Thumbtipedia is a very good DVD that teaches you quick and to the point thumb tip routines. Among the 31 routines that are taught, you will learn how to fool a magician, vanish sugar and turn it into candy, how to vanish a lit cigarette, how to vanish a sponge ball, hot to restore a torn napkin how to make sugar vanish from your hand and reappear in a covered tea glass, how to vanish a silk into an egg and then turn the egg into a real egg, make 7 paperclips dropped into your hand automatically link themselves and so many more variations of essentially the same or a very similar trick.
Before I received this product, I thought it would have the history and information about the thumb tip and would credit magicians over the course of the past many decades for the thumb tip use and additions, but this DVD is just all about the tricks. The “pedia” as in encyclopedia made me think that we would have had more than just tricks, but alas, I was wrong. A better name would have been 31 Cool Tricks With A Thumb Tip.
The DVD production is good. Basically, Inaki Zabaletta performs a trick in the Vernet studio and then teaches it. The routines are all about a minute long give or take 30seconds. The tricks are all, as stated above, quick and to the point. If you do not know how to use the thumb tip and want a practical instructional guide, this is a great resource.
The teaching is recorded in in Spanish and if you want to watch it in English the translation is dubbed in. The routines are all easy enough to understand and learn despite the translation. The tricks themselves are not difficult to learn and are all within anyone’s reach.
Now a criticism; I was very disappointed at the way the DVD was organized! There are numerous tracks (1 for each performance and immediate explanation) and if you wanted to watch the DVD straight through you cannot. At the end of the performance and instructional track, the DVD goes back to the menu and you have to click on the next track. Once you press on the track, it delays a second before starting. There was no “Play All” option which made watching the DVD annoying.
There are some bill switch tricks taught, which take all of a few minutes. There have been entire DVD’s and books on this particular use of the thumb tip and I found that aspect of this project to be a bit rushed and lacking. A few routines are taught that are credited to David Williamson, Gaetan Bloom, Gary Darwin (who has his own DVD on thumb tips).
As I said above, if you are looking to get right to it, learn quickly so you can perform immediately this is a good resource for you and all for just $25. If you want something a bit more in depth, you may want to consider additional purchases.
This DVD can be purchased at any Murphy’s Magic dealer.