Time Travel Manual
Various
15 routines on 100 pages.
Tour Guides:
Ted Karmilovich will show you one of the most incredible and impossible headline predictions ever devised. Hand your spectator an actual headline, taken from a newspaper in the future.
Andrew Gerard demonstrates a hypnotic journey into the past where your spectator relives the events of her day. Returning to the past, everything is back to normal except for the time on her watch.
Josh Zandman takes a Q&A routine into the future. Three answers are instantly revealed inside a sealed envelope, held by the spectator before she even answers your questions.
... and Kenton Knepper, Scott Grossberg, Nick Belleas, Greg Arce, Don Theo III, George Frega and Sean Waters.
"This is great. It goes from excellent to genius and nothing less! Useable audience tested stuff that will enhance any act. The Headline/time travel effect by Ted Karmilovich is an outstanding routine. Imagine traveling ahead in time and coming back with the actual printed headline from several days in the future. Killer stuff!"
- Tony Razzano
"Take your spectators on a trip through the Twilight Zone and Groundhog Day all at the same time, while completely destroying their sense of reality. And that is only one of the many effects found within. I predict you are in for a real treat!"
- Max Krause
"The material is excellent. This is what real 'Theatre of the Mind' is all about. Some of the most thought-provoking material this year."
- Ben Harris
"An eclectic collection of effects, all with a time travel theme. The effects are so strong that after reading them I feel like I indeed traveled into the future having witnessed a magic performance of a much more advanced kind."
- Chris Wasshuber
"I read this book some days ago. Or perhaps next week, I'm not quite sure. It's packed with delicious scripts, a couple of laugh out loud moments and lots of excellent ideas from some of my favorite thinkers."
- Timothy Hyde
Pages: 100 - 9" x 6" - Softcover - Black and white images
Reviews
(Top ▲)
For $50 bucks you get a slightly over-priced 100 page book with a ton of top notch excellent Time Travel themed material.
With contributors like Ted Karmilovich, Sean Waters, Kenton Knepper, Greg Arce, Don Theo III, and a lot more, it's hard to go wrong. You are treated to 15 effects that all have Time Travel themed presentations. Plus a 16th chapter that is a mini resource guide containing several different sites, books, ideas, etc. for creating props and/or purchasing props that could be used in a Time Travel effect.
There are effects ranging from objects materializing in your hand because you traveled back in time and placed in your hand in the past to taking a room full of people back in time 10 minutes . . . the proof? Everyone's watch in the room is now set to ten minutes ago.
Some of the effects are effects previously published without a time travel theme that have been updated for this book to be time-travel-centric. Case in point: Greg Arce's killer effect, Scorch. The effect is brilliant, and the time travel presentation added by Scott Grossberg is beautiful. The best part is that this effect is one that can be done anytime, anywhere. You just have to carry one simple thing in your wallet. I promise you already own this one simple thing, and it fits in your wallet no problem. Any experienced mentalist can instantly add this effect to his/her repertoire. Those who are still new to some of these principles can still add it relatively quickly.
There are effects where the object in a spectator's hand changes because you sent her back in time to change it. There is even an effect where you travel into the future & tear a corner off of a newspaper clipping. As you come out of your time traveling trance, the torn paper from the future newspaper has materialized in your hand. The best part: you can let the spectator keep the shred of paper that has some content from the future newspaper. When the future date (a few days later) arrives, that piece of newspaper is truly found to contain the exact content as the future date's newspaper.
Thought this book is a bit high in price for its small size, I think the caliber of some of these effects nearly warrants this high price. My only real complaint - this will not impact my final verdict - is that it would have been very cool to have made the book look more like a circa 1850s leather journal or something like that. The overall book does have a sort of "old" and nostalgic feel to it, but it's still just a paperback manual. I think the old journal look or something would have added to the feel of the book and help justify the price better. Plus, how cool would it be to have an aged, old looking book on your shelf called "The Time Travel Manual."
Finally, this is not the kind of book where you will grab 8 or 9 effects and put together a time travel show. The intent is to either inspire you to create your own time travel plots for your own effects, or to use the effects and presentations from the book to add to your show (or both). I'm adding Arce's aforementioned effect to my close up repertoire, and I'm seriously considering adding the future newspaper effect (Andrija's Proof by Ted Karmilovich) mentioned above to my casual/house party repertoire.
There's an effect or two that I'm also considering for my stand up arsenal. Overall, there is a ton of great material in this book, and if any of the above mentioned plots/effects/etc. even remotely interest you, you'll greatly appreciate this book. If you're a working pro, the $50 price tag is a no-brainer . . . spend the money. If you're a hobbyist who is curious how these things work, I think you'll be disappointed. This book is about performance and presence. Though method is taught, it's the kind of method that is practical and brilliant for those who understand (i.e., working pros), and at the same time it's the kind of method that people who merely buy secrets so they can "know how stuff is done" (i.e., hobbyist & non-performers) don't understand.
They think it won't work. Believe me; it works!
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM.