The Dream Act by Shin Lim is a copyrighted routine that won Shin Lim a 2015 FISM championship and an “FU” award on Penn and Teller’s show, Fool Us. Shin Lim is a master card handler and he teaches you each and every move and secret in his act that he has been performing for the better part of a decade. Before you purchase this product, I suggest you watch Lim’s performance from Fool Us.
Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA It is astonishing! If you want to learn how he does it and it is not price prohibitive, then this is a great purchase.
One thing you should know before you purchase the secret to his masterpiece, is that there are significant restrictions on use of the expertly choreographed performance. The following “Warnings” are displayed on the downloadable or streaming instructional file:
“This routine called “The Dream Act” performed by the artiste Shin Lim is a copywrited [sp] routine-in this case defined as a choreographed magic routine. The copyright belongs to Tune2Magic, Inc. and its founder. The following are its considerations:
1. No imitation, no re-enactment of The Dream Act for commerce or in a present or future form or manner is allowed without permission of the rights option and license to Tune2Magic, Inc. This form of presentation includes physical performance, animation, virtual hologram, clone performance, or any future technology that imitates choreography and style of Shin Lims [sp] Dream Act
2. No one except Shin Lim can perform The Dream Act routine commercially on any future and present technological platforms (ie. YouTube, Vimeo, FaceBook, twitter, Instagram, etc) in the world. No one except Shin Lim is allowed to perform The Dream Act on TV, public theaters, public and commercial auditoriums, cruise ship, Universities or Colleges.
Any persons can perform The Dream Act for any non broadcasted event (ie private parties, private events, etc)
3. No full recording of live performances is ever allowed unless authorized by Shin Lim or Tune2Magic, Inc.
4. Tune2Magic, Inc. will take legal actions if it discovers that these consideration have not been followed.”
I will leave it to you to determine if these restrictions will affect your purchasing decision. For many, just learning the routine from the creator will justify the expenditure. The ad copy indicates that there are some restrictions, but does not detail the entirety of the rules that accompany the purchase. That should have been made clear in advance in the promotional video.
The Dream Act comes in quality black box with a magnet seal, some gaffed cards, a device to produce smoke, a charger and other parts necessary to perform the act. You also get a PDF file that you will need to construct one of the gaffs if you wish to perform the entire routine. You are provided with a link to a password protected downloadable instructional streaming videos. The main video that teaches the Dream Act is almost two hours and forty five minutes long. Also included is the 2015 edition of the SSS video that is over thirty minutes long. (No materials are provided to construct SSS).
The Dream Act instructional video is narrated by Shin Lim and is recorded in what looks like an empty room in a house. First it starts off with an overview of the act, which assumes that you know and are familiar with the act. Before you watch the instructional video, you should watch the actual performance of the Dream Act, which is not included with this purchase, although it should have been. Lim and two friends go through his routine for over an hour, step by step discussing thoughts behind the routine and each and every move, the use of a servante, deck switches, instances of misdirection, subtleties, the use of dual reality and every aspect of the act. Shin’s friend teaches a segment about Shin’s custom made servante and Lim later shows how he takes items in and out of the servant with exceptional camera work and angles. Lim has extensive instruction about the smoke generating device and how to refill it without buying refills.
Lim also teaches and breaks down his deck switches, mercury card fold, classic force, riffle force and other moves.
Perhaps the best portion of the video is the freeze frame discussion about Shin’s performance on Fool Us in which he over dubs his voice with a creator commentary as he is performing his act. It is interesting to see how he is self-critical and discusses various aspects of his routine and the logistics of appearing on television.
The Dream Act is beautiful and artistic. It is comprised of a series of moves when put together forms a masterpiece. Surprisingly, the moves are not very complicated or knuckle busting. This is a wonderful product that is worth owning if the price does not stop you in you in your tracks.