A short review

I have purchased only 1 download from Ellusionist before (Mirror Force by Patrick Kun, very good force for those who love the Hofzinser), and today I purchased 2 more.  One was good, one was bad.

Bebel - An Underground Legend:

This, surprisingly, was the bad one.  At 15 dollars and the words "practical" I did expect more.  Bebel, as we all know, is an effing amazing card magician.  There's no question about that.  Watch his videos and be amazed.  He is incredible in the download as well, performing the 3 switches very smoothly.  However, the first and the third require lapping, something I often do not do because I perform most of my magic standing and do not have a place to lap.  The second switch, while good, is just the Macmillan switch.  That should have been obvious to me from the start, but I thought it would be a different method.  No, it's LITERALY the exact same method.

So on top of being unpractical to me and the second being a switch I already know and rarely use, the download clocks in at 9 minutes long, with the first 3 minutes being an introduction.  That means each of the switches only gets about 2 minutes.  There's no translations even though Bebel speaks in French (though, to be fair, you don't need the translation, everything is shown slowly).

Disappointing.  2 switches that use lapping, and a Macmillan switch.



Now, on the other hand....

Ollie Mealing's Control

This is fantastic.  I enjoyed Mealing's first DVD (Card Constructions) and I took a lot away from it.  This is his third production as far as I know and I was not disappointed.  This DVD is 11 single card controls + 1 multiple card control.  It clocks in at 25 minutes and does not have any sounds except some ambient music in the background (the last 10 minutes are interview material).  It's nice because there is NO INTRODUCTION.  It just goes straight to the controls and doesn't bullshit.  The controls are smooth and fun to learn and most of them don't have angle issues and if they do they are very minor (like only from directly behind you) with the exception of Poison which has a problem on the immediate sides.  I like Ollie's previous work, and this only helps cement him as a great magician.  The only downsides are that some of the controls (namely 2-3 of them) may feel overly "flourishy" than some would like.  The trailer is also cheesy as hell.  But overall, this was a great purchase.