This video is fantastic. I wouldn't call these award winners, but there are some nice little effects that can be added on to different routine. Penzoil and Water and Quick-o-chink for example are both nice little editions. There are also some great stand alone effects like the mental card stab and the Magic list. The Magic List alone is a great item that I would buy. The skill requirement for these items isn't that great some like the Mental Card stab do require a higher skill level than others. The explanations aren't that indepth so if there is a sleight you don't know you will probably have to look else where to learn it.

I didn’t get much out of this DVD, but did enjoy watching it. There are a few good ideas that one can add to their performances. One strong effect I use from this DVD is the Walter Gibson card trick. It’s a very strong and easy mental effect with 3 playing cards that the spectator chooses. Jim Pace is a little nutty (in a good way), and he does provides some good entertaining tid-bits one could add. I didn’t find much use for them though.

It was ok, nothing that I would personally use. Except he did have a great coin vanish that fooled me that I enjoyed watching

This is a really cool DVD. Jim pace is very good and this DVD is awesome and adds a lot to whatever you are doing. A lot of the tricks are little fun clever things you can do while hanging out with your freinds, not huge amazing "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!" tricks. Nonetheless, this is a fun entertaining and educational DVD that I highly recommend.

This DVD contains a lot of tricks. Some better than others. No matter what type of magic you perform, it has something for you. Cards, coins, mentalism, clown gags. Some of the tricks I enjoyed were Crushed, which allows you to vanish or appear a bottle. The Quick O Chink (matrix on steroids) which would make a good part of a matrix routine. It contains many simple, but great card tricks which pretty much impromptu. I find the humor funny and the overall feel of the DVD is good. I suggest picking this one up!

If you are a working, walk around/restaurant magician, I think this DVD will be more valuable to you. Overall, your going to get some good, quick tricks with high impact.

Degree of Difficulty
Moderate. Some very easy tricks and some are going to require moderate practice depending on you skill level with coins and cards.

Teaching
Jim's style is easy-going with some dry wit. Overall he is easy to understand and explains the tricks in adequate detail.

Quantity of Effects
You get reasonable value for your money as there are 20 effects. There is a real odd mix of stuff; coins, cards, sight gags, pen tricks and mentalism. I see this material as supplemental tricks; attention getters or quick hit tricks between your bread and butter routines. If you only find one or two usable tricks then you probably won't be happy with the DVD. However, I think anyone should be able to take away 5 or 6 really good tricks from this DVD.

Quality of Effects
You'll find some really good tricks and some ho-hum ones. Some of the tricks are not 100% guaranteed to work as they rely on certain principles that your spectator might not follow. Here are my favorites.

I have read other short reviews where the favorite seems to be Crushed. This involves the appearance and disappearance of a 20oz. soda or water bottle. This illusion is quick and eye-popping. Pace gives you a variation with a silk that looks pretty magical. Plus it makes a cool noise that gives you an audio component to the illusion.

The Impossible Color Change was almost worth the price of the DVD and has become my default color change. A wave of the hand and the card changes. I like this because of the economy of motion - unlike the Erdnase which requires a longer motion to achieve the change. Plus you can be much more dramatic with the magic wave than with an Erdnase.

Quick-o-Chink is a super fast coin matrix effect. Four coins are arranged in a typical coin matrix (square) pattern. A quick wave of your hands and all four coins jump under one hand - very cool indeed.

I don't remember seeing this vanish in Bobo's Modern Coin Magic. The TV Coin Vanish starts with a coin resting on a couple fingers, the coin is taken into the other hand. The first hand is opened to show that it is no longer in that hand. Then the other hand is opened to show that it is clean as well (sort of anyways :) Then the coin is plucked from mid-air. No sleeves or gimmicks are necessary.

The Bet involves a free selection of 3 cards by the spectator. The magi inserts the cards into the deck and the deck is squared. The magi pulls an valuable object from his pocket as a motivator for winning a bet. In one swift motion, the deck vanishes and the magi snaps the specators 3 cards from thin air.

If you're a seasoned pro (ie, someone who earns money doing magic) then you've seen most or all of the sleights on this DVD. For an amateur, you'll probably pick up a handful of new skills.

Production Quality
Poor. There is a single hand-held camera for most of the DVD. The camera is shaky but not overly annoying like in some other DVDs I own. Is owning a tripod too much to expect for a video producer these days? To show an alternate angle, the camera man simply walks to the new angle and Jim repeats the move. The menus have no style and no frills.

As the name of the DVD implies, these are visual gags and effects. No five minute routines here - just smash 'em upside the head tricks. The material is probably most useful as supplemental material for a close up magician. Jim loses points for mediocre production quality and the overall usefulness of the material is not as good for amateurs as would be DVDs that specialize in a particular form of magic like just cups, just cards or just coins.

Watching some of the tricks your going to think "duh, that's kinda stupid." However these are Pace's time tested tricks that should impress an audience of lay people. As Jim frequently says "just give it a try."

This is probably one of the best dvds I ever bought on penguin. Crushed and hat trick are definitely my favorite tricks. The only bad thing is that I can't give it 100 stars.

The overall DVD and effects are not too bad. Some effects i can actually use here. Some cons would have to be that Jim Pace teaches some effects better than others, but a beginner can definitely pick this up. Not a bad DVD, trust there are worse ones out there.

Man, the material is VERY visual. A lot of excelent impromptu piece of magic. Things that you would find nowhere else unless you buy this. Buy it!! Awesome!
Guilherme Avila

jim is a very good teatcher, and its many good tricks on theis DVD. i hope you all buy it, beacuse I think this DVD should cost like 50 dollars.

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