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Hemispheres

Jay Sankey

Sankey Magic

(Based on 2 reviews)
"Mentalism is the art of exploring and revealing hidden connections." - Jay Sankey

Featuring OVER 3 HOURS of outstanding "magic of the mind," HEMISPHERES is an ingenious collection of 20 startling psychic effects, many of which Jay is sharing for the very first time. This exciting dvd includes "experiments and demonstrations" with business cards, coins, watches, playing cards, fortune cookies, photographs, magazines, notepads, paper money, tarot cards, play-doh and even a doll's eye!

And thanks to Jay's philosophy of "mind over muscle," the majority of these truly startling routines require VERY LITTLE SLEIGHT-OF-HANDABILITY! Instead, the emphasis is on full presentations and nurturing a REAL connection with your audiences. Jay even includes an enormous amount of scripting right out of his own professional repertoire!

Jay also discusses the importance of making your mentalism as visual as possible, deflecting focus away from yourself, the relationship between simplicity and flexibility, the power of the implicit, and the performance of what Jay calls "meaningful mentalism."

Jay even shares "The Punch Principle" and "The Billet Delivery System" two exciting new techniques he's been keeping to himself for years!

And as a very special ADDED BONUS Jay has included a professionally printed, full-color photograph for his incredible PHOTO FINISH routine!

Here are JUST A FEW of the 20 incredible routines:

NONEXISTENT

The mentalist predicts the name of person nobody has ever met!

THIRD EYE

Three randomly selected cards are "seen" with a doll's eye!

DOLLARS & SENSE

From several different receipts, an audience member chooses the receipt matching the exact amount of money held in their own hand!

HYPERSENSITVE

The dates of three borrowed coins are divined in an exceptionally fair fashion!

CONSTELLATION

With just two business cards and two markers the mentalist reveals an inexplicable connection between himself and a member of the audience.

RECEPTION

The psychic successfully "sends" a mental image of a glass of wine, right down to the exact level of the liquid!

Running Time Approximately 206min

Reviews

Josh Burch

Jul 01, 2014

This DVD is a wonderful mix of strong close up and stage mentalism. I have owned this DVD for a few years now and find myself returning to it for inspiration from time to time.

Jay has a knack for finding methods that have potential and exploring those methods to their fullest extent. This DVD was no exception and although I was familiar with many of the methods used the framing application of those methods fooled me more than a couple times.

The production value is very good higher than most of the DVD’s I own. It is the basic format of here’s a trick and here’s the explanation. There aren’t any live performances included on the DVD, everything is performed to the camera, but I don’t feel like it takes anything away. Jay is very professional and still very entertaining.

Directors Cut is a super versatile way to force any object on a list written on a piece of paper. I personally have used this to force baseball players, Disney characters, articles of clothing and celebrities. This is a great piece that would work well in a parlor or even a stage setting without too much hassle and it is very easy to perform.

Third Eye is a creepy version of popular mentalism effect with multiple selected cards. The selections are tossed in a bag and you are able to divine their identities through a glass eye. I personally use a pair of old glasses as Jay suggests in an alternate presentation. This is a great trick and works well for stage as well as close up. It’s really a rare gem in that regard.

A Choice effect is a great way to predict a chosen card. Jay uses Tarot on the DVD but I love to use Clue cards and divine who done it. You could personalize this with photos, playing cards or baseball cards if you wanted.

Dollars and Sense this is an ingenious application of Jay’s full view switch which you can learn on his Paperclipped DVD among other places. Here though he has taken out any advanced sleight of hand and the trick almost works itself. This is another one that could work in a parlor setting and is very customizable. Jay gives a couple alternative ideas but really you could let your mind go wild!

Photo Finish is an inventive application of an old card cutting sequence. The new framing of the effect is brilliant. I used this sequence in other ways in the past but Jay’s framing makes it stand out as a very strong closer. Basically after a participant or two make a couple random cuts the magician reveals that he too made those exact cuts earlier and he has photo evidence of it. Keith Barry actually used this on one his television shows to great effect. This can be very customizable as well, you could cut to a date and reveal that date on a picture, or place a menu from the restaurant you work at in the picture. You could carry a few pictures with you and have a great souvenir to give out after a show. This is very good.

Child's Play is a very creative piece of mentalism that is about as unique as it gets and it works for kids. Basically your participant guesses the color of a piece of play dough. I love this kind of effect and I think we need more like it in magic.

Intersection reminds me of an old joke some use to say that each card has a name. Well in this instance the spectator selects a card and a name. Sure enough that name is revealed, written on the back of the card they chose. This is a very fun routine.

As you can see there are definitely a few pieces of solid magic here. I think this DVD would be the perfect place for somebody who is new to mentalism to get their start. There are so many great effects here for so many different situations with some being impromptu and some requiring gimmicks. Almost everything is easy to do and very customizable. If this is the only Sankey DVD you own I think you’d be very happy with this.
(Top ▲)

Christian

Official Reviewer

Apr 02, 2008

I should state right up front I am not a Jay Sankey fan. I’m not saying that I don’t like him or his work; I just want to confirm that I am not a member of his fan club. While I have found some of his previous works to be inspiring, I have also watched him churn out some real stinkers. I confess this so you know where I stand as I review this DVD.

As the DVD started, my first reaction was that this looked like a DVD for a beginner in mentalism. It was not exciting me. But somewhere around the third effect on the disc, I began to take notes. The DVD is packed with 20 effects. That is quite a few. There are some repeated effects. Ones that have been on previous DVD’s but he admits that on the disc and gives reasons why he duplicated the material.

Even with the duplicated pieces there is more than enough new material to keep you happy for the money you spent. I personally highlighted 7 effects for further examination. Beyond just the tricks he was also dispersing copious amounts of theory and performance tips. I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD.

For the fans, I will warn you this seems like a more laid back Sankey. He was not quite as quirky as he seems in his earlier DVDs. This affected me neither positively or negatively, it’s just an observation.

The material is interesting and with some thought one could easily use some of his methodologies for their own performances. Much of the material is fine just the way he performs it. There are some definite ready to rock pieces on this DVD. Others will take time, practice, and patience.

There are also a few card effects that I don’t really feel fit in the mode of mentalism, but they were fun and still worth watching. A good portion of the material is non-card.

The ad copy is accurate and the tricks listed play just like they are described.

This is a really solid DVD and I quite enjoyed it.
I can easily recommend this DVD to anyone looking for mentalism pieces
(Top ▲)