"2wo Faced" DVD by David Forrest
Suggested Retail USD$35.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"2wo Faced", a DVD by Scottish performer David Forrest, is a disc packed with simple yet astonishing card magic that will have some purists re-thinking their philosophy.

After all, as the title implies, this is a disc about using double-facers to accomplish miracles, and the truth is that some of those miracles are just too darn good.

Let me get the big concern out of the way: no, you don't need to have a stockpile of those gaffs laying around: Forrest did the right thing here, the perfect thing, by including exactly the cards you need: all twenty of them on Bicycle stock. Open the DVD case, pull out the gimmicks, grab a deck, and you're ready to start learning these jewels. And for most of the material here, that's an understatement.

You can get the gist of the individual effects from the ads, so I won't waste time rehashing that list. Instead, I'll exercise a bit of restraint and hit what I think are the highlights here.

"Wee Wee Mentalist" just struck me as oddly funny. In it, a small stick man is drawn, complete with a little comic-book "thought bubble". When a trick goes wrong and the performer can't come up with the selected card, the little mentalist does with the card appearing in the bubble. This is so cute it's sick and I loved it.

While we're on that theme... "Superfly". Another one that's cute but very, very strong. In this one, a hand-drawn fly "comes to life" and located a selected card. This one is one of my favorites on the disc, which proves I probably need psychiatric help.

Color-changing decks seem to be making a comeback of sorts, and "Blurred" is a good one. It's quick, easy, and visual. If you're looking for a good, tight, color-changing deck, you'd do yourself a disservice by not checking this one out.

"Quantum Leap" is a gaffed look at a David Regal routine and involves a selected card teleporting from one hand to the other. This is just plain pretty and packs the punch to be a real stunner.

There's a lot more material on the disc (you've got about two-hours of viewing ahead of you on this one) and, if my favorites don't get your attention, it can almost be guaranteed there is a lot here you will like. Truthfully, there's not a single piece here that doesn't warrant a look and all are worth performing.

In other words, Forrest has done it again and release one fine DVD.

Speaking of Forrest, he's gone out of his way here to make things as simple as possible. The routines themselves contain only the most basic of sleights; Forrest uses the gaffs to eliminate anything more difficult than that. He explains all the finer points of the routines as you would expect. But he paid attention to the details here: each "explanation" menu selection giving a rating for difficulty (a nice guideline here) and lists the gaffs you'll need to learn the routine. That allows you to choose what you want to concentrate on easily and to get the stuff together quickly. A very, very nice touch.

Another nice touch was having Owen Parker around for the explanations. Now, while I'm quite familiar with Forrest, I must admit I'm not with Parker. However, with the give and take between the two squeezing out all the details of each routine, I can say that Parker's presence here is not just for eye-candy or atmosphere: he goes the workings at a deep level to make the most of the explanations.

At the end, you'll have no problem learning the material you want to. And with material like this, there's a lot you'll want to learn, get down solid, and take out for a walk in the real world.

Now, a fuss that becomes a quibble in light of the material here.

All the routines listed in the ad are easy to get to; the navigation menu is wonderfully clean. Except one.

The last routine listed in the ads is "Ze Flash". It's not on the menu. You have to hunt for it, dig for it, and finally stumble across it (it's kept hidden in the "Credits" section of the disc).

Sorry, but I hate that. Easter eggs are things hidden and waiting to be discovered as fun or at least cute little bonuses. They are not things touted in ads as selling points. If a producer of a disc wants to tuck some little something away for the intrepid consumer, that's fine. No worries. Michael Paul did it with "Impact" and I didn't squirm about it in the least (I actually thought it was quite funny). But if you're going to list a product -- and that's what effects on videos are: products -- in the ads, then it better be exactly where it should be, with the rest of the products. Otherwise it smacks of something much more negative than a collection like this should bring to mind.

And enough of that.

"2wo Faced" is a great collection of gaffed card material, taught exceedingly well, and presented beautifully. That makes this, as with most of Forrest's work, a must-have for anyone interested in this area of card magic.

"2wo Faced" by David Forrest
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Material: 10
The material is, in a word, excellent. The effects vary widely -- from transpositions to teleportations to revelations to just about everything else -- and each one is at the bare minimum very good while more than a handful are simply stellar.

Practicality: 10
Grab the gimmicks, slip them into a deck, and you're ready to go. Slip them back out and you're clean. That's about how easy all of these effects are. Naturally, your set-ups and resets will depend on which routine you're shooting for, but by and large everything is extremely practical.

Quality of Production: 5
Everything was very good -- video, audio, navigation -- until I discovered that one of the routines is hidden as some kind of "easter egg". Why make the consumer hunt around for something he paid good money for? That took this one down a lot.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Forrest does a great job of teaching these routines, covering all the bases as he goes. He does breeze across some of the simpler sleights, but, to be honest, you should already be familiar with some things before getting this one.

Presentation: 10
Forrest's routines are all about cleanliness and visuals and his material here has them in abundance. The verbal component is often just as strong, as is the framing. Man, I love Forrest's work.

Shane

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