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Eddini_81976 Inner circle 2183 Posts |
As said before, I use a 1-10, with 10 being PERFECT rating scale. Just so you know as well NOTHING EVER gets a 10. 10 is absolute perfection, and NOTHING, and NO ONE is Perfect. 9.5 is my highest rating. I ONLY write 10, just to show how close something can come to being PERFECT. I judge on The Tricks, (Impact), Technique, Teaching Style & Understanding, and Video Quality, such as Camera Angles...ECT.
(Descriptions from DennyMagic.com) Set Seven 1) QUESTION AND ANSWER ACT-This act is worth the price of the whole series! Questions are written by the audience and collected in open view. Still the mentalist answers them in an impossible way! Not only is this act new and stunning, it is the simplest Q&A act of them all! You will LOVE this! I'll admit I don't know many methods for the Q & A act except for pre-show work involving impression devices or peeks of some sort. This IS worth the price of the DVD, I won't go so far as saying the series but a DVD yes. This is killer and it's easy and can be made easily. The cold reading here as in most acts is a nice touch. I'm not sure where you can buy the slips that they write on as they are pivotal in the effect. I'm sure Richard sells them on his site. This gets a 9.5, the highest I can EVER POSSIBLY give. Set Eight 2) TEST CONDITIONS II-Remember the Test Condition Card Effect from Richard's first series? This is another effect with the Breakthrough Card System that will floor even advanced card men! You find a chosen card under impossible conditions after the spectator returns the card himself and shuffles the deck! This like the other effect is a Top-Notch Test Condition effect. The person that volunteers is a Magician (He Posts Here BTW) and he was floored from what I can see, so you know you got a real fooler when you fool a Magician. I give this a 9.5. 3) TRIBUTE TO TARBELL-A spectator thinks of a card. Another spectator brings her hand down on the spread deck and finds the first person's card! A killer anytime, anywhere mystery! This is a nice effect and it's cool as it gives the spectator the credit. A very bright person may pick up on the method, so this REALLY has to be done subtley. I like it and have done it. I give it a 7.5-8. 4) PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY-A mentally chosen card mysteriously vanishes from one half of a deck to appear in the performer's pocket! See how Richard takes a standard effect and turns it into a major mystery! This I will admit REALLY FOOLED me. I like it, and it's EASY too. I've done this for people but I didn't get the reaction I hoped for. The reactions I go for are like what you see on the David Blaine specials, and I DO get those reactions like 75% of the time, you know where people will run away (sometimes not coming back), or curse, or really get loud and freaked out. I thought I'd get that reaction as I HAD that reaction. I blame that on my presentation though, EVEN THOUGH I stressed in my prsentation and reiterated the impossibility. Maybe they were so freaked they just got queit who knows. It's killer and gets a 9. 5) MATCHBOOK PREDICTION-This is one of the most entertaining and mysterious card effects you can do! A chosen card appears on the inside cover of a book of matches not once-but twice! The audience howls with delight! This is a great and entertaining routine. It does require a bit of sleight-of-hand, but it's done on the offbeat. This is a humorous routine too, and the very end is a shocker. I give this one a 9 too. Set Nine 6) ESP STACK-Richard shows his new ESP stack and how it is used to duplicate the actual tests devised for these cards. This routine looks just like the real thing! I like this and I love his presentation, how he goes into the background and how this developed from Duke University...ect, and this test appears to be one of the MOST GENUINE ESP TEST I've seen. Though I don't get the stack, it's cool. Just like I know the math of his BCS, I still can't figure out how you come up with the siut, even AFTER people were kind enough to PM me to tell me in detail, just some things I don't get. To me if I were to do this (the only reason I haven't I use a close-up stand, which is only so big and I perform standing) I would only go to FOUR CARDS as them seeing cards not repeat out of 5 would raise flags, and I'd use the "Standard ESP Stack", as I couldn't understand his stack here either...lol. This is VERY STRONG. I give this a 9.5. 7) OSTERLIND DESIGN DUPLICATION (ODDS)-Richard's revolutionary method of doing the design duplication effect. This routine was developed based on actual laboratory techniques for testing ESP and is the closest thing to real ESP! This is neat and is a real Mind Blower. As before I don't get the EXACT method, but for me I just use Maven's Mind's Eye Deck, and I use the most convincing force I know (The under the spread cull force) which is how I do the Mind's Eye Deck as the cutting (See my Mind's Eye Deck Review and you'll see the problems I came up with as far as shuffling the deck, and even how the cutting doesn't always work, so I just use that force it still kills) & shuffling can messed up a perfect deck. So anyway I do the ODDS system with that deck, with the same method. Richard's Methos I should NOTE is DIFFERENT from mine as it's convincing, you just have to "understand The Method" is all. Either way the effect id the same and it kills. I give it a 9. (8) ASHES ON THE ARM-The classic effect is updated by Richard. A spectator writes the initials of a family member on a piece of paper which is burned. The ashes from the burned paper are rubbed on the mentalist's arm (or hand) and the initials appear in the ashes! This looks uncanny! This is a great, powerful, and even SCARY routine that is killer. This uses a technique that is popular with Richard and is convincing. To me as I perform surrounded...ect, this isn't a routine I could do unless I was doing a "Formal Show". This is nice though. My only recommendation is that you may want to have them add just (listen carefully) ONE drop of lighter fluid so it burns quickly and efficiently. I do a routine like this. But for me I force a card and then I already have pre burned ashes in a tin, so nothing is ever written down and burnt, and so goes the effect. I then have baby wipes for a clean-up. I think that's great for street /close-up work, but this routine is far superior though. I give this a 9-9.5. Set Ten (9) PEN PADDLE MOVE-This is Richard's trademark routine which he uses in trade shows. The writing on a pen repeatedly appears and vanishes. You will be amazed at the effect Richard achieves using this classic principle! This is a classic effect using a pen, that is very well known in method but again it's his presentation that gives it a "kick". I enjoyed this very much and it gets a 8. (10) DAD'S FAVORITE-The spectator cuts a deck of cards over and over into four final piles. The top cards are turned over and found to be the four Aces! This amazing effect was actually taught to Richard by his father when he was a young boy! Okay I really, hate to voice my opion on this as this was taught to Richard by his father and I'm a softy / sentimental guy by heart. I need to be honest though. This was my least favorite on this DVD. I think the cutting took way too long and there are far superior methods of "A Spectator Cuts To The Aces". I can understand though why this would be so close to Richard's heart obviously. There are versions like this where they cut four piles deal three crads to the bottom, them one card one eacvh pile...ect (one version goes) that would be just as impressive. For something "light" this could work though. So I rate this a 6. 11) HAUNTED KEY-Richard performs the classic Haunted Key effect using the methods from his classic book, Making Magic Real. You will see how the key turns over with no movement of the performer's hands! This is a eery effect that in the explanation you might think "He's Making Up How It's Done, You Know The Classic B.S. Explanation We've All Given To Spectators When They Ask How We Do A Effect", but It's NOT. The explanation is real not that Richard would do that anyway. Just try it, it'll work. I won't get into the explanation but I think the subconscience goes to work and it causes "Thing to VERY Subltely Happen". That's my opinion if you really want to ****yze the method. But what he says about the mind is true. I give this a 9. 12) SOLID GHOST-This classic is one of Richard's favorites! A solid ghost appears inside the dark recesses of a folded handkerchief! It is tapped with a spoon and felt by a spectator before it disappears back into nothingness! Watch how Richard uses this to close the show! I'll be honest though I know this works like the method above, I forget the EXACT gimmick it uses as I haven't watched this DVD in so long. All I can say is that it fooled me, and it definately REALLY CREEPED the audience out. This is a strong effect. Again the method as his all of his methods is supierior and ingenious, your presentation HAS to be Top Notch and you TOO like Richard will get such a strong audience reaction. I give this a 9.5. This tape is killer. I love all the effects except for the one I mentioned and even that was "okay" in the context I suggested. I tell you if you buy all the tapes in this series (I can't wait to get volume 5) you'll have enough material to make AT LEAST 2 great shows up, with effects to spare. I rate this a 9.5 the highest possible rating, Ed, (Eddini).
"Treat Others As You'd Want To Be Treated" - Jesus Christ
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Brainbu$ter Veteran user Indianapolis, IN 326 Posts |
If nothing "EVER" gets a 10,
because 10 would be some otherworldly, god-like, supernatural, absolutely perfect, 10,000-yrs-ahead-of-its-time, book or DVD... then why don't you say "on a scale from 1 to 9?" |
Winks Special user Arizona 753 Posts |
Because then 9 would be some otherworldly,god-like, supernatural, absolutely perfect, 10,000-yrs-ahead-of-its-time and he would have to rate everything as 8.5
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rasp Inner circle 1124 Posts |
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Brainbu$ter Veteran user Indianapolis, IN 326 Posts |
If 9 out of 10 reviewers rated items in this way,
that would pull down the average star rating of any trick with 10 reviews. I think you should simply change your scale, or your definition/disclamier about your scale, "...NOTHING EVER gets a 10. 10 is absolute perfection, and NOTHING, and NO ONE is Perfect." We agree that nothing and no one is perfect. This means that 10 does not actually exist. Instead of making "10," mean "perfect"... I'd say that "10" means "OUTSTANDING." That's more reasonable. And then your scale wouldn't be in sync with most other people's scales. |
the fritz Special user 647 Posts |
But these go to eleven...
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Nicolino Inner circle 2893 Posts |
That's tentalizing.
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A brandnew peek device for the working mentalist! Chance's Token Tarot cards in a scenic piece of mystery..... |
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