Cool Cash – John T. Sheets
30.00
http://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=57653

The Hype:
John T. Sheets presents a collection of impromptu bill switches that are perfect for any magician. Included is everything you need, except the bills. On this DVD, John teaches:

Cool Cash: Two bills, of different denominations, visibly change places between the magician's hand and the spectator's hand. COOL CASH looks incredibly visual, impossible, and clean.

Atomic Bills: Two bills, of different denominations, visibly change places between the magician's hand and the spectator's hand. The bills can be borrowed, signed, and you end totally clean.

Double Atomic Bills: Two bills, of different denominations, magically change places between the hands of two spectators. The bills can be signed and you end totally clean.

Time is Money: Two bills, of different denominations, visibly change places between the magician's hand and the spectator's hand. Then the bill held by the magician vanishes and reappears under the spectator's watch.

Funny Money: A borrowed bill visibly changes to any other bill of any denomination or currency. The bill can then be handed out and you end totally clean.

High Roller: A borrowed one dollar bill magically changes into a ten dollar bill; then a twenty; then a fifty; and finally a one hundred dollar bill! You end clean and the one hundred dollar bill can be immediately handed out.

PLUS: Homing Bills and the Smack Bill Change.

My Take:
It seems like the do it yourself phase has come full cycle into the magic world Sans Mind pioneered it with some very clever gimmicks. But you did have to build them yourself. In most of their effects, however, you got one trick and it took a long time to build. On one of them that I received, it took an hour to build and it didn't work so I had to redo it. Cool effect but it is now sitting in that famous "magic drawer" that we all have. This DVD is different not only by including eight effects but that they all are easy to make. This DVD is put out by Kosmo. For those of you familiar with his video magazine Reel Magic, you know you will getting your money's worth.

What you get in the package: A very nicely produced DVD, an envelope with the materials necessary to make the gimmicks and a tube of the purple glue stick that he recommends for the projects. A few caveats though. I had a real problem with the way the DVD navigation is set up. I could not find a menu item to "Play all". Each trick had to be selected individually, which brought you to another menu related to that particular trick. This menu would have around five items, which also had to be selected individually. It would have been nice to have a "Play All" button so you could just set back and watch the DVD. The next is another DVD issue. The routine "Time Is Money" involves loading a bill under your spectator’s watch. The instructions are spot on but they neglected to include a performance video. This is the only routine on the DVD lacking that feature but the one that most needed it. The last caveat is that, unlike make it yourself bill tricks done with rubber cement, once these gimmicks are made the bills will no longer be usable as currency. You will have to sacrifice actual cash to make these items. That being said, Kosmo has done a superb job in filming this project. The teaching both on the construction and the performance are well done.

The first thing that really sold me on this package was a pile of bills switches and not a sniff of a thumbtip. Just some very clever, easy to make gimmicks. My favorite gimmick is for the routine High Roller. Unfortunately to make the gimmick it is going to cost you $82.00 in bills. If, instead of using a ten, twenty and fifty, you use a two, five and ten, the cost drops to $17.00. Depends on how often you will be using this in a paid show and the impression you wish to make which version you choose. The gimmick however is killer.

The Atomic Bills gimmick will only run you a couple of bucks and the best thing about it is that it is used in several of the included routines.

He includes one non-gimmicked routine on the DVD. Homing Bills is a nice easy routine using only bills and is a great place to start learning this material.

Conclusion - Considering the number of effects taught plus having the special materials included (I have never seen another package that included even the glue stick), this is a bargain. All the routines are easy to do, gimmicks are easy to make and every one packs a punch. If you are looking to do a bill routine this gives you a bunch to choose from. I have seen too many DVD's in this price range that teach only one trick. This is recommended with the caveats listed above.

By far one of my favorite purchases. I keep Cool Cash in my wallet and have people ask to see it again and again. My first one has held up to being in my wallet, practice, and a lot of performances. It is still in great shape. I just press down on the folds to make these crisper again.

Thanks for your positive comments!! I now have this available on my website!