R&B by Dan Harlan
Available for download at Paper Crane Magic
19.95 USD
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Sometimes I just LOVE e-mail. Since I am single at the moment, I love it even more when a surprise pops up with its come hither subject line. Yes, it chats me up and seduces me and I HAVE to look! Then I fall in love and I have a new "special" friend. Okay, enough with my lackluster dating life. Dan Harlan is back and he is back with a vengeance with this DVD download titled R&B. When I say he is back, I am not kidding or playing on words.

This DVD download is PACKED with effects utilizing a common gaffed card that many of us have but use very little. After purchasing this download, you are going to be busting out that rather curious gaff and you are going to fry minds; every effect in this download is a worker and there is something for EVERYONE regardless of skill level. [N.B. Astute readers will have already sussed out the gaff by now].

Harlan seems to be of the Harry Lorayne school of offering even more than what is advertised. Let me explain: the video opens with a ton of performances in real world situations. The advantage here of course is that you see the effects under conditions that YOU will be performing under rather than the safe environment of a shoot with L&L. Magic needs MORE of this type of video instruction. Now to the Harry Lorayne analogy: the effects Dan performs - and there are a LOT of them; don't go by the Paper Crane description of 9 effects - there are MANY more - are not the sum total. In the instruction portion of the video, Harlan teaches quite a few variations and offers some very tasty finesses.

With this unassuming gaff that you have lying around in your magic drawer you are going to perform VERY strong card magic.

This is one of those instances for me where I cannot name an effect that really stands out above the rest because frankly, ALL of the effects are worthy of any worker's repertoire. But, I SHOULD mention a few of the possibilities just to whet your appetite.

Imagine that you spread a pack of red backed cards face up on the table. From a blue deck you have isolated ONE card. The spectator freely slides one of the face up red backed cards out of the spread - yes it IS a free choice me hearties. Needless to say, your isolated blue backed prediction and the spectator's red backed choice match! I am a HUGE fan of T.A. Waters' and he has a similar effect I Mind, Myth, and Magick. Harlan's two approaches are clean and the second, called Prediction 2 leaves you SQUEAKY clean. The Waters effect requires a full gaffed deck; Harlan's does not.

How about doing Aaron Fisher's Search and Destroy - excellent effect as I am sure many are aware - but streamlined and with card backs that contrast the deck in use! This effect is actually a culmination of increasingly impossible sandwich plots. This finale is nothing short of stunning.

There is even something for Star Trek fans in this wonderful collection!!

Other powerful effects to look out for include: Trading Places, Turning Blue, and Make a Bet.

In addition to the myriad effects and ideas there is a bonus effect titled The Cut Deeper Reading impromptu fortune telling effect. This is VERY VERY strong and I believe you will have a blast with this one.

Since this is a video download you will not have the sexy menu options of a DVD, so you can't just jump to the explanations. However, using VLC media player it is easy to find what you want fairly easily.

Café member John Wells recently created a thread which discusses the ridiculous nature of many magic videos that attempt to make a video into a full length feature film. R&B does NOT do that. Instead, the focus is on the M A G I C so no stupid sick inducing camera angles and you will NOT see the Rohirrim sweeping down en masse to rescue Helm's Deep. (AWESOME scene by the way in LOTR!!)

So to recap: Dan Harlan offers a slew of effects for a common gaff that will get your creativity flowing. The effects looks so impossibly clean and all are hard hitting practical workers that deserve your consideration. Whether you have serious chops or you are new to the art and cannot DO sleight of hand yet, R&B offers a feast of miracles. I purposefully have omitted descriptions of many of the effects because I want you to enjoy the effects and the surprises Dan Harlan offers in the performance and instructional sessions.

This is a MUST BUY, PERIOD.

Ahimsa,
Vlad

Vlad

You are officially a top banana! Great review, I'll pick up a copy on your recommendation

Charlie

Just echoing Vlad's remarks. The best part of it for me was that it got me thinking creatively about R&B uses like none other. You will love the way Harlan uses the gaff and you will keep thinking of more ways to take it further. I really enjoyed the Star Trek routine and it is something that many spectators can connect with. I'm still going through the explanations, but so far I enjoy the DVD and think it is well produced. It would have been nice to have a way to skip around because the format is a little messy, but it's not a deal breaker. I'll post more thoughts after finishing the download and playing with the routines.

Adam

Thanks Charlie!

APC, have you messed with Trading Places yet?

Ahimsa,
Vlad

Ive ordered, but encountered papercrane 'server failure' problems - guess I'll just have to wait until someone gets into the office. <sigh>
stuff happens, I'm sure it will be sorted promptly.

Nice one papercrane - a new link received & now downloading.
Cheers

Hey Vlad,

I've played around with it a little bit. I kind of got sidetracked and have been trying to come up with some original stuff using this gaff while I have it out!

Then APC, I would say that Dan Harlan has REALLY done a splendid job!

Ahimsa,
Vlad

PS: Puggo, Paper Crane is pretty cool. Have you contacted them directly?

I've watched part of the video again, and stumbled across the trick Prediction 2. I really do like this. It's easy and deceptive.

I'm planning to buy one of those 'assorted' decks consisting of gimmicked cards of many types ( I never gave them a try before, and I was curious ). This item seems something serving my purposes : learn good, impressive magic with a gimmick and expand my repertoire, so grazie-thanks for the review

Hi Vlad

I did contact Papercrane direct and found them to be very much on the ball. This is a very good product that offers some astonishing effects that require minimal actual work

Charlie

I am so glad you guys are loving the effect. Thanks Dan Harlan for a GREAT pile of killer workers!!!!!!

Echoing Vlad's comments there are some useful ideas here

The 3 phase sandwich routine R&B special is very special indeed. Although you will have to practice this to remember the sequence of events it only involves some basic sleights but thanks to the gaff everything seems so so fair.

Another good one is the effect Prediction 2 which is almost an open prediction style effect. It looks super clean and doesn't use any sleights

The download itself is in wmv format but using some of the free converter software out there you can easily burn this to dvd with little loss in quality. You get a watermark in the middle of the screen every so often but since this is a magic teaching dvd it's hardly off putting.

The best would be get it in single mini-videos, like, e.g., in Aldo Colombini's downloads on Lybrary.com.
There must be, however, tools to create a dvd menu, chapters etc in the case one change it to a dvd file as suggested by Magicphill ( by the way, Phill, there is at least one freeware that doesn't add any watermark on the screen ).

While you make a good point Galerius, this DVD download becomes a real bargain because we are not paying for the sexy menu option. We should have a download of the year voting just as we have a book of the year voting. Would you folks participate if I started such a thread?

Ahimsa,
Vlad

I couldn't be a great contributor or voter - being my downloads very few, at the moment - but this would definitely be something interesting to read.

Had a chance to check out the trailer for this.

Looks really good, if its anything like minotaur its gonna be great,

JK

Vlad,

I sure appreciate this! I just bought a brand new *gaff* and it arrived in the mail the other day. I wore out my old one in a packet effect I do. They sent me several, so I have plenty (and a few variations!) Thanks, Vlad!

Doug

Vlad--
Thank you so much for your review of "A Little R&B." I'm so happy you like it... and I'm especially pleased to hear you have been working with some of the routines. Also, thanks to everyone else for your kind comments! I finally have these DVDs in-stock for those of you who want the "sexy" menu option of direct access to any performance or explanation. Also, you get the great cover art!
http://www.danharlanmagic.com
For those of you trying to come up with your own routines with a little R&B, I applaud you... and I recommend learning "R&B Special" since I think it will give you some insight into the hidden power of this little gimmick. Enjoy!
--Dan Harlan

I must pick this up soon , double backers are one of my favourite gimmicks