The reviews are in
Check out why others are saying about
decks, lies and videotape.

"I love it. very clever ideas.. I watched it several times... that in itself is a recommendation. I don't watch a lot of dvds more than once and I love this one. As a fan of the two card transposition, I love your version.
A real scrapbook of very clever ideas and moves.
If you need another version of Triumph, then there are two gems here"
-Doc Eason

“The effects he has chosen to present are quite visual and startling. The ball through glass is surprising and clean in appearance. The card effects are well thought out and incorporate effective climaxes. Mr. Braun does a great job explaining the effects, and the methods are well within the reach of anyone with basic grounding in sleight of hand with cards.”
-M.U.M. Magazine


“I was already familiar with Torched & Restored a flashy and easy torn card restoration. This visual, theatrical approach to the classic plot will play either close-up or in a cabaret setting. It’s a worker. Kick Back Transpo is a shocking transposition of two cards, one of which seems to change instantly while face up on the table. One unexpected feature I particularly liked was the included booklet with additional thoughts and credits for each routine. Performers seeking a flashy stand-up routine will likely get their money’s worth out of Torched & Restored.”
-Genii Magazine


“A delightful surprise among the drek that attempts to pass as instructional DVD’s these days. Worth your time and money.”
-Littleegyptmagic.com


“A virtual unknown to most people, Brent has been an underground figure in the magic world for sometime, his name most associated with his version of the Torn and Restored Card. The DVD centers mainly on card effects and moves including the cleanest and most visual striking two-card transposition I have ever seen. Also featured is the ‘Ball thru Glass Table Top’. If you want people talking about your magic, then this could be the effect for you. Totally amazing magic at your fingertips, order yours today!”
-Alakazam.co.uk


“A one hour feature of Brent Braun's visual video diary packed with mostly close up and card effects that are great for street magic. Shot in the gritty and raw MTV style, this DVD also comes with a pamphlet which gives credit where its due for certain routines. In all, 9 effects are taught in this DVD - inclusive of his infamously visual Torched & Restored . This DVD packs the original effects that Brent Braun's proud of and worked with since 2000. It really is a video diary because of the personal feel to it, there's nothing fancy or staged... you get a raw feel throughout the DVD. I purchased his T&R manuscript a long time ago but nothing beats watching him perform and then teach it. One thing I really liked in the package is the funky looking 3-fold pamphlet he put together. A read-through proves that it was done with much effort and research. Braun provides good sources for further learning and gives due credit accordingly which would be very much appreciated by any keen student in magic. Recommended for enthusiasts in card magic who want more than the typical Darryl or Michael Ammar card videos!”
-The Little Magic Shop Singapore


“Torched and Restored is Braun’s handling of the torn and restored card effect. This one is strong and unlike most torn and restored card effects, is relatively easy to learn and perform. It’s not a knuckle-buster as are many of the versions with their complicated palms and switches. I thoroughly like this one and it’s my favorite of the versions that I know of. Kickback Transpo is a fantastic card transposition effect where in the course of a few moments, two chosen cards switch places in visual and flashy ways. Braun’s approach to the triumph card plot has the advantage of not being too difficult to perform I’ve been intrigued with a triumph by Larry Jennings for some time but I like this one better. Ball thru glass is an absolutely astounding effect where a ball passes through glass. There are no handkerchiefs or other gimmicks. The magician covers the ball with his hands and it appears to go right through the glass. The rest of the DVD explains some great card control techniques that may be used in select a card and ambitious card routines. The fan control allows the magician to place a selected card into a fan and immediately control it to the bottom of the deck. This one requires no breaks or fancy moves. When the fan is closed, the controlled card is already in place. Decks, Lies and Videotape is one of several recent surprises for me of late. The DVD featured a magician who I had never heard of and I had no preconceived notions as to what was on the DVD. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised with the excellent effects and advice that Brent Braun offered. Kick Back Transpo, Torched & Restored and his Triumph effects are all worthwhile and strong routines that are worth the price of the DVD. And the additional moves are icing on the cake.”
-Magic.about.com


Brent Braun's latest, "Decks, Lies, and Videotape", is one DVD that is built from the ground up with great tricks, great techniques, and great ideas and will win over more than a few performers with Braun's stellar thinking.
That's a nice way of saying, "Damn, that Braun guy blew my socks off!" In reality, he blew my socks off and into the next county. Yes, the material Braun's gathered here is that good.
Let's start with the one that will probably get the most interest: "Ball Thru Glass". Like most of Braun's stuff, the premise is simple: a ball sets on a glass table top and is pushed through the glass. One second, the ball's on top; one second later and it's under the table
"The Bluff Swivel Cut" got me. I missed it. I watched it again and missed it again. After the third time of having gotten got, I went to the explanation. This is a card control, essentially combining a swivel cut with a pass (read that one again -- boy, I like Braun's thinking), that is blindingly good. Yes, it will get magicians, but more importantly it plays so fair and smooth that even the sharpest spectator will miss it. Put this one down in the "Worth The Price" column. Braun's tabled variation, "The Tabled Bluff Pass", gets the same kudos; put it in that column, too.
"The Tilt Throw-Off" is exactly what is says: it's an addition to Marlo's Tilt which is designed to "fool the boys" (as us Old School-types say). It's good. It's really good.
"Fan Control" is going to be hard to talk about, but it's a control where a chosen card is put back into a fan and, that quickly, it's in bottom-palm position. 'Nuff said, I think, about that one. Except that this is neater than that and really is a very neat idea that works well and takes little time at all to pick up and run with.
"Kick Back Transpo" is a marvel and my favorite piece of the disc (considering all the A-list material here, that's saying something). Braun uses a devilish move to effect ye olde "two-card transpo" routine into something remarkable: the first transposition occurs without your touching the cards and the second occurs while the spectator is holding them. This is good and... okay, okay, I'll cop to it: this one burned me but bad. Then it burned me again when I saw how simple it was. "Worth The Price"? You bet. "Sympathetically Triumphant" is Braun's answer to the "in the hands Triumph" routine. Braun combined Vernon and Bannon here and the mixture works really well. . Very nice, very slick, and probably my favorite version of the classic. "Simply Triumphant" is Braun's much more direct take on the plot and uses only two moves in the whole thing (one of the moves causes shudders in some, but here Braun's thinking again prevails and he's given you all the cover in the world to make it happen -- you'd have to hide the deck in a garbage bag to get better coverage). I saved Braun's most notable work for last: "Torched and Restored". A flash restoration of a card? Been there done that. And to be honest I was close to just skipping over this one and going back to one of the other pieces. I'm glad I didn't; this one looks so clean... well, it's gorgeous, it's easy, and it's astonishing. Put this one in the "Worth The Price" column, too.
Okay, so that's the material. It's great stuff. Here, I ended up with a $30 disc, six things I really liked, and two pieces I want to marry and have children with. That's almost as magical as Braun's material... and just as rare as the great magic Braun's put forward on "Decks, Lies, and Videotape." So the material is winning stuff. What about the rest of the package? First up, the production values are good here. The disc is touted as "one man, one camera..." and that's what you get. If you really need all the over-the-shoulder cameras, digitally-enhanced lighting, and ray-traced special effects, then you're in for a major disappointment. Braun touts this as a "video notebook" and, if by that he means "non-glossy version of good magic", then he hit the mark. Less flash, more substance... I like Brent Braun more and more.
Braun also did something for which I respect him a great deal: he included what amounts to a fold-out of liner notes regarding his material. In those notes, he goes into great depth on where each trick, move, and technique came from. This is way beyond what we're used to seeing when it comes to crediting; we're talking paragraphs of credits and sources for a single bit. Why is this important? It ain't what you think. It's not just about ego-stroking or keeping history straight; it's about letting the person learning this stuff go easily back to the source material for comparison and further study. Think of this as an annotated bibliography, with personal anecdotes thrown in for good measure. Yeah, I'm really like Brent Braun at this point.
Are there drawbacks to "Decks, Lies, and Videotape"? Nope. I'd have to sink really low and start criticizing the state of his close-up pad, his failure to push back the cuticles on his left thumb, his failure to use pastel playing cards, and equally stupid things like that before I'd have anything to criticize here. Braun done good with this one. At the end of the day, there's great card work here for pretty much everybody. The "Ball Thru Glass" thing is really neat and a great idea, but the concentration is on the cards (hence the title) and Braun has stuff here for the more advanced card worker and more than a few experts as well. If you're into cards, this is one disc you can't afford to pass up.
Material: 10
This is top of the line stuff, hands down. When old plots blow you away, when sleights go right past you, when you look at the explanations and think how simple the methods are, then you know you're looking at something special. Braun's material is special.
Practicality: 10
Easy set-ups, easy resets, and no seriously restricting demands on props or venue (you'll need a gaff here and there, a close-up pad for one piece... that kind of thing) makes the material here, by and large, extremely practical.
Quality of Production: 10
It's what Braun says it is: a "video notebook". Personally, I think Braun's selling it short, but he's right. There's no flash but a lot of substance here, and Braun's material really doesn't need the higher production values some material all but requires.
Quality of Instruction: 10
Braun does a fantastic job of teaching his stuff, covering all the bases. He earns bonus points for including a great set of "liner notes" that really goes into the detail about the sources and genesis of his material.
Presentation: 10
The accent's on the visuals here and, strangely enough for most videos, the flow of things. On that level, this all works wonderfully. Polish it up and you've got gold here.
-Visions, The Online Journal of the Art of Magic