Let's keep it brief: This is the coolest, most consistently magical coin material I have ever seen. Ponta the Smith is a revelation of what can be done with Silver Dollars. He's almost too good. In person he must be freaky.

The only item I did not like was Tenkai Pennies....but, it doesn't matter. You have to learn it to use in another routine later on that just kills. Tenkai Pennies is the only routine that looked as if his heart was not in it.

The video is shot OK. You can see everything. He speaks virtually no English and thus it was all done with music in the back ground which I found odd after a bit, but it's ok. The reason it's ok is that everything Mr.Smith does looks as much like real magic as I can imagine. It's just wonderful stuff done fantastically well.

How hard is it? It is unbelievably, astronomically, really, REALLY hard stuff. I'm a half way decent coin guy. I'm a bit out of practice, but working on the chops again and this stuff is just surreal in difficulty. Not all of it. Some is not that bad, but for instance: I personally have never liked Matrix. GREAT trick, I just don't like it. Everything I love on the DVD is of course the most difficult stuff to do! Spellbound, One Coin Routine, 3 Fly, etc. sigh

How is the teaching? About as good as they could do with someone who cannot speak English. I guess. I can conceive of a number of ways that could have improved it by hundreds of percent. If you are really dedicated and way beyond a beginner you could figure it out. There are a number of things I'm going to work on.

But, frankly, material of this difficulty screams for the spoken word. Screams for a detailed account of each move and then immediate repetition of each move as it's explained again. It's NOT a very good teaching video for all that they attempted to make it so.

I'll say this: If you love coin magic, this video is literally worth owning just to watch over and over again to see what is REALLY possible. This will not seem intuitive to some, but this video makes me feel like a bumbler and I love it. Really. It is wonderful after 40+ years in the business to see the craft raised to art if only in a few, very few, instances. That's the work of Ponta the Smith.

Sincerely,

Brad, thank for sharing your professional opinion. I don't have the dvvd, but have heard great things about it.

You are welcome. It was a revelation. Truly wonderful stuff.

I thought coin magic is boring.... until I saw the material of Bertini and Ponta the Smith.
Simply great.

Thanks so much Brother Brad, neighbor here in San Diego.
I've been on the fence with this project.

I know how much magic material you have in your garage,
but if you were willing to add to your stockpile with this,
then I know it's worth checking out.

Take it easy buddy!

You are very welcome! I have actually learned and I close to perfecting the first move sequence of the first routine (Spellbound) on the DVD. It's difficult, but surprisingly not as hard as I thought it would be. He uses a large Chinese coin and I'm using one of my Sudbury II pennies, but the effect is of course the same. I have tried with some dollar sized thinner Chinese coins from another trick with good results.

By the way: I have the Harada Hold and another dvd of Japanese coin magic that uses the Muscle Pass. Both are remarkable, but I discounted the utility of both because although the material looks cool....it's so difficult to do, so knacky, that I did not consider it worth working on. Obviously others will feel differently. The Ponta material on the other hand I now consider 'learnable and doable'. Even if you didn't do the entire Spellbound routine for instance, I feel more than compensated for the expense of the dvd just learning the first move. But, more, it also gave me a renewed vision of what is possible with sleight-of-hand. I really, REALLY had burned out and grown stale.

The thing is: I'm not a 'collector' of dvds or books or tricks. IF I can't do the material then I have no interest in it.

Anyway...that's what I now think having actually tackled a piece of the material. All best,

The thing about this DVD is that, however jaw dropping the performances are, it's even more impressive when you watch the "behind the scenes" shots. There's so much going on that the audience never sees. This is the only DVD where I sat my Dad down and asked him to watch the explanations as we shared a beer and enjoyed the show (hey, he's 78 and isn't going to post it on YouTube). At first he'd assumed that the Spellbound routine was done with a trick coin, but he came away with a real appreciation for magic as a fine art form, in the right hands (ie, apparently not his son's).

O well Maxfields you cant win them all !!

I have to agree the coins effects on this DVD are unbelievable!!!!!!! What he does with coins is amazing!!! It's flashy and move-ie some of it. Some of the moves (magic) is done quickly and I thought at times a bit hard to follow. Meaning.... That when I was processing at what inwas amazed at... There was something BAM!! Hitting me again. Def not for the begginer. I also have to say inwas not disappointed with the explanation parts. I think it / and the moves were done well. Considering there is no spoken word. Not to repetitious but shown enough to get the move across. There will be effects you will find yourself rewinding to go back to see it once more. But well done. Performing the effects of this DVD will def seperate you from som elf the other coin workers. DVD is worth getting if you like different coIn magic to set you apart.

This is my favorite DVD, (along with Lawrens Godon's Moneypulatino).

So far I can do 3 fly, tenkai pennies, and the vanish pretty well.

A.V.A from moneypulation is also fun.

The Spellbound is so amazing.
So much practice for 12 seconds of magic!

The DVD material are great.... Tre trick also one of the best. but little bit dissapointed when I saw Ponta perform live on EMC 2011, quite diffrent with his performance on Sick DVD.

I love watching the tricks on this DVD but for me this is the equivalent of watching Pele or Clapton. Yes, you might marvel at it. Yes he will show you what to do (it's not really teaching IMO) so you can emulate all you want. But I fear that even if you master the skills, one day, for one or two of the routines I would question when even the most seasoned pro is ever going to use any of it...and how much of your life would have passed by.

I caught his lecture at Blackpool this year and Ponta seemed like a lovely guy, but I think this is very niche and for me this isn't much shy of coin magic porn.

Me too, I only do coin unique and csb so I am going through this dvd one trick at a time. Every trick on the dvd is brilliant and I am not a coin guy but if I can get some of these tricks down I will fool the guys at the club.

Ben