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« on: March 02, 2006, 03:47:01 pm » |
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Hey guys
Just thought i'd bring this over from the old frapper forums. Might help some people out some time..
So heres my take on Brainstorm vol 1 from John Guastaferro:
John is extremely creative with cards and has created nearly all the effects on the DVD single handily apart from a few others. Many of the routines are incredibly visual in the audience’s eyes and have a mind blowing impact on lay audiences. Many of the routines taught follow nicely from one to the other without the need for any set up in front of your audience. The 25 minute performance shown before the explanations is always a joy to watch with any DVD produced by L&L publishers (the likes of John and David are there!) but it is especially special on this tape. Guastaferro is extremely deceptive, has great sleight of hand and is incredibly relaxed in the performances. You can tell he is relaxed in the setting and he obviously enjoys performing for audiences as he handles his spectators brilliantly and he also has a great sense of humour! Many of the routines are quite long however and they do take a lot of practice to get down so you can perform the whole routine flawlessly. However, that is the fun of practicing John’s routines as you have the added bonus of the effects themselves being fun and great to perform.
Some of these routines are impromptu with hardly any set up whereas some tricks require gaffed decks like blank faced and backed cards. They aren’t that hard to get hold of but they are often the most visual tricks to perform. Heres my opinions on the tricks on volume 1 of Brainstorm:
Volume 1:
Ballet Cut: This is not a trick but a in the hands, deceptive false cut. It is a beautiful flourish and gets reactions even as a flourish as you will see in the performance if you buy the DVD. Also it can be used as a force and a clever colour change in one of the other effects on this vol 1.
Fairy Tale Frogs: This is a clever and visual packet trick with John’s unique presentation added to it. Four cards with frogs on them turn over one at a time, and then suddenly change in the four jacks after the spectator blows a kiss at the cards. There is a kicker finale and gets great reactions (especially from the ladies!). Not that difficult to get perfected but will have to get the gaffs to make the trick work. Worth the effort though!
Troubleshooter: This is a brillaint, exciting all-backs routine with a twist at the end that no one will see coming. Again not that difficult and very visual to the spectators. One quick set up and you’re off, and the great thing is there is no gaffed deck to get rid of at the end of the routine!
Lost and Found: Now this is by far the best effect on volume 1 as it is amazingly startling and leaves you numb with confusion. It is one hell of an effect when you watch it on the performance at the start but I was even more stunned when I watched the explanation as it is so clean. There are no gaffs or gimmicks, just pure, visual magic. The effect is that a signed card goes cleanly into clear, plastic wallet sandwiched with a jack on either side of the wallet. The signed card vanishes in front of the spectator’s eyes, and then later on in the routine makes an appearance back in the wallet. It uses an extremely concept developed and is definitely an effect which will be put in your arsenal of effects only if it is the only one out of all the effects on volume 1, its brilliant.
Colour blind: This is a quick and easy ace production which is surprisingly strong in laymen’s eyes. It’s a twist on Dr Daley’s Last Trick but done with a full deck instead of four cards as it is normally performed. It has the advantage of showing your supposed ace cutting ability to the audience which makes the effect slightly stronger. This effect leads very nicely into the next trick which is palm reader.
Palm Reader: This is a very strong effect which is a great follow on from colour blind. It involves a spectator choosing a card from the deck and then loosing it back into the deck. The four aces then make a startling revelation in the spectator’s hand, then the surprise finale is that the final ace turns into the spectators chosen card. The cards are turned over to reveal that the aces have turned into the four of a kind related to the spectator’s chosen card. This really gets people as they believe the effect has ended before you pull out the final twist at the end of the trick. Have received great reactions from this effect recently.
Club sandwich: This is another effect which leads onto the next trick, Double Monte, very nicely. It’s a quick sandwich routine involving the two jokers and two selected cards. The two selected cards appear between the jokers one at a time then amazingly change places. This an easy effect with great reactions to be gained from it.
Double Monte: This follow up to Club Sandwich is great fun as it gets the spectators involved with the magic. One of the selected cards used in the preceding effect is placed aside to allow the magician to perform a modern three card monte with the two jokers and one selected card. The selected card jumps from the top to the bottom, the middle to the top leaving the spectator confused. The selected card that had been used for the three card monte is placed down away from the card that had been left aside. The jokers are placed face up sandwiching the card placed aside earlier; then the brilliant transposition is revealed. The selected cards have once again switched places. This is another killer effect which will leave your audience baffled. It’ll take some time to get the routine down as it is very lengthy and difficult to remember with many small moves but it is worth the practice.
No jokers allowed: This impromptu effect is a hilarious routine which will have your audience in stitches as I remember I was watching the performance. The presentation is that you are trying to perform an award winning card trick but the joker in the pack keeps appearing and will not take a hint and get lost! Once you’ve got all the jokers out of the pack (you believe) , they change into a selected card chosen near the beginning of the trick then for the finale, four of the five change into the aces. Brilliant routine which has many alternative presentations if you use your imagination.
Detour: This is a fun kind of ambitious routine with a signed card (which has been signed with the drawing of a car by the spectator instead of a signature). The card makes a few appearances on the top of the deck until it vanishes…. into the card box. However, the box is opened and there is a driver’s licence. This leads to your wallet where the signed card has made his way to. A slight set up but not too difficult. Great card to wallet routine!
Tidal wave aces: In the final effect of volume one, you first cut expertly to the four aces. Then the aces are placed face down in a face up deck and then the whole deck is shuffled face up into a face down deck (looks thoroughly shuffled!). You then cut and find the four aces one at a time, then visibly make the entire deck change colour, including the four aces. Great ideas involved in the trick and is another great routine devised by John Guastaferro.
So there are the effects involved in volume one, but what about difficulty and John’s teaching ability. Read on if you will...
John is a very competent teacher and often goes over sleights more than once to ensure that you are getting and understanding how to do. He often also back tracks a bit if a particular part of the routine is especially tricky which is a great help, and often saves you rewinding it yourself. You will obviously need to know some very beginner sleights and counts like the elmsley count & double and triple lifts but he does go over them briefly. Nearly all the material is extremely useable and easy to do. I’d say the DVDs are aimed at the intermediate magician who wants to add a creative and imaginative edge to their magic. You will need to spend time however on getting some of the routines locked in memory as some of them are very long and difficult to memorize, but with practice it is not too difficult.
John has been highly influenced by great magicians and sleight of hand artists such as John Bannon, Darwin Ortiz and Paul Harris to just name a few. This is why so much of his material is stunning with clear and clever methods behind them. I know many people have suggested getting volume 2 before this volume but I believe that if a DVD series comes in volumes then it makes sense to get volume 1 before 2 doesn’t it? Volume 1 is kind of a starter for what’s to come in volume 2 so I will advise anyone who is thinking of purchasing these DVDs separately to get volume 1 first.
So if you want some stunning, clean and visually appealing material to work on and add to your repertoire then the Brainstorm DVDs are definitely the way to go. It’s a joy to watch the performances and see John perform and pick up some great routines to perfect. They are extremely creative and modern and I can assure you that you won’t regret buying it after you’ve watched it.
Thanks for reading this review if you have been able to (i know it was a bit long), and I hope its helped some people to come to a decision on whether or not to purchase it.
Just want to say also that I think Andrew and Keith are doing a great job with the podcast at the moment and i've already got a lot of my contacts in magic listening to it as well. Keep up the good work
So cheers and thanks for reading again
Chris Haldane
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