If you watch the demo you'll see three great effects, but what you won't see is an effect called
"Bolder Assembly", which is a twist on the "Bold Assembly" effect that actually is better than the
original. For some reason, it's not mentioned or even shown, but when I saw this variation using the
kings instead of aces with an incredible kicker ending I was floored. "Bold Assembly" is
good--especially considering the fact that it allows you to do an ace assembly with a borrowed deck,
no extra cards, and no setup other than pulling out the four aces to start the effect--but it's more
of a "that's cool" effect rather than an astonishing effect.
"Myth" uses a concept I've
never seen before. I have dozens of magic books and probably a hundred DVDs or more, but I've never
seen this method mentioned before. After I did the work to my cards, I immediately found a dozen
more uses for the method. "Myth" as explained is powerful and definitely makes you look better than
you really are, but the card work is what you'll take away and love.
"Triumph V.136" is
good as well and is explained in a way that allows you to fully understand the history and
motivation for every move.
The downside of this DVD is the incredibly annoying breaks in
the explanations. There are literally sixty second chunks of teaching, then a break to a title
screen that says "Bold Assembly: Explanation continued..." and then Ben picks up explaining how he
got where he is like you'd left the room and forgot rather than just sat through another title
screen break with the cards in your hand. If the DVD was set up so you could repeat those as a
chapter, I could partially understand (it would still be far too many breaks) but you only have 3
chapters in the DVD (one for each effect explained) so you have to stop and rewind anyway.
Don't get me wrong, Ben is an excellent teacher and you can easily understand everything and
follow up on this with no problem. I just hated the annoying "ready, set, STOP" breaks in the
teaching. This is definitely one you want to add just for the methodology of "Myth" alone. You'll
put the concept to work immediately on other effects that will come to mind. And don't forget to
watch out for "Bolder Assembly", as it will probably become your new ace assembly effect of choice.
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
I hadn't seen much of Ben's work before other than a video or two on youtube.
I was very
happy with this purchase once I started watching it. My only complaint, as with the other reviewer,
I agree that Ben had too many breaks on this DVD.
Aside from that, Ben put '4' Awesome
effects on this disk. One, not mentioned, as a Bonus and it's a Killer too.
I actually
purchased this disk just to learn The Myth. That's all I wanted. Was I surprised to find Ben's
handling of Bold Assembly and Triumph v.136 equally as powerful.
Bold Assembly: I liked
Ben's handling for the most part, but the routine had a 'weakness' to, in my opinion. For those
knowlegable about 4 Ace Assemblies, you may or may not agree with the 'weakness', once you see the
routine. Aside from this one 'weakness', in my opinion, powerful piece of magic.
Triumph
v.136 really caught me off guard. Ben's twist on this is very nice. I did Vernon's version for
years, from Stars of Magic, but have seen other nice versions on this plot.
Ben is
excellent at giving credit to others who inspired him and who created the 'plot' for each effect,
and also Ben is a very good teacher.
I'm sure once you learn the workings of The Myth, you
will find a thousand uses for the 'principle' used to create this masterpiece. Really ingenious.
I'm not a table worker, so probably won't use the other 2 effects, but this disk is
definitely worth the small price tag. Just to learn The Myth, for me, was worth the money.
I also love the fact that Ben is a brother Canuck. Great work Ben. Looking forward to seeing
and purchasing more of your material. I would have given 5 Stars, except for the annoying breaks.
Sorry. Otherwise Highly Recommended.
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.