talkmagic.co.uk

My first review guys... so go easy on me! Please

The Effect
Michael Paul's "Show No Mercy"


Cost
$20
From www.michaelpaulmagic.com/instantdownloads.html

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Sliding scale...
I'd say it doesn't get any higher than a 3.5 (cheeky I know!) though...

Review

I missed out on the freebies... but the effects looked so good.
So I went and bought it instead

Contents:
Foreword by Craig Browning
Introduction to Show No Mercy
Flicker
Candy Opener
That's Not Magic! (essay)
Flashes and Ashes
Changing the Change (essay/effect)
Reality Displacement
Visible Coins Across (2 effects)

Right. Let's start off by saying this is a very nicely presented set of notes! Looks the part, and once you get going, you know you're in for a treat

the foreword by Craig Browning, was always going to be thought provoking, and given his status in the magic word, I think if he's willing to put his faith in this man, then we should too. I'm glad I did... cos I now have a killer set of tricks at my disposal

The introduction is mainly why Mike decided to release these notes... an interesting, if short read.

Flicker - Ah... now there's a beauty. A red card flickers back and forth between red and blue and then finally changes permanently to be the colour the deck wasn't! Genius.
The solution turned out to be brilliant, but simple enough for even me to carry out - which I will be doing once I get me some flash pads

Candy Opener - now this is real "eye candy" (Mikes pun - not mine!). A sweet in it's wrapper appears from nowehere in a flash of flame. Then the sweet disappears from inside the wrapper. And ends up in the performers gob.
10 seconds of pure visual magic. No words are necessary, and I'm gonna knuckle down and learn this well, because it's a killer - having seen the video and knowing how it's done... it's still genius.

That's Not Magic (essay) - Interesting, although I imagine a fair few of us wont agree with what's being said here. I didn't agree with most of it, but I can certainly see where he's coming from. Unfortunately, it does mean I'll be tarnishing his great work with that which is not magic. Sorry!
[edit] Apparently this is a spoof... if it is, it's absolutely brilliant [/edit]

Flashes and Ashes - A card is selected and put down on the table with a bunch of other cards. Then the deck is shuffled and the top card is lit. On the back of the card there's now a thick black arrow. Pointing directly to the chosen card... It's much simpler than it sounds. n fact, it's so simple, when you read the method you'll kick yourself that you didn't come up with it! It looks stunning, and I can't wait to get out and try this one...

Changing the Change - Labelled as an essay/effect, but to me more an anecdote that makes a valid point about the power of a spectators mind to create magic over the magicians skill/technicality. Still, the effect mentioned is a nice thing to try

Reality Displacement - This effect almost made Craig fall off his chair! And Craig Browning HATES card tricks! Yes it's that good, and having seen the video performance of this, I can vouch for it's magical-ness. It looks every bit the perfect effect. A signed card is fairly put into the middle of the deck. Only for it to then be pulled straight out of the back of the deck, seemingly travelleing through the other cards to get there! The technique is a little trick for me, as there's a move there I am NOT good at, but most of you cardies will be laughing at having such a powerful effect for such a small amount of effort performing.

Visible Coins Across - This is Real Magic. Yes it's that good. And no, the name is not a misnomer. The spectators are asked to watch your hands at all times. And they will never see what's going on. A coin visibly melts in front of a spectators eyes and ends up in their own hand, complete with "clink" of the coin arriving! For part 2... hand the spectator 4 coins and have them close their hand around them. The spectator then picks one of the coins and hands it to you. And you make it impossibly vanish. Where does it turn up? Back in the spectators hand of course
Michael teaches a brilliant coin vanish as well and you're left completely clean. You can even do it naked and surrounded... it's that clean!

Overall

Cost: 9/10
Effects: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10

Overall: A VERY high 9/10

If you're a close up magician... you really can't go wrong with these notes

EckoZero wrote:That's Not Magic (essay) - Interesting, although I imagine a fair few of us wont agree with what's being said here. I didn't agree with most of it, but I can certainly see where he's coming from. Unfortunately, it does mean I'll be tarnishing his great work with that which is not magic. Sorry!

Wow, great review! I really don't not want to buy this and now I don't not want to buy this even LESS

Having read the MagicCafe review I think that the essay was meant to be a spoof of this type of essay - the other reviewer fell for it too though!

Kati

Aha
If that's the case it's absolutely genius. Priceless stuff

I'm just surprised Michael isn't charging more than $20 for this book of miracles!

Sounds nice...I'll need to look into this more. Nice review

Thanks guys... I was a bit worried about fluffing it up as this is my first ever review ( ) but it seems to have gone ok...

Thanks for the very nice review. There should be a few more coming. I'm really glad you liked the material, I use all of it in my full time close up routine. There's a few interesting comments about the coins across on the "green" forum.

Also, as a side note, all of the reactions in the teaser are from effects out of the Show No Mercy manuscript.

You can check out the teaser at:
http://michaelpaulmagic.com/instantdownloads.htm

Thanks again!

Mike

few dumb questions:

What's $20 in English
Do I need sound on my computer cos my soun'ds down!

How many of the tricks require special props/gimmicks? ie flash paper

Two of the effects require flash paper.

Changing the change, and reality displacement don't require anything special at all.

The coins across does require a gimmick that we probably all have.

And the Candy Opener requires... candy. mmmmm... candy.

$20 english... hmmm don't know. I do know that paypal will convert it for you, so there is no guess work. Perhaps someone else can help me out with that.

And you won't need sound for anything. I give a very brief hello at the begining of the video, but you won't miss anything important if you don't hear it.

$20= 10,8 GBP

It's from http://www.xe.com/ucc/

that's annoying I'll probably have to buy them now!

BTW for anyone else according to http://www.xe.com/

$20 =£10.85

ermm, is the website (michaelpaul's)working?

Yep it is working

GaMeR: sorry for the repeating didn't see that you had posted that, still thanks for the help

No problem, mate. And I don't know why mine was cheaper.

Just on the currency conversion thing, I find the easiest way is to use google. For example just search for: "$20 in £"

And it will tell you! Pretty nifty eh?