I am a lowly but well-read hobbyist. Memdeck routines with a mentalist presentation is exactly what I was looking for. But I have to say, Varella's Memorable Mentalism was disappointing.
The first half of the book is devoted to background about stacks and with helping you find and memorize a stack. There is a single page about switching in a stacked deck, which I found helpful.
There are four close up tricks offered, and this was the biggest disappointment. Not only are the ideas simple (to the point of simplistic), there are no suggestions about how to present them as mentalism (unless you find this line helpful: 'My patter revolved around intuition, coincidence or pure luck.'). They're tricks, not magic.
There is essentially a single idea for stage or television, and it involves a tiresome cliche as method (with minor variations).
The saving grace of this book is the Bonus Effect, Varella's variation of Elhers's famous routine in Ackerman's Las Vegas Kardma. (Oddly, Varella spends six pages on the previous five tricks, then devotes six pages to this single 'bonus' effect!) I don't expect I'll use any of his ideas, but the ideas are good and thought-provoking.
The book offers many sources as credits. There are better places for a beginner to start with stacks and memdeck work, and they can be found in this bibliography.
