Sparks is an hour and fifteen minute DVD narrated and taught by French Magician, JC James. James is a very talented sleight of hand and card magician who shows off his skills with 13 impromptu tricks of varying degrees of difficulty. James indicates that the tricks took years of refinement and practice, which is obvious when you sit down to practice many of the tricks which require more than basic card handling skills. Some of the tricks are performed in front of a live audience and then explained in a sit down style explanation from James’s hotel room. Although the explanations are clear and the camera work is excellent, James does not always break down the moves the way many other instructional DVD do, especially with some of the harder moves. The production quality and presentation is excellent. Overall the DVD is good, but beginners should not choose this DVD as their first pick.
1. “Spin” is an impromptu vanish of a Sharpie pen from the magician’s hands which is a quick and easy trick.
2. The “Latex Slydini” is also an easy trick that consists of a rubber band/dollar bill transposition. In this routine the performer shows a dollar bill (which should be signed) and places it in his pocket. He then displays a rubber band in one hand as if he were going to perform Crazy Man’s Handcuffs and grabs it with the other hand. When the magician opens his hand to reveal the rubber band, the dollar bill is there and the rubber band is gone. The rubber band appears in the magician’s pocket. The reaction to this very easy trick is tremendous.
3. “POG Production” is a very hard technique in which the magician pushes down on a squared deck on the table and four cards pop into the air and is caught by the magician. There is no routine or suggested patter. This will require a bit of practice and may cause some frustration.
4. “Wave Change” is a quick card change technique. The magician waves a card, places it on top of the deck, picks it up again, waves it and it is a different card. Unless this trick is done smoothly, the method will easily be detected. When performed correctly, which will require some practice, it looks great. There is no routine or suggested patter.
5. “ACAP Control (As Close As Possible)” is a trick in which the four Queens are visibly placed in different places in the deck, the deck is squared and all four Queens meet in the middle of the deck. This is a great trick/technique which will require some practice. JC James says that he thinks it is hard to do, but getting this move down is worth the practice.
6. “Fake Tilt” is a move that allows the magician to throw a card into the middle of a deck and make it instantly appear on the top of the deck. James teaches this with multiple cards and a color change as well. This too will require some practice otherwise the performance will not be effective.
7. “CHLAK Production”is a trick in which a spectator chooses a face down card from a fanned deck, which is then jogged. This is repeated for a total of four times. Then the jogged cards are turned over and they are the four Aces. It is an amazing effect which is worth the practice. There are a few variations of this trick included on the DVD, including a very smooth way to get someone’s cell phone number on the caller ID on your cell phone.
8. “Fan Change” is a move in which the magician holds a four card fan and flicks one card with his finger and it changes into another card. James indicates that this trick is difficult. It is. There are angle problems as well as the ability to consistently perform this trick. There is no routine or suggested patter.
9. “Clean Transpo” is an amazing card move that appears to make the top card and the bottom card instantly switch places. The camera angles on this explanation could have been better and like many of the other moves, it requires practice. This is so astonishing that this very direct effect in of itself does not require any patter or story line.
10. “Drunken Production” is an entertaining and lengthy routine that requires more than basic card handling skills.
11. “UnSleeve” is a coin vanish that reappears in a very cool way into the spectator’s hand. You cannot perform this trick in short sleeves and James had trouble performing this trick on the DVD, dropping the coin and saying that sometimes he misses. This is not one of the harder tricks on the DVD, although James indicates that it is not simple.
12. “Behind the Force” is a force that has some angle restrictions. Because of the positioning of the audience to the magician, some spectators may be skeptical that the card that is shown is the card that they selected.
13. “T2P” is the most amazing trick on the DVD and requires some real guts and confidence to pull it off. In this trick, the spectator chooses and signs a card, which is then lost in the deck. The deck is riffled and the signed card jumps partly out of the deck (although this move needed to be repeated several times before it worked on the DVD) which is then placed faced up on top of the deck. The magician waves his finger over the card and the card is revealed to have been torn in half. The missing piece appears in the magician’s pocket. This is really mind blowing to spectators.
The price is fair and the ad copy and promotional videos are accurate. James seems like a very nice person and t the end of the DVD, he provides his email address and invites you to contact him with any questions. The final chapter on the DVD contains a written message that states “Don’t be discouraged by the difficulty of some of the techniques taught. As with everything in life, you will have to practice. Practice until the hard becomes easy and the easy becomes beautiful.” This is an inspiring DVD, which at times can be challenging.