Price$19.99
Media TypeBook
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedFeb 10, 2016
Mentallica
Ben Harris
(Based on 2 reviews)
The majority of effects are NEW PRESENTATIONS and uses for existing props like: The Mother of All Book Tests, Looch's Area Book Test, Glance, Promystic's Multi-Dimensional (and MD Mini), Nitinol keys (like Elusionist's, Shift), and even Chris Congreave's amazing Zippo gimmick: Light.
Mentallica will give you entirely new presentational concepts making all of these effects appear NEW, FRESH and ORIGINAL. We explore Woodstock (yes, flashback to 1969), X-Ray Vision, enhancement of the bending effect, Three-Dimensional "Remote Viewing," Drawing Duplication, Any Card At Any Number, even the "Cold Reading" of automobiles!
Harris tips the exact DRAWING DUPLICATION used on his infamous Uri Geller debate, televised via satellite in the late 1980's. It uses NO GAFFS and looks exactly like the effect Uri has performed on talk-shows since the late 1970's.
Ben also re-visits his most recent release, A Thought Well Stolen -- providing his 'director's cut' -- leaving the impression that only ONE DECK has been in play. The refined handling enhances the ACAAN portion of the effect, ditching the flashy finale. It also leaves the spectator with a little gift. Routined for the serious mentalist.
Photo-illustrated, 46 pages with cover.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
One booklet, seven effects, $20 bucks and one Mentallica Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.I'm finding that multiple effect products are best dealt with one effect at a time with a brief discussion of effect and method sort of rolled up in one. In this case, below, it's a little trickier to deal with method because most of the effects rely on marketed items, many of which I'm not familiar with the methods, so I'll have to assume that you know the product's method.
I won't really be able to tell you if Ben Harris's routine is worth you purchasing xyz marketed product that it requires since I don't know the quality of most of these marketed products. The best I can do is tell you if Harris's additions are worthy of publication and/or your attention if you already are familiar with the required marketed product.
Effect / Method
Mentallica Review: Televised Drawing Duplication - This is one of two items in the book that does not require you to own another marketed product. The method involves some simple pre-show work of having a spectator select (free selection) something to draw. There really is nothing really revolutionary here. This effect felt like Ben Harris was trying to stick it to Uri Geller by duplicating an effect that Geller did.The whole premise was that Geller did a design duplication effect where he was able to ask the spectator a series of question about his pre-show interaction that proved how fair everything was. Harris wanted to duplicate this. While he did duplicate this fairness, he really hasn't done anything special. Any working mentalist would be able to easily come up with a method for being able to make things appear as fair as Geller did.
Mentallica Review: RINGthing - This effect requires that you own the $99 dollar prop, Shift: Self-Bending Key. I searched online and could not find one for sale. Further, according to Harris, this is an Ellusionist product. The product is nowhere to be found on their site.
However, let's assume that you own the product already. The next question is whether or not Harris's routine is worth your time. Well, all you're getting is him using not-that-strong equivoke to force the gimmicked key on the spectator. He ends the explanation of this by saying, "the effect enhanced by the apparent free choice of key." Not much added here folks.
Mentallica Review: The Eternal Flame - This requires you to purchase Chris Congreave's The Light for about $78 bucks. What you get from Ben Harris is his routine using that prop. It does give some meaning to the use of the lighter wrapped in a pretty decent presentation about music. I would say that this is the first effect in the book where he added something of value that's worthy of publishing.
Mentallica Review: Shopping Centre Impromptu - This might be the most useless thing in the book. It starts off sort of heading down a path that might be worthwhile, but then it just dies. Basically he gives you a method for gleaning information about people by strolling through the grocery store parking lot. It's a lot full of empty cars. You have no idea who the car belongs to.
Further, even if you figure out who it belongs to, what do you with the information? Go in the grocery store and attack some poor mother of 3 by telling her stuff about her family that only a stalker could know? He never tells you what to do with the information or how to associate it with the owner of the car or anything. He simply points out things that you can learn about strangers by looking at their parked cars.
Mentallica Review: X-RAY Mother - This requires you to own a $350 book test, The Mother of All Book Tests. I own it, and I love it. It's a major piece in my (currently retired) stand up show. Regardless of Harris's contribution, MOABT has paid for itself multiple times over. I highly recommend it.
That aside, Harris's contribution is actually pretty clever on this one. You have a spectator circle a word in the book, and then close the book. You claim, then, to have X-Ray vision and look through the book to the word circled. I don't feel too bad telling you what I've told you since Harris admits that he published this idea on the Magic Cafe somewhere. I planned on looking it up on the Cafe, but the site is down . . . again.
In order to do this method, you need a book test that allows the spectator a free choice. So if your book test requires the spectator to look at a specific word on the page rather than just freely choosing (almost) any word on any page, then you won't be able to do this. Also, Harris's idea gives a good reason for using a book. With most book tests, the spectator can easily say, "If you can read my mind, why do I have to look at a word in a book?" Granted, there are plenty of good, logical and reasonable answers to that question.
However, changing the method to X-Ray vision rather than mind reading is, arguably, one of the better solutions.
Mentallica Review: 3 Dimensional - This requires the purchase of Multidimensional by Pro Mystic. It's between $350 and $500 bucks. Multidimensional is a sneaky electronic device that lets you know which side of a cube the spectator has placed face up.
Not knowing the routines taught with the standard effect, I don't know if Harris's addition is new or not. I will say this, however, it changes the effect a bit. It's a remote viewing type of plot, or it could be another X-Ray plot. He is able to sketch a 3 dimensional block showing the way the cube looks underneath a teacup or whatever opaque device is used to conceal the cube.
Mentallica Review: Director's Cut - This is just his effect A Thought Well Stolen which I reviewed on January 16, 2016. However, this version leaves out the second phase of the routine. It's one of the effects that does NOT require you to purchase anything else.
However, all he does is re-explain what's already in A Thought Well Stolen which is a $30 book with only one effect in it. Further, this version (Mentallica) is not even an update. It's just half of what's in A Thought Well Stolen. Also, in the Mentallica version, he mentions that due to the slightly different particular handling taught, you can leave the spectator with the impression that only one deck was used.
That's the stupidest thing you can do with this effect. Here's why. The effect is this: A spectator thinks of a card (true free thought). He then deals through a deck of cards and notes the position that his card is at (let's say 19 and it's the four of clubs).
Next, you apparently read the mind of the spectator and as you search through another deck and position their thought of card at the thought of number in this new, second deck. Then the spectator announces his number and you deal down to that number in your second deck and reveal that it is, indeed, the four of clubs at the 19th position.
Great, but now let's look at it from the perspective of the spectator thinking you only used one deck. In that case, the effect would be remembered like this. I (the spectator) thought of a card and looked in the deck to see what position it was at (it was the four of clubs at 19). Then he took the one and only deck in use and counted down to the 19th card, and my card was there. Well duh! Of course it was there. You just looked and saw it there and then told him.
Again, another one not worthy of additional publication. It added nothing to the original.
Product Quality
The production value of this is actually really good. The name is awesome. I mean come on. What's better than Mentallica: Heavy Mental Magic? That's a killer title. I wish I'd thought of it. The write ups are good. The teaching is done well with the exception of the grocery store thing. Everything is broken down pretty well and easy to understand. Also, even though I wasn't familiar with some of the marketed effects, I was still able to follow the explanations with no problem.Ad Copy Integrity
When does the hurting stop? The ad copy is iffy at best. The second paragraph mentions that these are new presentation for props like "The Mother of All Book Tests, Looch's Area Book Test, Glance, Promystic's Multi-Dimensional (and MD Mini), Nitinol keys (like Elusionist's, Shift), and even Chris Congreave's amazing Zippo gimmick: Light."Well, this is true, but keep in mind that there is only one book test routine, X-Ray Mother. It just so happens that you can use those other book test products instead of MOABT. Next, paragraph 3 states, "Mentallica will give you entirely new presentational concepts making all of these effects appear NEW, FRESH and ORIGINAL." This is just not true. These are not entirely new presentational concepts.
You tell me, what's new about a design dup presentation? What's new about a "selected" key bending? What's new about basically copying an effect from one of his previous books? On top of that, the effect from this previous book is Any Card At Any Number. If ever there was a presentational concept that is NOT new, it's that one. What's new about remote viewing or X-Ray vision as a plot? These have all been done before. I'd say that the addition of the X-Ray plot to a book test may fit the claim about appearing fresh and original, but that's about it.
The grocery store parking lot bit may be a new way to glean information, but again, it's not a new presentational concept (i.e., telling people stuff you "couldn't possibly know"). Further, he continues by saying that "we explore Woodstock." Really? Explore? In one sentence of a presentation, he says that music is powerful and links people to memories which is why Woodstock still inspires people. That's it. It's not mentioned again (other than to refer back to the aforementioned sentence). I wouldn't exactly call that exploring.
The fifth paragraph refers to "refined handling" of A Thought Well Stolen. What? What's refined about it? Nothing. The only thing he adds is that he suggests letting the spectator keep the deck. That's it. No refinements, unless you consider leaving out the second phase a refinement. That's debatable.
The last paragraph is 100% accurate: "Pages: 28 - 8.5" x 5.5" - Saddle Stitched - Photo-illustrated with full color cover."
Final Thoughts
My guess is that if you already own either MOABT, 3 Dimensional or The Light, then you may be interested in his thoughts on those effects. But again, I don't know. I don't know you and what you like, so it's hard to say. Generally speaking, he has not really added much to any of the products mentioned in the book. Also, to be clear, Televised Drawing Duplication, Shopping Centre Impromptu and Director's Cut do not require you to purchase any other product.However, the design duplication is just that. Nothing special is added. The shopping center thing is pretty much useless, and director's cut is phase one of a previously marketed effect of his. The other ones will require you to spend between $75 and $500 bucks to own the needed prop. If those marketed products interest you, I'd say look into them before even thinking about this book.
If it weren't for the one thing that I felt had some merit to it and was an improvement, X-Ray Mother, this book would be total rubble. However, with even one tiny, small gem, I can't completely dismiss this.
Mentallica Review: Final Verdict:
2 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble. A small gem hidden under a HUGE pile of rubble.
(Top ▲)
This is one of those products where you will really struggle to see how anyone thought the contents were new or original. Really. Okay, two of the ideas were actually pretty good and I will use one of them because to my knowledge, they are rather original. I will get to that later.
Let me begin by clarifying something about this: All but two of the things in the book require you to purchase a marketed product and none of them are cheap. I will talk a bit about each item in the book and if you already own the required marketed items and wish to try it out, fine and if not, it will be up to you to decide whether or not it would be worth spending the cash to acquire the necessary props. I personally only have one of the marketed items and as such, I cannot comment on the quality of the others but most of them have good reputations. That being said, we will begin with the first thing in the book which is:
Televised Drawing Duplication. This was an attempt to recreate a drawing duplication as performed on television by Uri Geller and he did accomplish that, but there was nothing particularly new or original here. In reading the method given by Harris, it seems almost vindictive in a way toward Geller, like he was trying to debunk him by duplicating, at least in appearance, what Geller did on television. This is one of the items that does not require marketed products and any working or well-read mentalist can duplicate what Geller did on television and with the same open fairness.
The second item is RINGthing, which requires the Shift: Self-Bending Key, which was put out by Ellusionist a while ago. It ran around $100/USD and I do not know if they are still available. The effect is basically using equivoque to force one of two keys on a key ring. Nothing revolutionary here, but it seems to me when I see effects like this (self-bending anything performed, nobody ever does it this way.
Third item: The Eternal Flame. This requires a product by Chris Congreave called The Light, which runs about $80/USD and can be purchased through various dealers including Full 52 which is owned by Dave Forrest. If you are not familiar with the product, it is a card/banknote/billet/etc. to impossible location, and in this case the impossible location is a Zippo lighter. I actually liked this handling because the presentation as outlined can be changed to suit your taste/style but more than that, the use of the lighter is very well motivated.
Fourth item: Shipping Centre Impromptu. This basically an information culling method that is pretty useless the way he details everything in the book. The method by which you gather certain information is nice, but what the heck are you supposed to do with it? That is something he does not tell you in the book. It is a way of using a car park (parking lot) to gather information about the owners of the empty cars. Not a bad idea in and of itself but if you were to actually use that information and reveal it to the right person, you would probably come off as a stalker or something like that.
Fifth item: X-RAY Mother. Now THIS is my idea of a great idea! I really liked this one and this requires you to own the Mother of All Book Tests (MOABT), which runs anywhere from $350/USD to $400/USD. The MOABT is the marketed item that I had previously mentioned that I own, and I can tell you that it is probably the best book test on the market to date, well worth its weight in gold. It is not the only good book test out there, but for what it is, nothing beats it.
That said, I thought it was great thinking on the part of Ben Harris to take this from a mind reading effect and turning it into an X-Ray Vision or Second-Sight type of effect. Most (if not all) book tests are done as mind reading. In this case you have the book covered by two metal sheets (read: "plates") to prevent any chicanery (supposedly) and you have a spectator use a pen to circle a word in the book and close it up. You then proceed to divine the word by using what you claim to be X-Ray vision. This particular book test works with this handling because it allows the audience participant to have a free choice at selecting a word on the page and in fact, any book test that allows a free choice will work with this. On the other hand, book tests that require the participant to look at a particular word on any given page will not work. For years magicians and mentalists have griped about having to carry around a book to do a book test. "Why use a book?" I think Harris did an amicable job in motivating the use of the book itself.
The sixth effect is called 3 Dimensional and requires you to purchase a rather expensive marketed item from Pro Mystic called Multidimensional. On the low end that will cost you around $350/USD and on the high end, $500/USD. The method behind Multidimensional is very clever and purely electronic. It is a cube (rather a set of cubes - one with numbers, another with ESP symbols and another with colored facets) that allows you to detect which facet of a particular cube is facing upward, and you do not even have to be in the room. I do not own Multidimensional because it just does not suit me and as such, I have no idea what basic ideas, methods or routines are taught with them, so I have no idea if the method that Ben Harris gives to use with it is new or original or not. At any rate, the way Harris uses the item is to create a 3D sketch of the cube as viewed from a given perspective underneath the cup or bowl (or whatever object is hiding the cube). To clarify: If you have a cube with a different color on each face and you are looking at it from a particular perspective, you will see three colors. This sounds like a nice twist on the standard effect if indeed it (or something similar) is not already taught in the product instructions.
The final item is called Director's Cut and is, from what I can tell, one phase from an earlier release from Ben Harris called A Thought Well Stolen. This is the second item in the book that does not require you to purchase anything off the market. I have never read A Though Well Stolen so I have no idea what is taught in that book, but in reading the description it is a one-trick booklet with two-phases and is apparently a two-deck Card and a Number (CAAN). The way this particular effect is written up here made absolutely no sense to me - I could not identify what the effect was supposed to be. For further clarification, read the review of A Thought Well Stolen by Jeff Stone and his review of Mentallica for a better description of what this particular effect is supposed to be.
The ad copy for this book, for the most part, is probably 98% untrue. The last 2% where it gives the number of pages, the dimensions and the bit about the photographs in the instructions is in fact accurate. As for the rest of the ad copy being untrue, it makes the claim of the presentations being "new", "fresh" and "original". Nothing about the presentations is "new" so it cannot be either of the other two descriptions either. It claims that the contents are new performance presentations for various props such as nitinol keys, Multi-Dimensional, the Congreave lighter gimmick and various book tests. To be fair, there is only one book test routine given and it uses MOABT, but you could use the other ones listed. As for the drawing duplication, bending a "selected" key, the CAAN plot (or any of its many variations), book tests or even the X-Ray vision plot, what is "new", "fresh" or "original" about any of those? NOTHING! They have all been done before. Even the car park thing may be a new way of getting information but there is nothing new about how you reveal the information - which is something he does not even cover in the description!
The only thing I can really think of that may fit the descriptors at all would be his combination of ideas for the book test handling and possibly his handling/motivation of the lighter for The Light by Chris Congreave. As for the last effect, even though I have never read A Thought Well Stolen I am not sure that re-hashing a previous release, removing one of only two phases and allowing a spectator to keep a deck (which is stated in Mentallica as a "refinement") fits those descriptors either. I would not necessarily say that the words in the ad copy were chosen to be deceptive but they are misguiding and were used under some sort of delusional definition of "new", "fresh" and "original".
As for the instructions themselves, everything is quite clear except for the car park thing. For the other items I would say that you do not need to be familiar with any of them at all to be able to follow the instructions. Harris does tell you what each of the marketed items do but does not give the methods outright
That all being said, if you already own Mother of All Book Tests and/or The Light by Chris Congreave, you might like the ideas given here because they are both a very nice addition/twist to the original effects and presentations. For that matter, you might even like the other items in the book, I have no idea whether you will or not. With the exception of the book test and the lighter idea, nothing is really "new", "fresh" or "original".
I was tempted to give this 1.5 stars but I will give it 2 full stars, one star for X-RAY Mother and one star for The Eternal Flame because I really do like those and think they are both very good ideas.
Let me begin by clarifying something about this: All but two of the things in the book require you to purchase a marketed product and none of them are cheap. I will talk a bit about each item in the book and if you already own the required marketed items and wish to try it out, fine and if not, it will be up to you to decide whether or not it would be worth spending the cash to acquire the necessary props. I personally only have one of the marketed items and as such, I cannot comment on the quality of the others but most of them have good reputations. That being said, we will begin with the first thing in the book which is:
Televised Drawing Duplication. This was an attempt to recreate a drawing duplication as performed on television by Uri Geller and he did accomplish that, but there was nothing particularly new or original here. In reading the method given by Harris, it seems almost vindictive in a way toward Geller, like he was trying to debunk him by duplicating, at least in appearance, what Geller did on television. This is one of the items that does not require marketed products and any working or well-read mentalist can duplicate what Geller did on television and with the same open fairness.
The second item is RINGthing, which requires the Shift: Self-Bending Key, which was put out by Ellusionist a while ago. It ran around $100/USD and I do not know if they are still available. The effect is basically using equivoque to force one of two keys on a key ring. Nothing revolutionary here, but it seems to me when I see effects like this (self-bending anything performed, nobody ever does it this way.
Third item: The Eternal Flame. This requires a product by Chris Congreave called The Light, which runs about $80/USD and can be purchased through various dealers including Full 52 which is owned by Dave Forrest. If you are not familiar with the product, it is a card/banknote/billet/etc. to impossible location, and in this case the impossible location is a Zippo lighter. I actually liked this handling because the presentation as outlined can be changed to suit your taste/style but more than that, the use of the lighter is very well motivated.
Fourth item: Shipping Centre Impromptu. This basically an information culling method that is pretty useless the way he details everything in the book. The method by which you gather certain information is nice, but what the heck are you supposed to do with it? That is something he does not tell you in the book. It is a way of using a car park (parking lot) to gather information about the owners of the empty cars. Not a bad idea in and of itself but if you were to actually use that information and reveal it to the right person, you would probably come off as a stalker or something like that.
Fifth item: X-RAY Mother. Now THIS is my idea of a great idea! I really liked this one and this requires you to own the Mother of All Book Tests (MOABT), which runs anywhere from $350/USD to $400/USD. The MOABT is the marketed item that I had previously mentioned that I own, and I can tell you that it is probably the best book test on the market to date, well worth its weight in gold. It is not the only good book test out there, but for what it is, nothing beats it.
That said, I thought it was great thinking on the part of Ben Harris to take this from a mind reading effect and turning it into an X-Ray Vision or Second-Sight type of effect. Most (if not all) book tests are done as mind reading. In this case you have the book covered by two metal sheets (read: "plates") to prevent any chicanery (supposedly) and you have a spectator use a pen to circle a word in the book and close it up. You then proceed to divine the word by using what you claim to be X-Ray vision. This particular book test works with this handling because it allows the audience participant to have a free choice at selecting a word on the page and in fact, any book test that allows a free choice will work with this. On the other hand, book tests that require the participant to look at a particular word on any given page will not work. For years magicians and mentalists have griped about having to carry around a book to do a book test. "Why use a book?" I think Harris did an amicable job in motivating the use of the book itself.
The sixth effect is called 3 Dimensional and requires you to purchase a rather expensive marketed item from Pro Mystic called Multidimensional. On the low end that will cost you around $350/USD and on the high end, $500/USD. The method behind Multidimensional is very clever and purely electronic. It is a cube (rather a set of cubes - one with numbers, another with ESP symbols and another with colored facets) that allows you to detect which facet of a particular cube is facing upward, and you do not even have to be in the room. I do not own Multidimensional because it just does not suit me and as such, I have no idea what basic ideas, methods or routines are taught with them, so I have no idea if the method that Ben Harris gives to use with it is new or original or not. At any rate, the way Harris uses the item is to create a 3D sketch of the cube as viewed from a given perspective underneath the cup or bowl (or whatever object is hiding the cube). To clarify: If you have a cube with a different color on each face and you are looking at it from a particular perspective, you will see three colors. This sounds like a nice twist on the standard effect if indeed it (or something similar) is not already taught in the product instructions.
The final item is called Director's Cut and is, from what I can tell, one phase from an earlier release from Ben Harris called A Thought Well Stolen. This is the second item in the book that does not require you to purchase anything off the market. I have never read A Though Well Stolen so I have no idea what is taught in that book, but in reading the description it is a one-trick booklet with two-phases and is apparently a two-deck Card and a Number (CAAN). The way this particular effect is written up here made absolutely no sense to me - I could not identify what the effect was supposed to be. For further clarification, read the review of A Thought Well Stolen by Jeff Stone and his review of Mentallica for a better description of what this particular effect is supposed to be.
The ad copy for this book, for the most part, is probably 98% untrue. The last 2% where it gives the number of pages, the dimensions and the bit about the photographs in the instructions is in fact accurate. As for the rest of the ad copy being untrue, it makes the claim of the presentations being "new", "fresh" and "original". Nothing about the presentations is "new" so it cannot be either of the other two descriptions either. It claims that the contents are new performance presentations for various props such as nitinol keys, Multi-Dimensional, the Congreave lighter gimmick and various book tests. To be fair, there is only one book test routine given and it uses MOABT, but you could use the other ones listed. As for the drawing duplication, bending a "selected" key, the CAAN plot (or any of its many variations), book tests or even the X-Ray vision plot, what is "new", "fresh" or "original" about any of those? NOTHING! They have all been done before. Even the car park thing may be a new way of getting information but there is nothing new about how you reveal the information - which is something he does not even cover in the description!
The only thing I can really think of that may fit the descriptors at all would be his combination of ideas for the book test handling and possibly his handling/motivation of the lighter for The Light by Chris Congreave. As for the last effect, even though I have never read A Thought Well Stolen I am not sure that re-hashing a previous release, removing one of only two phases and allowing a spectator to keep a deck (which is stated in Mentallica as a "refinement") fits those descriptors either. I would not necessarily say that the words in the ad copy were chosen to be deceptive but they are misguiding and were used under some sort of delusional definition of "new", "fresh" and "original".
As for the instructions themselves, everything is quite clear except for the car park thing. For the other items I would say that you do not need to be familiar with any of them at all to be able to follow the instructions. Harris does tell you what each of the marketed items do but does not give the methods outright
That all being said, if you already own Mother of All Book Tests and/or The Light by Chris Congreave, you might like the ideas given here because they are both a very nice addition/twist to the original effects and presentations. For that matter, you might even like the other items in the book, I have no idea whether you will or not. With the exception of the book test and the lighter idea, nothing is really "new", "fresh" or "original".
I was tempted to give this 1.5 stars but I will give it 2 full stars, one star for X-RAY Mother and one star for The Eternal Flame because I really do like those and think they are both very good ideas.