Magic Tricks

I think the "bonus" trick is even better than "Know It All." Both are killer routines, and for $10 you are getting good value for money. I like that the routines, especially "Know it All," are for bigger groups; with three cards selected, you need at least three spectator, so it's bigger than most "pick a card" routines. I have one huge caveat, however, explained below.

First though, let me say these are NOT impromptu effects. Your reset won't take more than a minute, but you'll want to do it outside your spectator's line of vision. (Although, like many effects, you probably won't be doing this a second time for the same audience.) Sleights? Not really, more like a fair amount of misdirection going on. The second effect could be a bit more sleight-y if you choose for it to be. (More than one handling is taught.) If you know some false shuffles, that's great to toss in, but none are taught here, or even suggested. Or, at least, I don't think they are suggested...

Which leads to my only real complaint, but it's a big one: I have so much trouble understanding Mr. DaOrtiz that the explanations are almost lost on me. Especially for the second effect. Watching the performance, I was seriously asking, "How did he do that?" After watching the explanation, I only have a hint as to how it's done. Yes, I certainly a clue, but the speed + heavy accent trips me up. Let me try to be specific.

It's easy enough when Mr. DaOrtiz makes the word "brain" sound like "Brian." That's easy to sort out, right? But with the speed of his talking, things become confused. For instance, at one point in the second effect's explanation, he says something like "...and you put these cards over here..." (I'm being vague on purpose). I wasn't sure if he was giving me instruction as to the method, or if he was telling me that this is what I am supposed to say to the spectator.

Two more examples, and I'll try to be discreet: There's a point where you need to know whether a part of the routine "starts" (let's say) from the top or the bottom. It's crucial, but how do I know whether to start from the top or the bottom? I completely missed it. Second, and again trying not to give too much away: part of the routine has something to do with knowing some numbers. It's not memorization. Just math — I think. Again, the way in which I am supposed to use the numbers was totally lost on me. I completely missed it in the explanation.

So, I will need to watch the video again to be sure what he's saying — and hey, that's not always a bad thing. You will have to decide for yourself if you think you can follow the rhythm of his English. The video is about 25 minutes, by the way, with just about equal time dedicated to both effects.

I think these are great routines, but some closed captioning at the bottom, or perhaps a written PDF summarizing the method would have been helpful here.