Yesterday, the October Genii arrived. For those of us that have subscribed since the Bill Larsen days, the first instinct is to say “which year?”. Since Richard Kaufman has taken over, the publication schedule has been met with boring consistency. The magazine seems to be back on track, actually having magic in it, after going through a period when it had as much magic as the New Yorker. I look forward to its arrival every month.
Included in the poly bag was a demo DVD from L&L. Included on the DVD are over 20 performances from their DVD stable and two full explanations, Mike Close’s wonderful Dr. Strangetrick and the Larry Jennings’ self-worker Impossible. The choice of tricks to explain is excellent. I’ve always considered the Close version of Card Warp to be the best and Larry’s location trick is inexplicable.
The performances from prior DVDs, generally, are very good. A couple, like Flip’s rope trick, are painfully obvious to any but the most magically challenged.
In recent months I’ve begun to find the L&L DVDs tiresome on many fronts – the audience, the choice of performers and too little magic on too many DVDs. Also, they were advertising well in advance of actual shipment, with no indication that the product wasn’t actually ready.
The recent set, starring Joshua Jay, shows improvements in all of these areas. I hope it continues.
Drivel & Drool
The latest from Stalag Brooks
Sometimes I feel bad about beating up on the Cafe’, but then reality sets in and I know that what they do must be exposed.
Here’s a classic example, written by a long time user and genuinely helpful poster with close to 1,000 posts. You’ll never see it, as it was deleted within a couple of hours:
Isn’t that pathetic? Don’t let me hear any of that bull shit about it’s his site and he can do as he pleases. There’s right and there’s wrong and this is W-R-O-N-G.
