talkmagic.co.uk

As i am slowly looking through these dvds at the moment, i thought it apropriate to jot down a few thoughts.

Firstly , and most importantly. ( hence the caps)

THESE DVDS ARE IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM A REPLACEMENT TO THE BOOK.

However, as been mentioned above several times, the DVD set is a very good accompaniment to the book .

I am not watching them in order, but looking through them in the same way as i refference items in the book.
some parts are way better than others. But for my money, Its worth getting the dvds, just for the advice on disk 3, as part of Blindfold readings.

this section for me, clearly defines what it is to be a mentalist, as opposed to a magician.
Clear and consice advice on how to ignore the I know how he does it brigade. Simple , common sense advice on what to do if it goes wrong... all of which , advice that can be taken on board, and used every day, by every performer.

That advice can be summed up thus....

IF IT GOES WRONG, DONT TELL THEM .JUST CARRY ON.
IF THEY GUESS HOW, DONT SAY YES... JUST DO IT USING A DIFFERENT METHOD.THAT WAY, THEY WILL ASSUME THAT THEIR GUESS IS WRONG.
( Caps again... Important stuff there)

Another good thing about this set of dvds, is that no matter how familiar you are with the book, your always going to miss something. Last night i watched a bit, then went to bed.. with 13 steps, and read a whole chapter all over again, and saw the bit a new.

you will too!

Osterlind said that his intentions were to get people back into the book rather than getting them out of it.
Although I have no idea, I thought that most of the audience would be the typical magic dvd buyers (ei- so called 'visual' learners) but coming from Osterlind I will make a prediction that they'll be tonnes of solid workable adivice in there, which will make it worthwhile. I want to get it now... but it's a little out of my budget atm..
Merci pour le review.

Thanks for the review. I'm sold!

It's my birthday later this month and I might ask the birthday bunny for a contribution toward the cost. Osterlind is a hero of mine, so this is a must buy for me.

Recently I've been going back to fundamentals and spending a lot of time on 13 steps. I'd been dubious of this DVD on release, so gave it a miss, but took the plunge now and I'm finding it useful. It wouldn't work as a replacement to the book, but does make for a good accompaniment to the book used carefully. As has been said it could be easy to fall into the trap of copying Richard's style. For that reason I wouldn't recommend it unless you've been familiar with the book for at least a year or so.

I love Richard Osterlind, so much so that I'm thinking of taking a paternity case out against him and suing his estate. He must be my dad!!

I have Osterlinds take on 13 steps. I agree with him entirely when he discusses the classic text. He admires it, but he doesn't worship it. I feel exactly the same. 13 steps was the very first book I ever read on mentalism so I have a lot of affection for it. But lets face it, there are some complete clangers in there that wouldn't work today. Need I mention whispering Bhuddas??

Anyway, his take is informative and as a standalone piece of mentalism instruction, it works well. My only criticism is that alot of the routines are very old and as such, feel a bit tired. That said, you can take any of the routines in this DVD and bring them right up to date. My personal favourite (as I love billets) is the billet pxxl. You can do so many things with this principle and yet I never see anyone using one. I yawn when I see things like magic squares and the knights tour, but then again, if I actually stand back a moment and think carefully, I've never seen a live magician actually DO the knights tour. I think sometimes being interest in mentalism can blind you as to what laymen actually know about the art - ie, very little.

Is it expensive -yes. Is it essential - no. Is it an excellent companion to the book - most definitely. Do I recommend you buy it? Only if you're struggling with presentation ideas.

I refer back to it all the time. And as Richard is clearly my dad, it's just like watching a home video!!!!!!!

madvillainy wrote:Plus, L&L audiences make me feel physically sick.

Me too.

That overly loud guy in particular, especially on the first DVD in a certain Osterlind set.

kevmundo wrote:That said, you can take any of the routines in this DVD and bring them right up to date. My personal favourite (as I love billets) is the billet pxxl. You can do so many things with this principle and yet I never see anyone using one. I yawn when I see things like magic squares and the knights tour, but then again, if I actually stand back a moment and think carefully, I've never seen a live magician actually DO the knights tour.

Paul Brook performs the Knights Tour and has written a lot about it in one of his books. I forget which.

Have you seen him do it and is it any good?? I'm always a little bit reluctant to try and learn it (if you can call it learning) since I feel it drags on a bit. I think you've really got to have an attentive audience to try it?? But I've been wrong before!

I haven't, and it's a while since I read the book, but if I recall, he came up with various other ways to use the memorised data.

Mr Grumpy wrote:I haven't, and it's a while since I read the book, but if I recall, he came up with various other ways to use the memorised data.

I could only bring myself to memorise it if I could think of a fresh presentation. I love the Gimmick Osterlind uses in the DVD but the presentation is still very much rooted in Corinda - not that that's a bad thing. But since the knights tour isn't really an opener and I don't think it's a closer, it has to appear in the middle of a set. The way I like to routine things I just can't think of a way of fitting it in. I know this may sound weird but I always think it looks 'mathematical.' I'm just not drawn to it for some reason, the same as Anneman's 'seven keys to baldpate.' I don't know what it is. They're both classic effects but for some reason they just smack of trickery. Maybe it's my paranoia.

Off topic but I gimmicked a favorite book of mine today for the Al Koran book test (A word in thousands). I showed my wife and throughout the presentation I was thinking 'this is so transparent. Why did I waste my time on such a stupid effect? It's so obvious. No-one is ever going to believe this!' When I finally revealed the word she gasped - 'how the xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx did you do that!!??' It just goes to show, sometimes you need to step back. Some of the simplest effects can yield the most amazing results!!!

Kevmundo (One day you will all know me as - The Great Kevmundo)

Mr Grumpy wrote:

kevmundo wrote:That said, you can take any of the routines in this DVD and bring them right up to date. My personal favourite (as I love billets) is the billet pxxl. You can do so many things with this principle and yet I never see anyone using one. I yawn when I see things like magic squares and the knights tour, but then again, if I actually stand back a moment and think carefully, I've never seen a live magician actually DO the knights tour.

Paul Brook performs the Knights Tour and has written a lot about it in one of his books. I forget which.

It's in Chrysalis of a Polymath. In the book he presents the Knights Tour as an effect that lasts the entire evening and goes into how to present it as one long set piece rather than as one effect amongst many in a show. I don't think he still performs it anymore but I might be wrong.

kevmundo wrote:

Mr Grumpy wrote:I haven't, and it's a while since I read the book, but if I recall, he came up with various other ways to use the memorised data.

I could only bring myself to memorise it if I could think of a fresh presentation. I love the Gimmick Osterlind uses in the DVD but the presentation is still very much rooted in Corinda - not that that's a bad thing. But since the knights tour isn't really an opener and I don't think it's a closer, it has to appear in the middle of a set. The way I like to routine things I just can't think of a way of fitting it in. I know this may sound weird but I always think it looks 'mathematical.' I'm just not drawn to it for some reason, the same as Anneman's 'seven keys to baldpate.' I don't know what it is. They're both classic effects but for some reason they just smack of trickery. Maybe it's my paranoia.

Off topic but I gimmicked a favorite book of mine today for the Al Koran book test (A word in thousands). I showed my wife and throughout the presentation I was thinking 'this is so transparent. Why did I waste my time on such a stupid effect? It's so obvious. No-one is ever going to believe this!' When I finally revealed the word she gasped - 'how the xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx did you do that!!??' It just goes to show, sometimes you need to step back. Some of the simplest effects can yield the most amazing results!!!

Kevmundo (One day you will all know me as - The Great Kevmundo)

When I had a memorised deck, I tried to learn some fairly complex card tricks from Mnemonica, then found that I got such amazing reactions to just false shuffling (or they shuffle and I switch the deck) then naming the cards as they're turned over one by one...

For a while I carried a blank back deck around with me, so they wouldn't think the backs of the decks were marked, though of course you can also prove that by closing your eyes for ten cards or so. People would get more and more excited the further through the deck we went. I only intended to do the first ten cards or so. I thought people would get bored after that.

A J Irving wrote:

Mr Grumpy wrote:

kevmundo wrote:That said, you can take any of the routines in this DVD and bring them right up to date. My personal favourite (as I love billets) is the billet pxxl. You can do so many things with this principle and yet I never see anyone using one. I yawn when I see things like magic squares and the knights tour, but then again, if I actually stand back a moment and think carefully, I've never seen a live magician actually DO the knights tour.

Paul Brook performs the Knights Tour and has written a lot about it in one of his books. I forget which.

It's in Chrysalis of a Polymath. In the book he presents the Knights Tour as an effect that lasts the entire evening and goes into how to present it as one long set piece rather than as one effect amongst many in a show. I don't think he still performs it anymore but I might be wrong.

Yes, I remember now. I must reread that book. He has a funny story about getting caught out with it when he first started performing it, if I recall.