Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Deuces Are Wild By Aerosmith

What's better than listening to Deuces Are Wild By Aerosmith and watching Bill Malone? I say unto you . . . Nothing . . . Unless the Bill Malone being watched is the Malone Meets Marlo series. Does it get any better than that. I say unto you Nay; it does not.

This is disk number six of a six disk set. Let me give a brief review of the whole set which will be found on each review for each disk. Then I'll speak specifically to this disk. First, as mentioned above, it's always a pleasure to watch Bill Malone perform. Add to that the material, and you've got a recipe that any card-loving magician would sacrifice his first-born cat for. This set's purpose, according to Malone, is to 'Bring Marlo's Material Back to Life.' With that comes the bitter/sweet realization that this revival may produce some hacks who won't read the books, but it will also get more people reading the books. Malone spends a bit of time talking about all of the books and original resources for the effects he chose for this series. He re-sparked my interest in Marlo's work, and has inspired me to order one of the few books that I don't own from Marlo, Marlo In Spades.

Malone does an excellent job of teaching these effects and giving proper credit. In the explanation section, as was typical of Mr. Marlo, Malone gave multiple explanations, variations and bonus handling and effects that weren't shown in the performance segments. The only criticism I have for this set is that many of the presentations are of the 'Put and Take' variety, which drives me crazy. However, you still get a generous portion of Malone's crazy style which tempers the Put-and-Take-ness of the presentations. Also, in Malone's defense, he did say, at the beginning of each disk, that he only gave 'basic presentations' with the intent to have us create our own. With that as the background, let's look at disk three:

With each effect, I'll give it a rating on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 is best; 1 is worst) and a little bit of commentary:

Immediate Bottom Deal (4.5 stars)

Pretty Darn clean effect from a shuffled deck. With no funny moves, the magicans literally stops dealing where four different people tell him to. And in every case the spectators stopped him at their previously select cards.

Diamond Cut Diamond (3.5 stars)

This is a very baffling trick, but the handling is a little contrived. However, if you can look past that, it's pretty impossible seeming.

21-Card Trick (4.5 stars)

I will quite surprised if this one doesn't fool you. Using the presentation about how Uncle Bob always wants to show you the 21 card trick, you blow away both laymen and magicians alike with this excellent version of the plot. It seems impossible.

Surrounded Open Travelers (4 stars)

It's hard to give this a good rating. It's a 5 star effect, but it's pretty much Paul Harris's handling of the plot. I really didn't see any difference worth mentioning.

The Lessinout Stack (4 stars)

I love tricks where you tell the audience that you're using a formula for shuffling the cards. Then you actually do the crazy formula right in front of them. This is one of those effects. It has the gambling hook. It really feels like you're letting them in on some underground secrets of the gamblers. You do have to be able to do a second deal for this one, but I think it's worth it.

Mental Reverse (4 stars)

I like this effect, but it doesn't seem to play that well for the audience. However, the effect is solid - a mentally thought of card reverses in the deck. And the method is dirt simple.

Direct Transposition (3 stars)

Very angly effect that looks a little fishy, and also has the old 'I'm right; you're wrong' presentation which I don't care for. There are two versions taught. The second one is super visual, but still a bit angly.

Professional Ace Cutting (4.5 stars)

This effect fooled me even though the method for this effect was used in several other effects. This is a very powerful routine where you cut to the Aces after shuffling the deck thoroughly. It looks amazing. You have to be able to do some table shuffles and thus must be seated.

Four Burglars (2.5 stars)

This effect is a bit confusing, not very clear and not that entertaining.

The Vanishing 11 (4.5 stars)

Another one that 'got' me. A very simple, simple effect that takes some guts, but is very doable . . . 11 cards just vanish . . . poof!

WOW! (3 stars)

I'm not a fan of sandwiches unless they have a pile of meat on them. This particular sandwich effect has fishy contrived handling. It's not bad, but . . . meh.

Unbelievable Aces (2.5 stars)

It's a pretty clean Ace assembly. However, it's very angly and a bit fishy, which makes me think that that's why he performed it without an audience.

If I were to rate this volume strictly on the presentations, I'd give it a 3.7 (the average of each effect's rating) out of 5. However, if you include the history, the stories, the bonus ideas, alternate handling along with the privilege of seeing old Marlo material come to life, I would rate it at least a 4 out of 5.

I might give it a 4.5 if it were priced a little better. I think this could have easily been a 4 disk set rather than a 6 disk set without cutting any material.

Final Verdict:
4 stars with a Stone Status of GEM