"UltraViolet" DVD by Liam Montier
Suggested Retail USD$30.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

"UltraViolet", the latest DVD from Liam Montier, a collection of great thoughts and routines revealing around ideas using a UV light and, beyond being some slick work, the material is the perfect starting point for even more outlandish and unique creations.

More than a DVD of ideas and routines, this is more of a complete UV magic kit. Included with the DVD are a UV light key chain (small and always readily available for whatever you choose to do with it), special markers to write whatever you want, and the gaffed cards used in various routines on the disc. With everything here, you're all set to make some weird and different magic happen that can possibly fry spectators brain.

Aside from the toys, there are the routines. Now these are all over the place in terms of power, practicality, and presentation. To be honest, when I heard about the routines here, I wasn't expecting much other than hidden messages revealing themselves and the names of cards in all sorts of manners. But this is Liam Montier and I should have known better. Rather than go over all the routines, we'll just hit the highlights.

"Invisible", the first routine on the disc, is the perfect routine for the UV light and a complete stunner (it even flabbergasted the "stunt spectator" in the performance video). In this one, a card is shown and put into the card box as a prediction for later. The deck is then shuffled by a spectator. The spectator freely names any card then proceeds to pick a card from the deck. This card is turned over and it's found to match the selected card. When the UV light is shown on it, however, the spectator's freely named card is found written on the prediction card. This one is a total mind-blower and worth the price of the disc.

"True Lies" is a weird little take on the "lie detector" plot. A spectator selects a card and a miniature "lie detector" card (a blank-faced card) is shown. The performer asks questions about the card ("Was your card a red card?" "Was it a Spade?" etcetera) and, when the light is shown on the card, it indicates whether or not the spectator is telling the truth. This is a slick idea, with the writing apparently changing, and makes for a light-hearted revelation.

"Pip Slip" was another one I liked. In this one, the odd center pip on the Seven of Diamonds is outlined in the UV ink and the light shown on it. A magic pass, and the odd pip moves from one end of the card to the other, leaving behind the outline. The pip is moved back into the outline again. This is odd on a lot of levels, but again is a slick idea worth playing with.

"Watch It" is another good one, even if a bit contrived. A spectator selects three cards and the spectator is asked to arrange the values of the three cards to make a time. Once the spectator does that, the UV light is shown on the performer's wrist, where a watch would normally be, and there is written the freely-arranged time.

There are six other routines as well and, though they aren't particularly stunning, they do serve as solid brain-fodder and will get the creative juices flowing. If that weren't enough, going to Big Blind Media's website (or dropping Liam Montier a line), will get you a small, free ebook with nine more routines, including a couple that will make your eyes pop. So that's a total of fifteen routines that are either ready to go as showpieces or will have your gears grinding as you come up with your own material.

I've mentioned that alot, that "coming up with your own stuff" thing, and that's really where your mind needs to be on "Ultraviolet" to really get the most out of the material. Sure, there are some solid pieces that are ready to go out of the box (Montier's "Invisible" and Donny Orbit's "Haunted" in the ebook are just two), but the joy -- and the value -- is going to be in coming up with your own ideas.

All in all, I was thrilled with this one. Montier's ideas are excellent ones, his playing with the gadgets and the themes interesting, and he's left the door open for a lot more exploration.

If you're looking for something different and want to work some creative muscle, you can't do any better than "Ultraviolet".

"UltraViolet" DVD by Liam Montier
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

Material: 10
This is a collection of excellent -- and some just plain weird -- ideas revolving around UV light. Included with some of the exceptional things are all the toys you need to play: the light, markers, even the gaffed cards used in the routines. If you're looking for something different, and want some imagination toys, this is definitely a package to get.

Practicality: 10
Practicality is all over the place with this, with things like set-ups and resets and the like ranging from the oh-so-simple to the ever-so-complex. Still, taken as a whole, even the more involved works are not all that painful and most of what you do with this is in your own hands anyway.

Quality of Production: 10
It's Big Blind Media... Need I say more?

Quality of Instruction: 10
Liam Montier and the ever-present Owen Packard cover all the bases of the material here to the nth degree. That they are so thorough while being sometimes hilariously funny is becoming a trademark of all the BBM productions.

Presentation: 10
It's all in what you do with it, but the strangeness of the light and the revelations with it are instant attention getters and at least one routine will freeze your spectators' brains.


Shane

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