1. You don’t have to keep pausing them!  That is, you can leave a decent hard backed book open on the page you want and study the details to your heart’s content with the props in your hands.
2. The pictures (in my experience) tend to be drawn from the performer’s perspective – whereas in most of the DVDs I’ve seen you have to work it out from the spectator’s view – very confusing.
3. Often, a well-written explanation is easier to understand than a moving image.  This sounds paradoxixal, but in fact you can read and re-read an instruction on a page with the props in hand, whilst on a DVD, if you are pausing or re-running a segment, it is much harder (though it must be said that the practise sessions on some L&L DVDs work quite well for this).
4. You can read a book anywhere.  This is particularly good (he writes, as Christmas approaches) when you are given a book for Christmas, and you can start reading it whilst sitting with your family!  Slightly less anti-social than watching a DVD!
5. I’m just a bit biased, because I love books!

And here’s a recommendation for a great book I’ve just read recently:

Dear Mr Fantasy by the excellent John Bannon.  $50.  (Sorry – I can only find it in the US at the moment).

I recently obtained a copy of this classic book by Larry Becker. It is brilliant! We usually say ‘if we get one or two effects’ from a book then it has been worth the price, but I counted no less than 16 effects which are either immediately workable, or well worth coming up with some creative variations on. Brilliant stuff. Entertaining plots and subtle (and so generally straightforward) methods. At only $36, if you are in to mentalism you’d be crazy not to buy it. Which is by way of saying, this is recommended!

Parade was a classic and direct effect. I personally found it a regular worker. But it was rather a trick without a premise. Entourage provides an appealing premise, and an extra level of interaction with the spectator eliminating the other ‘queens’ too. But does this make the effect more confusing? Twisted Sisters has a very clever premise and in some ways the ‘doubling up’ of the method makes the effect seem even more astounding. Perhaps this is a case for some magical markup analysis?!

At the end of the day, I suppose we have to perform what suits out style. And for the time being I will be giving Entourage an outing or two. But I’d be interested in others’ thoughts and experiences of this.

PS there is an ungaffed version of Entourage in the e-booklet Mind Blasters which is also full of other excellent mental magic.

[American Links here: Entourage by Gordon Bean
Twisted Sisters by John Bannon]

If you are interested in thinking more analytically about your close-up magic, have a look at our Magic Books page for details of Strong Magic.

Of course you have to go a long way to beat the good old Invisible/Brainwave Deck and its variants (of which I think Brain Drain is one of the stronger alternatives) but the simplicity of the Kolossal Killer (KK) idea – the one card you’ve thought of is in my wallet – continues to appeal.

I think KK is brilliant. But I’ve not found a wallet that quite works for me. I think Heirloom is a masterpiece of theatre and provides an ingenious solution to one of the possible objections you might have to the KK concept. But I just can’t quite pull it off – more for me would be the John Archer comedy presentation (this is on the Educating Archer DVD).

Well I have just combined elements of Heirloom with a lighter presentation and with the aid of a passport photo booth, and a bit of Photoshop wizardry, have created the necessary to do an Heirloom type routine, but with a picture of me and the wife in a photo booth holding a card. I don’t want to say too much more because I want to avoid exposure on this site. But I’m quite pleased with the results and would commend this kind of approach to anyone struggling with similar issues…

Well known cardman and very nice man, David Britland, has done a lot of thinking about this effect, and if you search his website (well worth a look any way; search on ‘not the Berglas effect’) you will find some stimulating stuff. If you ask him nicely he may still be supplying a free pdf on the effect which he has produced, but I think the offer is officially over now.

Neither of these articles mentioned Barrie Richardson’s impromptu method, which, for my money, is one of the best solutions to this I have seen. Barrie always routines things well, so that the couple of ‘moves’ in his solution are brilliantly covered in the routining. I love it and think it is well worth a look (if you are in the US you can get it here for $24 Impromptu Card at Any Number; if you are in the UK, it is £14.99 here – UK Link).

If you do the effect or have any ideas on it, I’d be glad to hear them.

This is a new blog about magic and magicians.  This site will contain musings on the nature and presentation of magic, the odd product review or recommendation, and other thoughts as they seem relevant.

I also hope to provide links to other articles, videos and products of interest.

And to set the ball rolling here is something which isn’t new, but I stumbled across the other day and found very helpful.  Professional magician Steve Johnson has kindly made available his thoughts on the Invisible Deck, Zig-Zag Pencil, Oscar Deck and a whole free book called Floating Freely – all about the use of invisible thread.  Well worth a look – Steve’s Free Magic Articles.

Do please check back often – and why not join in the chat!