Reviews

Gregory Wilson "Pyrotechnic Pasteboards"

Before I start this review, I’d just like to say that Gregory Wilson is probably the best magician I’ve ever seen. Why? Not only is he good technically, but also he’s entertaining. I like how he’s able to make fun of his himself and his audience, without making them feel bad. So, with that said, on with the review:

Point Blank:
Phase 1: A card is selected from a blank deck of cards, is lost in the deck, and magically jumps to the top.
Phase 2: This is repeated, and once again the card has jumped to the top.
Phase 3: The card is clearly lost in the deck, but when the magician snaps his fingers, the card appears at the face of the deck (Very visual revelation).
Phase 4: The magician rubs the face of the cards, and just as quickly as the card appeared, it disappears.
Phase 5: An indifferent card is taken and turned into the selected card.
Phase 6: In this phase, the every card in the deck is shown to have transformed into the signed card.
Phase 7: In the next phase of the routine (This is a lot of phases, isn’t it?), the card is produced from the pocket.
Phase 8: For the finale, the signed card is placed aside and the magician signs a card. The two cards are placed together, and one of the signatures is dragged onto the other, so that one card has both signatures, one on each side.

Point Blank is a very unique ambitious card routine. It has 8 phases, each of which is more impressive than the last. Probably the best effect on the video.

9.3/10

Flashback:
Phase 1: A signed card is lost in the deck and jumps to the top.
Phase 2: The card is again very clearly placed into the center of the deck, yet it still comes to the top.
Phase 3: Now, the cards are mixed face-up and face-down, only to magically revert to their original condition.
Phase 4: The joker is removed and caused to change into the signed card.
Phase 5: The signed card visibly changes into an indifferent card.
Phase 6: When the indifferent card is placed on the bottom of the deck, it changes into the joker. The joker is removed from the deck and the deck is shown to have returned to new deck order, even though the cards were mixed previously.
Phase 7: The card case is put away, yet when the magician snaps his fingers near the deck of cards, the case instantly appears back on the deck.

Flashback is performed with an interesting patter in which he explains that the effect is accomplished by using a time machine to make the cards go back in time. The ending is great, but requires a gaff, which he doesn’t even teach how to make (There are however a lot of books that teach it, so you’ll probably just have to look around a bit to find instructions).

8.5/10

Cards To Pocket:
Phase 1: The magician has a spectator select a card, but it turns out to be the same card picked in the last effect. The spectator takes another card, but every time it’s the same card.
Phase 2: A selected card jumps to the magician’s pocket.
Phase 3: The card once again jumps to the magician’s pocket.
Phase 4: The magician covers the selected card with his hand, yet the card still disappears and reappears in his pocket.
Phase 5: This time, the card is placed into the deck, and instead of the card disappearing, the entire deck disappears.

Phases 2 and 3 of Cards To Pocket are not very impressive, but the last three are amazing.

8/10

Lethal Fours: Three cards are removed from the deck, but when they are counted, four are found. This is repeated several times in different ways. Now, the spectator takes back the cards and gives the magician three cards one at a time, yet when the spectator counts the cards, four are found. Not only that, but all four cards are fours. Not only that, but when the magician takes the cards and takes one card away from the four, instead of three cards, there are 15-20+ cards. Not only that, but now the cards don’t even fit inside the box. Instead, the deck is roughly 3 times as thick as it was before.

What can I say about Lethal Fours? It’s a very strong effect. The ending will amaze even your toughest audience.

8.2/10

Straight A’s: The magician shuffles the deck and cuts to an ace. He then does several multiple cuts, cutting to two more Aces at the same time, one in each hand. Several more cuts lead to the fourth and final Ace.

Straight A’s done well is an impressive feat of dexterity. It looks good and is an ideal way to produce the Aces for an Ace routine (Such as the next effect), but performed by itself; Straight A’s isn’t very magical.

7.3/10

Spectator Cuts The Aces: The magician takes the four Aces and inserts them in various parts of the deck. The spectator cuts the deck into four piles, and the magician turns over the top card of each pile, revealing the four Aces.

To me, this is a very poor effect. Although your audience probably won’t know exactly how it’s done, there’s a very obvious move at the end.

6.5/10

FISM Aces: The magician loses the four Aces in the deck. Then, he shoots them out of the deck and catches them in his hand, one at a time. When the last Ace is shot out, the rest of the deck has disappeared, and the magician is left with only the four aces.

I don’t like how Gregory Wilson uses FISM Aces as a closer. It’s a very good effect, but seems to me more like an effect that should be used as an opener, or to start an Ace routine. Unfortunately, since the deck disappears during the effect, you’d have to find a way to reproduce it. A very good effect, but because of the deck disappearing, it’s not practical as an opener, and not suitable as a closer or anything in-between.

8/10

Overall (Not an average):

Overall, as much as I like Gregory Wilson, this is far from his best DVD. There’s a lot of filler, but even so, three of the effects make the DVD worth buying. A good DVD, but if you don’t have them, something like On The Spot or Ring Leader would be much more worthwhile.

7.8/10

If you have any comments, questions, or criticism about this article, send an e-mail to:

feedback@magicshane.com

Be sure to include, "Gregory Wilson Pyrotechnic Pasteboards" in the subject line.

Shane Wiker