then the knot is either pinged off the band, or trimmed down until the it's knot there anymore, and the band is fully restored

Telekenesis

Mental powers are used to make a band burst off your wrist

Across the Great Divide

A band switches between index finger and pinkie on command.

Six Strand

A spectators hand moves step by step down a rubber band ladder.

Smarty Pans

A great broken and restored effect where the broken end of bands are apparently thrown together, causing the band to restore.

Act 3:

Quick Drop Restore

A band is broken, and restored by simply dropping it. Nice looking.

Hollow Hand

A band penetrates through your hand. Very clean looking

Color Changing Band

A band changes into a coloured band in the hand

Interweave

Bands penetrate through each other in a cats cradle type effect. Could do with clearer explanation in my opinion.

Pans Link

Very visually startling interlocking bands effect.

Act 4:

Medusa Stare

With a gaze, a rubber band is petrified, and crumbled into pieces.

NO Knot

A very nice way of breaking a band, knotting it, then removing the knot.

The Ring

Interesting optical illusion with bands and coins

Grand Opening

Parts of a band are made to visually fade out of existence while it's stretched between fingers.

Fingertip Restoration

Another broken and restored effect at the fingertips

Eat Away

A laser pointer wielded by a spectator is used to burn through a rubber band.

Delayed Snap

Another broken and restored effect.

Act 5:

Rubber Necking

An amusing effect where the rubber band penetrates his neck.

Jo-Dan Link

Variation on Dan Harlan's linking bands. Looks great, but could do with more detailed explanation on the setup

Remote Link

Bands are linked in a spectators hands. Looks great, but I'm not sure how practical it would be.

One t(w)o One

Topological illusion creates two bands from one - then the two illusory bands are seperated, revealing that they are now real. Then one of the bands disappears to leave only one, as at the start. Good sucker trick potential.

Act 6:

No Way Restoration

Very visual broken and restored. Not sure whether the requisites are available in the UK - there may be alternatives that would work well.

Bermuda Vanish

A bermuda triangle is created with three bands. Spectators hold two of them, and the third one vanishes.

Fast And Roose

A bar bet type effect about where a band will end up.

Interlaced Vanish

A clever wasy of vanishing a band

Safety Band

A band and safety pin linking and unlinking. Fans of Dreamweaver may recognise some elements of this.

Overall 9/10

Anyone interested in rubber band magic should have a copy of this - There's some great stuff on here. I suspect owners of the full set of Dan Harlan's videos would get even more from this, as they would provide more background on some of the tricks (Eg. Jo-Dan link). It's certainly not necessary to have any previous knowledge though.

Great review, the video sounds fantastic.

I have the DVD if anyone wants it, but I warn you, I found it a real waste of space, nothing of any value on it!

Gary

I have the DVD if anyone wants it, but I warn you, I found it a real waste of space, nothing of any value on it!

I think that is a bitharsh. It certainly wasn't that bad (IMHO). There were a more than a few nice things on it. Having said that I would probably recommend the Dan Harlans first though.

garysumpter wrote:I have the DVD if anyone wants it, but I warn you, I found it a real waste of space, nothing of any value on it!

Fair enough. Depends on what you're looking for I suppose, but I'm surprised you think there's nothing valuable on it.

I've only got the first Harlan tape, which is certainly quite good, but from my point of view, the Rindfleisch one is much better put together in terms of the content, presentation, and structure.

Okay, so there's a fairly heavy emphasis on linking and restoration, but that's to be expected on a set of band routines. I see it as good to be able to do effects in different ways, not necessarily that you would do the all the routines with repeated effects as shown on the tape.

Plus the guy makes me laugh