Price$20.00
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedNov 24, 2008
Flying Tonight
Christopher Congreave & Gary Jones
(Based on 1 review)
GJ 3Fly
Coins appear one at a time at the fingertips, visually travel from one hand to the next, at the fingertips, then vanish one at a time. You are left clean and instantly reset!
CC3Fly
3 coins appear one at a time, travel from one hand to another individually. You place a coin away, and using just two coins make one travel across from one hand to the other. You place another away, leaving just one coin to go. But wait, it's too late, the last coin has vanished!! Once again you are left clean and instantly reset!
GJ Coins Across
4 coins travel across one at a time, uses no gaffs. The last coin looks like trick photography! Awesome!
CC Coins Across (with Shell)
4 coins across meets 3 fly! Think of the usual Coins Across, but add the visuals of a 3 fly. It finished in the spectators hand and guess what? You are left clean and instantly reset!
GJ Free Fly
A complete gaff free 3 Fly. Visual magic at it's best!
CC Expensive Fly
The same as CC 3 Fly but uses a Triple Threat gimmick so the displays are so much cleaner.
Bonus
GJ Pop Up Coins Plus
Perfect for the strolling Magician, No Gaffs!
Running Time Approximately 2hr 31min
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Let's take a look at each effect individually, but first let me make it clear in as nice a way as possible that this would have been a much better DVD if Gary Jones was the only performer. Don't get me wrong, Chris Congreave is a nice guy, and I have nothing against him personally, but he was an extremely annoying distraction during the sections where Jones was trying to teach his effects. Additionally, Congreave's effects pretty much seemed to be knock-offs of Jones's effects, and they weren't performed near as well as Jones.
It got to the point where I was getting angry by the annoying interruptions and questions that Congreave was asking Jones. I almost stopped watching because I don't like to feel that much anger toward another human. To add insult to injury, most of the time I couldn't even understand what the heck Congreave was saying because he seemed to be mumbling. Couple that with the fact that he wasn't mic'd when Jones was teaching, and you've got a recipe for one annoyed viewer. Again, I don't dislike Mr. C or even think he's a bad person. I just felt that he was extremely annoying on this video.
Putting aside the annoyances of one of the co-hosts, my overall take on this DVD is that you could probably pass on this if you already have a three fly routine in your repertoire, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's talk about the video quality first:
On a scale from Crap to Rotten Milk . . . it's somewhere in the range of wet diaper. The audio was bad; the lighting was bad; The effect of each performance was lost because the camera was too far back to see anything. Additionally, during the close up explanations, the camera wasn't keeping up with Jones and Congreave, so much of the visual nature of this type of effect was completely lost on the viewer.
Effects
I've already, hopefully, made it clear that Jones is the better performer of the two. One thing that makes him a solid performer is his pantomime skills. He did a great job here, and I assume that his appearances and vanishes were also good, but as I mentioned I couldn't tell due to the quality(?) of the production.
The effect of 3 Fly is simply that 3 coins held at the finger tips of one hand magically vanish and reappear at the finger tips of the other hand. It's a beautiful effect when done right, so the question is . . . did Jones and Congreave do it right? The answer . . . I'm not sure because the camera work and lighting were so bad. From what I could see, I'll try to review some of the effects, most of which are variations of the 3 Fly concept.
GJ 3 Fly:
There is a very pretty Hanging Coins sequence performed by Jones here, but the rest of it was very difficult to see. The camera cut at bad times; The lighting is bad, and of course during the explanations we are bombarded with boring babbling from our friend Chris Congreave. I'm sorry to be so harsh on this point, but it really was a huge, and I mean huge annoyance that the video could really have done without. The only thing as annoying, maybe even more annoying was the camera work . . . not keeping up with the performer's hands . . . not knowing when to zoom in or out . . . bad lighting, and oh, did I mention bad lighting and poor camera work!?
CC 3 Fly:
This is pretty much the same routine as GJ above, but not as smooth and of course . . . bad camera work and bad lighting
Additional 3 fly ideas:
Mr. C., Please for the love of all that is good and holy, stop talking and let Mr. Jones talk! During this section we are treated with a beautiful addition for the 3 fly using a glass.
GJ Coins Across:
This was the epitome of what drives me crazy about many performers . . . Too confusing and too fast . . . No clarity of effect at all, and again with the interruptus Maximus . . . Mr. C, and his pal the bad lighting and camera work. The explanation was very messy and annoying, and Chris made it worse. I will say that this effect does have a nice kicker at the end, however.
CC Coins Across With Shell:
Yet another very confusing, very annoying, very bumble-y routine with a bit of light at the end of the tunnel - that's where the light went, because it sure wasn't in the room when they filmed - with the in-the-hands ending which could be applied to multiple other routines.
GJ Free Fly:
This is pretty much the same old same old that we already have seen on the previous effects, with one addition . . . bad camera work, bad lighting and super-fast-and-hard-to-follow performance. Oh wait, that's the same as the other ones too.
CC Expensive Fly
One word: Annoying
One Redeeming Quality: Very clean vanishes
One Redemption Canceling Caveat: It requires the Triple Threat gimmick which is a very expensive coin gimmick.
Bonus: GJ Pop Up Coins Plus:
I honestly couldn't tell what the routine was due to the . . . wait for it . . . bad camera angle and bad lighting.
Final Thoughts
Look folks; most people who know me would tell you that I'm a pretty positive and upbeat guy, yet here you read this review, and I've got not much nice to say. My job as a reviewer is to give my opinion as to whether or not you should spend your hard-earned cash (in this case, only $20 bucks) on certain products. My guess is that if the DVD lighting and camera work weren't so poor, I'd recommend this DVD to those unfamiliar with 3 Fly. However, with the production problems, there wouldn't be much schooling you could get from this product. From what I can tell, Gary Jones is a pretty well seasoned performer, and if you have a really High-Def TV, you might be able to get something out of this DVD, but my vote is a 1.5 out of 5 stars with a final status of rubble.