Reel Magic Magazine by Kozmo Maigc

At the International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention this year in Dallas, TX, I was fortunate enough to meet world--famous busker Kozmo. I sat and chatted with him a bit and bought his Straight From The Street DVD's as well as subscribed to Reel Magic Magazine, a video magazine that he produces.

I was pretty excited about the Reel Magic subscription. I get six issues a year and, for subscribing at the convention, I got an extra two DVD's for free! When you look at the website, you can see that their past issues focused on people like Eric DeCamps, Shawn Farquar, Michael Ammar, and Paul Harris; some of the greatest names in magic today! But what's not immediately apparent is all of the small clips that are also included.



You typically get a segment with David Kaye (a.k.a. Silly Billy) and one with Garrett Thomas, as well as a few interesting little tricks and a segment called "Move Monkey", which is focused on little sleights or moves to add to your repertoire. Overall, it sounds like a great deal!

Well, I'm here to tell you the good and bad about the series. I've watched four of their videos now and my overarching opinion is "Eh." I'll tell you why.

The main feature is an interview with a prominent magician, and that segment is usually quite good. This issue's interview was with FISM winner Paul Gertner, the man who does the steel ball-barring cups and balls routine. The interview is great. Paul goes into detail talking about creativity as well as sharing stories about his youth that are not only entertaining, but informative too. His story about getting on the Johnny Carson show alone is a strong parable about persistence. Usually these interviews are worth the price ($10 subscription, $12 individual) of the DVD alone.

Then you get into the extras. Take David Kaye's segment on kids magic. Now David Kaye is easily one of the best kid performers in the world, so when he talks, you listen, and in his segments he makes a lot of good points that people need to think about, but this is the second episode that I saw him in in which he hammers it into your head to not embarrass the kids you perform for.

Now don't get me wrong, this is information that some people out there desperately need to know. We've all seen magicians who are complete and total douche-bags on stage, and not in the fun edgy way, but his segments often feel as if he's talking down to you. Even though the information he presents is great, I often find myself wanting to skip his segment just because of how he comes across.

Garrett Thomas has a segment called "Try this at home" in which he discusses some interesting ideas about magic and other things. One that I particularly liked was him talking about making magical moments as opposed to just doing magic tricks. It was a fantastic bit that I won't spoil for you here. His latest segment was about matching your decks of cards at home and actually had some really good tips in it that many magicians wouldn't normally think about. Garrett's segment is definitely a highlight of the DVD for me.

Jon Armstrong often has a bit in the magazine, and his segment this go round was the second or third (depending if you trust what the DVD itself says or what the website and the table of contents say) session in Orlando. This time, they discussed a 'revolutionary' new way to do card on ceiling, and while the idea was good, it felt very much like something designed for rank amateurs and the dialog very much spoke down to the viewer. I don't know if it was intentional, but at the end of the segment the group jokes about doing the 'real work' on the 21 card trick, showing that they themselves knew that what they were talking about was nothing new.

Now on to something that is likely to irritate most of you: technical problems. I have not received a DVD to date that I haven't had some sort of technical problems on. The biggest one I seem to have is that when you hit 'play all' on the DVD menu, it doesn't. At least two of mine always stop or skip right in the middle of the DVD, leaving me to go through and find the segment I'm trying to watch.

Another problem that I haven't had, but a friend of mine has, is that sometimes the DVD's will not play in a standard DVD player. I don't have a standard DVD player, I use my computer for everything, so I cannot comment as to whether my DVD's have this problem or not, but be aware that it could be an issue.

Overall, is Reel Magic worth the $10 an issue that you're going to throw at it? Yes. It is worth it if for no other reason than the interviews and Garrett Thomas' segment. Sometimes the other content is great, sometimes it sucks. But if you're on the edge about buying the DVD's then let me help you" do it.

~Cameron Rivers