Title: Sensational Silk Magic / Simply Beautiful Silk Magic
Medium: 2 DVDs in one package
Arena: Stage, stand up, kids show
Available: http://www.laflinmagic.com

WARNING: If you are a street assassin or hallway hit man you might as well stop reading now. This is for those that perform stand up shows, so go practice biting your quarter.

Duane Laflin is known to the magic community for his silk magic and also does a nice illusion show. I’ve seen his silk show on stage and it is amazing to see. I couldn’t tell you how he is loading and pulling material but he fills the stage with color and flash and that is why silk magic is great. Packs flat, is light weight, and you can get a lot of action out of them. I love silk magic and use plenty of them during my kids shows and stand up performances. I am often concerned that I have too much silk magic in my act but since I don’t have nearly as much as Laflin I guess I’m okay. You can get more mileage out of a silk and thumb tip than pretty much anything else I can think of.

Duane is often at conventions selling his silk products, which are very good and reasonably priced compared to the very high quality and price of P&A Silks. He also produced a number of videos on performing from school shows and Gospel shows as well as his videos on working with silks. This set consist of two disks of silk magic, that being Sensational Silk Magic and Simply Beautiful Silk Magic. I purchased these from the Laflin clan at a convention but they may be found at some magic shops, I am not certain of that, you can order from the web site they have. The production level on both is okay. The sound is fine, the picture a bit over lit, I think it was originally on video tape then re authored for DVD, the menu is nice though. Duane does make some errors such as dropping things but he trudges on rather than re shooting. He excuses it, and I believe him, as being due to thinking ahead of what he is doing. Over all though the production level is fine for what it is.

Both disks have very good routines, handling ideas, and tips on being a silk magician as well as how to set up your staging, as in where to hide silks etc.. On Simply Beautiful Silk Magic you get introduced to a lot of really cool little items like vanish boxes that you may not have seen which may be a real nice addition to a show. I found it very interesting. You’ll also get good tips on working with hank pulls, balls, and dye tubes…the dye tube handling is really cool. You will learn on Sensational an excellent in the hands, no bag, 20th Century Silks and what I think was worth the entire cost of the set, which was cheaper than a single DVD is usually, how to set up for Blendo. I love Blendo and thing it is the perfect ending for a kids show. You produce a bunch of silks and bundle them in your hands and they turn into a giant 36 inch silk. It looks great and I am using the method presented. Also gone over is a silk fountain, which also looks great to the audience.

If you do kids shows or want to or festivals and want to add silks this is a great way to go. Obviously if you don’t perform stand up of any sort but are a finger flinger then you will not find these of interest. You will find enough material and routines here to fill out your kids show or stand up show. There is one problem, the props are so cool you may end up like me and be ready to order a bunch of stuff, and that is what I’m off to do now! Good stuff by nice folks.