Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Foolish Games by Kristin Merlin

Michael Dardant: What the Fork Review

One DVD, one hour, one multi-award winning routine and $30 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect/Method

Michael Dardant has won multiple awards for his act. This video is a performance of his act from start to finish followed by a break down of each effect, why it was chosen, the psychology of each selection and all the thinking behind everything.

The joke is full of every pun imaginable, but it all ties in with a stream of smooth and steady flow from point A to point B, the former being a funny opener with the latter being a powerful and impossible production of everything but the kitchen sink from his hat. He walks out on stage with nothing but a small, deck of card sized briefcase — there are no card tricks in this routine — and a small jar for a site gag. When the routine is over, the table is filled with "stuff" that he produced throughout the show.

You'll, likely, never see it coming and you'll be left wondering, at the very least, where the heck did all that stuff come from! The routine is cleverly constructed, and it's absolutely clear that he took time to consider scripting and choreography and timing and pauses and . . . and . . . and . . .

You may or may not like the effects and/or the routine, but that does not matter. The point here is that you will learn how to build an act that is powerful and well thought out . . . an act that was given the respect and care and thought that our craft so richly deserves yet so infrequently receives. My hat's off to Michael Dardant for that.

The routine itself actually very simple, but is extremely complex (i.e., intricate). My guess is that nobody watching it would go through the effort to recreate it, nor should you. I say this, not because of the hard work that would be involved, but because, you're not Michael Dardant . . . unless you are in which case, you already do the act. What you will and need to learn from this is how to construct a routine. You learn how to think. You learn how to create. You learn all this by example. This is not a case of Dardant telling you, do this and do that. He shows you his journey to success.

Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy integrity is solid. The only thing weird is that it says the DVD is 1 and a half hours. It's actually only an hour long. Other than that, the ad copy is SOLID!

Product Quality

The DVD is produced very well. Though there were a few lighting issues and occasionally I felt the camera shot was too far away, but for the most part everything was solid. The menu navigation was fine except for the fact that there was no home button, so if you're in the chapter section and you're looking around and decide you want to go back and click "Play All," you can't. You'll have to find the menu root button on your remote to get back there.

Lastly, this next point is not a negative in my opinion, but for the sake of clarity, I'll let you know that the tricks were not explained in great depth. However, they don't need to be for two reasons. One, they're easy enough (for the most part) that a simple gloss over the method will suffice. Secondly, it's not about learning tricks. It's about learning structure, flow, planning, scripting, etc., etc.

Final Thoughts

If you ever plan on competing in a magic competition. This is worth its weight in gold. If you want to have a well structured show that flows the way a show should, this is worth its weight in gold. If you are a hobbyist who occasionally performs in casual settings, I still feel that you'll find great value here.

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