Levent – Ultimate Guide to Miser´s Dream (all 3 volumes)

      In these videos, Levent gives you step-by-step instructions for all of the sleights you need to know to perform this classic stage magic effect.  The lessons range from the most simple and basic moves to the complex and difficult never-before-revealed secrets of the masters.

      This DVD collection is the most complete work available on the many secret gimmicks and devices used for The Miser’s Dream, as well as many bits of business that have made this effect a commercial classic.

     As a bonus, Levent teaches you all the secrets of his personal Miser’s Dream routine.  This single routine is a master class on creativity and the construction of professional-level secret magic apparatus.

     Levent’s “ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE MISER’S DREAM”  is over FIVE HOURS LONG and features a menu system that will allow you to easily navigate the discs and find any sleight, prop or routine.

Complete set of three DVDs for only

$59.95 plus Postage & Handling

From the Review in Genii Magazine August 2008

Levent’s self-published collection on the history and performance of the Miser’s Dream is an easy recommendation…the detailed and far-ranging content of these three discs make this collection a major contribution to the fraternity.

The first disc begins with an examination of the physical properties involved in the act, particularly the coins.  Levent describes and demonstrates how various performers have prepared coins with deep milling, sanded details, flesh-colored camouflage, and even plastic coatings to reduce talking.  He continues with examinations of various holders and gimmicks, them moves into a discussion of the different kinds of pails.  This is followed by a detailed tutorial on the sleight-of-hand moves used by many performers of this routine.  Of particular note are the Allan Shaw production, a favorite move of Charlie Miller’s, and Roy Benson’s multiple coin vanish, “Banished.”

The focus of the second disc is on the construction of the routines of notable performers of the past.  After examining routines and sequences devised by Robert Houdin, Sachs, Carl Herrmann, and Kellar, Levent spends a large part of this disc detailing the techniques of coin conjuror T. Nelson Downs.  Charlie Miller’s famous routine then takes center stage, followed by additional ideas from Frakson, Potassy, and Hugard.  The climax of the disc, though, is the meticulous examination of Al Flosso’s universally celebrated comedy routine.  The routines contain more than just moves and sequences; pay attention to learn rules of misdirection, the most deceptive ways to palm coins out of your pockets, and fine working points such as how to tip the pail to ensure that the coin you need to retrieve is properly placed.

The final disc opens with some additional routines from Benson, but this last DVD is devoted to a complete explanation of Levent’s own routine.  This routine, a comedy routine that plays for huge audiences and includes a host of visual gags and unusual props, is completely practical…Most performers think of the miser’s dream as a minimalist trick at its core – coins, perhaps a wand, and a pail – all ungaffed, if you’re a purist.  (After all, many of the great historical routines described on the second disc require only those essential elements.)  Levent has broken through nearly every imaginable wall with regard to his thinking on this routine.  His routine builds on multiple methods, of course, canceling out whatever suspicions his audience may conceive as he performs.  But that is only the beginning.  Listening to Levent describe the conditions and situations that led to the formation of his routine is a lesson in problem solving.  Levent’s ultimate solutions to his problems has led him to the creation of a routine that is far more intricate, proppy and gimmicky than traditional approaches, but it plays extremely well and creates a completely magical effect on his large audiences.

The real value of this set is not in the premise that you as a buyer will build this apparatus and perform this exact routine; the value lies in the detailed explanations of everything leading up to this routine and in what is learned from Levent’s process of developing his answer.

Levent is one of those rare and valuable magicians who is truly as much a scholar as he is a performer.  His instruction is peppered with readings and quotes from the masters.  His book on the magic of Roy Benson is one of the greatest additions to the literature in the past decade if not longer.  The quantity of information and the clarity of Levent’s instruction are worth much more than the asking price.  If you plan to perform the Miser’s Dream, or if you are intrigued by the history of the routine, or if you are simply interested in a wide range of coin productions and vanishes that can be performed while standing, then you need this collection.  This is truly a master class on the subject of the Miser’s Dream.

From the Review in MAGIC Magazine July 2009

The word “ultimate” gets naively kicked around and cynically slapped on magic tricks and DVDs far too often. Levent’s Ultimate Guide to the Misers dream, a three-disc set comprising more than five hours of material, is one of the few products I can think of that just might deserve the adjective.

Levent is a performer, creator, collector, writer, and historian.  His books and products are always well produced, informative, and thoroughly researched. This set is no exception. An enormous amount of information is given here, from tiny mechanical details to simple but profound thoughts such as “The Miser’s Dream is about constant changing methods” and “The most important thing in the Miser’s Dream is the sound; if there isn’t sound, there isn’t a magic trick.”

The first video begins with a discussion of the various types of coins one can use, and the ways they can be prepared by milling, sanding, drilling, and gluing, as well as a very easy way to treat them so they don’t make noise when rubbed together.

Then, Levent displays various coin holders, droppers, and catchers. As one would hope, he doesn’t merely demonstrate then; he offers handy tips about how best to use them. An in-depth discussion of pails, buckets, and hats follows before he moves on to sleight-of-hand issues. In this section, he discusses and demonstrates nine kinds of palms, about a dozen different stage coin productions, and various techniques for producing coins from audience members’ clothes, ears, etc. Also demonstrated are some passes and vanishes, including Roy Benson’s Banished and several T. Nelson Downs moves, as well as coin rolls and flourishes and various performers’ philosophies about timing.

This would seem like a fairly complete overview of the classic effect, and this is only the first disc. On the second video, Levent puts on his historian-detective hat and discusses the routines of Robert-Houdin, Carl Herrmann, Harry Kellar, Edwin Sachs, Charlie Miller, and Paul Potassy. Levent also demonstrates various moves, ploys, subtleties, gags, bits of business, finales, and gambits from Glenn Harrison, Jose Frakson, A.J. Cantu, Jean Hugard, Roy Benson, and Tommy Martin.

But the two highlights of the second disc are the in-depth analyses of the classic, influential routine of Al Flosso and T. Nelson Downs. Levent reconstructed Downs’ routine from Downs’ own book Modern Coin Manipulation, as well as writings in Bobo, Magic Without Apparatus, The Sphinx Golden Jubilee of Magic and Bertram on Sleight of Hand. Did you know that Downs did a comedy act with a lot of jokes, gags, and verbal humor? I didn’t.

On disc three, Levent demonstrates Roy Benson’s work on the effect, including the interesting idea of performing with a clear glass pail. And after that, Levent launches into his own extensive work on the subject. He begins with performance footage of his own comedic yet magical routine, which features many jokes and sight gags. Levent’s routine takes place almost entirely in the audience, and it is an approach he adopted to diverge from Al Flosso’s and Jeff McBride’s iconic routines. Levent’s routine combines many different techniques, including a magnetic coin catcher and a bucket so heavily gaffed it’ll blow your mind.

Do these DVDs contain everything there is to know about this classic of coin magic?  Of course not. While encyclopedic, the videos are not exhaustive…This is why I’m glad that Levent finishes with a discussion of literature on the subject. He suggests that you…read as much as you can. Very good advice. If you want to do the Miser’s Dream, I recommend you purchase these DVDs…

After viewing the entire DVD set, noted magic consultant and historian Charles Reynolds said:

“Levent’s Ultimate Guide to the Miser’s Dream is an astonishing work of both scholarship and practical teaching.  Based on his own very original version of the classic effect which he has performed and perfected over a period of more than two years, his own staggeringly detailed analysis of the effect examines the work of such masters as Robert-Houdin, T.Nelson Downs, Al Flosso, Charlie Miller, Pat Page, Roy Benson, Jose Frakson, Allan Shaw and literally dozens of other top performers.  It is hard to believe that there is not a sleight, routine, or bit of business that he has missed in researching the more than a century and a half history of what is arguably the greatest of all coin tricks.  At an almost unbelievable five and a half hours in length (3 excellently produced DVDs) it is the definitive work on one of magic’s true masterpieces”

Declared by MAGIC Magazine product reviewers to be

The Best Magic DVD of 2008 & 2009

at the MAGIC Live 2009 convention in Las Vegas

“Levent has created a great resource for anyone interested in this classic piece of magic”