This is the AAACCS review. thats the new abbreviation for the set. because I really don't enjoy typing that out over and over and over again.

this is a massive DVD set and one that I love! but no mere mortal (or magician) could conceivably write a review that covered every sleight and every effect on every DVD and there are 8.

so heres the solution i came to. every sunday, i will choose an effect from the set, Sunday-Tues i will practice and refine it. and then Wed-Sat will be all performance. i'll post updates throughout. not daily but more than twice a week.

I have worked my way through the majority of the sleights and i can handle most of the effects in the set. However, if there are any that are Super Donkulusly knuckle busting hard and need more practice, i will post notifying that is the case.

I'm going to reserve a good three or four posts directly after this one. and Edit In updates. so without further ado. let it begin!!

Vol 5. Shuffle Work


Color Changing Poker Deal

Video:




The first effect i'm going to spend my time on is the Color changing poker deal. no real reason except that its my favorite. Its on Vol 5 shuffle work. after this effect i will continue through Vol 5.

The effect runs something like this :

Magician opens a deck. Explains to the audience an interesting game of poker. he then takes the deck and shuffles them face in to face down. Explaining that it would be to his advantage to get face down cards. and also to his advantage if his opponents got face up cards. the magician shuffles a few times. then deals out. commenting on the way the cards are falling as they do. in the end, he gets four face down cards and one face up. where as the rest of the table gets all face up cards. the magician chuckles and spreads the deck explaining that he straightened the whole deck out so that only he would get face down cards. not only that. but he dealt himself the four aces. how did he find those four aces you ask? magician does a ribbon spread and turnover revealing that the rest of the pack is a different color than his four aces. even the cards dealt to the losing players.


When i first saw the performance section to this.. my jaw dropped. i was floored. and was immediately thinking "I'M GOING TO LEARN TO DO THIS NO MATTER WHAT!!"

the effect is fantastic. requires a simple set up. but your not going to be able to do it in front of the spectators. but its totally worth it. i usually put two decks in this set up and set them aside. taking one of them with me to school each day.

personally i don't find it difficult but your going to need a riffle stack. or a tabled faro... so there it is. decide from there.

i still think its a fantastic effect. and i usually do it following a triumph effect. i just casually switch deck saying 'lets give this one a break' or something and it kills

so here is my scoring: 10 is good (or in the difficulty scoring easy) 1 is bad (or knuckle busting hard)

Difficulty: 6
Practicality: 7
Effectiveness (does it rock the spectators socks?): 8/ 9 when following triumph


when looking at the teaching aspect of the effect. its really hard to not get whats going on. and the sleights used to accomplish the effect are well taught in the rest of the DVD.


Teaching: 9


i love this effect, i hope you guys will to!




Vernon's Triumph

I'm not a vernon historian, i don't know the original method to this effect. I'm not going to compare this to other triumph effects. because, i don't know enough to do it justice. but i will say, THIS IS A FANTASTIC EFFECT!!

Triumph is a great plot, 50% of magicians today have "their own handling" to this effect. if you don't know it, shame. Basically the idea is, a card is selected. the deck is shuffled face up into face down. and then the entire deck is straightened out except for the selected card.

great effect, i'm pretty sure i'm safe to call it classic. Ackermans handling is very clean direct and impromptu. it does help to have a table for this effect. so if your one of those david blaine street guys, this probably wont suit you. Look for a different handling of vernons triumph. Oz Pearlman has a DVD devoted entirely to the subject. i cant comment on its quality because i don't own it, but your in good hands with Oz.

Difficulty: 3
Practicality: 9
Effectiveness: 9.9

Al covers multiple displays to show how sloppy and messed up the deck is, personally. i didn't like either of them, i have my own way to go about that. but if you can't figure out how to do this effect from his teaching... go home. he teaches the only real move you need earlier in the tape.

teaching: 9

overall: 9.5

fantastic effect, every self respecting magic should have some form of triumph in their repertoire.


(now i know i told you guys, i'd update throughout the week as i learned and performed effects, the thing is, i've already worked through these two and i use them regularly now. the rest of this tape is somewhat foriegn to me, so i'll follow the format there.)



just found that and thought it needed sharing, thats Jason England from his theory11 artist profile, according to him, the method Al teaches is the one Vernon originally used.


D'Amico Revelation

Video:



Sunday: Today, I spent some time working on it. it feels really weird to do when my hands are so accustomed to a riffle shuffle. not a difficult move. but it may be difficult to make visually stunning. by that i mean its not hard to do and get away with, but its hard to do and make look good. really neat move. i see uses for my mate routine. it really goes over well with high school couples. oh man. theres this one girl who still talks about "the love card"

Monday: Havent gotten any work in so far today, maybe later tonight. but i did get my cards taken away while doing "the miracle match routine" from the faro shuffle album. good trick. stupid teacher, 2 minutes left in class. sheesh. still had two more decks handy though.

anyways i did get some work in on this today. it has potential to follow the miracle match routine. i've worked it out. and it just takes a cut. a single legit cut. flows great for a "hey i wonder, lets try something to see how well you two are connected. and if you are possibly soul mates"

Tues: Did some work on this when i had downtime in school. a few people noticed me working on it.
(i was really just running it. over and over.) and i got a few cool reactions, one kid said "whoa! wait, did you mean to do that?" i said yes and he told me how cool it was, i wish i had just told him random magical things happen to me when i have a deck of cards. but oh well hind0sight 20-20

Thursday: Did a couple performances yesterday and today, and i have to say, i'm a bit disappointed. its a fun little revelation. I enjoy it. but its not rock your socks good. its a table move. but i don't do many pick a card tricks on a table. the best ways i see it being used are after the match routine, which i will review in the next DVD (FARO SHUFFLE!! GET EXCITED!!) for an intro to black jack or texas hold em hand stacking. Other than that, i don't have many uses for it.

I'll try some more performances tomorrow, but this doesn't compare with triumph or the color changing poker deal. and lets be honest, nobody thought it would (ok maybe the poker deal, but definitely not triumph.)

SCORING:

Difficulty: 2
Practicality: 7
Effectiveness: 6

teaching: 9

overall: 7.5

If you have a great place to use it. it will serve you well, however those places aren't very common, this revelation needs some more magic and patter surrounding it. in my opinion


Freeman/Kosy Ace Production

This little ace production is similar in style to the D'amico revelation. only you end with two aces on the faces of the packets as well as sticking out from them.


Mon- Thurs: its an odd move, its almost awkward in comparison to the D'amico move. i definitely need to watch the explanation again

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

Good start! Good luck with you in this daunting project.

Yes, good start and a great first choice to review!

I made videos for the D'amico revelation and the Color Changing Poker deal.

Hey guys, this week i'm taking a break because my weeks pretty jam packed. i'm not going to have anytime to practice new material, i've got a speech to prepare for thursday a research paper due thursday, a boat load of reading. youth group wednesday, band tuesday thursday, t-shirts to have made. and i'm sorry, but this review falls on the back burner. it might be two weeks before i get back to this. but if i get a free moment i will be practicing the freeman Kosy ace production. if i remember correctly, its very similar to the d'amico only it uses four cards instead of 2.