Nathan Kranzo-Old School Kranzo Review

Old School Kranzo Review: Introduction

I've mentioned this before . . . I like Nathan Kranzo, but I usually have very mixed feelings about his products. This one is no exception. In this Old School Kranzo Review, you'll find everything you need to know to make your final decision.

For $35 you get an extremely poorly produced DVD that has the nostalgic 80's Camcorder feel to it. No menu system, poor lighting, and low visibility.

I can understand the poor production quality since it was essentially just a recording of a lecture he did. However, that being the case, charge accordingly . . . $35 is too high for such a low quality production.

Moving beyond that, let's look at the effects. Below you'll find the official ad copy of each effect, my commentary and a star rating (1 is the lowest score; 5 is the highest).

Old School Kranzo Review: Lollipop Production (4.5 stars)

Ad Copy:

A GIANT lollipop appears in your mouth!!!

My Commentary:

This is a pretty sweet and simple production. Very practical, and you don't have to produce a lolipop. It can be anything that you might want to put in your mouth. Facing the audience, you clearly have nothing in, on or around your mouth. Both hands go in your pocket. While your hands are in your pocket, you turn around doing a complete 360. When you're facing the audience again, there's a giant apple in your mouth, or a cigarette or a giant lolipop. Super cool and impossible seeming.

Old School Kranzo Review: Spirit Eating (2 stars)

Ad Copy:

You eat a candy bar by looking at it!!!

My Commentary:

Method - Clever. Performance - gross. I would like the routine better if the entire candy bar were eaten, but instead, a few bites here and there are shown on the candy bar. Additionally, the bites are in such a way that is not how someone eats a candy bar. It didn't look very real, and the gross part is that you show the chewed chocolate (that arrived by magic) in your mouth . . . gross.

Old School Kranzo Review: Low Tide Coin Routine (2 stars)

Ad Copy:

A great three coin routine using NO GAFFS

My Commentary:

This routine makes no sense. He produces three coins, one of which was produced in a way that looked magical - the other two, not so much. Then he places the three coins on the table and uses one of the coins to do a brief one coin routine. Then he puts the coins away. The one coin routine was pretty good, but made no sense in the context of producing 3 coins. The production sequence wasn't that good . . . well what I could see of it anyway . . . bad lighting, camera angles and cuts.

Old School Kranzo Review: Cashing A Check (3 stars)

Ad Copy:

This one has it all. You tear a corner off your check and it changes into a quarter in a flash of fire. Then the check morphs into real cash!!!

My Commentary:

Another one that doesn't make complete sense. It starts off like it will, but then it has some weirdness. I like the premise of changing a check to cash because the store doesn't take checks. But before doing that, he tore a corner of the check off and lit it on fire and caused it to turn into a coin. It was visually pretty, but again, illogical. There were some nice moments in this routine; they just didn't make a lot of sense together.

Old School Kranzo Review: Moving Tanline (4 stars)

Ad Copy:

This is one of Kranzo's signature pieces performed on TV by Penn and Teller, Marco Tempest, Chris Korn, Dynamo and the list goes on.

My Commentary:

This is pretty darn cool. You take off your watch revealing your tan line . . . then you drag your tanline up your arm and up to your bicep . . . very cool. The only issue I had was that there's not much discussion regarding how long you can be set up for this before the set up will no longer work, so you'll have to experiment. Other than that, however, the method is extremely practical and very easy to do.

Old School Kranzo Review: Hotsauce Production (5 stars)

Ad Copy:

In a flash of fire a packet of hotsauce is produced. When you open it up it starts to smoke!!!!

My Commentary:

Yep . . . it looks exactly like the ad copy. This is a really cool idea that is perfectly logical and looks incredible, and has many other applications.

Old School Kranzo Review: The Evil Power Of Mine (4.5 stars)

Ad Copy:

A fantastic IMPOSSIBLE location effect created by Tony Miller

My Commentary:

This one will fool you . . . I guarantee it. It's a freely selected card freely shuffled (by the spectator) back into the deck. Then the spectator chooses any word to spell to, and upon spelling to that word, the spectator's card is found. This is is very clever and has a ton of potential.

Old School Kranzo Review: Twin Peeks (4 stars)

Ad Copy:

Two cards are peeked at by two different people. In an INSTANT the deck vanishes leaving you with only the selected card!!!

My Commentary:

This is a very clean vanishing deck, and it's pretty practical to boot.

Old School Kranzo Review: Fresh Breath (3 stars)

Ad Copy:

A roll of breath mints turns into a can of breath spray!!! Then you blow in your fist to produce an ice cube!

My Commentary:

I couldn't really see this one due to no close up shots and bad lighting. But during the explanation I got the gist of it. It's actually a pretty decent idea for a quickie . . . turn a roll of certs into binaca.

Old School Kranzo Review: Coins Thru Silk (3.5 stars)

Ad Copy:

A coin visually penetrates a silk several times with some of the most magical sequences imaginable. AND YOU END CLEAN.

My Commentary:

One coin and silk routine using the see through silks like Ammar uses. I like This version. It's pretty clean and straight forward and has some pretty solid magical moments.

Average trick rating is 3.55. That's pretty decent. However, keep in mind that for $35 you can get pretty muc any DVD from L&L that will also have 10 effects on it. I'm not claiming that all L&L DVDs are gems by any stretch. However, take one of the Easy to Master Card Miracles DVDs (Let's say volume I). It has ten effects, a special gimmick, Michael Ammar, 3 camera angles, perfect lighting, etc., etc.

They have to pay for a full staff of people plus pay Ammar and still it was only $35 bucks.

So . . . considering the quality of the DVD, it's hard to justify the price, but there are some decent effects on here that are definitely worth considering . . .