This is yet another sincere effort that falls short. Luke Dancy seems like a sweet, casual guy who is passionate for creating and performing magic. However this DVD did not allow me to catch his enthusiasm.

The DVD is shot at strange angles at some points, and the sound levels of Luke’s voice during the explanations are not as clear as in the performances, all of which take place outside on the streets of Las Vegas. Some of the effects are kind of long, and you can see the boredom on the spectators faces at some points. Sure the reaction at the end is strong, but part of our job as entertainers is to make every moment of an effect interesting, not just the end.

Most of the effects are somewhat disappointing. There’s a long winded version of Doc Daley Last Trick, which also brings a gimmick into the plot. The original effect is one of the cleanest in all of magic, and why anyone would want to add gimmicks and kicker endings to it is a mystery to me.

There is a four ace production which is especially lame, mostly because there are hundreds of these in print already, which makes me think, “Do we REALLY need, or even WANT to learn another?”

There is an interesting effect with a pencil, however you need to already own a marketed item in order to perform the effect. It’s not an expensive gimmick, but the marketed item is a much cleaner effect. However, the effect here is completely different, so it may be worth playing with to see if you can clean it up.

There are some bonus moves you may enjoy playing with, and the bonus effect is probably the best item on here. It’s a new and interesting effect with a new and interesting method. Whether this is worth buying the DVD for would be up to the person watching it.

I wish I could fully recommend this. You may like it, you may not. It’s a fifty-fifty chance, so I’ll just go down the middle with this one!

Two and a Half Stars