Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: These Days by Bon Jovi

We've all done it . . . we go through those phases. We get the magic bug; we lose the magic bug; we get the performance bug; we lose the performance bug . . . These Days (thank you Bon Jovi) my bug is all about creating a new close up show that uses no playing cards. I've been looking for some stuff . . . This DVD has some of that stuff. I'm really tempted now, to put the effort into learning the muscle pass. I'm not entirely sure that this is the best resource for learning it. However, it's one of the best for how to apply it.

If you already do the muscle pass . . . BAM, get this DVD . . . no brainer. You'll be taking your coin magic in a beautiful new direction. You will learn one little tip (The Fonzy Move) that will help you with your muscle pass. Just watch the trailer . . . the effects are very clean. This is one of the most magical looking methods for coins across. The weird thing is that even from the exposed angles, it still looks freaky weird and cool.

The bottom line is that if you want to do some powerful coin magic (i.e., clearly have 1 or 2 or 3 coins in one hand, then BAM they're in the other hand), this is tough to beat. If you can classic palm, then you're way ahead of the game. If you can muscle pass, you're even that much further ahead. Yet, if you can do neither, you can still get this down with some heavy duty practice. The timing on this is where you'll need to practice the most, but after watching the DVD trailer, you'll have to admit that it looks pretty dang magical.

I do have one criticism (won't really impact the review) that I feel is important to bring up for the viewers. It's centered around this idea: imagine doing the Dai Vernon wand spin/vanish. The moment you've secretly stolen the ball out of the hand (under the cover of the wand spin), don't open your hand . . . too many magicians are so excited that they made the steal that they open their hands right after the steal. This totally destroys the illusion.

If you're not as familiar with this, then think of the french drop. I've seen many a newbie grab (apparently) the coin, and instantly open their hand to show it empty (i.e., the coin "vanished"). The problem is that they open their hand so quickly that it was never really closed . . . they never really sold the illusion that they actually grabbed the coin.

Brian Platt does this a fair bit. The magic move is so fresh and exciting that as soon as he does the move, he opens his hand to show that it happened. In performance, this is a bad idea. You need to take a moment to sell the condition of things (i.e., which coin is in which hand). So . . . breathe. Take a moment before the big reveal . . . otherwise there is nothing to reveal.

Again, I'm not criticizing Platt per se. I'm just pointing this out to you so that you don't make the same mistake.

Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.