Title: The Floating Ball
Artist: Luis De Matos
Producers: Essential Magic Collection
Link: You can buy Floating Ball from any of your favorite Murphy?s Magic retailers.
Retail Price: $40.00
Learning Difficulty: Medium to Hard
Length of DVD: 1 hour 5 minutes
Notes: This is a theater piece. You will need a performance area with off stage wings in order to perform this piece properly. Not suitable for every magician.
Features:
? Play All
? Chapters
? Extras
Includes:
? DVD
? Gimmick
? 20 m of PFB thread
The effect is beautiful. The magician standing on stage opens a box and takes a mirrored ball from it. He holds the mirrored ball out and with a silent command causes it to suspend in mid air. What happens next can only be explained as awe inspiring as the ball floats, follows, hovers, and flies through the air at the magicians command. This is Luis De Matos?s Floating Ball.
There really aren?t a lot of stage magic tutorials out there that is as elegant or as well produced as this DVD. What Luis teaches you is something more than just a stage trick. It?s a full magical routine that can be done to music and is highly commercial suitable enough for cruise ships, or television performances, and learning each step of his nine phase routine is about as painless as it could be thanks to his expert teaching style.
The Floating Ball isn?t a new effect, having been around since David Abbott created the effect. Almost all versions on the market today, including this one, owe a debt to Abbot?s original effect. The major advantage to Luis?s floating ball is that it can be performed on stage without the aid of hidden assistants and is under complete control of the performer at all times. To perform this effect you?re going to need to get a few things. Firstly you?ll need a floating ball! You can either buy one strait from Luis at Estudio 33?s website? for $1,500 dollars or you can try to create one yourself. Luis talks about weight, size, and construction a little in the DVD. I think Abbott?s ball was made from paper mache. After you get your ball you?ll need to get a few specific anchor points from a hard ware store, and Luis will tell you specifically what you are looking for, and then all that?s left is a special box to hold the ball in that?s been gaffed to allow the thread to enter and exit it. I don?t feel that I?m giving anything away by saying threads because the DVD is advertised as containing 20 m of PFB thread.
This DVD is seriously packed full of a lot of information regarding the Floating Ball, and how Luis?s works. The problem I have with the DVD isn?t that it?s not good. My problem is the selling price is way too low for the material covered. $40 bucks is CHEAP for a full professional, commercial stage act. Granted if you don?t opt to make your own ball you?ll spend closer to two grand buying the DVD and his custom made ball but I digress. I think more people are probably going to buy this DVD just to learn how this trick works than those with serious intent on mastering it. That?s why I think the retail price should be at the least double what it is. But that?s just me. This isn?t going to be a piece that everyone can perform. You NEED to have a theater with off stage wings to anchor your thread points to. You will also want to consider the type of background you?re performing in front of and may want to opt to purchase your own backdrop setup which can also get expensive. This piece of magic really is an investment, not a spur of the moment purchase.
However if you do purchase the DVD and you do learn to master the Floating Ball routine you?re going to have one of the most beautiful pieces of magic you?ll ever perform. It?s a reputation maker! Failing that for the serious student in magic it?s a good piece to have in your library for reference purposes. Either way you go, given the sale price of this DVD, you have no excuse to not own a copy.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 10
The DVD has way to much good material on it for just $40 bucks. The price should be more expensive than that.
Teaching Quality: 9
I love Luis?s teaching style! He?s entertaining and educational. The DVD never gets dry or boring to watch.
Video & Sound Quality: 9
Sound and video are both solid good quality.
Overall Quality: 9
The Floating Ball is a must have for the professional stage performer and serious student of magic alike. The DVD has enough material in it that you will certainly walk away with something of value. Be that a new stage act or a powerful reference source to one of the most beautiful pieces of magic out there. You owe it to yourself to own a copy.
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