Hecker by Brian Tudor

"As a performer there is nothing better than turning the whole room against a Heckler. It is crucial to force the Heckler off balance as early as possible, so that he is always one step vehind every move, and is constantly playing catch-up. When all the sleights are solid, and the moves hit hard and are thrown out quickly like a precision boxing combination, it is impossible for anyone, let alone some sorry Heckler, to get a piece of you. You are playing a game of catch me if you can, and he can't."

Difficulty: Most of the moves are not that difficult, but definitely not for someone who just started playing with cards.

Availability: Penguinmagic.com (a demo of the dvd is available here too) and most online magic shops (I got mine as a gift from my cousin).

Cost: US$ 20 - 50... depends on where you got it from.

Review

Okay, while it says that the intention of the dvd is to teach you how to handle hecklers (our common adversary), yet it doesn't really "teach" you how. This dvd will NOT teach you how to handle them with care and jokes, or how to ignore, or the psychology, etc but it focuses more on how to make the heckler just one step behind of things with Tudor's fast paced tricks.

The opening trick (by the name of Card Switch), is basically what the title says... (no this is not exposure, because that IS the name of the trick), which makes the heckler seems stupid, or drunk, in the case of the dvd. And then Tudor did the following effects/tricks/routines consecutively:

- Wrong Answer: This is what all ACR lover should have. Ya know how sometime people can predict that it's gonna be an ACR trick that the card goes to the top... well, you've gotta check this one out :D

- Card Under Drink: The deck is ribbon spread, but the card isn't there to be found... it's right under a glass. This is the kinda stuff that you perform just once for each layman, and it will stunt them.

- Tudor's Card Through Glass: This is one hell of a move/trick. The card VISIBLY penetrates through an upside down glass. My favorite.

- Terry LaGerould's Card Through Table: A penetration effect that pushes the selected card through a glass. Fun fun stuff, especially if it's combined with the next effect...

- Deck Through Table: Yes, just like the LeGerould's Through Table, but this one is the whole deck except the chosen card.

- Card-to-Mouth: Tudor's rendetion of the classic Card-to-Mouth, though this is done very differently. Good thing: This can be done without misdirection. Thus being ideal for a stage performance. Bad Things: The need for more confidence, accuracy, and speed (you'll know why after you watch it :D). And some other things...

- Card to Shirt Pocket: Similar to Card-to-Mouth, but it goes to your shirt pocket instead.

- Card to Zipper Pocket: Again, similar to the previous trick, except this one goes inside your pants (at least that's how Tudor performs it); hence the need to unzip and zip.

- Card to Right Pants Pocket: Another one. While they all may sound the same here, they are not. Watch the preview video and you'll see what I mean.

- Card to Left Pants Pocket: A follow up to the previous trick, when done consecutively this will swell heckler's eye.

- Terry LEGerould's Card to Back Pocket: I showed this to a friend and she screamed, because you actually never touched the back pocket in the first place, yet the card is already there sticked out.

- Deck Vanish: The ever popular deck vanish. Here's your chance to learn it!

- Card to MAtchbox: Bizzare, not very pratical, yet will drop everyone's jaw. Heckler inserts the card into the middle of the deck and Tudor opens a matchbox and found a folded card inside... which happens to be the heckler's card.

The DVD will also teach you how to do some more stuff (including a Deck Production, Tudor's Kick Out, and LEGerould's Flick Change).

While many of the tricks here show apparent similarity (card to here and there and du du da da), it's the essence of those tricks that you have to think about: it's to downplay a heckler. After all, I don't think you'll do everything on this dvd to a heckler just to keep him (it's usually a him, i'm not sexist) quiet.

Certain effects are pretty good (such as the Card Through Glass), but some other just resemble one another.

On his teaching style... I have two Tudor's videos (another is a Penguinmagic instant download of Zip, Snap, and whatever). While Tudor is known for his bad style of teaching, I don't think that applies to this dvd. Yes, there's only one or two angles, and at times it's just a slo-mo with Tudor reading a script of the how-to, but well, it works (for me at least). I performed the Card Through Glass a couple of hours after watching the DVD for the first time.

Overall Rating: Uhmm, 7.5/10 for the content. 3/10 for the value of money.



ps. You should listen to the lines sprouted by the Heckler on the video... god damn the guy's funny!

Yeah, i heard some pretty good comments abt it too. Tudor is such a skilled card handler... so smooth yet so fast.

Thanx for the review dok.

for me, i dun really like this dvd..

reason? i like to know pls. thanx.

wats so bad abt it? impossible for us or not applicable?

I dint really like this DVD too

Performance:
In his performance, the motor is "If I am fast, you cant catch me". There is only speed required. Very little misdirection used

In addition, he is downright challenging his audience. In many instances, he is trying to make the spectator feel and look dumb. Not many people like such a way of watching a magic effect. For us as causal performers (even for professional performers), we try to create a bonding with the spectators, not make them enter into a defensive mode. If we were to use the methods taught in there exactly the same way as shown in the DVD, we may end up with a broken arm or blackened eye. Especially so if the spectators have been drinking.

Effects:
I have to say that the effects are good, especially the card to mouth and the card through table. Difficult but good. And it does help if u have large hands.

Teaching:
Teaching has been improved by a little as compared to his Generation X DVD. But still not anything thats easy to learn from or comprehand. His style or no talk and only show in slowmo of the moves from the front makes it slightly hard for people with not that much experience on sleights. No talk on misdirection or psychology used.

Conclusion:

Hence, altho i liked the effects, i dint like the teaching and the performance style. i feel that a defensive spec is going to cause you problems. More so a defensive heckler.

Cheers B)

u have a good and valid point there Andy. Yes, we are suppose to have this "bond" with our specs.... but common... if a heckler wanna heck u.... u still wanna have some bonding thing with him/her? lol...

u prob will be piss off and thus try to protect yaself from looking like a fool and rather push the foolishness look to them (ie... so that they look like a fool and not u).

yeah... tudor aint superb at teaching but i still like his skills.

it'll be interesting to watch his HECKLER DVD someday... when/if i get to.

And yeah... tudors hands... gosh.... MASSIVE... :wacko:

That is the whole premise of the dvd: challenging the heckler. It's intentional that little or almost no misdirection is used, because that's the very thing heckler tries to catch. What Tudor's basically trying to say is "Ok watch all this closely, don't ever blink" and snap the magic happens.

Think about it, hecklers tend to go rambling about how they know the sleight, or the misdirection, or even the whole trick. Therefore visual stuff such as the Card Through Glass trick (or even color changes like Bertram's) would be something that they just can't deny. Unless, of course, they know the secret.

As I previously mentioned, no one's probably gonna handle a heckler the way he does on the dvd (I know I wont :D). But you've gotta admit, when a person is just downright acting like a donkey, it feels good (and sometime can be funny, even if it's just to yourself) to show him that their IQ just like one too.



"As a performer there is nothing better than turning the whole room against a Heckler. It is crucial to force the Heckler off balance as early as possible"

my OWN opinion, I dont really know what he trying to do.. LOL.. card here, card there.. then ? but some people might want to get some tips of handling heckler in that DVD.. just that i couldn't find any, yet..