by Johnny Wizz » Feb 27th, '08, 12:50
The Effect: I found this book whilst killing half an hour in Watrstones. I know that his other book, Mind Magic has been reviewed here but can't find refeernce to this one.
It is a book of mentalism effects. I would say however that it is not for the serious mentalist. Everything in it relies on magic type moves, there is nothing "naked" in this book.
Cost I got mine for £9.99 in the Hobbies and Pastimes section of Waterstones
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)
Interms of trickery, 2 tops but as we all know selling mentalism is not about the trickery it is about the presentation.
Review:
As I said above, this is not a heavyweight mentalism tome. To me it was more like "Mentalism Lite". However, I really liked it.
It covers a bit of all sorts of stuff.
Chapter 1. Score with rapport. - This chapter touches on The Value of Psychology in Magic, presentation, rapport with the audience, and building confidence (including an explanation of Barnum/Forer statements). It also has a couple of pages on non verbal communication which (to me) rather confusingly introduces NLP but only in a very shallow way.
Chapter 2. The signs are there- This chapter has three tricks which are based on non verbal communication. Well, thats the story woven in to them. In fact one of the effects is a multiple out and the the otrher two use aother well known principles (don't want to expose too much). But they are well presented. The first, Stimuleye is a neat triple divination with a strong ending.
Chapter 3. Under the influence - This chapter works on the precept that the magician can influence choices. Again a multiple out is used but the second effect in the chapter, Runhalle uses a gimmicked set of Runes and I liked it enough to start researching Runes as whilst the story line in the book is good I think that with some knowledge of working with Runes would makje it stronger.
Chapter 4. Anything you can do..... - Two tricks here based on the spectator making the revelation. Both standard stuff, but again a good story is woven in to them.
Chapter 5 ....... I can do better - Some number and memory work in here including the introduction of Si Stebbins. I am biased here, once the word maths appears I am out of here. I failed the subject miserably at school and cannot get my head round it for magic. However, the effects would be good for anyone who is not mathophobic.
Chapter 6. Right from the start - Three effects here billed as strong closers. The first using a diary is a clear copy of a trick I have seen reviewed several time, can't remember what it called now, a russian roulette effect using an egg and a gimmicked dice and a quite good headline prediction effect which uses a switch that I think is a bit transparent but would work well for anyone with the nerve to do it. I favour a trickier but more easilly executed version of this effect.
Overall
Overall, for me this was a good buy at the price. There were a few effects that were new to me, the Rune one for example, but they are mostly reworks of old ideas. If I had a criticism I would say thet the multiple out idea is done to death rather, if I had to say one good thing it would be that this is a book with good ideas for selling mentalist effects.
Marks out of ten? 7