Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Turn The Page By Metallica

For $30 bucks you get a handful of powerful effects, moves and ideas with a deck of cards along with an infinite supply of a required gimmick for the only non-card trick.

Overview:

Much of this material is stuff that I would not personally do because I'm too lazy these days to put in the work. However, all of it is good material, the easy stuff and the hard stuff. The ad copy is very honest and accurate. These routines do pack a punch and they do hit hard.

I did not care for Mr. Leathwaite's performance style at all . . . not even a little bit. However, that has no impact on my review. My review is about the quality and potential of the effects and methods as well as the accuracy of the ad copy. I've already told you how I feel about the ad copy (SOLID). The only reason I mention Leathwaite's performance style is because I want to make sure that any newbies out there who pick this up do NOT replicate the dry and overly-explanatory presentations shown in the DVD.

Every single effect started with a statement like this: This is a deck of cards . . . a normal deck of cards . . . with red backs . . . I'll just shuffle them up here like this . . . and on and on it goes. Addidionally, pretty much everything he does, he explains what he's about to do before he does it. Then he tells you what he's doing as he's doing it. Then he tells you what he did when he's done. That's a great technique when you're trying to teach a classroom full of students, but it makes for an extremely overly exhaustive way to play a card on the table (e.g., What I'm going to do is place a card on the table right over here. [begin to place card down] I'll place it right here. Now, I've placed a card right here . . . what I'm going to do next is . . .)

Please don't follow this pattern. I think Leathwaite is a very creative guy and an excellent technician. His sleights and moves are darn near indetectable, and he fooled me several times. Again, I only mention his "performances" to prevent newbies from perpetuating this "style."

The beauty of this is that even with his not-so-good presentations, the magic moments still hit hard. So imagine if you shortened the massive monologue and took a moment or two to truly connect with the audience . . . this stuff would kill even harder.

As you'll see, my recommendation of this DVD will be strictly based on the material and not the performance of it . . .

The Effects:

I already mentioned that the ad copy is 100% accurate, so I'll just post a brief commentary and a star rating. You can view the effects in the product description.

Disposable (3 stars)

Borrow a disposable lighter and either crush it into a ball or make "most of it" vanish or make all of it vanish. The bad news, if you're not a smoker you can't really do this effect. All of the misdirection needed to pull this off revolves around you lighting up the cigarette and puffing smoke, etc. If you are a smoker, this effect is darn near perfect. It's beautiful and almost perfect. One other quick note, on the "crush" effect, you are limited to one type of lighter and one of four colors, and the gimmick (although you are given an endless supply of them) is a pain in the butt to make. Leathwaite even struggled to put his together on camera, and I'm assuming he's made more of these than any of us. Lost 2 points for requiring you to smoke . . . otherwise it would have been 5 stars.

Kindred Spirits (5 stars)

Killer . . . This is so simple and so powerful. In short, two spectators, two decks. Each spectator picks three cards from their own deck. Each spectator then closes his/her eyes while the other spectator places each card into their own three different pockets. Even though neither spectator saw which pocket the other put cards into, we find that both spectators put a (for example) 7 of hearts in their own left pants pocket. And both put a (for example) nine of clubs in their own right hand pockets. And both put (for example) a King of Spades in their own shirt pockets. It is that clean and that amazing. It has a lot of potential for presentational hooks centered around two people being in sync (or Kindred Spirits) with each other. Additionally you could do it (with a little thought) with only one deck and match up the mates to each card rather than duplicates. Best effect on the disk in my opinion.

Snap & Revert (4.5 stars)

Combine ambitious card and card fusion and one other thing that's clever but too long to explain . . . and you get this effect. I don't like them all together in one routine. It's way too long winded and overly complicated in effect and presentation and even method. However, each effect and its accompanying method is something that must be studied. The middle part of the routine (the one that's too long to explain) is a miracle by itself. The spectator does everything. Because they do all the work in their own hands, they are completely fooled. It's a beautiful moment. It's an idea that I feel is worth the cost of the DVD.

Heli-Transpo (4.5 stars)

This one ain't easy, but it fooled the pants off of me. I live in desert Utah and it's summer, so I haven't put my pants back on yet. This is the cleanest looking transpo of a signed card that I've ever seen. There is one moment that looks a little fidgety and is angly but it happens early enough in the effect that it doesn't register. The moment that matters happens later when the two cards have traded places. There a no moves at that point, and the moment is pure magic. Don't overlook this with the thought that you've already got a transpo effect in your repertoire . . . this is different and better.

Stab-a-Sandwich(4.5 stars)

This feels familiar. We've all seen this kind of sandwich effect before. However, the control used in this effect is unbelievable. It's so magical looking and the sandwich is "loaded" so far in advance that it's just not fair. I think that his intent with this effect was more to show an application (a sandwich effect) of the control itself rather than just showing us an effect. It was a good choice of an application, and there are so many more as well.

Flip Flop (4.5 stars)

This ain't easy either, but it's sooooooooooo perfect if you can pull it off. This is to card control what the classic force is to the force. It looks like the real thing. A card is dropped onto the bottom packet of the deck . . . the top packet of the deck is dribbled on top. That's it. But somehow, the selected card is on top. It's so clean and so fair and so worth the practice.

Triplets of Fate (5 stars)

This is an alternate version of Kindred Spirits that uses only one deck (and three extra cards from another deck as predictions) and only one spectator. It's hard to say if this is better than Kindred Spirits or not. It's all about personality and venue. They're both excellent and incredibly magic and impossible seeming.

Toolbox Section (4.5 stars)

This is a nice section that covers quite a few of the moves and slieghts in much greater detail than was given in the explanation. The stuff in here is detailed and a little dry to watch, but you need to if you want to master some of these moves.

Final thoughts:

As you can see, the material is extremely good. It's one of the top DVDs I've reviewed in a while. I really like Stephen Leathwaite. He's a smart guy with some brilliant ideas. Honestly, the only flaw I've found in the DVD that is worth mentioning is that the explanations were at times a bit tough to watch with the co-host (Russ Stevens, I believe) interrupting and constantly pointing out that "of course, any force will do" or "of course, you can use any kind of control that suits you. You don't have to use this method." Sometimes the fun banter between the two of them got in the way of the learning. I think it would have been better without the co-host. Again, nothing against him personally. He was just a more of a distraction. In fact, the one effect that Leathwaite explained without the co-host was actually much smoother and quicker and easy to follow. So be warned. That, however, is certainly not going to stop my from giving this one a high recommendation. Just the tricks alone average to 4.4 stars. A couple of minor dings for the "must smoke" routine and the sometimes-hard-to-get-through explanations and . . .

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