The Basic Effect:
You ask your audience if they would like to share a piece of gum with
you. You say because youre a magician, you share a little bit differently. You take out your pack
of gum, and notice there is only one stick left. You open it up, and there is no piece of gum
inside. Your audience looks up, and the magician is chewing a piece of gum; the piece of gum that
was supposed to be inside the wrapper! You spit the gum back inside the wrapper and crumple it into
a ball. Obviously, nobody wants to share that. So with a rub of your hand, you instantly cause the
balled piece of chewed gum to turn into a brand new, wrapped stick! You take that new piece of gum
and reinsert it back inside the pack. You hand to this to a spectator, saying its only been BARELY
CHEWED!
The Setup:
The setup for this effect is very simple, and very quick. It
shouldnt take any more than a minute. Every time you perform this effect, you will have to make a
new gimmick. You will go through more than one stick of gum for each gimmick you make. Luckily, you
can get large packs of gum for very cheap.
The Performance:
While this is not
difficult, it will take some practice. You must practice the core moves, and then the timing. The
timing of this piece is a key point in making the effect look good. Bad timing will lead to a bad
performance. You also must make this look natural, as many of the moves require the audience looking
directly at your hands. If you dont perform those moves smoothly, the audience will not be
impressed, as they will know how the effect works. Chastain Criswell makes this look easy, but
practice IS required, as it is for most effects.
Production Quality:
The
production quality for this DVD is not bad. Lets start with the DVD case. The DVD case art looks
great. Im proud to have this in my collection. I do think the front side is a little busy. The back
side of the DVD case is basically the description of the effect. The DVD is filmed by James Coats
using two cameras. Neither camera zooms in or out, and both cameras stay stationary for the whole
DVD. I have found at some points on the DVD I wouldve liked to see something over again or closer
up. Some points were hard to grasp. The DVD menu is very basic, and reminds me greatly of one that
you can find on the most basic video editing software. The DVD menu had all the necessary choices,
which is a big plus. While it couldve been much better, the production quality wasnt terrible.
The Teaching:
The teaching on this DVD is enough, but some of it seemed a little
rushed. I think Chastain couldve explained some parts better, and he couldve reiterated some
important points. I had to rewind through some points to better get a hold of the concept. Chastain
goes pretty fast, and doesnt explain some parts of the effect. The whole DVD was around 14 minutes
long, and a few of those minutes were performances. I wouldve liked to have more clear instruction.
THE BONUS:
Chastain includes a bonus effect on this DVD. Its called Flash Back
Pack. Basically, a pack of Big Red gum is shown. A piece of the gum is given out to an audience
member. You then say you prefer Juicy Fruit, and instantly you are holding a pack of Juicy Fruit.
You can then immediately hand pieces of Juicy Fruit gum to your audience.
This is a very
basic effect, and uses a very basic gimmick. Chastain has basically took a concept used many times
in magic before, and applied it to gum. I am not sure how original this really is, as its very
basic, but Chastains convincers really sell this effect.
On all of the live performances
the audience didnt react all that well to the effect. I dont know why; it mightve been because
the audience didnt understand the effect.
Its not terrible, and is a nice bonus.
Overall:
I recommend this DVD for the effect, Barely Chewed. While the production
quality wasnt terrific, nor was the teaching, the basic effect is a great idea and a wonderful
effect. This retails for around $10, and for that price I highly recommend this DVD. I rate it a
7.5/10.
