I found one thread that obliquely addressed the following questions, but it's from 2006 and didn't tell me exactly what I wanted to know:


I'm considering purchasing Hamman's DVD's:

1. The Greater Magic Video Library Volume 38 - Brother John Hamman - DVD

2. Lost Works of Brother John Hamman 6 Volume DVD Set

For each of these disks, are the picture and audio quality reasonably good? Do you get a sense of Hamman as a magician and as a human being? Do the videos complement and enhance the teaching in the book, The Secrets of Brother John Hamman?


And -- if I were to purchase just one of the two, which would you recommend and why?


Thanks for any help you can offer.

Lost Works is CHEAP. And good. LOTS of material. Vintage Hamman.

Bob, Thanks for your post. As a fan of Hamman's work, I was looking at these too.

Atom: Thanks for your answer...

I would buy the Hamman Book the DVD's are hard to follow.

I have all the original VHS tapes from Greater Magic Video Library. The quality of the video and sound are good. Yes, you get the personality of the performer. He was very direct and dry in his presentation. However, it is a good supplement to the book "The Secrets of Brother John Hamman".

Best,

hbenod

Thanks, everybody (and to jefkve, you're welcome). I should have mentioned that I already own the book, so yes, I'm thinking of the disks as supplementing the book.


I went ahead and ordered the 6-DVD set, so now my question is, if you already have the book and the set, is it worthwhile to get the Greater Magic disk? I realize this is subjective, but I'd be interested to hear the opinions of people who own both the set and the Greater magic DVD.


Regards,


Bob

The DVD's are excellent for a peek into how Richard Kaufman really treats people.

The Lost Works DVDs are cheaply produced but you get to see a master handle the cards and walk through an awful lot of tricks. Brother John Hamman handles the cards very lightly and gracefully.

Thanks for all the info, folks.


Bob

And how is Richard Kaufman treating others ? He seems a nice guy when you read him.

Yes, I would recommend getting the greater magic DVD. The Lost Works is good, but it wasn't produced as a DVD set to teach other magicians, it was basically just the documentation that Kaufman used when putting together the material for the book. He decided to sell the videos not so much for people to learn from them, but more so just to for people to appreciate BJH as there aren't too many videos of him, his performing style is very unique, and he was a fantastic person. Although yes, you can learn material from the set (and many people do), the camera is shakey, the lighting is poor, the audio is less than ideal at times, and the overall atmosphere is much more casual than the standard magic dvd because again, Kaufman only put them together for his own personal use. I would absolutely recommend that anyone get the lost works dvds because they are great and cheap, but do not think that just because you have them, you can't benefit from greater magic. Greater magic is much more professionally put together (although that's not saying much) and you get to see more of Hamman as a performer. you get to see how he talks and acts in a real performing setting. Many of his tricks require interaction with spectators, whether it just be talking to them or actually giving them something to do and in LW's, he relied on imaginary spectators or Kaufman pretending to be a layperson, while in GM, there are real people at the table with him so you can see the tricks "in action". Lastly, as already been stated, Hamman had a unique style of performing. He was very soft spoken and his actions were simple. He never fidgetted with the deck. Although you can see some of this in LW's, I think it's better portrayed in GM.

TLDR - Yes, get the Greater Magic DVD, even if you already own The Lost Works

Thanks, Huzzah -- very helpful.

The tapes I made (and make) in the process of writing a book are never supposed to be made public. These tapes were stolen from Brother John by a particularly smarmy individual. I would never have released them.

Aside from a persistent case of indigestion, I don't find anything embarrassing about the tapes. Brother John and I were very close friends. We had a long tedious job to do of videotaping 100 routines with explanations in five days. There was not a lot of small talk--mostly we just went about our business. Our convivial conversations were saved for rest periods and meal time.

Richard,


I'm sorry to hear that the tapes were stolen. If I had known that I would never have bought the DVD's.


While I'm here, I want you to know how much I enjoy your book with Hamman, The Secrets of Brother John Hamman.


Best,


Bob

I find the Lost Works indispensible. It's definitely in my top 5. You will need to refer to the yellow book for some items. Poster R--not sure what your problem is with Richard, I found him charming as always. Not joking. Try locking yourself in a room for several long days with anyone trying to exchange info on a complex topic and see how you fare.

I would only stick with hos books the dvd quality is not that great unfortunately due to the times it was recorded but its vintage Hamman..