Annemann's Practical Mental Effects Vol. 1
Osterlind, Richard
Jim Sisti
Annemann's Practical Mental Effects has been a landmark book for magicians and mentalists since its release in 1944. The routines that are contained in its pages have been influencing mystery performers for over 75 years.
This exciting new DVD series explores the work of Annemann and his Jinx contributors in a scholarly way, analyzing not only the presentation of some of the strongest mentalism ever created but also the thinking behind the effects. Richard Osterlind first performs the effects in their original form before an audience of non-magicians and then very nuance is exhaustively explained with the assistance of Jim Sisti.
Effects performed and explained in this volume include:
- Magic vs. Mentalism
- Slate Immortality
- A Question and the Answer
- The OM Billet Switching Box
- Psychic Slate Test
- Taps
- Notaria
- The Word On The Page
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Over the years, the wonderful Richard Osterlind has put together numerous DVDs and written materials that highly leverages and updates the Annemann material. Some of it is a direct pull from 'PME'.
So, Osterlind felt it was time to give the masterwork its due and produce an instructional DVD of the book. He attempted this years before with Corinda's "13 Steps" book to decidedly mixed results (it's pretty good in spots and bloated and soporific in other spots). With his business partner Jim Sisti and their own production group (no more of the same faces seen in all L&L Videos!) taking PME to a local college, Richard pulls the "cream of the crop" of effects from Annemann, performs and teaches over 6 DVDs (2 sets of 3 -- but each DVD must be purchased separately).
You can look at Jeff Stone's careful and detailed review of each effect on each disk ... but I will talk about the series as a whole.
The set is fabulous. The effects are top notch and very well performed by the experienced and talented Mr. O. While the teaching varies a bit (some is a bit longer than necessary, some refers the viewer to pick up the book and learn certain parts -- or the original way Annemann authored the effect that RO changed) but for the most part is very clear and full of those little "Osterlind tips" that come only through years of trial, error and performance.
In the end, you will want to buy the whole set (rather all six disks). As a group, the value is tremendous. Individually, value may vary (as Jeff points out in his review notes) but still 93-notches higher than anything else out there.
I have knocked off a star because of the overall price and the fact that this should be sold as two 3-disk sets. Otherwise, top notch production quality and fabulous effects, performance and teaching.
(Top ▲)
If you want to know what is in the pages of Annemann’s Practical Mental Effects but are too lazy to read, then this DVD set will give you a very good introduction.
Richard has culled a good sampling of tricks from the book. He demonstrates them for a live audience and then sits with Jim Sisti and explains them very well. I think in keeping with the flavor of the book, Richard demonstrates the tricks with little presentation. You are simply seeing the bare bones. I like this, in the fact that you are only concentrating on the methods and not so apt to copy a presentation that you see. It will be up to you to come up with engaging presentations.
For people who have studied this book and hoarded its secrets like a jealous 1849 gold digger, it is horrific to see these secrets paraded out in the daylight. As has been said many times, if you want to keep a secret just put it in print. This is how Practical Mental Effects as been for last few decades. Everyone knows about it and owns it, but few people have read it. Now, Richard Osterlind has churned out three DVDs sharing the secrets that have been hiding in plain sight for so many years.
Is it worth the money. Sure. Richard does a fine job of demonstrating the tricks within the pages of this mighty tome. You can spend the money and watch them. That’s good. Or . . . you can read the book . . . even better.
(Top ▲)
How Shall I Judge?
This whole set is a weird set to judge and review. It's not quite fair to judge Richard Osterlind on any weak parts of the performance he may have had because, likely, most of the stuff on this set is not in his regular repertoire so I don't expect it to be polished. Secondly, according to Jim Sisti (co-host), this set also was not intended to be a "best of" series either, so I can't really judge the set based on whether or not the material chosen was the top Annemann stuff either. Due to the way the Annemann book was written (as Osterlind and Sisti point out), it wouldn't make sense to go chapter by chapter (like Osterlind did for the Corinda series), so I can't really judge the set on how "complete" (or not) it is.
So, that leaves me judging the set based on the ad copy claims and the intent (according to Jim Sisti) of the set. My judgement on that is basically the same for the first 3 videos, so this part of the review will be found at the beginning of each of the three (1, 2 and 3) volumes. Following my general comments about the series, you'll find my thoughts on the effects of whichever DVD I'm reviewing.
General Comments About the Whole Set
A small disclaimer: Jim Sisti is a friend of mine and Richard Osterlind is a cyber-acquaintance of mine. We have a few friends in common (Jim Sisti, Jim Spinnato and Chet Cox). But as you'll quickly see, those relationships have not biased my review. Let's look at the ad copy first. The first paragraph of the ad copy is 100% true. It just talks about how popular the book is amongst mentalists and magicians. Let's look, however, at the second paragraph:
This exciting new DVD series explores the work of Annemann and his Jinx contributors in a scholarly way, analyzing not only the presentation of some of the strongest mentalism ever created but also the thinking behind the effects. Richard Osterlind first performs the effects in their original form before an audience of non-magicians and then [e]very nuance is exhaustively explained with the assistance of Jim Sisti.
Exciting? Not really. While some of the performances were smoother and more entertaining than others, many of the performances were full of awkward moments, dry boring silence, a fair share of bumbling and fumbling. However, I'm not too upset by that. As I mentioned, these are not effects that Osterlind performs on a regular basis, as far as I know up to this point. And the ones that he does perform more often . . . it showed. Those routines were much more polished. I'm merely pointing out that the DVD was not as exciting - it was even hard to watch at times - as the ad copy claims.
Is the material explored in a scholarly way as stated in the ad copy? Yes. Definitely. Sisti and Osterlind were very clear on credits and history and the reasoning behind methods and effects. This part was well done. Additionally, the opening sequence of each DVD is a cool little photo montage with a brief voice over bio about Annemman. Very cool. Obviously the claim that the material from the Annemann book is some of the strongest mentalism ever created is true as well. For sure.
Next the ad copy states that Osterlind performs each effect in their original form. This is not true in many (maybe even most) cases. In just about every routine, he changed the handling, method, prop and in some cases even the effect. For the most part this wasn't a big deal because that's just the way it goes; performers don't always use the exact method from the book. In some cases, Osterlind's addition made the effect even better in my opinion. There were some cases where his insight on the modification of the method where very simple and very clever.
I merely bring up the changes because it goes against the claim in the ad copy. Further, the claim that every nuance is exhaustively explained is just not true. In fact, on more times than I care to recall, Osterlind said, "if you want the details you can look it up in the book." Or, "I'm not gonna cover this in depth because you can get the details from the book." And several variations thereof.
So, you may ask yourself, why I get so hung up on scrutinizing the ad copy. Simple: when you buy a product, you should know what you're getting. I'm not even saying (necessarily) that the deviation from the ad copy is right or wrong. I'm merely making clear to you, my faithful reader, what you're really getting if you buy this set. If I based my review solely on the above, I'd be hard pressed to give much more than 2.5 stars, but wait . . . there's more.
Let's examine the purpose. According to the discussions (which I did find valuable and insightful) between Osterlind and Sisti, the intent of this set is to inspire people to dig through the book. They were very clear that they weren't trying to replace the book. They were trying to inspire a new generation of Annemannites. Based strictly on the impact the majority of the effects seemed to have on the audience (poor performances not withstanding), I think they nailed this one.
I've personally read the book 2 times from cover to cover and have skimmed and read chapters and studied parts of the book several times over, on top of the 2 full readings. Yet, after watching these DVDs, I now want to go back in and dig even deeper into the book. Most of the time, the audience members were quite astonished and in many cases actually creeped out a bit. It was some powerful stuff. One of the advantages of Osterlind's bare-bones presentations on much of this material is that it gave me the opportunity to project my thoughts and feelings on how I might perform the effects.
Further, a goal of this set was to prove that the material was not "dated." Yep. They proved that too. The material, effects, etc. is anything but dated. Rather, it's timeless . . . and you see this very clearly in the audience reactions. Were I to judge this DVD soley on this part (how well they attained the goals of the project), it'd be hard to give this anything less than 4 stars. So the advertisement and intent seem to balance out each other pretty well.
What you'll find is that pretty much every DVD has one or two standout items that will inspire you to dive into the book more thoroughly. Which effects will inspire you? Everyone is different, so it's hard to say. However, I am confident that you will find at least one effect that "moves" you and gets you to crack open the book again which was their goal. And I must say, that goal alone makes this DVD set worthy of consideration. Anything that inspires us to turn to our roots so that we can branch out is valuable in my book. Let's move on to the DVD at hand . . .
Thoughts on Volume I
Seriously, I've got too much time on my hands (thank you Styx). In an attempt to give accurate and fair reviews of this six volume set, I've watched the first three disks three times each and the last three twice each . . . so here goes the first one.
The Effects:
Magic vs. Mentalism (4 stars)
If the intent is to get people to dive into the Annemann book, maybe a better effect could have been chosen to start off. This is a good effect, no doubt, but it's very familiar feeling to a lot of effects that you've probably seen. Basic effect: Two decks are used. Spectator freely chooses which deck to use. She thinks of a card from that deck. Then (after a shuffle), the spectator deals cards one at a time (one card for each letter of her thought of card). The card is found at that position. Then the other deck is opened by the spectator and she deals again spelling her card only to again find it at that same position. The effect is solid and the method is easy, and best of all, I really like a very simple yet very valuable tip that Richard gave regarding which two decks he uses for the effect. Very clever. Plus he added a kicker that I loved that is not found in the book. That kicker alone bumped this effect from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Slate Immortality (4 stars)
This has always been a favorite of mine from PME. In short, a chalk board slate and some chalk are all that's needed. Six people write a name down on a chalk board. Only one of the six names is a dead person. You are able to tell which one is the dead person. First, many people say that you shouldn't do living and dead tests anymore, and further, people think that slates are no longer hip and outdated. Richard proved both theories wrong. Great effect; great method; done exactly as written up in the book.
A Question and the Answer (3.5 stars)
This is a great effect for a simple small group of 3 or 4 people where you ask a single person to write down a question and have another person initial the paper and hold it the entire time. Yet you are able to answer the question. Simple and easy. But I do feel that Richard made a mistake on this. The girl's question was "Will I win an AVA award." When he "read her mind to figure out the question," he said that yes she would win an AVA award in May. I think something that direct should not be said. You're really messing with a person's emotions here. He never discussed the ethics of this.
The OM Billet Switching Box(4.5 stars)
This is one that is explained in the title. However, the routine that Osterlind used it for was very clever and combined several principles together to make a very powerful effect. Of course he used a chocolate box rather than a Cigar box and he added a simple modification to the box that makes it much more functional. This is a case where changing the original a bit and adding stuff that wasn't in the book made it a whole lot better.
Psychic Slate Test(4.5)
A simple design duplication using a deck of cards. Regardless of how well (or not well) Osterlind performs throughout this series, one thing that I've always been impressed with is his ability to really create the illusions that he really is inside your head. He's able to seemingly tell you exactly what you're thinking what decisions you're trying to make. It looks very real. He added it to this routine quite nicely. Further, you learn a nice peak technique that makes it seem like you never even touched the cards. He was very casual and fair in the way he handled the deck and the spectator. This performance was one of his better ones for sure.
Taps (2 stars)
This is an effect that doesn't seem to be doable the way it's written in the book. Osterlind made a nice addition that helped, but overall the plot and the effect seemed a bit too contrived and it didn't feel like it was supposed to feel. It does give you a nice change of pace and shows the variety from the book, but overall it probably could have been left out of the DVD.
Notaria (5 stars)
This is about as powerful and real as mentalism can get. A spectator writes a card down on a piece of paper (you actually never look at it or touch it), and another spectator draws a shape on another sheet. The sheets are torn up and placed in bowl or ash tray or whatever. You then are able to divine both items. The real gem of this is the structure and justification of the way you handle the props. This is a definite stand out.
The Word on the Page (2 stars)
This is probably the most contrived way to have a page "picked" from a book for a book test that exists. There are other book tests throughout the series, and they're much better than this one. I will say, however, that Richard had on this effect and a few others on this DVD some very nice tips about making your show a little more colorful and less bleak. This are good tips, and the one in this effect really shows that he does spend a lot of time thinking about his work. That's a lesson we can all take from this set.
Final Thoughts
The average rating of the effects comes to 3.7. When you consider the intent of this set was to introduce you and/or get you to dive into Annemann, then it's not too hard to round up a little bit. I've given you a lot of information for you to base your decision on. I think it's been very fair and very accurate. The final decision is up to you.
Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.