I got this video as a free promo with another purchase. It's quality is fine and who could argue with free, right? This is absolutely the most elementary magic there is. There are a few techniques that everyone should know (and most of us probably do) such as the french drop and a couple basic forces. Personally, I think many of the tricks are far too obvious, though I can be a bit more observant than the average spectator. The only routine I took away from this DVD is the Ultimate Pick a Card, the rest don't have much of an impact to me.

The main reason this item gets three stars is the acting. I think Oz is one of the best magic instructors out there. I have purchased hours of his material. He explains everything clearly and simply and usually you can learn a trick by watching him explain it once. Unfortunately, they decided to add a "co-star" to this DVD, Jessie Geneva. Penguin must have wanted some bleach-blonde eye candy for this one to keep some beginners interested. I can't think of any other reason to have her on here when Oz's solo videos are SO much better. This was the biggest downfall of this DVD. Her 'acting', if you call it that, is more contrived than the auditions at the local theatre company. They probably shouldn't have let her talk, either. Oz explains each trick with Jessie playing the spectator, then they have Jessie bumble her way through the trick with Oz as the spectator. Grit your teeth and watch that part once, because he explains some good outs when she messes up, but then you're going to want to fast forward through any part where she is playing magician. The rest of the time, you just have to deal with the distraction.

It is easy to learn and very practical.
People always felt impressed.

I LOVE this DVD! "Ultimate Pick A Card" is my favorite! VERY effective! Thank you Penguin!

I love Oz , all his magic and teaching are awesome, this was a free download so I had to get it, very helpful and useful. Thanks oz

This dvd is great but I would only recommend to beginners

This is a great way to start learning magic.

I like it a lot cuz it haves a lot of ideas and tricks that can fool even sceptics and even better was a gift from PM thank you guys for this DVD im very satisfied with this one

This was given to me as part of a promo. I learned from it and performed a nice trick explained in it. It is exactly what its title is.

Honestly, I thought this would be another cheezy video with stuff you wouldn't do for real people... WRONG!

I got this as a promo, and can honestly say that if I had paid for it, I would not have been upset (Although, I prob. would never have ordered it based off my original opinion).
Hence me writing this for those who may want to buy this. Take a serious look at it. It's worth it!

For example: Ultimate Pick A Card. I thought "Come on... this is going to be boring" and was ready to fast foward. Glad I didn't! It's a really COOL new to me trick for sure!!! EASY, but again, very cool way!!

As always, Penguin does an excellent job of including tips, and detailed techniques to not just show a trick, but PERFORM one!

And I actually liek seeing the "Assistant" do the tricks after. Shows a REAL person learning it with you. I like that.

Anyways,
This has easy to learn effects that are a GREAT way to start off, or a refresher, fun viewing for veterans.

I would HIGHLY reccomend this to ANYone thinking or wanting to get into magic.

Excellent Gift!!!

My 8 yr. old is going to love it! (less the match trick).
I always tell him he has to be 15 years old (or whatever I choose depending on the trick) before he can learn it...

I can't wait to share this with him!

This is a great DVD. Honestly wasn't expecting all that much, but it was quite good. Much better than the promo clip makes it out to be.

Just to let you know where I'm coming from, I'm a guy who used to do quite a bit of magic as a teenager, but haven't done any in over a decade. At my peak, I was not a great slight of hand artist. I never quite developed the dexterity for the more complex slights, (maybe I was lazy :-) but my presentation was very good, and I made the tricks look better than they actually were. That was my thing. ::shurgs:: it was the best I could do :-) Anyway, I've been meaning to get started again, but it had been so long, I didn't really remember many tricks. Plus most of my skills were very rusty. This was a great refresher, and just what I needed to get me back in the game :-)

This was only the second instructional video I'd ever watched. The first was The Floating Rose by Kevin James, which is AWESOME. Anyway, most of my previous magic education had come from books. The video medium is certainly much better at teaching slights. No surprise there. What surprised me was the quality of the tricks included in this package. I expected the tricks to be too simplistic for someone with my previous experience. But in fact, I thought most of them were very effective exactly the way they were presented, and gave lots of latitude for personal modification. For example, when I do the French Drop at the beginning of the coin routine, I make it look like I might be vanishing the coin into my mouth as I blow on it. Then I make a joke of pretending to chew on the coin just before producing it from the spectator's ear :-D It produces a completely different mood, but it works nicely.

Most of the tricks' moves are very well explained in the video, so you know exactly how to cover up what you're doing. The Jumping Rubber-band tutorial should have done a better job of showing the best angles for covering up the setup move. It's a bit lacking here, but after playing around in front of a mirror I figured it out. It's a great little trick.

Other than that, my only suggestion is this: Since it's touted as a DVD, it would be nice if the download was in ISO format, so that it would be ready to burn. This would also allow for the inclusion of a scene selection menu, and jumping from tutorial to tutorial. I really missed this feature.

Well, that's my review. Thanks to all of you at Penguin. This was a great gift. And i appreciate it a lot!