talkmagic.co.uk

Title: Short Punchy and Mental by Andy Nyman

Available: I think mine came from Alakazam, £12.

Difficulty: 2
(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)

Review

These are notes from one of Nyman's lectures and contain 7 effects and two essays, all with film related names since he is a film buff. The effects range from Deep Red Prediction, in which you predict the film that a member or the audience chooses and the number that they make up for their rental membership card with both the named video and the membership card in a bag on stage the whole time to Take the Money and Run, in which you divine which ofnine film canisters a coin is placed in and even the denomination of the coin.

All the effects are fairly easy technically but do require a certain amount of presentation to make them interesting (of course).

I admit that I have yet to try out most of the routines, the only one I have used is Magicians Graphology, basically three magicians each draw a sketch on a piece of card and you acurately divine who drew which of the first two pictures based on a short comedy reading along the lines of 'the pressure on the pen here suggests a cynical person who believes that I know this drawing is his because the cards is marked' and then goes on to describe the final picture before looking at it. Obviously the way this is presented it is only for use on magicians but it could easily be adapted with more serious reading to be usefull on anyone.

overall I'll give it 8/10, very good effects, and 7 Nyman effects for £12 can't really be sniffed at. All are well explained and the booklet is well written. It only loses marks really because I am annoyed that I haven't got round to performing most of it yet, and the reason for that is most of it is designed to be used in a platform setting or at dinner parties and I just don't have a platform mentalism act or get invited to dinner parties!

Thanks for the review Nick - it looks like next month is going to be an expensive one....

If you actually want to see the performance part as well as very good instructions and money is not your main priority then his DVD "Get Nyman" is well worth buying.

your main priority then his DVD "Get Nyman" is well worth buying.

yeah. What he said...

Andy gives a tip in his Deep Red Prediction which streamlines the Koran Medallion methodology and makes it more practical. It's so neat it would make you smile.