You don’t have to be a pyro to love this DVD. But let’s be honest, Magic + Fire = Awesomeness. The Stone Frixion Fire project possesses a great degree of Awesomeness. Years back I was introduced to the Frixion pen and loved it, but as things go, they ended up in a drawer. Now, after watching this DVD (and reading the accompanying downloadable PDF e-book), I am now using it again with renewed vigor. The Frixion pen is magically astounding consumer product that can be used for fantastic magical effects.
When I first started playing with the Frixion pen, I basically asked the spectator to pick a card, say the 7 of Spades, as they held a prediction written on a folded piece of paper. Then when I located their card, it turns out I made a mistake. I then check the prediction and it matched the wrong card. But after flicking a lighter both the card and the written prediction change to match the spectator’s chosen card. That effect is not taught on the DVD, but many others are, and there are some great ones. Some of my favorite effects taught are Burnin’ Time (a time travel effect in which you restore burned matches), You Won’t Believe Your Eyes (an update to an Anneman effect), Droppin’ The Bomb (plucking a Rubik’s cube out of a piece of paper) and In Flames (changing a written word into a selected card).
With the DVD you get access to a password protected website with some additional idea. It was last updated just a few days ago (October 18, 2015) with an idea from fellow official reviewer, Doc Johnson. The website has some additional ideas, but not much. You also get the predecessor book, Stone Frixion Fire, in PDF format. The E-book explains the tricks and has a ton of information and great ideas.
On the DVD Jeff gives the history of the effects, including a shout out to Liam Montier from Big Blind Media for inspiring this project (published in Reel Magic Magazine). The tricks are performed one after another with either Diamond Jim Davis or Dan Paulus (check out his excellent DVD Blind Luck). I usually prefer to have the explanation track directly follow the performance track, but this DVD is an exception. Once you know the basic method here, you do not necessarily need to see the explanations immediately since you pretty much know how to do the tricks. What is important here are the creative compilation of ideas.
Jeff also teaches you how to gimmick regular pen and not only heat, but also coldness — something that I confess to not knowing for years. I picked up a great deal from this DVD. All of the routines are easy to set up and perform and all require fire. Flash paper is a must, but not a necessity. This is great for beginners, but children should be supervised and not be given flash paper.
The DVD is humorous and made me laugh during the introduction, the outtakes and at various points during the DVD. This contains perhaps the best SPAM cameo of all Jeff’s DVD’s that I have studied.
This DVD also teaches clever ways to use your business card and get your spectator to bring it home for a secret effect to be revealed once they are home. I also immensely enjoyed the “roundtable” conversation with Jeff, Davis and Paulus in which a great brainstorming session is shared.
The DVD is produced against a brick wall backdrop and has great production quality. The ad-copy and the promo video are 100% accurate… and you would not expect anything else from this creator. Not only is the DVD highly endorsed by Jay Sankey and Cameron Francis, but it also gets the highest rating from me!