Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: One By Metallica

This is the second Doug Conn video I've reviewed. It's guys like this who give me hope for magic releases and future products. For only $15 bucks you get a whole lot of bang for your buck.

What You Get

First, you get an in depth treatise on the pinky count. I've always struggled with the pinky count myself. Add it to the long list of other moves I can't do. However, after watching Conn's explanation, I was able to see some of that much sought after proverbial light at the end of the even more elusive proverbial tunnel. No; I still can't do the pinky count. In fact, I'm having a weird problem. I've always counted exactly one more off than I think. I suppose I'm the Kenton Knepper of pinky counting. Anyway, I did make some progress after watching Conn's tutorial. It's very well done, and covers a lot of great pointers, tips, angles, practice drills, and more.

Next we move on to the pass. Conn covers his handling of the pass which is basically Dingle's handling of the pass. There's not a lot new here, but it's detailed and required study for the effects on this DVD.

I like the premise of this DVD. It's the simple concept that with these two tools (pinky count & pass) in your arsenal, you can do a surprising variety of effects, and Conn proves this in spades with 6 effects and one "concept."

Effects

The first three, Coincidice, Fourtunate and Random Specificity are three effects combining dice and cards. They all have a nice hook which is the idea of the random roll of the dice being not as random as we think. The first two of the three work well together, Fourtunate being a follow up to Coincidice. These two require a full deck stack, the pinky count and the pass. The effects are clear, clean and beautiful and a plot that's pretty unique. The third variant (Random Specificity) is a way to perform the same basic effect with no stack.

The methods are very doable without the pinky count and without the pass, but using those tools makes the effects so much more elegant and magical.

The fourth effect, Magic Spell is just what you think . . . a spelling trick. While not the most amazing variation of the plot it is a very clean, direct and simple variation. Again, the pinky count is your little helper here.

Next is a brief discussion about the Scarne Legendary Ace Cutting where we're shown how to do a cutting to the aces routine with the pinky count and 3 Faro Shuffles. Again, this is not overly revolutionary, but it fits the point of this DVD which is to show you practical uses for the pinky count and/or the pass (but mostly the pinky count).

The final effect, An Artistic Application is a fun visual effect where any two named colors appear on the face of a selected card. Then the card is spun (think UFO Helicopter) where the two colors blend into one color (e.g., blue and yellow become green). The effect is simple, visual and uses a 9 card stack and . . . yep; you guessed it: the pinky count and the pass. Though Coincidice and this effect both use a stack, the advantage of the former is that once done, the deck can be used for other effects as is. Whereas with this effect, you have a few cards you need to ditch before you can move on. It's a small price to pay for the effect, but it is something to be aware of.

Final Thoughts

In a world where people are charging $40 for one effect, this is a breath of fresh air. It's a very well produced DVD that goes beyond just merely learning a trick or worse, learning how to "demo a gimmick" for your audience. Instead, you are taught (very well - I might add) two very good concepts/tools for your arsenal. Then you are shown a few ways to use them. When used with multiple discard-able stacks (as in a few of the effects here), you see that you've expanded your toolbox even further. There's also a brief little discourse on using the pinky count in conjunction with a mem deck allowing you to get to any card in the deck without having to pinky count more than 13 cards.

Bottom line: for $15 bucks you get 45 minutes of extremely valuable information and tools to help take your magic to another level and/or direction. Finally, even if you don't want to learn the pinky count or you already have it mastered, I honestly believe that you'll find value in Conn's applications, and further, there's likely a trick or two here that will appeal to you as well.

Final Verdict:
5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!