"Bootlegs and B-Sides Volume 1" DVD by Sean Fields
Suggested Retail USD$30.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"Bootlegs and B-Sides Volume 1", the latest DVD by Sean Fields, is loaded with some great ideas and killer routines, all based on classic plots, that deserves a place in the video library of any advanced card worker.

Okay, to be honest, I'm a fan of Fields' work and have been for a while. Fields' won me over because of his visuals: at his best, Fields' magic always looks like magic should look, appealing to the eye and freezing the mind. The card routines here reflect Fields' magical thinking quite well, with visuals and cleanliness that make these things pretty much as solid as you could want.

Okay, so let's get to it and take a look at what Fields is teaching here.

First up is "U.C.C." In this one, two cards are selected and lost in the deck. The top card of the deck is shown to be a Joker. Slowly, the Joker turns into the first selected card. This selected card is given a quick spin and turns into the second selected card. Finally, this card is given a quick snap and turns back into the Joker. This is magically very pretty and one of my favorite routines on the disc.

"O.P.P." is Curry's Open Prediction and Fields take on it is probably one of the strongest versions out there. It begins with the performer stating the name of a card (say the Nine of Clubs). The spectator takes the face down deck and begins dealing cards off of it, turning them face-up as they go. Whenever they want, they deal one card face down, setting this card aside and continuing to deal through the rest of the deck. The set-aside card is turned over and, yep, it's the predicted card.

"Seriously" is a very pretty, very visual, change of a single card from one card to another.

"InconTWISTant" is, as you can guess by the name, Fields' version of "Twisting the Aces". In this one, four Queens begin face-up and, one by one, they turn face down. One of the face down Queens is turned over and it's shown that all the Queens have turned face-up. Finally, one of the face-up cards is turned face down and all the Queens have turned face down. This one's slick and with some nice visuals going on.

"Get Out" is Fields take on Curry's "Out of This World". This one, though, begins with the spectator shuffling the deck, which automatically gets magicians to raise their eyebrows. The deck is shown to be completely and thoroughly mixed up. A red card and a black card are set on the table as the legendary "indicators", and then the spectator begins going through the deck, dealing a card on the red card when they think it is red and on the black card when they think it is black. When they are done, the two packets are put together and spread freely, showing that, indeed, the spectator separated the red and black cards accurately. Fields' method gets rid of swapping indicators, stacking the deck beforehand, and offers that shuffle at the beginning, but brings along a few drawbacks such as having to run through the shuffled deck before beginning the dealing and having to put the two dealt piles together. Overall, this was my least favorite bit on the disc (and it's still good, so that says something about the other material).

"Brain Tumor" is just plain weird on a few levels. Another take on "Twisting the Aces", this one begins with the four Queens face down. A suit is named and the matching Queen is shown to have turned face up. This is repeated twice more, with two other named Queens turning face up. The final Queen, though, presents a twist of its own: all the cards now change to the last Queen. One by one, visibly, each of theses Queens changes back to the their original suit. Hope your "Shapeshifter Change" is up to speed on this one.

"Ambition Impossible" is a short but stunning "Ambitious Card" routine. A card is selected, lost in the deck, and appears on top of the deck. This is repeated twice more. The fourth time, though, is the stunner: the deck is held in a tight bridge and a ripple is seen rising through the deck where, when it reaches the top, the card appears suddenly face up on top of the deck. This is easily the neatest thing on this disc and, yeppers, it went straight into my "Ambitious Card" routine (as it will, I imagine, for a lot of card workers out there).

Now there are a couple of things that I won't belabor much. First up is that, as with all version of classics, you'll need to make the judgment call of whether you prefer Fields' version to those you already do. This applies mostly to the more "inflexible" classics "Open Prediction" and "Out of This World"; the other effects are more fluid and changes there really can be seen as a whole new effect.

The other thing to consider is that "Bootlegs and B-Sides" is not, by any stretch of the imagination, for beginners. Fields knows this and even states such in the ad copy. The instructions are even provided non-verbally, with nothing more then the video instructions and splash frames of text (a side note here: for beginners, this would be infuriating; for the more advanced card workers, this is really nice and presents the viewer with avoiding having to sit through or fast-forward past the umpteenth explanation of the Elmsley Count of the Bertram Change). Because of that, sleights are named but not explained in great detail. Oh, sure, you see them in use, but you're expected to know or have a source of them. So if you're not up on culling, Elmsley's, top palms, and the Shapeshifter (which apparently is Fields' favorite sleight on this disc), you're in for some aggravation.

Okay, so having said that, I find "Bootlegs and B-Sides" to be full of creativity and some great card magic. The advanced card worker, the advanced performer, will find some excellent thinking here and probably get spurred on to build on what Fields has done here.

As such, this is one disc that deserves, and will reward, a good look.

"Bootlegs and B-Sides" DVD by Sean Fields
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Material: 8
It's a collection of Fields' takes on classic plots, with Fields tackling such mainstays to card magic as "Out of This World", "Twisting the Aces", "Ambitious Card', and more, all suitably changed to fit Fields' own visual and thematic style, which is a good thing indeed. Be warned, though, that this material is not for beginners; Fields work comes close to be knuckle-breaking at times and all but the more advanced card workers will find themselves more than a little frustrated.

Practicality: 10
Take a deck of cards and go to work. Well, that's pretty much the size of it here.

Quality of Production: 9
The production level is high. The only downside is the navigation, which can be a bit aggravating until you get the feel for it. Otherwise, this is superbly shot and looks great.

Quality of Instruction: 9
Taking a page from foreign DVDs, this is taught through the video only (well, that and some text screens to make a point of the action); no verbal instruction here, just a music track over the video. If you fall into the "advanced" category of worker, this is actually a welcomed thing; if you're newer to card work, you're in for some trials and tribulations. Given the audience for this disc, though, the instructions are darn near perfect.

Presentation: 10
I've been a fan of Fields' for a while simply because his thinking on the presentational side of things: he loves his visuals and he adores his cleanliness. The material here has both in spades (no pun intended).


Shane

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