Magic Tricks

I have been performing magic for a very long time. It started off as a hobby back in grade school and then it became a part time job during high school and undergraduate. Now it has become a hobby again as I pursue my degree in pharmacy. What is my point in all this? Frankly, this set is something I have been anticipating after I first heard of its announcement a while ago. Being a proud owner of the Art of Astonishment series and knowing that Paul Harris was putting together a huge DVD set of his best work, I could do nothing but salivate at the thoughts of this magical feast.

So when the DVD set arrived at my front door, I was stoked. I hurriedly tried to find out how the heck to open the box. It was a pretty clever design. Popped the DVDs into my player and watched away as I learned from the master...

DVD Quality: 8/10 - The DVD menus were a little bland, but there are secret easter eggs hidden around everywhere that you have to be keen to if you want to see bonus DVD content. I wish the menus were more polished like the Born to Perform DVDs that Penguin has.

DVD Content: 10/10 - I give this a perfect score. Even though there were tricks that require a lot of preparation, or tricks that didn't seem practical in some situations, you have to hand it to the creators of those tricks. The amount of preparation may seem to be too much for some tricks... but the payoff is huge. It's like the reaction you get when you see a pelican swallow a pigeon. Just unreal. So do I mind about the prep work that goes into some of the tricks? Definitely not.

Instruction: 9/10 - Most of the time, it will be Bro Gilbert performing and teaching you the trick. Sometimes it's the creator of the trick that will teach you. About 90% of the time, I am very pleased with the explanations. However, I docked off 1 point because some of the explanations were just... video with background music and captions. I am not too much of a fan for that. It just doesn't seem too organic. Also, it would have been nice to have Paul be teaching some of the tricks verbally.

Props: 8/10 - I docked off two points because some of the props are the kind where you do the trick once and you toss that item away. This means resupplying those items are a pain. However, the quality is pretty good for the props so I still gave it an 8/10.

Lasting Appeal: 10/10 - I've had this for I think a year now. I still haven't mastered everything on the set. Tricks are hit/miss, with mostly hits. Similar to Art of Astonishment, there are many tricks in here that you don't discover until later, and they become your little gems of astonishment that you will unleash at little moment's notice.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who has the cash to shell out on this set. If you don't have enough money... save up. Beginners to Professionals, everyone will benefit from this set whether it be actually performing the effects on the DVDs or applying the principles to your own routine for the future. Paul Harris has done it again and truly astonished all of us.