I must say that DVD Cash by Mark Allen is the worst instructional DVD I have ever seen and here are the reasons why...
First of all, the good points... The picture quality is fine and the trick is awesome. Aside from that the rest is a nightmare. Also let me say that I have seen hundreds of instructional DVD's.
The instruction on this DVD is horrible and pitiful.If I could I would ask for a refund of the money I paid for the DVD plus the $16 that I ruined making the gimmick. First of all Mr Allen tells you to use spray adhesive to make the gimmick. Then he sort of changes his mind and says use rubber cement. I used the spray adhesive and that was a huge mistake because once you attach the bills with spray there is no going back. Needless to say unless you get it perfect (which I did not) you are left with a uselss bundle of bills that can not be salvaged. $16 down the drain.
Then Mr Allen goes on to explain how to assemble the gimmick but he does it with cut out pieces of paper instead of real bills. So confusing!!!!! I had to make the packet 4-5 different times and reassemble it until I got it right.
Then as he explains the handling of the gimmick but he does it out of order. First he shows the handling of the entire packet loaded with the bills then later he shows you how to load the bills into the packet. This forces you rewind and rewind to get the effect right.Then when he finally shows you how to load the bills into the packet he does it so quickly, non descript, nonchalant and only one time that you have to rewind the DVD about a dozen times until you get it right. He even says that it may seem awkward and difficult at first but you'll get the hang of it. If that's the case then repeat it a few times for clarity. The worst part is that you have to sit there and listen to the history of the gimmick and how this is not the same as the Patrick Page gimmick which he mentions what seems like a dozen times. He also comes off as very egotistical and defensive as he mentions how others have tried to rip him off.
It is clearly a case of the performer treating the effect as an easy effect because he has performed it so many times. As a magic instructor you must take it down to the simplest actions and break each move down and repeat moves over and over. Mr Allen does not do this.
I am not giving up though. I just recently disassembled and reassembled the packet for the 5th time and now I am going to try it again. Wish me luck. Jeff Blum

I'm with you
arthur Tivoli

Gotta agree. This was my first instructional magic DVD purchase and I thought the product was awful. Great effect, just a lousy DVD. In addition to what is mentioned above, Allen makes repeat mistakes and misstatements that could have been edited, corrected or reshot...but they are not. Your best bet is to watch the DVD several times then turn it off and figure it out on your own. A pity, because it really is a great effect...just a lousy instructional product.

BooRadley

Wow. This sounds impressively awful! Thanks for taking the time and reviewing it properly for us.

I agree with you guys here... I think he has a dvd on how to make gaff cards using your pc, and I found this dvd to be terrible as well...

I think the video could have been much better as far as stuff to be edited out. However, once I got mine put together the effect has been killer. I made mine with $1's, $10's and $100's and the second to third change just slays them.

I did a lot of research on the effect before I got the DVD so I was able to fill in the blanks where there were problems from the DVD. If anyone is considering this effect, I would still highly recommend it, the quality of the DVD not withstanding. Then use these links to help.

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/searc......=4124333

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/searc......=4002385

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/searc......=3871791

Many thanks to Dan Watkins for his help off line as well. Truly one of the good guys.

Here are some tips:

1. Use rubber cement. I just finally pulled apart my original gimmick and replaced it with new bills. The old bills I deposited back to the bank. (I am using $100's so I cannot afford not be able to recycle). Before I made up my gimmick I took a $1.00 bill and rubber cemented it and folded it in half sticking it to itself just to see how hard it was to pull apart and remove the cement after it dried. It was easy, so it gave me confidence to use the $100's I can fully attest that with rubber cement you can re-use the bills over a year later.

2. I was also somewhat confused by the exact details of setting up the gimmick, however what I did learn was: 1. What the gimmick was. 2. The handling once you do get it setup. What I did was take some paper, cut them into rectangles. Drew a face and tail side to the papers and I made up the gimmick with paper and double sided tape. Then I added the loose paper bills and worked through the gimmick until I understood it. I also figured out what sequence put the bills together to get them to open the direction I wanted (I like to open with heads facing outwards after the changes).

3. The trickiest part is the middle packet. Once you fan the middle bills, you have to put the loose bills on the other side of the gimmick to get to the next denomination of bills. To reset, you have to put the loose bills back on the original side of the gimmick. The top and bottom denominations never change position in the gimmick.

Once you get it down, this is a really powerful trick. The first change kills people. It's always good to wait for someone in the crowd to make the comment, (and it happens 80% of the time) can you turn them into $100's? At this point you are performing magic at their request, which is much stronger. This single issue alone is what made me switch to $100's. Too many people would make that comment.

Dan, thanks for the info. Yeah I'm in the process of doing exactly that... trying to figure out exactly what the gimmick is and how it works. I agree that it could be a powerful effect. It's really as if he said "I have this really cool effect that I'll show you but I really don't want you to learn how to do it. OK here's what the gimmick looks like now you figure out how to put it together and how to use it. Oh and there's s reset too but I'm not going to tell you about that either... you have figure that out for yourself as well. Thanks again, Jeff

WOW Dan - That sure seems like an extraordinary amount of effort expended in order to get something to work that you saw in an "instructional video". Either you have a tremendous amount of patience or that surely is one great effect!

Dave

I think it's a great effect. If someone put together a really well tutorial complete with gaff instructions, I'd likely buy that too. The effect is great when done properly. It's just the instructional video was put together very poorly.

I was just scared to screw up when I am using real money, so I was cautious to start. That was my true reason for taking those steps.

I use rubber cement for Hundy 500 and it works great. In a pinch, I've even used double stick tape. And that works well too.

Another idea would be to make it up using play money. This is what I did for "Slow Burn" I wanted to switch from a face up one to a face up hundred. The way it was instructed was face down bill turning into face up bill. I played with play money and figured it out!