I'm thinking of getting rodney reyes school of hard knocks, but is it worth getting, go on http://www.penguinmagic.com and search rodney reyes to look at the demo clip of this dvd, could you plz tell me if its worth getting if your a beginner, also could ome of you tell me some tricks names, and their effect, cheers

NO, Nuh uh, no way, nein, don't, nada.

LOL!!!
You took the words right outta my mouth!

Okay, let me get this straight . . . there's a trick called "no", "nuh uh", "no way", "nein", "don't", and "nada" on the DVD, but you didn't describe the effects for us.

Oh, now I get it . . . you're being "funny".

I think tricx asked a legitimate question, and considering this is only his second post, at least give him a descent answer. The effects are good, but not necessarily mind blowers. I've seen worse DVDs - but I'd say this is a "middle-of-the-road" kind of DVD. You'll probably get some useful effects out of it. "Short Stack" is a very clever effect that I use. I would look on Reyes' website to get a description of the effects. Also, I would say these are intermediate level tricks.

Could you tell me rodney's website plz

http://www.aoimagic.com/

Tricx - why is it ya ask everyones advice and when its not the answer your after you go elsewhere - the DVD is as bad as they get - your determined to buy it so just go ahead

I felt the qaulity of the DVD didn't deserve a review, I'm stunned its being sold.

Short stack was the only *good* piece of card magic on that tape, and it wasnt his effect. Some one from this forums I believe?

Terrible DVD, I judge magic material by what it contributes to the community, I feel this video was a step backwards. Seems anyone who can be bothered can put out a DVD these days.

I felt guilty, just for you Doug.


Ace Flourish

Rodeny waves his hand over the deck, one ace appears face up. He cuts the cards and find a second face up ace. He pivots the cards and the other two pop out the deck.

Not a bad ace production, but do we really need another? This one isn't as nice as some of the ones I've seen, and I think that's whats important. If your going to produce for aces in a flashy kind fo way, it should have some kind of aestethic appeal. The one shown in the demo is a little more "open" than the one taught. The one that is taught it what counts and that is rather cramped.


Trifecta - A deck is cut into a pyramid shape and then a card is revealed at the back of it.

Nice idea, not very impressive. The cut in itself is a standard 3 packet cut, and the revelation from a pyramid? The way it is presented it totally and utterly pointless. Another card revealation. Again, did we really need another?

The Blossom Cut

A deck of card is cut once andis face up. It is cut again and is face down and the deck is still in order.

This is a rather pretty false cut. It has the nice addition of a face up flip kind of move that I like, but it looks far too rehearsed and screams false cut. This is an all too common problem with the false cuts being born. He performs this very well.

Another Sybil

Speaks for itself, he added nothing to nothing here and came up with another false cut that is well performed and looks VERY nice. Magician pleaser again.


Shed a Tear

A card is torn up and with a blow it is restored.

This I am in two minds about. This, in my mind, could be pure genius or absolute ****. His method is very direct. Jury is still out.

My Biggest fan

A fan is made and a card pops out the side of your hand.

Another card revelation.

Slap City

A four is split into two 2's. which are split into four aces.

Blatant copy of Dave Jones routine, no need to go any further there.

Short Stack

Not his effect, nice one though. Not worth the price of the whole DVD though.

Coining Copperfield

A coin penetrates through a spectators finger...sort of.

I hated this, very very boring. Almost like a puzzle. A spectator pinches his thumb and index tips together, a coin penetartes through. Sounds good? Needs a silk to cover it.

ICU Ambitious Card Plot

I saved this for last.

A card turns face up in the worst spread ever. It moves up the deck a little, then a little more. It then jumps seond to top then to top. All face up.

This is without doubt the WORST ambitious card rotuine I have ever seen. The palm replacement into the spread doesn't fit his style, it looks odd and it is sad to see he didn't work on doing it into a normal spread. I know alot of people, myself included who use this replacement and do it flawlessly.

The idea of the card moving up the deck is a nice pyschology, not the way its applied though. Guy Hollingworth uses something similiar in his cards under box routine and it is very convincing, here it is just unclear.

He then shifts it to the top....

"He handles his cards effortlessly, and he's got one of the best passes in the world." -- A. Altinsel, Penguin Magic

Hmm, me thinks you aint seen to many passes.

Finaly he uses a Marlo change to get it to the top. I don't like this change, I never have. It talkes, and he uses a lorry drivers break to accomplish it. A simple one card pass to the bottom would have sufficied, and frankly, looked better.

There are also some drab performances but I wont go into that.

All in all, BAD DVD. I really am amazed it is being sold. Maybe I'm just expecting too much after watching flicking fingers?.....

I recently viewed this dvd...not bad at all. its one of those things where you just have to watch it yourself. there are some pretty flashy cuts on the dvd. I do however like many ppl have problems with the dvd itself...it sometimes skips and just shuts off cuz it says that my ps2 cant read the disc...all in all...not a bad dvd. I guess I like it cuz there is stuff that I will actually use

This DVD has some pretty long performances of him on the street doing magic. the whole dvd is like a street magic tv special with explanation of some of the tricks. The tricks are not all that powerful but I found them quite interesting and unique, I wont suggest this DVD for the beginner

Then you later wrote....



I think you meant that second "Shed a Tear" to be "Short Stack".... Correct me if I am wrong. Glad you liked it though...

S.Segal

I think they are coming out with skool of hardknocks part 2!!!

I editted my post, and god help us if there is a second one!

NO!

Yuk Yuk. This was very bad!

His magic is all sleight of hand, (and bad sleight of hand at that). I'm not saying sleight of hand is bad, but when combined with.....well....nothing else, it leaves a very dry sense of magic. His charachter is the one that many magicians will warn you about. The cocky arrogant guy who uses the most obvious misdirection ever, but that's not the point. FOR BEGINNERS this is absolutely horrid. It's like he does effects that beginners would find useful, but all of them have moves in them which he doesn't teach. On my biggest fan, he literally says "Make a one handed fan. There are many books out there that talk about the one handed fan, so I'll leave that up to you". IT TAKES FIVE SECONDS TO EXPLAIN A ONE HANDED FAN. This is why the DVD is no good. To complicated for beginners, to novice for everyone else.

I thought the best part of the DVD was a 2 second shot of some guy's hands all covered in silver rings giving the deck a single riffle shuffle.

School of Hardknocks Part 2?
Where the heck did you get the idea of a Part 2 Wu Tang

I cant wait for school of hardknocks pt 2 to come out!!!

What does he teach in there? The one-handed fan? LOL