REVIEW: Thimble Dexterity - The Magic of Joe Mogar (DVD)

I learned about thimble magic quite by accident. In my quest to attain the secret knowledge of billiard ball manipulation I purchased a DVD by Jeff McBride called World Class Manipulations Volume 1. This review isn't about the McBride DVD but that DVD had a section on thimble magic. I had no plans to watch the thimble teaching sections - who even knows what a thimble is anyway? But during an accidental viewing of Mc Bride's thimble routine I was struck by how magical the thimble routines really were.


After mastering many of the McBride thimble moves, I constructed a short routine based upon my limited knowledge. To really make the routine my own, I needed some more material from which to draw sequences and ideas. Logically, I should have purchased the second in the McBride series called World Class Manipulations Volume 2.


By this time I had heard the name Joe Mogar mentioned any time thimbles were discussed. As Jeff McBride and Cardini are synonomous with ball and card manipulations, Mogar is synonomous with thimbles and color changing knives. His DVD entitled Thimble Dexterity was generating some good words from thimble workers.



One note before we go any further. If you buy the Thimble Dextrity DVD you will need to purchase thimbles directly from Joe Mogar at his Magic Stars web site. Any set of thimbles that nest or have a big lip (such as the Vernet thimbles) will not work with Joe's moves unless you have gigantic hands. They are very inexpensive and Joe is a great guy to talk to on the phone!


Marketing Fluff


From the DVD jacket:


"Considered by many to be the world's leading authority on thimble magic, Joe Mogar has finally tipped 50 years of moves and routines on this near-encyclopedic DVD. You'll learn techniques never before taught on video, such as the Explosion and Implosion moves, as well as three full routines for stage and close-up.

Thimble Dexterity is a landmark work on magic with regular thimbles, and a must-have for any serious student of sleight-of-hand."


Degree of Difficulty


Advanced. Certainly a beginner can tackle this material. Joe starts with the basics so there is no prerequisite experience with thimbles required. Some of the moves are relatively easy if you've been doing other forms of manipulative magic while other moves are going to take weeks of repetitions for your fingers to acquire the dexterity to execute flawlessly.


Teaching


Mr. Mogar is a very good teacher. Like most of my instructional DVDs, he moves a little fast but the are several sequences that are replayed in slow motion for several repetitions.

One nice touch that I really appreciate is that Joe provides guidance on how to practice. He gives you warm-up exercises for to develop dexterity and how to avoid injury. He talks about not performing until you're are rock solid to protect the magic from exposure and a lot more than I can cover. Joe also has some pretty strong opinions on thimble magic - what you should and should not do and criticizms of certain thimble moves and performance styles - it's really great stuff.

The bonus teaching section is probably the best of any DVD I've ever watched. He covers a lot of stuff in detail. Like what thimbles work best and what to do with cracked thimbles and maintaining nice looking fingers!

One very minor compliant; I would have liked to see more performance video footage. Most of the material is presented in what I would call a lecture format. Even the presentations feel like a lecture and not a real performance. This is a credit to Joe's phenomenal abilities; he leaves you wanting to see his whole routines just as the audience would see them.

Quantity of Effects

Encyclopedic. If you've read my other DVD reviews you know that I value DVDs that are complete references to a particular form of magic. The reason is that you get an arsenal of moves and sequences from which to construct your own routine. This DVD fits that mold.

Moves

• About Thimbles
• Thimble Drill
• Thumb Palm Drill
• Two Hand Drill
• Finger Clip Drill plus Front and Back Palming
• Mulitple Palm
• Thimble Stack
• Explosion Move
• Implosion Move
  

Vanishes

• Basic Vanish and Reproduction
• Natural Pickup Vanish
• Natural Pickup Vanish Variation
• Finger Switch Vanish
• Pinky Steal Vanish
• Wrist Held Vanish
• One Way Vanish
• The Belcher Vanish
• Declining Balance
• The Four by Four Vanish
• Pinch Vanish
• Sucker Punch
• Protologist Vanish
• Tubular Steal
• Buckingham Vanish
• Macho Vanish
• Silk One Thimble Vanish
• Tuck, Tuck & Away

Productions

• Basic Reproduction
• The Gabber
• Super Star
• Thimble Monster
• Twelve Thimble Production
• Power Thimble Production
• Rag Production
  

Color Changes

• The Wave
• The Big Dipper
• Isolation Change
• Tubular Steal and Color Change
• Finger Painting

Flourishes

• The Chorus Line
• The Flip Transfer
• Leapfrog
• Quick Transfer and Jumping
• Pocket Penetration
• Pocket Steal
• Stack transfer and Prodution
• The Drill Penetration
• The Traveler
• Up the Arm
  

Routines

• Power House Routine
• Presidential Opener
• Twelve Thimble

Bonus

• Nuggets of wisdom from Mr Mogar
  

Quality of Effects

Thimble effects are very magical. This is not a single trick DVD so you have a wealth of material to construct a killer routine. I would guess that a good thimble routine derived from this DVD would make great addition to a kids act or stage routine. Joe told me on during our phone conversation that he has performed thimbles for a couple hundred people and that the colorful thimbles are very visible to a sizable audience.

I could see thimbles as a part of a larger manipulation routine, set to music, that might transition to cards or billiards.

Production Quality

The production quality is good. Nothing flashy but the video and audio quality are good. The menuing was a little confusing at first because you have to drill down into sections but that is a credit to the amount of material covered on the DVD. A little background music would have made the production a lot more enjoyable. The slow-mo sections are completely silent and that is unnerving to somelike me who needs some ambient noise or music to feel at ease.

Overall: 8/10

If you're a serious student of manipulation this is a must have for your collection. Joe Mogar is a true thimble master and his contributions have had an enormous impact on the art.

Don't forget to order the thimbles from Joe or you'll have a tough time doing any of the stuff on this DVD.

One final note - I'm going to compare in a follow up blog the Mogar and McBride DVDs because their approach to thimbles is quite different. Also the Shoot Ogawa thimble routines I've witnessed on youtube.com are worth talking about - Shoot is scary good with his thimbles. Both approaches have merits and it will be fun to contrast the two styles.

Practice Sessions: Required Gear

I loved the imagery in the first Harry Potter novel when Harry first learns that he is going off to school to learn magic. Just like when my kids start each school year, Hogwarts students were required to purchase a basic set of magical books and supplies to begin their foray into wizardry; a wand, a cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) and the Standard Book of Spells were amoung the list. If you're just starting out, like I was not all too long ago, it's hard to know what you should purchase as you're basic set of magical apparatus.

If you ask 10 magicians you'll get ten different answers. After much painstaking research, I'm going to present my starting list of magical supplies. Cards and coins are a great place for a hobbyist or amateur to start because the are very visual, they use common items that people are familiar with and will allow you to build a repetoire of impressive effects however breaking the bank.

I wanted to set an initial budget of $30 so that anyone with a job or a few weeks of allowance will be able to get their foot in the door. My prices reflect the "street price" of the item and not the retail price.

Beginning Cards & Coins Supplies under $30

• 2-Pack Bicycle Playing Cards $4
• Coins (At least 6 Kennedy Half Dollars and a couple English Pennies) $5
• Royal Road To Card Magic $10
• Modern Coin Magic $10

This modest set of goodies provides enough material to keep a new mage on a budget busy for a year or more. My preference for learning is through DVDs but for $30 you get hundreds of tricks and sleights. Personally, I'm not yet a big fan of Royal Road. But for ten bucks, it is a tremendous value that is chock full of sleights of hand card magic and tricks. The concept is great; start at the beginning and work your way down the "Royal Road to Card Magic." I read it often but it's not an easy read when you've been spoiled by DVDs that provide a more complete learning process. However a single DVD is going to break the budget here. As far as books go, I really like Bobo's Modern Coin Magic.

Cards & Coins under $100

• One dozen Bicycles Playing Cards $15 (or as many packs as you can get for $15)
• Coins (At least 6 Kennedy Half Dollars and a couple English Pennies) $5
• Born to Perform Card Magic DVD $30
• In the Beginning There Were Coins DVD $30
• Royal Road To Card Magic $10
• Modern Coin Magic $10

If you've got a bigger budget, this school shopping list might be the way to go. This fits in with the my theory of learning magic - DVDs provide a superior learning experience with books to provide an incredible reference and trick library. The Born to Perform Card Magic DVD starts out at square one, how to holdthe deck and goes through the most basic and useful moves. It sums up the coursework with 4 killer routines. The In the Beginning There Were Coins DVD is similar to Born to Perform Card Magic DVD but with coins. The instruction is outstanding and there is enough material to keep a novice busting their knuckles for months.

Cards, Coins and Cups & Balls under $100

• 2-Pack Bicycle Playing Cards $4
• Coins (At least 6 Kennedy Half Dollars and a couple English Pennies) $5
• Royal Road To Card Magic $10
• Modern Coin Magic $10
• Cups and Balls (copper or brass) $15
• Complete Course in Magic with Cups & Balls DVD $38
• Wand $15

The back-to-school shopping list breaks out of the cards and coins. The coins and cards are covered in great detail but adds the age-old cups and balls materials. Everyone wants to learn coins and cards but the Cups and Balls exercise a wider variety of skills that can be the foundation of so many other great forms of magic. Cups and Balls cover almost all of the forms of magic; appearances, vanishes, misdirection, transpositions and teleporations. It also teaches you about piecing together routines builder so that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

I have included the Complete Course in Magic with Cups & Balls DVD. This DVD is taught by Eddy Ray who routinely gets criticized. However this a solid teaching DVD that covers a lot of material for under $40. There may be better DVDs on the subject but this is an outstanding value and fits our budget.

In case you're wondering, the wand is essential in most Cups and Balls routine. The wand is called The Magician's Wand with Brass Tips. It is heavily weighted on the ends which makes it a joy to spin but a pain if you drop it on your foot.

The DVDs mentioned in this blog entry are reviewed elsewhere on this blog.
http://magic-yeti.blogspot.com/2007/12/review-in-beginning-there-were-coins.html
http://magic-yeti.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-born-to-perform-card-magic-with.html
http://magic-yeti.blogspot.com/2007/12/review-complete-course-in-magic-with.html

Magic: Good or Evil

How does perform magic effects and illusions square away with being a Christian? This has been a hotly debated subject because the bible expressly fobids the practice of magic. Being a Christian, I've had similar misgivings. However the art of magic has little to do with the practice of "real" magic. For the record, I don't believe in "real" magic. I prefer to place my faith in a higher power; a benevolent god.

Although 90% of American's identify themselves as Christian in polls, it is not a prevelant belief amoung magicians. Chris Angel recently remarked on the Larry King show that he felt most magicians are atheists (Angel remarked that he grew up in a Christian home and was a believer). From my experience on the magic forums, this appears to be true.

In fact, I would have to say that, from my experience, magicians can be downright hateful to anyone with a Christian point of view. My guess is that due to scriptural references against witchcraft is what keeps the faithful away from magic.

First a quick definition from the Konjurer dictionary; "magic" in the context of this article and this blog is the practice of an entertainment art form. It is akin to juggling, acting, singing or playing a musical instrument and is meant to bring joy and wonderment to the people who watch. Like the other fine arts, it is a craft that requires hours of weekly practice and years to perfect. Believe it or not, there is no supernatural component to magic.

There is a lot of debate on the subject of magic and Christianity; especially during the rise in popularity of the Harry Potter books. Although I think the practice of magical entertainment as a Christian is a different topic altogether. Magic is an entertainment medium and has nothing to do with the occult or witchcraft except by misguided mediums who are looking to fool the gullible.

Although words like "conjurer" and "magician" may have some historical roots in a pagan practice, they have a completely different meaning today for 99.9% of all modern magicians. For us Christians, if the historical roots of the English language is going to be the standard for when not to use certain words then we're going to have difficulty speaking the English language without researching the etymology of every word we speak.

Atheists accurately point out that the holidays we now celebrate as Easter and Christmas have pagan roots. Should we not use those words or avoid the traditional dates of these holidays because they coincided with pagan celebrations?

So feel free to be a practicioner of the conjurering arts because, in modern times, it simply means you love to entertain people with some skillfully executed, non-supernatural feats. If someone gives you grief about being a magician then look at it as an opportunity to minister to or witness your beliefs.

If you are a Christian and a magician and you are struggling with this whole concept, keep in mind that there is a whole branch of magic called Gospel Magic. You can purchase magical effects that correspond to a Christian message or object lesson. There are a lot of magicians that use magic as a ministry to communicate Christian messages.

Note: Although there is no chapter in my region, you could also join a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians. http://www.fcm.org/