Intro to Sponge Balls is Michael Dardant’s DVD project that teaches beginners how to handle sponge balls during several basic routines. The DVD costs $19.95 and is an hour and five minutes long.
During the course of this DVD Magic Mike teaches the viewer a few sleights and moves, but this does not cover enough basic sponge ball handling to be called an “Intro to Sponge Balls” in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen more in-depth description of the sleights, how to do them and additional sleights as well. Some of the camera work was not great when he taught the sleights and looked like it was shot by zooming in on a home camcorder instead of using a professional close-up lens. Additionally, the angle that was recorded was not the best angle to choose because Dardant’s hand was blocking the placement and movement of the ball. This is a shame because Dardant is clearly very talented and this project does not suffer from his lack of ability but that of his camera man.
Dardant teaches seven routines which are easy to learn, are humorous and children appropriate, for the most part. There is some coverage of the obvious adult humor jokes talking about his “balls” which is a bit sophomoric. He teaches an easy watch steal routine and speeds through the explanation.
In addition to the criticism of the poor video production quality, the audio is poor. It sounds as if the project was recorded in a tiled room. Unfortunately, this made the DVD a bit difficult to watch. This project could have and would have scored much higher if the production quality was much better.
Overall, Intro to Sponge Balls teaches a beginner all about sponge balls, how to hold them and how to perform a few very good routines. Dardant is a skilled magician and performer and I look forward to some of his future projects (with more attention to production quality).
This DVD can be purchased from any Murphy’s Magic dealer.
