Reviews: Read What Brian Reaves Is Saying
2 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
Mes(s)merize
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 21 March, 2024)
What I love about this is the apparent impossibility of the ending, along with the overwhelming fairness of the audience's involvement in the process. If you are doing a parlor show, this is a fantastic way of beginning things. People can truly write down whatever thoughts they want, and you are working a miracle in the process. The props are indeed "pack small play big" and the one-time setup won't take that long. You'll need at least 20 people involved in this for safety's sake, but other than that there aren't really that many limitations. You can have just about any word as the reveal at the end, so bookend it to something else in your act.
Commercial Gems Volume 3
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 18 January, 2023)
Mel delivers some great jokes here and two of the routines are easily doable in a pinch. The Q&A Teapot routine requires a little work and probably will fly by most non-British audiences who don't see teapots very often, but the other two are fun. I wouldn't call any of them mind-blowing or incredible finales, but these are nice asides to have ready for the right audience and situation. Mel's sense of humor is evident here and I can only imagine how much fun he must be live. For the price, you're getting a couple of great routines and one you probably won't use as-is, but all of it can be adapted to your performing style, I think.
Toronto Kufference 2011
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 18 January, 2023)
This is a varied collection of effects. Some of them are good, and some are just an interesting read that you'll probably never perform. The glow stick trick in particular requires a good bit of financial commitment on your part for a single trick that may be strong for Patrick but I don't know who else will go to the expense. There are card tricks and mentalism in here as well, and as I mentioned, even the tricks you won't do might give you a few ideas for something else.
Balls
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 18 January, 2023)
In the right situation, this is nice. You can do it alone, but the assisted version is much stronger. Once you construct the props necessary, you'll be set to go from that point forward (except for the prediction, of course). This is a cheap alternative to the expensive prediction chest models out there that accomplishes the same thing using a very similar method, so if you're just wanting to see if it fits in your act before investing in shiny expensive props, get this. The single-person version of this isn't as strong as some other methods out there though.
Headline Hunter
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 22 July, 2021)
Considering there are a lot of variations of this out there at much higher prices, this is a bargain for what you're getting. There is a setup you'll need to do before the show to create the gimmick you will need. I wish I could say it was a one-time thing, but the problem with doing newspaper reads like this is the fact that you'll have to create a new gimmick about every month or so because of the way newspapers age. That being said, it would not be difficult to adapt this particular method to magazines, which would allow you to keep a gimmick for much longer, although the cost per show of ripping up a magazine is considerably more than a newspaper, and the cost of your setup would be considerably higher.
The explanation for this is very easy to understand. You truly can use random newspapers, and you can even have the venue supply the papers to "up the impossibility" of the situation. It is not impromptu, but after you do the setup you are ready to go for at least a couple of shows if you play it right.
Fake Gambling Act
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Brian Reaves (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 27 December, 2017)
Not that great of a routine. Each part can be done separately to appear you are an expert in that aspect, but you can't sit down and do this entire routine at once to show all the aspects of your "skill". True, nothing more than a double lift is ever required here, yet there are better full routines out there. If you don't want to put forth a lot of effort or just want to show off one "talent" like second dealing or center dealing, you may find something here to use. Otherwise, keep searching.