By all means, we never want entertainment to enter into the factor. I wish David Williamson or Bill Malone sedated themselves and bored the audience to death when they shot their projects.

Let's see, it's showbusiness!!!

MagicChris, I respectfully have to disagree with you!
It seems your missing the whole point!
The video is aimed especially as a teaching tool! You supply your own entertainment in your style, after learning the effects!
I would love to have you review these DVDs after you
had a chance to see both DVDs! I'm sure your comments
will be quite different! You can also add some comedy to your routine with these effects! Which I think is your style.
Respectfully,
Gerard

Gerard, you're right, I'm only going by the trailers and that's not fair.

Thanks for pointing that out!!!

Chris

Chris,

I'm sure if you purchased Sal's set of DVD's, you'l treasure them as much as Malone's and Daryl's. It's that good!

Gerard

Beside this set of excellent DVD, any other sources to learn Sal Piacente's materials? I would be appreciated if any Café members can post the information here.

Hi, Ambitious Card Freak,

Try emailing "Magic Makers". You can get their email address at: http://www.magicmakersinc.com

Hoping this will help,

Gerard

He just released one or two new DVDs, I believe. I think it's about three-card monte and the shell game.

Thanks, Trickster 2000! I'll be purchasing the "3 Card Monte" and "The Shell Game" as soon as possible!. Sal Piacente's DVD's are incedible!

Thanking you again,

Gerard

I bet he does a great job on the three-card monte!

Please post a review when you get it. Thanks.

I just start practice the Sal's Ace cutting routine. My magic shop demonstrator friend said it is so clean and deceptive. Need to go back and continue to practice now.

Guys, Sal Piacante's card magic is simply way too strong!

I second that MagicChris! Can hardly wait to get the "3 Shell Game" and "3 Card Monte". WOW!

Gerard

I wish he would release his Rain Man routine.

I enjoy Sal's Expert Card Magic, but it isn't the greatest DVD of all time. Enjoyed about 3 or 4 of the routines which is enough to warrant buying it, but quite a bit less enthusiastic about them than MagicCarisio.

These are really good DVDs. I was looking for gambling demo's and hee they are. I will start praticing these right away.

I think the DVDs are great. I like Sal's manner, and Rob Stiff is good with his questions and getting Sal to go back a few steps and recap the instructions. It makes a refreshing change from the usual familiar audience on L&L's DVDs.

Rob also seems genuinely amazed at what he is seeing.

...And so he should be. These routines make you look like a master gambler and each routine seems to be a show of extreme skill.

But as Sal starts to explain the routines, it gets even better, because the impact of these routines comes from some very clever thinking and not from knuckle-busting sleights. Anyone watching these effects at work thinks they are seeing the result of second deals, bottom deals, and amazing sleight of hand by someone who can memorize a pack of cards---and that is how these routines play out. The truth, however, is deviously more simple.

My faves after a couple of viewing are:


Sal's Memory Opener---This is brilliantly thought-out. Spectator shuffles the deck and you memorize it in a few seconds, telling them which card they have randomly removed from a pile of 13, then which two cards they've taken from the next 13, then which poker hand they've randomly chosen from the remaining 26 cards! As the routine goes on, it just gets more convincing. (And it's easy)

Sal's Ace Cutting Routine 2---This is the first thing I tried after watching the DVD, and I was soon dead-cutting the Aces every time. The fact that the spec can shuffle the deck as much as they want between each Ace is great.

The Marlo Opener---What I like about this is that you can open a brand new deck, shuffle it, then convince anyone that you can identify how many cards have been cut from it, whether they have been cut by you or the spectator. Then you tell them you've been memorising the cards as the routine has been going on and ask them to name any number from 1 to 52. You then tell them the name of the card at that position. You could literally have someone hand you any unopened deck of cards and perform this feat.

The Encore Card Trick---Very, very good routine. No sleights required! I went through my deck a couple of times, picking out five random cards, and the "conditions" for the trick's success seem to occur every time.

As for difficulty, these effects are within the reach of anyone willing to put in the time to learn the (few) sleights to a degree where they are fluid and undetectable.

These gambling demo routines are different to most card magic effects in that usually card magic involves the magi performing sleights to make something appear to have happened with no sleight of hand at all. In the case of the effects on this DVD, your audience are going to think you are an extremely-skilled card-worker.

In that respect, I think a card magician should give some thought about where these routines belong in his/her arsenal. If you perform a few of these powerful gambling-type feats, then go on to do more "magical"-orientated effects. The spectators will be sure by now that you are a skilled gambler/card-worker and may be watching closely for sleights. Just a thought...

If, however, you want to perform a few gambling demonstrations, or deck-memorization feats, and want to appear to be the kind of guy who could give a casino owner nightmares, Sal's routines are fantastic.

I like watching and performing gambling demo's, so I was glad I bought these DVDs. If you have spectators who say things like, "Well it's all sleight-of-hand" when you perform card magic, why not reply, "Yeah,let me show you this," and perform one of these tricks.

They allow you to emulate a very skilled card-worker without having to actually be one. I would say 3/5 difficulty for most tricks, with a couple (Marlo's Opener, McDougal Stack Outdone, Rollover Aces) being 4/5.

Adam

I support Café member adamjames wrote. All I want to add is the 4,5,6 packet trick.

As Sal's said, this trick is one of his favorite closer for his routine. The trick seems hard at first, but once you used with the patter, you will find that this trick will fool even magicians!

I did 4, 5, 6 to my magic friend last night, and before the final revelation he said, `This is scary.' After the revelation he said, `That was incredible.'

Ive probably performed the 4, 5, 6 trick at least 200 times in the last month. It's been great, and I've been destroying magicians and laymen with this simple but powerful routine. Anyone else have the same experience?

Yes, I agree about the 4,5,6. It's a great trick.

What I've been doing from the DVDs is starting off with Memory Opener, then getting the spec to shuffle up the cards for Encore Card Trick.

I did this for a magician friend today and while I was giving him the instructions (with my back turned) for encore, "Shuffle the pack, deal a poker hand, remember the highest card, replace them anywhere, shuffle the pack again, now give it to me," he was repeating over and over, "This is impossible."

When I got his card and showed him the Royal Flush at the end, he was truly slayed.

I haven't done 4,5,6 so much. Maybe it's time to try it in a real-world situation.