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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Title:BLACK A Book of Deception & Psychology by Dan Army
Medium:Book Arena: Mentalism, card magic Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies I found this a difficult book to review. I was immediately put off when I read the dedication. Normally a book is dedicated to those that inspired the writer and stood by them and supported their efforts. In this case the book is dedicated in a kind of diatribe against those that were not supportive of his efforts. I read it and thought to myself “what is this? That is like a little kid having a fit”. The other thing that bothered me was the book is just poorly written to the point where I was thinking that content may salvage poor delivery. I’m one of those people who, while reading, prefer to have the material written with proper spelling and grammar. While I don’t always follow the rules in my own writing I at least am not selling my words nor am I going back and proof reading. The style is juvenile and there are odd apologies throughout. He claims to be original then follows that by saying he isn’t claiming to be the first to ‘discover the supposed method’….huh? The first effect set off all kinds of warning bells. It is called The Plastic Spoon Bend, and to his credit Dan opens with the statement ‘This effect never really fell through for me’. I’m not sure what that means but the method is pure lunacy and wouldn’t work for virtually anyone. Why it was even included is beyond me. He then follows this up with a statement about incomplete thoughts being part of learning and suggests you write down your ideas. That is always good, writing down ideas, but I’d go the next step and say if you write it down and it isn’t a good idea don’t publish it. The section on Utility Devices is more nonsensical ramblings and gives the worse idea on making double faced cards I’ve seen but justifies it that a double facer is the only gaff one needs. Next on our journey we get Dans views on ‘the lost art of mentalism’. Mentalism is a ‘lost art’? I think it is very popular with a lot of people interested in it. In this section we get to read Dans views on muscle reading and something that I didn’t know, that prior to 1926 there were bugging devices available where one could bug a room and listen to what was being said in another room via electronic devices. I guess so, I didn’t know this, Dan suggestion on a modern version of this high tech bugging is again laughable. Sadly at this point my book started to fall apart, the pages coming out of it. The rest is on forcing cards and what not and ‘subliminal’ methods that made me shake my head. I don’t know what this fellow is basing his beliefs on but it isn’t Corona or Banachek. I eagerly moved on to the cards section to see the original work of Dan Army, as more pages hit the floor. I do have some positive news on this book, only the first 38 pages fell out, the rest only split up the spine about an inch or so but held tight. I didn’t fold the book all the way back by the way. The pages shoved back in do give the book that file look of mystery I must admit. The card magic is, across the board, not great. The original work isn’t real original or spectacular. The sequencing isn’t strong in some cases and in others it just doesn’t make much sense. It does seem Dan and friends enjoy burning cards, I like burned cards, have since Eugene Burger released his along with others. I’m not going to go through the routines but some could be salvaged and made workable. I want to point out, and I may be wrong here, that when ‘creating’ a new force I don’t think the goal is to make it ‘look spectacular’ to the spectator. You want them to think they just picked a card and not recall anything else about the action. I will say that Dan did give out one bit of million dollar advice, he said you should know the identity of the card you are forcing prior to forcing it….sound advice. If you force a card without knowing what it is then it is, well, the spectator picking a card that you don’t know what it is. Okay, here is the score. I found out this young man is 15 years old and he released this, or a version of this, as an e-book or download, something like that, and took some righteous heat for it. I admire his gumption but to be honest he should have waited to release material until he had material worth releasing, knew something about mentalism and subtleties, and knew how to write. This is the worse book on magic I’ve seen and I thought it was a book on mentalism and that is where a lot of my interest lies right now. Very disappointing over all. The quality of the book itself is awful. It is too small so they photos are crowded, the print isn’t broken down to be readable easily, and the pages dropping out isn’t a good sign. Except for those wanting to read it to see how bad it is and for the youth who think of themselves as master street magicians, who I think will love this book, I would pass it by. Sorry Dan, if you see this, but not everyone is Persi. |
pkson79 New user 40 Posts |
Hahahaha.. yeah.. I'm sure a lot of stores would lose credibility just by selling that book. Thanks Santa, reading your review just lightened me up a bit. I like Dan Army's theory on forcing cards. hahahahahahaha
that was priceless. I really wish I could read a copy of that book just for entertainment values. PK
http://atomiczebra.com
http://themooloolabashuffle.com Not necessarily a new user, just lurking for 10 years, and either agreeing or disagreeing silently. |
Y2John Inner circle 1498 Posts |
I fully agree with the above review on the effects and mentalism side of things, but I wouldn't know the quality of the actual book as I have the download. A couple of the effects are alright, but nothing that hasn't been seen before. It seems that he borrows a couple of ideas from Daniel Madison also, not a lot, just a few things here and there.
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eddwithers New user London 64 Posts |
I find it sad this even got to print, and go to sale by Murphy's. Don't they read the books they take on as wholesale? The fact that Murphy's sell it has resulted in tens of online dealers also selling it, due to automatic stocking systems etc. Who knows who is going to be let down by this book, or what shop will lose credibility about it...
On a side note, I have some misgivings about Dan Army due to an alleged incident that is detailed in the following thread - http://www.themagicwoods.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3908 That thread details how he caused alleged problems with Peter Harrison. //Edd Withers
Manager, www.TheMagicWoods.co.uk
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pokerplayer269 New user Needham, MA 30 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-07-30 22:18, MagicSanta wrote: I think he meant that he came up with the methods on his own but he doesn't claim that he necessarily was the first one to come up with it. |
MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
I understand that, independent creation occurs all the time. To repeat it through out indicates to me that he has claimeed to have created material before and been called on it and figures that alone covers his bases.
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pokerplayer269 New user Needham, MA 30 Posts |
I think he's just a bit paranoid because most magicians now hate him and want to use anything against him lol. I think he's trying to stay out of trouble, ya know what I mean?
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Not really, I've never had an encounter with the young man. If he is making so many upset then perhaps he needs to step back and look at himself.
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
I just read the linked information about Peter Harrison' issue and I think I understand now why Dan claimed originality but was sorry if it wasn't so often. I had no idea.
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pokerplayer269 New user Needham, MA 30 Posts |
Lol yeah, that's why everyone's been bashing him merclessly about anything he releases now (ehich by the way I don't really think is fair).
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
I don't know, all I've seen is Black.
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pkson79 New user 40 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-07-31 18:55, pokerplayer269 wrote: Well then he really should not have published such a crappy book. Unless he wanted to make things worse. Don't you think? That's what I think. PK PS. It also seems on the product pages facts about him and his magic were VERY over-exaggerated. Which is not exactly the best of attitude to take when you want to stay out of trouble. This just might turn into the X-lev revisited. hehe. Looking forward to it.
http://atomiczebra.com
http://themooloolabashuffle.com Not necessarily a new user, just lurking for 10 years, and either agreeing or disagreeing silently. |
Ed Mauve New user 76 Posts |
There's 2 section about this? nvm, have my thoughts here,
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......start=30 We shouldn't compare anyone to Dai Vernon or Ed Marlo status lightly till they aquiry through their own work. We can't give a nobody that kind of maybe then we go buy his don't know where from products (considering its not long ago damage done to someone reputable), cause put it down everyone can be a President someday. So we have to let them know if they want reputation, respect and support, earn it through their own afforts. Ed |
Steven Leung Inner circle found the Magic Rainbow after 1614 Posts |
Sorry to say, but the one of the ace production is already stealing someone's ideas without proper crediting...
I admire Dan's courage to publish a book. However, for some reasons, the writing simply make me feel the thinking is kind of chaos and flipping over those pages inside are fill up with 'an idea come from my friend ...' Those effects and ideas may be from magicians we know... I will say my comment is neutral, hope someone with more knowledge can tell us more about this book.
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"Being fooled by a trick doesn't always mean they are having a good time" - Homer Liwag https://hhpresents.com/ https://www.glitchstudiohk.com/ |
MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Exactly what is it you want to know more about the book?
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zerofire New user 36 Posts |
I should have read this thread earlier. Well, too late.
However, it is not very very bad. Maybe something inside is not workable, but it does help me to think what should I change to make it workable. |
Andrew Loh Inner circle Malaysia 1455 Posts |
Reading this thread really post me a question in my mind "How about Dan's DVDS"?
Check out my new card magic eBooks "The Magnificent Queens" & "Triple Charms" at: www.cardicianden.com My Cardician Den Blog: http://pasteboards.blogspot.com/ |
Zenneth Regular user China - Hong Kong 135 Posts |
Hmm...The 3:1 revelation out of my booklet 15 Maneuvers is explained in this book, and it was credited to his friend.
Zenneth |
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