I think its probably a little premature to post about this, but I wander over to L&L and they had their winter catalogue up. They advertise a 6 DVD set from Dan Harlan called Premium Blend. I was curious if anyone knew any information about the tricks on this collection. Anyone there for the filming? or is "in the know" about this collection?

-Jason

I also saw these dvd's advertised. If anybody knows anything about these could you tell me what skill level is necessary to do most of these effects?

Thanks.

I gave in and bought two of the six. Reading the descriptions told me generally there wasn't anything totally new in the cards or mentalism tapes, so I went with the food and games videos.

In general, I thought the material was uninspired. There's, like, 1 or 2 decent effects on each tape. Hardly worth the price. Most of it I thought was filler, non-A material. I didn't even see the audience was too enthusiastic. Most of the moves were so blatant, his hands spent an inordinate time below the table without enough misdirection.

Of the two tapes I had, I liked this one coffee effect where the (?) disappear before you add it to the cup; you're left with a spoon and when you stir the black coffee, suddenly it turns colour as if you had just added cream and tastes like you've added sugar! The thinking on this one was great.

Also, the Clue game prediction and the Scrabble revelation of a freely selected card spelled from a bunch of random tiles.

I was looking forward to the card-in-fortunate-cookie revelation, but I was disappointed at the performance, and the last bit totally tips the method to the spectator.

However, I certainly won't be purchasing any of the others, even though I would like to see his Harlan hookup in action (split on two different tapes, go figure), and another fortune cookie relevation.

Brian

I just watched those two as well. I find some of the ideas pretty good, but I had problems with the presentation. There was just too much bad lapping on the DVDs. Too many times you see Dan put his hands under the table without any sort of real misdirection. And what do you know, the item has then suddenly vanished (or changed). It was like he wasn't even trying. My six-year-old was watching the performances and figured out that he was fooling around with stuff on his lap.

On the games DVD, there was one routine (those who have the DVD can't have missed it) where they do a shot from behind and to the side and you see a bright red object just sitting in his lap for a fairly long time. Don't they ever edit these videos?

I have to admit, that I was glad to see a new audience and not the usual people. With the exception of Tania (which he admitted knowing because she was in his Mindbogglers video), the usual suspects weren't there.

They went WAY overboard with the coffee theme in the description of the effects.

Well, these reviews are sort of dissapointing but I'm glad they're honest.

I am still a bit curious about the Funny Business vol 5 and Totally Mental vol 1.
Did anybody attend the lecture where he was previewing some of these effects recently?

The magician's descriptions of the effect are on http://www.llpub.com. I was trying to look for the fortune-cookie effect and I honestly couldn't figure out which video it was on, it was so badly described on the backs of the DVDs, so I ended up blindly guessing when I bought. I hope they don't try to get this hip in future releases, because it doesn't work.

Okay, my expected good picks, but I refuse to buy more unless somebody has something good to say:

Vol 5 - YOUR FORTUNE -- Two halves of two borrowed bills are destroyed, only to be discovered sealed inside fortune cookies held by the spectators the whole time.
PennED-IN -- A borrowed dollar changes into an I.O.U. in the spectator's hand. The bill is found rolled up inside a pen he has been holding the whole time.

Vol 6 - SOULMATES -- A card trick performed entirely by the spectator in which God and the Devil reveal the selected card.
YOUR SIGN -- Using some simple props, you can reveal any person's astrological sign.

Vol 1 - HARLAN HOOKUP -- The magician makes a spoon move with his mind, then demonstrates that he is creating an energy field between his hands which can easily be felt by anyone.

Vol 2 - HARLAN HAUNTED HOOKUP -- The haunted deck using Harlan's method which can be done with a borrowed pack.
BOUND AMBITION -- The selected card rises while the pack is rubberbanded and the top card has been checked to make sure it is not the selection. [sounds like one of Sankey's]

Brian

There were three fortune cookie effects:

Vol 1 - CRYPTIC COOKIE -- A fortune is read which appears to have nothing to do with a selected card, but when folded it reveals the name of the selection.

Vol 4 - CARD FORTUNE -- A signed selected card vanishes from a deck and appears inside a signed selected fortune cookie, then the signed cookie is restored.

Vol 5 - YOUR FORTUNE -- Two halves of two borrowed bills are destroyed, only to be discovered sealed inside fortune cookies held by the spectators the whole time.



I remember Aaron Fisher doing this one on his tape. Does anyone know which came first?



I thought that the Haunted Hookup was pretty good, although the spoon movement was unconvincing.

I saw the 6 volumes. A lot of bad effects.

Juan

They converted them to DVD since the release. I had them all at one point on video. I only converted to DVD with Volume 2, which has some wonderful effects on it.

Volume Two - Deck Aid

UNGIMMICKED STRIKING MATCH -- The spectator stops you as you deal through the cards. The selection matches a jumbo prediction. There is no gimmick and the deck is normal.

COUNTER CROSS -- The cards across with no palming or gimmicks.

PEEK REVERSAL -- A spectator simply peeks at any card as you riffle the corner of the deck, but you instantly reverse the selected card without any fishing at all.
HARLAN HAUNTED HOOKUP -- The haunted deck using Harlan’s method which can be done with a borrowed pack.

INTUITION -- Presentation and handling of Dr. Jacob Daley’s last trick in which the red aces change places with the black aces.

SLOMOCO ACES -- Harlan’s new handling of Vernon’s slo-motion ace assembly in which four odd-backed aces vanish visibly one-at-a-time and travel to the leader pack.

BOUND AMBITION -- The selected card rises while the pack is rubberbanded and the top card has been checked to make sure it is not the selection.

ATTRACTION -- Two selected cards travel from two separate packs into a third pack to be discovered on either side of a third random selection. No palming.

COPY-CARDS -- The deck of cards instantly changes into sheets of paper with photocopied pictures of the cards on them.

I bought this set when it was first out and was very disappointed.

I like the title of the set Premium Blend. Sounds inspired...

I own 4 of these DVDs and found several items on each that I really like. I like effects with interesting props and creative stories. These Dvds have all of that.

From Vol. 1 (Mental):
1) Destination Unknown, I really like effects like this with a travel theme.
2) Photo Finish
3) Under Covers
4) Harlan Hook-Up/Psychic Spoon

From Vol. 2 (Deck Aid):
1) Harlan Hook-Up/Haunted Deck
2) Bound Ambition
3) Copy-Cards

From Vol. 5 (Funny Business)
1) Business Card Nightmare.
2) Picture This
3) Art Exchange
4) Captain Dread
5) Scuowvic Jo Oml

From Vol. 6 (Good Spirits)
1) Ashes to Ashes
2) Horror Matrix, very fun story line
3) Soul Mates
4) Viking Funeral, I have the perfect coin for this. it's a Norwegian Coin with a viking ship on one side.