René Lavand is one of the true artists in the world of Close-Up Magic. His presentations and performances have a poetic and artistic quality to them that never fail to earn standing ovations. René Lavand has achieved legendary status and is without a doubt one of the most highly skilled close-up magicians of the past century. His stature is even more amazing if you consider that he accomplishes everything using only one hand. Watching him will inspire you to strive for excellence.

The magic René Lavand performs on these DVDs is both beautiful and poetic. These are more than just tricks, they are multiphase routines accompanied by artistic presentations and wonderful stories. It is impossible to describe the beauty of René's magic. These routines must be experienced.

Routines performed and explained:

The Story Of Victorio De Pardú: A gambler versus magician routine where four indifferent cards change into the four aces. The aces are placed in different parts of the deck and are found on top, bottom and face up in the middle. As a finale you cut to one ace as you cut the deck into three packets whose top cards are the remaining aces.

Swing With A Sonnet: A fifty-three-card deck is shuffled and dealt into four packets. The hand dealt to yourself is shown to contain all the Hearts in numerical order followed by the joker.

Detecting The Card: A card is selected and lost in the deck by the spectator. The spectator shuffles the cards and they are placed in your jacket pocket. You reach into your pocket and remove the selected card. For an amazing finale you name the order of the entire deck and the card that the spectator will stop you at.

In Search Of Excellence: A card is selected and shuffled back into the deck by the spectator. The cards are placed back in their case and put in your jacket pocket. The spectator reaches into your pocket and removes the selected card. When the shuffled cards are removed from the case you can name all of them in the order they appear.

Escape Of The Deck: A selected card is lost in the deck, shuffled and placed into the card case. The case is placed in your jacket pocket. When the spectator reaches into your pocket removing the card case it is found empty except for the selection. The rest of the deck has vanished.

Pygmalion: A Wild Card routine where eight queens turn into nines as the story of Pygmalion is recounted.

Duel Of The West: A gunslinger and a card sharp engage in a duel where the four aces are cut to, and one is signed. The aces are placed on the bottom of the deck for a bottom dealing challenge which the gunslinger looses as the signed ace is found in your pocket.

The Little Martian: A deck of cards turns blank on both sides after being shown as ordinary.

All Fours: A Spanish deck is shown to contain all the same card when all of a sudden the card is removed from your pocket and the deck is shown to be ordinary.

Symphony Of The Colors: A deck of cards is shuffled by you and by a spectator but when the cards are dealt face up they alternate in red black order.

Techniques taught and discussed:

Turn-Over Change, Second Deal, One-Handed False Shuffle And Cut, Lightning Deal, Pocket Divider/Deck Switch, One-Hand Top Palm, Lavand's Second Deal Lap, Lavand's Top Palm Switch and much more.

Includes new and previously unpublished routines and the classics that René uses in his television appearances and award winning live shows. Also includes insightful interviews about René's life and magic. Hosted and simultaneously translated by Joe Hernandez. A Meir Yedid Magic production. Original release date: August 2004. Running time: Approximately 75 minutes.

Special DVD Features:
Bonus footage with performances and interviews (10 minutes)
Instant access to performances, explanations, techniques and interviews
DVD trailers
Dolby Digital sound
Encoded for worldwide viewing