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Aus Special user Australia 996 Posts |
Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
With A Deck Of Cards By Aldo Colombini I have to admit that my exposure to Aldo’s work has been rather limited, I have attended one of his lectures and purchased his “Standing Room Only” DVD and thought and still think that he did some great work on those occasions. So with those in my mind as past experiences I was hoping that my next experience would be the same with the purchase of “Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace with a Deck of Cards”. However I was left a little disappointed. Before I begin to explain why I will let you in on my thoughts on what makes great material so you can place my expectations in stark contrast to what Aldo’s book offered. If you excuse the extended metaphor, I believe a great material is like fine surgery: you need strong diagnosis skills, a light but sure touch, an ability to transform the interior without disturbing the beating heart and this I believe is a reflection in a magician’s choice of effects. An example of the above is the DVD Misers Dream by Chris Capehart which is only relatively new product on the market. He has added his own touch by injecting his own presentational style, he has diagnosed aspects of the effect that could only be workshopped in live performances and through trial and area well transforming it into something that appears new well maintaining the pureness of the effect (the beating Heart). This further comes to the forefront in tips in performing slights, observations during performances that limits particular elements such as conditions or venerable aspects of the trick or enhances others. This is what I consider as 1 percent aspects of a trick, things that don’t seem much but add greatly. This to me shows the magician has taken the time and effort in his magic which really pursues me to consider his material, after all, if it’s good for him to use and has spent so much time working out these aspects there must be something in it right? This leads me then to Aldo’s offering, I’m sure that Aldo does much of the above but I didn’t really felt much if any of this shined through in this booklet. My first impression was how small the book was, only 24 pages. Maybe I shouldn’t have expected more then that for the $10 price tag attached to it (well in my case it costed $26 Australian inc postage) but I would have rather a few effects explained in detail then 35 routines crammed into 24 pages. I acknowledge that the effects in many cases were contributions by others and Aldo may have not personally had any experience with any of them, so therefore may have had nothing to add but I’m sure the creators would have something more to say if given the luxury of time and space. The routines themselves range between the mathematical and those that require fundamental card handling. Each effect is explained in a few paragraphs which isn’t surprising considering the limit of total pages this booklet has but none the less try’s to get away with. The effects are titled, followed by it’s creators name with the subheadings “effect” then “performance” which to me could have been reduced to simply one subheading given the vague description given under some of the effects. Try this: A card is selected and lost in the deck. The card is revealed in a very amusing and surprising way! Does that sound like that could describe heaps of other effects you know? Anyway, the whole thing just felt rushed, or maybe a job done over a weekend, and marketed in a way that those books often are that boast mass of effects rather then the quality of them. Maybe my expectations are high but then again I would have paid twice more for the privilege if it meant many of the aspects I have already pointed out that I appreciate. In the end I can’t really know why Aldo wrote the book in this way, maybe the following clue can be found in a paragraph from the introduction: “I like to write books on card magic. First, it gives me pleasure knowing that you read what I write; second…well, I’m almost embarrassed to tell you this so put your ear next to the page and I’ll whisper it to you only…it keeps me from having to work a regular job.” Magically Aus |
trickytrav Veteran user 391 Posts |
I have to disagree.
I bought this and a cut above the rest £7.99 each ($16) and have found 7 or 8 great effects in both that I will use I'm already using Dirty Harry a terrific cards to pocket routine.Any book that gives you this many usable effects is worth it especially at these prices.35 tricks in each book absolute bargain. |
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