In your opinion,Which is the Best DVD on Sponge Ball Magic and Why?

I have yet to find a good spongeball DVD. The best source I have found is "the sponge book". I like that as a source, because it was written before sponges were considered "beginners tools" or "kids magic" so the ideas and concepts are creative and beautiful.

I have my sponge DVD on Diminishing sponges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awvDOjE_HOE&feature=related

Ian's routine is very good. You would probably profit by getting it.

However, the bulk of the sponge ball DVD's are horrible. In fact, when you get right down to it, most magic DVD's have a certain fatal flaw. When the beginner buys the DVD, he apes the performer without understanding why the performer does what he does. So we end up with a bunch of bad copies of reasonably good performers.

Learn from books or from teachers.

At a recent David Roth lecture, he told of an incident when Darwin Ortiz was lecturing. Darwin was talking about books. A kid in the front row kept interrupting with "I can't learn from books. I need DVD's. I can't learn from books."

Finally, Darwin got fed up with it. He leaned over and asked, "Is it the capital letters? Or, perhaps, the spaces between the letters?"

As far as currently available books on sponge ball magic are concerned, The Sponge Book is one of the best bargains there is. There is stuff there that you won't find on the DVD's. So you can fool all your friends who have the DVDs.

I will agree that most sponge ball DVD's are not that good.

But, come on, L & L's world's greatest has lots of goodies from routines by Roger klause, Johnny Thompson, Eugene Burger, Steve Darci, Frank Garcia and Albert Goshman.

I've learned a lot from this DVD.

I'm not knockin books, I own the sponge book. I just think this DVD is worth having.

J

I do material by all of them, which I learned ... from books. And there is more material in the books than there is on a single DVD.

Granted, the total price of the books is far greater than the DVD, but there is so much in, for example, Roger Klause In Concert, Polished Polish Presentations, etc, that the DVD pales in comparison.

And you won't end up being a bad copy of a great magician if you learn the material from a book, because you won't imitate what you see on the screen.

The best sponge ball book is Frank Garcia's Sponge Ball booklet, not the out of print hard bound but the booklet now being printed and sold by Magic Inc. It has the 10 count routine which even fools you after you learn it well.

If you must have a DVD then consider the Magic Methods video, it has a few good items on it for the beginner. It has the 10 count on it as well.

I believe you mean the DVD by Magic Makers. Magic Methods, Jerry Mentzer's company, does not produce any DVD's.

I haven't watched it yet, but Jay Noblezada has a spongeball dvd available at penguinmagic.com.

Isn't the preference of book vs DVD a generation thing? Don't get me wrong, books are of course worthwhile, normally much better value for money as they contain a mutlitude of effects, but sometimes you need to physically see what is happening to truly understand it. And appreciate it.
I bought a Pat Page sponge ball DVD last week & although he races through everything at light speed it was still really nice to see a pro at work.

It is always nice to learn a trick from someone directly. You get to see what the moves are supposed to look like and you get to see a good performance, which can help kick you off with some patter and I think that is the draw of DVDs, that it's easier.
You have to work to learn things from books even if you like doing it, and in books you really only get partial patter, if any at all. I think the can't learn from books cliche us all part of our instant gratification society.
Just my thoughts.
Alex

It could be. But more the loss for the younger generations and their audiences. When you have 300 guys doing Jay Noblezada's sponge ball routine exactly the same way he does it, the value of the routine is greatly diminished. Books force you to interpret.

The advantage that I have over someone who refuses to learn from books is that I have thousands of times more resources available to me than they do. Also, I can lay dozens of routines out on the table in front of me and compare them in minute detail without having to watch all of them all the way through.

I am not without DVD's or VHS tapes. I have almost every C&B DVD that has been marketed. And I have watched all but two of them. I had to take time out to rest!

My biggest complaint about DVD's is that most of the people who are putting them out have NO idea how to shoot a video. Every idiot with a flip phone thinks he can put out some kind of a video. I reviewed DVD's, books and tricks for MUM for several years. Some had good material and bad audio. Some had great audio and video but lousy magic. There are only a handful of people who put out consistently good DVD's with quality audio and video, as well as properly credited material. One is L&L. Meir Yedid also does this. Stevens did it. There are others, as well. Koz keeps his quality high.

Back as late as the 1980's, when VHS was just getting to be a real force in magic, you couldn't get a decent quality video without paying for the use of a really good camera. You also really needed someone who was a decent operator to run it as well. Studio time was not cheap. So the performers had to do material they knew.

Now, people are buying $300 digital cameras and they think they are getting studio quality. They aren't. But if they were, the only part that would be high quality would be the quality of the video, not the material.

If you wrote a book in 1980, and you wanted to get someone to publish it, they would have to read it, like it, and then subject it to their editorial board. These guys would verify all of it, and by the time your book came out, you had been waiting for about a year. Your outlay for a book would be in the low 5 figures, because there is a minimum order, etc.

Now you can write a book and have hard copy in your hand FROM A REAL PRINT SHOP in less than two weeks. Three to four weeks if you want a hardback. And there is no minimum order. So anybody can publish a book on anything they want to.

One of the reasons I have a lot of respect for Richard Kaufman is that he is meticulous about the material he publishes. He gets it right.

There is a humonguous mound of natural fertilizer out there in DVD's, books and tricks.

Your points are valid Bill. Quality & value for money are hard to find these days. Although I like to see an effect performed as it should be on a DVD, there are many releases that fail to inspire. And almost every demo put out is just flickering lights & people screaming at something you can't see. Anyone with anything worthwhile to offer doesn't need to shoot a demo like that. Sadly, I can't see that changing.

Thankfully there is some gold out there on DVD. As you mentioned I have never seen a bad L&L release, the Worlds Greatest Magic sets are fantastic & you get so much for your money.

Interpretation of books does have more flexibility granted, but also without guidance can be interpretated incorrectly! But you're right, people blindly follow someone elses routine & patter to the letter which I think is very bad. Even if an effect is good you should always be asking - can I improve it, & tailoring the patter to fit your personality is paramount I feel.

Todays world allows us to see so many things we couldn't 20 years ago & has made the acquisition of magic quick & easy. All this is great, but it does breed laziness with so many willing to accept a fast food, instant version of an art that really shouldn't be hurried.

Old man rant over!

I have seen DVD's put out by people who couldn't actually perform the tricks they invented, so they hired someone else to do the performance. I can understand this in the case of someone who is strictly a builder of apparatus. But I can't understand it when it's a card trick, especially one that requires very little skill.

We live in a world of multiple standards. Criss Angel gets panned because he allegedly uses stooges and plants gaffs here and there. Cyril does the same things and gets praised.

I would imagine that that is because more people have heard of Chris, therefore fewer people are intimidated by Cyril. What do I know?

The main reason I don't like Chris is just because if someone finds out I have done magic they nearly always ask if I "do that trick Chris angel does when he -whatevers a whatever- and the people freak out" It was the same when Blaine was really popular.
I have nothing against them personally, and no real opinion about their magic. I've kind of settled down with the too many opinions about stuff that doesn't affect me and is none of my business anyway thing.

At least I'm trying.

I think Brad Burt's "All About Sponge Balls" DVD is one of the best. His private lesson video series are all great in my humble opinion.

Just a note that I watched it on VHS. You know it's good when you are willing to sit through a whole VHS tape. Brad's material actually made me want to practice which is no easy task.

I purchased the Jay Noblezada spongeball dvd but I haven't had a chance to watch it.


Jeff

I'm not necessarily looking for routines to copy, but as being a beginner to sponge ball magic I'm looking for a good DVD to teach the basics.

I know several DVDs were mentioned on this thread and I was just wandering which ones focused on beginner to intermediate level handling.

Also, I know some mentioned Noblezada's DVD but no one really seemed to have anything to say about the content. Does anyone have their two cents they would like to add about the DVD?

Thanks,
Noah

Which sucks.

Posted: Nov 4, 2010 11:02pm
The one I always recommend is the CHEAPEST and the BEST.
The Patrick Page DVD on Spongeballs.

Great ideas, technique, etc.

The Nozebleeda DVD is so bad on so many levels it needed it's own reply above. And penquin had the nerve to call it "the last word on spongeballs". very irresponsible.

p.s. Patrick Page's DVD on the TT is also great. Great advice and ideas from a long time Pro. I'd rather get those DVDs from Pat Page with 50 years experience than DVDs from kid in sunglasses any day. Makes good sense.

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I'm going to go with it. Someone else had also suggested Page's DVD to me to start off with. It sound's like a winner.
I appreciate it.
-Noah

Noah,
You might want to consider Steve Dacri's Sponge ball Toolbox & DVD. Good background on a number of slights and some routines. For sample routines, see The Secrets of Sponge balls in the World's Greatest Magic series. Both are good reference DVD's and Dacri's is particularly clear (in my opinion). I found The Sponge Book, from Magic Inc. to be dated but okay.
Sponge balls are great fun -- magic happens in the audience's hands -- it just doesn't get any better than that!
Hudson