"Sin City" DVD by Luke Dancy
Suggested Retail USD$40.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 7 Out of 10

"Sin City", a new DVD by Luke Dancy, is not up to par with his earlier works until you look past the routines and peer into the moves, which are gorgeous and worth the price of the disc to the advanced card worker.

I've loved some of Dancy's prior work - "Division" killed me, and "Magic for the Eyes" is a must-see - but unfortunately most of the routines in "Sin City" just leave me cold.

Note the phrase "the routines" in that statement; more on that later. And let us look at the good stuff here first:

"A Misleading Situation" is a cute thing whereby an unsharpened pencil is shown, placed in the fist, twisted, and is then shown to be sharpened. I accidentally watched this one with the zoom turned on and saw the working right away, but audiences will likely be clueless. You can forget the hype, though; this is not visual at all.

"Impulsive" is taken lightly by Dancy ("OMG… another 4 ace production") and, therefore, was taken lightly by me. It's a four-Ace production, and an alright one, but definitely nothing to rave about.

"911" was much better. It's a card transposition, but with a nice presentation and a disconcerting feel to the climax. Spectators will be just shy of stunned silence with this one. A good piece to be sure.

When I saw "Stuck on Daley" my initial reaction was I wish people would leave poor Dr. Daley alone; it seems there's a natural law that requires every card-magic disc to have at least one version of "Dr. Daley's Last Trick". Then I saw it and I was hooked. It looks great and has an added card-to-pocket finish that, against all my prejudices about such things, doesn't appear tacked-on and plays strong. Of the routines, this one is my favorite.

I'll reserve much commentary on "Sandwich Way Did They Go?" because, like most sandwich effects, I simply don't like the plot all that much. Dancy's version has some twists along the way but, in the end, it's just not that memorable or exciting to me.

"Cubed Up" is a "bonus effect" (how I dearly hate that misnomer; how can it be a "bonus" if I paid for it?) that has the spectator visually sucking an ice cube through a straw from the hand to the mouth. Yes, you do actually see the cube going up the straw. This is cute, and at the right place and time probably plays pretty well, but as a set performance piece I'll pass.

And there are, in a nutshell, the routines. With the exception of "Stuck on Daley" and possibly "911", nothing here really got me excited, nothing here made me want to grab a deck and get to work, nothing sparked my interest.

Then Dancy hit me from behind.

Yes, we're talking the moves here. And they are excellent.

Now, I'm not a "move monkey" as referred to in the ad copy. I love the moves I've got, they get me there, and that's pretty much it. So along comes Dancy now and hits me with a triple-combination that knocked me for a loop.

Quickly, there's "To the Table", which is a very slick, devious way of controlling a card to the top. If you're working with a table, this is one of the best tools in your arsenal for a quick, clean control.

"Under Control" is worth the price of the disc for me. It's reminiscent of Bill Simon's "Business Card Prophecy" move and is just as convincing, this time moving a card to the bottom of the deck. The worse part? This is so easy and looks so good (and makes you feel so enjoyably sneaky) that it's almost addictive. Big thumbs up here.

"Shadowpass" is a neat variation on the pass (how's that for stating the obvious?) with an interesting angle to it. It might not be enough to make you drop whatever pass you're currently doing, but it's definitely worth a look by advanced card workers. Me, I'm always in the market for a good pass variant and "Shadowpass" is that.

So where does that leave "Sin City"? I wouldn't buy it just for the routines, but those moves… If you're an advanced card worker, then those moves are worth the price of the disc; the routines are some nice additions, with "Stuck on Daley" being the icing on the cake.

"Sin City" DVD by Luke Dancy
In a Blink: 7 Out of 10

Material: 7
Most of this just doesn't live up to Dancy's reputation or his prior effects, but when it does, it's over-the-top, knock-'em-dead, flatten-em-with-a-steamroller stuff. The big pluses here aren't the routines, though; they are the moves Dancy shares. Make no mistake about it there; Dancy has some great stuff going on.

Practicality: 9
For the most part you'll need a deck, usually a table, and an audience. If an effect does require a set-up or reset, it's extremely slight. The two non-card pieces require a bit more, but only slightly so. Overall, this is very practical stuff here.

Quality of Production: 5
The production values here are okay. Several times during the performance sequences things are done that are completely missed because of bad camera work, but that's more aggravating than anything else. You won't have any trouble learning the material given the production values, but you will be a little frustrated.

Quality of Instruction: 7
Dancy does a good job of teaching the material, but in the future he might benefit from some scripting.

Presentation: 8
Great visuals and a decent level of cleanliness - Dancy's trademarks -- make these pieces play very well. You'll need to fill in the blanks with your own script, but in this case that's not a bad thing.

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.