I have had the pleasure of watching Jim perform close up for a live audience, and his timeing and moves are impeccable!. Almost like a graceful dance as he moves around the table entertaining and blowing the
spectators minds. ( He's got the X factor)
I started restaurant magic years ago and his book was
instrumental in giving me the extra confidence to find work. He is also a master at stealing watches
while routineing a trick.
( I was blown away at how smoothly he could do that)
I can assure you that anything Jim releases he uses or has used in his performances. Remember, it's not what you do: it's how you do it. I believe Bill Malone made that quote.

How about "Skinny Restaurant Magician"?

And it's obvious that there's a market for a video version of your *Restaurant Worker's Handbook*. Hint, hint.

That is funny...because Turk and I were just talking about that very thing.
How much of a need is there? I mean there are a lot of books already with this type of info.
Jim

There are only two books which specific'ly address this information (and the information is topical, meaning it goes out of date in one or two generations) about restaurants. What works in pubs doesn't work in family restaurants. Conversely, what applies to a fancy restaurant applies to inexpensive joints; applying your book to my job at Pizza Hut has earned me a reputation for being "classy." (One never expects "classy" at a Pizza Hut, I guess.)

And I know of no effective restaurant video. The videos I've seen, with the rare exception of Dan Turcotte's right-there-on-the-job videos, seem lackluster and lack real instruction for getting and keeping the job, handling customers, that sort of thing.

Or was it that you and Turk were discussing you being the Skinny Restaurant Magician?

Jim, PLEASE do a restaurant DVD.

Mormonyoyoman,

That's something that really pi**e* me off about Jim. The guy is soo skinny; not an ounce of fat on his body. He can, and does, eat what ever he likes and never gains weight. Now THAT's real magic.

Mike

I'm not impressed. Skinny, shminny. In my mind, there are three anorexics living inside of my body.

Larry D.

P.S. - I'd welcome a restaurant-related DVD.

Jim,
A restaurant magic DVD would be wonderful. To my knoweldge, there isn't one! Not one! A DVD that explains working in a restaurant, getting a gig, tips, suggestions, maybe demos, that would be great! I just got ahold of your restaurant magic book, it's wonderful. Put anything like that on DVD, and you've got a hit! I'd buy it. The thing is, there are a few books, and of course the magic menu, but we need something on DVD that SHOWS restaurant magic. Plus, we'd like to see you talk about how to achieve success in the restaurant business. I'm almost finished with your book and love it!
-Kev

I think Jim's VISU-ANTICS is very good. I just bought it from him on e-bay and he was nice enough to take the time to sign it for me. There are a lot of quick tricks on it. Will I use them all? No, they don't all match my style of magic. But I did find six effects that do and I'm working on them now. I think over all this DVD is a good value. Most DVDs only have six effects on the whole disk. This one has 20 and most of them are very good! I say buy it, I think you'll like it.

Dan

I don't think this is by any means "the worst":

I liked the following:

*Magic List (one of my favorites - I use this as a carry around in my wallet - very strong)
*Mental Card Stab (very cool, and darn amazing)
*Oil and Water sequence (use it as a in-between sequence, as Jim recommends)
*Hat trick (in the right place, this would kill)
*The Bet (nice use of the Neil Elias multi-card control (no credit, however) - only change I would make would be to just vanish the deck by smooshing the deck into the 3 selected cards - not by by Tenkai'ing them and reproducing them as Jim does)
*Parallel Sleeve Vanish (this actually fooled me and I knew the name of the effect before watching it)

Okay, a few of the items aren't winners (Crushed and Honk, for example) but considering the amount of items in this DVD, I think it's pretty good. Considering some DVDs only have 3 or 4 items and are selling at full price, this seems like a pretty good bargain. I can't believe you can't walk away with something here . . .

Jim: I had just called you a big restaurant magician assuming you've done a lot of restaurant work based off of the previous posts. I've not seen any of your performances or videos, though I've heard your name a lot and believe that I've read some of your ideas maybe in Richard's Almanac or The Magic Menu or something, I'm not sure where.

However, neither your post nor any of the posts afterward have answered any of my questions. Is the material instantly resetable and easily workable for a restaurant. Based on some of your comments, I'm not sure if you expect me to assume an affirmative answer or not. However, this would help me place personal value to whether I want to buy the DVD or not. If it's not easily useable in the restaurant I'm not personally as interested in it.

Someone could produce the best magic video in the world and sell a million copies, but if I can't use the material in the restaurant it's really of no use to me personally. Unfortunately there are a lot of videos with many great effects on the market that fall into this non-restaurant workable category. I don't have any other venues close by that I can perform close-up besides restaurants - besides magic club meetings and family anyway..and they probably get tired of seeing me perform anyway.

dearwiseone: You should get Carl Andrews' video - Making a Living Performing Close-Up Magic. It has a lot of the information your looking for including how to approach restaurants and that sort of thing. It also has quite a few effects that are workable in restaurants. However, even though the effects are good effects, the real value is in his comments he's put at the end where he just sits on a stool and gives his ideas for restaurant magic, etc.

sd

Though not a DVD, Mark Leveridge's Art of Hopping Tables 2-Video set shows in detail, the arrival at the site, setting up, tips, etc. Then actual footage of Mark table-hopping in a real restaurant followed by detailed explanations of not only how the tricks were done but why they were chosen. Currently in the clearance section at L&L publishing (llpub.com)

I don't know there were some really off the wall stuff said on this post. But I beleave that Jim defended himself like a champ. And for that I think I will get it sometime aloing the line.

Clearly people took some un necessary jabs at Jim for petty reasons. Jim indeed made himself look 10 feet taller. Jim, you da man!

LOL, I aggree by his post alone makes me want to get his DVD because it seems like he is confident in his work. And I like that type of performer / teacher.

I watched Visuantics and loved it. The Parallel Sleeve Vanish alone I'd say is worth the price of the dvd. When I met Jim at the Vancouver Magic Circle Weekend of Magic and saw him do the move live, it floored me. It is absolutely one of the cleanest vanishes of a coin I've seen. The DVD gives you exactly what you would expect, a lot of very quick, very visual interludes that you throw in between tricks; some very fast 10 second effects, and some solid stuff that does play well in most restaurants. While some of it isn't mind blowing (eg Honk), these types of things are still quite fun to use! I'm gonna learn Honk and play with it; it actually looks kinda fun!

Just my humble opinion!

I really liked Visuantics. While some of the tricks are pretty angly, there are some extremely visual, strong pieces of magic on this dvd. I tried Crushed out the other day at a party and got some great reactions.

I agree that some tricks are angly but I will still use them! Tricks like crushed, try it out a few times and see what the reaction is like. I also like the hat trick and Metal Card Stab.
Ste