"PK Ring Effects" DVD Volumes 1-4 by Randi Rain
Suggested Retail USD$15.00 each
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"PK Ring Effects", a set of four DVDs by Randi Rain, is a great collection of slick material that will lead anyone with two working brain cells to even create even more slick material. For anybody's money, that ain't bad at all.

Of course, I'm prejudiced all the way around on these. I love my PK ring. I love effects using magnets. I get all tingly inside when I see something neat and different done with neodymium. Yeah, yeah, I need help (some would add "badly" but what do they know?).

The problem, though, is that most collections of effects with the PK ring are, well, horrible. The ideas are time-worn, the methods painfully obvious, the handlings grotesque... and those are the good points (along with the fact the discs would make good coasters). So I'll have to cop to not expecting much when I got the four "PK Ring Effects" DVDs.

I'll also cop to being absolutely thrilled with the material Randi Rain has put together on these discs. Her thinking is absolutely shrewd in spots, always just a bit more clever than you'd expect, and downright magical in a slightly twisted kinda way. Even when I saw a routine of hers that didn't fit me -- nothing wrong with it, mind you; just not my thing -- I found myself an hour or two later playing with it and making into something I did like. That's gold right there, and "PK Ring Effects" is a small mother lode of that kind of thing.

Each disc is extremely short (I believe the videos started off life as downloads) and features a titled routine and a short "bonus effect". Normally, I'd rail about a "bonus" not being a bonus if I paid for it, but in this case, it's not so much an extra something as it is another idea that doesn't exactly fit the theme or idea of the titled effect so I won't argue semantics. That the bonus effects produce some of the best brainstorms tempers me a lot on that, too.

The production values on the discs are nothing special; it's about what you'd expect. It wasn't shot with a camera phone, but it isn't a multi-camera shoot either. It's adequate, which means "average", and won't hurt your learning Rain's routines. Rain does play around a bit, which is a bit fun -- each effect is presented around a movie parody: "The Lord of the Rings", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "The Blair Witch Project", and "Pirates of the Caribbean" are used as back-drops. It was a cute idea and, in one instance, delightfully gruesome.

Especially when Rain does such a great job of instruction. If you're read my reviews for long, you know I hate a performer who can't tell you to do a double-lift without "uh"-ing and "um"-ing their way through the procedure. I like my instructors to be confident in what they're doing and get their point across quickly and easily. Rain does that here, all the way down the line. You'll have no problem picking up the material from Rain, whose instruction is as good as her material.

Okay, so let's get to the material.

Volume 1 is "Bill Shift". Yep, it's ye olde bill change of one denomination for another (using any bills or currency). Frankly, I was less impressed with this one than Rain's other routines, but that's because I have a bill switch I've been doing for longer than I want to remember, it works for me, and I'm hesitant to, well, switch. Still, it's a neat idea, it's nicely visual, easy to perform, and, as the ad says, "pretty". After a while, I ended up using Rain's idea for something other than a bill switch which, after all, made this one worth getting. The bonus effect is a slick torn-and-restored card using the same idea and, like "Bill Shift" is worth looking at.

Volume 2 is "Repeal". This is Rain's version of the cap-in-bottle plot, using a bottle with a metal cap, and with the twist that the cap is flat, not folded in half. This one requires a bit of a set-up which will require a trip to the bathroom if you're going to try to do this one a bit more "impromptu". It does look good and, if you're not already doing something along the lines of "Prohibition" (my favorite take on the plot), then this is definitely work a look. It's visually striking, and there are two versions of it taught: one for the more "sleightly" adventurous and one for us more timid types. Both work very well. On this disc, the bonus effect is the ancient "levitating cup" thing, usually done with a knife but Rain typically altered that around, making this one very neat to see.

Volume 3, "Jigger Not", really intrigued me because Rain hit me with yet another favorite plot, the chop cup. In this one, a jigger (a double-mouth cup, made of a one-ounce metal cup sharing a bottom with a two-ounce cup) is used instead. True enough, there is a marketed version of this out, but Rain's routine doesn't require anything more than a regular jigger, your PK ring, and the expected "something". The moves here are classy and visual and I found myself really loving some of the things she does with this one. This one got the brain cells firing, as does the bonus effect, the classic "floating fork" thing done under a napkin, which Rain made look just plain eerie. Nice job all the way around here.

But it was Volume 4, "Flying Matches", that made me a fan. In this routine, paper matches, torn from a matchbook, do a series of transpositions, vanishes, penetrations, and a quite slick reappearance. There is a ton of magic here that is unusual (matches don't get their place of honor in magic annals like coins and cards, but they should) and as portable as you can ask for. I have to admit most of this disc is going out the door with me every time. The bonus effect here isn't really an effect as much as it is an idea, and it's a fairly good one. I can't describe the idea without tipping all of it, but for some people it's going to open a few doors; for others it'll mean very little. Definitely a style thing there.

Okay, so that's the material itself. As to the workings, some of the material is a little on the sleighty side, but nothing difficult. When a difficult move is called for, Rain thoughtfully teaches a much simpler method of pulling off the effect, which is much appreciated by many, I'm sure. The gaffing and gimmicking is what you'd expect from PK effects, so be prepared for that. Rain goes into nice detail here so you should have no problem with the small amount of arts and crafts you'll be in for in some cases.

But the gaffs and the routines and the handlings, as good as they are, is just the tip of the iceberg here. Rain's routines are as flexible as they are good, and that flexibility is just waiting for your creativity to take over and lead you somewhere else. That kind of inspiration is rare nowadays and quite welcome.

At the end of the day, if you're looking for some new routines and new brain-fodder for your PK ring, Randi Rain's "PK Ring Effects" series is a must-have.

"PK Ring Effects" DVD Volumes 1-4 by Randi Rain
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Material: 10
Great routines leading to great ideas... that pretty much sums up the material. Even the pieces that don't immediately catch the eye lead to some thinking and ideas that will and that's the best material of all.

Practicality: 10
Everything revolves around the PK ring, of course, and that means shims. Rain's routines, though, keeps resets and set-ups to a minimum, making the routines extremely practical.

Quality of Production: 5
The production is barebones, with nothing to rail or rave about. It's not "Star Wars" but it's not "Robot Monster" either. Consider it average.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Rain does a great job of teaching her routines, going into just enough detail to keep you going and spending a lot of time on the various construction details. Clear, concise, confident... she gets a big thumbs-up here.

Presentation: 10
Rain takes full advantage of the PK ring and knows what makes routines with that prop work: cleanliness and visuals. Her material certainly is that, in spades.


Shane

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