Magic Tricks

For a little bit of background, I had been following Jeff Prace on Facebook and Skype for a while, asking him questions about when this was going to be released. After hearing all of the different testimonies by famous magicians and all of the cool, new gum effects that were to be on this DVD, I HAD to have it. I heard about this DVD every step of the way, and without further ado, the review for GUM by Jeff Prace!

Oh, and by the way, I am a HUGE fan of gum (the object itself) and chew it ALL the time. So effects with gum are nice, convenient and INCREDIBLY organic for me. HOWEVER, I have seen my share and have done research on MANY, so I was hesitant to see all that was on this "new" DVD. Regardless of how excited I was for it to come out, I still kind of figured it would be a bunch of material rehashed from the past greats and placed on the market before it had time to be practiced.

MAN was I wrong! And on that note, ON WITH THE REVIEW!

First Thoughts://

When I originally received this in the mail, I was excited to see what the effects were, and more importantly, the originality and practicality. During my first time watching however, I found that these WERE in fact, original and VERY practical routines. During my first run through, I realized that these routines (all of them) are FANTASTICALLY planned out and there is a TON of thought put into each of them.

Case and DVD://

The case is nice looking, but smaller than I thought. It is a half DVD size (like andthensome by Dan and Dave or any of the Aldo Columbini $10 DVDs) but that means absolutely nothing.

Both the case and the DVD look very nice and professional, and the DVD contains an easy to navigate and proffesional menu.

Effects://

Orbit:

"A pack of gum with only one piece left instantly turns into a full pack. You can then immediatly hand out a piece of gum to a hungry spectator."

This REALLY was the trick I was waiting for. Throughout production of the DVD, Jeff sent me clips of this trick. I couldn't for the LIFE of me figure it out. I saw it four or five times and I still didn't know. The method wasn't what I thought at all and really surprised me in it's creativity.

The explanation has EVERYTHING down to the last detail planned out. It has direct instructions and proves just how much thought went into this DVD.

The ONLY thing I want to mention about this trick is that you do need quite a few things to actually MAKE the gimmick necessary for performance. I didn't have some of them, but I am going over to my friends house this weekend to make the gimmick. All the work is DEFINITELY worth it for the effect you get.

Re-Wrapped:

"A chewed piece of gum stretched between the magician's hands in magically wraps itself into a brand new piece! Both hands are shown empty and the gum can immediately be given away as a sweet souvenir!"

This effect is REALLY nice and is exactly as the method describes. No requirements except to carry around a piece of gum and a special "something". This routine gets CRAZY responses from laypeople. Very practical, and REALLY nice looking. Ends apparently VERY clean.

I have been doing this effect at school ever since I got GUM a couple weeks ago. It is practical, visual and really clean.

Insta-Wrap:

"Another handling of the chewed to wrapped gum effect. This handling is on STEROIDS!"

This effect, once again, takes a few objects to make and some time to make it. HOWEVER, afterwards, it is VERY practical to carry around and looks REALLY nice. You can tell that there was a LOT of thought put into this effect, and I really like it.

Since the description above provided by the DVD isn't very "telling", the effect looks like...

"Magician is chewing gum. Magician takes gum out of mouth, squeezes it, and shows the piece of chewed gum. In a VERY fair and visual fashion, held in ONE hand, the gum VISUALLY appears wrapped. This gum can then be handed out for examination."

It looks really nice, but I prefer "Re-Wrapped" to this handling just because I like the look of it better. HOWEVER both do have different benefits.

Back in Time:

"The magician presents a time travel experiment, and in doing so, wraps a chewed piece of gum and alters a photograph!"

This is a well thought out, original effect with a clever, comical hook. I enjoyed the performance a lot. I don't know if I will actually DO the effect, but it is a really nice routine. It does however require you to carry a few extra things on your person.

No More Card Tricks!:

This is an easter egg on the DVD, but I got permission from Jeff himself to talk about it on here. This HAS to be one of my absolute favorite effects to do with cards. I LOVE this one.

Basically, the effect is that the magician has a few cards selected and placed back in the middle. Then, VISUALLY the deck is WRAPPED in a layer of masking tape, allowing NO more card tricks!

This was in an issue of Magic magazine, so many of you know this already and how good it is. The ONLY thing about it is that you have to carry around a special deck FOR this trick. Personally though, I think it is worth it.

This is my favorite effect on the DVD, all things considered, even though it is JUST a bonus.

Teacher://

The person who created and teaches all the effects is Jeff Prace (a member of these very forums for a long time) and an incredibly humble, generous and nice guy. He is a fantastic teacher of these effects and it is obvious all of the thought put into these effects and how comfortable he was in performing and explaining them.

Teaching://

The teaching on GUM was INCREDIBLY thorough. I REALLY don't think there is a way someone could NOT understand something on this DVD. Sometimes the multiple times of going over something got a tad tedious, but it really does help to understand the ins and outs of these effects.

Price://

The price is a VERY reasonable $25.00, and for 5 KILLER, original effects, is VERY much worth it.

Overall://

I REALLY reccomend this DVD. It looks nice, it's NOT expensive and it has some great, practical tricks that I WILL be doing.

Recommended!