These discs are packed with some of the freshest, ingenious material to date! I've really been impressed by Calen's ability to take on such impossible plots and solve them with his off the wall thinking. Taken from his working repertoire the material has been tried and tested, lets take a look..
'VGH' is inspired by Paul Harris's grasshopper effect. There's so much magic going on here I'm going to simplify the description of this effect to just one sentence - signed card to impossible location followed by multiple transpositions. The first phase (card to impossible location) has a beautiful magnetism presentation which I think builds to the climax brilliantly. The second phase is cool, maybe a bit tricky to follow for laymen but definitely some nice ideas you'll want to try out. For me phase one is the gold in this trick, lovely jubbly!
'Pen in Bottle' (self explanatory) is insane! Calen introduces both these objects from his shoe which again helps to cram as much magic possible in to one performance. The trick relies on an interesting principle and some sleight of hand - the method is quite demanding in terms of requirements but everything Calen uses can be sourced/made yourself. I also really like Calen's idea to allow everything to be examined at the end, thumbs up!
'Transport' - you swap mobile phones with your spectator and wrap an elastic band around their phone, in an instant you cause it to vanish and appear wrapped around your phone in their hand! This trick is just awesome! Method wise you do need a gimmick (I haven't tried making it) which looks simple enough to construct and is likely to last a long time. Handling-wise this shouldn't set you back too long and as the performance clips show, this trick has serious impact!
'Suspended' is a WTF trick. Essentially you cause a rubber band to be momentarily suspended in mid-air. A super sneaky method and probably the most visual use of a particular marketed item I've seen.
'Loaded' is an impromptu card under a shoe routine with a deck kicker. I'm a card freak so I loved this. The misdirection is choreographed perfectly and the handling is well within the amateurs grasp. Calen also teaches his method for a centre double which is OK but didn't really grab me - this was effectively a bonus item so I shouldn't moan! So a very strong, workable trick, good stuff.
'Friction' looks awesome - you penetrate a rubber band through a cash note several times. Really clever thinking.
'Sugar free' uses a home made gimmick to allow you to show a chewing gum packet (the Trident gum type) and visually cause a gum to vanish from the packet and appear in your mouth instantaneously. The gimmick to me seems like a lot of work for a very short effect that can't really lead into anything else, but as a one off effect it's super visual and fooling.
'Transit' is a jumping rubber band routine causing the band to hop from one finger to the next etc. This was my least favourite effect as I just felt that the actions are suspicious and non-magical.
Overall this DVD set is full of great ideas and interesting methods which Calen explains well and includes regular reference to tips and subtleties he's gained through experience. The production is of course superb from paper crane - nothing to fault there. Whether you'll want to go and use all these effects I'm not sure, some are going to take a lot of time and preparation which may put you off, but the bottom line is if you do make the effort to learn these effects your guaranteed to astound. Recommended.
Available at http://www.papercranemagic.com/
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