 Hey everybody, welcome back to Magic orthodoxy, my name is David and this is the Magic Review. Hey, today we're going to look at Project Ultima from Andrew Herring and Feel Astonished Live. What is Project Ultima? Basically it's an entire DVD that's filled with some flourishes, some controls, and a few tricks. You want to see what it looks like? This is it. This DVD is the debut based out of South Africa. All right, so a couple questions we always ask about all of our Magic Reviews and the first of which is what is in the box? What's in the box? You're going to get a DVD. DVD is an hour and 28 minutes long. The effects, controls, tricks on this DVD, they're all done with cards. And so all you need is a little bit of patience, some time to sit down and practice, and a deck of cards. Okay, so what's included on this DVD? The first one is a little flourish. It's called Ultimate Aces. It's a straight forward four ace card reveal, kind of like a little flourish, comes out of a shuffle deck. The four ace is just spring forward. It's pretty cool. Kind of looks like Lee Asher's Thunderbird, but more spread out and with the rest of a deck. Then Andrew Herring goes into a series of effects and tricks all based around the Glimmer Switch. There's a Glimmer Switch, a Glimmer Change, a Glimmer Control, and then a Multi-Glimmer. And that included in that is a little Q&A session he does with theory about this Glimmer Control. Basically what it is, is it's a card control for bringing a return card back to the top. I would offer that this would be a really cool control if you're doing the ambitious card routine. It looks like a move you would do in the ambitious card. Andrew teaches this either as a straightforward invisible change or a face-up switch. I didn't really think the face-up switch was as convincing, but that's just me. And Andrew teaches this completely with either one card or four cards. Another thing he has on here is something called the Ninja Grab. It's kind of a control where you're able to lose the card in the deck and then with nothing in your hands, you kind of place your hand over the top of the deck and then you immediately spring the selected card back out again. Kind of like you're a ninja and you're grabbing it from the center of the deck. It's pretty cool. There's another little card routine in here called Are You Sure? and they also include the little Q&A at the end of it. Are You Sure? is a little routine that takes place in the spectator's hands where you show them the card, you hand it to them, and then they tell you back what card it is and you say Are You Sure? and it's really a different card. Kind of reminded me a little bit of David Blaine's In the Hand two-card monitor, but Andrew's is a cute little take on it. There's another effect on here called 321. It also has a little theory Q&A attachment at the end of it. 321 is one of those tricks where you take two cards and then you combine them together and it becomes a third card. 321, you know, 1 plus 2 equals 3. Yeah, so it uses a very familiar slight that if you're already doing card magic, you probably already know. Kind of seems similar to those effects where you take two cards and paste them into one, but it's in reverse, like where you split a card, kind of. It's one of those type tricks. And then Andrew Herring offers a whole bunch of different flourishes and cuts and little things of fancy for you to review. All right, so what's the overall quality and production value of the DVD? It's got really flashy menus, got very bright backgrounds. There's a lot of German techno throughout the entire thing. If you like techno or house music, this is full of lots of different music, lots of different songs. The filming and the audio feels a little amateurish, but I think that's just because this is Phil Estanage Live's first attempt and it is a good first attempt. All right, positives. What are some of the positives to Project Ultima? I like the amount of work that you're getting on this DVD. You're certainly getting a very ambitious amount of things to learn and things to look at. There's certainly a lot of material here. You're getting a lot of bags for your buck. Andrew Herring is a very skilled cardist. He's very good at flourishing, very good at controls. You're going to see a lot of those in the DVD. Sometimes you're just watching him show off and perform at just a little side. I would argue that these submissions on this, they're not necessarily easy. I don't think they're easy. I think that they'll take a bit of practice, but positive. I think there's something here for everyone. All right, so negatives. What are the negatives to Project Ultima? Like we say around here, there's negatives to everything. These are just the negatives that I see. They don't have to be the negatives that you see. On this DVD, there are no live performances, so you don't get to see how any of these tricks work out with a spectator or how they would work in the real world. There's also no audio instruction whatsoever. There's no on-screen instruction, and then when Andrew is actually going through the effect, it's all done with panamine against the techno music. There's no audio at all. I felt a little disconnected with that. There were even some moments, even in the explanation, where because I hadn't seen it performed live, I had no idea what he was trying to tell me. In one of the explanations, I was completely lost, and I felt like it was something I would have to watch over and over again if I really wanted to get the gist of it. I think the little Q&A theory sessions are meant to supplant or replace the fact that there's no audio, and so I think that he what he subtracts, he tries to add back in, but I don't know that it works as well. I would have appreciated audio instruction as well as visual. All right, so is it with your money? It's $35. $35 and you are getting, like I said, just an insane amount of teaching, an hour and a half worth of magic. I do think it's definitely worth your money, and who would like this? I think anybody who's into cardistry, people who don't like fancy cousin flourishes. I think if you do the ambitious card and there's always new ways that you want to control a card back to the top, I think Project Ultima might be something you'd like to pick up. All right, so that is Project Ultima from Andrew Herring and Feel Us On Us Live. We'd like to thank Murphy's Magic for providing this for us so that we could review it for you. And if you'd like to purchase your own, you can find it at your favorite Murphy's Magic dealer. Thanks. Bye.