David Williamson Raccoon Lecture

Mark

I've really liked Williamson's work since "Sleight of Dave" and Williamson's Wonders came out. I was looking for some Rocky Raccoon material, so when I saw the "Raccoon Lecture" DVD, which has a paragraph of large print extolling the Rocky instruction, I stopped reading and started ordering.

That was a mistake. I should have known: "the large print giveth and the fine print taketh away."

Going back to the VI site after watching the DVD (or trying to), I read the second, smaller-print paragraph. It clearly says there are five effects. But it doesn't list them. If it did--as most DVD blurbs do--I would've seen that the five are "Spoon Bending," the "Vanishing Hanky," the "Signature trick (I think they could be excused for calling it his signature "Signature trick") the "3-Card Repeat," and--finally--Rocky. All of this on a 30-minute DVD. And all of it I've got elsewhere.

So: no reflection on Mr. Williamson, or his work--but I really had no need to buy this DVD.

Which is no reason to give it a poor review.

I had a problem with sound quality. The video was shot years ago, at a conference in England. Williamson is using a mike on a stand. Unless he's talking right into it, it's hard to understand what he's saying. When he steps away it's almost impossible. I simply could not make out some of what he was saying. This isn't just an issue of sound level, although that's part of it. Parts, for me anyway, were unintelligible. I gave up on trying to figure out what he was saying before the end of the disc, which was really a let-down.

Much as I hate to say it--and, again: no reflection on Mr. Williamson--the money I spent on this disc would have been better spent elsewhere.