“The Touch” is a DVD that contains 3 of Robbie Moreland’s close-up routines taken from his professional performances. Two of them are card effects while the other is a coin routine.
Robbie is an excellent magician. He is elegant in his performance as well as his patter. His routines are very well structured and scripted to achieve the maximum effect on his audience.
The DVD is very well-produced. It has excellent sound and video qualities, and an easy-to-manoeuvre menu. Each routine starts with a performance, followed by the explanation.
In his explanation, Robbie goes into great detail covering the concepts, as well as the moves required to work the routines. He also recommends and shows various books and resources, where you can reference those moves and concepts. The DVD runs for a total of 2 hours and 16 minutes.
Here are the descriptions of the 3 effects in the DVD, and what you get out of them:
Vibes
A spectator determines a number and selects a card. The card is lost in the deck. As the spectator reveals the number, the deck visibly shrinks into a packet containing the named number of cards! The chosen card is found as the last card in the packet.
Robbie mentions that there is “the moment” in any routine. “The moment” for Vibes is when the entire deck visually shrinks into a packet containing the named number of cards.
There are no difficult moves with this effect, but the performer needs to influence the audience’s choices. Robbie discusses audience management and describes how to perform the inflated deck illusion.
Bullet Proof
This is a ‘coins through table’ effect, beautifully-routined by Robbie. Three coins are covered by an overturned glass on the table. The first and second coins go through the table, one at a time. Just when the audience expects the last coin to penetrate, the entire glass goes through the table instead.
Robbie discusses the correct types of glass and napkins to use, coin-shells and how to maintain them, and the psychology behind the routine.
The Burst
This is a visual piece of card magic and is a real feast for the eyes. There is no “please take-a-card” effect here.
A red four suddenly pops up from the middle of the deck. This card then visually changes into 2 red two’s. The 2 red two’s are placed into the center of the deck when they explode into the 4 Aces. The 4 Aces than completely vanish into the deck, only to reappear together again. Once again, they are lost in the deck and found face up together in the middle of the deck.
This is the most demanding routine in the DVD, in terms of the necessary skills involved in handling the cards.
You need to know the Pinky Count and Pull-down, J K Hartman’s Pop-Up Move, Richard Kaufman’s Radical Change, Baltazar Fuentes’ Colour Change, the S-Fan and Circular-Fan, Steve Beam’s Flop Change, and the Burst Production. All of these are adequately explained and demonstrated by Robbie.
Many people will want to purchase this DVD just to learn this “The Burst” routine. The other 2 routines can be considered as bonuses. In “The Burst” effect, you get to learn several interesting card manoeuvres that you can use in your own card magic. In the other 2 effects, you get to learn how Robbie scripts and structures them into full-fledged, meaningful, and effective routines. (8/10 star rating.)