I have Mike Maxwell's book "Classic Magic of Larry Jennings". I also have the "Classic Magic of Larry Jennings" DVD. I learned Ambitious Classic from the book and it's fun but there appears to be a discrepancy between the verison in the book and the one on the DVD.

In the book, Maxwell describes a set up of the Ace through 5 of Spades which you display on the deck and remove (stealing an additional red face down card) creating a small packet. He then says you form a break above the bottom face down card and the remaining five spades. You then proceed to count/display the spades. With the first card, the ace, you peel it off and simultaneously, steal the face down bottom card underneath it. When you bring your hands together to take the second card, the two of spades, you secretly place the two cards now in your hand underneath the packet. You then proceed to peel off the 3, 4 and place the 5 (with two cards underneath) on top of everything. You then flip the packet over and proceed to talk about the first 'stunt' which is made possible by a block push off of the entire stack to reveal the Ace which is placed SECOND from the bottom and pushed off again to show the stunt (the card 'pops' to the top).

Oddly, the 'stunt' with the two of spades is, according to Maxwell, identical. That is, the card is placed second from the bottom, and utilizing a block push off, comes to the top. This is repeated and you go on to perform the rest of the effect.

While Maxwell's instructions worked, per se, it struck as odd the Jennings, who is such a master, would repeat the same move three times.

Then I got and saw the video. And saw a slightly different approach up front. In the DVD, JENNINGS (not Maxwell) says to peel off the ACE ONLY (and not steal the bottom card in the packet as Maxwell says he does) then when you peel off the TWO, you steal the ACE under the packet and hold a break above the ace (and below the hidden face down card). When you come back to peel off the THREE, you then steal back the ace so it's under the three and ABOVE two. THEN, after you finish peeling off the four and place the five and flip the packet over, rather than do a piece of business with a bunch of indentical block push offs, Jennings tells you to merely perform a double lift to show the ACE on top and flip it back over.

You then take take the face down top card (which is really the 2 of Spades) and place it under the second card (the ACE), say "Allez oop" or whatever, then slide off the top card to reveal the Ace has popped to the top.

After placing the ACE aside, you then proceed with the 2 of Spades etc. and complete the effect which goes without any further hitches.

My question to the group is, was this a later handling from what had been described to Maxwell when he wrote the book? Or did he simply get it wrong altogether? And if so, has anyone noticed other discrepancies between what was written in what I have, for the most part, found to be a great collection of Jennings material, and how the stuff, from what I can tell was all meticulously, scrupulously and logically thought out, was actually performed.

Love to hear your thoughts and observations.