"Past Midnight" DVD Set by Benjamin Earl
Suggested Retail USD$100.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"Past Midnight", the long-awaited and much-drooled-over three-DVD set by Benjamin Earl, is filled with such beautifully constructed card magic that it doesn't just meet any expectations about Earl's work, it blows away those expectations with explosively powerful magic.

Is it too early to nominate "Past Midnight" as the best DVDs on card magic for 2008? If not, then count my vote now because anything else released this year is going to really have to raise the bar to even come close.

Okay, okay, so you caught me. I'm hopelessly, madly, completely in love with "Past Midnight". I've got a good reason: lately there has been so much sheer garbage released as "innovative", "new", "never seen before" card magic that I've been all but burned out with anything having to do with cards. I've told I don't know how many performers that if I ever see another sandwich trick, another "Collectors", one more "Twisting", I was going to have to, for my own peace of mind, I was going to have to start hunting people down and force-feeding them their own decks until they burst out in little pip-shaped blotches.

I was only half kidding. And it was a small half.

So the first trick I see on "Past Midnight" is -- what? -- Earl's take on the "Collectors" plot. And it blew me away. It's beautiful. It's direct. It's structured so well (and that's a phrase you'll hear from me a few more times before we're done) that it looks like real magic. Earl's version is, in two words, elegantly magical. So, from the start, I was hooked.

Don't worry; I'm not going to hammer down each point of each effect. There's too much exceptional material to do that. If you want to see everything Earl teaches -- well, almost everything -- you can check out the dealer's ad. I'll keep to the heart-stoppers to just keep this review from rivaling "Tarbell" in length if not weight.

Let's start with the first disc and Earl's "Ace Assembly". Yeah, yeah, I know, me and my Ace Assemblies. But this is a great one, a full deck version where each Ace disappears from it's quarter of the deck to arrive on top of the packet held by the performer. And to make matters even more wonderful here, Earl teaches a great little sleight that will make it's way into many similar routines. "Prophecy Shift" is a gorgeous piece: a freely-selected card is placed into the deck and the two cards on either side of it are removed. The performer cuts the deck and finds the mate of the chosen card. The mate now disappears from the top of the deck and appears face up in the deck. When it and the two cards next to it are removed, they are all shown to be mates of the chosen cards. This is a difficult routine but it's beautiful and really something to see. "Soft Spread Production" caught me completely off-guard and unfortunately, there's no real way of describing this one. Essentially, a card is peeked as the deck is spread and, one at a time, the mates of the card appear face-up in the deck. But that description doesn't do this one justice at all. I wish this one were on the demo videos so you could see just how good this looks. "Stroke Change" is the same way: it's Earl's color-change, but the visuals! It appears for all the world as if a stroke of the finger across the card makes it change. A finger, mind you, not a hand. Gorgeous. From routines, the disc moves into sleights and there are some great ones. Earl's "Loose Double Lift" not only looks like a natural double-lift, it also looks like there's no way it could be a double. This one is simply excellent. "Streamlined Control"... if there's any one piece of these discs I put into practice over and over again, it's this one. The deck is spread, folks peek at cards from different parts of the deck, and the cards are on top of the deck. That quick and with nothing to draw suspicion. There are also a number of flourishes/false-shuffles here; I'm not that big on those but I have to say Earl's look great. If you're into such things, Earl's work here is definitely worth a look.

The second DVD is devoted to (as the label says) "gambling and card table magic". The "Broken Thompson Cut" is worth the price of admission here; it's got to be one of the best multiple false-cuts on the planet. "Blind Cut Technique" is a tabled single false-cut and Earl's work on it is simply great. "Riverboat Harmony" is a monster gambling routine, combining blackjack and poker demonstrations and ending with a bridge climax (and even if your spectator's don't understand bridge, when the cards are dealt into four piles and each of them are separated by suit and in numerical order, they'll get it). "Grey Shuffle" is a false-riffle shuffle, done in the hands, that is surreal. It looks perfect, though it's fairly difficult, and is one of those things you'll want to use the first time you see it. "Discrepancy Switch" is Earl's method for... well, it's a non-packet switch for want of a better term. Essentially, it looks as if you swap one packet of cards for another, but in reality you don't. It's gutsy, sure, but it's easy and a nice utility move to learn. In addition, Earl also covers a lot of shifts and his use of the palm; both those sections are fascinating to watch and his thinking is brilliant there.

The third disc is "Psychological Card Magic" and, to be honest, this was the first disc I went for. Hey, anything with "psychological" and "card magic" in the title and I'm there for it. And I wasn't disappointed here. "Ramjollock" ran over my brain with a steamroller. A deck is handed to a spectator, they are told to cut the deck and remember the card they cut to, then cut and shuffle the deck a couple of times, and finally told to locate their card in the deck and move it to wherever they want in the deck if they'd like. Taking the deck back for the first time, the performer spreads through the deck and locates the chosen card. Heavy on spectator control, this one nonetheless a powerful piece and, for the right spectator, a mind-blower. "Pseudo Brainwave" follows the traditional plot, but with a big difference: the spectator spreads through the deck, verifying the cards are all facing the same way, closes the deck, and upon re-spreading it finds his card reversed in the deck. This hands-off approach makes this one very good routine. "Though of Card in Pocket" is one of those things some will turn their back on, but it's a well-structured routine, simple in handling, that floors people. In it, the performer puts a card in their pocket, the spectator names a card, and the card in the pocket is shown to be their card. Earl's work with subtlety after subtlety here moves this one solidly into the miracle class. In addition to other routines, there's discussion and instruction of Earl's peek techniques which are extremely well done and will find their way into many a card worker's arsenal.

And all of that's just scratching the surface of the material in "Past Midnight". There is just so much good stuff here, with zero filler to be found, that it boggles the mind.

Now comes the big warning: this set ain't for beginners. At all. In fact, some advanced workers will struggle with pieces of this (How's your pass? One-hand palm up to snuff? Cull much? That's the kind of thing you're dealing with here). Certainly there are pieces that are easier than others, but by and large "Past Midnight" is for the more advanced card worker.

Earl's instruction reflects that. The simpler, more common sleights are barely touched on (except where Earl has something to say regarding preference or a subtlety he likes to add) while lesser-known and more difficult sleights are explained in more detail. This is not some picky quibble about Earl's teaching style -- he's incredibly thorough throughout -- but it goes directly to what he believes his audience is and what it should be: someone who's been around a deck of cards for a while and is comfortable with it.

If you fit that description, you need to pick up "Past Midnight" at the first chance you get. There is so much meaty material here, such great thinking about the routines and sleights you'll find, that you'll likely spend hours sifting through it all, deciding where to begin. No matter where you start, though, you're in for a treat; Earl and his card work is, in a word, brilliant.

"Past Midnight" DVD Set by Benjamin Earl
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

Material: 10
It's card magic and nothing but card magic, and it's some of the most brilliant, creative card magic I've seen in some time. Earl is a masterful technician with a deadly combination of unbelievable skills and magical thinking. While definitely not for the newcomer -- even the more advanced worker will find themselves in deep water a couple of times -- this set is a must-have for any serious card worker or anyone that wants to be.

Practicality: 10
Grab a deck and go to it... Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much. You're not burdened with gaffs and gimmicks here and the set-ups are usually minor, meaning that as long as you've got a deck of cards, you're pretty much prepared to blow people away.

Quality of Production: 10
Alakazam does a beautiful job with the production values here, with excellent camera work, great sound, and simple navigation. In other words, it's another fantastic job by Alakazam.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Earl does a fantastic job of teaching his material. You can tell he's got his mind on his audience -- the higher-level card worker -- because he wastes no time explaining common sleights (and a few that could be considered less-common) and concentrates on the more difficult and more original work. Big thumbs up there for saving a lot of card folks a lot of fast-forwarding.

Presentation: 10
The visuals are beautiful, the cleanliness something to marvel at, but it's Earl's attention to structure that really shines here. Everything he does has a purpose. There are no wasted moves, no embellishments for the sake of embellishing, and the net result is card magic that looks like magic. I'm still in awe of the work he did here.

Shane

Available direct from your favorite dealer. Dealers, please contact Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc. toll-free at 1-800-853-7403 or visit Murphy's Magic Supplies website.