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Rubber Bang by Sean Yang Review
One DVD, 10 effects, a few rubber bands and $30 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Included on the is DVD you will find 10 effects, 9 of which combine rubber bands with playing cards to make some visual and animated effects. The 10th effect is two card transpo to pocket routine.
The rubber band stuff is the main focus material, and all of it very visual. Basically you're getting "find the selection" routines and a couple Ace productions. All of which, in my opinion, are commercial routines.
Method
The methods employed are simple. Learn a few tricky ways to wrap a rubber band around the deck and any basic card control technique, and your golden. The methods are a little knacky, but for each one, just a few minutes of playing around with it and I was able to get it to work on a basic level. A little more practice and fiddling, and it'll be ready to go.
The methods are all well within the grasp of even the most basic level performer. Check out the ad trailer, and you'll see all of the effects exactly as they really are. If you like what you see, you'll be happy to know that all of those effects are, very likely, well within your grasp.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy makes no outrageous claims. It is absolutely accurate and legitimate. Even the claim that a beginner can quickly be able to do this stuff. While that's technically true, I would, of course, caution the newbie: don't think that you can just go out and do this without putting in the appropriate practice time and effort.
Product Quality
The DVD is well produced, well lit, shot, mic'd, etc. The menu is easy to navigate even with its typos. "Play" was spelled "Paly." On the DVD cover the word "Presents" is spelled "Persents." I think it's most likely a lost-in-translation moment, but they still could have ad someone who speaks/read English check that. The performer (Sean Yang) performs in Chinese, but you have the option for English, Chinese or Japanese subtitles.
The performance sections are the only places where he speaks. The explanations are done with no voice, just music. It was very well done and easy to learn the effects from the explanations. During the explanations there was the occasional text on the screen to help clarify things. In those cases, the subtitles are very helpful. But in most cases, you don't even need the subtitles because the visual explanations are so clear and easy to follow. You'll have to stop the video a time or two just to get the handling correct, but if you've ever done any kind of rubber band magic, you know that this is just the nature of that beast.
There was one little quirky thing that you'll need to be aware of. During the explanations, they would show the selected card (say Ten of Clubs), then they would change the camera angle to help get a better view of the deck/handling/etc., but the selected card would be different (e.g., Four of Hearts rather than Ten of Clubs). This is due to the fact that they were cutting together two (or more) different takes. As long as you're aware of this and watch for it, you should be fine.
With the DVD, you get a baggie with four or five rubber bands. Frankly, the rubber bands aren't quite the right ones for the stuff in the video. In some cases they were, but others they were not. That, however, is an easy fix. Just buy some rubber bands at your local office supply store. In fact, on the DVD, they cover the various different types of rubber bands to help you decide which kind is best for you. If you find that the included bands work for you, you can get refills for $2.95. With the refill, you get approximately 45 beige, 9 red and 2 green rubber bands.
Lastly, there's a great effect on the DVD, Sy Pyramid. How do I know it's a great effect? Because I published it about 8 or so years ago. On my Stone Cold Magic DVD, is an effect called Triplets which uses Jay Sankey's Pyramid Pop up move from his effect Please Don't Feed The Playing Cards. Triplets is a three card revelation. To be fair, Sean Yang's effect is a four Ace production, but it uses the exact same method/modification of Sankey's "Pyramid" move. Plus Yang added an extra little thing that's pretty cool.
He did credit Sankey, but did not credit me. Personally, I think that's because he, likely, thought of it independently. Further, my DVD is relatively obscure, so he's probably never heard of it or me. Either way, it does not impact the rating of this product.
Final Thoughts
This is how a DVD product should be. 10 or so effects for about $30 bucks with (maybe) an included prop or something. This is a good model and a reasonably priced model. Of course, the other part of this is that the effects have to be practical and doable - these are. Finally, the effects have to be good. That's for you to decide by watching the video trailer. I've given you everything else.
Final Verdict:
5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.