Let's start with the deck. You'll get a standard, gaffed deck that will need extra cards before you
can work the effect. I found this mildly annoying, but even a beginner or hobbyist should be able to
piece together a working deck if they step through the video and set up the gaff as shown. (minus 1
star)
Then there's the video. Dani DaOrtiz has an infectiously fun personality and that, plus
the spectacular effect, makes Part one of the video totally fun to watch. It's so good, you could
probably show it 'as-is' to friends and family and they would enjoy watching DaOrtiz' performance
all by itself.
Regrettably, the teaching part of the video isn't as remarkable; it's unclear,
disorganized, and incomplete. I found this a major issue. Just when DaOrtiz was about to make a
point, he would either bounce to another subject or backtrack to a prior topic because he suddenly
realized that he had forgotten to pass along an important piece of information. Also, perhaps it's
only my bad ears, but DaOrtiz' narration is hard to follow. It would be a major improvement to use a
professional voice over to provide an intelligible explanation. Finally, the video needs a simple,
static shot showing the entire deck in it's pre-performance order. There is always the need to reset
the deck for the next performance and it would really help to know exactly what that looks like,
card-by-card. Here also, you can step through the video and piece that information together, but
shouldn't DaOrtiz have done that for his students? (minus 1 star)
When exhibiting this, you
won't be able to pass out the cards for examination and you'll need to do the reset 'behind the
curtain'. My grumbles aside, this effect is relatively easy to master and packs a punch, so it's
worth getting, especially if it's on sale.