Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Don't Know What You Got ('Til It's Gone) By Cinderella

It's always fascinating to see another person's point of view on any one subject. It's interesting to see how different people can see the same thing in different ways. That's one of the cool things about the 'World's Greatest Magic' (WGM) series By L&L Publishing. While on one hand it feels like a way to recycle product and make a few quick sales, on the other hand it's good to have all the best minds on the same plot.

If you read more reviews from me regarding the 'World's Greatest Magic' series, you will find that they all start with these first few sentences so that each review will have the same background and foundation. So on to this particular DVD: Color Changing Deck.

If you've been in magic for more than 33.2 seconds, you've heard of, performed, seen or created a color changing deck routine. I've done all of the above myself. It's a great plot, and a surprise. There are a few things to consider when doing this plot. One of the biggest ones is the deck sw****. You must create the illusion that you've gone from the last effect where everyone handled the 'red' deck, and now you surprise them with the deck that they've all handled changing to 'blue.'

In this series, the only person who really touched on that was Michael Ammar, and even then it wasn't very in depth, which brings up a constant problem with L&L's 'World's Greatest' series. Basically, each effect is a cut-and-paste of the footage from another DVD, so in the case of Ammar's performance, he refers to another routine that he performed and how the sw**** was done during that routine. Harry Lorayne also mentions something else from another effect that was performed on the original DVD. This happens quite a bit on these projects and sometime (often) to the detriment of the learning experience.

All too often, magicians make the mistake, also of focusing on the deck . . . look at this RED deck . . . see how RED it is . . . Harry Lorayne briefly touches on this point, but again, no in depth study. If you're looking for an in-depth study of the color changing deck plot, move along. That's a major downside to these L&L WGM projects. They're basically a greatest hits kind of things and not so much a study of the plot.

There's nothing wrong with that per se. You just need to know what you're getting . . . so, Jeff, what are you getting? Well, you get performances By 7 magic legends. Below you'll find their name and a 1 to 5 star rating for their portion of the DVD.

• Bill Malone Doing Marlo's Routine

(2.5)

• Harry Lorayne

(3.5)

• Michael Ammar Doing Vernon's Routine

(3.5)

• Johnny Thompson

(2.5)

• Boris Wild

(4)

• Derek Dingle

(3)

• John Mendoza

(3)

Briefly, here are a few comments about each. First, Vernon's (performed By Ammar) and Marlo's (performed By Malone) are suspiciously similar in method and performance. Additionally, for the most part all of the routines were very similar and you really don't see much variation. It would have been nice if L&L put some new footage in between each performer or at the end or beginning that kind of tied things together or pointed out advantages and disadvantages of each variation.

I think I liked Boris Wild's handling the best . . . though his presentation was a little (ahem . . . ) Wild. I'm a big fan of Bill Malone, but this performance was kind of weak and full of insults to the audience coupled with a weak 'presentation' and even a curse word. John Mendoza's wasn't bad . . . it was a little awkward and slow, but then the reveal of the change at the end was solid and got a great reaction. The other thing I like about his version, like Wild's, is that there's nothing to hide or clean up at the end. Johnny Thompson's handling was decent adding the use of a gimmick that gives you a nice clean moment at the end. One other nice touch with the Lorayne handling is we also learn a cool deck vanish. As for Dingle, I honestly think he was drunk during the performance . . . seriously . . . he was horribly slow, clunky and off balance both physically and mentally.

However, giving props where they're due, Dingle's added a nice difference that took the focus off of the 'look at this RED deck' aspect that this effect all-too-often has. His routine was a Triumph effect ending with a kicker color change. Pretty solid.

All in all, if you want a few different takes on the plot with not much else added, then you'll find maybe 2 or 3 quasi-unique perspectives on this DVD. Frankly, not worth it to me. The only one worthy of consideration, in my opinion is the Boris Wild one. However, your money is better spent on Wild's hundred dollar 3 disk set, Remarkable Card Magic which contains his color changing deck and a cubic butt-ton of other killer magic.

If you're looking to study a more 'traditional' handling, I would recommend getting Ammar's Easy to Master Miracles Volume III which contains the color changing deck and a bunch of other great classics of magic.

Sorry folks . . .

Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Rubble