talkmagic.co.uk

James Brown's newly published lecture notes, I picked them up last night so this is preliminary impressions.

What He Says

TOCTP

A psychologically deceptive, double hitting, thought of card to pocket.

Caught 3 Times

3 spectators cards appear one at a time between two face up cards within the deck. Each time the spectator is holding the cards and letting their imaginations run wild!

Brainless Travellers

A reworking of the classic effect from Still Fancy a Pot of Jam? High impact magic for the confident performer.

Ahead and Under

Four of a kind instantly vanish from the deck and reappear ANYWHERE!!

Triple Whack

What Harris would have done if steroids were legal!

ITHwich

An in the hands sandwich with a hypnotic twist

Card on Ceiling

Ever thrown the deck in the air only for the pack to split everywhere? This method not only makes Card on Ceiling flawless but also give a new level of impossibility!

Okay so he just lists his effects and doesn't pimp it all too much but saves me from explaining each effect.


What I Say

Running through each effect:

TOCTP
Very nice, what is a genuinely thought of card by one spectator is shown to be the card you placed in there a few moments before. The patter covers all the dirty work and it is one of the easier technically effects.

Caught 3 Times
An awesome seeming sandwich effect. I haven't got round to anything more than preliminary fiddling and it is quite knuckle busting. Lot of spread culling. If you are technically able to perform it you will get great reactions!

Brainless Travelers
Same effect as on his DVD, there may be some subtle changes to it but nothing jumped out at me. Still a lovely gimmick free travelers routine, nothing too technical and the 'sleight' is a pleasure to do, brass balls optional but advised.

Ahead and Under
A nice magician fooling routine. As a performance for lay people it is unnecessary and far from the cleanest way to achieve a card under something effect. Essentially this is what you pull on magicians and those friends who just burn your hands. Basically this will drop kick them in the nuts as they will not have a clue.

Triple Whack
I like this a lot. Once again spread culling makes an appearance. I don't want to say too much as it will hint at the method but there is so much misdirection at one point in this routine strippers could dance in and pick pocket everyone in the audience.

ITHwich
Billing it as a hypnotic sandwich effect was in my opinion a little silly, it's an awesome effect and my favourite in the notes. Personally as I do a lot of hypnosis I would lean towards doing the hypnotic presentation but it is very much an option. Do not skip this effect if you can't hypnotize.

Card on Ceiling
I don't perform a CTC effect for all the reasons above. This has convinced me it may be worth reconsidering. It improves the effect and makes it tidier.


Cost
£7.50


Where
http://www.jamesbrownmagic.com/lecturenotes.html


Dificulty
At least a 3. 4 for most effects.


Overall
Totally worth the price. Think back to Still Fancy a Pot of Jam, remember how the side steal was used in every other card effect? This time it's spread culling. While it's not essential for all tricks many do require it. If you can't spread cull then it's worth learning anyway!!!

I would have happily paid the price for the whole PDF just for ITHwich and Triple Whack. Hell, just for either one of them!

Obviously this is lecture notes which means that teaching beyond 'spread cull the card' is just about non-existent. I, however, prefer this as there is only so many times you can have an Elmsley explained to you without wanting to bash one Oz Pearlman's head in.

A great PDF at a great price, all the magic stays with James' theme of being insanely bold so it will take balls to perform some of it. Delighted with it and you should all buy it.


Rating
I hate giving numerical values for something as complex as reviewing an effect. Gonna go with a 9 given that perfection is unachievable and I'm sure there was some typos!



Note
I have 'improved' (read as removed the convincing control!) the handling of ITHwich, anyone who I trust has bought this can PM me and I'll tell them my change!


EDIT: Because James Brown is a pedant!!!

Cheers

NB: ITHwich is a convincing control rather than a spread cull!!

James Brown

www.jamesbrownmagic.com/lecturenotes.html

Sorry, same general principle!!! Both involve:
a) Spreading some cards.
and
b) Culling.

A good point well made!!

Looking forward to seeing the lecture at Southport, James. I dont want to buy the notes just yet as I dont want to spoil the lecture for myself, although im very tempted!


Will be nice to catch up and have a drink, see you there mate



Mark

I got these notes today and I must say that I am extremely happy with them. A lot of family were over at my house today so I got to try out a few of the effects. Here is what I think:

TOCTP:
This is a great thought of card to pocket routine. I changed the handling of this effect (not to improve on it at all, but just so it suits me a bit better). It is quite simple and I got a couple of great reactions from it.

Caught 3 Times
This was probably my favourite effect in the notes. It is a sandwich routine involving three spectators. My spread cull is ok, not great at all but good enough that lay people don't spot it (I'm going to start work on improving it), so I was able to perform this trick almost straight away and it fried everyone I showed it to. Probably my favourite sandwich routine.

Brainless Travelers
I don't have Jame's DVD so I can't compare differences in the mehtod of this effect. I havn't ahd the chance to perform this yet, however I do find the method interesting and it has quite a ballsy move that I think I will get a kick out of doing. I think the effect would look great if performed well.

Ahead and Under
this is quite nice, I agree that this would be best done with other magicians, but I do think that it would fool lay people. I fooled a couple relatives who dabble in card magic with this one. I don't know that many card under box effects so this is a welcome addition.

Triple Whack
This is a treat, the misdirection involved is huge. When I did this trick, I followed the ending in the notes, but I'm sure you could come up with many ways to end this effect, you will have plenty time anyway!

ITHwich
This is a really cool effect, although I don't know if I will go with the hypnosis presentation whenever I do the trick (I personally don't do any hypnosis) but I think it would be a good presentation for when I'm performing some mentalism effects.

Card on Ceiling
I have only performed card on ceiling effects a couple of times, but whenever I decide to do them again, this will how I do it. It removes a few things that can go wrong with the card on ceiling and I think this method would improve the effect overall.


Difficulty: 3-4

Value: £7.50 for 7 great effects is a bargain in my opinion, especially as I will be using nearly all of them day to day when I do magic.

Overall: 10/10 - Considering the quality of the effects and the value for money on offer, I think that this product is perfect for anyone looking for some great close up card magic. I am really pleased with this purchase. Thank you James!

Why would you ever remove a convincing control?! It's one of the best moves out there! I'm constantly looking for ways to get one IN to an effect!

I totally agree, Farlsborough. I think it is one of the best card sleights to perform for lay people. If I'm trying to come up with a trick that requries a card to be controlled, the convincing control is usually the one I go for.