Peek Performances by Richard Busch

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Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby kevmundo » Aug 20th, '12, 18:05



The Effect

This book sees Richard Busch revealing what he considers to be some of the best ways to secretly gather information through the use of peeks. It covers peeks using billets, business cards, bycycle cards, envelopes, centre tears and even a pocket watch. There's some coin vanishes and PK stuff thrown in there as well.



Cost

Aprox £25.00 last time I chaecked


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)

I'd give this book a 3 on difficulty. Some of the slights are bit awkward, but not what I'd call 'advanced.'



Review

I'd seen this book plastered all over the message boards as being a 'MUST HAVE.' It was described as being, 'one of the most exciting and dangerous books on mentalism.' All the reviews that I read were extremely positive so I though I'd take the plunge and buy myself a copy. To say that I was a tad miffed with it would be an understatement. After reading the opening peek, amusing entitled 'Cheekie-Peekie' I knew I was in for over two hundred pages of prolonged disappointment. I immediately came to this conclusion because I believed that if I was writing a book, my first described effect would be a real stunner, to set the scene for the rest of the material. Some people may like this method, I didn't.

As for the rest of the peeks, I think the book was at a disadvantage with me to start with, simply because I already have numerous peeks that I use and I'm happy with. I have a good card peek that I use all the time, so whilst it was interesting from an intelletual perspective to read the card peeks, I didn't get anything out of it. Moreover, if you have switchcraft and/or Acidus Novus, then alot of the material in this book ends up being ever so slightly inferior.


Overall

Had this been the first book I ever read on peeks then maybe I'd be impressed by it. However, there's material out there that is so much better than this and if you already have some classic peeks in your arsenal, then I'm not sure this book will add much value to it.

I'm saying 5 out of 10. But due to some of the fawning reviews I've seen over this book, I expect I may be in for a drubbing?

Last edited by kevmundo on Dec 21st, '12, 09:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby magicofthemind » Aug 21st, '12, 11:05

I was a bit disappointed as well. Most of his peeks strike me as rather unnatural.

Barry

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby Craig Browning » Aug 21st, '12, 15:27

It should have been titled 101 variant presentations of the Center Tear. . . it was a huge P.O.S. that only Magicians seemed to love back in the early days of the Mentalism wave. . . the frightening thing is that there are two sequels to the book, each more and more progressively bad, the 3rd running real close to causing a major battle on the Intellectual Property front as Mr. Richard threatened to print the then new Acidus Globus full billet peek by claiming "I would have figured that one out" . . . he learned really fast how quick the Mentalism world could sever his ties to the rest of the world.

As I understand things Richard has never done a real show, he plays around with tricks and brown-noses with lots of people, playing at the idea of being such. He's amicable up to a point, but far more temperamental and less forgiving than me, or so many have jokingly stated.

Richard has had one or two small manuscripts that were quite good, one being rather deep when it comes to Ericsonian Psychology/Hypnotherapy (his specialty in real life) but I could not in all good conscience, recommend any of this billet material in that at least 80% of it is juvenile at best.

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby Ted » Aug 21st, '12, 17:38

kevmundo wrote:Aprox £25.00 last time I chaecked


Did you buy it just recently? If so, how much did it cost? £25 is actually quite a good price for this book, so it would be good to know your source.

kevmundo wrote:After reading the opening peek, amusing entitled 'Cheekie-Peekie' I knew I was in for over two hundred pages of prolonged disappointment. I immediately came to this conclusion because I believed that if I was writing a book, my first described effect would be a real stunner, to set the scene for the rest of the material. Some people may like this method, I didn't.


A point of fact: Cheekie-Peekie is not the opening peek. The first one involves an envelope. Also, Cheekie-Peekie is useful/practical in some circumstances, but not all. This point is made clear by Richard right from the off.

kevmundo wrote:As for the rest of the peeks, I think the book was at a disadvantage with me to start with, simply because I already have numerous peeks that I use and I'm happy with.


In which case one has to wonder why you bought it :)

kevmundo wrote:I'm saying 5 out of 5.


Hard to beat a score like that :)

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby kevmundo » Aug 21st, '12, 21:05

Ted wrote:Did you buy it just recently? If so, how much did it cost? £25 is actually quite a good price for this book, so it would be good to know your source.


I bought it well over a year ago but you can get if for £23.99 minus the VAT at Merchant of Magic. I know on some other sites it's nearly £50.00

Ted wrote:A point of fact: Cheekie-Peekie is not the opening peek. The first one involves an envelope. Also, Cheekie-Peekie is useful/practical in some circumstances, but not all. This point is made clear by Richard right from the off.


I've just checked (not that I didn't believe you) and you're quite right, there is an envelope peek before this. However, it's in the same league as 'Cheekie-Peekie' insofar as I think it's a bit 'my-first-magic-set-ish.' It's the sort of thing I'd expect to see a grubby teenager explaining on youtube if you were to search, 'magic tricks exposed.' :wink:

Ted wrote:In which case one has to wonder why you bought it


Well I'm not immune to hype. Type in 'peek performances' and look at the reviews on the themagiccafe for example. You'd think the second coming of Christ was about to occur. I do know a lot of good peeks. But, I don't pretend to know it all and a decent book may show me some new concept, or give me an idea about reworking a routine.

Craig Browning wrote:Hard to beat a score like that


Well with most things I buy I'd agree. But compared to something like switchcraft, which is as close to a ten as you can get, this book just fails to deliver. I understand peek encores is even worse so I think I'll pass on that. There's no point chasing your losses after all!!!

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby MatCult » Aug 22nd, '12, 10:01

kevmundo wrote:
Craig Browning wrote:Hard to beat a score like that


Well with most things I buy I'd agree. But compared to something like switchcraft, which is as close to a ten as you can get, this book just fails to deliver. I understand peek encores is even worse so I think I'll pass on that. There's no point chasing your losses after all!!!


Two things:
1. Craig Browning didn't say that, Ted did.

2. You gave the book, which you criticised heavily, a score of 5 out of 5. Not 5 out of 10. You gave it a maximum score. That's what I believe Ted was pointing out. Quoted below for truth.
kevmundo wrote:I'm saying 5 out of 5.

:D

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby kevmundo » Aug 22nd, '12, 10:31

Sorry, major typo, I meant five out of ten!! Mer!!

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby daleshrimpton » Aug 22nd, '12, 11:12

davenports has it for a good price. Thats where i bought mine from, and not that long ago.

I find that the material in it has to be worked on, to make it fit your own natural movements, and style.

you're like Yoda.you dont say much, but what you do say is worth listening to....
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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby DrTodd » Aug 25th, '12, 18:25

Dude Thats Cool Magic has it for £22

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby Ted » Aug 30th, '12, 11:33

Possibly only of use to US members, the book is available for $30 (around £20) from http://magicinspirations.net/miva/merch ... ory_Code=B

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby Ed Wood » Dec 20th, '12, 16:20

What a refreshing review. I read this book a number of years ago thanks to the hype and found it to be a muddled mess of name dropping, self congratulation and badly described effects (or in fact effect repeated over and over with slight variations). At best you need a couple of peak methods and none of them are to be found in this book. There's a reason it's so cheap, it's garbage.
A simple rule I've found works out well for me, if something gets good reviews on the magic cafe it's usually best avoided. I find the cafe, particularly the mentalism section to be a place where a small clique of earnest young mentalists go to sell their over priced, re-hashed products (with a bit of psychology thrown in to make it contemporary) and have their friends say how fantastic it is.

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby kevmundo » Dec 21st, '12, 09:55

Ed Wood wrote:What a refreshing review. I read this book a number of years ago thanks to the hype and found it to be a muddled mess of name dropping, self congratulation and badly described effects (or in fact effect repeated over and over with slight variations). At best you need a couple of peak methods and none of them are to be found in this book. There's a reason it's so cheap, it's garbage.
A simple rule I've found works out well for me, if something gets good reviews on the magic cafe it's usually best avoided. I find the cafe, particularly the mentalism section to be a place where a small clique of earnest young mentalists go to sell their over priced, re-hashed products (with a bit of psychology thrown in to make it contemporary) and have their friends say how fantastic it is.


Amen to that!!

K :lol:

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby i1011i » Jan 14th, '13, 16:32

Though, I do not disagree with what has been said... I do own all of Mr Busch's books. I also use a peek I learned from that book as my most general business card peek. It is however, very similar to Acidus Novus. The handling is a bit different though. It is a very true statement that most of the peeks in the books are just variations of the same few peeks.

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby magicofthemind » Apr 28th, '13, 16:09

I know this is an old thread, but to be fair I think it deserves a revisit. I have a performance-lecture coming up in the summer and I've been looking for a peek or tear that will suit my particular presentation and the venue. I haven't found the perfect one from the various references available to me, but Richard Busch's Zen Billet Tear comes pretty close and will be the one I'll use unless something better turns up. I'm not terribly keen on his presentation, though, and (at least for me) it works much better with a business card than the index cards he prefers.

Barry

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Re: Peek Performances by Richard Busch

Postby kevmundo » Apr 28th, '13, 18:21

Unfortunately I despise centre tears. There are such better ways of obtaining information than the centre tear its basically obsolete in my mind. I would never dream of using it. I do know people like Osterlind use it to great effect but its just not for me. Acidus novus is the greatest peak available in my opinion. You could use a peek wallet, or a switch which would have the same effect. I would still advise anybody interested in billet work to buy switchcraft and nothing else. It's excellent value and you get free updates.

As for the zen billet tear, it doesn't matter what Busch calls it, it's still 'the centre tear' and is a billion years old and is in every 'my first book of magic' on the planet. I hate to sound negative, I just really don't like this book!!

K ;)

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