talkmagic.co.uk

This is an instant download of 5 routines. Price £11.99 from 'Merchant of Magic'

The document is straightforward, 'unglamorous' but functional. Martin comments that the backbone to each routine is fairly well established and probably known to serious mentalists. I'm a public speaker, MC and presenter and this kind of 'light mentalism' appeals to me. I'm a fan of Chuck Hickok's stuff - so that sets the context. I got this a few days ago and I've already used two of these routines in a business seminar; they fitted well with the context and style of what I was doing. Getting the context and patter right is vital to their success. Martin gives some ideas on this but you will need to work them into your own style.

All the routines are straightforward. Where gaffs are needed, they are easy to make. One routine needs something extra that most magicians would have - or could easily get.

Here's (my summary of) the marketing blurb for each routine

EMOTIONAL - The performer shows 8 words to a spectator (one on each of eight business cards, for example). All of the words are connected to human emotions. The performer invites the participant to think of any emotional word closest to his personality. Performer gives a highly accurate reading and divines the thought of word.

I loved this, my favourite and it got a great reaction.

HARMLESS- This is a Russian Roulette type of routine using 6 cards 5 cards show the word ‘click’ one card reads ‘bang’. The cards go into the envelopes; they are fairly mixed by the spectator. The performer can go through a variety of ‘Russian roulette’ type routines avoiding the ‘bang’ card.

This is my second favourite (or maybe joint first). You can milk it through the whole 'six bullets' Russina Roullette routines. I used it in a reverse manner - 5 live bullets and 1 blank (5 'bang' cards and 1 'click')

SEALED – Performer predicts the thinking of three spectators; the amount of money in a spectator’s pocket, a colour chosen by another spectator and the name of a country chosen by a third.

Not done this - but I like it

DOUBLETHINK REMIXED – A spectator thinks of any card a second spectator selects a card from a face down spread deck and keeps it separately face down. The magician writes his prediction for the ‘thought of’ card. The thought of card and the freely selected card are revealed and they perfectly match.

OK but probably not for me.

CHIP CABARET - The performer displays four regular coloured poker chips (e.g. blue, red, green and black). They are sealed in an aluminium foil. The spectator shuffles the chips and picks one to discard. Each time the performer predicts the discarded chip.
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Again, OK and workeable - but probably not for me.

I got good value from this - getting 2 workable routines was worth the money - and I can see how to vary them in several ways.

It's a simple document and maybe could be produced a bit better - but that's a minor niggle.

Overall (for my two routines) I give it 8/10.

Nice Review! How would you rate the difficulty of these?

"Harmless" reminds me a lot of our own Tom Lauten's "357," which I already perform quite a bit. The others sound interesting, though.

Oops should have added rating. All easy to do as 'tricks' without any complex sleight of hand (or any at all in most cases) - so probably at 1/2 level. (I find it difficult to deal a set of cards without fumbling and I certainly can't riffle shuffle - thankfully such masterful skills aren't needed!)

The 'skill' needed is developing the 'patter' to make them 'performances', but this shouldn't be a problem to anyone who done any kind of mentalism