talkmagic.co.uk

Out of curiosity, I agreed to review a handful of Mike's ebooks. To be honest, I think I made a bad choice. But I agreed to, so...

The Effect
Michael Kraswas sharing his creations. There are quite a lot of effects and ideas in his "notes", so rating all of them would be a waste of time.
I'll take on the material by the tricks that stand out.

Half-Pass Peak
Leave a Mark- A sharpie production.
Crystal Cut- a coin-thru-glass routine that we've all seen already.
Ripped at the Seam- a torn and restored effect that's too similar to PH's Ultimate Ripoff
No Entry!- The Ducted tape Pocket version of card to pocket.
Amazingly Salty Edible Knot
Mental Shake up

Cost
5 dollars for the lot of 'em


Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
3, They're all fairly easy. Understanding some of the descriptions, on the other hand, would be a bit of a challenge.


Review
Half Pass Peak is a move for a moves sake. Basically, the magician peaks the card that's selected and controls it. There are dozens of other ways to do this just as discreetly and cleanly.

Leave a Mark- A sharpie production. I'm not sure whether it's been done before or not, but it seems like a nice idea. It would impress laypeople if presented decently. I probably won't use it- I don't work on tables very often- but some people might find it useful. I'm pretty sure there's a different version of it somewhere out there.

Crystal Cut - The method description is flimsy to say the least. His descriptions lack details and watching his video is the only way to understand what the effect is supposed to look like. The methods are inferior to many other coin through glass routines. It's not ready for professional use. With Infusion and Quarters around, this "routine" doesn't stand up.

Ripped at the seam- From what I can make of the directions, it's similar to Paul Harris' "Ultimate Ripoff". The method, though different, has less impact and isn't as clean looking as Paul's. They might be tongue in cheek, but his closing lines involves laughing at the shocked faces of the spectators. Not exactly the type of politeness that will get you tips.

No Entry! - TM members already criticized this one to death here:
http://talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic18727.php I think the main move is too obvious. The different versions don't fix this. A double backed card can be used to create a much more impressive card to pocket.
The method is just as expected. In the introduction to the "routine", Mike claims it fooled many magicians. This, we all know, is just not true.

Amazingly Salty Edible Knot.- The one effect that I thought was truly unique (as far as I can tell) and a bit clever. A loose knot in a rope turns into a real pretzel (I imagine) visually. His description, though, is lacking. He doesn't teach enough for a novice at rope magic to accomplish it. If the descriptions and steps were clearer, This would be a good addition to a walk around set. Maybe as an opener in a restaurant where you make a gag about management knot feeding you.

Mental Shake Up- If you take away his story telling, this is basically PH's "Fizz Master". It's actually less magical than the original. Mike doesn't (shouldn't either) teach all the subtleties Paul Harris does. Fizz Master is the superior effect out of the two (being the foundation for M.S.U.).


Overall

Usable material: 4/10
Originality: 5/10
Teaching: 3/10
For the original asking price: 4/10

Overall: 4/10


[edit: Mike says he sent me an older set of notes, his plagiarism may not be present in his newer ones]

Oh goodie..

can I have one now please ?????????? please ???????

Sounds like everything here is re-hash of old stuff. For some reason I dont think Micheal does a lot magic to real lay people. Lay people love simplicity and I like logical routines. Keep it simple Micheal.

It looks like it was just what I expected. Although, I am a bit surprised that Kras tried to pass off other tricks as his own in a slightly different packaging. Hmm . . . Ellusionist, anyone?

What you talkin bout Willis??

I didn't steal any magic intentionally. By the way, thank you for your review.

Amazingly Salty Edible Knot sounds interesting though, when will we get a video of that micheal?

rvoice100 wrote:Amazingly Salty Edible Knot sounds interesting though, when will we get a video of that micheal?

probably before its been perfected.. but it does sound rather clever.. I must admit.. is it really edible??

not that you'd want to hand out edible knots after handling them with sweaty hands soaked due to nerves and movements that closely remind me of irritable bowel syndrome!!

I.D wrote:

rvoice100 wrote:Amazingly Salty Edible Knot sounds interesting though, when will we get a video of that micheal?

probably before its been perfected.. but it does sound rather clever.. I must admit.. is it really edible??

not that you'd want to hand out edible knots after handling them with sweaty hands soaked due to nerves and movements that closely remind me of irritable bowel syndrome!!

ha ha, im so glad you have stuck around!

The edible knot does sound pretty decent. Makes me wonder why he posted two (very sorry michael) quite weak performances. Well, it's good that he did post them up but he shouldn't be selling them...

But yea I would like to see a video of you performing the edible knot, sounds orginal

No problem! I will work on the routine a bit and then post a YouTube video for you.

The problem with the edible knot is that he doesn't teach it very well. Mike, you have to give pictures showing how to make the knot right.

So your selling a badly written books with effects that arent 100% yours/original. Sound very unethical to me.

You should always do research before attempting to sell an effect(s).

Also to give credit where its due.

They aren't badly written at all! I tried to explain them as well as possible without photos, since they were unworkable. I major in english, so how bad could they possibly be? Maybe some sentences were too long and had to be reread to be thoroughly understood.

As for knocking off others material, all of that is in the past and has been deleted from my lecture notes and replaces with other effects. I accidentally gave sleightlycrazy an old copy of one of the manuscripts which contained some effects I later learned were unoriginal.'

SO, I am going to do somthing bold and risky here, but please do not totally take advantage of this and "steal" from me: I am giving away a set of my lecture notes. My first set, entitiled Tricklets, is yours for free ON ONE CONDITION: You must provide me with your thoughts either privately or publicly or possibly, if you wish, write a review. Please reply either here or send me a PM with your email address, and Tricklets will be yours to keep AND review!


Michael Kras

Ah go on Michael send the great Markdini one my email addy is on the bottom of my post its the same as my msn. I am primarly a mentalist now days but I'll give it a go.