Lybrary.com: ebooks and download videos
Home / Magic & Conjuring / Mentalism & Spiritism

Entropy Dropping
by Jan Bardi

$20

(2 reviews, 3 customer ratings) ★★★★★

PDF | by download [9.88 MByte]  
Entropy Dropping by Jan Bardi

Explorations of a 100% hands-off "volunteer as psychic" plot and method.

"I find 'Entropy Dropping' an amazing piece of work. Jan creates a world of new possibilities and I doubt anyone else could have tackled the topic as thoroughly. Every nuance is addressed. Many applications are covered. Accompanying his explanation are dozens of routines. Being a card man at heart, I was especially attracted to the four card magic chapters. Great inspiration all! I envy Jan's clarity and how painstakingly thorough he is in explaining the material and creating so many effects. I know how difficult that can be. All the charts and cribs are beautifully rendered, and there's something here for every mentalist." - Leo H. Boudreau
Triggered by a recent quantum thermodynamics insight, Belgium-based celebrity mentalist Jan Bardi starts out with an underused hands-off approach for "Out Of This World"-like effects with a small number of objects. The method exploration quickly diverges into a multitude of unprecedented applications with items and act plots rarely associated with Paul Curry's celebrated card magic masterpiece.

Seemingly just following their intuition, your volunteers will mysteriously separate not just playing cards, but also words, dice, business cards, drawings, crime scene reports, poker hands, terrorism suspect lists, toy objects, gift boxes, astrology charts, wallets, ESP symbols, lottery forms, card decks, poems, eggs, and even other spectators.

The text offers much more than just routines where a volunteer appears to intuitively sort items in two groups orderly, without you ever interfering with the items. You'll also physically prove that four-leaf clover brings luck, teleport a chosen playing card from one deck to another in fourfold, recite a poem to have your audience materially travel back in time, and more. "Namecaster" details an intriguing self-working love oracle, that automatically foretells the name of your volunteer's next romantic interest. In his guest contribution "Order Out of Chaos" in the final act chapter, 'binary magic' pioneer Leo Boudreau takes the idea in still another direction.

The acts for close-up, living room, and stage settings are a mix of newly developed ideas and existing stunts from the author's TV and live performances. Despite their diversity, the effects mostly share a common trait. They typically allow for a 100% hands-off "volunteer as psychic" presentation, where the performer without any prior contact guides innocent spectators through the act from a distance, leaving them at climax time as mystified as the rest of the audience.

Still unsure Entropy Dropping is for you? Download the free preview extract here.

  • Order Miracles
  • Sample Effect Summaries
  • Four means three
    • Herd Instinct
    • Cards Never Lie
    • Dice Don't Either
    • OFOOTW
    • Eggs of Destiny
    • Ready for the Big Leap?
  • Six means ten
    • Soul Character
    • Digital Soul
    • Poker Hand Sensing
    • Astrologer's Delight
    • Entropy Sinks Profoundly
    • Picture Power
    • Dating Profile Sorcery
    • Six Appeal
  • Eight means thirty-five
    • Hacker Tell
    • Quartoportation
    • Time Travel Poetry
    • Winners Find Winners
  • Ten means one hundred twenty-six
    • Psychic Threat Assessor
    • Namecaster
  • Beyond Binary
    • Show Ticket Matching
  • Special Guest Contribution by Leo H. Boudreau
    • Order Out of Chaos
  • Letting Go
    • One Book Later
    • Inspired by the Works of...

1st edition 2021, PDF 283 pages.
word count: 66700 which is equivalent to 266 standard pages of text



Reviewed by Avi Barir (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Thursday 18 November, 2021

This is one of the best mentalism books I have read and without a doubt the most inspiring book. At the basis of this tome, there is a single technique, which is a nice and interesting one, but not unusual in the realm of mentalism. What makes the book so amazing is the ingenuity of Jan Bardi who managed to take this technique and create an entire universe out of it. Jan stretches the technique in every possible dimension: He extends it to use almost any object, tangible or abstract, anything from playing cards to poems and from genuine eggs to crime scene reports. He scales it up for use with increasing number of objects. He describes numerous handling methods and diverse approaches to revelations. The highlight for me is the chapter where Jan ingeniously describes how to embed the technique, with its underlying mathematical principle, into easy-to-prepare props. The book covers dozens of routines that are all based on the same fundamental technique. For each of these routines many variations are offered. Inspiration is the main thing I take from the book. It implicitly sends you on a mission, taking every effect you use, and with the right thinking turn it into something bigger, stronger, smarter, more diverse, much different, and more impressive. Jan Bardi, I'm totally fascinated by your book.

Reviewed by Richard Burbage (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Thursday 25 March, 2021

I have been a fan of magic based on mathematical principles for years, especially those that can be easily concealed so there is no obvious connection to math for the spectator to grasp. For that reason, I thoroughly enjoyed learning from "Entropy Dropping". The author has taken a well-worn principle and twisted it into a new direction, or at least is looking at it from a perspective I have not come across before. Although one could certainly perform the effects described as written, it is a breeze for even a slightly creative person to make them their own by changing theme or props. I have had hours of fun dreaming up versions of "Entropy Dropping" effects. They are easy to perform and pack a good punch.

I have been interested in magic as a hobby for over 50 years, and spent a good number of years performing, and have dabbled in running a brick-and-mortar magic shop. I enjoy all styles of magic but have focused on closeup and parlor magic for the most part.