DVD Review: Greg Wilson's Double Take

The Double Lift (DL) is arguably the most widely used sleight in all of card magic. Poorly executed, you'll look like a complete dufus. Perfectly executed and you look like a wizard. Seemingly a simple move, the DL is a tough move to polish to perfection and difficult to nail 100% of the time. For century's, the classic pass was thought to be the most indispensable move but move over pass; the DL is now the king of cards.

Here's a little sample of me performing the Knock-Out DL. Not that I perform it perfectly but it's the one that works best for me. I can hit the double 100% of the time and then handle the double as a single with confidence.



This DVD is a timeless masterpiece.

Marketing Fluff

Gregory Wilson's Double Take puts the world's greatest double lifts at your fingertips. ..even if you're all thumbs. This step-by-step instructional video is packed with more than 90 minutes of dynamic material you can perform anytime, anywhere, with any deck. For nearly two decades Gregory has been teaching his unique style of magic, as well as performing for many Fortune 500 companies. And as your personal coach, Gregory will teach you the nuances of more than 25 different double lifts ~ choose your favorites: from the top of the deck, from the bottom, from the middle, from a fan, from the table, to the table, and even doubles that flip through the air from hand-to-hand! If you're a beginner, or have never even picked up a deck of cards, you can easily perform miracles in minutes with Greg's Quick Start-Up Section. The more advanced will enjoy studying the techniques of the masters, including Dai Vernon, Ed Mario, Martin Nash, and many others.

Degree of Difficulty

Beginner to Expert. Wilson puts puts things in order. He assumes you don't even know what a "mechanics grip" is. He ties the introductory material up with a "quick start" segment providing three easy to learn miracles. The material gets harder from here on out. You'll find that some moves and routines have an steep learning curve.

The cool thing is, I really think a beginner could get this DVD as a starting point. There is no more important move than the DL in card magic. This will give the beginner an arsenal of hard hitting close-up magic. Then, as the novice advances, they can work on the more advanced material. Literally, this DVD will take you a long, long time to learn and perfect all of the material.

And the advanced card mage will love the Brittanica-like index of DL knowledge as well.

Teaching

Greg Wilson is like a tenured Harvard professor - only a lot more fun and a lot less boring! Each routine is performed in front of a small audience of attractive ladies donned in vintage 80s attire. He is constantly cracking jokes and flirting with the pretty ladies in his audience. During the instructional sections, Gregory moves slowly through all moves, usually several times in both slow-mo and in tempo.

Wilson has a gift for teaching. He really speaks to the physics of each move; where the pressure is applied, what direction the pressure is taking, what are the opposing pressure points, where the pivot points are located, what the sound of a card should sound like.

Wilson is also good at crediting the creators of the moves. He gives a little lecture on reading books. He downplays his own video as "supplemental" to the real material; the classic books of magic. I actually disagree with him on this one. I think magic DVDs have surpassed books as the primary source of magical instruction with books now as the supplemental resources. But that's a debate for another time and place. Wilson is obviously a very gracious and humble man - sometimes a seemingly rare trait in today's world.

Quantity of Effects

Wow! Like Wilson's Ring Leader DVD is to "ring and string" magic, this is THE encyclopedia of the Double Lift. As if the sleights weren't enough, there are a bunch of great tricks in this gem. It took me well over an hour to document the sleights and tricks that contained with this vast grimoire. So here they are:

Introduction - Greg telling you what he's about to teach you.

Basic DL - Greg does a good job explaining basic DL beginning with the mechanics of the mechanics grip and the thumb count from the biddle grip. It's a littler different from the basic DL I learned.
Strike DL - a very popular DL because of the natural moption and no get ready. Personally, I don't like it because I occasionally get a triple (Yeah, I know...lack of practice!)
Grip Strike DL - enhanced version of the Strike that adds a push over move.
Knock-Out DL - Greg's favorite and my fav as well. A litle flashy and always works for me.
The Basic Replacement - perhaps I wasn't giving this part of the DL enough attention!
Quick Start-up - three tricks to get your feet wet. These are really good tricks so don't overlook them. Includes a very nice in-the-spectators-hand transposition.

• Simple Location Trick
• Simple Reverse Trick
• Simple Switch Trick

More replacements...

Maintaining a break after the replacement
Bernard Bilis Replacement - a flourishy replacement.
Revolve Replacement - flourishy & emphasizes the singularity of of the double (that's an oxymoron!)
Juan Tameriz Replacement - cool out jogged replacement.
Racherbaumer Replacement - another cool out jogged replacement.
Vernon Offset Replacement - Yet another reason why Vernon was a genius. Pick up a double and display it away from the deck in the air for the crowd. Table it and place the cardbox on top of the tabled card. Guess what? It's already back in the deck!

Get Readys...

No Brainer DL
Auto DL
Pinky Count DL
Thumb Count DL

More doubles...

Double from a Fan
DL from a Dribble
Dai Vernon's DL
Color Changes
DL without a Pack
Tabled DLs

Tricks...

Phoenix Aces - pluck 4 Aces from the air, one at a time. This is not a back palm production. It uses some sleights that I was not familiar with.

Weighted Aces - Wilson's version of Doc Daley's Last Trick. Using 4 aces, demonstrate your ability to tell which ace is which by weight alone. Follow up with some amazing"in the spectator's hand" transpositions. Very good trick I use all the time.

Two Wrongs Make A Right - Starts out as a pick a card trick. Only problem is that you guess wrong twice. Take the two wrong cards place face up on the deck. Snap your fingers over the deck and the correct card appears from thin air, face up on the top of the deck.

Jumping Gemini (Darwin Ortiz) - Reminds me of the Color Monte on steroids. This is a difficult trick to master. Not because of the sleights but because there are so many sequences to remember. Miss one sequence and you're fricked. As a little bonus, Wilson does a great job teaching the Elmsley count.

Ambitious Card Routine

Greg performs his ACR but does provide the explanation. It's a pretty good routine that ends in a card to card box. If you don't know the ACR I would recommend the Worlds Greatest Magic by the Worlds Greatest Magicians: The Ambitious Card DVD from L&L Publishing.

Bonus Tricks...

Bizarre Twist (Paul Harris) - I loved this trick. You start with 3 red backed cards. You slide a black seven face down between two face down red aces. Twist the cards apart and the seven is now face up. Do the sequence again and this time when you flip the seven over it is a blue backed card.

Stop Trick - Drop a face down on the table. To the side, deal the remaining cards onto the table and ask the spectator to say stop. Drop the stop card onto the first tabled card. Flip them over and they are both red aces.

Double Monte - Two red aces and a black queen. You show the black queen and table it face down. You then show that you have two red aces in your hand. A quick spin and the two red aces become one black queen. You flip the tabled card over and it is the two red aces.


Quality of Effects

Even the simple introductory tricks are keepers. The people in the audience audibly gasp in each and every trick.

Production Quality

This is the only weak point in my review. This is Wilson's first video back from the days of VHS tapes and when Wilson had more hair! This DVD was obviously recorded from tape and it shows. That being said, the tape quality is pretty good throughout most of the DVD. The sub titles and transitions are were pretty good for it's time. I've seen much worse on DVDs produced in the last couple years.

The DVD menus are pretty complete. Not all of the break points are in the menu but most are and can can skip through to the ones that are not given menu selections.

Overall: 9.5/10

My highest rating so far. This is a resource that you will use for years to come. The tricks alone would make a solid DVD. If you need a resource to determine the best DL for you, this is going to fit the bill. Sure, there may be some lessor known DLs that are not covered here but there is sure to be a few that you'll come to cherish.

Penguin Magic sells this DVD for a paltry $26. That's what you call a no-brainer purchase.