Britain's brightest independent magic magazine

Issue 19 - Mar 08

Review

George McBride – The Classics  

George McBride
Available from www.bigblindmedia.com and your favourite dealer
Price: £22.99  

Following on swiftly from George McBride’s first DVD – positively reviewed in issue 17 of MagicSeen – comes this second title, subtitled The Classics; a respectful paean to the classics of Twentieth Century close-up magic. Think Ross Bertram’s Coins Across, and Vernon ’s Slow Motion Aces and Spellbound, and you’ll appreciate some of the touchstones of modern magic that McBride turns his hand and skill to.  

The relatively modest running time of 70 minutes, means the nine routines in total cannot receive the full in-depth tutoring you might crave; you really need to be up to speed with flawless classic-palming, back-clipping, and bottom-dealing to make the most of this DVD. Not a single gaff or gimmick is used in any of the routines; helpful shells and benign double-facers are eschewed in favour of pure technique and brute sleight-of-hand. Did I mention this isn’t for the beginner?  

That said, the beginner can still watch and enjoy, and hold the material up as magic to aspire to. In addition to the three routines already noted, McBride also covers Purse Frame Coins - inspired by David Roth’s routine; a variant of Al Koran’s Lazy Man’s Card Trick; Jack Merlin’s Lost Ace Trick; Derek Dingle’s Bounce Change; and a Coins to Glass routine. The crediting of moves, sleights and ideas is comprehensive, and the benefit of seeing how the baton is passed from, say, Leipzig to Vernon to Roth – via Dingle - to McBride, is itself a great learning tool.  

Looking like the lost Caledonian element of the Rat Pack in tuxedo and loosened bow-tie, McBride is joined throughout the explanations by David Forrest, who ensures that we mere mortals get a second, and even a third chance to see a particularly fierce sleight in operation. They are also well-served by decent production values; and instant access to every individual performance and explanation from the main menu ensures stress-free navigation. Sometimes the two-camera shoot doesn’t quite afford the viewer the clearest sightlines of the knuckle-busting in action, but McBride’s measured, concise tutoring makes this a very minimal issue.  

Ultimately, this DVD is squarely aimed at performers of at least intermediate skill, where the ability to buckle, cop, and sleeve is taken as read. This is sophisticated close-up for the purist; the kind that makes me wish I had the slender, attenuated fingers it seems to favour, rather than the clumsy, fat things currently dangling from somewhere near my wrists. George McBride succeeds in showing why these are classic effects; and why magicians will keep coming back to them, be motivated by them, play with them, adapt them, and, just maybe, master them. DL  

What’s Hot: Classy production and classy material
What’s Not: Not much really; just bear in mind that the technical baseline is pretty high
Star Rating: ****  

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