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Luke Jermay's Skullduggery DVD

This DVD features material from 7 Deceptions and brand new developments of effects from 7 Deceptions as well as some unpublished material.


Here is a preview of the contents:


For Andruzzi:

Stop your own pulse...with no gimmicks! And-stop a spectator's pulse without even touching them! No stooges, confirmed by another audience member, this is the real work!


A Twisted Palm:

During a palm reading, the lines on the spectator's palm apparently move and twist on their own. A stunning combination of linguistics, psychology and neurology.


The 7th Deception:

A new version of an effect that saw print in 7 Deceptions. Mixing suggestion and magic to achieve a powerful and touching moment as well as a strong performance piece of mentalism. This is the way Luke uses this effect in every show.


And If I fall:

A coin disappears from the performers hand reappearing in the closed fist of a spectator.


Synchronized:

A spectator thinks of a time, another spectator amazingly set the hands of a face down watch to the very time thought of by the first spectator.


A Darker Dai:

A brand new version of an effect that first saw print in 7 Deceptions. Five objects are displayed a spectator is asked to simply cast a shadow over one of the five. While the performers back is turned. Upon turning back around the performer correctly senses which of the objects was selected. All wrapped in a neat story making a wonderful performance piece of strong mentalism.


The Burst Bubble Suggestion:

A versatile method of causing a spectator to actually feel their thought "pop" out of their mind and into the mind of the performer.


All performed in a real world setting and then explained in detail...

Available from www.alakazam.co.uk £28.99

This dvd arrived on my doorstep yesterday morning, I have been eagerly awaiting this release for over a month now & after watching it last night I thought I would post my findings.

Most of the effects/routines are from 7 Deceptions & one routine Burst Bubble is from Building Blocks.

There has been an awful lot of debate on other forums as to if these routines work in the real world, after going to one of Lukes lectures & watching the performance/explanations I can confirm that they do.

Skullduggery builds on 7 Deceptions & Building Blocks ( no pun intended),
all the suggestions & nuances are explained very well & clearly on the dvd.

Luke acknowledges other routines & books for reference etc that can be used to further enhance the effects on the dvd.

Most of the routines rely heavily on presentation/suggestion/psychology as opposed to sleights so I suppose this dvd might not appeal to everyone but if you have Building Blocks & 7 Deceptions this dvd is a must buy item for you.

If mentalism is your forte then this dvd is for you!

After watching this dvd last night it has prompted me to get a couple of books of the shelf & start reading them again to find out some gems that I had previously missed!

Looking forward to your next offering Luke.

Cheers all

Good review, Ta very much

Thanks for that Roman59. Ive been waiting for this to be released as much as Andy Nymans new set. It sounds absolutley fascinating.

Does anyone remember when his TV appearance is due to be showed?

I am expecting both this and Nyman's through the door at any moment.

You have now caused me to twitch nervously every time I hear a vehicle outside...



Nice review, and good to see that Luke is living up to expectations.

Right on, man!

I got "Skullduggery" and "Get Nyman" yesterday. I had a look at the latter and hope to view both of them this weekend.

As I have both "Seven Deceptions" and "Building Blocks", I'm looking forward to seeing some of the material performed and finding out how Luke has updated a few of his effects.

My point would be that rather than assuming by the 'clever' advertising that you will be able to perform this stuff—I would say that, whilst being extremely good and thoroughly entertaining to watch—I find that even though this DVD goes on to extract the impossibilities of the routines in Luke's books, somehow I still feel that the DVD is more of a personal 'chat' with Luke about general mentalism and his own performances.

Granted—this stuff is very good indeed. But you need to almost emulate Luke to get a lot of it to work, I imagine.

But, what this DVD excels in is the ADVICE and INFORMATION... therefore, my own personal review of this would be:

1. Forget the fact that there are only 2 spectators, and that they are practically the most responsive and co-operative looking pair I've ever seen! This makes Luke's job a heck of a lot easier.

2. Forget the effects/routines - concentrate on the psychology and method.

3. Forgo the urge to do these effects as part of your own act. They are very individual to Luke, and if you're thinking that you can just buy this DVD and be able to perform the effects as described, you may be a little disappointed.

This DVD should have been done as an accompaniment to the books, in my opinion, as it compliments them very well. However, as a stand alone product, it does nothing more for me than to get a little more insight into the mind of Luke, and his performance style.

All of the effects and their descriptions/titles sound almost mouth-wateringly tempting to the 'would-be' mentalist and pro alike. But at the end of the day, I think most people will get the gist of this DVD after 15 minutes and possible just skip from effect to effect.

I take nothing away from Luke, here. It's a very bold, very informative DVD. But frankly, it's one for the bottom drawer for me.

EDIT
ok too brutal, lol, I didn't like it much myself

Anyone for tennis?

I met luke last sunday, na na na na na nah!

I met luke last sunday, na na na na na nah!

Mark, please refrain from the childish comments - I know you just meant it tongue in cheek but please have some respect for the guy and for other TalkMagic members.

Luke has some incredible insights into his specialised field of magic, and even if the dvd isn't to everyones taste - I think most people still have (and should have) a lot of respect for him as a performer and a student of magic...

Hmm I don't think he was dis respecting Luke Bananafish, I think he was playfully boasting that he had met Luke.

Happy Toad. You are right, and maybe that was perhaps a bit glib of me, so I apologise to Mark.

However, I must admit that I still am not too keen on turning this forum into a playground, with the infantile "na na na nah na" comments, even if it was meant to be amusing and playfully.

I know that there are times when many of the threads get quite silly, and that you could probably find more than a few quotes where I could be accused of doing the same, but ultimately I'd like to think that this place is mainly for serious discussions on magic, and that the light hearted stuff should be kept to the lounge.

I do apologiese to Mark as perhaps I came across as being over stern and he didnt deserve that, but posts like that just encourage more, and the next thing we know this place will be full of a bunch of 10 year olds and I don't think any of us want that.

it wasnt meant to be childish, but for any upset i caused then im sorry, btw, luke is a very respectable guy to meet

errr... did I miss something???

I think all Mark (boywonder) is guilty of here is praise for Luke, surely?

I for one am envious of his encounter, and I am assuming that was his tone of voice, i.e. everyone is raving about Luke, and talking about him, and boywonder is basically saying:

"You've all got the book and DVD, but I've actually MET him in the flesh! How lucky am I?!??!"

Well, that's the view I got anyway.

I think boywonder, you should perhaps retract your apology. You ain't done anything wrong, surely?!?!?!?

seige has got it in one, thats all i was saying

i've had building blocks since it came out, and i got this dvd just out of curiousity, mainly to see jermay perform really...

i personally do not class this work as impossible, i've been at this kinda stuff for the past couple of years now, and it does honestly work...

however, you do have to learn how to pick people to use certain convincers on...but, once your comfy with it, putting it into sure-fire effects adds an extra special element...

its not for everyone, but once you take that step into utilising the things taught on here, (but more so via Building Blocks), you can start adding subtle convincers and suggestions to your work...and it hits incredibly hard...

a single spoon bend is a good example, as miraculous as it is when done properly anyway, imagine being able enable people to feel the heat, and feel it actually bend in their own closed hands...

but you do learn far more through his Building Blocks book..