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.

The Artistry of Manipulation

Manipulations have always seemed so magical to me. My first recollections of real magicians were silky smooth billiard ball manipulators. Manipulation routines seem to have a theatrical flow; sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, always artistic.

With manipulations, there is no silly banter, patter or punchline. In fact, most routines have no words at all. Manipulations sequences can have moments of playfulness or humor. Mostly, the sequences are graceful and poetically executed. Expert manipulators often opt for musical accompaniment to facilitate the mood and rhythm of the presentation without the need for words.

I guess what sparked my recent interest in manipulations was watching magician Angela Funovits perform a standard, yet beautifully executed card manipulation routine on a youtube video.



My daughter and I were mesmerized by the video and it reminded me of how captivating a manipulation routine can be for an audience. My daughter, who is not all that interested in magic, grabbed a deck of cards and started performing one handed card fans.

The closest I had ever came to manipulations were some card flourishes I recently learned and an Adams multiplying ball set from my youth. While I am interested in card manipulations, I had seen some billiard ball manipulation routines from the likes of Romaine and Cardini and that really left me in awe.

You hear a lot of the magicians of today speak of Cardini with great reverence. Deservedly so as he created so many of the manipulation effects used by today's masters. Check out Cardini's routine which goes from cards, to cigarettes, to matches, then balls, to silks, and back to an endless flow of cigarettes. If I could, some day, perform a small fraction of what Cardini did I would be one happy manipulator. So I set out to gain some proficiency in billiard ball manipulations.



After careful research I decided to purchase World Class Manipulations with Jeff McBride Volume 1 DVD. This DVD is a bit odd in that it focuses on three forms of manipulation and none involving cards. However, that DVD seemed to get the highest compliments by manipulators. The three forms taught are coins, billiard balls and thimbles. The coins might be useful, the thimbles would be throw away material and the balls would be the meat and potatoes.

I purchased an inexpensive set of Vernet multiplying balls and was all set to immerse in billiard balls. Unfortunately, the many Magic Cafe posts about purchasing quality billiards, such as the Fakini silicone balls, proved true. I could work on some dexterity and sleights but if I'm to be serious about billiards, the expensive Fakini balls are in my future.

Out of morbid curiosity, I watched the thimble section of World Class Manipulations. I mean, come on, do kids even know what a thimble is? I hadn't seen one in decades. And they're so small, how could they "play big" as they say in magic. They just seem corny.

However, after watching McBride rattle off a few thimble routines I was amazed. Thimbles have a magical quality unlike anything I had seen. The appearances and vanishes are so convincing. Sure they may be a dated household item but the moves were so cool and smooth. There are not a lot of thimble routines to be found but I did find a dated, but well down Gary Darwin routine.



I immediately purchased a set of Vernet thimbles and unlike the multiplying balls, I really like their thimbles. The set has four white, nested thimbles and four multi-colored, nested thimbles for a total of 16 thimbles.

I've been having a blast practicing a handful of thimble manipulations. I've found that using a few sleights, I can improvise hand movements that provide a variety of artful presentations. Now if I can just stop the thimbles from occasionally flying off my fingers at high rates of speed it will be interesting to see where this unexpected school of magic takes me.