MagicBunny.co.uk

Name: Bastard Hard Moves made Easy

Author: Ian Kendall

Price: £12

Publisher: Ian Kendall Videos (?!) http://www.virtualmagicshow.com/shop

Date:2004

Pages/Length: Just over the 1hr mark.

Difficulty: Bastard Hard (obviously)

Out of 10: 9

Contents

Lessons

Introduction:0:44
Speaks for itself. A welcome from Ian in his Big Brother diary room stylee.

Top Shot:5:46 - (Lennart Green)
Card shooting move from the dealing hand, top card ends face up in the opposite hand.

Instant Replay (& Simple Switch):13:15 (Paul Harris)
More of a sequence of Instant Replays (IR) than just the technique itself. It looks almost more like card juggling as he IRs cards simultaneously from L to R, and R to L. Also includes an IR into a Charlier Cut.

Cascade Control14:29 (Charlie Miller via Paul Chosse)
Lovely control of a 'peeked' card to the top of the deck through a cascade.

Faro Shuffle
In the Hands: 7:40
One Handed: 7:29
Tabled: 3:06
Full Techniques and useful hints and tips for the three versions of the perfect Faro.

Filler
False Dealing
Video clips of Ian performing bottom deals, and a combination of bottom and and second deals... bloody well - to my eye at least. No instruction on these - just a demo. Hence the fact they are in the 'Filler' section. Wish he DID teach them!

Blockhead
How to hammer a nail into your head. Complete with the mandatory "don't try this at home kids" warning, Ian shows how he does it, and tells a hiliarous story of the night it all went wrong. Haven't quite got the courage to do this one yet... I think that I'd need a REALLY good reason to do this before I tried it!


Comments

"There are a few moves in the magical literature which are far easier to be taught, than to learn for yourself. Ideally what you would have is some slightly obsessive geek who is willing to go and work out the little details off the printed page, and who will then come along and show them to you, so that you don't have to go through the months and years of experimentation.... I wonder who would do that?"

Ian Kendall - that's who!

BHMME is the second CD in the "How to do Stuff" series - I've also got his Basic Coin Magic CD, which is working absolute wonders for my numismatic prestidigitation skills. Shaun's review of that is here:
http://www.magicbunny.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12498
I love Ian's teaching style, he breaks down the necessary steps very well - it's all to easy to forget what the minutae are once you've learned a skill - but he seems to remember where you could get stuck, and teaches all the moves in his inimitable cheeky Scotsman style. Just as a tribute to his teaching skills, I didn't get as much value in a month of watching David Roth do a false transfer over, and over, and over, as I did on the first two or three views of Ian's false transfer video.

First up, I feel guilty for only giving it a 9 (see below). Ian's customer service is the best I have ever experienced. Due to a few technical difficulties, I emailed him, and he responded by sending me the CD prior to receiving the payment. I haven't been able to find a bad word spoken about this guy - and it's easy to see why.

And now my confession. I've knocked the mark off for video quality. It's not that it needs to be any better than it is, every necessary nuance is perfectly visible. It's just that it's not broadcast quality. That, and the fact that I'm a terribly cynical person who believes that a very, very vanishingly few things in this world are a perfect 10...

Having deducted my mark for video quality (Gawd I'm a miserly soul), it's 10 out of 10 for the actual teaching of the included moves. There is no way on this earth that I would have progressed as quickly as I am using printed materials. But, Boy, do I still have a long way to go!

Full credits are given by Ian for each of the moves - which he teaches with the permission of their originators, along with a history of the moves, where he first saw them etc...

In short, I'm playing a lot of 52 card pickup at the moment, and will be for some time. I've got two aching forearms from top shotting, instant replaying and cascading. But I'm loving every minute of it, and looking forward to the next installment.

For £12, if any of this content interests you, you can't go wrong.

Cheers

iggy

Would also like to add 2 things.

1. Its great but really annoying got everything down but top shot.

2, He really does put a nail though the head

Sorry, could you explain?

LOL at BaZ

Sounds like BaZ is way ahead of me on this!

I think what he's saying Yoshi, is that it can be infuriating trying to learn these moves (as with any other sleights). The top shot technique is right there in front of me, I know EXACTLY what I need to do, but my little finger still refuses to provide the necessary impetus to propel the card correctly.

Which is why they are called Hard Moves, probably.

And yes, he DOES put a nail into his head.

iggy

Mr Kendall is an excellent tutor. I managed "Simple Switch Into Charlier Cut" within a few minutes, and "Topshot" in a couple of hours (although I have no control over the card yet. It flies out with such force it often ends up on the other side of the room). As for the rest; I really don`t like the "Cascade Control" as it looks like a move to me and I can already do the faro (although cutting precisely in half is a skill which still eludes me).
Overall the DVD is well worth the money.

Two things about Topshot:
1. Make sure your two middle fingers are right out of the way or the card will hit them.
2. The little finger action is almost a fast stroking action, across and then down; The key is speed. If you do it slowly the card will just flop over the edge of the deck.

My bugbear is the Simple Switch, left hand into right hand. I can do it from right to left no problem, but not the other way round. Damn.

Ok, I've just learnt the Faro shuffle using Ian's CD. I am now doing perfect Faro's, and I started watching the video less than an hour ago. This is compared to me spending an entire day trying to learn the Faro shuffle from Expert Card Technique. Ian is a fantastic tutor and I whole heartedly recommend this CD.