Recently I've been cramming my head with tricks and ideas from 'The Best of Peter Duffie, Volume 3', my mind is now buzzing and I can't sleep! But in hindsight it's been a worthwhile read.
There are 45 items in this e-book which are vastly varied in plot and difficulty level, so if your particular with the magic you perform this might not be for you as there may only be a few tricks which suit your style. None the less, there is still some cracking magic to be learnt.
I'm not going to talk about each trick as I really would become sleep deprived - for about 2 days! So instead I'll go into highlights, the tricks which for me make this worth purchasing.
Starting off with 'Delusion Assembly' - three selections are noted and tabled, the kings are produced and laid out in a diamond formation, the three selections are dropped on one king where they instantly change into the other three kings, the other three kings have now of course changed into the selections. Very visual, easy to do, great trick!
'Double Decker' sees two random cards lost in the deck and magically located/trapped between two jokers. The handling here caught my attention and will probably confuse magi's!
'The PallaD Principle' is a great self-working method (using dealing), to transpose cards (one at a time) from two opposing packets. The accompanying routine is a multi-phase transposition effect with the premise that the cards which transpose are random choices. It may read lengthy and sound dull to a magician but for laymen I think this a strong solid effect - clear plot with nothing to get caught out on and plenty of opportunity to create a building presentation, good stuff!
'The Fleeing Aces'. The deck is split into two packets, a selection is lost in one packet and the magician stating "the aces shall find your card" cuts the aces into the packet - only to suddenly realise they've been placed in the wrong packet. The magician starts spreading through (as if to remove them) and looking confused you show they've vanished, the spectator can then spread the packet still on the table to reveal the aces trapping the selection. This is a cool effect with a nice sucker element and no duplicates which is always nice to hear!
'Elvis has left the building' is a cool transpo/change effect where a king (Elvis) and two aces (bodyguards) are isolated in the card case. These three cards are then produced in a flourish manner and now in the case is the three other kings (impersonators). The story which goes with this trick instantly makes it an interesting, entertaining routine - commercial!
'Kick Start Aces' is a decent spectator finds the aces routine. The handling has been well thought through to make this seem really fair, there's a quick flow to this creating a great opener into a four of a kind trick
'Mini Mental Revisited' is a previously unpublished trick that I really like! 8 random cards, shuffled, dealt into four piles (two cards in each packet), magician looks away, spec A picks up top card from any packet, spec B takes bottom card from same packet, they each remember their cards, they place them back down to re-construct the packet and then re-assemble the packets in any order (all whilst the magi looks away), magi shuffles, fans the cards asking specs if they can see their selections - and boom, you now know the identities. Seems too fair to be true! Once you know the selections you can, as Duffie says "use this knowledge in your most inventive manner", great thinking!
There are many more strong items such as some takes on the collectors plot and diary predictions but it was only really the above that fits my style.
I found a lot of the tricks put me off due to heavy set-ups, few were the sort which you can rustle up on the sly. Don't get me wrong the effects are nice and will appeal to a lot of people who can afford to prepare a strong opener or are willing to deck switch, but for those who prefer impromptu magic I wouldn't recommend this download - in less you have some extra cash and are happy to come away with just a few performance pieces. The explanations I found a bit intangible at times but Duffie does do a great job adding photo aids where possible.
Overall I think this download is well put together and does contain great magic, but for me I haven't been able to take enough away to feel like highly recommending it. I'll finish by quoting a phrase I often hear magicians say "even if you use one trick, you still get your monies worth", well here you'll definitely get more than one trick and the price is easily affordable, so on that note I'll leave you to come to your own conclusion.
Available at http://www.peterduffie.com/
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