The Effect
From the spiel
A sell out last year. Our latest dvd video book. Roger Curzon's superb collection of mental, new age and bizarre magick for intimate performance. 24 routines; 149 A4 pages; 80 photographs and line drawings. The accompanying DVD shows 19 of the routines and has two resource photographs you can print out and use to construct effects.
Chromancy -- 'Aura Stone' prophecy.
Cold Reading Lines for Colours.
Psychotronic -- Spectators' 'collective psychic energy’ affects calculator.
Automatism -- Automatic writing duplication.
The Souls of Previous Times -- 1572. The Plague takes its victims-only one survives!
Date Divination -- Coin date divined.
Some Thoughts on Notepads, Wallets, Business Cards, etc.
The Number of the Beast -- Satan summoned via numerological prediction.
The Four Pattern Prediction -- Pattern character analysis with prediction climax.
The Three Pattern Prediction -- business card variation of above.
Quadtasense -- Combines Tarot reading with clean prediction.
Kliptomaniac (without the clip) -- Psychometric coin routine.
A Gift from Elizabeth Francis -- The witch is dead, but......!
Got Your Number -- A spectator transmits a number via automatic writing.
Gematria -- Cabalistic alphabet prediction.
Gematria Two.
Congruent Coin Force.
Night of the Demon -- Chosen demon's name appears in fire.
The Pen and the Pendulum -- Eerie living and dead test.
Zurcon (An experiment in chromatic hypersensitivity) -- -- originally sold for £25. Full manufacturing instructions and routine.
Zurcon -- The sequel
The Third Eye -- Stunning headline prediction.
A Simple Idea for a Crib Sheet.
Subliminal Perception -- ESP Post-It Note Prediction.
The Shining -- Impromptu drawing duplication.
Solipsism -- Playing with reality -- Runic parchment revelation.
Predict that the Last Four Numbers on the Note Will Be....Latest version of Roger's utility prediction device.
Cost
£29.95
http://www.martinbreese.com/page2.htm
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)
Most of the effects are simple in the workings. The trick with most of these is in the presentation.
Review
Roger Curzon may be better known for card work, but this venture into bizarre magic is excellent. I appreciate that bizarre magic isn't for everyone though, so anyone not interested in this need not continue reading. The effects included are all very practical and well thought out. Many of the methods are old as the hills. Do not let this put you off as they have all been developed in lovely directions or else improved. Each effect is well written up with good detailed instructions. Roger also lists credits and comments on each trick allowing you to look up the origins of each trick. Included is also some general advice on changing between notepads, business cards, etc.
I've particularly enjoyed his plague story using tarot cards. I'm now reading up on Strasbourg's dancing plague to come up with my own patter. There are a number of automatic writing effects I've had a good bit of fun with. One of the major effects it contains is a headline prediction effect. This effect I haven't tried yet, but I have played around with what it involves and it strikes me as a sound method. This effect in itself would probably be worth the price of the book.
The dvd is good quality and has templates for a number of props. However I haven't actually watched it many times as I personally get more out of reading.
Overall
This has been one of my favorite books I have purchased this year. When I bought the book Roger was in the shop and performed a number of the effects in the shop, which was a joy to watch and persuaded me to buy it. I'm glad I did this has a good number of routines that are making it into my repertoire.
9/10