Packet Trick Picks (DVD)

DVD Review: Packet Trick Picks by Aldo Colombini

I love packet tricks. So I must preface my review by admitting that I am a packet trick addict. So I decided to check out Aldo Columbini's Packet Trick Picks DVD. This may be the best $10 bucks I've ever spent - well, actually only $9.30 from Penguin Magic.

In fact, all of the tricks and DVDs from the Colombini's are $10. Wow! Their web site has a ton of great looking material that I'm sure to order from in the future.

Marketing Fluff

There is very little marketing fluff to speak of. I learned of Colombini's "everything for $10" deals from the Magic Cafe.

Degree of Difficulty

Easy to intermediate. Several of these tricks are almost self-working but quite a few require false counts and displays which are taught on the DVD.

Teaching

Very good. You'll need to know the Elmsley Count; a false count that appears to show four cards while hiding the face or back of one card. Colombini does teach the Elmsley count at the beginning of the DVD. Aldo does an adequate job teaching the Elmsley and you'll manage to learn it - however there are better places to learn the Elmsley Count. He starts out teaching the Elmsley with a 5 card packet counting into his right hand - probably not the most standard Elmsley you'll ever see. I'm guessing most intermediate card slingers already have a version of the Elmsley that they are comfortable with.

Aldo also teaches the Hamman Count, the Jordan Count and his Laughing Count (which is a cool alternative to the Hamman Count).

The teaching of the tricks are superb. He credits the creator of each routine.

Quantity of Effects

Count 'em, 10 tricks! That's a buck a piece for some really strong magic.

Prediction Gone Wild (Cameron Francis)
Requires Double Blanks, Blank Backs

A card is freely selected from a deck of cards and placed on top of the deck. The mage displays four blank cards with four different card predictions written on the blank faces of the cards. One of the hand written cards has predicted the selected card. But now all of the hand written cards have the same card written on the face. Even stranger, the selected card is no longer on the top of the deck but it the middle of the packet of hand written cards. It sounds odd but it's a pretty strong effect.


Boxing Aces (Columbini)
An ungimmicked ace assembly routine. Not my favorite assembly either but a nice routine nonetheless. The aces assemble in an empty card box or breast pocket.


A Trick for Jack Parker (Paul Gordon)
Two 5 card packets are displayed. The spectator selects on packet and the other is set to the side. Spectator mentally selects a card from the remaining packet. After a few strange shuffles, the spectators card appears, reversed in the middle of the packet. The packet that was not selected is a royal flush.

Klondyke Cato (Richard Vollmer)
This is a nifty, self working, impromtu prediction effect. You remove 10 cards in a random fashion from the deck. Mix up the 10 cards by dealing them face up or face down at the spectator's direction. This mixing procedure can be repeated as often as the spectator likes. The mentalist reveals 2 written predictions - the exact number of reversed cards and the exact count of the reversed card. I predict you'll use this effect!


Ghost Flight (Peter Duffie)
Requires Double Blanks, Blank Backs

This is the star of the DVD. It is a beautiful assembly routine with four queens. Each queen is placed in a packet of three blank cards (front and backs are blank). The queens disappear from the blanks...very magical looking. The four queens reappear under a placard that has been sitting on the table in full view of the audience.

Oils Well That Ends Well (Stephen Tucker)
Oil & water type routine. Packet of black and red cards are show. The black cards assemble together and four queens appear in place of the reds. Nice indeed.

Update - This continues to be a real gem. I've been playing with this for a few months and it is worth the price of the DVD alone.

Trifle (Columbini)
Man, the killer tricks just keep coming! Two packets are shown - four kings from a red deck and four kings from a blue deck. Spectator is asked to name a suit...say the hearts. The two kings of hearts are turned over to show that they are the only red-backed king in the blue packet and the only blue-backed king in the red packet. The cards are returned to their like-colored packets. With a magic word, the two kings of heart reappear back in their original location. This clever trick is hard to describe but very effective looking. This is likely to be one I use frequently.

Red Blues (Karl Fulves)
Another great packet trick that will test your Elmsley and Jordan counts. Spectator is asked to name any suit. The magician shows a packet of four cards where the named suit is the only suit that is face up. Any it is the only card that is the blue backed card. Furthermore, it is the only card Ace and the rest are Kings! No gaffed cards like in a gimmicked B'Wave or Twisted Sisters packet routine. Brilliant!

The Whitechapel Solution (Ryan Matney)
Yet another simple, self-working trick that by it self is rather dull. However, the provided Jack The Ripper patter makes this an interesting routine.

Minds In Session (Arthur Carter)
Starting with seven cards, the spectator selected cards to be turned over. All cards are blue-backed...until the last card remaining. It is turned over revealing a red-backed card as the last remaining card. Dirt simple...you probably already know how it's done!

Quality of Effects

The quality of these effects are really strong. Because many of the packet tricks are not gimmicked, you'll add at least a couple of these gems into you working repertoire.

Production Quality

It's a fairly low-budget affair as you might expect from a $10 DVD but the video quality is crisp and clear. The menu structure is very simple. For some reason, I can't skip ahead to the next track (trick). You have to go back to the menu to advance to the next trick. The audio quality is fine except that the goofy musical track that plays during the menu is three times as loud as the narration which is annoying when you have to go back to the menu to advance.

Overall: 8/10

This DVD scores very high on value. At $10, you'll find some really good material to infuse into your walk around sets. The only down side is that you'll need to invest in some blanks and blank-backed cards in order to perform all of the effects on this DVD. I'm sure to order more from the Colombini $10 store in the future. Bravo Aldo!