James Went – Meditations
$35.37
www.bigblindmedia.com/james-went-meditations-2-dvd-set/

The Hype:

An incredible collection of closeup card routines, smooth sleight of hand techniques and interviews direct from the mind of James Went.

James Went is best known as one of the stars of the Bafta award winning BBC TV magic show “Help, My Supply Teacher is Magic”. Over three seasons and 39 episodes of the smash hit show, James demonstrated his relaxed, personable and engaging performance style. He is also a sought after consultant, having worked at the Discovery Channel show “Breaking Magic” with Wayne Houchin. BBC’s “Killer Magic” and numerous major national theatre productions.

Watch Breaking Magic online. http://onwatchseries.to/serie/breaking_magic

Meditations: his first major release extends to over THREE hours of material and features ten of James’ absolute favorite card routines, in-depth tutorials on twelve indispensable sleight of hand techniques and fascinating interviews.

Learn just why so many professional magicians rate James so highly. Add his beautiful card work to your own repertoire and get a true insight into what it’s like to work in TV magic in the modern era!

My Take:

This is a set of two DVD’s so I might as well take one at a time.

Disk 1. James tells you right up front you will see a few routines that have the same plot as others on the disk. He believes in taking an idea and coming up with alternative solutions so has provided different techniques for the problems. He also is very good at crediting both techniques and ideas he got from other sources.
Inevitable – Very nice Open Prediction routine. This uses Bill Simon’s Business Card Prophecy move in a way I had not seen before to create an impressive self-working trick.

Roy Sandwich -Combination of sandwich and Triumph plots. Based on Roy Walton’s use of the half pass. A classic force is needed but this will be the easiest one you have ever done.

For Krenzel – A selected card is lost in the deck and the spectator holds the deck in her hand. The magician names the card then shows that it is reversed in the deck. Nice fast routine but the sleight of hand requirement will take some work.

Conditional Triumph – Very clean triumph based on Larry Jenning’s Cascading Triumph. Uses the Convincing control but does not teach it. He does offer places where it can be learned. Nice use of the Tenkai Optical Revolve and Jenning’s Triumph display.

Sandiwich Thing – James claims no originality on this except for putting the elements together into a routine. He draws on the work of Frank Simon, Andi Gladwin and John Bannon to create a very nice routine starting with a pretty Ace production into a sandwich effect then the cards return to the start. You will be playing with the Andi Gladwin move!

The disk finishes up with techniques. Two versions of his 4 of a Kind production are taught as are the Piet Fortan pop out move and the John Benzais Spin cut.

James teaches two peeks that have names that might offend some. One is the TIT Peek – the Tabled Injog Turnover Peek. The other is the TITTIES Peek. The Tabled Injog Turnover This Instance Executed Standing Peek. (Hey, he credits Jerry Sadowitz’ influence so I guess that explains that). Both are nice peeks but he put way too much work into trying to be a little “saucy” (his term) with the names.

The last two techniques are nice looking but the working on both the Top Card Production and Jack’s Ginger Snap were obvious to me in watching the video. I don’t feel that I would use them but they might be just your cup of tea.

Disk 2

Poker Con – Poker cheating routine featuring a straight flush from a shuffled deck. Simple mechanics but very clean looking.

Selected Daley – A couple of variations of Doc Daley’s Last Trick in one routine with a selected card addition. A nice toss in control of the selection is taught.

Broken Triumph – Another Triumph routine. (James really loves this plot). This one uses the Krenzel Mechanical Reverse and, yes, James does show how it is done. He also teaches a peek (not original with him) that should fly right by your spectator.

Collections – Another classic plot explored. This version is fast and clean. The selected cards are positioned as they are returned.

Searches – Based on Larry Jenning’s Searchers plot with some ideas from J.K. Hartman If you are familiar with Aaron Fisher’s Search and Destroy, you have seen the basic plot. A card is selected and lost in the deck. An Ace is placed near the top of the deck and another near the bottom. First move, the Aces comes closer to one another. Second, they move again with only one card between them and it is the selection.

The techniques section on this disk has some interesting items. The ribbon spread peek is a very deceptive peek and is well taught here.

On the Relaxed Pass, James has tried to take the tension out of performing a pass combining techniques from both Doug Edwards’ Easy Pass and the Malone Shift. Should be well within the capability of the average card worker.

Thoughts of controls teaches a couple of nice controls and gives his philosophy on them.

There are nice tutorials on both the spread pass and the spread half pass. These are both taught and photographed well with good angles and slow paced lessons.

Both disks finish up with interviews with James. I find the second disk’s interviews very enlightening. James goes not only into what it takes to get on a weekly magic TV show but all the work, tension and backstage wrangling that goes on.

Conclusion: This is a most impressive freshman release from someone who is not all that well known in the states. This should help to correct that situation. The price for two disks is what I am accustomed to paying for one. There is a lot of strong material on this set and is well worth your purchase.

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