Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees

Drunk by Hondo Review:

One tool, 6 DIY projects, 1 DVD and $25 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

Well . . . you're not really getting an effect at all. You're getting six Do It Yourself (DIY) projects. You learn how to make the following gimmicks:

1. Linked Rubber Bands
2. "Roughed" Playing Cards
3. "Short" Cards (a la Svengali Deck
4. Invisible Elastic Loops (from Invisible Elastic)
5. Marked/One way deck
6. Linked Breath Mints

Included with the DVD is a little tool that makes it easier to make the linked rubber bands.

Method

Each of the methods for creating these gimmicks is very simple and straightforward and easy to learn. The included tool makes it super easy to make the linking rubber bands. Tying loops out of invisible elastic is super simple using this method.

The one way/marked deck is very clever, and pretty simple to learn. It uses a very simple marking system that works on Bicycle 808s. The tips taught for getting a good and consistent cut when making short cards is, again, simple and clever.

All in all, the methods for creating these gimmicks are simple, doable, and smart.

Keep in mind that you'll still need to buy some stuff to take advantage of these techniques. For the linking bands, you'll need the supplied tool plus some glue. For the roughed cards, you'll need to spend a couple bucks at a craft store. For the short cards, you'll need a paper cutter which isn't cheap. For the invisible loops, you'll need some invisible elastic thread. For the marked deck, you'll just need a deck and a razor knife. For the breath mints, you'll just need the mints.

Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy is pretty solid. There are a couple of points of clarification I should offer. First, it refers to the included "tools." However, there is only one tool included with the DVD. Based on the fact that elsewhere in the ad copy the phrase "best . . . in the worlds" was used rather than " . . . world" I'm going to assume that this (tools vs. tool) is just a case of "lost in translation."

Another point of clarification is the point where they say that you can apply this linking rubber band technique to other things like rings, scissors, earrings, etc. Again, I think this may be a "lost in translation" moment. You cannot apply this to link two rings together. You can, however, apply this to link a rubber band to a ring (earring, scissors, etc.)

The only other thing that's a small issue is that the copy claims that the DVD will teach how to make a Stripper deck. However, it does not. It does teach how to make a Svengali deck, but the tricks and tips shown for making a Svengali won't work on a Stripper deck, so that's one prop that the copy claims to teach, yet it does not teach it.

One other thing that was a small annoyance was the fact that the tricks shown on the trailer were not taught. The handling for the linking bands shown in the trailer and the card trick using the rubber band was not taught. Further, the card and rubber band trick didn't seem to be part of the DVD project at all. There was no gimmick or prop that you learn how to make that has anything to do with the card/band trick.

But to be fair, the ad copy very clearly states that "this DVD is not filled with magic tricks." So it's hard to give too big of a hit to the product for not teaching any tricks, but I felt that if they're going to demo a trick in the trailer, they should teach it.

Product Quality

The DVD is spoken in Chinese, but there are subtitles for Chinese, Japanese and English. It defaults to Chinese subtitles which made it a little annoying whenever I had to go to the main menu. It would always default back to Chinese when I visited the main menu. Obviously I'm not expecting all DVDs to be in English. However, once I choose my subtitle preference it should stay there and not jump to the default.

In the ad copy section above, I mentioned the missing tricks. It's not fair to dock points on the ad copy for the reason I mentioned, but I have no problem docking the product quality for that.

As for the instruction itself, it was very well done. The close ups were great, and the instructions were super simple, brief and easy to follow even without the subtitles. You could watch this DVD completely muted and it would be just fine.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line with this DVD is if you want to save yourself some money by creating some commonly used props yourself, then you'll be very happy with your purchase. If you're looking for tricks to do with these gimmicks, then you'll be very disappointed. However, the advertisement clearly state that you are buying the "secrets" to making some gimmicks, and it very clearly states that you are not buying tricks/methods/etc.

Keep in mind, as mentioned earlier, that you'll need to spend some money to make these gimmicks, so you'll have to weigh the cost to decide if it's worth the cost to make the gimmicks yourself. If you have a routine or trick that requires these props and you don't want to fork over the dough to buy the props, then this is a good solution in some cases.

Final Verdict:
3.5 Stars with a Stone Status of gem.