Welcome! This is my review for Jeff Prace’s brand new DVD, “GUM”. Gum is a collaboration of different tricks with pens…just kidding. It of course uses chewing gum. To be clear, 4 effects use Gum. There is also an “easter egg” which contains a card trick by Jeff. So let’s elaborate on the different things Mr. Prace teaches and what makes this an awesome DVD.
TEACHING 4/4. What I think made this DVD so good, is the teaching. Usually you get tricks on DVDs and all the way through you hear the “uuuuuhhh’s” and “aaaaaaaaannd’s”. Jeff is very deliberate with the way he teaches these tricks. Every now and then there was a slight studder, but a wide portion of the DVD is clear. Not only that, but he remains CALM which I feel is an important virtue to have. Magic is difficult to teach and Jeff really took this seriously
PRODUCTION QUALIty 3/4. Kozmo has never disappointed be with the way he makes his DVDs. He knows clarity. If there’s one thing we hate, it’s when things aren’t clear (on top of the others). I just thought that one thing I got a LITTLE frazzled with, was the menu screen. It’s weird to say, but let me explain. There were a lot of spinning circles and colors on the menu. It was a little difficult to read. That shouldn’t turn you off of the DVD, but just keep it in mind. They were laid out nicely other than that. One other honorable mention is the DVD case. I don’t know why, but this thin little case is really cool. Can’t explain much about that. Wrapping that up, comes the artwork And editing. Tim Feher designed the cover art and he did a very good job. Probably one of the better ones I’ve seen in Magic. The editing was really simple and didn’t take away from the DVD at all, like most do.
THE EFFECTS
“Orbit” ¾: I loved this effect. It looked like a little simple trick (don’t underestimate those) in the demo, but I realized much more of it in the actual DVD. The effect is really cool. The Magician kindly offers his audience some gum, but uh oh. Only one piece left! Don’t worry though, Jeff snaps his fingers and the rest of the pack fills up completely with chewing gum! Oh, and it can be handed out
This deserved to be first. Not only, did it catch my eye and intrigue me, but it made me want to learn more! The gimmick is simple, but very difficult to construct. It will take some time and you might mess up a little. Jeff constructs the gimmick for you on camera and explains everything he does. As for practicality goes, this will hold up for a long time and it can be moved around a little bit.
“Re-wrapped” 4/4: A 4 seems pretty fair. This one resembles that of Jay Sankey’s “Wrap it up” most probably. But don’t worry, this one is better! You are pretty secure on angles unless you are performing for a whole lot of people. Jeff teaches you how to get out of that situation though. The Magician removes a piece of gum from his mouth and stretches is a little. But when he clumps it up a little, it wraps up perfectly into an unchewed, unwrapped piece of gum!
Jeff made this one really cool. The visuals of it are astonishing and it fooled the pants off of me. The gimmick is definitely the easiest to make, and it really doesn’t involve any “construction” at all. You will probably have to buy something, but that’s ok. Clean up it also a cinch.
“Insta-Wrap” ¾: Essentially the same thing as “Re-Wrapped” but with a completely different gimmick. You remove the gum from your mouth, give it a squeeze, it wraps up, and then you hand out the gum.
Jeff went beyond the beyond with this one. He had me completely baffled when he said what the gimmick will be. I was like “No way, I need to see this!” It’s legitimate! But also very hard to make and you need a lot more to do it. I suggest going with “Re-Wrapped” over this one, but that’s me.
“Back in Time” 4/4: This is my favorite effect with gum now. It fooled the crap out of me too. It’s a little complicated to set up and pocket space becomes a little bit of an issue, but it’s completely sensible and very magical. The Magician doesn’t want to be rude, so he removes his Gum and puts it inside a container. Offering to show them a photograph that was taken of him, you see that he was chewing gum at the time it was taken. That won’t do. So you bring them back in time, and the gum wraps itself up. THEN the photograph changes into one of you smiling.
This one is a full routine almost. It’s great for an opening effect and that’s what Jeff uses it for in a restaurant. The setup is a little time consuming and it might not last a long time, but it’s worth it. You also need the most for this trick. But don’t worry, it’s worth it! Even if you don’t have some of the props required. It’s clean too! You don’t want to miss this one!
“No More Cards Tricks!” 4/4: Closing this up is “No More Card Tricks”. This is the segment Jeff used in an issue of Reel Magic Magazine. It’s a full performance and explanation of the effect. Keep in mind this is an easter egg and you will have to find it! But the effect looks great and it fooled me. The Magician closes a set of tricks by magically making the deck of cards wrap itself up in electrical tape.
Jeff goes over how to wrap up the deck in the explanation and it’s really simple. It’s also a functional deck of cards which merits some consideration. You really can do tricks with this which is great. You will love this one.
SO I suppose that’s really it. Over all I give this DVD a great 4/4. The performances are great to watch and the explanations are thorough. I look forward to seeing some more from Jeff. OH! And for those who watch, some of the outtakes were the most hilarious things I’ve seen! You will know what I’m talking about when you watch :D

I got this effect with high hopes and it didn't let me down. This is a highly practical illusion that is VERY well taught by Jeff Prace. It is just as good as it sounds. Pick this up. Just a little story. I was in class and someone saw me chewing gum and they asked me for a piece. I grabbed my pack and showed that I only had one piece. I said don't worry and snapped and showed a full pack and she SCREAMED! Got me in trouble but I think it was worth it. Haha. Pick it up.

For a little bit of background, I had been following Jeff Prace on Facebook and Skype for a while, asking him questions about when this was going to be released. After hearing all of the different testimonies by famous magicians and all of the cool, new gum effects that were to be on this DVD, I HAD to have it. I heard about this DVD every step of the way, and without further ado, the review for GUM by Jeff Prace!

Oh, and by the way, I am a HUGE fan of gum (the object itself) and chew it ALL the time. So effects with gum are nice, convenient and INCREDIBLY organic for me. HOWEVER, I have seen my share and have done research on MANY, so I was hesitant to see all that was on this "new" DVD. Regardless of how excited I was for it to come out, I still kind of figured it would be a bunch of material rehashed from the past greats and placed on the market before it had time to be practiced.

MAN was I wrong! And on that note, ON WITH THE REVIEW!

First Thoughts://

When I originally received this in the mail, I was excited to see what the effects were, and more importantly, the originality and practicality. During my first time watching however, I found that these WERE in fact, original and VERY practical routines. During my first run through, I realized that these routines (all of them) are FANTASTICALLY planned out and there is a TON of thought put into each of them.

Case and DVD://

The case is nice looking, but smaller than I thought. It is a half DVD size (like andthensome by Dan and Dave or any of the Aldo Columbini $10 DVDs) but that means absolutely nothing.

Both the case and the DVD look very nice and professional, and the DVD contains an easy to navigate and proffesional menu.

Effects://

Orbit:

"A pack of gum with only one piece left instantly turns into a full pack. You can then immediatly hand out a piece of gum to a hungry spectator."

This REALLY was the trick I was waiting for. Throughout production of the DVD, Jeff sent me clips of this trick. I couldn't for the LIFE of me figure it out. I saw it four or five times and I still didn't know. The method wasn't what I thought at all and really surprised me in it's creativity.

The explanation has EVERYTHING down to the last detail planned out. It has direct instructions and proves just how much thought went into this DVD.

The ONLY thing I want to mention about this trick is that you do need quite a few things to actually MAKE the gimmick necessary for performance. I didn't have some of them, but I am going over to my friends house this weekend to make the gimmick. All the work is DEFINITELY worth it for the effect you get.

Re-Wrapped:

"A chewed piece of gum stretched between the magician's hands in magically wraps itself into a brand new piece! Both hands are shown empty and the gum can immediately be given away as a sweet souvenir!"

This effect is REALLY nice and is exactly as the method describes. No requirements except to carry around a piece of gum and a special "something". This routine gets CRAZY responses from laypeople. Very practical, and REALLY nice looking. Ends apparently VERY clean.

I have been doing this effect at school ever since I got GUM a couple weeks ago. It is practical, visual and really clean.

Insta-Wrap:

"Another handling of the chewed to wrapped gum effect. This handling is on STEROIDS!"

This effect, once again, takes a few objects to make and some time to make it. HOWEVER, afterwards, it is VERY practical to carry around and looks REALLY nice. You can tell that there was a LOT of thought put into this effect, and I really like it.

Since the description above provided by the DVD isn't very "telling", the effect looks like...

"Magician is chewing gum. Magician takes gum out of mouth, squeezes it, and shows the piece of chewed gum. In a VERY fair and visual fashion, held in ONE hand, the gum VISUALLY appears wrapped. This gum can then be handed out for examination."

It looks really nice, but I prefer "Re-Wrapped" to this handling just because I like the look of it better. HOWEVER both do have different benefits.

Back in Time:

"The magician presents a time travel experiment, and in doing so, wraps a chewed piece of gum and alters a photograph!"

This is a well thought out, original effect with a clever, comical hook. I enjoyed the performance a lot. I don't know if I will actually DO the effect, but it is a really nice routine. It does however require you to carry a few extra things on your person.

No More Card Tricks!:

This is an easter egg on the DVD, but I got permission from Jeff himself to talk about it on here. This HAS to be one of my absolute favorite effects to do with cards. I LOVE this one.

Basically, the effect is that the magician has a few cards selected and placed back in the middle. Then, VISUALLY the deck is WRAPPED in a layer of masking tape, allowing NO more card tricks!

This was in an issue of Magic magazine, so many of you know this already and how good it is. The ONLY thing about it is that you have to carry around a special deck FOR this trick. Personally though, I think it is worth it.

This is my favorite effect on the DVD, all things considered, even though it is JUST a bonus.

Teacher://

The person who created and teaches all the effects is Jeff Prace (a member of these very forums for a long time) and an incredibly humble, generous and nice guy. He is a fantastic teacher of these effects and it is obvious all of the thought put into these effects and how comfortable he was in performing and explaining them.

Teaching://

The teaching on GUM was INCREDIBLY thorough. I REALLY don't think there is a way someone could NOT understand something on this DVD. Sometimes the multiple times of going over something got a tad tedious, but it really does help to understand the ins and outs of these effects.

Price://

The price is a VERY reasonable $25.00, and for 5 KILLER, original effects, is VERY much worth it.

Overall://

I REALLY reccomend this DVD. It looks nice, it's NOT expensive and it has some great, practical tricks that I WILL be doing.

Recommended!

This has to be one of the easiest and best reaction tricks that I have ever done and bought or even seen. You have to get it.

Way to simple to figure out... great trick, really. But not even examinable or repeatable.

Perfect for walk around and very very very easy to do. Just practice come up with a presentation idea and go with it. I performed Orbit last night at a Wal-Mart store to a guy checking out some stuff in the auto department and he immediately raised his fist for a fist bump and said "cuz, you got skillz, that was awesome" he just kept laughing as I walked away with a huge smile on my face. The way I presented it was like this, and you guys are welcome to use this idea.

I walked up to him and said hey do you got a minute? He goes sure, I pulled out the package, opened it up with all the gum there, asked him just by looking at it how much gum do you think is there? I then said if you guess right I'll give ya $20 bucks, He goes, ha ha, I dont know? 11? I said close, then reopened the pack and showed that they had all vanished but 1, and thats when the magic happened. AHAHAH priceless look on his face and amazing reaction.

ADD TO CART NOW!!!!

When performed correctly, this effect kills. Judging from the few negative reviews, it's clear they were bitten by the "I have to construct a gimmick and there's no instant gratification" bug. Practice is key.

This is a great example of a young man that applied an old concept to a new updated presentation. He does a great job explaining how to make and perform the trick. Add this to a strolling gum routine. Beginners will be able to get this within a few hours of practice. Creative presentation will take some more time.

This DVD was my first order from Penguin and I love it. It honestly amazed me at how simple the tricks were, and I found myself thinking "Why didn't I think of this?" Its a great trick that you can have a lot of fun with.

I've used this effect so much that I was actually forced to buy TONS of gum to do this effect (not because you need a lot of gum but because I give out the pack of gum to spectators and I run out of gum so much) this effect is sure to get some amazing reactions that are guaranteed to boost your ego a little bit.