A Kenton Knepper Christmas

Living is a small, mid-western city means that the magic scene is rather limited. So when a well known name in magic like Kenton Knepper comes to town, two days before Christmas, you just know you've gotten an early present. As I understand it, Knepper is an Iowa native who returns to his home state for the holidays. The local IBM Ring 327 hosts this annual event and Knepper is kind enough to be the honored lecturer.

The weather was bad as Kenton's flight into Cedar Rapids got diverted back to Chicago. Kenton and a few fellow passengers rented a car and finally made it into Cedar Rapids sans his luggage. Kenton did a great job of working without his personal effects. Thankfully, some Wonder Wizard merchandise that was preshipped did make it on time. So I ignored warnings of the imminent snow storm and prepared myself for a blizzard of mental magic. Knepper did not disappoint.

Kenton opened with some quick-hitting, yet softly applied hypnosis. I was the first to undergo the soothing gaze of Kenton. I followed Kenton's suggestions like Pavlov's dog. One of the key knuggets of knowledge that Knepper passed on was that you can weave hypnosis into your magic act without the dramatics that are often hallmark of traditional hypnosis acts. Many of the techniques that he worked are detailed in his new book Ultimately Under.

Although Knepper appears to be notable for his mentalism, he proved to be an expert card handler. Kenton demonstrated a few tricks from his Cards of Influence book that were impressive feats of mentalism through cards. He also demonstrated some really cool tricks with double faced and double backed cards.

Lastly, Knepper presented some floating cane manipulations using an ungimmicked walking cane and golf clubs. Once magnetized, the cane clinged his open palm for a very convincing illusion.

It was a great afternoon of magic and learning. This was my first ever magic lecture and what a great one to attend. I'm all juiced up to join the local IBM magic guild and perhaps this will be the first of many great magic lectures that I will be privileged to attend.

REVIEW: Visu-Antics DVD by Jim Pace

The Marketing Fluff

"Jim Pace is one of magic's most visual close-up artists. Working 4 restaurants per week for over 20 years has taught him to create flashy, attention-getting magic that makes audiences scream. It's magic that's low on set-up and high on pay-off. The video is jammed packed with some of the best gags, stunts, and magic routines you're ever going to see. Best of all, this stuff is easy and you'll wind up doing most of it!"

Since this blog is oriented towards beginning to intermediate magicians, I would say this DVD is going to be an average addition to your DVD library. If you are a working, walk around/restaurant magician, I think this DVD will be more valuable to you. Overall, your going to get some good, quick tricks with high impact.

Degree of Difficulty
Moderate. Some very easy tricks and some are going to require moderate practice depending on you skill level with coins and cards.

Teaching
Jim's style is easy-going with some dry wit. Overall he is easy to understand and explains the tricks in adequate detail. There is one uncomfortable moment in the video where Pace pulls a pocket watch out of his fly. It is out of place and a little creepy. In the end, Jim Pace is a likable guy who's seems to have been performing magic for a long, long time.

Quantity of Effects
You get reasonable value for your money as there are 20 effects. There is a real odd mix of stuff; coins, cards, sight gags, pen tricks and mentalism. I see this material as supplemental tricks; attention getters or quick hit tricks between your bread and butter routines. If you only find one or two usable tricks then you probably won't be happy with the DVD. However, I think anyone should be able to take away 5 or 6 really good tricks from this DVD.

Quality of Effects
You'll find some really good tricks and some ho-hum ones. Some of the tricks are not 100% guaranteed to work as they rely on certain principles that your spectator might not follow. Here are my favorites.

I have read other short reviews where the favorite seems to be Crushed. This involves the appearance and disappearance of a 20oz. soda or water bottle. This illusion is quick and eye-popping. Pace gives you a variation with a silk that looks pretty magical. Plus it makes a cool noise that gives you an audio component to the illusion.

The Impossible Color Change was almost worth the price of the DVD and has become my default color change. A wave of the hand and the card changes. I like this because of the economy of motion - unlike the Erdnase which requires a longer motion to achieve the change. Plus you can be much more dramatic with the magic wave than with an Erdnase.

Quick-o-Chink is a super fast coin matrix effect. Four coins are arranged in a typical coin matrix (square) pattern. A quick wave of your hands and all four coins jump under one hand - very cool indeed.

I don't remember seeing this vanish in Bobo's Modern Coin Magic. The TV Coin Vanish starts with a coin resting on a couple fingers, the coin is taken into the other hand. The first hand is opened to show that it is no longer in that hand. Then the other hand is opened to show that it is clean as well (sort of anyways :) Then the coin is plucked from mid-air. No sleeves or gimmicks are necessary.

The Bet involves a free selection of 3 cards by the spectator. The magi inserts the cards into the deck and the deck is squared. The magi pulls an valuable object from his pocket as a motivator for winning a bet. In one swift motion, the deck vanishes and the magi snaps the specators 3 cards from thin air.

If you're a seasoned pro (ie, someone who earns money doing magic) then you've seen most or all of the sleights on this DVD. For an amateur, you'll probably pick up a handful of new skills.

Production Quality
Poor. There is a single hand-held camera for most of the DVD. The camera is shaky but not overly annoying like in some other DVDs I own. Is owning a tripod too much to expect for a video producer these days? To show an alternate angle, the camera man simply walks to the new angle and Jim repeats the move. The menus have no style and no frills.

Overall: 6/10
As the name of the DVD implies, these are visual gags and effects. No five minute routines here - just smash 'em upside the head tricks. The material is probably most useful as supplemental material for a close up magician. Jim loses points for mediocre production quality and the overall usefulness of the material is not as good for amateurs as would be DVDs that specialize in a particular form of magic like just cups, just cards or just coins.

Watching some of the tricks your going to think "duh, that's kinda stupid." However these are Pace's time tested tricks that should impress an audience of lay people. As Jim frequently says "just give it a try."

REVIEW: Mind Stunts and Mind Stunts 2 by Patrick Kuffs

Patrick Kuffs' Mind Stunts and Mind Stunts 2 are a collection of original mentalism routines presented in Kuffs quirky style. Let me preface my review by saying I'm never been all that wild about most mentalism routines. So if you are thirsty for new mentalism, this may be the ticket.

Degree of Difficulty
Easy. There are no tricky sleights to learn. 90% of the routines are timing and acting. However easy these may be, I don't think this would be a good introduction to mental magic.

Teaching
Kuffs plays both magician and spectator and uses editing to portray both roles. I prefer seeing trick performed for a real audience to gauge the reaction to the presentation. Combining a thick accent and goof-ball style, this teaching style was really hard for me to watch. Perhaps his style works in front of a real audience but we don't get to see that, now do we?

Quantity of Effects
There are a total of 7 effects and Kuffs blatantly tells you that he is not going to show you the last trick, Nostradakuffs and to figure it out for yourself. So 6 tricks for your hard-earned clams.

Quality of Effects
These tricks don't do much for me but I think that some of the material is usable. The Book Test 4 Dummies was my favorite. The name is appropriate because someone who is not a dummy might be suspicious of the method. If you are not familiar with book tests, it goes like this; some picks a random page from an seemingly normal book. The mentalist then reads the mind of the spectator and predicts the word. In this trick the spec selects the first word from a random page out of a truly random book and writes the word on a business card. Then the magi does the same. Viola, the words match!

Blindfoil uses aluminum foil and duck tape to cover the mage's eyes. The mage then is then spun around to a random heading and sketches the scene in front of his face. Wow, it matches! Kuffs does this outside so he can accurately draw some trees and a park bench. Yawn.

Watchism is a watch prediction with the spectator's watch. Perhaps this would work on a blonde - but it seems too obvious for a brunette. (Just kidding, you blondes!) Again, I might be more convinced if he used real spectators for the demo.

Dangerous Monte is a three bag elimination were the last bag contains a broken bottle. Don't worry, you're never really in danger - even if you make a wrong guess. The spectator mixes up three cards number 1, 2 and 3 and lays them in front of the paper bags. The cards determine the order in which the magician crushed the bag. I feel danger in the air!

Production Quality
Kuffs using little vignettes in a variety of settings to frame each trick. At times there is clever editing and the video quality is good. However the hand held camera work is all over the place. Zoom in, zoom out, jerk the camera this way and that way. Kuffs was trying to be overly clever and comedic with the presentation. It just wasn't my style of humor and I'm not a fan of hand-held videography.

Overall: 4/10
I think if your a fan of mentalism, you're going to find a way to use some of this material - especially if you are mixing humor with your mentalism act. I have to be critical of any DVD that shows you a trick and then doesn't provide the secret. Isn't that what we're paying for? Mind Stunts 2 is more of the same so if you think you might like this DVD, I would suggest getting both. Personally, this wasn't my cup of tea.