"The Castle Routine" DVD by Ed Ellis
Suggested Retail USD$30.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"The Castle Routine", the fifth volume of Ed Ellis' DVDs, is a perfect continuation of the great work that proceeded it, a complete, mind-blowing ten-minute card routine packed with striking visuals that will have the advanced card worker salivating to add bits and pieces into their own routines.

Let's face it, nobody's going to learn the entire routine just so they can be some sort of ersatz Ellis. Nobody should, either. The routine runs over ten minutes, which makes it only suitable, really, for formal close-up situations. And if you're working those, chances are your act is already a winner and you'd be loathe to replace a huge piece of it whole-cloth with somebody else's work.

The real value in watching routines like this, and especially Ellis', is to pick up bits and pieces and work them into our own material and, if we're lucky, getting a lesson in the whys and wherefores of its structuring as well. In "The Castle Routine", we do get lucky as Ellis tips the various parts of his act along with some ideas here and there about why it goes the way it goes.

I'm not about to go into a lot of detail with the routine -- Ellis has this thing so packed that a blow-by-blow account of his magic would run a dozen pages -- but I'll hit some of highlights that left an impact with me.

Ellis' act starts with a four-ace routine. In this routine, the Aces are produced in a zillion different ways after they are lost in the deck. Ellis here does some fantastic work, with the most jaw-dropping moments being a really slick visual card change that happens in the hands and with the deck tabled (there's no describing how good this looks) and his "Y" production (which produces the Aces and leaves you displaying them in a gorgeous and humorous lay-out). For a bonus of sorts, Ellis' use of a turnover pass is also striking as is the visual change of a single card to the four Aces.

From the Ace routine, Ellis segues easily and logically into a selected card piece. If I had to choose, this phase would be the one I call "worth the price of the disc", just for the Ambitious Card segment. Here I found myself unable to take my eyes off the TV or even blink; Ellis captured my attention completely. It begins with the usual stuff, with a face-down card being put into the face-down deck and rising to the top (although Ellis even makes that special with some delightful touches). After that, Ellis does a phase where the deck is face-up through out the whole sequence. Finally, the deck is face-down while the card is face-up and still the blasted thing keeps going to the top of the deck. This is a beautiful sequence, elegant in construction, and, combined with a sneaky card-to-pocket phase, makes this a joy to watch.

This segment also contains the one piece that will probably be the first thing learned and used by most folks who buy this disc: Ellis' "Ringnature". This is one wonderful effect. The chosen card is lost in the deck, the performer borrows the spectator's ring, threads it onto a rubber band, and place ring and band around the deck. A magical gesture later and the rubber band and the ring have penetrated the deck and found to be encircling the chosen card. This looks absolutely shocking and makes for a great visual display at the end.

And all of the above barely scratches the surface of some of the stuff that's going on in Ellis' "Castle Routine". There's a lot more to watch and enjoy and learn from, all of which makes "The Castle Routine" a worthy addition to the advanced card workers library.

Yes, I did say "advanced". This is not simple stuff here and definitely would drive beginners over the edge quickly. Further, Ellis expects his audience to have a lot of the basics down, skipping over detailed explanations of things like Marlo's "Deliberate Side-Steal", de Souza's "Shapeshifter Change", and the like. This is a DVD by an expert card worker for advanced card workers. All others need not apply.

If that describes you, if you know your way around those sleights and a host of others, then "The Castle Routine" is right up your alley. There are so many striking, excellent pieces in this routine that are easily put into other works that it becomes something that you'd appreciate seeing and adding to your library.

It's a great piece of work for card workers.

"The Castle Routine" DVD by Ed Ellis
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Material: 10
Ed Ellis' routine is fantastic. Loaded with magic that strikes at as rapid a pace as his fingers can manage, it's easy to see why Ellis used this as the Castle: it's a great piece of work. While certainly not for beginners, advanced workers will marvel at some of Ellis' ideas. For those that do card tricks for a living, this is an invaluable resource.

Practicality: 9
This is a very practical piece of work. Ellis relies on sleights to get the job done, so other than a few angle issues (well handled by Ellis), the need for a table, and a long running time (a little over ten minutes) there's really nothing to worry about here. If you keep this one for formal occasions, then this is perfectly practical.

Quality of Production: 10
The production values are extremely high, as is typical with EEM productions.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Ellis always does a wonderful job of teaching his material and continues to do so here. However, his audience is the advanced worker, so some sleights (the "Deliberate Side-Steal", "Shapeshifter", and the like) are not explored in full detail. Novice beware.

Presentation: 10
Ellis' presentation is an old one -- each card having its own personality, etc -- but the real presentation here lies in the stark visuals, which Ellis has in buckets.

Shane

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