Magic Tricks

Let me get the negatives out of the way first: if you are a magician, you are watching this and you already have some inkling as to what's going on. This is far from a magician fooler, not that that's the criteria by which we should judge effects!

But it's safe to say there's not much new here. (Crediting is gestured at, but isn't very thorough.) For the practiced magician, what's really on offer here is a handling variation. (Mr. Pattee even allows that if you know how to make the gimmick, you can skip ahead in the 16-17 minute video.) And yet, as far as the handling goes, you might glean all you need to know from watching the trailer. These negatives sort of make me want to knock this down to 2 or 3 stars... I can't really recommend this to most magicians.

And yet, that's not really fair to this project, if you take it for what it is. If you happen to be new to magic, this might be a good investment for you. I think back to when I was learning these kinds of effects and I didn't know how it was done. This would have been a great video for me back then. If you are a beginner, this is a solid introduction to the workings of this trick. Thus my 4 star rating.

And so if this effect is new to you and it looks interesting, you can hardly go wrong. Mr. Pattee is a fun teacher, encouraging and ingratiating. He gives emphasis to some suggestions that might help the beginner pull this off to greatest impact. There's not much sleight of hand to worry about. Audience management skills are important, though, and that's one area this video could have been focused on a bit more. (For instance, not everything can be examined. What to do about that?)

There's a little arts and crafts, but not too much. It's all very clearly laid out. The video is well-shot and the audio is great. Camera angles are all well considered.

And Rick Lax makes a cameo in shorts. Who can resist? Sign me up! (Just kidding, Mr. Lax!)