|
|
Red Shadow Inner circle 1788 Posts |
Review: Chris Randall – Live at the Magic Castle
Let me start this review by commenting on his other releases. They are awful. In his sweet DVD, he has some great effects but none of them are taught with enough depth for you to actually learn them. His youth comes across as arrogant and so it gathered a number of bad reviews. He then released a DVD called ‘Magic at the Bar’, at the exact same time as he released this DVD. I have not seen that DVD in full, but I have seen the trailer and intro section… He looks like he has been pasted in oil and is wearing a plastic hair pieces. He is so brightly lit, he reflects the light of his skin and so he looks like a plastic doll. The backgrounds feel like some CGI settings and the tricks look forced and unnatural when performed, as though they would only ever work on the DVD and not in the real world. Several of the effects he teaches can also be found on this Magic Castle DVD which is another bad point. These two previous releases are both somewhat justified in the bad reviews that they have received. And so with those two DVDs mentioned, let’s get on with the review of this DVD… In my opinion, this DVD is not only great, but quite frankly superb, one of the best DVDs released in a long time. It’s hard to imagine that the above two DVDs have come from the same performer. He is almost an entirely different person on this DVD. As a lecturer, he is charming, likeable and comes across as genuinely wanting you to learn his effects. The tricks he teaches while not completely original are well thought out. He goes to great lengths to understand the logic of why the effects work and devises ways to escalate the pace and presentation of a routine. It is truly the actions of a great magician and someone well deserving of lecturing at the Castle. Without all the make-up, without the bright lights and fake backdrop, with a real audience and a real desire to teach – this DVD is one of the best resources any magician can get. The positives: 1) His Balls from mouth routine and Linking Rings. While not original, his presentations are simply charming and he offers some great insight into how he put the routines together and why. As classics of magic, they are well worth seeing performed. 2) He comes across as genuinely likable guy that really wants you to learn his effects. 3) His routines to music are great and he has great music tastes. 4) Technical fine. There is humming from the vent but it’s not too bad. The camera caught everything you needed to see very clearly, even in this lecture situation. The negatives: 1) The DVD has no menu, and no chapters. This is a problem because I wanted to skip back and watch the explanations again, but doing so sent me back to the beginning of the entire DVD. There was also no menu to jump straight to a part I wanted to see. In 2010, a DVD without chapters or a menu is quite frankly very poor indeed. 2) Not all his effects were useable, such as his seven digits trick he teaches to get a woman’s phone number. On this DVD, he does come across as likable and good-looking and so with that in mind, I think he would get a lot of girl’s telephone numbers simply because of his good looks. He also lives in Vegas, which quite frankly, is perhaps an easier place to find woman up for anything. In my opinion, the trick isn’t the reason he is getting girls numbers and I doubt it will help anybody else either. 3) This was recorded in the Magic Castle, which meant occasionally you can hear clapping from the other rooms. The air vent was also turned on at times, however the sound did not interfere with us hearing Chris, so was forgivable. He has lots of ideas on this disc and lots of great effects. His other products have been given some awful reviews so I can imagine a lot of people steering clear of this one. But it is genuinely a good DVD and if you give Chris a second chance and purchase this DVD, you will not be disappointed. Steve P.S: This is my 1000 post! |
StephenP Regular user 103 Posts |
Thanks, Steve. This is a very helpful review. Congrats on 1,000!
|
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Dvd, Video tape, Audio tape & Compact discs. » » Review: Chris Randall – Live at the Magic Castle (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.03 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |