Mine arrived today. I'm putting it in the DVD player now.

I bought mine today at FISM. Will look at it next week when I have recovered...

OK, I said I would give review so here it is:

First be aware that I am a BIG David Stone fan and that he is among my top three favorite magicians. This is probably because I first learned coin magic from his basic coin videos a long time ago.

Now, on to this DVD.

There are four menu items..."Film", "Explanations", "Selection" and "Bonus".

Film is the actual film, which consists of David outdoors by a canal giving the information about working restaurants and cocktail parties. This information is, of course, sound and born of years of experience. His dialogue is interspersed with the restaurant and cocktail party scenes where the tricks are performed. So instead of the usual "performance, explanation", this section is a whole entity in itself.

There are no explanations here, only performances of each effect intermingled with David's talk as he walks along the canal. Bertrand's direction is, of course, outstanding.

The effects fit into David's theory that they should be short, direct, and visual (because of noise factors in these environments). The 'diners' are actors (the same ones in the comedy teaser) but the focus here is on David's performance. His handlings are beautiful to watch.

The "Selection" section of the DVD allows you to skip to any of the effects. The effects are split into categories, "Restaurant" (done with some table space) and "Cocktail" (done standing with the spectators). There are ten effects in each category.

The "Explanations" are done silently by David on a white background and with a glass table (where needed). There is no talking. This is the same way Jay Scott Berry teaches on his DVDs, and I like it...direct, visual and clear. Where needed, an arrow directs you to the area you need to see. David goes over all the moves slowly and from various angles. After each effect, the credits for that effect are shown. Excellently filmed.

The "Bonus" contains the short film that won the AOI Festival, a photo gallery, and an interview with David and Bertrand. ( I haven't seen this yet).



The Effects:

It would not be an overstatement to say that you could earn a living as a magician using this DVD as your only resource. David believes effects done in these situations should be varied, and the effects themselves reflect that...cards, coins, rope, sponge balls, napkins, roses...all are included here. Every effects is strong, and there is no filler. Some are preludes to other effects, such as the flash production of a deck of cards.

I won't go into all 20 effects here, but some of my favorites are:

Ghost: (restaurant) A spec picks a card (say the Ten of Hearts). It is placed into the middle of the deck then the magician tried to make it jump to the top. He fails, but then the entire deck disappears and the magician is left holding only four cards...the four Tens (or whatever the specs card was). Credit says this is from Greg Wilson's FISM act.

One Coin: (cocktail) A beautiful single coin flurry that ends with the production of a jumbo coin. Very visual and startling vanishes and reappearances.

Napkin: (cocktail) The magician tears and restores a napkin...then produces a drink from it.

Coin Glass: (restaurant) A lovely coins into glass routine.

Bite Me: (cocktail) A coin is produced from nowhere, then vanished in a silk. A bottle of wine is then produced from the silk.

Travellers: (restaurant) An Invisible Palm routine with the four Kings and a kicker ending.

Veil Rouge:(cocktail) A color-changing deck routine.

Cards:(cocktail) Productions of fans of cards, productions of single cards, cards from mouth, etc.



This is just an excellent DVD, and I am very happy with it. I will definitely be using a lot of this material.


I am looking forward to hearing anyone else's thoughts on it.

Eva

Argh...sooo jealous. I ordered mine and am waiting for it to arive. As soon as it does I will let you know my thoughts on the subject. I cant wait!

C

Is there anywhere to order it from other than the site posted above? Je ne parle pas francais bien...

Haven't seen it anywhere else yet. I don't speak French either...I just clicked the buttons to get to Paypal.

Has anyone else received theirs yet?

I coudn't find it anywhere else either. Does anyone know if the 5 EUR postage charge is for worldwide shipping? By the way the 34 EUR (29 + 5) is currently about $43.77 USD.

-Brian

Woah!!! I cannot believe how QUICKLY this DVD got to me! Maybe France is closer to Australia than I thought...I knew I should have paid more attention in geography class.

The filming, direction and production quality is first class. I could almost have been happy just watching the opening credit sequence. In this regard I'd rate this DVD as the best in my library by a long shot.

Eva has given such a great and thorough review regarding the magic I really can't add much more, suffice to say that I certainly back her enthusiasm for this DVD. David Stone's magic is really beautiful to watch, it really is wonderfully routined and...well, magical. This is definitely the way I like my magic to look and so I shall be adding a great deal of this material into my working repertoire.

Highly recommended!

Billy

Yes this DVD is so funny, very well filmed and give a lot of tips !
The idea of the explanation without background is nice too

Just got mine today! Excellent magic!

Does anyone know if a U.S. dealer will be selling David's new DVD any time soon?

Sure hope Murphy's picks it up.

Any other reviews of this dvd?

I too would love a review.

There's a review on the first page of this thread.

Additional reviews, I should have said.

Well I've seen it probably four times now and I think it really is excellent. I don't work restaurants, so for me the value of "Real Secrets of Magic" stands in the tricks only. The parts where Stone is talking about restaurant work were entertaining,though.

That said, as a collection of 'real world workers', and disregarding the restaurant slant, this DVD is worth the price.

The magic is strong and visual and Stone's instruction - in a white room with a glass table - is diamond-clear. The performances are very well shot. Bertrand even uses Matrix-style bullet-time effects.

The highlights for me were: Ghost, One Coin, the Deck Flash production, and Napkin.

I can't find it anywhere.

David is one of my favorite Magicians. Superb technical skill and a personality to match!!

Thanks AJ for such a great review. I assumed I would like the DVD as there really is nothing by David that I haven't. I just wanted to hear more about it. Thanks alot.