As far as I'm concerned, Burke's name is a solid marketing tool for this first rate DVD that offers an eclectic mix of close-up effects with coins and bills, and a routine with miniature (4-inch) linking rings. The tricks are commercial and visual for lay audiences and will also impress your magician friends. There's lots to like.
Bills, Bills, Bills
Voracity provides a fantastic, visual bill change that causes a borrowed one-dollar bill to change into a $20, then into a $50 and finally into a $100 bill. This effect makes excellent use of a gimmicked bill that Burke teaches you how to make and the trick itself is not difficult to learn and perform.Continuing with currency, Vicissitube allows you to turn four one dollar bills into four "million" dollar bills or four real two-dollar bills that you give to spectators. (Yes, with the two dollar conversion, you're handing out money, four bucks per performance, but Burke explains that you're not just performing magic, but "giving" magic.)
Like the Karl Hein's "Heiny 500" (please click here to read our review) and Gregory Wilson's "Hundy 500," this effect relies on the same Patrick Page gimmick. Burke teaches his excellent handling for this routine but doesn't show how to create the gimmick. In the effect you show four bills and then fold them, and when they're unfolded, they are shown to be different bills.
Coin-Fusion
Moving to coins, The Monocle Production allows you to quickly produce three coins, vanish them one at a time and then produce them again. I was impressed with Burke's "Coinfusing Production" from his earlier "Payphone" DVD (click here to read our review), but I prefer this routine. The movements seem more natural and they reduce the number of false transfers.Homer's Odyssey is a nod to Homer Liwag. This effect provides a visual coins across with four coins that's based on a deep back clip. To magicians, it appears that Burke is using a gimmick, but he's not. Because of the clip, there are angle issues, but I think the method offers more latitude than routines that rely on the Tenkai pinch. Burke also teaches a two coin version.
Familiar Rings
Mercenaring is Burke's visual linking ring routine that uses 4-inch linking rings (also sold as "Ninja Rings"). The routine's strength is its count that allows you to show each ring separately by twirling them.Burkes routine is all in the hands and doesn't require the table work that is a part of the "Ninja Rings" routine that was published by Shoot Ogawa. If you're putting together a close-up routine with rings, you'll definitely want to check out Burke's routine, along with Ogawa's "Ninja Rings" DVD.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
MSRP: (US) $35
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Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.
