Title: AM/PM Alex Pandrea & Jonathan Price
Medium: DVD
Arena: Close up
Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies
AM/PM is a collection of 10 routines by ‘New Yorks greatest underground magicians’ Jonathan Price and Alex Pandrea. Both of these gentlemen clearly are technically excellent magicians and both have the ability to explain routines in great detail. The explanation aspect is very important because some top notch magicians have a hard time explaining what it is they do, in the case of these two gents, and in particular Alex (I’m guessing he is the long haired fellow while Jonathan is the very big dude) who smoothly flows through great detail about routines in a very clear manner. The DVD is shot on excellent equipment and the sound is great throughout. I would have either added more lighting or had lighter cloths be worn by the presenters but other than that they did a very good job making this DVD.
The routines are a mix bag and some of the performances were not to my liking while the effects I thought were really good. An example is Cashback. In this routine the magicians pulls out money and makes a bet that he can find a chosen card with ‘I bet $20 that I can find her card the first time’ and then proceeds to fail a couple times then locating the card in a surprising way. First off since the performer, Jonathan, stated he would find the card the first time and failed then he lost the bet, end of story. Take away the camera and the fact Jonathan is a foot taller than anyone else then he would have been minus $20. I just think it is a weak presentation…that being said I like how the card is located. It is very visual and had good shock value. Another example is Alex’ performing Arson. This is an old idea and similar effects have been released, most notably by Eugene Burger, and it is a good routine. My problem is Alex has to explain to the spectators what just happened, if the spectator has to be told what occurred then it isn’t a solid routine. Again I liked the methods and ideas behind this routine. So for a few routines you have great method but so so performance.
On the other side there are some routines that I found to be excellent all around. Two of note are by Alex. First is Papermate which is a routine using a stick pen where the pen shrinks, stretches, vanishes and appears, then turns into a drinking straw. It uses a common item and looks just great in Alex’ hands. You’ll want to do this one but do practice and listen to the tips given by Alex. The other is what I consider the best routine on the DVD and that is The Domino Effect. In this routine, which is similar to a number of other released effects using coins or bills, a packet of sugar and a packet of Sweet and Low and both are put into the spectator’s hand. The sugar packet is removed from the fist of the spectator and then in an extremely visual manner it turns into a packet of Sweet and Low. The packets then again change places. You are required to make a gimmick, not a problem as it is easy to make, and you will make it because this is a killer routine that you will do.
The other routines are technically strong and you’ll likely want to adjust the presentations to suit you, as you should be doing anyway. Even the ones that didn’t move me in performance certainly got my attention when it came to method. Some will require a lot of work to get down and some I don’t think I’ll be able to do well, which means I won’t perform them, because of my limitations. I mean this Jonathan can palm a deck of cards, a roll of half dollars, and the table he is working on and still shuffle cards and hold a drink, all in one hand. I can’t hold a deck of card and have my thumb reach the tips of my other fingers. But I can do most of what they do and with practice I’ll get out and perform more of these routines. To be honest this is kind of a refreshing DVD because the material is challenging but not impossible like some put out and all ten are good effects with presentations that can be salvaged. As an added bonus you get to see a guy use a giant pocket knife to make gimmicks rather than the traditional xacto knife, cool stuff. You’ll also learn a killer coin vanish which while the routine with it is kind of so so the vanish/switch will get’cha.
If you want a bit of challenge and want to learn some really good close up magic (and a couple flat out excellent routines) then give serious consideration to AM/PM. Very well done DVD and I look forward to see what this production company has for us in the future. Note if I got the magicians names crossed up I apologize
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