Magic Tricks

I bought VMRS before any reviews as I'm a fan of Jamie's work and find his visual and written teaching style easy to follow.

Whilst the video downloaded I had a scan through the additional pdf. A wave of disappointment came over me when I saw images and descriptions which matched some content of the The Tracker book (which I had purchased earlier in the year), my disappointment meant I only cast my eyes through the document and didn't digest the content as I was keen to get started on the video to see if my disappointment was valid.

I was worried that I wasn't going to learn anything that wasn't covered in the book.

However, Jamie is very good at taking a concept and building on it, often making you think why didn't I think of that.

My disappointment soon faded as Jamie explained how the concept could be applied to virtual meeting presentations and that's when my light bulb moment happened.

The video itself is made up of recorded performances of Jamie performing online 1 on 1 or for a couple via video call and, I'd describe it as, teaching through conversation with Dee Christopher (big fan of Dee's work too) again via video call - we get so used to the high quality, HD, over produced videos it can catch you off guard when you start watching something that isn't a studio filmed converstion with people sat next too each other (remember those days...). In the UK we are still in lockdown and have been for 8+ weeks.

The video works, tells you what you need to know and given the circumstances I think Jamie has done a good job of giving us the opportunity to perform something for friends, family, colleagues and those that are performing online shows over skype, zoom, Teams etc.

Some of the information is glossed over (re dice) but rewatching and thinking about it logically it will make sense. There's a bit towards the end of the video where Dee references something to clarify an earlier point but I feel it's been put in the wrong place and should have been cut in nearer the point he is referring to.

Overall, as the owner of The Tracker, VMRS does feel like an add on and as a result I feel is slightly overpriced for what you get. I may have held off on the purchase until the reviews came in had The Tracker been mentioned.

I'm also disappointed that my favourite routine from the book is discussed in the video and included in the pdf - but that's just me.

Would I be disappointed as a new purchaser? I don't think I would.

As an owner of The Tracker would I use anything taught in VMRS? Yes, and therefore it's a worthwhile purchase for me. I'm looking forward to trying it out with my colleagues over MS Teams over the coming weeks.

Thank you Jamie for bringing this out, I appreciate the work any creator is putting out at the moment to allow us as performers to take our art in a new direction and challenging us to think about how we can still entertain in the current environment.