Reviews: Read What Carlos Negron Is Saying
3 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
Comedy Mind Reading Act
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Carlos Negron (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 08 March, 2010)
Mind provoking act that could provide ideas for your own act. Some may already know the gags used in this act but for me it was mind provoking and provided ideas for my
own act. For $10.00 it is worth the price.
Complete Two Ball Sponge Ball Routine
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Carlos Negron (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 17 June, 2009)
If you are new to sponge magic and know some things about it, but need a routine this is a good start.
But you should know some things about using sponge balls already.
For the price you can not go wrong and the routine is solid worker stuff. My only pet peve here is that the description advertises that this could be done as a street routine. I have to say that unless you have a table you can not do this routine as written in the street (or the author does not describe the differences between doing this routine in the street vs. table hopping).
It did strike my imagination and gave me something to walk away with. You get to see and example of patter and presentation of the effect which I think a lot of books lack. The routine itself, to me, provides something different from standard sponge routines.
I gave it 3 for false advertisement, but that is just my opinion.
Blue and Gold: The Complete Guide to Working The Scout Market
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Carlos Negron (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 30 May, 2009)
Blue and Gold E-Book Review
I gave this E-book a rating of 3. I would have rated this a 2 based on the price paid, but bumped it up to a 3 because I know that:
1. You will make your money back on this if you are already a seasoned performer. 2. You get some ideas and help from one of the most generous persons in magic today who will in no doubt help you further in working this venue.
I do not recommend this E-book for the following people:
1. Those who are not seasoned Family/Children entertainers. 2. Those who already work in this market.
This e-book is a small push in the right direction for the seasoned Family/Children entertainer to increase their work by focusing on this market. Besides the lack of edit/proof reading (there are some grammatical and spelling errors), Kyle shares some “ideas” and experiences that has worked for him.
The E-book starts off slow with an introduction and reasons of working and not working this market. I feel a lot of the material in this section could have been minimized or left out. The most interesting part in this section is where he describes how the Scouts began. So the first 9 pages provide a very small value before you start hitting some valuable information. On a scale of 1 to 5 I give this section a 1.
Next is budgets and fees, which is one of the most important subjects that first come to mind in working any venue. This section falls a little short of what I expected because you are only given general guidelines on what to charge and how to figure out what to charge. It leaves the reader to work it out on his own. I expected real world numbers and experience. This should be nothing new for the seasoned performer would naturally do this on his own. I give this section a 2.
Next is about packages to offer and the length of your show. This information sparks the creative juices and provides some ideas on what to offer this market. The details of the venue are broken down and valuable advise is given that will give you a head start on what to expect from this type of venue. I would describe these pages as Kyle's tips and tricks. Good stuff here, I give this section a 4.
After 16 pages, you finally get into the marketing aspects. This is what you are paying for and what this E-book advertises. You get a list of resources, techniques on approaches, and small examples. Overall good material on how to do the leg work and marketing steps to get you moving in the right direction. The thing lacking here is real world examples. There is a sample sales letter and scripts but they leave you short of just having to find your own way on this. Then there is a brief mention about promotional material. I would have expected at least an example on what Kyle's promotional material looked like and details on these items. I give this section a 3.
So now you are up to page 28 and we get into the show aspects. There are some good ideas, some concrete examples, but nothing of any detail. You are not going to get a full act out of this section. This is where the E-book started to fail me because if your going to mention this stuff you might as well go all the way. What does Kyle do at these shows? What is the structure of the show? David Ginn certainly provides that info, why not provide that here since it is brought up. What made up for this, was the ideas provided on back of room sales; marketing yourself at the event; and extending what you learned to make the venue work for you through out the year. I give this section a 3.
In short, you are given a lot of ideas that you are left to sort out yourself. Some of the ideas should be obvious to the seasoned performer; some are specific to this venue; and others are those ideas you know about but might have forgotten.
I hope this review helps.
My one pet peve is where there is an endorsment from Ken Scott, and then in the book there is mention of Ken Scott's product.
PK Revolution
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Carlos Negron (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 13 November, 2008)
For the price you might find something to add to your repertoire, but if you are already familiar how PK works there is nothing new here.
Professional Close-Up
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Carlos Negron (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 15 November, 2007)
I hate to give this review but I want to give the author some credit after reading this book. Why? Because I want this information to be all mine.
If you have been doing magic in your bedroom, mirror, family, and friends and want to take the show on the road. Here is a no-nonsence book on what you need to do. I think even if you have been performing and don't think your doing what you think you should be doing...well this book might have some tips for you.
An easy read that is packed with the facts.
This is the best book I've downloaded yet to date from Lybrary. What more can I say...
No tricks, just straight talk on what one must do in order to perform, get gigs, and keep gigs.