Russell Leeds – More Banding Around

Russell Leeds – More Banding Around

Cards, Coins and Rubber Bands . . . things that can be found laying around in most environments . . . things that you can borrow and do magic with. As much as I love cards, however, even when borrowing a deck of cards to show a trick, you get that stigma and initial reaction of people thinking that you’re uncle Harry breaking out the 21 card trick. Coins are (if you’re really good – unlike myself) a much better prop to approach that look of ‘real’ magic, but even coins can create that sense of well it’s sleight of hand and you somehow palmed it or something. But rubber bands . . . they’re just not associated with magic, so the fact that you can take something so harmless and ordinary and do things that look like real magic is a wonderful thing.

If you’ve ever seen Crazy Man’s Handcuffs performed properly, it looks like real magic. The bands just seem to melt right through each other. It’s beautiful. That being said, I’ve always wanted to have at my disposal a handful of Rubber Band Effects. Over the years, I’ve collected a few from the various sources out there. Out of all the sources I’ve read, watched, etc, this DVD is probably my favorite. There are a ton of excellent effects on here along with some incredibly versatile moves and ideas. Leeds also takes a good look at some of the effects on the first volume and adds some additional insight and/or moves to improve the routines. Craig Petty makes an appearance in the DVD. He plays the role of spectator and helps lead the explanation discussions.

If you’ve read my review of the first volume, you may recall that I felt he was a distraction. Either he realized this or took my review to heart, but either way, this volume we find a much more serene and very mellow-non-distracting Mr. Petty. He really added to the overall product and did a good job leading the discussions.

As for the production quality, a couple of points were lost here. First, there were two cameras with two very different lighting situations, so when they cut back and forth between cameras there was a noticeable difference in the lighting and quality of the footage. Also, there were several parts were the audio completely cut out for several (30 or so) seconds.

On to the content . . . Some of the routines require a bit of a set up and a bunch of extra props (coin purse, coins, etc) taking away from the impromptu-ness of the effect. To be fair, Leeds never claimed that the effects were impromptu. However, my opinion is that to really take full advantage of the magical properties of rubber bands, the magic really needs to feel impromptu, so I’m not as much of a fan as the ones requiring extra props and setups. However, there is plenty of material that, although it requires some set up, feels and looks very impromptu.

Then there are also effects that truly are impromptu. My absolute favorite is his reworking of an effect from the first volume. It’s a multi-phase pen and rubber band penetration effect. It’s super visual, totally impromptu and extremely magical. I really like the idea of, in a casual setting in the office, grabbing a pen and rubber band laying on the desk and doing a freaky-looks-like-real-magic effect. That’s the kind of stuff that gives you so called ‘Street Cred’ and makes you look like a real magician. For that effect alone, I would recommend this DVD. There are a couple of effects and moves, etc on this DVD that I found lacking and frankly not believable, but there’s enough solid material that it’s easy to recommend this one. If you liked the original, you’ll love this one. If you hated the original, there’s a good chance that you’ll like this one anyway.

By the way . . . a little treat for those who’ve fought their way through this review and have made it to the end . . . Stuck is one of the best rubber band effects I’ve seen. There is a moment in the routine where you see a sticker firmly attached to one rubber band magically melt off of it and onto another rubber band . . . beautiful! Get the DVD just for this.

Docking a bit for a few production issues along with a couple of so-so routines, you end up with . . .