talkmagic.co.uk

Hi
I am looking to get a wallet for revealing predictions and card to wallet tricks but have been bewildered by the choice, Penguin has one called the professional card to wallet but the handling on the video looks quite long winded as you show all the places the card isn't before showing the card in the zippered compartment. Any recommendations or advice on your favourite wallet would be much appreciated am fine for either palm or no palm types.
Cheers
Paul

Try this thread http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic3276.php.

I love Mark Strivings SUC and the principal.

Clean, easy, effecient!

Piers.

Thanks Cardza for the link which lead me to the stealth assasin wallet which sounds amazing though the one feature the promo failed to mention is its ability to make all my money disappear
Piers do you have links you could post for the wallets you mentioned.
Cheers
Paul

Ok... I'll play devil's advocate for just a moment here... (anyone surprised at that?)

Why do you want a wallet? Do you want to do traditional magic and do things like Card in Wallet or do you think that having a wallet will allow you to be a mentalist?

I've done mentalism in one form or another for over thirty years and worked a "day job" as a more or less full-time Reader for much of that same period of time and HAVE NEVER HAD THE NEED to use a wallet at any level to meet my obligations in either role. As a magician on the other hand, I have most certainly used a few wallets for comedy gags, forces and more.

Yes, there are a lot of things you can accomplish with a wallet and yes, some of them are literal works of art when it comes to craftsmanship (my buddy Evil Dan makes some of the best out there) but, in what I've seen, the majority of them make littel to no sense in how they must be handled or simply the fact that they are being introduced for one reason or another. I don't know about you, but I'd get suspicious if a "Reader" (as an example) told me to put my note/question into their key case or businesscard holder, etc... it would smack of something being uncooth and not on the up and up.

The second point to be considered is the fact that if you forget your wallet or loose it, you're screwed! You have no way to replicate a demonstration a patron may remember and want to see you do again. And even if you do have the device with you, why would you want to risk discovery by using the same method a second or third time the same client is observing you?

As Bob Cassidy has pointed out and encouraged, we must not only use multiple methods for eluding detection, we must likewise mix methods so that the wisea**es of the world don't catch onto our actual methods or, as the case would be, our limitations.

So, my question to you is yet again, why do you want this kind of device?

If you want to do "Mentalism" THEN OPEN THE DAMN BOOKS AND LEARN IT! Study and perfect billet based work and how to use them without all the gimmicks and gadgets... when you've "mastered" just a dozen of these basic techniques, you can more or less name your price when it comes to doing shows and moving forward in your career in that you will be, essentially, empowered at a most amazing level. Empires and long running careers have been built with little more!

So, why do you need to cough up $75.00 to over $200.00 for some kind of nifty wallet just to look like all the others out there that have the same device? Why do you need to LOWER your own standards to their level rather than elevate them and in so doing, challenge your peers by being able to go further and do more with far less than they can?

I'm not saying not to buy the wallet or whatever. I'm saying you need to seriously think about what will give you the greater sense of power, the $100.00 you'd be putting into a single device or half that much socked into a couple of books and maybe a video on the subject of billet work?

If you are just starting out... well, if you are like I was when I was first starting out, getting the most bang for the buck was a prime priorty. That's why I ended up with more books than tricks and more applicable knowledge than a trivial understanding of what was current and popular.

Think about it

I am looking for a wallet for revealing predictions and card to wallet tricks

You are probably looking for two wallets then. There are a few out there that do both things, but the better ones (IMO) are geared up to do one function or another.

One that does do many things is Scott Creasey's "Swiss Army Wallet". The peek is very nice in that you do not need to go back in the wallet as you would for example in a Stealth. It is also made of a canvasy material and not leather - which actually for me is a plus point, especically as it can hold notes. It can definitely be used as an everyday wallet.

It also has the ability to do several other more magicky things (although not a card to wallet - in the traditional sense).

If you want to do card to wallet on a regular vbasis though, I would probably buy a wallet specifically gimmicked to do just that.

Craig has some valid points to make about learning the basics before buying a more often than not, very exspensive accessory. Investing in books (or dvds if you must) is almost undoubtedly the better option in the long run, but then it is human nature to want to run before you can walk.

Having said that, if you take your mentalism seriously you will get a lot of use out of a good wallet (designed for mentalism). Definitely you shouldn't rely on it for everything, and so you MUST have other ways of doing things. Think of it like a marked deck. If everything you did was with a marked deck, then the workings would soon become very obvious. If however you used the deck for one killer effect throughout your entire act, then it becomes a very strong tool.

banana is there a link for that certain wallet?

is there a link for that certain wallet?

The Scott Creasey "Swiss Army Wallet"?

I would suggest emailing him. His webpage is here

I will be doing a full review of that wallet eventually, but have only had it a few weeks and want to use it a lot more before I write it up. I still primarily use the Stealth, but this one does have many advantages, and I may just be using this as a normal everyday wallet. Always ready to go.

If anyone is looking for a card to wallet routine, why spend a HUGE amount of money on it? In fact, why spend any money at all?
E-mail me privatelty and I'll send you my piece from the Linking Ring of some years back, Anytime Card to Wallet.
It is totally ungimmicked and you can use any wallet; no need to lay out a small fortune on one with slides, zippers, weird folds, and generally looking like nothing on earth. In fact, use your OWN wallet; my FREE routine just tells you how!

SUC comments at :

http://www.ianrowland.com/ForMagiOnly/S ... Main1.html

Piers.

As Craig pointed out above, anybody who needs to use such things as wallets shouldnt be using them at all. However, I do think that they have their place. I am one of those who have pre-ordered the Assassin, primarily for the SUC style qualities for NW'ing/Stealing and Loading, and it doesnt look in anyway 'proppish' or out of the ordinary as some of them do.

Incidentally, I watched a demo of the original Stealth with Peter Nardi that showed a demo wherein the use of the wallet (or, specifically, the handing back of the information to put in the wallet) seemed completely logical - almost to the extent where not taking the info back would seem out of the ordinary.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for your devilish advocacy, you are right that a trick wallet is only a tool and so it would only be a supporting artist rather than the star in any routine I might perform. Personally the most common use would be for card to wallet effects or n'written prediction revelations rather than a peek type tool which as you rightly point out can seem unnatural and decrease the impact of the effect.

What books have served you well in your career? Have you read Ian Rowlands The full facts of cold reading which Derren Brown recommends in his book Pure Effect as I am looking to buy this next? Is the thirteen steps still as relevant a guide to todays budding mentalist?

Thanks again for your feedback it is always helpfully to have someone question your motives and make you justify your need for something. If only I could have this voice of reason with me when I get tempted in the sales

Paul

13 steps is still considered to be pretty much a bible of mentalism.

jackofhearts wrote:Hi Craig,

What books have served you well in your career? Have you read Ian Rowlands The full facts of cold reading which Derren Brown recommends in his book Pure Effect as I am looking to buy this next? Is the thirteen steps still as relevant a guide to todays budding mentalist?

Paul

FULL FACTS is full O'c*** (not the best) for the most part. If you want to learn about genuine work as a Reader LEARN IT FROM PEOPLE THAT DO READINGS AND NOT AN ADMITTED SKEPTIC/MAGICIAN... (would you ask a cabinet maker how to install plumbing in your home?) ...If you honestly want to learn effective Reading methods then these are the resources you want to work with from within the magic world;

* Richard Webster's PSYCHOMETRY FROM A-Z
* Richard Webster's AURA READING FOR FUN & PROFIT
* Richard Webster's HOME PSYCHIC PARTIES FOR FUN & PROFIT
* Richard Webster's LADY'S NIGHT OUT
* Ron Martin's TAROT READER'S NOTEBOOK
* Philemon Vandebreck's OORT & COMPLETE OORT
* Bob Cassidy's PRACTICAL METHODS FOR THE MODERN DAY CHARLATAN
* Bob Cassidy's PRINCIPALIA OF MENTALISM SERIES
* Bob Cassidy's DISSERTATION ON COLD READING

I would like recommend Richard Webster's audio CD's on Cold Reading methods through Martin Breeze (I would also encourage you to learn at least one legit divination system like the Tarot, Runes or Plamistry and work only with that science, not all the BS you've read about in the magic books... work with the system!)

13 Steps and Annemann are, as mentioned, the two chief "Bibles" of this side of the industry. Get them, study them and most important LEARN THEM! Technically speaking you need no other books on this subject until you learn what these two books actually teach and have to say.

Well... I know I can be rough, but these are the facts.

Craig Browning wrote:

I would like recommend Richard Webster's audio CD's on Cold Reading methods through Martin Breeze

I find Craig's points on cold reading really interesting as I was on the point of buying Ian Rowlands book. Craig - you claim to be a full time reader so I respect your views. Which of Webster's CD's do you think would be best for someone new to cold reading but OK with mentalism & acting ? I want a method/template/guide that is easy to remember if possible.

I'm also interested in how you 'sell' yourself to your clients ? Do you claim 'real' psychic power etc. ? How do you handle people who may be in a sensitive state (eg. bereaved) ? I assume people who want readings are looking for some kind of 'spiritual' answer or guidance in life ? If so how do you handle this morally ?