Britain's brightest independent magic magazine

Issue 21 - July 08

Review

Nestor Hato  

A DVD from Close Up Magic and Magiczoom
Available from: www.nestorizer.com
Price: £30.00 (approx) for the DVD , £15.00 (approx) for the Nestorizer card gimmick, or £38.00 (approx) for the two together  

From French magicians Jean-Luc Bertrand and David Stone comes a new DVD featuring the magic of Nestor Hato. This is a name new to me but having watched his DVD I think it is a name we will be hearing more about in the near future. It was Jean-Luc Bertrand who directed David Stone's highly successful two part DVD work The Real Secrets of Magic and the arty and stylish presentation used on those works is evident again on this latest production. In order to ensure that the DVD can be enjoyed by everyone worldwide, there is no speaking on the DVD at all. All the performance segments, sometimes with and sometimes without an audience, are filmed simply with background music (which does get marginally irritating after a while it has to be said!), and the explanations are similarly all done visually. Because Nestor's magic is extremely to the point this format works very well and everything is clear and understandable.  

The magic itself is nearly all cards, there being just one coin effect included. All of the routines are quick, visually surprising and wonderful to watch. Nestor handles cards with a smooth fluidity which is extremely easy on the eye, and his handlings are, for the most part, of nothing more than intermediate difficulty. Much of the card magic is created using a special card gimmick he calls a Nestorizer. Although he claims to have invented a new gimmick, I don’t think this is quite the case, but Nestor has certainly taken the concept and created a large number of amazing effects using it. With the gimmick you can change a card face or the colour of a card back instantly, you can do a clean card rise, a selected card can shoot itself from the deck as it is spread or held, you can use it to secretly swap one or more cards, you can use it for the cleanest card force imaginable plus quite a bit more. If you go to the website shown above you will be able to watch the trailer and you'll soon get the idea.  

The construction of the gimmick itself is detailed in the Extras section of the DVD so you can make your own. It's not particularly difficult to construct but will take a few bits and pieces and a little care. Alternatively you can buy it from Nestor himself. The gimmick is not difficult to use, but it will take a little getting used to. The natural way that Nestor handles the deck shows what can be achieved with practice, but you won't be able to emulate that right from the outset. But it's worth getting to grips with it because of the startling magic it will enable you to do.  

As well as effects using the Nestorizer, there are other terrific flourishes and quick card effects. There are, for instance, a number of flashy instant four Ace productions shown which look fantastic, plus a Royal Flush production, a wonderful (if slightly angly) deck vanish which caught me out completely, and a couple of impossible looking effects where the deck is covered on the table with a glass bowl or plastic box. Every single effect is quick and visual - there are no multiple phase complicated routines to follow, which is very refreshing.  

The coin routine included consists of a couple of matrix handlings. Nicely worked out, very visual to watch, although in terms of method nothing particularly unusual. No gimmicked coins are used, which is a plus, and the explanation is shot upwards from underneath a glass top table which clearly shows everything you need to do to create the assembly.  

The stylised way that this DVD , in line with their other offerings, is produced I do find slightly difficult to watch at times in that there is constant focus pulling, changes of colour, odd angles and of course the incessant musical background. While it can be considered different and arty, which it is, in terms of making the effects easier to watch and understand, it treads in my opinion a very fine line between making the viewing interesting and making it unnecessarily challenging. Clearly if the format of the DVD starts to obscure the clarity of the footage because it becomes too intrusive, it defeats the object, and for my taste this DVD occasionally falls foul of this. Quite a few other DVDs I've seen recently have also played around a little too much with the medium for my liking and it's a trend which I hope DVD producers will not allow to develop too far in the wrong direction. While young viewers may not have any problems with all this, older purchasers may feel slightly disorientated by it all.  

Overall I really like the material on this DVD. When so much card magic is long winded and move obsessed, Nestor Hato's offerings are a breath of fresh air. If you intend to buy this DVD I would recommend you take advantage of the deal and get a gimmick at the same time. That way you will be able to play straight away with the various ideas for it and will get immediate benefit from the DVD contents. ML  

What’s Hot: excellent, visual card magic of eye-popping strength
What’s Not: slight overproduction perhaps on the video format
Star Rating: ****  

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