Deep Breath

Greg

Horst

Steve

John

Terrific.

Jim

I had not thought of this principle before. Using the colored poker chips is an outstanding visual aid. The reveal of simulating a riffle taking cards from top and bottom implements this principle and has to be one of the best "ah ha" moments I have had as a beginning magician

Jack

Sebastian

I First saw the gilbreath principle by a tape of Max Maven and love the principle, for the handsoff wonders you can perform with it. Mat Parrot did a great Job! The explanation are clear, for all parts (the theory, the effects, the shuffels). The ideas to use the principle without playingcards open my mind and it is worth to think about it

Michael

After watching this, I still have no idea what the Gilbreath principle is or how I could use it or how it makes an effect work. I'm not expecting math proofs or group theory explanations, but at least someone who knows it and can teach it. Going into this all I knew about it was that Max Maven said it was a thing of "terrifying beauty" and it was difficult to find info about it. The effects are mediocre and boring. Another reviewer said things looked rushed but the quality was good. Who cares about the quality of the video...I want to understand and get some good effects. 1914 has better items.

Roly

Of the four (and a half) effects on this DVD, two are incredibly unimaginative card tricks, one is a prediction with number cards, and one is a scrabble prediction involving deeply suspicious stacks of scrabble tiles (who has ever put scrabble tiles in a stack?). The half effect is a book test mentioned in passing during the number prediction which uses a very slight variation on the same method. The explanation of the Gilbreath principle itself was quite confusing. It didn’t serve to explain the principle in any real detail, nor did it make it simple to understand in my opinion. The two card tricks, one Out Of This World style and one poker demonstration, are run of the mill as far as effects using Gilbreath go - both of which have much more compelling alternatives in existing sources (Max Maven, Hector Chadwick… even a blog post on this site!).The number prediction is possibly the strongest effect here with the least convoluted method. The structuring and patter of the routine as presented aren’t great but the core of the effect is interesting enough - though worth saying it does make use of number cards. There’s an interesting presentational justification for the cards offered, though a deeper dive into that would have been appreciated.The scrabble prediction has both a convoluted presentation and underdeveloped patter, along with some really suspicious use of props. In my opinion the predicted word demonstrated is quite weak but that can easily be changed by the performer.Unfortunately the presentational style overall was not very appealing to me. Patter and justifications for things felt underdeveloped and the whole thing felt a little improvised. If you’ve never encountered the Gilbreath principle and particularly love learning from video rather than reading, then this could be an interesting purchase as a jumping off point to explore this fascinating principle. If you’ve already played around with it and had a few different ideas, there’s possibly not a huge amount here of interest.