While Livera's other contributions have indeed been magical and fun, this one doesn't merit it's own DVD. This could have been a nice "fluff" effect for some other collection, at most. Since the description and video are so vague, let me fill you in one what happens.

You take 50 pennies and lay some out in a pattern on the table, giving the rest to a spectator to hold as "the bank". Four other spectators are given a side of the pattern and told to add their number of pennies up in their head. As the bank adds pennies to the collection, each side continues to add up to 10, until the end where everyone holds 10 and the bank does too.

Is this magical? Nope. Intriguing, maybe, but not magical. Your audience might find it fun and confusing for a while, but no one will walk away calling you a wizard. It's a real shame the description wasn't better in this so you'd know ahead of time what you're getting.

You will need a table, a roll of pennies, and at least 5 spectators with good adding skills. Also, you will have to be an incredible presenter to make this anything more than an oddity.

This effect is all about Giovanni personality plus.An old mathematical puzzle recently (1996)published in the Paul Harris "The Art of Astonishment" series.The key to success is to control the audience and have maximum fun!A great routine that is probably best performed by those with a commanding persona similar to Mr. Livera.

I already knew about this math puzzle. I purchased it b/c I never found any presentations of it and the description made it sound like he came up with some brilliant presentation. I bought it only to see how someone else performs it. It was an extreme disappointment. Instead of having the tradition way of having one person count all the pennies, he has 4 people each count rows of pennies. Unbelievable that a cd was made of this. If you don't know how it is done, still definitely not worth more than $10 in my opinion. Don't buy this.