Magic Tricks

When I saw that Garrett Thomas was coming out with a new release I sat up on the edge of my seat and took a look at my finances. I just recenlty dug out my Stand-Up Monte and gave it the practice it deserves and gave it a few performances, it won me over and now I could be what they call a "stalker', this guy has worker material that hits them between the eyes. His stuff isn't the easiest but it's worth the time and effort to gather all the subtleties. The intro starts off with Garrett stating which form of gimmick he uses in certain situations. Justifying why he uses quarters in friendly situations and why he uses something bigger in half dollars in a situation not unlike a paid gig, and it has nothing to do with hiding the method.

Well now that I can stop acting like a Garrett Thomas fanboy, I can get on to the meat of this review, the trick itself. I don't think the secret to this effect is unknown but for safety sake I will call the secret something, "the gimmick". This comes with a nice tiny purse, it feels of rubbery material which seems to only fit the gimmick and dollars worth of quarters. Half dollars will not fit in the coin purse. The 2-Phase routine is shown in live performance at a table, even the 2 phase is hard hitting, but I dig the practice and will go with the "4-phaser". The added phases are a coins across in the magicians own hands, not unlike David Roth's Super Clean Coins Across. The last move from both phases are going to take work to make look natural, and G.T.'s live performances of both are going to give you the timing of the move. He gives alternatives where you don't even have to do the move, but it makes for an impossible conclusion.

There are a few behind the bar performances, one kid has a "EATCT" t-shirt so it's not fully laymen, but a mixture, I assume, more laymen than magicians.

I really enjoyed watching the "Audience Management" portion, he gives sound reasoning for actions and how to manage his audience for this effect. And if you didn't find the important timing of the last move of the phases in the explanation, it's found in the "Audience Management" portion, this one really helped me out on the move."OTS" is the Over the shoulder portion which gives great insight on all the required moves, I believe he did this in the Stand-Up Monte DVD, this is great, thorough as can be, great for following along and practice. He gives an quick performance and explanation to Eric Jones, small G.T. touches here worth learning but not much different than a normal C.A. routine, great to have on this DVD though, the handling is a touch different than other handlings I've seen. "Zero Coins Across" is a great conversation to watch between Eric Jones and Garrett Thomas, they share their theory on the impact of coins across and natural blocking techniques, Eric Jones showcases the way he does coins across, I believe this is on his "Extension of Me" and boy is it great! The "Jump" ending is one to practice when you have a table and they are bugging to ask you to "do it again". Quarters sandwhiched inbetweeen 2 pennies, that are used for a distraction, are place on the table, the quarters vanish from in between the pennies with a wave of the hand and appear under your other hand on the table or in the other hand, depending on what variation you want to use. The bloopers are the guys messing around probably in between shoots, just fun to watch.

I feel that this is a worker routine and one to really practice, even if it's just the 2-phase routine it's sooo darn worth it.





Overall Quality.

Product Quality: 10
Packaging is small and neat, great artwork, perfectly made gimmick, ready to go and practice, you even get a darn coin purse. You get a TON for your money.

Teaching Quality: 10
Garrett Thomas is thorough, there is an OTS view, different variations/handlings for specific steps in the routine, You even get theory along the way I couldn't ask for more.

Video & Sound Quality: 10
I have no complaints, great quality, sound is clear.

Overall Quality: 10
The effect is wonderful, definitley caters to the audience in terms of impact, I love this routine.