Britain's brightest independent magic magazine

Issue 30 - Jan. 10

Review

Locked In A Room Without Coins  

Craig Petty
Available from: www.worldmagicshop.com

Price: £15.00  

Here is the latest DVD offering from Craig Petty which, those who have followed his work to date may be surprised to discover, does not feature any coin work! Hence the title of the DVD . Instead we discover that Craig is as at home with card magic as he is with coins, and this DVD is a compilation of 10 of Craig's favourite effects for lay people. With a running time of nearly 2.5 hours, this DVD is a bit of a marathon, and it would appear that poor Craig did all the performances and explanations in one hugely long day. The further you go into the DVD therefore, the more tired Craig seems to get, but despite this he still manages to keep everything admirably together - what a trooper!  

The first thing to say is that this material is on the whole pretty commercial. Craig seems to like longish routines with multiple stages or climaxes, and just about all of the effects offered here fall into that category, yet I can see these effects working well with most crowds if presented properly. The DVD starts with a performance section which has footage showing Craig presenting all 10 effects to a small collection of lay people in what looks like a pub or hotel. Some of the effects are done seated at a table, others are performed with everyone standing up. Craig seems more relaxed and at home with this card material in performance than he does at times with some of his coin work, and I felt his presentations as shown here were lively and fun to watch. The routines may be long but he holds the interest well and there is something happening most of the time to capture the imagination of those present.

With 10 routines there is, probably inevitably, some overlap in moves used, with plot lines and also with some of the patter. For instance there are a couple of Sandwich effects which have similar sections, a folded card ends up under a spectator's watch in two different routines and there are also a couple of card to wallet presentations, so you would have to use common sense when selecting effects from this compilation to include together in a card set.  

All the tricks require some work, and competence in moves such as the Ascanio Spread, the palm, the Erdnase Change, the One-Handed Card fold, the Shapeshifter Change plus others is a must. For this reason I would put this material as being suitable for the intermediate card worker and above. The good news is, this DVD has a Sleights Section in which Craig goes through all the main moves required in the routines. I like this idea of having a separate sleights section as it prevents the main explanations of the routines getting bogged down with too much technical detail, and it means that if you already know how to do the moves, you don't have to fast forward over them every time they appear in a trick.  

If you are looking for some strong card magic to add to a working repertoire for lay people, you will find it here. Many of the effects are based on work from such luminaries as Michael Ammar, Bro. John Hammond, James Brown, Doc Easton and Darwin Ortiz amongst others, so the material has a good solid basis to work from. Unlike so many card DVDs, this is not material simply put together to impress magicians but is work designed for performance in the real world, and at the price asked it also constitutes excellent value for money. ML  

What's Hot: card routines designed to actually use commercially
What's Not: need good competence with a range of card moves
Star Rating: ****  

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