BLOG OF AN ESCAMOTEUR

Review: Levent’s Ultimate Guide to the MISER‘S DREAM

Before we start: I can’t always announce every post on all forums. If you don’t want to miss articles like this one, please subscribe to my email notifications. You won’t get spammed! But you will immediately get an email when a new article is posted. If you like a post, share it with your friends, spread the word!.

“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Miser’s Dream, But Were Afraid to Ask” would have been the subtitle that I had chosen for the DVD if someone had asked me. Levent stays a bit more serious in stating “Everything you ever wanted to know about this classic effect!” And exactly that’s what you get when buying this three volume DVD set.

I can only imagine that live on cruise ships, where Levent spends a great deal of his time, must be extremely boring that someone not only writes a 800 pages monumental book on Roy Benson but also creates encyclopedic DVDs on classic magical effects. I have a tremendous reverence for him because he manages it to stay fresh and motivated throughout his work.

Now, to prove that Levent is the right person to talk about this effect, have a look on his personal Miser’s Dream routine here:

Levent is so grateful to share his routine in depth with all his thoughts behind it on DVD3, more about this later.

The production of the DVD is top notch without too much whistles and bells. I was happy to see that in contrast to his Salt Pour DVD on this one all sleights are easily accessible by the DVD menu which is a big improvement when working with the DVDs.

Now what do you get:

DISC ONE

Here you learn some real tools of the trade that I never have read about before:

Which coins to use
How to gimmick the coins to ease the handling (you never would have thought what you can do with a “Dremmel” Tool to coins)
What sort of coin holder’s and coin catching devices exist
The Different Sorts of Pails an Buckets
And Moves, Moves, Moves (did I mention moves?)

All in all there are about 40 Moves on this DVD that Levent explains in great detail. Actually I found the moves part almost exhausting and I would have placed them on DVD 3 as Reference DVD because when you first want just watch the DVD without any thought on practicing moves for the moment this is a bit overwhelming.

Later on when you start getting serious on your own Miser’s dream this DVD will be an invaluable resource as Levent is really one of the rare teachers that tell you the really important details on a sleight. When watching, you will agree that he does such a great job that if someone doesn’t learn it with this DVD that he is either lazy as hell or dumb stupid.

DISC TWO

If you survived all the sleights now it gets much more entertaining and interesting. This disc focuses on the gambits of the Greats of our art. For all of you like myself that do not know what a gambit is, here a short quote from Wikipedia:

The word “gambit” was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Spanish priest Rúy López de Segura, from an Italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). Lopez studied this maneuver, and so the Italian word gained the Spanish form gambito that led to French gambit, which has influenced the English spelling of the word. The broader sense of “opening move meant to gain advantage” was first recorded in English in 1855.

Meanwhile I learned that in English the term gambit is used today in the much the broader sense of: Doing something risky to gain an advantage.

Used on magic and in specific on the miser’s dream it means, how to get started, meaning how to get all the needed coins in their place unseen and how to clean up at the end. Both actually the most important points in any stage act. To give you an impression how good a teacher Levent is, here with Levent’s kind permission “Charlie Miller’s Gambit”

You will learn how the following magicians have dealt with this challenge:

Robert-Houdin, Carl Herrmann, Harry Kellar, Sachs’ Finale, T. Nelson Downs, Downs’ Fictional Act, Downs’ First Gambit, First Productions, Downs’ Variations, Left Hand Load, Coin Thru Hat, Coin Toss, Any Number Coins, Misers Paradox, Coins & Glass, Coin Thru Knee, Pocket Steal, Downs’ First Finale, Downs’ Kellar Catcher, Downs’ Second Gambit, Downs’ Second Finale, About Cortini, Hugard’s Gambit, Harrison’s Gambit, About Jose Frakson, The Frakson Pail, 1000 Dollar Move, About Charlie Miller, Miller’s Gambits, Miller’s Real Routine, Miller’s Method, Spectator Drop, Laugh Misdirection, Split Stack Steal, Sound Effect Gag, Miller’s Finale, Paul Potassy, Conradi Gimmick, Potassy Set-Up, Potassy Method, Coin Thru Pail, Spectator Salt Gag, Gimmick Steal, Pocket Steal, Al Flosso

Amazing isn’t it? Now you don’t get taught all the complete acts of this masters but Levent explains how they mastered the gambit. I would have enjoyed this part even more if he had included more pictures of the discussed magicians because not all of them where familiar to me. Also I would have enjoyed to get some information about how on earth Levent was able at all to collect all this information. It must be some occult source that he wants to keep stay secret.

Al Flosso is the only exception because on his act Levent spent quite some time to explain it in detail. Unfortunately due to copyright reasons Levent could not place a video clip of Al FLosso’s act on the DVD but he recommends watching it on YouTube before continuing with the DVD which is a good advice that you should follow. To spare you the way to YouTube here it is, enjoy:

DISC THREE

If you have read Levent’s superb book on Roy Benson the nice thing of his DVDs is that you can watch him there doing the things you only read in the book about. Like on his Salt Pour DVD Levent shows also on this DVD set parts that where discussed in his Benson book. Disc three starts with Roy Benson’s gambit, his ingenious frontloading table and his visible miser’s dream which is one of the best versions in my opinion using a sanded glass pail where the spectator really can see the coins fall.

The rest of the DVD Levent unveils his own current miser’s dream act not only in great detail, but he also shares the evolution that lead to this entertaining act and the secret of his very special gimmicked pail.

If you ask yourself while watching who is this nice elderly gentleman who acts a spectator in some of Levents explanations, I now know its his father in law Bill Bennett who also runs his magic business while Levent is on the road. Next time Levent, please introduce him to us.

All in all you get almost 6 hours of high value information and superb teaching. If you only want to buy one DVD in the next time I recommend this here. Even if you never think of performing the miser’s dream you will benefit from it greatly.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

$59.95 plus Postage & Handling

You may get it now also from some magic dealers, but as the creators benefits more I always advice to buy directly from Levents Website

Addendum

I don’t know why, but there is one coin catcher gimmick that he does not mention on this disc. So if you are through this DVD it may be also interesting for you. I won’t tip of the method (great pun for them in the know) but I add a short clip here showing Alexander de Cova using it:

If you want to know how this works, get “Alexander de Cova’s Enigmatic DVD – Volume 2”

Oh, for all of you that got this far: Watch Levents DVD 3 till its very end

If you like this article, a small donnation is always welcome and keeps me motivated