Do the pins come with the DVD?

Two farts and a parking garage? Two men and a baby? Hmmm is this a hint Bill to a new career for you perhaps? Actor?

J

I just purchased Bruce B's version. I like Bruce's stuff and I also like Chris's stuff.

Maybe I'll pick up Chris's see how they compare.

J

The 'package' deal from Ellusionist came with 4 2" safety pins. Mayhew found that shorter safety pins work better than the 3" ones recommended in "Grab that pinhead".

I think the demo video did Chris Mayhew and Mayhew's effect "Safety!" a disservice. On the DVD with none of the demo video cuts, the effect is beautiful and strong (and follows the rule of three). Chris's humor is actually quite humorous and appropriate.

Both times I watched the demo video (a month apart), I could not see the beauty or strength of the effect and I thought the humor was trying too hard (or coming on too strong in such a brief time). It was a clear NO to buying it to me despite my interest in the plot.

It wasn't until I saw the comments here that I decided to buy the video despite the demo. IMHO, a much better demo video would be the first three or so minutes of the actual DVD (the brief description of why he developed this effect and the effect demoed uncut). Perhaps this DVD is selling like hotcakes and it was only me that didn't like the demo...

Ben, you captured it perfectly that small changes can turn good into great ("one degree"!!).

Chris, I love this routine. Just bought it. Truthfully, I have never been a fan of the linking pins...until seeing you do it.
The three-phase structure is a thing of beauty. Really great!

John G

My initial review of Safety! by Chris Mayhew

Safety! is a strong, beautiful three-phase routine where the pins can be examined immediately before and after the routine. As I mentioned earlier, for me, it plays much stronger on the DVD than in the demo video. See comments from Bill Abbott and John Guastaferro above about how strong this routine is (presumably in person).

The entire video is 23 minutes and all but about 10 critical seconds of the detailed explanation is shot from the spectator's point of view (dead on). As a result, most of the work is completely invisible from the camera's point of view during the explanation. In addition, they made an "artistic" choice of having the camera man madly pulling focus between Chris's face and his hands. As a result, Chris's hands were completely out of focus at some key points in the explanation, which drove me a little crazy.

Fortunately, sanity prevailed and they cut in a few ~3 second exposed views (totally in focus) to show you what actually was happening. By pausing the video at these key points, you can figure out exactly what is happening and how he exactly holding the pins (a valuable thing for making things invisible). I would have loved the entire routine shot from an exposed view (or two) but there is enough there to learn this strong routine.

Mayhew clearly has thought about this routine a lot (over eight years) and imparts a lot of useful information during the explanation. I really liked that he stated one enhancement stemmed from his difficulty in making a Pindemonium phase look as good as the way Garret performed it. I had the same exact problem and I just kept figuring I needed more practice (and kept wishing for a better exposed view in "Grab that pinhead"). Chris's enhanced handling removes this problem.

Crediting appears good to me (but I am not a crediting guru). For one key idea, he didn't mention Bruce Bernstein like I expected but instead referenced a Michael Weber book from 1991.

Overall, a strong beautiful three phased linking pin routine that I believe I will use instead of the Pindemonium and Bernstein routines I have been fiddling with for a long while. I haven't performed it yet, so I cannot comment on how it actually plays yet.

I have never really thought about doing the linking safety pins until I saw Chris perform it. It looked so magical. I have been practicing this now and am about ready to start performing it. I can't wait to see the reactions it gets.

Keep up the great work, Chris!

Didn't Dreamweaver use three pins?

I received the DVD+pins (ungimmicked) today, and well, that's pretty amusing. I love them. I have one regret though. You can't hand them out for examination while they are linked. For what I know, the linking pins by Gaetan Bloom can be examined while linked.

I was looking for this and cant seem to find where to pick this up? Safety by Chris Mayhew ?? Anybody know?

Ellusionist used to offer it, but I see they no longer do. Mayhew explains the routine on his "At the Table" lecture, however.

Cool thank you