This is one of the best beginner dvds' ever and I am not just saying that. This dvd teaches alot of tricks that are easy to do and very powerful. In addition to that, Oz Pearlman is a great teacher and goes step by step - also he is very easy to understand. I have been doing magic for many years and I learn alot of great magic whether it was a trick or more on misdirection or routineing.

Teaching 10/10 Oz Pealman is a great teacher and takes you step by step through every thing multiple times by the time Oz is done teaching you you have already master the trick

Skill Level every trick on this dvd you can learn and perfect within 5min of pratice - they are also very easy.

Price24.95 download 29.95 mail

overall 11/10:D this dvd is amazing I highly recommend it - it's worth all you paid for and beyond

I agree. The DVD is EXCELLENT and is well worth $30. At the price I got it for, free, it's all that much better.

I read on here when I first found this site that "Simple. Hits. Hard." These tricks are deceptively simple, but absolutely stunning.

I have used Ultimate Pick a Card, Jumping Rubber Band, and Magician's Choice on some people at work all with GREAT results.

In my opinion, these five tricks are not worth the money. I highly suggest that Beginners look to sources with more material, all of which is workable. For instance, the "Now You See It, Now You Don't" series by Bill Tarr, Mark Wilson's Complete Course, and Joshua Jay's Complete Course.

-JT

Agreed.

You can get both volumes of Sankey's Amazing Magic and Mentalism Anyone Can Do for about the same price as that one DVD. That's two DVDs for the same price and they both have more effects, without even combining them. Each of them have way more than 5 effects. And Sankey probably doesn't talk to you like you're slow in his DVDs.

everyone who talks about this dvd is saying how great the tricks are and how well they are taught. yes, they are great beginner tricks and taught so anyone can learn them. but everyone seems to be ignoring the parts where oz talks about basic "rules" and principles of magic. he talks about not revealing tricks, practicing, what to do when youre caught, and other things i cant remember right now.

im not sure the dvd is worth $30 (but i got it for free so i cant complain) but it definitely is a good source for beginners.

and...im pretty sure theres more than 5 tricks on it... who said there was 5?

I didn't remember exactly how many there were, but I thought I remembered someone saying it was five. Maybe I'm just trippin'.

Sorry, had it mixed up with another DVD, there are 12 effects on here. However, I really don't think some of these deserve to be called "effects":

Force and Reveal-Really?!
French Drop-Umm... disembodied sleights?
Linking Paper Clips-A "teach your friend" trick. While good in concept, this is more of a "cool thing I found" than an actual magic effect.

(Note: These can be found in Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, pages 76-82, 186, 298 respectively)

These three, plus the following, can all be found in Mark Wilson's Book:

Jumping Rubber Band (p. 295-298)
Ghost Match (p. 309)
Salt Shaker (Glass in the Complete Course) Thru Table (p. 314)
Magician's Choice (318)

Plus several hundred more pages of effects. In addition, he gives many tips about performance, marketing yourself, etc. I don't see this DVD as being a good value really, when compared to other less expensive sources.

-JT

while it is overpriced, i think this dvd really is a good starting point for beginners. yes, i have mark wilson's course in magic and yes its a better value. but let's face it, a lot of people do not want to learn from books. and penguin knows it. so why not make a dvd for beginners and price it at $30? i might pay $20 though. i mean you have to consider the cost of mass producing a dvd instead of a book. a dvd will naturally be more expensive (right? correct me if i'm wrong, i'm just kindof assuming).

I am one of those people. I would much rather watch a DVD than read a book to learn how to do something. I am a very comprehensive reader, and even then when I read these books sometimes I notice that I just don't get it when I read how to do a trick. These same tricks, when I see them performed from the magician's angle on a DVD, I find extremely easy to grasp.

As for the price?? I'm going to actually guess that a DVD is much cheaper to actually manufacture than a book. It might cost more when you take production costs into account (like the studio time and lighting and such) but I'm guessing Penguin already has all of those things, so the cost of the DVD should more than likely be less than a book.

I'm not an anti-DVD person, in fact I love them, but I don't buy them unless they're a good value. This, to me, is a poor choice when it comes to value.

I have, and use material from Born to Perform and In the Beginning There Were Coins. Those, to me, were great values. It makes me cringe to think that for the price of 2 DVD's, someone could pick up a volume of Apocalypse, Art of Astonishment. For the price of 1 DVD: Royal Road to Card Magic, Anneman's Practical Mental Magic, and Modern Coin Magic. This totals over nearly 500 tricks. All well-explained and illustrated.

It also bothers me that magicians managed for hundreds of years to learn from books, but now that videos are available, so many people "can't learn from books". Can't or don't want to?

All I am trying to do is inform people that there are many other options, and this title is incredibly misleading.

-JT

Magic has been around for what, we would probably think several thousand years?? Think of it this way...there was probably a point in time when you could realistically say "Magicians managed for hundreds of years to learn from word of mouth and other magicians, but now that BOOKS are available, so many people "can't learn from word of mouth." Can't or don't want to?"

Technology exists to make things easier and more comfortable for people. For hundreds of years people drilled holes in each others heads to relieve headaches, got pneumonia and were as good as dead, traveled for days to go 100 miles, and waited weeks for a message to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Today we don't have any of these things to deal with...would YOU rather go back to the old way of doing them, or stick with the modern way that is easier and more convenient??

I do agree that the title of the DVD might be slightly misleading, and I'm not saying that there aren't better values out there. I got this DVD for free with an order of some D'Lites that I had been planning on getting. I watched it and learned a few new tricks that I didn't know before, but to me the real value comes from what I'll be doing with it next...I'm going to be giving it to my little nephew (who is too young for any serious magic books) for a birthday present. If it can get him interested in magic, then the $30 price tag would have been well worth it to me, and would be infinitely more valuable to him than any book would be any time soon...

[quote="Gimpdiggity
Technology exists to make things easier and more comfortable for people. For hundreds of years people drilled holes in each others heads to relieve headaches, got pneumonia and were as good as dead, traveled for days to go 100 miles, and waited weeks for a message to cross the Atlantic Ocean. [/quote]



You both have some good points. I am kind of in the middle. I am able to, and do, get a lot of my magic from books and I love the value of them, but being a visual learner, with no real magic mentor, sometimes nothing beats a well made DVD. Case in point, last year I got the Paper Engine. It's a great book, well written, and well photographed. I immediately adopted several of the sleights and tricks. But I couldn't get my head around the "Nowhere Pass." So a few months back I bought the Search and Destroy DVD. Thirty bucks to learn one trick and one sleight from a book I already owned? That DVD was worth every penny for me! So in the end of the day DVD vs. book is a very personal choice. I consider Oz Pearlman a proficient teacher but not a "great" one. Not good enough to inspire me to buy this DVD that is full of tricks I already know.

We all know noblezadas the best

Like I said, it's about value to the individual, and I'm showing people that there are other options.

Like I said, I love DVD's, they are a great tool, but they are used too indiscriminately. A text description can be coupled with a DVD source for learning, but in that case the DVD would be an accompaniment, not a stand-alone. Another DVD problem is parroting. I've heard 5 people (this is in person, not YouTube) use Oz's exact patter and motions for the ACR, Biddle Trick, and Two Card Monte.

As an education major, I understand the importance of varied instruction, and for all those who are interested, "visual learning" includes reading secondary texts, taking notes, drawing diagrams, watching a demonstration, and visualization of the text.

-JT

What are you talking about? Books are still a better resource than DVDs. This doesn't relate at all. Because we have buses sure we don't walk miles. But because we have DVDs and videos doesn't mean we don't have to read books. When you go to school do you watch DVDs? No you read books to educate yourself in the best possible manner.