This may not be the right place for this but here's one man's DVD dilemma. I find a complex routine I want to study that's on a DVD and, rather than endlessly replaying (which tends to cause me to mimic the exact routine as performed - removing all thought of inserting a presentation that is me) I laboriously write the thing out and use that to get moves and sequence. I realize we're in the audio/visual age but golly gee, some things still deserve print.

I hear what you're saying.

I've said before that it would be nice if printed instructions of the routines were somehow supplied with the videos.
Even if it was just the steps and sleights involved that were in print.

Not necessary for the same reason as you but so I could study the routines anywhere and without a player.

Another thought is this... If it is a specific routine that is pretty well scripted as to moves, then sure, you need to study as it is. But if not, you could just watch it in chunks and learn the moves and then choreograph your own.

But if the former, and it is a well put together routine, just learn it as is, knowing you're going to mimic the teacher in some way, and then get out in penalty free situations (non-paying gigs, or friends at parties, or whatever) and just keep doing it with the thought of making it your own, and get experimental with bringing your own personality into it.

Is it really DVDs and videos that are the problem? A case in point is one I learned with no DVDs or VCRs; Hopping Half. I learned it at Tannen's from Tony, with a flavor of "I told you it was a two coin trick", which is kind of a fool-em feel. As I was working it through, a friend suggested I try a "gee, no matter which coin I take out, it finds its way back to my hand" feel to it; like they're in it with me trying to figure out how the coin keeps getting back to my hand. So now I have two ways to handle it, looking at my spectators and seeing what I think they might enjoy more. Then with my kid's friends, I do kind of a hip-hop move where I put the coin in my pocket, pretend someone kind of pinched my butt, then do these hip-hop kinda dance moves like the coin is traveling thru my body back to the hand. (And lemme tell ya; THAT gets a lot of laughs)

So whether it's from a book, pamphlet, DVD or a teacher, learn it and THEN make it your own.

Nornando,
You might write out only a “bare bones” outline to help jog your memory. John Northern Hilliard took this approach with some of his entries in his classic book Greater Magic . It is very helpful.

Jaz is right. It would be good if the publisher would include at least a bare bones outline with the DVD, especially the “one-trick” DVDs.

Regards,
Gerald

Yes, a pdf. That would be great.

Just don't watch the presentation so much so it's not ingrained into your mind.