Dale A. Hildebrandt, the author of Risk & Reward, brings you a new ebook titled Triceratops. In Triceratops, there are three sections, which each have three chapters, and each chapter has three tricks. The emphasis is on the effect in this ebook, with methods sometimes scarcely even hinted at, much less described. This is for the performer who can take a piece of cloth and make it into a cloak of mystery.
This material is not for the weak of heart. Only read on if you want to dare something worthy. The following are the effects you will find in Triceratops:
DISC DECEPTION: An update of a classic beginner's trick that takes the original and puts it on steroids.
DIGGING A HOLE TO CHINA: A comedy routine where things get progressively stranger and then ends with a great gag.
IDENTICAL OR FRATERNAL TWINS?: A plot for a two coin trick that will leave laymen speechless.
OFTEN IMITATED, BUT NEVER DUPLICATED: The magician tries to duplicate an Ace with a blank card, but never quite gets it right.
BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR: Oil and Water made into a confusing, yet comedic, routine.
TANNING BED TROUBLE: An Urban Legend is proven to be true.
DOORWAY TO A DIFFERENT DIMENSION: A trapdoor in a playing card has strange powers.
STRINGS ATTACHED: A Matrix-style/Coin Assembly routine where you destroy the gimmick right in front of the spectators and they never have a clue!
GYPSY FORTUNES: Prove the Fortune Telling Cards right when the volunteer gains and loses money.
LIVEHYPNOTIC: Two routines for Liam Montier and Steve Dela's “LIVESTRONG REVELATION” prop.
STICKMEN AND STONES: A guilty party is found through ancient means.
LOST DOG: A very commercial routine that plays well for stage.
LOW TECH KISSES: A great method for causing an astral kiss to be planted on a séance sitter.
PAUL'S PLANCHETTE: A Planchette moves by itself with no wires, magnets, threads, or other apparatus. All you need is a Witching Board and a Planchette, and you're set for a miracle.
IDLE HANDS: Physical manifestations of a demon possession.
KNIGHT'S TOUR ADDITIONS: Some ideas for The Knight's Tour
FIBBING WITH FIBONACCI: A two-phase math routine that wows even the people who know the first phase.
MY THIRTEENTH TURN: An arcane parchment lets the magician know how many times a die is turned.
TEN MINUTES WITH A SHIRT: A routine that typically lasts less than ten minutes, and involves your shirt and a Psychic Dry Cleaner.
BANK ROBBER IN A BOTTLE / CURTAIN CALL: A bank robber from the past leaves a message for the people in the room, and the more observant spectators see a curtain move by itself—with no wires or other gimmicks.
CLOWN AROUND: An hilarious routine that justifies the use of sponge balls while still maintaining an air of mystery.
LAZY MAGICIAN'S GUIDE TO FOOLING PAVLOV: A variation of Kip Pascal's "Fooling Pavlov" where there is no need to train a dog.
DEVILISH PLUS (with Caleb Strange): Caleb Strange adds some details to make this trick into a real blockbuster showpiece.
THE APPLE TRICK: Shake seeds out of an unsliced apple. Shake the seeds back into the apple. Then, you notice that you shook too hard. You have to cut open the apple to retrieve your finger ring.
ETALFNI: A great gag for balloon workers or anyone who uses balloons in their magic.
THE MAGIC TUBE: A versatile solution to ditching, switching, and other ploys by using an interesting novelty item.
SNAP SHOT: A borrowed, ungimmicked polaroid camera proves the presence of spirits.
"I read through Triceratops, and enjoyed it...Baking Soda and Vinegar was very novel – the kick up the ass that oil and water needed frankly." - Liam Montier
"Snap Shot can seem REAL." - Kenton Knepper
"Many thanks for sharing Triceratops with me. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been awash with ideas and applications ever since. Your book is exactly what I want from an eook: a more than generous number of original, practical, audience-centered effects, with a range of magic broad and enough to take me happily out of my comfort zone. Deeply inspiring and energising stuff." - Caleb Strange
"I love the whimsical nature of the effects! Especially interesting to me was "Ten Minutes With a Shirt" - I don't think I've ever come across such an original and fun effect!" - Scott Cram
"Obviously an expression of the way Dale thinks and performs. This seems a natural progression of his two earlier works Hypnohole and Other Absurdities and Risk and Reward. My first observations are that here is a performer who thinks outside the box and tends to push the envelope, as it were a little bit further each time. The contents in this new ebook will intrigue the reader and hopefully stimulate their own creativity. There are challenges within the pages, challenges that could set you apart from the run of the mill performer you used to be. Some work will be required but many of the routines utilize moves and dodges the average magician should be familiar with or have used before. I commend the author for his forethought, insight, and appreciation of what in the right hands can become good magical theatre. For the bizarrist there is plenty of good stuff to weave a spell with here. For the intellectual magician, I say this is a book you should have, it could set you off on a different but successful path. It is not for the feint hearted but for the performer who wants to be different. Recommended." - David J. O'Connor
This book was professionally edited by Jay Frasier.
1st edition 2007; 46 pages.
word count: 16226 which is equivalent to 64 standard pages of text
