Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Eye of The Tiger By Survivor

For forty bucks, you get to learn some excellent tricks, killer ideas for presentations and building a show from an above average (but still rough around the edges) magician.

I really only have two minor complaints on this project. First, during the explanation portion of the effects there was some background . . . er . . . scratch that . . . Foreground music that made it really hard to focus on the education I was attempting to gain.

The second minor complaint was exacerbated by the first. Mr. Menotti is kind of an excited and frantic guy, and so he's a bit "all over the place" yet at the same time (almost paradoxically) his enthusiasm is not as contagious as enthusiasm usually is.

Couple those two things together, and the first DVD was very hard to watch at times. The second did not have the same issues.

In short, the first DVD is 6 effects performed in front of an audience and taught in extensive (sometimes painful) detail. The second DVD is a live full show that contains a few of the pieces taught in the first DVD and a few that are not taught anywhere. Additionally there are few "essays" where Menotti discusses some excellent topics and details several killer ideas. On top of that, the show can be watched with commentary and without. I watched it both ways and found it to be very informative.

One other quick thing . . . there is a moment in the brilliant routine, Imaginary Coins that is a bit confusing even after watching it several times. I think that if you do that effect, you'll need to work on that part a little bit . . . you'll know it when you see it.

Menotti is a brilliant thinker and has an incredible ability to take classic principles, effects, methods, etc. and turn them on their head and make them his own. For those familiar with my free magazine, you know that every month I write a column about this very concept . . . taking roots in magic and branching out with them: Roots and Branches. So I'm always excited to see someone who gets that principle.

I'm not a fan of one coin routines: a coin is here, then it vanishes, then it appears, etc. Yuck. However, Menotti, with his effects Pieces of Nothing and Two Sides of Every Coin completely change the game when it comes to the production and vanishing of a coin (or coins). These two effects alone are extremely beautiful and relatively simple if you're a coin worker. The illusions are perfect. Imagine holding a coin in your bare open left hand. Then with your right hand you claim to be holding an invisible object about the size of a playing card. As you place nothing over the coin, the coin becomes invisible. It looks incredible.

Imagine this pick up a coin and show the heads side, but you claim that it only has one side. As you turn it over to show the back, it becomes invisible. But it becomes visible again when you turn it around. It looks amazing.

Wyrd is an effect that can be done any time you have a pen and paper and an iPhone nearby. It's probably my favorite thing on the DVD, and is moving into my working repertoire. The beauty of this is that it is so incredibly customizable that it can literally work for anyone's personality and style.

He performs it one way on Disk 1. Then in Disk 2 - the full show - he performs it with a slightly different presentation that is very smart.

There are other excellent things on the first Disk, but I think you get the point. It's awesome. Other than the annoying music and his ironically spastic-yet-dry nature during the explanations, this DVD is 5 stars alone.

Moving to the second DVD, the viewer is to learn how to do a show and how to structure it, etc. This DVD is really good as well. Menotti is very good at building a show and making it his own and tying it together from start to finish, and his effects are very good. However, I didn't feel he was that great of a performer. he's a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10. He was very spastic, but it didn't feel like it was intentional. It felt more like he was a bit unsure of himself. I'm ok with that, because his ideas were still super solid. They just weren't a smoothly executed as one might expect. That aside, there is a ton to learn from this DVD. I dare say that even full-time seasoned (and even well known) performers could learn from these DVDs.

Even at the price of $40 bucks, this DVD is easy to recommend. Menotti is clearly someone who puts a lot of effort into his magic and methods and everything. He's still a bit of a diamond in the rough, but there is so much we can all learn from him.

Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of TOTAL GEM!