I was wondering if anyone has watched "Doves 101" by Andy Amyx? I was going to buy a few Clark DVD's today, but this one caught my eye and it looks like it has a few more effects that I am looking for on it, but it doesn't seem as popular as the Clark videos. What do you guys think about it?

You really need both, plus Greg Frewin's complete set. Why, because all have there methods that may or maynot fit your style. There is no one way to produce doves. Look at all you can and decide for yourself which ones will make you create the best dove act around.

Information is knowledge and power.

I wouldn't necessarily say buy all of them. I would buy maybe one or two and from there you can decide whether or not you like what you see or want to explore some more. Like wmhegbli said there is no one way to produce a dove, but you also do not need to go spent a ton of money on vidoes.

Thanks for the replies. I already own General Grants DVD which is wonderful, and I was trying to decide what the next one I should buy was. I think Ill go with Andys because it says he covers Doves Splitting, which is one of my favorite effects...although I do plan on getting the Clark videos eventually as well.

Andy's shows many many effects, Tony's shows effects but more in like a routine where as Andy's is like four sleeve toss effects -explination-four invisible harness effects-explination-four dove holder effects-exlpination-and tail steals and dumping-explination. Kind of a step by step process

sperris

Al, my suggestion would be to get Tony Clark's unmasked first. Tony goes into much more detail on the care, feeding and training aspects than Andy does. Andy does an effect, shows you how to do it and then moves on. Tony goes over the effect several times from different angles. I'm not sure what your experience level is but in my opinion, Andy's video is very very basic. Guess that's why it's called Doves 101. Greg Frewin's video set is $150 and that's a lot of money if you are just starting out.

You can never have enough information. I've been doing this for a long long time and am still buying books and videos on the subject. You said you have Gen Grants vid and that's an excellent choice to learn an act and gather some ideas, but you need to know about the care and training before delving into the actual effects.

Dave,

I have been doing dove magic and caring for my doves for about 4 years now. It's just that the dove magic I used to do was totally prop based. I had tons and tons of dove props and I am just now getting into the body loads and stuff. General Grant has helped me immensley in choosing the correct stuff for regular dove productions with silks and stuff. Really the only reason I was going to get Andys video instead was because of the dove splitting, which is a topic that I have not seen covered in any other video or in any books. If anyone has any idea where I can get information on the effect, that would be great. I have looked and looked and his was all I found.

Dovemagic9,
I would still recommend Andy's Video. Not only is he a very very nice guy and will take the time to discuss things with you he covers not only different steals in his video but different "hook-ups" methods as well. His really isn't any more basic that Tony's is, Andy may cover less as far as training or whatever, but I think that may have been because his video came out aroudn the same time Tony's did and Clark already covered training etc. for about 3/4 of the video. I own both and owned Tony's for about two years before I got Andy's and personally I got more out of Andy's video than I did Tony's. Another bideo I got a lot out of was Shimada's, but he just rawks and I could watch that like forever...

sperris

Thanks for the info Sperris. Andy's video definitly sounds like it's worth the money. Going to order it tomorrow.

I didn't mean to infer that Andy wasn't a nice guy or anything like that. Just that I found his video as I said, very basic. I only saw one hookup, the pinky flip, that he used for every production, but then Tony only shows one on his videos as well. There are so many videos out there, it really is hard to pick which to get first. Another good instructional video is by Victor and Diamond. They show several different methods. Pinky, straight and also a splitting routine.

No worries Dave, but Yeah Andy uses the pinky for several steals with the invisible harness but also shows the deceptive dove split method. When you get into the holders section is where he has different hook up methods from what I remember.

sperris

Could be. I haven't watched his video in awhile. I may just have forgotten. All I remember is the pinky. Maybe because I use that a lot anyway.

Yeah,
When Andy goes into the dove split he shows two more hook-ups.
Kyle

I own most of the dove videos out there and Andys' video is great. I have bought other products from him and he is great to deal with as well. A true professional.

Take care, Bry

Buy as many videos and books as you can. Collect them all, and learn from them all. A lot of information will be repeated, but at the same time, you will learn something new from every video.