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Review of David Williamson's Ridiculous

4 DVDs, 10 hours, David Williamson and $150 bucks . . . whew, what a journey! Let's get the easy/short stuff out of the way first.

Ad Copy Integrity

Yep

Product Quality

Dang ol' . . . dadgum . . . yep

What You Get

What do you get? You get David Williamson . . .
You get 4 DVDs . . . 10 hours of David Williamson. Let's cover some general details about the entire project. Keep in mind that Williamson is a veteran performer, and has been performing 30 or so (maybe it was 40) years. What you get overall on this set is real world experience and hard won knowledge that can only come from living in the trenches. You get this wisdom in the form of live performances, studio performances, interviews, pointers, lectures, stories, and in depth explanations of effects from his various repertoires over the years.

I think that by the end of this DVD set, anything you ever wanted to know about Williamson, his career, his methods, his thinking, etc. will be answered. You'll have no questions left. Many of us in today's world are only familiar with his zany crazy performance style. What a lot of the young folk don't know about him is that he is one of the best sleight of hand magicians of our time. His techniques and nuances and handlings are nearly flawless. You'll see this throughout the entire DVD set.

The material is nicely organized across four DVDs. The first is his live professional show. Second is all card magic; third is all non-card magic and fourth you get his take, tips and training on a variety of card moves along with an eight part "confessions" session where he shares much of his life's work, successes, stories, failures, experiences, etc., etc. One thing that really stands out across every segment is how "fooling" his magic is. I can't tell you how many times I thought, "How is that possible?"

He uses techniques that we all know, but he just knows when, how, why and where to use them. He is truly a sleight of hand expert in every sense of the word. There were so many tips and pointers on how to execute a particular routine, move, effect, etc. that it was almost overwhelming - the good kind of overwhelming.

Also, each DVD has a few extra bonuses including footage from the EMC 2012 conference along with a four part interview with Luis De Matos - each DVD contains one part of the four parts. I kind of feel like this review is supposed to reflect the DVD set in length (i.e, a 10 hour DVD set deserves a 10 page review), but there's not a ton to say. Let me just offer you a few (of the many, many, many, many . . . ad infinitum) stand out points.

Disk 1 - Professional Show

Here you'll see live performances of several classics. Frankly, not all of them impressed me, and the intent (I think) of this DVD was to learn by watching a pro in action in his real environment. It was a bit hard to watch because the audience seemed to be non-English speaking and so there seemed to be some communication barriers. This caused some of the material to fall a little flat. I think with an American audience it might have played a bit differently. On the plus side, you see his work on the classic "needle trick" (i.e., swallow some needles and swallow some thread . . . then "regurgitate" the thread with the needles all threaded on). Though the presentation of this was a bit hectic and even a little gross, the magic of it was . . . well . . . magical. It just seemed impossible. You really believe that he swallowed the needles.

His Torn and Restored card is another one that clearly has benefited from years and years and years of experience. There was so much stuff in this routine that just seemed impossible, yet it was all stuff that we all know about. He just knows how to put the stuff together. It's truly amazing.

There's certainly more on this disk, but those were the two stand-outs for me.

Disk 2 - Card Work

Williamson's card work is incredible. Forget the plots and presentations for a moment. Just concentrating on his near flawless technique is astonishing in and of itself. His style of magic is so casual and "sloppy" (think: Lennart Green, but not as chaotic and crazy). There are some nice showpieces on here that have clever presentational angles as well as sneaky and baffling methods. If you're a card guy/gal, you'll be very happy with this DVD.

Disk 3 - Non Card Work

Williamson's sleight of hand skills really shine on this DVD. His coin work is incredible. His work on the Gypsy Thread is fun. He has a couple of added ideas beyond the standard presentation and method. His Whirly Bird Silk Vanish is excellent and extremely deceptive. Just about every effect on this DVD really showcases his incredible sleight of hand skill. The psychology and handling of his Coin in Bottle was a huge highlight for me on this disk.

Disk 4 - Moves & Confessions

I think this was my favorite of the four. Beyond the section on moves, were the confessions. You really get to know David. You get to "meet" him, and it's almost as if you're there picking his brain about magic. It's incredible. Plus, at the end you get a bonus section on his Striking Vanish that is full of tons of beautiful moments of magic that I'll bet you never thought of using his Striking Vanish to accomplish.

Regarding the section on moves, you get his take on the classics and more (e.g., Top Change, Palming Cards, Classic Force, Slip Force, Second and Bottom Deals, Pinking Count, Holding Out, Double Lift, Ernase's Diagonal Palm Shift, and so much more). His tips and pointers, etc. are extremely valuable. He does every single one of these moves (and the many more covered) so deceptively and so naturally that it's hard to believe he's doing any sleight of hand at all. This section is invaluable to the card worker.

Final Thoughts

My favorite parts of the whole set were definitely the behind the scenes stuff: the interviews, the "confessions", anecdotes, EMC footage, etc. These 10 hours were the equivalent of being one on one in the presence of a true master of sleight of hand and being allowed to ask him anything about anything. There is so much amazing and powerful and extremely valuable information on this DVD set, that I must recommend it. This is the kind of thing that you will come back to time and time again. This is his life's work, and your encyclopedia of sleight of hand knowledge.

Final Verdict:
5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!