Excellent purchase and great value for money. Misses one star on account of poor sound mixing during
an interview which incidentally provides some seriously important guidelines regarding the
development of your own stage/performance persona.
Routines here for everybody from the
work-hardened professional to the emerging entertainer.
Buy a copy you will not regret the
investment....alternatively you may regret not taking the advantage presented in this offering.
6 of 6 magicians found this helpful.
Love some of the effects, it was a bonus due to the fact I primarily ordered it for the explanation
for Collard and his presentation. I'd recomend this one for the mentalism effects included in it.
4 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
I wasn't too familiar with John Archer before picking up this DVD set so I wasn't sure how this was
going to be. However, this DVD set is awesome! John is an extremely entertaining and hilarious
performer and his material is very strong. I haven't seen too many mentalists pull of comedy very
well, but John is a definite exception to this. Some of my favorite routines on this DVD set
include:
1. Tossed out Deck
John's performance of the tossed out deck is excellent.
Although I already knew the working of the Tossed out Deck, what I really liked about this routine
was that John explains an EXCELLENT way to switch out a deck. This is by far the most devious deck
switch I have ever seen. There is no need to go digging into your pockets to switch decks or do
anything suspicious. In this switch, you are essentially switching decks right in front of the
audience, and they have absolutely NO clue! For me, this was worth the entire price of the DVD.
2. Magic Square
John also teaches how to do a magic square. What make's John's routine
better than others is because he has designed it so that there are no random large numbers in the
square. In many other routines, there are sometimes very large numbers present relative to the other
numbers, but John's version completely eliminates this possibility.
This is a fantastic
set of DVDs. You will not be disappointed if you pick this set up!
3 of 3 magicians found this helpful.
A few years ago I decided to branch out the type of venues I perform at. I was, previously, strictly
close up strolling. I wanted to break into the stand up scene. A friend of mine, Jim Spinnato, said
that although there are a lot of mentalists, there aren't too many comedy mentalists. He suggested I
build a comedy mentalism routine.
He then turned me on to John Archer's DVD as an example
of a killer comedy mentalism act. It's true. John Archer is an absolute showman, an incredible
entertainer, and extremely funny. His act completely inspired me. In fact his Komedy Killer is now
in my stand up act.
There is so much to be learned from this two DVD set (performance on
one disk, exp on the other). Even if you are a close up magician, there are a couple of great close
up effects as well. He has an incredibly funny torn and restored card effect along with a do as I do
close up card effect. Both are excellent.
His take on the Koran Medallion is brilliant.
Many of the effects on here are modifications that fit John's personality. That's one of the big
lessons from this set that you can learn. Take an effect and make it your own. Man if John doesn't
do that, then nobody does! The guy is clearly a thinker and a definite pro.
Seriously, if
you are not laughing your butt off while watching this, then you're dead. Secondly, if you don't
learn something from this DVD that justifies paying double the retail price, then you watched a
different DVD than I did. I've made enough money performing Komedy Killer to pay for a whole year's
worth of DVD purchases and then some.
There are also some excellent interview pieces and
discussions about how he developed some of the routines, how he got gigs, how he evolved as a
performer, etc. This DVD is bar far the best DVD of the four being reviewed this month. Total GEM!
3 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
John is A1, I love his style and his performance, my only complaint is the DVD quality. This is not
HD and John ......you need to ditch those 2 fools who interviewed you at the end, this is your show
not theirs
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
First off, Mr. Archer is a very funny guy. I'm a fan of his material and the manner in which he
solves issues for his presentations.
The negatives for this DVD are all surrounding the
poor production quality. The lighting was really bad, you can barely understand what is being said
throughout the performances, interview and explanations. Please note, that you will need to spend
extra money to purchase additional items to perform some of the effects.
The positives are
simple. It's John Archer! The effects are great and well thought out. Anyone of these items can
become a real worker into anyone's routines. I already use multiple effects in my stage show. Most
of the effects you will need to adapt to your persona. Nobody can copy Mr. Archer.
This is
a great DVD for reference and to add to your collection. I just wish the production quality was
better.
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Even if you never perform his effects, it's worth watching this dvd for Archer's switching and
dumping techniques, they are so simple and very useful!
One star less because the sound
quality was not entirely consistent.. sometimes loud, sometimes quiet and his thick accent makes it
difficult at times to hear or register what he is saying at times.
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Hello all.
Let me first start out by saying that John Archer is one very funny guy! And some if
not most of the effects that he teaches on this dvd are really good! Also, the price for as many
effects as he teaches you is awesome. BUT, on to why I gave this only3 stars. Two effects That are
among the best, Collard and Komedy Killer, unless you are very lucky to already have, or can find (I
couldn't) the "little something" that makes these effects work, you won't be able to do them!!
Apparently, as far as Collard goes you can buy the effect seperately and get what you need, but
I already paid $45 for this dvd!!!! If it wasn't for the fact that I am disabled and just don't have
the extra money I'd just buy the effect AGAIN for the gimmick. NOT happy.
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Today, when you order "Educating Archer by John Archer", you'll instantly be emailed a Penguin Magic gift certificate. You can spend it on anything you like at Penguin, just like cash. Just complete your order as normal, and within seconds you'll get an email with your gift certificate.
FREE SHIPPING TO THE UNITED STATES.
Educating Archer
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John Archer is Awesome!
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Classic John Archer
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