Reviews: Read What Others Are Saying: page 17
216 ★★★★★ reviews
150 ★★★★★ reviews
93 ★★★★★ reviews
139 ★★★★★ reviews
Jinx
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Dominik Dlabacek (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 12 April, 2024)
Worth every penny.
Propless Chronologue
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ray Jack (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 12 April, 2024)
I have been performing a version of Bob Cassidy's Chronologue with my own set of handwritten diaries for the past several years. So I was intrigued how Chronologue can be made 'Propless' and picked this up - and happy that I did. Using his own birthday, a helper arrives at a playing card - this process is basic and brilliant. Nothing is spoken or written down - everything is done in his head by the helper. And you can reveal the lucky card directly without fishing. I will be using this. Especially as a follow up to my regular Chronologue routine.
Jinx
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by John Yost (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 11 April, 2024)
I was interested in a few items and not the card tricks so much. There is A LOT to read and I haven't looked at it all but what I have read is interesting. Having a bit of trouble re-locating index after finding it initially. My fault I'm sure. I am not a pro magician.
Think Link
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ray Jack (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 11 April, 2024)
Usually, I tend to forget the process in propless routines if I do not perform that routine regularly. But this one is an exception, I feel. The process here is simple, direct and difficult to forget once you understand the underlying principle. The theme of travel and countries is both interesting and relatable. I tried the first routine (Argentina) on a colleague today and it worked like a charm.
Sawing Illusion Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
A little quick booklet to give you a brief idea of many different techniques to cut someone in two. For 3 bucks, you have enough for your money but don't expect to have any details on how to build these illusions yourself. This is more like a decision maker document, so you can then investigate further on the methods somewhere else after you made your choice of method...
Tops Treasury of Illusions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
Wow! What a great and generous illusion book for inspiration! So many effects are explained in good detail, for a reasonable price! You will find at least 5 illusions that you will want to include in your show and tons of inspiration to create your own! Of course, this is an old book and of course, some material in there is outdated, but you have to read it as a history book, full of seeds for planting ideas in your mind that will grow in various directions! The best illusion book I found on Lybrary.com yet...
ZIP: zodiac prediction
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ray Jack
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
A convoluted method that turns a simple method into a complex one and you cannot even give out your card as a souvenir. Disappointing.
Month ID
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ray Jack
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
This is a lengthy math process. I found it quite complex. After trying to wrap my head around it for a full day, I gave up. It seemed a lot of hard work just to reveal the month of birth.
Zodiac Oracle
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ray Jack (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
This is a smart idea in principle. A very clever application of the classic clock trick. But the downside is the laborious counting procedure. It is almost like dealing two full deck of playing cards. Although a shortcut is given, it makes the process a little suspicious. But overall a good idea to have in your arsenal.
Pure Q and A
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Gregg Webb (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 09 April, 2024)
I found this to be the most audacious method and presentation for a Q&A act I've yet read. To pull this off, you'd have to be steeped in this kind of work so as to be able to come up with something to say. The thing is, you are doing just what you claim to be doing...saying what you think and not making any claims that you have to back up. Certain questions you refuse to answer and you tell why...medical issues or lotto numbers etc. The act is divided into 4 parts if I'm not mistaken. Certainly tough to learn, but if you already have the ability to do readings, this is really easier than all the gaffed methods for getting info. And, if you don't know an answer, you just say so, and since you are not claiming true powers, the audience is said to go along with you on this, and don't turn against you. I plan on rereading this and Paul's other books regularly because he has hit upon a very unusual style.
Card Kinetics
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jonathan LOUCHART (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 08 April, 2024)
Since reading "Angel card rise plus" I discovered the work of David Britland and I am a fan! Card Kinetics is the natural extension of "Angel card rise plus", it will allow you to expand your elastic and invisible thread routines.
Just Five!
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Randy Hill (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 07 April, 2024)
Nice Variations of card effects, but probably nothing that would fit with what I normally do.
Hat-A-Rama
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Joe Libby (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 06 April, 2024)
This bit of business is a natural for kid show performers. Congratulations to Devin for seeing the potential in this. Currently, it appears the honeycomb hats are brightly colored on all sides, so the plunger bit probably won't work. But you can do the alternate setup of a vase with a flower in it. As I write this, you can buy one or two hats, reasonably priced, from some eBay dealers and from AliExpress. Just use the search term Devin mentions and you should be able to find them. Keep the kiddos laughing!
Hex
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jeff Chandler (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 06 April, 2024)
I haven't had a chance to thoroughly explore this. But I know I won't be disappointed.
Slydini Fan Steal
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jeff Chandler (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 06 April, 2024)
It's short and to the point. For $2 it was a bargain as this was a sleight I didn't know. And it's the great Allan Ackerman teaching it.
27 Illusions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 05 April, 2024)
If you are looking for a good illusion book, this one is not for you. The project was surely original and cool for the architecture students, but these "illusions" have been totally thought by amateurs, in an amateur way, for amateurs. Most methods are so simplistic that anyone in the audience will figure them out immediately. But the worst is that all the pictures are about 1 inch by 1 inch and are blurry and taken from 75 feet away, so you can't see anything. And the plans are hard to understand without good explanations to come with them. If the price was set at $3, then, maybe it would deserve 2 stars, but at $20, it is a big waste of money!
Levitation Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 03 April, 2024)
Not too bad little compilation list to have in your repertoire, just to remind you all the possibilities you have in terms of levitations. However, I was disappointed to see how poor the texts and drawings are! Ok, the very low price partially compensates for the lack of any details and explanations. This booklet certainly won't help you to know how to build illusions yourself, but it is a good little notebook to serve as a decision maker, to choose what method you want before investigating yourself to find out how to build it yourself or where to buy it... Worth your 3$, but not a penny more!
Illusions Illusions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 03 April, 2024)
A great compilation of Abbott's illusions plans that is a must for every professional illusionist. The instructions are easy to understand and the plans are clear and precise. The only downside is that many illusions in that book are marked as Abbott's property and creation, with absolutely no mention to the real creator: U. F. Grant. Many of them are even taken directly, without any changes, from Grant's books! Would it be possible for Abbott to correct that and to finally give credit to the creator?
Power of Persuasion
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Bill Irwin (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 03 April, 2024)
Dated for material, but an interesting read and useful for background reference.
Glass of Water Production Routine
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Bill Irwin (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 03 April, 2024)
Great for the streets and fun to do. This is a nice documentary of the effect.
Modern Levitations
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 03 April, 2024)
I give it only 3 stars, because I was expecting more effective levitation effects. In this book, I only found two. Super X levitation is a classic and here you will find a way to build it for a few bucks. Best Yet Levitation is a way of doing a levitation almost impromptu, without specialized equipment. There is also a floating table effect that is somewhat interesting, but other than those 3 effects, all the rest published in this book, which means the Parlor Ashra and the Miracle Suspension, is pure junk, or to stay polite, rather useless material!
Grant's Illusion Secrets
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 02 April, 2024)
A good little illusion book by a great Illusion creator, for a very cheap price! Highly recommended to produce a big scale show with a tight budget. However, if you are going to buy the Devon Knight's compilation called Grant's Lost Secrets, you don't have to buy this one, as most of the illusions of this book are in the other one.
U. F. Grant's Lost Illusion Secrets Revealed
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 02 April, 2024)
Very interesting compilation of illusions and documents written by U.F. Grant. Dozens of great illusions ideas and principles that can be adapted to fit your own show. This is a historical book, so you have to know in advance that some principles are outdated for today's reality. Also, a few illustrations are missing, mostly in the last section. However, you have to read it to get your own imagination stimulated to create your own stuff, and most of the illusions that don't have illustrations, you can figure out what it's supposed to look like. But still, many of the illusions in this book can be used as is, and they are near perfect as is! Even if you only use one of them in your show, it's gotta easily repay the price of the book. Talking about the price, it seems a little too pricy to me, compared to other books of that age, and of public domain. $20 or $25 would have been more appropriate. But that being said, I don't regret my purchase and I would buy it again knowing what I know now...
Four Told 2: Modern Symbol Edition
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Frederic Clement (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 30 March, 2024)
The psychology behind this mental feat is ingenuous and explained in great detail like Devin Knight is always doing well. The downsides are :
1. The relative complexity of all the techniques you have to remember and adjust, depending on the different possible situations are not for the beginner. You have to think fast and be alert and concentrated to do that kind of effect. If you are easily distracted and you have difficulties following a logical deduction reasoning, this is not for you.
2. This kind of effect is extremely difficult to practice in advance until you perform it on a real audience.
3. Someone wise could probably catch the method used rather easily. You are not asking questions, but telling people to do this or that depending on their choice may be perceived by many as tips for knowing who's thinking about what.
4. Limited choices to only 5 items, making less impressive than a book test or other, more diversified choice's mentalism number.
But despite those downfalls, it is as close to pure mentalism as you could get for starting a show, if you are experienced. It could be presented as a test to check who's good to transmit thoughts before going deeper into mentalism.
Overall, I highly recommend it to anyone fast minded who wants a pure-looking mentalism effect to start his show or for any performer who wants to improve his concentration in mentalism.
China's Song
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Richard Southall (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 29 March, 2024)
I love Bunco effects and I am familiar with many different ones but I had never come across this effect. Like three card monte and shells and pea you have to find one of three objects and it is never where you think it is. Brick explains the moves well and the accompanying videos clearly explain how to do all the moves. Also because this effect has, inexplicably, received so little attention from magicians I believe it has a lot of potential for further development. If you are into Bunco effects you should absolutely get this.