This is a very quick series about using the brief as a card control presented by Jack Tighe. As a bonus, the final video has an effect called the L2 Deal. This a simple but powerful control and I am glad that I purchased the video for the didactic section. The didactic section on the brief is suitable for a beginner. The L2 Deal trick, however, is an intermediate type tutorial that assumes knowledge of basic card moves beyond the brief.
You will definitely learn how to control cards simple, using the brief. Tighe does an excellent job showing you the technique. His presentation is straight forward and low key--there is no fluff here. However, the quality of the video is excellent and, albeit short, the teaching is thorough.
The educational component includes the brief technique using a single card (3:04) and packet (3:20). The D'Ortiz Brief (2:01), which is a more open way to square the deck. The roll over control (3:11) is an added bonus. I wasn't sure if I would use the rollover control when I first saw it because I wasn't sure that it jibed with the way I usually handled cards. However, I will tell you that if you get this down smoothly and give some quick patter about making sure the cards are thoroughly mixed, this control is very fooling for lay people--they will have no idea of how you might control a card this way and do not suspect anything. This is value added and I'm glad that this was included.
The L2 Deal Performance (2:42) and Explanation (7:22) are done with Liam Montier. You 'center deal' the king out from the middle of the deck in three different ways. The final kicker is where you deal the king to yourself, but surprisingly have dealt a king to the three other hands. Montier serves as a spectator for the trick but does a great job in queuing Tighe to flesh out some of the more subtle, educational points along the way.
The trick itself is fine but--at least for me--was not a knock-the-ball-out-of-the-park magical moment. The teaching is a little fast and does not go in depth regarding certain moves.
It is assumed that you know how to do the Marlo tilt, jog shuffle, basic riffle shuffle controls, and slip cut messy riffle shuffle. The lift shuffle and an Erdnase strip cut are very briefly demonstrated but not specifically taught. The trick also relies heavily on second dealing and what Tighe calls a Black Jack Hit Second Deal which only very briefly taught. None of this should be out o I thought, in particular, that the second deal should have been given a more in depth tutorial because it is so integral to the trick. Finally, it would have been much stronger if Tighe did a full, uninterrupted walk through of the trick with narration to put it all together.
Personally, I got a lot of value out of the series, especially when it comes to using a brief for card control. This is a great introduction to using the brief as a card control. It would be great if Tighe came out with some more advanced techniques using the brief.
