talkmagic.co.uk

Hi,

The question came up in another thread. Does anybody have the book "Paramiracles" by Ted Lesley and is willing to review it? Personally, I would be interested in learning if it is still worthwhile if you already have Annemann's "Practical Mental Magic" and Corinda's "13 Steps to Mentalism".

Sorry, I haven't got time to do a full review of this, but I will say that it's an interesting read. Some of the content is brilliant, but very difficult for an amateur. I don't necessarily mean the skill level involved, but the time and effort needed to produce a prop that you might only use a couple of times. For a working performer, that kind of investment makes sense.

Ted's book has some excellent routines and props in it, but it's not at all like '13 Steps'. It's more about specific routines and items than techniques, along with Ted's life story.

I got to know Ted's work through his 2 DVDs from L&L. I suggest you have a look at at least the mentalism one. The trouble is that they are best seen as a pair, as there is an overlap in methods and sometimes they refer you to the other DVD.

A lot of the DVD content mirrors parts of 'Paramiracles'. The book is probably better in some respects, for the usual reasons. Similarly, seeing the effects performed adds something you don't get from the book.

Thank you for your thoughts.

It is probably just personal taste, but I don't want to build too special props which can only be used in a few occasions. At least at the moment I want to concentrate on routines centered around portable "mainstream" gimmicks which can be used for several effects.