Title: Triumph by Oz Pearlman
Medium: DVD
Arena: Close up, strolling
Available: Any shop, Penguin Magic, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies

Triumph is, in my opinion, one of the greatest card tricks created and can be found in books starting with Dai Vernons original in Stars Of Magic and various video projects. For those not familiar with Triumph the original presentation is gambler vs magician with the magicians triumph at the end. Basically a card is selected and the deck is shuffled with half of the cards face down and half face up then the cards magically all turn the same direction except for one, the selection. Triumph plays very strongly and if you do it you’ll see why it is one of the best tricks you can learn with a regular deck of cards. I’ve done the original version for years and used the display I learned from Daryl Martinez, which is taught on this DVD by the way. On this project Oz Pearlman, best known for his association with Penguin Magic, presents and instructs on the original routine and several others.

Production wise this is a mixed bag. The sound is good but out of sync for much of the DVD, which drives me nuts. The camera used was good with suitable lighting but the camera handling is terrible. I am not sure if they, the producers, felt they were being artistic making the camera work jerky and pointing at the wrong place or moving it so it is not level. It doesn’t make it look artistic to me at all it just looks like they grabbed a 12 year old off the street, handed him a digital camcorder and said ‘roll ‘em’. They, in meeting the needs of their teen street target group, tossed in the required dark performance pieces with bad music on the title pages. On the other hand Oz did a descent job performing, he did miss more natural breaks in cutting that I thought possible, and his instructions were clear and well thought out beforehand. Over all the production was pretty good but could have been much better, the jerky camera bothered me, they made Blair Witch look like it was shot with stabilizers.

The material starts out with the original version, which can be found all over the place, and it is a great routine. I suggest you learn the display Daryl uses and incorporate it. There is a version called Renegade that is very easy and I liked it a great deal, perfect for when you don’t have a table. Some one does need to tell Oz that the mix up shuffle, as he calls it, is the Slop Shuffle. Five other versions are taught including one where the four aces are produced, which will require some practice, and an interesting color change with the deck. I liked the color change but Oz flashes big time before the unsteady eye of the camera, it is pretty surprising to the spectator to see the color change. Oz’ Emerge Triumph ends up with the deck divided by suits ace to king order. Pretty nice. You also learn Daryls display and a nice up the ladder display.

If you want to learn various versions of Triumph this DVD might interest you. Oz does explain things well and you’ll find a couple of the routines worth performing. I’m adding Renegade to my walk around, it is very close to what I’ve tried in the past but fine tuned. If you already are happy with your Triumph routine this may not have much to offer you. Overall not badly done but they missed the potential of making it better.

Allways nice to see such a honest reviews that also say the cons and not just hype someones product. Thanks santa...

J-M

Great review MagicSanta, but what do you think of the value?
In the UK this is £22-25 approx. which buys a lot more in terms of a good book containing several routines. Most of us will already perform a version of triumph, so does Penguin deliver value with several flavours (sorry, flavors!) of this classic? I know that a lot depends on what you are after, but I was just curious.
The last couple of DVDs I have picked up were multi-effect discs from Craig Petty which sold for £15 each, and were a great buy.
Thanks!