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The Effect
13 OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST EASY-TO-DO PROFESSIONAL CARD TRICKS EVER!

Join the magic circle close-up magician of the year, Andrew Murray, as he performs thirteen of the world's greatest, professional, easy-to-do card tricks, recorded live and in the studio by RSVP magic. Witness the reactions these stunning card tricks have on members of the public... and then discover just how easy they are to do!

All you need to supply is a deck of cards...

Cost
£19.99 from magicshop.co.uk


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)

Depends on the person, but I would say 1. You need a DL, and possibly a spread cull.


Review
This is quite hard to review as it really does depend on the person who buys it. It is, as it says, 13 self-working or almost self-working card tricks. For a beginner who would like a start in card magic, I can see how this DVD would be invaluable - the effects are strong and so easy to do. However, for a more experienced magician the effects will seem mostly obvious, and in fact I didn't bother to watch some of the explanation videos as I immediately saw how the trick was done. You're buying this mostly for the performance tips and handlings.

However, some of the effects are brilliant and definitely worth it. Chicago Opener and The Twins come to mind, and the OOTW handling is neat and clean, from a borrowed shuffled deck.

Overall

Borrowing from Online Visions here,

Material: 10
Plenty of tricks here for everyone, with every sort of think - OOTW, predictions, vanishes.

Practicality: 10
How more practical can you get?! Each of the routines comes with a performance video, a full and detailed explanation, and handling tips.

Quality of Production: 8
The camera is great. The only thing that irritated me was that it takes an awfully long time to display the name of the trick when you select it from the menu. It appears then fades letter by letter. A small thing, but niggling.

Quality of Instruction: 10
What can I say? Everything is taught in detail, with close-up views when you need them and full explanation.

Presentation: 9
He shows the full presentation then explains it. I guess that there could have been more tips for how to perform these effects, but that's a minor point.

Originality: 8
Most of the effects on this are new to me, however a couple are fully credited adaptations of older routines.

Overall:
Hard to say. If you're an experienced magician, you don't need this DVD. But for a beginner who'd like some hard-hitting easy-to-do tricks - this is the DVD!

Kati

Kati - many thanks for the review. I'll be buying it for some of the reasons that you've highlighted. I'll let you know what I think in a week or so.

Only just found this review. I bought this DVD back in July last year before I found this Forum and it was the first magic DVD I ever bought. As far as content goes I was not disappointed. I've been doing magic for around 9 months now and I still regularly use some of the tricks on here (Dr Daley, Chicago Opener, Twins, Fabulous Four Aces amongst others) because they are so strong.

However, I do find Andrew Murray to be a bit monotonous, almost like he's bored...

I would still recommend this DVD to anyone who is just getting started in cards or to anyone who's been at it a while but has never come across the tricks on here because they are darn good.

...i must admit i found his delivery a bit too 80's kinda slick sounding...but then again im not a F.I.S.M. winner...

"give the deck a twist..." didn't really work for me as an explanation as to how that would 'magically' effect the cards, but it is a well presented dvd and the tricks are very well explained...

...and i quiet fancied one of those spanish ladies in it too...that should of been highlighted on the case "contains attractive women"...

Funny that you should mention the delivery as I too thought that it wasn't very dynamic - some very good tricks though which is the whole point.