Hi! This is your official PenguinMagic reviewer, B_Magic.

Daryl's Ambitious Card DVD is a must have for all card workers! ADD TO CART NOW! Finish this review after.

I learned Daryl's Ambitious Card from his book, Ambitious Card Omnibus, many many years ago, and it continues to be a staple in my magic performances to this day. The effect is classic, killer, and amazing. This video is exactly like the book, with the benefit of being able to see and enjoy the trick and its many fantastic qualities for yourself.

There are many phases you can put into an ambitious card routine, and you are going to learn a lot here. I give it 4 stars because I'm always a little wary about videos. When I learn this from the book, I was able to easily put my own patter and style into it, because honestly I had no other choice. With video, it's harder because of the temptation to mirror exactly what you see (because Daryl does it so good). You have to actually work hard NOT to do exactly the same performance as Daryl with this.

It's a great video and should be purchased. If you are reading this review then you should ADD TO CART right now. You'll love it.

B_Magic

I gave it a 4 stars because \i have been doing ambitious card routines for many years now and just want to learn amything I could have missed. this dvd is very good for a medioker learner. and the wrap- around deck trick takes a lot of preparation.

This is the ultimate resource for the Ambitious card routine. Not only does daryl present a full routine to you, but more importantly he gives you the tools and techniques to create your own or adjust a routine you may perform. Daryl is a master of his craft.

Daryl's ambitious card routine is one of the best out there. There is so much stuff packed into this DVD it's crazy. Daryl goes into pretty good detail when explaining the trick and after you watch it you'll come away with a pretty good routine. Get it for the tied up deck. The cards are tied, you put the card in the middle and it still gets to the top. A great find.

this not only had daryl's award winning acr, but it has millions of different moves. if your thinking of making your own acr, buy this dvd. he also has an idea of the best ambitious card climax in the world, i think. the only downside, is that its extremely tiring to make that gimmick.

Daryl DVD's are always great value.

Daryl does his performance (live) then step by step explains the performance. You do need to construct a gimmick to do the final phase, but it's very straight forward to make, and if you want to you could purchase it. And as per usual Daryl provides many extra techniques and moves to modify and add to your ambitious card routine.

The presentation is great, great lighting and camera work.

A top quality DVD.

I've spent a lot of money on magic DVDs (just ask the guys at penguinmagic) and this DVD is one of my top five favourites of all time. Daryl teaches his brilliant routine with charm and clarity. He also goes into a lot of other sleights and ideas which you could use in your routine.

I honestly can't reccommend this DVD enough actually, certainly worth getting hold of.

Out of all of the DVD's that teach you Ambitious Card, this is by far my favorite one. Daryl's Gold Metal F.I.S.M Routine was a total blast to watch. Then when you get to the teaching section, he goes over some of the best ways to begin the routine, as well as how to finish. I don't necessarily mean his Ultimate Ambitious gimmick that you have to buy separately, although it is a really great idea to end the routine. But besides the gimmicked finisher, he gives great details to use either from his own performance, or the moves he teaches you in the extra section. He admits that he doesn't use them himself, but encourages you to pick whichever methods you like best, and then build your own Ambitious Card routine.

In closing, if you really want to learn some of the best sleights and moves to make your own personal Ambitious Card routine, then I highly suggest you picking up a copy of this DVD, you'll have a blast with it!

Ok I stopped writing reviews for a while because I lost interest in magic, but I'm back in full steam now for about a month so I figured I better get reviewing again. Ok like always (if you recognize me from my other reviews) Effect, Practise, Detectability, Set-Up, and Overall. Plus an extra Gimmick section for this one. The marking system is below.

1 - Horrible
2 - Bad
3 - Pretty Bad
4 - OK
5 - Not Bad
6 - Pretty Good
7 - Good
8 - Really Good
9 - Extremely Good
10 - Absolutely Perfect


Effect - 9/10 - The performer has a card selected and signed and then lost and shuffle dinto the deck. he then snaps his fingers and its on top. He plainly puts it into the middle and once again it appears on top after a snap of the fingers. He puts it in the middle and shows thats its not on the top, second third, w/e. Until he snpas. then its bakc on top once again. This is repeated with many variations of the presentation and a few different methods along the way.

All I can say is beautiful. Well obviously I can say more, I'm writing this whole review, but it sounds good. This is such an old and popular trick. It is absolutely excellent, expecially Daryl's version. All of it except the very, very last card-rise-to-the-top cna be done impromptu and with any dekc of cards. the end requires a gimmick. A little more on that later. Anyway there is one move used that this DVD is prominently built on. This move is used with almost every single card-rise-to-the-top. It is a well known and old move that I'm sure you all know, but don't think, oh well if I know the mov isnt this DVD a watse? Not at all! Daryl gives a full routine that is astounding plus so many bonus moves that arent using this move that it's ming-boggling. After this you will have your own routines and the ability to make up so so so many more it will blow you away.

This effect is just so amazing your spectators will absolutely eat it up. they will want more, and thanks to daryl you'll be able to gvie it to them with all the material on this DVD.

Everything on the DVD is WELL taught. No vague "do this"'s or "do that"'s. it's all tauhgt except for a one handed fan but most alreayd know that anywya. And that's no big deal anyway. You'll learn SO well with daryl's instructions, have no worries abotut hat at all.


Practise - 7/10 - Ok this DVD is the last thing I bought before I stopped magic for a while so I never eeally set out and practised this for a while. This I practised slowly over time, becuase evn though stoppe dmagic, I could never really quit. The deck just wanted me to manipulate it. Lol. Anyway It took me a long tiem to get this right, and i still have never performed it for anyone, save small bits of it, because I want it to be PERFECT. but it shouldn't be that hard. Some of it is even self working basically. Anyway, you shouldnt have any problems getting this one down pretty fast if you really set your mind to it, but if you don't practise it specifically, without any other little tidbits of magic floatign around in there form time to time, it could take you a while. I would not let practise take away from your decision to buy this or not, because the DVD is one of the best things I've ever bought form any magic site or shop. I'm just saying, this isnt a perform 15 minutes out of the box effect.


Detectability - 8/10 - Very hard to detect this trick. But that sort of ties in with the practise section. You need to get the main move in this perfetcly natural because it is not a hidden move, it is a very deceptive but out in the open move. No examples are coming to mind, but I think you know what I mean. Anyway, if you blow the main move, you blow the DVD. BUT the move is veyr easy to get down naturally if you really work at it. I'm just saying don't perform this effetc if you arent ready. It shouldn't take too long to GET ready, but just dont forget what I've said.

A few times in this routine you'll need to be aware of your angles. This is just a tiny bit of the routine, but still, that's one problem, expecially if your performing for a lot of people surrounding you. You'll have to cut that part out of the routine. Just add in some of the bonus material and your all set.


Set-Up - 9/10 - Ok I couldn't give this a 10 because that would make it impromptu, but set-up wise, it is EXTREMELY simple. The hard part of the set-up is making the gimmick, but that's later. Anyway, all you need is the gimmick in your pocket. That's the WHOLE set up. Simple.


Gimmick - 7/10 - ok this is a GREAT gimmick. it can only be used for Ambitous Card, that's what it is built for but, it is EXTREMELY powerful for the ambitous ending. This will florr them. It would have gotten 10 except that if you dont buy the 30 dollar thing form a store, you have to make it and this gimmick is effin hard to make.

The gimmick is half a dekc of cards that has been altered in a way that they will bring a card from the bottom of it to the top. When you add the real half a dekc to the bottom of the gimmick the card goes into the middle of the full deck and onto the top instantly. Almost before instantly. It is a genius gimmick.

For those of you who are wondering if this ruins the half of the deck, that depends on what you mean by ruin. if you look at it as changing a regular half a dekc to half a dekc that a crad can magically pass form the bottom to the top with NO moves at ALL, then by no means is this ruined. If you think of ruiend as, can I use the deck after I'm done the effetc, I'm sorry that half of the dekc is completely ruined. never to be ed for anything but the ambitous card routine.

It take s along time to make this gimmick and some veyr careful work on the cards, but in the end its worth it. Just keep in mind you're probably going to have to tyr this a few times to get a perfetc one, and until then thats a lot of ruined cards.

The end effetc is all worth it but, the path to getting there a bumpy, rocky, unfinished piece of crap. Have fun.

By the way, the pop-up mov eis taught so if you dont do this ending theres always that, whichc is by itself a greta ending to the routine.


Overall - 9/10 - Ok this is a GREAT DVD. Astounding effect, great gimmick revealed, not hard to perform, doesnt take an extremely long practise time, fun to do. What the heck are you waiting for? Buy Daryl's Ambitous Card DVD!

Hope this review helps. Its my first peice of writing for a while so I'd like to hear your response to it please and thanks. Have fun with your new.

The ambitious card routine is a real classic. Daryl teaches
you many variations on the same principle. My advice to all
you magicians is to make it not a too long routine. Stick
to 4 or five phases. Because the same thing happens over and over again.