Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

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Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

Postby The4thCircle » Jul 4th, '12, 20:08



Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

£6.99 ebook from direct from http://www.blurb.com/user/store/hds02115

Anthony was kind enough to send me a review copy of this book, and despite the fact that mentalism isn't really my thing I found it really rather illuminating.

Fingerprints is ostensibly a mentalism effect though I think it could be played as a number of different styles of magic because of it's simplicity. There are a couple of sample routines given but to be honest the method is universal enough to be applied to almost any theme.

There are a number of effects where several pieces of paper are handed out to different people and when randomly collected back in, you use some kind of secret mark or memorised tear pattern to discern who had which one and trace whatever they wrote back to them. This is like that but without the secret mark. If this were an ellusionist trailer, I would add "No marks, no tears, no crimps, no notches."

Your spectator could examine their piece of card with a microscope, infrared goggles, uv lights and a mass spectrometer and find no discerning feature to it, and you can make these cards really REALLY easily. If anything the instructions go into more detail than you need (though they are lovingly presented).

I'd be willing to bet though that with sufficient practice you could even return the cards back to their original order blindfolded, which oddly is never suggested in the book itself.

The method behind it is blindingly simple. If you're one of these youtube kids who complains about disappointing methods (Like literally, how can a method be disappointing if you liked the effect?) you'll hate this because of how deceptive such a simple method is. Go buy a box of magnets held together with wax and IT, losers. I love this kind of method, and I love that it's something you can make yourself when you know how.

If mentalism is your thing, this is for you. End of. You can probably use this method to improve an effect you already do and if not, you can certainly add a bit to your routine with it. I'm not a mentalist but I'm planning to play around with this to see if I can apply the method to something similar.

Honestly, if I hadn't received a review copy, it's not the sort of thing I'd have bought, purely because I'm not into mental magic, but if I was this would be well worth the asking price. It might yet prove its worth to me if I can figure out a presentation which is more 'me', but without knowing the contents I wouldn't have been drawn to it. So thank you, Anthony.

I give it 7.5 out of 10.

That may seem low for something I praised so highly, but it's because I think maybe he went to print a little too early. If a non mentalist like me can think up new ways of using this method it suggests that there's much more ground yet to be covered with this technique.

- Stacy

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Re: Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

Postby hds02115 » Jul 6th, '12, 18:18

Thank you for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it.

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Re: Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

Postby Lady of Mystery » Jul 8th, '12, 08:07

The method that Anthony teaches in this ebook is a very nice one indeed. I will admit that it's not 100% original but I don't think that I've seen it used in quite the same way that Anthony does.

Stacy pretty much sums it up, the method allows you to identify business cards in a stack without any markings, nail nicks or any of the other usual things.

I also agree with Stacy that although two routines are given I think I'd have quite liked for Anthony to have taken a little longer befonre realeasing this to really have a think around the different possibilities that this method can offer. But even so, the method is very nice and has already got me thinking of different uses for it and there is a lot that can be done. And for the price that it's going for I think it's well worth the money.

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Re: Fingerprints - Anthony Harle

Postby T0M » Jul 8th, '12, 13:22

After reading this review yesterday I thought I'd give this ebook a bit of a shot as it seems like something that I could use. Just something that the two people above haven't mentioned, when I clicked on the website link you can actually buy this in a physical booklet too for the same price. I opted to just get the ebook version though as I was in a bit of an impatient mood. Anyway, I'm not sure if it's ok you write another review after the original but as it's a slow Sunday afternoon, why not.

The Effect

What the book says:
What if you were able to hand out genuinely unmarked, blank cards to your spectators, have them write down information and mix them all back together but even under the fairest of circumstances you are still able to match the correct card to the correct spectator? Well look no further as this booklet will explain a method for exactly this.

Cost

As stated in the previous posts, both the ebook and paperback are on sale for £6.99 from

http://www.blurb.com/user/store/hds02115

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)

It's hard to really determine the difficulty of this as in a way, it is kind of self working. The routines given aren't hard at all technically and as there is no real sleight of hand I'd have to give it a 1.

Review

Well I guess this booklet is a case of it does exactly what it says on the tin. You learn a very deceptive, devious and devilishly simple method of following spectators information when written and mixed. I really do like the idea and will deferentially give it a try. I think the great thing about it is that not only can you easily make the cards yourself for next to nothing, but as it says, they really aren't marked in any way and could be examined until the cows come home by the spectators, yet it is still so simple and easy to see who's it who's.

I would agree with the previous posters that it may be lacking one or two ideas for presenting it but that's it and for the price I think that's kind of knit picking. The explanation of all the aspects of the method are clear and well gone over. Personally although I'd have liked to of had at least one more routine given, I don't think it's such a bad thing it's not. Again, as with the other two above I'm already thinking of ways in which I can use this and so having less is kind of like having more. It's making me be creative rather than just copying something from a book.

Overall

To sum up, it is a nice little booklet and something that I'm not unhappy I brought. For the cost it is a bargain and although it lacks loads of given routines, I think that's not such a bad thing. It's easy to start thinking of applications once you know how it works.

For anyone who does mentalism based effects this is a great, cheap little booklet that wouldn't do you wrong.

I'd give it a 9/10 for the method and explanation of it, and an 8/10 for the overall product.

I would recommend it.

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