Some routines don't fall into the categories of revelations and dot tricks. In "Stained Glass," you writes a word on the glass and then the letters, one by one, penetrate to the opposite face of the glass (top to bottom).
"Stained Glass" is the first trick on the DVD and I suspect that Grace feels that it's one of the strongest tricks. The spectators in the performance video certainly were impressed. However, when I viewed the performance, I immediately realized where the impromptu trick was going and how it was done. As a result, it didn't impress me.
Other Effects
In "Passing Through," a spectator writes something on a window, which is covered by a jacket or cloth. When the jacket is removed, the writing is on the other side of the glass. This is much like a card through window effect that's done with writing. As you would expect, there are lots of conditions necessary to perform this effect, including the right window, which means that this one can't be performed impromptu.
There are several effects where a drawing on the glass turns into the actual object or a real picture. In "Stained Coin," a spot turns into a real coin, and there's a variation for turning a drawing into a photo. And there's another effect where a drawing turns into an eight ball.
"Assistant's Revenge" changes one drawing into another. The key point here is that you can use your creativity to effectively change almost any drawing into another. Unfortunately, Grace's patter for this effect is in bad taste. Here, he talks about "smacking around" his magic assistant. To end your experiments with glass, Grace offers his "Glass Away," which makes the glass disappear from under the cover of a foulard.
Glass is Half Full
The DVD serves excellent video and there are lots of close-ups to help you understand the action. Grace himself does a superb job of explaining the effects.
Many of the tricks require that you wipe the glass with your fingers, which means that you do get ink on your hands. While I expected this to be a problem, the ink, at least under the conditions with which I worked, tended to clump into a fine powder on my fingers and virtually fell off. The residue and potential for smearing and black fingers wasn't the problem that I had anticipated.
Another thought, glass, like mirrors (see Jim Tyler's Mirror DVD), has lots of properties that can make for interesting patter. There's the fragile nature, the transparency, the ability to reflect and more.
On the other hand, spectators may wonder why a magician is carrying a square of glass in his pocket. The prop provided with the DVD is a simple square of glass. There's no attempt to make it appear to be a magnifying glass or other known object. And there's the issue of breakage-the glass could break in your pocket.
On his Glass DVD, Adam Grace offers lots of innovation. His concepts are fresh and different, and many of his effects are crowd pleasers. If you can get used to the idea of carrying and working with a square of glass, you can find lots to like on this DVD.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
