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"Anywhere Anytime Close-Up Magic" DVD
by Dan Turcotte
Suggested Retail USD$75.00
Available direct from YouDoMagic.com
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Boy, I don't even know where to start with this one, folks. In sheer volume of material in this 2 DVD/1 CD-ROM set, it would take me a month just to cover everything here and how I feel about it. So I'll get the obvious thing out of the way:

"Anywhere Anytime Close-Up Magic", by Dan Turcotte, is a treasure, one of those rare reasons to not only part with your hard-earned cash but to spend the time and immerse yourself in nothing but the contents here with all the gusto you can summon, especially if you're new to magic.

What Turcotte has created here is an audio/visual magic kit of sorts, a collection of frequently used sleights, commonly held props, and standard routines. You'll find the basics of palming here, a basic sponge ball routine, a Cups and Balls routine... you get the idea.

But do not make the mistake I did initially, thinking of this as strictly for beginners. Oh, it is a godsend for beginners, but it's probably the perfect collection for those who are also rapidly moving up the ladder in terms of skill, those often overlooked "intermediate" practitioners who have moved beyond the basics and are on their way to learning more challenging, more difficult tasks.

After all, when was the last time you saw a "beginner's only" book or tape teach -- and teach well -- the strike-double, the classic pass, and a watch steal? Yeah, me too.

And that should give you an idea of what Turcotte is attempting here: teaching those early fundamentals to beginners and moving them past that painful (and too often long) "beginner" stage and onto advanced skills and thinking as quickly as possible. With excellent material wonderfully taught, Turcotte not just attempts this, but succeeds.

Let's talk about the material. This is a three-disk set, two of which are DVDs and one which is a CD-ROM. The breakdown in the material is something else: 29 routines with 38 lessons, one hour of video covering performance (in a non-set, non-prepped restaurant), a couple of hours of instructional video, and then 27 ebooks covering most of the video lessons (with more photos and descriptions than you can shake that proverbial stick at). There's a full list of everything taught in this collection at Dan Turcotte's website, so I won't go into that encyclopedic list here. Just suffice to say, he covers a boatload of material: cards, coins, rubber bands, Cups and Balls, sponge balls, rings and strings... the list goes on and on..

He does it well, too. The videos are very well shot, the production values are high, and Turcotte's teaching is spot-on accurate. To his credit, he's not simply teaching "the moves" here; he's teaching the basics of the psychology involved in each piece. Is it exhaustive, all this teaching? No, it's not, but it is thorough enough for those just getting started and those delving deeper. Turcotte's instruction is perfect for his target audience and, I'll wager, more than a few that are even further into magic than those labeled "intermediate" or "advanced".

That's a nice way of saying Turcotte even taught this old dog a trick or two and I thought I'd seen it all.

At the end of the day, this is one of those collections which should be required viewing for everyone regardless of their level of expertise. True, the beginner and the intermediate gain by far the most here, but even those past those stages will probably pick up a thing or three which could make it worth the money.

If you're just starting out, you could do a lot worse and very little better than get your hands on Dan Turcotte's "Anywhere Anytime Close-Up Magic". It's something else.

"Anywhere Anytime Close-Up Magic" DVD by Don Turcotte
In A Blink: 9 Out of 10

Material: 10
Cards and coins, bills and rubber bands, rings and strings... and I still know I'm leaving stuff out. This is an encyclopedic work and, as such, it's heavy with material of all stripes. While the more experienced might not see much new here, the beginner and intermediate performer will be in heaven.

Practicality: 10
The title says "anytime" and "anywhere" and it means what it says. Oh, the actual venue requirements may vary a bit (an angle here, a table there), but taken as a whole this is probably the most practical material you'll find.

Quality of Production: 9
The videos are very well shot, though a couple of the video had sound problems (the volume jumped greatly during them). As a plus, Turcotte was kind enough -- and smart enough -- to allow you the ability to get to those PDF ebooks with either a DVD or a CD-ROM in your system. He gets points for thinking about his customers, which more creators should do.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Here Turcotte made me the ultimate fan. He is an excellent teacher and truly works hard to get the lesson across. Between his videos and the ebooks, you'll have no problem learning any of the material here, no matter your skill level or the difficulty.

Presentation: 8
The presentations here are what you'd expect of such material -- narrative, simple, generic -- but Turcotte gets points for also keeping everything simple on the spectator and easy enough to incorporate into your own act or personality.

Originality: 8
There's little earthshakingly new here, but that's to be expected given the goal and the audience for this set. But far from being rehashed material, Turcotte's own routines and thoughts are genuine and, though built on old, solid foundations, original enough to keep them from being tired.

Shane