Greetings...

I bought and watched all three of Jeff McBrides Stage Magic videos on DVD.

Although it was obvious these DVD's were made by copying from a tape (occasional glitches in the picture occur, and the picture isn't as sharp as it could be for DVD, video quality looks like watching a decent tape), the content is well worth it.

I like material on all 3 videos, so I can't recommend any over any others. I like them all. Some of the footage is repetitive as well, with segue footage (between "meat" segments) the same over and over again (shots of Jeff fooling around on the streets in Las Vegas, with the same music too).

Some of the effects don't come across that strong to me as well, like when Jeff does a candle to silk, the gimmick is rather obvious... and I don't think I noticed just because I know the effect.

But again, the overall material and information presented is excellent and well worth the price (if you perform on stage and think $90 is expensive for this info, you must be doing volunteer shows!). It's nice to see on video how to do certain moves and things that aren't easily explained on paper, like handling of dancing cane. And Jeff gives valuable advice from someone who has certainly been there and done that.

I give this video set 4 cups--good value, good material, stuff I'll use.

Joe

I have yet to purchase Jeff's Stage Manipualtion series, but I do have his three part Card Manipulation videos and I think they are AWESOME! I got the chance to meet Jeff in person in October of last year (2002) and he is a very, very cool and good man. Although I don't have all of his vids., I have to give him very high recommendations. He is a very good teacher. Not to mention his talent.

My friend let me borrow his McBride Stage Magic series. The performances were, for the most part, very strong. The only downside was that these were video tapes. And so if I didn't want to see a particular explanation of a trick, I had to fast forward, rewind, and fast forward again because I rewound too much.

My 2 peeves about this video series is that, one, I watched the VHS version. Two, the annoying segues between instructions and advice. The segues were repetitive and got on my nerves.

But over all, a very strong video set.

As long as we all can put up with the annoying segues and enjoy the excellent material, we will all be well on our way to great magic taught by a master!

Highly recommend all of his videos!