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Practical Mental Magic

Annemann, Theo

Dover

(Based on 1 review)
Outstanding collection of nearly 200 crowd-pleasing mental magic feats (requiring no special equipment). Author offers insider’s tips and expert advice on techniques, presentation, diversions, patter, staging and all else needed to make any trick a foolproof success. Lucidly written, thoroughly diagrammed book by one of magic’s legendary figures.

Reviews

Joe Diamond

Official Reviewer

Nov 01, 2010

Hey you! Yeah, you! Do you want to be a mentalist? Do you be the next Banachek, Maven, Geller, or Brown? Well, I got news for ya!

It's not going to happen. You can copy other performers all you want, but you will never reach their level of success. You have to focus on yourself as a performer, study the classics, and make them work for you. If you do that, then you might be successful.

Now, if you are still with me & don't own Practical Mental Magic, let me break down why this should be your next purchase.

First, if you don't have a chance to read through The Jinx for it's best mentalism, this is it! Some of the best mental material from The Jinx is reprinted here, complete with updated handlings.

Second, it holds enough material & ideas for several mentalism acts.

Third, there are effects suitable for every venue. Impromptu, close up, parlor, stage, it's all here.

Finally, instead of buying an effect everyone else is already doing, why not spend less money, learn the same basic principles that all the experts teach you, and come up with your own versions? It will take effort, but it will pay off way more!

I use many of the effects in this book in my professional work, including a version of Annemann's Par Optic Vision, $1000 Card Location, and Magic Vs. Mentalism. Yes, they all involve cards, but they really don't play as card tricks. Some non-card effect I like & have played with are Mystery of the Blackboard, A Question & The Answer, and Headline Hunter.

The downside here is that many of the book tests require a deck of cards or some other prop to help force the page & word. A little more variety in this area would have been nice. Many people have since come up with better methods for a book test, but the ones in this book serve a good purpose of allowing you to get your feet wet with this type of effect.

Again, if you can't build a show or two with the material in this book, you may want to stick to card tricks. Many of the effects take serious BALLS to pull off, and many of the methods will seem transparent to a magician. If you go in as a serious student of mentalism, the rewards will continue to come for many years. You must realize that it's not always about method, it's also about the effect & the performance in creating the feeling of real mind reading.

You will also spend less money on this book than on any One Trick DVD, gimmicked book test, impression device, or packet trick. This is a steal at ten dollars. Even if you are a magician just looking for a few mental effects to add to your repertoire, this is perfect. Even if you are not interested in mentalism & are just a card worker, you better take a look at some of the card effects in this book before someone fools you with one of them.

There really is no excuse for not having Practical Mental Magic on your bookshelf.
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