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Im totally gutted because i stupidly sold my "Pure Effect" and "Absolute Magic" 2 years ago, now they are going for a fortune on ebay!!

My dog-eared tomes are....

Slieght of mind
The Giest
Tricks of the mind
Building Blocks
The Dance

and Lady chatterly's lover...oh! hang on.....

I wouldn't have parted with them for any price. They have shaped what I do so much not only mentalism, but magic. Pure effect has some cool slights in there, some cool routines, but more importantly it has his fantastic philosophies in there which I think set out a lot of the formula which put him on the road to success. Then we have absolute magic.. Oh, it is a piece of art: it literally takes my breath away and each time I read it I am knocked for a few days an humbled at by what a genius Derren is. That sounds a little mellowdramatic but... Honestly, These two books, Corinda, PMM, Psychological Subleties.. are my bibles. I am really looking forward to Enigma.. (checks time) WAHOOO!! Tommorrow evening!! I know he tends to abandon his 'invisible compromise' for his stage shows, which I love, because it is just raw, pure sheer shomanship brilliance at it's best. Anyway, enough Derren worshiping, until tommorow

That reminds me, im going to see Enigma in June, im going to try and avoid ANYTHING online that might provide spoilers. But you can PM me and just say yay or nay...i have a feeling it will be a big YAY!

DivinityMagic wrote:That reminds me, im going to see Enigma in June, im going to try and avoid ANYTHING online that might provide spoilers. But you can PM me and just say yay or nay...i have a feeling it will be a big YAY!

When and where? I'm seeing it (for the third time) on June 10th. And yes, it's a big YAY.

The anticipation is killing me
And I haven't even seen it but I know Derren well enough to say I will not be dissapointed.
I would like to meet him after the show and shake his hand, but I know that for some reason (if anyone looks on the comments on his website) his hardcore fans for some reason are middle aged women, and children around my age Also, I know he'll get millions of mentalists coming to meet him.. so to him it will seem I am a typical fan of his, and I can see the nausia people like that cause him.. *sigh* I am praying to God that he doesn't think I'm one of those sickly Derren wannabees. I'm sure he'd be flattered, but... no, just no.

Strong Magic,
Strong Magic,

and

Strong Magic.

This may be a topic for another thread, but I think there's a whole 'Emperor has no clothes' type thing going on with Absolute Magic.

Personally (as in IMHO), I thought the book was an overblown piece of hyperbole, with very little practical application. The central message appeared to be "When you perform magic.... makes sure it's really good".

This especially applies to the last section (Theatre and Magic, or somesuch) where Mr Brown goes totally up his own bum.

Please don't think this is just a knee-jerk-lets-all-hate-DB kinda thing, I think the chap is one of the freshest magic performers of the past 50 years. I just thought the book was awful, especially when compared to the tons of practical advice delivered in books such as 'Strong Magic' and 'Designing Miracles'

YMMV, I guess.