Magic Tricks

This is a difficult review to write, not only because I don't like writing negative reviews, but I have a lot of respect and gratitude for Penguin Magic, Dan Harlan, and their contributions to magic.

I am not a Tommy Wonder purist, but like most magicians, I recognize that his contribution to the art form was in the details of his work. What made his effects so especially brilliant—beyond his abundant talent as both a close-up and stage performer—was his attention to not only detail, but simplicity. As he paraphrased at the beginning of of one of his Visions of Wonder DVDs, he strived for effects that were "as simple as possible—but no simpler."

Each week's video has felt like a gut punch, as the brilliant balance both "simple" and "no simpler" has been hackneyed on both ends, married to some poorly executed—improvised?—presentation. The effects have been over complicated with new elements added that muddy rather than enhance the effect (e.g. the duplicate card in Magic Ranch). Conversely, the methods have been dumbed down in a way that lowers the impossibility of the effects. (over-simplifying and removing nuance from the Tamed Cards, in this case)

This is not to say that changes of presentation and method/apparatus are not inherently bad, and are very welcome! In fact, I think Dan's presentation of this effect around the spectator's name is stronger than Tommy's timer/hobby presentation which I always found the weakest element of what is otherwise the pinnacle of Wild Card routines. I also think that a four-way forcing deck is not the most practical for most purposes, and appreciate Dan's offering an alternative.

Otherwise, most of this routine and the ones that have come before, feel like a series of shortcuts were taken to make the effect easier to perform and/or explain, but at the expense of the effect. And much more importantly, to the expense of the very essence of what makes Tommy Wonder's magic so wonderful.

If this was called "Dan Harlan's interpretations of The Books of Wonder", or Simplifying the Books of Wonder - sure, then at least what you've offered to us wouldn't feel like false advertising. But instead, I feel rather conned and deeply disappointed as this could have been something really special. I've considered requesting a refund, but feel that in this difficult economic time, I'd rather take the loss to support Penguin and Dan.

And so I'll stay along for the ride, but will keep my expectations low. I will also recommend that everyone purchase Visions of Wonder, perhaps the greatest 3 DVDs of magic I've ever owned or watched. You won't agree with every choice he makes, or love all his presentations, or find all his methods the most practical. But the attention he gives to every subtlety is the dfiference between a good magician and a great one. That 5-10% makes the magic is the difference between a C minus and an A plus. And this let-down of a series is a C minus at best.