Exo.Rant-Review of "Lethal" by Daniel Madison

[JKDragoon]

Heya!

Finally, after much consideration, I've decided to tackle a review which I've wanted to do for one of my favourite card 'artist'... Daniel Madison. He's published quite a bit of material in terms of PDFs... But I've decided to go back to my roots of how I first came to know about him... Through "Lethal", his card flourishing DVD...

Exo.Rant-Review of "Lethal" by Daniel Madison

I still remember the vivid image of the first time I saw Daniel Madison (Obviously, it was on the net... I haven't had the opportunity to meet him in the UK due to his apparent 'secretive' nature)... It was an image of a 7-packet display that I had never seen before, something far more complicated than "The Werm" and more artistically-paved than my attempt at creating a 10 packet display known as "Sybil Explosion".
The main catch line: "Something LETHAL this way comes..."
I proceeded to obtain it...

The material taught on this DVD is what it says it is... LETHAL!
After being dazzled by over 40 minutes of flourishing-delight, I picked up a deck and proceeded to learn my way through all the flourishes.
Well... Not exactly all... Just the ones that I thought were 'do-able'.
Now, after about half a year of doing his cuts amongst other Dan&Dave stuff, Brian Tudor stuff and my own personal creations... I have a definite view that has made a significant contribution to expanding my flourishing skills and techniques from my initial Brian Tudor teachings.

The basic moves are thought at the beginning and are the ones utilised throughout the rest of the flourishes, usually to end them nicely. 3 basic cuts are taught... "Cylinder", "Symphony" and "Dead Revolution" (a nice add-on to the one-handed revolution).
Quite a bit of the stuff involves sybil work, a favourite are of mine and one of the major ones I spent training on from Lethal. "Sybil Helix" and "Syblnthrn" are two flourishes I use quite constantly now... Even so, I'm still not as smooth as I should be...
"Twisted Rain" is a cut involving an armspread catch, a great combo of XCM and flourishing.
"Lethal" & "Lethal Ex" are the infamous displays I saw... It took a while to learn, but over time, I got used to the creation of the display and became smoother.
There are a variety of other flourishes on the DVD, but it’s difficult to explain the effect and you have to see it to understand their potentials.
Did you know that many of the cuts taught are FALSE? Well, now you know…

There exist two schools of thought on DM’s work… It’s either too hard or too easy.
The ones who find it too hard tend to be those who dislike his silent approach to teaching with no words (So no De’vo styled teaching… Which probably killed off a few people!). Beginners could reap the benefits of this DVD if they actually put in effort to learning the flourishes diligently. You can't always get good teaching... But I was pretty okay with the way he showed stuff, even though there were no spoken or written instructions (we miss out on the PDF for Lethal). On a side note, as an admirer of his work... I don't like comments about how his "teaching sucks"... I agree that maybe he could have given better angles, but showing the stuff and allowing you to concentrate, rather than listening or reading, is actually more beneficial. So just live with it and learn from his material… It’s worthwhile!!
The ones who find it too easy seem to run past the fact that many of the flourishes are FALSE. These have incredible potential for use in deck controls. Also, I’ve found that many of the moves can act as utilities… Ins & Outs for other flourishes. Many of the new chains of flourishes I’ve made involve the use of the basic 3 moves, as well as other combinations mashed together from some of his other cuts.

Bare-Bones Bottom Line...
If you're a flourisher, you'll want to add this to your line of Dan&Dave stuff. The moves are invaluable when adding transitions and endings to a variety of cuts. I'd recommend buying the DVD, but sadly, it was out of production a long while back.
If you’re not into flourishing, you might want to check this out anyway… I’m quite confident that you’ll enjoy watching the various flourishes while listening to the ambient soundtrack by Kastoacha.
On Exo, the main video is 4 links (Yet again, Exo saves the day!). On top of that, you get the bonus video for 2 links. Though it only shows various performances of the cuts, you also see DM's Jack Daniel's Whisky Bottle Trick and his feared knife practice. For flourishes, this should be fairly high on your list… For others, keep it mid-high.
Bask in the awesomness that is... LETHAL... (Sorry, I just had to end with some corny line there... )

Feel free to comment or 'spar'... I'll reply as soon as I can...
J