Zoom, Bounce, And Fly by Jeff McBride

Jeff McBride is a magician’s magician. A true magic master and innovator in our art. His videos have taught the secrets of manipulation to numerous magicians.

Personally, I owe my card and ball manipulation routines that I regularly perform in my act to sleights that I mostly learned from McBride’s earlier videos. I consider his lessons to be a gift to the magic community that are worth far more than what they cost-among the most useful videos I have ever purchased. Thank you, Jeff McBride.

“Zoom, Bounce, And Fly” focuses on spinning cards in flashy ways to dress up a card manipulation act. While this may sound as if you’ll learn techniques to throw cards ala Thurston or Ricky Jay to respectively, toss cards into the balconies of cavernous theaters or into the thick skin of a watermelon, you won’t. The emphasis here is on spinning cards and causing them to fly in a flashy and visual manner.

McBride offers various ways to spin cards as well as methods for shooting cards out of the deck so they spin and arc through the air. There are quite a few techniques so you’re free to select and work-up those that would best be featured in your routine.

McBride delves into juggling style moves with his “Devil Stick Flick” where a card is spun between two hands, back and forth. There’s the “Backhand Catch” where the card is spun and bounced off of the back of the hand. He also explains an opener where cards are repeatedly flicked into a hat and then the magician produces a jumbo fan of cards.

While some of the techniques have been explained in McBride’s earlier manipulation videos, this DVD provides new variations and the complete work on performing McBride’s amazing “floor bouncing” where cards are rapidly spun and thrown from a deck and bounced off the floor. All this, with the deck held in one hand. Of course, if you can bounce cards off the floor, you can also get tremendous heights in your card spins. For the first time, McBride unveils a secret gimmick that assists in this endeavor and general card spinning.

With regards to the gimmick that comes with the DVD. I was already familiar with the mechanics of spinning a card from McBride’s earlier videos and knew how to perform the move, even though it’s not in my card manipulation routine. With McBride’s “McGrip-Tip” gimmick, I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to shoot and spin cards.

I probably increased the height of my spins to almost 15-feet, perhaps a 30% increase. And I could spin more cards in a shorter amount of time without having to re-grip the deck as I normally do. This gimmick truly works.

If you want to learn to shoot and spin cards, Jeff McBride’s “Zoom, Bounce, And Fly” DVD will show you how. As far as I’m concerned, Jeff McBride is the world’s true master of spin.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto

MSRP: (US) $39.95

Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.