Issue 21 - July 08
Attack
of the Bag DVD
Craig
Petty
Available from: www.worldmagicshop.co.uk
Price: £15.00
Running
time approximately 78 minutes
Two
coin bags are provided with this DVD. The bag, made of black velvet with a mesh
front, is about five inches by four and gimmicked so that a coin, visible
through the mesh, will appear or disappear with no sleight of hand necessary.
The
disc contains nine routines, suitable for close up performance, all developed by
Craig Petty while performing at a trade show for a company selling magic to joke
shops. In the performance section the nine routines and Craig’s patter
presentations, are demonstrated to a small group or directly to camera. The
routines are fully and clearly explained in a subsequent section.
Essentially
the bag does only one thing; through the mesh front a coin can be seen to
appear, or to disappear. A spectator could not examine the bag. Within this
limitation each routine is differentiated by the premise of the plot, so that,
for example, Chop Bag parodies a chop cup routine with the coin being removed
and repeatedly jumping back into the bag, the routine ending with the surprise
production of a large coin. In Coins
in Cartoon Motion, with credit to David Roth’s portable hole, coins vanish and
appear in the bag through the ‘invisible’ hole.
Recorded Delivery is the transposition of two marked coins, one from the
bag, and the other from a spectator’s closed fist. In Multiple Selections,
credited as the easiest routine to do, the spectator ‘freely’ chooses one of
four coins. The coin appears inside the bag and is seen to have a red sticker
attached. The spectator is asked to name one ESP symbol.
When the coin is removed from the bag the named symbol is shown to be
drawn on the back of the coin and thus correctly predicted.
While
the operation of the bag is entirely self-working the routines are not. A third
section of the DVD explains the ‘four’ sleights required. Two, the ‘Drop
Dump’ and ‘Flying Switch’ to apparently remove the coin from
the bag, ‘Fi Switch’ to apparently replace it and the
If you
have this level of skill I was left wondering why use the bag? The answer is of
course that Craig Petty started with the prop and worked from there. It does not
necessarily make for the best solution. A no skill prop that requires good
sleight of hand to use has to add something special to be justified.
For me the potential pluses were more than outweighed by the look of the
bag. A small velvet bag with a mesh
front is not a commonly used object and smacks of a magicians prop – which is
after all is what it is – and not one that a spectator could safely examine.
To a degree this is recognised in the suggested patter, which attempts to
provide a ‘rationale’ for the bag, but why bother? Personally I’d get rid
of the bag and stick to what could be achieved with just the coins and the
sleight of hand skill required by these routines.
The
DVD is filmed at Foxes Manor, a wonderful looking Jacobean house providing a
fantastic setting for magic. Unfortunately the production standards on the disc
are variable, with lighting and sound at times a bit mixed. The most difficult
section being during part of the explanations when the black bag, on a black
mat, with Craig in a black shirt against a half black background, made for
interesting viewing.
The
routines are well thought out and, despite my reservations about the bag, the
appearance and disappearance of the coin is visually strong. Some of the
routines were rather too long and the impact of the coin appearing or
disappearing was not enhanced by repetition. For me the best visual moment was
the coin reappearing in the bag apparently at a touch of Craig’s fingers. If
you don’t mind the idea of the little black bag, are prepared to put in the
work to master the necessary sleights and don’t try to show more than one or
two of the routines to the same audience, this could be the
What’s
Hot: Craig’s ingenuity with a simple prop
What’s Not: The skill level required to utilise a self-working prop
Star Rating: **
To find a specific review, just click on the relevant letter for the product name
0-9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
RETURN to the magicseen homepage