talkmagic.co.uk

hmmm.. It is names and places but I would say a knowledge of the english language (i.e. the ability to read English) is a pre-requiste for your spectators in order to make the effect work... Sorry GaMeR.

(maybe you could persuade Roth to do a Turkish version)

Flash wrote:(maybe you could persuade Roth to do a Turkish version)

I doubt that. We don't have that much performer here, who'll get this book. But I'm open to all offers, I can translate tricks to Turkish for free.

We should all learn Turkish now that it will become part of the EU!

I really wonder how much English you would need to know to do Homocide. You may just have to try it out on your audience and see. Might be cool to have a Homocide Istanbul, 'now which side of the strait did the murders happen?'

That's a good idea. We have many good places for murders here.
Even Agatha Christie stayed in Pera Palas wrote many things, but the problem is realism. I can show this notebook to people saying that I got it from England but it won't be as good as "I got it from my uncle who is a cop". But since I don't own the effect I can't say anything about the presentation.

Also you don't need to learn Turkish, if you come to Turkey you'll surprise with amount of the people who can talk English here. I don't know when we could enter EU. But the Bosphorus murders is a good advice.

And for self-advertisement, I translated many films to Turkish (subtitles) so my understanting and translation is much better then my writing in English.

Wanted to let you gentleman know that we picked up a second run of Homicide U.K. on friday and spent the weekend ageing them.

Most of them are already sold and are shipping tomorrow. So if you ordered in the past week or have been patiently waiting for your book more than 6 days you will recieve your package around wednesday.

We have about 15 pieces left from this second run available.

Thanks,
Rick

P.S. Homicide U.S. is also in stock and shipping if anyone is interested.

*rubs hands with expectant glee*

Ooh, Kioku too. Going to be a good week..

Korhan: I have been to Istanbul and really enjoyed the cafes, people, etc. Great setting for a homicide!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The U.K. has been the centre for mentalism the past several years.

You fellows are Outlaw's best customers, thank you.

After much discussion with Dominic at The Merchant of Magic, I've given him an exclusive to carry Homicide U.K. world wide.

We shipped a large order to them this week, which they will have in a few days.

All other Outlaw products (Homicide U.S., The Outlaw wallet, Kioku, and Sanctum) are only available directly from my site Outlaw Effects web site.

Homicide U.K. is also still available direct from Outlaw Effects.

There are no plans to distrubute any other Outlaw products at this time.

I put H-U.K. together for you guys and I felt it was important to have a dealer in the U.K. have it available locally.

Thanks for your continued support, you are a colorful lot! I really enjoy the banter that goes on here. Some very witty gents on this forum.

Rick

P.S. We did ship the Kioku and Sanctum orders out, and we increasing our stock on all Outlaw products for quicker shipping!
(we can't keep up!)

Just want to pass on my thanks to Roth and the Outlaw Guys for producing this stunning effect. I am yet to perform it but the book looks stunning, the method is genius and the instructions are well written and very clear.

Thanks a bunch for producing this gem!

I wanted to convey just a few thoughts about my purchase of Homicide (I have the US version).

First and foremost, as anyone who has purchased this knows, the quality of Homicide is incredible. As a resident of New York for my entire life, I can honestly speak to the authenticity and accuracy of the recreation of this notebook. The detail and work that has so obviously gone into the creation of this product cannot be commended enough. I truly consider this to be a work of art, as well as a work of magic.

Of course - looks aren't everything. You can dress the outside up nice and make it look gritty and realistic - but when you open the pages, does the quality stop.

Owners already know. To anyone still on the fence. Jump off and get over to Roth's website and snatch this up. Unlike many of my esteemed Talk Magic comrades, I do not speak of Homicide with a strong background in Mentalism. In the world of mentalism, I am a complete novice, and this product was one of my first forays into this wonderful art.

If anyone else is in the same boat, I can say with all honesty, that this effect is not difficult to get into. I was intimidated when I first started looking it over. But as I looked and read (and joined the AMAZING product forum that compliments the instructions), I found that the folks at Outlaw have really put their hearts and souls into this. Once you are familiar with it, everything begins to fall into place. What was seemingly impossible, became incredibly easy to pick up on. This, to me, is one of the greatest strengths of Homicide.

The detail and intelligence that went into this product makes it possible for even a novice to step in and perform miracles. It is instantly accessible and intuitive. I came into this book with extremely limited knowledge - but the very nature of this effect has made the journey quite smooth. And as I go further, developing my own additions, I find myself picking up even more knowledge.

Saving the best for last - the ultimate strength of Homicide, is that it can be altered/upgraded/adapted to suit your every wish. Homicide comes ready to rock right out of the box - but the genius of Outlaw, is how it can be improved and developed as you use it. This isn't an effect you buy and just alter patter and presentation for. You can literally change the very nature of the effect - you are the only limit to doing so. Outlaw has created an effect that can change from one person to the next. There is no identical copy! Sure, thousands may own it - but once you tinker and develop ideas of your own - you have a completely different effect. Your homicide will be nothing like the next guys'. This kind of freedom is a dream come true.

You can perform miracles with this book, without ever making one alteration. Or you can make it even stronger by making it completely your own.

I've gone on long enough (yes, I realize it's perhaps a bit TOO long) but I love this effect so much, I felt I had to sing its' (and Outlaw Effects) praises. The only unfortunate part of this purchase, is I probably won't be performing Homicide out in the real world for quite some time......

.....I'm afraid I'll be too busy playing around with it.

Could someone talk me through this effect please? I think it's my work-shrivelled mind at the moment but I can't quite see how this will have a strong effect, if I've got the right end of the stick as to how it works.

You talk about the murder book or whatever, fine, bring one out and get them to flick through a load of pages with different murder details on it. By giving you a name (and perhaps either giving the odd yes/no answer or subconscious reaction) you tell them the murder details they are reading off the pad in front of them...

Is there more? It just doesn't seem so great to me... if I were a spec watching this, I'd either thing "ok, well done, you've got a good memory" or "ok, each story has been designed to be easily devined..." - see what I'm getting at? The fact that it's your prop and for all they know you've been learning 5 stories a night for the last 5 months. The effect just seems a bit lame... "choose a name from this book and I'll tell you the details" - I might as well ask them to choose a disease from "Clinical Medicine" and I'll tell them all about it, there's a lot more than 500 in there, won't that be impressive...

Farlsborough wrote:Could someone talk me through this effect please? I think it's my work-shrivelled mind at the moment but I can't quite see how this will have a strong effect, if I've got the right end of the stick as to how it works.

You talk about the murder book or whatever, fine, bring one out and get them to flick through a load of pages with different murder details on it. By giving you a name (and perhaps either giving the odd yes/no answer or subconscious reaction) you tell them the murder details they are reading off the pad in front of them...

Is there more? It just doesn't seem so great to me... if I were a spec watching this, I'd either thing "ok, well done, you've got a good memory" or "ok, each story has been designed to be easily devined..." - see what I'm getting at? The fact that it's your prop and for all they know you've been learning 5 stories a night for the last 5 months. The effect just seems a bit lame... "choose a name from this book and I'll tell you the details" - I might as well ask them to choose a disease from "Clinical Medicine" and I'll tell them all about it, there's a lot more than 500 in there, won't that be impressive...

You don't ask for a name. You make a direct statement or "revelation" right from the start.
They repley to your direct statement with a positive or negative responce.

Either way they reply positivly or negativly, you prove that you were in fact correct.
You have now also gained the knowledge you need to describe the events to the spec .

No where in the instructions does it require or say to ask someone for the actual word they are using as their "focus" word.

The methodolgy used is far from appearing to be a memory test.

The Homicide forum has some brilliant presentations from minds far sharper than mine!

There are now over 200 posts in the Homicide product forum!

Remember 99% of all book tests only allow you to reveal a word or describe a paragraph. There is no real "purpose".

With Homicide there is "purpose" you are taking someone back to the scene of a crime and revealing to them what really happened to "their" victim.

Thanks guys, I enjoy all your opinions be they positive, negative or ambivalant!!

Rick

Ok, well, that certainly does sound better, thanks for clearing that up!

Homicide certainly sounds like a very promising effect and I'm seriously considering getting it and using it in my act. I do however have one question. I don't mean this as a flame but as a real concern.

People have talked about Outlaw's attention to detail, which would be crucial in selling the effect as being based on a real detective's notebook from the 1950s. However, the Outlaw web side is riddled with obvious spelling and grammatical errors. "Segue" is spelled "segueway;" "baffle" is spelled "baffal." Words in the middle of sentences are randomly capitalized.

These kinds of errors demonstrate poor regard for detail and quality in any context. In an age of spell checkers and grammar checkers they're simply inexcusable.

The errors are particularly alarming coming from a company that is trying to reproduce the work of a detective of half a century ago. Since then the quality of education both in the UK and the US has plummeted dramatically. Even though most detectives in the NYPD in those days were probably just high school graduates, they would have had a far better grasp on the English than the average university student of today. After all, many of the students who get Bs and As in today's courses would have been classified as slightly retarded by mid-twentieth century standards.

People back then knew the difference between "it's" and "its." They knew that apostrophes are never used to form plurals in English. They could write coherently and cogently--even under job stress and even if they had only a high school education.

Please note that I'm not saying I saw the mistakes described in the paragraph above on the Outlaw site. I'm just thinking out loud about what kinds of mistakes I fear I might encounter in Homicide, based upon the inattention to detail and quality on the Outlaw site. If the Homicide notebook is filled with the kinds of grammar and spelling mistakes that have become common in the last 25 years, I fear nobody over the age of 40 will be fooled by it for more than 30 seconds.

Can anyone who owns the effect offer any guidance or information that would allay my fears?

Thanks,

Rocky

This is a valid concern, Rocketeer. Like you, I am also a bit of a stickler when it comes to spelling, grammar (please note that you misspelled grammar in your post) and punctuation (another concept you have a tiny bit of trouble with).

No flaming, I promise. However, if you intend to cast aspersions, be prepared to receive equal attention.

I have not, as of yet, read through the entire book, but thus far I have found no problems with spelling or grammar. Technically, grammar isn't an issue, since none of the entries in the book have complete sentences in the first place. Nor are they meant to. The homicide book reads more like shorthand. There are quick descriptions, minor details, a few words tossed in, much like an investigator would write down details of a crime scene. It’s not an actual book, if that’s what you were thinking.

Again, I respect your worries. I won't say there are no errors in the book, but thus far it looks pretty good. As for lack of attention to detail, I agree - the website has quite a few errors (you missed "multible" for one). I also agree they should go back and polish the site up. However, I feel that while your fears are certainly valid, I think you can rest assured that you will be happy with the product.

Hope this helps to assuage your doubts.