Issue 30 - Jan. 10
Professional Opportunist Volumes 1 and 2
James Brown
Available from: www.rsvpmagic.com
Price: £17.99 each
I have been a fan of James Brown since reviewing his first DVD, ‘Still Fancy a Pot of Jam.’
The production quality as you’d expect from Russ Stevens (RSVP Magic) is once again excellent. The performance footage is shot in Mark Bennett’s ‘Illusions bar’ in Bristol which is the perfect location for the shoot.
For the explanantions sections of the DVD, James is joined by Ravi Mayar, and together they make the explanations clear and precise. Occasionally, I noticed there are slight discrepancies between the effect shown in performance and the explanation taught. This, however, is not a criticism as it is obvious from watching James in performance that he improvises when performing to suit the situation in hand.
Here’s a quick look at what’s on the two DVDs:
From volume one my favourite routines have to be ‘Ithwich’ and ‘Cerebral Steal’, although the other four routines also deserve merit.
With ‘Ithwich’, two cards are cleanly shown and placed into the spectator’s hand. A card is selected only to immediately vanish. And you guessed it, it appears between the two cards held by the spectators. This is a great magic effect!!
‘Cerebral Steal’ is probably the most talked about effect on the chatrooms from these DVDs. A mix of magic and suggestion make a spectator lose their memory which is then followed up by an amazing mind read. It is obvious from watching this and other routines on the DVDs that James has started to mix hypnosis/suggestion techniques into his working repertoire.
From volume two ‘Thought of Card Under Watch’ and ‘Thought of Triumph’ stand out for me.
‘Thought of Card Under Watch’ is one of James’ favourite routines and is a mix of misdirection and audience management.
Using a technique by Kostya Kimlet ‘Thought of Triumph’ is a great in the hands triumph routine where the cards are actually mixed face up and down and a thought of card is revealed to be the only face down card.
Most effects on these two DVDs I would say are aimed at the intermediate cardworker but it is all material for the real world. Many magicians these days put out material that is impractical. There is nothing contained within these DVD that is not usable. The fact that they are all performed in live performance shows this.
Another good release from James Brown and RSVP Magic. PS
What’s Hot: Excellent production quality some really good routines
What’s Not: Nothing really
Star Rating: ****
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