"Holy Grail" DVD by Jordan Johnson
Suggested Retail USD$24.95
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 7 Out of 10

"Holy Grail", a DVD by Jordan Johnson, is a very slick take on the torn-and-restored card plot, with some striking visuals and cleanliness, but does have some issues you'll need to work through.

"Holy Grail" is a pretty piece-by-piece restoration and travels along those lines for the most part. A card is chosen and signed by a spectator. The performer, without folding or creasing the card, tears the card into four quarters. These quarters are given to a spectator to hold. One at a time, the performer takes a piece from the spectator's hand and fuses the pieces together, leaving no sign of the tearing action except for the creases. The card is put on top of the deck and rubbed gently and the creases disappear, leaving a completely restored signed card.

And in that description are the two things that keep this from being, truly, the "Holy Grail" it claims to be.

Those creases are one and it's one spectators will catch. There are no creases made and yet there they are. "How in the world are those pieces sticking together?" is a question that will be (and has been) asked. Not good for a T&R routine, especially this one. Johnson deals with it by removing them quite quickly and quite visually (in the advanced version of this, he does it by removing first one crease and then the other -- it's a pretty slick way of finishing with a pristine card). However, that leads to the other thing which is...

The deck gets brought back into play to complete the restoration. Granted the visuals are great here -- shoot, they're great throughout the entire routine as far as that goes -- but in terms of being the ultimate restoration routine, which we're led to believe this is, it weakens the entire thing.

Yeah, I know: that's a magician thing. And I agree. Spectators by and large won't care about that and they shouldn't. But for something to be the true be-all-end-all of a theme, then both performance and method must be linked to that claim. Performance-wise, those creases get caught by spectators; method-wise, that deck gets brought back into play. Both of those make this less than the "Holy Grail".

This is not to say "Holy Grail" is bad. It isn't, not by a long shot. In fact, I like it a lot. But I'd like it better if those things just didn't exist at all.

I'm also going to hit this part of things, but I'm going to hit it softly because it only matters to a small percentage of performers who would contemplate buying this one: the set-up. Folks, it's a bear. You're splitting and cutting and gluing and pressing and all of that for a single gimmick and then it's back to square one to start all over if you want to do this more than once and it's a hassle to say the least. The set-up yields a very good effect so, to anyone worth their salt, it's worth it. What is probably not worth it is all the time it requires to make up a stack of the gimmicks (you burn one each performance) for a night out strolling or table-hopping. If you're doing this as a one-off, something very special for special times, then the set-up, as involved as it is, is worth it (the same that can be said for a truckload of great magic out there). And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Now a word about Johnson's thinking here. In a word, it's clever. He must have worked it for ages, getting every little thing just so, just the way he wanted it, because it shows in his explanations. The man does an incredible job of teaching everything here and I do mean everything: from the set-up to the handling to the presentational pieces, Johnson explores them all. More than that, you get what almost amounts to a bibliography of T&R routines that Johnson lists as influences. Johnson does good work here and you'll have no problem picking up any of the work involved.

So is the "Holy Grail" worth a look for you? Honestly, if you're into the plot and always on the lookout for different takes on it, then yes, it is: Johnson's thinking is incredibly clever here and worth the purchase. If you already do a piece-by-piece restoration and you're happy with it, "Holy Grail" is still interesting and you'll appreciate the work behind it even if it doesn't end up replacing the one you already perform. If you're not an aficionado of the theme, maybe you do a simple one you're happy with or maybe you don't do one at all, then "Holy Grail" will likely not win you over because of the set-up involved.

Final word: "Holy Grail" ain't, but it's close... really, really close.

"Holy Grail" DVD by Jordan Johnson
In a Blink: 7 Out of 10

Material: 8
The visuals are very good but there are a couple of points that make this fall short of the title. The set-up is massive and will put some folks off, but the real problem there is that you won't be making up a couple dozen of these at a time to cover a night or two of strolling. All in all, this is a very good T&R routine if you're looking for a one-off effect and don't mind the work.

Practicality: 9
You'll burn through a gimmick each performance, and the set-up is rough, making it hard to think of this as one you'll repeat much. However, the big bugbear of most T&R routines -- angles -- is not an issue at here. All told, it's a practical performance piece.

Quality of Production: 5
There are some video issues and a big degradation of sound during the explanation section, but otherwise things here are okay.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Johnson does a beautiful job of explaining his work every step of the way. He gets extra points for listing every creator whose work influenced his.

Presentation: 6
Parts of the restoration look clean as clean can be, but an illogical point in the routine (which spectators will point out, one way or the other) and bringing the deck back into play to finish the restoration hurt this one.

Shane

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