Million Dollar Card Secrets DVD (Simon Lovell)

Over an hour and more than 30 card tricks with Simon Lovell

WHAT YOU GET

You get a disk in a DVD cover, which says on the back that there are more than 30 card tricks and secrets that will put you in a class above the rest. The DVD contains a whole variety of card tricks and moves that help you learn some absolutely amazing tricks. With an hour and fourteen minutes run time, the video goes through the performances, each followed by the explanations. If you wish, you can also just watch the performances of all the effects.



CONTENTS

Below is a listing of just a few of the first tricks shown and taught in the video:

Chicago Opener/Red Hot Mama

This is a very great opener to a performance, and has a freely chosen card magically change its colour back, not once, but twice, with even a slight transposition of the cards. This is a very easy to learn trick, and Simon goes through it nice and easily with a good run-down. It makes a great opener because while it does use an additional card (called a stranger card), once the trick is over you can go on to perform any other tricks you want.

Some Moves

This section covers some simple and useful sleights that can be used in a variety of tricks.

Three in a Million

This is a "Do as I Do" effect on steroids with three identical matches - a very amazing trick which will absolutely baffle your audience. Two decks are brought out and the same actions are done, you with one deck, the spectator with the other. Both chose a card, it is placed on the table, and amazingly enough, it matches! Even more amazing is the fact that the bottom card of both decks and also the bottom card of a pile matches too, a three in a million coincidence that is truly impossible! This is an impromptu effect which can be done with any two borrowed and shuffled decks, creating an even more impossible result.



Switch Craft

For this effect, two cards magically swap places, whether it be from the top to bottom of a glass, or in a spectator's hand if you want! A great effect that is different from the average `find a card' trick, this will help to start to build your own magical reputation, as it seems pure magic! This is a very handy trick to add to one's repertoire.

Easy Aces Variation

The four aces are found from the deck in a magical way. At the start of the effect, the four aces are shown, then lost into the deck, and found in a variety of amazing ways. This is a good and handy opener, as at the end you have the four aces, and can from there go into other tricks using the four aces - a staple of magicians!

Hide and Go Seek Kings

The kings are shown face up on the top of the deck, and magically disappear. Where do they go? To the middle of the deck, face up - but incredibly right next to each individual one is a queen! This trick is absolutely baffling, and when I first saw it, I thought it would be very difficult to learn, but it is actually quite simple, but no less effective because of this!

You're One Ahead

This is a nice and simple little trick, which seems really obvious once you know the secret, but is confusing when you don't. I have often performed this trick, and have done it over and over to some people without them catching on. It is great because some people eventually realise what is happening and they enjoy it all the more. It is a simple trick which you will not be afraid to teach and explain to the audience, because this will create more entertainment for them because of this. If you teach it to them, it means that they are not always getting fooled if you teach them a trick or two in between, and as a result they will be happy to keep watching you do tricks!

Simon's Dual Discovery Variation

Two cards are selected by two different spectators, and individually lost into the deck. The magician takes two cards out, shows them to the two spectators, who both say neither are their card. The two cards are throw face down onto the table, and they become in fact, the two selected cards. This is a great impromptu effect that seems at first as if the magician is wrong, but ends with a great finale. This trick does involve some more in depth sleight of hand, that is not in taught in this video, but is a fairly common sleight.

Simon's Uncanny Revelation

A card is chosen by the spectator, signed on the back without anyone seeing the face, and cut into the deck. The faces of the cards are shown and a single card is selected, flipped over, and found to be the chosen card. This is a nice little impromptu trick that is easy to learn and perform, and requires no sleight of hand, but still is amazing to see.



The Peekaboo Revelation

A single card is sighted in the deck, the cards cut a few times, spread face up, and the four aces are found to be face up, one card in between them. It is, in fact, the chosen card. This is a interesting effect which does require setting up, but has an interesting result. A variety of card controls are needed to be able to perform this effect.

Mental Cards

A few cards are shown, and the spectator freely thinks of one. The spectator takes the deck, places some cards from the bottom to top behind their back, then deal down some cards. After dealing a few cards down, the magician stabs one face down card. It is in fact, the spectators only thought of card, which never once was named. This is a cool effect because the spectator only thinks of the card, it is never named or specifically identified. This makes the end even more amazing and baffling. Even better, it is easy to learn and perform, because no complex sleights at all are needed!

Key Control Glimpse

Simon shares a few tips on using a key card to be put into place at the chosen card. This can then be used later for the magician to identify the chosen card and perform other carrying tricks with it. A very handy thing to be able to do as a magician!

What Aces?

The four aces are taken out of the deck and placed face down on the table. When the spectator guesses which is the Ace of Spades, it turns out that they are all in fact Kings! A nice little effect that is not too hard to learn, but gets a great response.

Perplexing Card Mystery

A very interesting effect in which a series of cards change from Aces to Kings and then back to Aces. Very perplexing, and it seems real magic. This effect does require sleight of hand and some practice, but I can assure you it is well worth it!

Ambitious Card Routines

Here Simon teaches a variety of Ambitious Card routines and moves, in which a selected and signed card can repeatedly rise to the top of the deck before the audience's eyes. This is a classic in magic, and very effective to perform, and the variety Simon teaches is very helpful.



RECOMMENDATION

This DVD contains a great number of tricks and other useful moves, providing a variety of good options for you to choose from. Simon Lovell, the man who performs and teaches all the moves, is a skilled magician with a good sense of humour that adds to the watching experience. He goes through the performances well, and offers some useful options and ideas to follow when performing.

The teaching side of the video has one weakness in that it goes through the material quickly. Simon Lovell does teach the tricks very well, but goes through the explanations quite quickly, so it may take some time to master the tricks. Also, some sleights and moves that are used for some of the tricks are not explained in the video, but if you are already well into magic and would consider yourself an intermediate magician, it is likely you already know them. Due to all this, this video would probably be better for more experienced magicians than absolute newcomers, as being already familiar with and able to perform some sleights used will be helpful. A better video for complete newcomers to magic would be the DVD "Do you want to learn Magic". But for intermediate magicians, it is hard to go wrong with Simon Lovell's Million Dollar Card Secrets!



Want to learn more? See:
- Publisher's page: http://www.magicmakersinc.com/p-173-mill......ers.aspx
- Amazon: http://amazon.com/dp/B000JPLRO4/?tag=ender-bgg-20