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DVD: Richard Osterlind’s Mind Mysteries Vol2.

DVD: £26.99 from :// www.emagictricks.co.uk
http://www.emagictricks.co.uk/product_i ... ts_id=4626

The Review

This is the second DVD in a 4 DVD set. I am reviewing this one first as I was so bowled over by it. Richard Osterlind is a seasoned performer of “menatlist” magic and his professionalism and experience are very evident from the four Mind Mystery DVDs.

This DVD shows just 5 tricks. But these tricks are so powerful and jaw droppingly good that frankly any more would have be too many (ok, that was b*ll*cks, but believe me you won’t feel short changed by this DVD) . What you are really learning with this DVD is “The Osterlind Breakthrough Card System”

The system is pure genius, and simple as simple can be. Once armed with the system, you won’t just be performing the 5 card tricks from the DVD – you will be coming up with your own variations. There is no limit.

The best way to get across how good this actually is is to describe the 5 tricks on the dvd from the lay persons point of view.

The Tricks

1. Card Calling.
For this trick Osterlind used a Jumbo sized bicycle deck. There is no reason why it can’t be done with a normal size deck – and in fact I have now done this on several occasions.

The magician takes a deck of cards – shuffles – and cuts, then fans them out face down and asks the spectator to take a “clump” of cards. A clump being a group of several continuous cards (approx 5-8). The magician then hands the remaining deck to a member of the audience to keep hold of, and to check that there are no duplicate cards.

He then asks at the spectator with the “clump” to give the cards in their hand a quick shuffle – to then fan them out and make sure they can see all the cards.

Then one by one the magician will tell the spectator what each card is.

That’s the trick – in fact what you get from Osterlind is a lot more than this. This DVD isn’t just about mentalist card tricks – it’s about how to sell it. I think I learnt as much from the performance – and why different lines of patter work better than others than I did from the actual trick itself.

2. 2 Cards in the Pocket.
The magician takes a deck of cards – shuffles – and cuts, then hands the deck to a spectator and asks them to cut the deck a couple of times. The magician then turns his back on the spectator saying he doesn’t even want to watch it happen.

When the spectator has finished cutting – the magician asks him to take the top card and without looking at it (or letting anyone else see), to place it in their right pocket. He then asks them to take the next top card and again without looking at it to place it in his left pocket.

The magician then turns round again and takes the deck of cards and puts them back in the box – so that they can’t be touched further.

After several moments to think the magician is able to determine what the two cards are – not only this he asks the spectator to choose which card is in which pocket.

This is a very strong trick.

3. Challenge Mind Reading.

If I was to choose one trick to perform from this DVD then this one would be it, as it just seems so impossible. It is sold totally as a mind reading trick that should be done under test conditions. The reason being that when the spectators look back on it they can all agree that everything was done fairly.

The magician asks a spectator to think of any card. Nothing obvious like the ace of spades – but any card they wish.

The magician then hands the spectator a deck of cards and then turns his back on the spectator.

The magician asks the spectator to find their freely chosen card in the deck. And when they have, to cut off all the cards underneath the chosen card and place them on the top of the deck. (The card is now on the bottom). The magician asks the spectator to stare at the card they thought of and try and imprint it on their brain. When the spectator is happy with this, the magician is asked to place their card anywhere in the middle of the deck.

When this has been done, the magician turns round, takes the deck and places it back in the box.

The magician asks if everything was done fairly.
The magician asks if he could re-find the chosen card in the deck would the audience be impressed.

Then without even reopening the card box the magician reveals the card.

Corinda Effect.
The magician takes a deck of cards – shuffles – and cuts, then hands them to the spectator. He asks the spectator to look through the cards – to ensure it is a normal deck, and that there are no cards that are turned over.

When the spectator is happy with this the magician asks the spectator to hold the cards under the table, so that there is no chance of catching a glimpse. He then asks the spectator to cut the cards. And again. And again etc. (we can do this all night – I get paid by the hour). When the spectator is happy with cuts, the magician asks him to take either the top or bottom card, and to turn it over and hide it somewhere in the deck.

The magician no recaps – in saying that the deck should have one card turned over in it.

The magician then asks the spectator to bring the cards back out – but just so there is no chance of the magician glimpsing the reversed card, the spectator is asked to first turn the whole deck face up so that even if it was glimpsed, it would only be the back that is seen.

As soon as the cards are brought out they are placed on the table and the magician immediately covers them with a silk or a card box.

After the spectator has confirmed that everything was fair the magician waves his hand over the deck (milking the effect for all its worth) and makes his prediction for the turned over card.

The spectator is then asked to remove the cards – spread the deck, find the card and turn it over. And guess what? Yes. Correct!

5. Black Jack Demonstration.
This is an interesting one. Interesting also for the magician as it all works differently every time it is performed.

In this case Richard Osterlind explained that he has been banned from playing black jack at two casinos, which adds to the trick. He has four volunteers sitting at a table, who are about to play black jack. One dealer and 3 players, He says that in accordance to the rules of Black Jack, the dealer curs the cards and then turns over the top card and places it face up in the deck. I didn’t know this but evidently that’s how it happens in Black Jack – you play until the turned over card is reached.

Anyway –the cards are dealt out to the three players and the dealer – one face down, then one face up and then at this point the cards can be placed back in the box, so the box is used as a “dealing shoe”.

Effectively what happens next all depends on the cards, but basically the magician knows the face down cards, and the next cards to be dealt out the shoe.

This trick is fun for the magician as each deal is different – and it can be sold as a mathematical probability trick. For example – “there are no low cards out yet – so I suspect the next card will be a 2 or 3, probably a 2.”

I tell you what – you won’t get any friends playing poker or pontoon with you after they see you do this!

Difficulty. 1/5
1=Even I can do it, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
I really can’t think of any reason why this can’t be a level 1. There is a bit of math involved but definitely no sleights.

Rating. Effect/item: 10/10, Quality of goods: 10/10, Value for money: 10/10

Bottom Line.
10 out of 10 is a very high score – but this is something that once you know, you will probably be using off and on forever more.

It is another L&L publishing DVD – and if you have seen any of their other DVDs you will recognise the audience (they are like old friends to me now) and appreciate their very flamboyant reactions. If only all my performances had audiences like this!

In saying that though – I really do think that in this case the reactions were well deserved. These were 5 very strong tricks. Personally I don’t think I would ever do them all to them same audience in the same sitting, but certainly any one of them would be a real reputation maker (and I don’t use that term lightly).

In short. I really can’t recommend this DVD enough.

Did you ever think of becoming a salesman? I'm sure sold

You wont regret it.

Many people here will know the principle on which the above tricks are done, but Osterlinds "Breakthrough Card System" is in my opinion better than any of the others I have come across.

I agree with your review wholeheartedly. This is a fantastic system with even better effects to use it with.

I actually knew the system before buying the DVD but I bought it to see Osterlind's effects. I'm not at all disappointed because they are simple but mind-blowing. IT's important to note that although you said that there are no sleights so the difficultly is easy, the performance is 100% important. I'm sure you'd agree that you can go round with Breakthrough Card System and no card skills and be impressive but it wouldn't neccessarily make your career unless your skills as a performer are honed, interesting, and have some kind of spark. It's the delivery of these effects that make or break you and sometimes that's the hardest thing of all, because if you haven't got it, you haven't got it.

Seem to have gone off on one there.

I've got Osterlind 1 and 3 as well so if anyone wants a review then just say the word, unless Bananafish wants to do the honours.

The workings of the Breakthrough system can also be bought in ebook form from Osterlind's site. It describes the methods for a couple of the tricks on the DVD too. For some people it might be even better value than the DVD.

Although the method itself is very easy I wouldn't say it's totally sleight-free in use. You're really going to need some false shuffles to sell the effects and some peeking skills too (there are some peeking tips in the ebook so I guess they're on the DVD too?).

Yes he talks about his peeking, which you are right, it should have been mentioned in the review as it is very good method and just adds the little je ne sais quoi to make the trick that little bit more perfect.

As for the Osterlind false riffle shuffle, well I must admit I didn't think that much of it - I saw it for what it was during the performance and so I would be worried about other people seeing me do it.

There are false overhand shuffles in RRTCM that are quite nice, but to be honest with you one of the things Mr O. did on the dvd was to make repeated cuts to the deck in his hand look very much like an overhand shuffle. The fact that he does this whilst talking gives the impression he is shuffling and I have adopted this method which I think looks good, and as it hasn't been questioned by anyone I can only assume it does the job.

I agree with what Shark says about selling it being all in the performance, and although I am tempted to say that is true with all magic I do know what he is saying - it is even more important with mentalist magic.

The nice thing though, about there being very little in the sleight area is that it gives you time to really go to town on the performance.

bananafish wrote:The nice thing though, about there being very little in the sleight area is that it gives you time to really go to town on the performance.

That's what I like about this kind of trick .
I use tricks based on this system and Extreme Mental Effort (Derren Brown) to practice my presentation. I've got aspirations to mentalism, but not the acting skills to go with it yet.

I agree on the fact that the false riffle shuffle RO is doing is not brilliant and to be honest - if you make a hash of this the audience are going to be onto you like a plague. They might even point out that you haven't shuffled the cards properly. That's when you're really schtuck. So maybe it's better not to do it at all and just do the overhand 'cuts' as you suggest. My false riffle is rubbish and I wouldnt' trust it.

As for acting tips, Charles, let me know, that's my actual job!

If you want a decent false riffle shuffle the Zarrow shuffle is the one to go for, I think emagictricks stocks Herb Zarrow's video on it. It looks just like a normal tabled riffle shuffle, and will never be noticed, I haven't got it perfect, but as long as you don't draw attention to the fact that you are shuffling (and why would you do that anyway?) imperfections won't be noticed.

It was the Osterlind card system that allowed me to amaze while i was still in my "dammit, my hands wont do what i tell them" stage.

I have so much respect for this system, I still use it to "prove" to people I can read minds

If you are learning but want to start using, try this and give your sleights some more bedding in time
Just my 2 coins worth.

BaB

I have virtually everything the man has ever put on the market, except for some of the higher end items that were discontinued before I could save up for them. All 4 DVDs in this series receive my absolute highest recommendation. The name "Osterlind" on an item is money in the bank for a worker!

By the way, is it just my imagination, or am I about the only "bloody yank" posting here?

Thanks for your input Scott, very much appreciated as always. We don't get all that many postings from overseas, there are some from Europe, but we do have our very own (UK resident) Yankee Tom and he very often gives us a US angle on things.

I've been rethinking the Osterlind False Riffle shuffle, and am maybe having second thoughts about it. I earlier stated that it seemed a bit dodgy and so I probably wouldn't go with it.

My thoughts are that adding a shuffle move to a trick with a stacked deck makes the effect that much stronger because now when the spectator reconstructs the trick it can't possibly have been done using that method.

On the downside - if the shuffle is spotted as being false then it almost immediately explains exactly how the trick was done.
a) He wants me to think he shuffled but he didn't
b) therefore the cards must be in a specific order...
c) stacked deck. QED.

These are very high stakes, and it is probably more this fear of getting spotted that has put me off using the false riffle shuffle, however as I mentioned before I have been rethinking this.

The last time I performed a trick using the BCS, I started off with the shuffle, but didn't draw any attention to it. I was shuffling at the same time as explaining what I was going to be doing. I didn't mention that I was shuffling.

I then started the trick, and when I got to the point of revealing the card, I gave a quick recap of what had happened so far.

"ok, just to recap, I shuffled the cards, then handed them to you to be cut..."

When the trick was over, as is inevitible, someone came up to me and asked me how I did it. Rather than my normal answer I suggested he could work it out, and asked him to tell me what actually happened, and almost word for word he repeated my "recap"

"well, you shuffled the cards, then handed them to Sue to be cut..."

This just goes to show how important the recap part of the effect is, and has given me a little more faith in the false riffle shuffle, just as long as you never say, "I am now going to shuffle the cards"

I haven't ried this out all that much yet - but I feel it is definitely worth persevering with.

An excellent point about not drawing attention to the shuffle (just as Mr. Osterlind does it himself).

Regarding the "recap" you are right on target. I have a couple of effects where I "miscall" the recap, and spectataors remember it that way. For example, in one routine, I have the spec give the deck ONE riffle shuffle. He then gives the deck as many straight cuts as he desires. During the reacp, I remark, "You shuffled and cut as much as you wanted." Because of this wording. he remembers that he shuffled as much as he wanted and then cut as much as he wanted. Note that the wording is true: "You shuffled" is accurate and "cut as much as you wanted" is true. Had I made a big deal out of saying "You shuffled several times" or "You shuffled until you wanted to stop" etc, it would not ring true and therefore not carry the same impact. But because of the truthfulness and ambiguity of the statement "You shuffled and cut as much as you wanted," the maliable memory is formed into "I cut as much as I wanted and I shuffled as much as I wanted." Having spectators recap the effect for me many times bears this out.

I know that last paragraph was a bit off topic, but b-fish hit on an important principle that I thought deserved further elaboration.