"Cornered" DVD by Kevin Parker and Chris Webber
Suggested Retail USD$24.95
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 3 Out of 10

"Cornered", a new DVD by Kevin Parker and Chris Webber, begins with an interesting, even intriguing idea, but then grinds to a halt trying to come up with something to do with it and eventually hits a brick wall when it aspires to be magical.

In other words, "Cornered" is all but hopelessly worthless to anyone other than kids looking to mess around with their friends.

Here's the way it goes. The performer brings out a playing card and tears off a corner of the card. Reaching into his pocket, the performer brings out another corner, torn from another playing card. This corner is placed on the playing card, given a magical rub, and the corner is now attached to the playing card, where it hangs and flops around like a mackeral on the line. The card is then given out for examination.

My first reaction, watching the performance was simple: "Ugh." There is no rhyme or reason for anything happening in this trick. None. There's no reason for the card -- you just use it. There's no reason for the extra corner in your pocket -- you just carry it. There is a reason for the hanging corner, though: the method only allows for that dangling piece, not a true restoration.

I'll repeat myself: "Ugh".

This is not for the serious performer. It's not for the dedicated hobbyist. It's for the youngsters who want to walk up to their friends and say, "Hey, check this out!" and off they go.

It's a shame, really. The idea is a neat one and pretty darn creative (even if the set-up is a bit on the painful side). But "Cornered" doesn't go far enough. The restoration, when compare to other such routines, is weak. A full restoration, and not something leading spectators to believe you just stuck a piece to a card (which is not how it works, just so you know, but certainly is what it looks like), is really needed here. Some sort of logic to the whole thing would have helped as well but the method doesn't allow for much other than what you get.

And what you get isn't worth the price.

This is one I can't recommend to anyone other than the extremely bored who are looking for an intriguing idea to play with or the young who are easily impressed.

"Cornered" DVD by Kevin Parker and Chris Webber
In a Blink: 3 Out of 10

Material: 3
It's an interesting idea, but its visuals are flawed and the effect doesn't go far enough. Instead of a restoration, you end with a bent corner that appears to barely be clinging to the card. Not good enough, given other torn-and-restored routines out there.

Practicality: 5
Angles and repeatability are the issues here. You'll need to control your angles with an iron fist and repeating this one requires making up a handful of the gimmicks since they have a tendency to break fairly quickly (as in one or two performances).

Quality of Production: 3
It's your typical bargain-basement living-room set shot. Strictly speaking, it's okay, but Parker goes in and out of frame one time too many... especially when showing how to do the routine. Not good.

Quality of Instruction: 5
Parker does an adequate job of teaching his material, though a script and some direction would have helped him look less lost with his own creation.

Presentation: 1
This one just doesn't make sense. So you're carrying another card corner in your pocket for... what earthly purpose? Then you apparently stick it on another card where it clings to it instead of totally restoring it... why? This just fails on so many levels it's a presentational nightmare.

Shane

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