I picked this pre-release up as part of the Penguin Platinum Club.

I was up until 2 a.m. watching the dvd and made up two of the tricks ( Tripple Shot and Sweet Nothing ) and performed them for friends his morning at the Starbucks we have in a Grocery Store.

The DVD is beautifully filmed/produced. Real thought went into this. Greg demos the tricks for Dan Hauss in studio and then there are multiple LIVE performances for people at the coffee shop. Watching Greg perforrm for REAL people are golden lessons.

These aren't just cute/back of the cerial box tricks. Some have killer mentalism attributes. Stain Alive can be used for cold readings/personality tests.

Tripple Shot is about the cleanest/organic Mind Control you could do.

A few tricks are not limited to just coffee houses. A couple require switches and ditches, but Greg developed such motivated actions, you will become better at what you do by learning just a few of these.

Greg, as usual is VERY funny and dots the I's crosses the T's on each piece to make them workers.


I'll just post the trick list/short descriptions and I'll link demos if it was also a download.

1) Coffee Break: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2890

2) Stain Alive: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2886

3) Tall Order: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2940

4) Venti Diagram: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2950

5) Quarter Cup: It's coin in a bottle, but with a coffee cup. No coin gaffs or gaffing the cup.

6) Tripple Shot: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2947

7) Sugar Substitute: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/2945

8) Flick Stick: A stir stick is slib through a cup sleeve and the audience member pulls the stick through the top, or bottom while greg holds the sleeve. Greg shows another way and while they hold the stick, Greg passes the sleeve right through. They examine the sleeve and it hasn't been torn and is still glued shut.

9) About Face: Greg Holds the cup, with the Starbucks Sleeve around the cup, clearly showing the Starbucks Mermaid. He holds a napkin up to it and...the image vanishes. He takes the sleeve off and the image is on the inside. He puts back the sleeve and does it again, but this time the sleeve vanishes and is found on the inside of the cup!

10) Sleeveless in Seattle: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/3123

11) Sweet Nothing: One the STRONGEST on the DVD. Pure magic theater. After some brilliant auditory subterfuge,Greg tears open a sugar packet and pours the sugar into his fist. He drop the packet pieces onto the audience members hand and when he opens his hand....the sugar is gone.

Greg then takes straw ( pseudo magic wand ) and tears off the paper and pours out the sugar from the straw into their hand. They really reacted strong to this on the DVD and when I performed it.

12) My Cup Runneth Over: A trick in 3 acts ( no prep ). Greg removes a straw from its paper sleeve and tears off a piece and puts it on top of the cup as he demonstrates static electricity. The straw acts as a wand and the paper animates. THEN he uses the straw to cause the sleeve of the cup to raise up. THEN the straw causes the cup to eerily move back towards the edge of the table.

"Impromptu" is a bit of an overstatement. There is "prep-bar," "restroom," and "at home," setups involved in a number of these tricks. Nothing that's unmanageable. I just find a lot of the tricks to be less than lackluster. Got a kick out of the fact that a trick didn't work during his explanation. Not one I'll be relying on.

Here's the major problem for me. The effects are not for professionals. Pros wouldn't be sitting in a coffee shop and impressing people with these things. However, the price tag is hefty enough to imply that there's pro money to be made with these tricks. Not so much. Shelved.

What I liked most is that these are tricks you can do with just regular items you find at Starbucks. way too many card tricks out there, but this is one of a kind. Also, it's not very hard to learn these techniques, no extremely difficult sleight of hand. Some of the tricks I like more than others. I wouldn't use them all, but the ones I would use definitely make this worth it.

I picked up this DVD figuring that majority of it would be either impractical or not my style..... But I was dead wrong. Not only does this DVD have something for everybody on it, it's some of the most practical material I've encountered in a while. The majority of the material can be set up at the prep bar at the coffee house and what can't be, is honestly worth the extra work to be able to preform it. Now every time I pass a Starbucks my mind doesn't automatically think " $6 coffee" I just think of all the possibilities 👍

These are some awesome effects thaught by a VERY clever and good magician. You should defifitely get this if you liked the trailer and think you wiill be using this. But keep in min you need a STARBUCKS to perform most of these tricks. And also you need stuff from there to practice with.
Overall - this is awesome.

I'm also a Platinum member and basically agree with Zombie's review; however, considering that the DVD is mostly (7 out of 12) a compilation of previous releases, it should be advertised as such.This is why I feel only 4 stars are justfied. On a positive note, the 7 previous releases would cost nearly $70 USD if purchased separately, so the DVD is a tremendous value for those Greg Wilson fans who don't already have any of the material.

This there are so many clever tricks using things found in any coffee house. If you busk this is an easy living hanging out at Starbucks. Sleep till noon. Go to the coffee house. Entertain a few hrs. And go hang with a pocket full of dough. Well thought out. Well taught. Also very entertaining.

Typical Wilson stuff -- doable and well worth the price! Three
of the effects are easy and you should be doing them after a
few minutes of practice. The others require more effort and
prep. But just going into a Starbucks and performing just the
three is good enough. Coffee Break uses the Starbuck pastry bag but I was able to do the same effect as a local bakery that served coffee and had the stir sticks. I used their pastry bag. It was a little more cumbersome but worked. Also,
worth the money just to see Wilson perform.

I dont have much to say about the individual illusions other than Gregory Wilson does an excellent job of explaining how to make the illusions look great. There is already a review that tells what comes on the dvd. this is a great deal to get all the coffee house illusions on here plus some.

Plain and simple if you are looking for some simple illusions that you can use to amaze your friends at Starbucks next time you are there with some friends or you just want to impress some people while you are at Starbucks this is a great DVD for that. I for one am planning to use some of these illusions to impress my girlfriend before i pop the question. Great work as always Gregory

Every single effect on this dvd is practical, fun, awesome, and easy to do. I'm a huge fan of Gregory's. Not only is he very creative but he has one of the best personalities I've seen when it comes to magicians or people in general. I've seen his stage show and I've met him once; I buy most of his dvds just to study how he interacts with people. This dvd is one of the best purchases I've made. Golden impromptu material on here. Buy it!