Hi guys,

Does anyone own CC2, a product of Ellusionist.com? What do you think? Is it really as good as the review says and is it truly better than Daryl's Ambitious Card?

I have only Daryl's.

I need some comments.

Thanks,

Bone.

I have CC2, and I really don't think it's worth the money if you already own Daryl's video...to tell you the truth, Brad's performance is really dry when performing for real people. Don't get me wrong, his explanations are great (most of them), but overall, I don't believe it is worth spending the money.

Honestly speaking, yeah Bone, my friend. LOL!

If you have Daryl's ambitious card video or DVD, I don't think you really need CC2.

In my professional, humble opinion, Daryl's ambitious card video is still the best out there.

I don't have Daryl's to compare it to but I really like Crash Course 2. I'm slowly working my way through it, but I do agree with Matt L that Brad can be quite wooden when performing. I noticed that a bit in Inside Magic also.

I'd say stick with Daryl. Besides, would you rather be supporting Daryl or Ellusionist? I shudder at the thought.

I think if you already have Daryl's then don't buy CC2. Besides Bone, I don't think you personally would learn too many new things from CC2.

Let's see now! Which came first, the "Daryl" or the "Ellusionist?" I'd stick with Daryl!

Cheers!

I don't mean to bust Ellusionist up in any way. LOL!

But honestly speaking, people who give such good reviews for CC2 are mostly amateurs, Blaine wannabes, and of course the moderators.

If I remembered correctly, Johnathan Bayme gets all of the Ellusionist's products for free. If he had to buy them, I doubt Johnathan would pay that kind of money.

That's what I recently noticed about them.

Seldom do I see someone professional that gives them real reviews.

Brad is definitely a businessman and he has good marketing skills.

If Brad was a really good businessman, there wouldn't be such hosility toward his company from most (non-amateur) magicians.

He makes money from it, but does that have to be all? I can't bring myself to respect someone just because he makes a lot of money doing what he does. He could run a company people respected and revered too, and then in my eye, he would be a good businessman.

I mean, Brad has some bad points and he also has his good points.

In the real world, every businessmen will have setbacks and it's really how a person has the determination to overcome them and be successful in the end.

Respect is earned, not given.

There are a lot of top businessmen in the world today who started from being losers to become successful.

Although I don't really like the way Brad does things, I still give every human normal respect.

Brad hasn't earned my full respect yet. I really hope that one day Brad will realize this and he will reduce the prices and produce good videos for every one of us.

Things can change and I really do hope Brad can do this for me.

Brad knows this but somehow he doesn't want to change in this aspect and I really don't know why.

If Brad is hearing this, I really hope a miracle can happen when he produces his next video.

I don't like Brad, nor do I hate him. I'm just giving my comments that everyone can relate to in the real world.

Ellusionist has came a long way and it's because of Brad's determination and luck that brought him so far.

People screwed him up a lot at the beginning but he still made it in the end.

This is one quality that I truly admire in a person - self-determination.

Brad has done wrong things to the magic community but he has the determination that we cannot deny.

I hope my message made sense to you guys. Take care. = )

The fact is, it is wrong. We as magicians go crazy over the littest thing. "Oh, well he credited Marlo and he should have creditted Vernon," but we let this guy do as he feels with some of the best work to have come out of magic in the last 50 years.

Jack Merlin did real extensive work on the pass as we all know. So why do we let this cowboy honour Jack's memory by saying "I think I invented this" about the turnover pass. It is just wrong.

I read a post recently by Micheal Vincent on another forum. He was asking how we, as artists, can improve the state of our art. Make no mistake, we are in a profession that lives and breathes on secrets. Yes, it also feeds on entertainment, but if people know the secrets, it is very hard indeed to entertain.

We need to stop this. To be honest, the selling of the magic and the lack of crediting to me isn't the worst thing. The two worst things about this are:

A) You will be bashed by kiddies for not liking their set-up...kiddies who do not do real world magic, and do not know what it's like to perform for a celebrity and never will.

B) The presentation is awful. Our art is based on showmanship. Some will have you believe that it is based on tricks, but they are not the working pros.

Guys on here, like Scott Guinn, Peter Marucci, and Kurtis Kam, will all tell you that magic is about presentation, and there is none of it there. He is being Blaine and targeting the appropriate market.

Make no mistake, we are losing our art form little by little to people who don't love it a quarter as much as they make out. Magic was a gift to me, and I share that gift as much as possible. I don't sell it with hyped-up videos with no credit immorally going against the very rules I believe in.

Daryl's video is a GOLD medal FISM routine!! I mean come on, how can you even compare both?! Ellusionist sucks and we all know it!

Everyone has to find a way to make a living and Brad has found his own way. Just remember, Houdini was the highest paid entertainer of his time and he did that by making claims that were a little exaggerated. I definitely know that he wasn't the king of cards. Well, just my .01 cent.

That's really true, brother. = )

I myself also think like you, Shaun.

I don't like the way Ellusionist sells videos to amateurs because they tend to mislead those who don't know about the art of magic and that is bad.

To me, magic is entertainment and the key to magic surviving is the secrets.

Many people confuse magic with entertainment and magic being a trick just to fool people.

To me, I do magic to entertain. I hope that we can sell our art as entertainment and not being known as magic just to fool people.

The reason why magic doesn't have much hype in the entertainment industry is because people misunderstood the meaning of magic.

People only think magic is to fool people. Magic is entertainment and somehow we have to make people realize that.

Just like music. Musicans are there to sing a nice song for people to relax and not for showing people how good their singing skills are.

David Copperfield is a good example of what I'm trying to say.

I do not believe that Copperfield cares much about the methods that he uses. David Copperfield cares more about getting the audiences emotionally involved and not amazing them. You can see this through the illusions that he does.

David Blaine doesn't care about the methods he uses. He communicates with people with inspiring messages, thus getting them emotionally involved. That's the difference.

Everyone has to find a way to make a living!?! You really are slow, aren't you?! This is no way to make a living. Some of the plots on that site are renamed and rehashed and taught poorly contrary to the pride and joy of some of my idols.



WE do, but not enough people do. What are we going to do to stop them?!?!?!

Very true Shaun.

It's somehow very irritating when Brad changed the names of so many sleights just to make it sound good and new.

This tends to cheat amateurs who don't know about magic, thus making them lose money because they are learning sleights they already know.

If I understand this corectly, you people say that his products suck because he did not mention the name of the creator? I think this is spreading out like a virus.

When some people started saying Ellusionist sucks, then the rest of the people agreed because they did not want to be left alone. Say=ing a thing like Ellusionist sucks explains more about you then them. How old are are you aby? 11-12?

To this day I don't understand why people hate him and his products. Maybe because people just say he sucks, he is bad for magic.
Yes some of his stuff is a little overpriced. Well then don't buy his stuff and stop complaining. Nobody put a gun to your head.

No, his products suck becasue they are not his products. This is precisely the problem. The crediting is the extra kick in the teeth. Why has he produced them? What gives him the right to make money from teaching other work?

Ellusionist is bad for magic. It shows lay people that magic isn't a talent, a gift, and can be bought over the internet in downloadable files. In the words on that site, "you will be amazing people in minutes." Call me a little silly, but some of us practice. Months of practice go into my effects before they go in my working routine.

If anyone wants to reply to this, please state whether you are a working magician. Most here are, but I have no interest in the points of view of people who don't understand what it is to work for real people in real working environments.



I'll thank you to remember that these thoughts and opinions are my own and respect them as I do yours.

Could you please point out a book or some other published work of Copperfield where he fails to give credit?

Hi,

First of all, I just want to say I agree with Shaun and Clarence.

I must admit that the videos that Ellusionist (Brad Christian) makes are high-quality (as in technically, not the content, which I'll get to later).

Now, from experience (I once bought Ninja 1, so I get access to their forums), I can say that Brad is doing some bad to the magic community (my opinion). You won't believe how many people claim to have "mastered the pass after 3 days of practice." Since I'm a pass lover and practice a lot, I'm really irritated when someone claims that and shows a poorly done pass.

Also, many people also say that upon watching the video once or twice, they go and amaze their friends. I think that these guys just have no respect for magic. They should at least work more on their presentation, make sure their performance is great, and then go perform.

Another thing, Brad has only made a bunch of people (mostly kids) who mostly know nothing about the magic world. For them, the only magic videos that exist are the ones of Ellusionist. They praise Brad like a God. NO matter what Brad is going to release, they are going to buy it.

Also, don't you think it's kind of wrong that some beginners just start magic by learning the pass? Sure, you can argue back by saying that anyone can go to a magic shop and buy some advanced video and learn advanced stuff without knowing the basics.

Anyways, that's my opinion.

Have a nice day.