In response to the questions we see here and on other forums so often relating to performing strong mentalism or magic, I've finally decided to release one of my pet routines.

However, I've held nothing back, so this isn't aimed at the newcomer to mentalism at all... it's aimed at those who want to give a tangible experience while looking like the real thing. This is so strong that people don't even ask if I'm the real thing - they accept that their experience has spoken for itself.

Creating Impact! is not for the stage, and its not for table-hopping. It's for an intimate setting, preferably one-on-one, or at a party for a small group. I often use it to close a deal to a bigger show.

I've had good reviews so far and one person in particular has been very vocal in asking me to take it off the market, or at least limit the amount of copies. I'm considering making it limited, but for now it's not. I think it's important though to make it available and show what can be done with what we already have. So there really is nothing ground-breaking new here, but it's within the application of the routine that you'll have impact. The structure is what sells the different phases, and this is within iteself a valuable lesson.

The routine is practically impromptu and you might or might not be knowledgable on the variations of the effects themselves. But again, it's not the effects (read: tricks) that is the focus, its the unique application and the overall experience or effect it has on the participants... and on your reputation.

Creating Impact! has been likened to Derren Brown's Absolute Magic - but is considered more practical. You can read what Richard Osterlind and others have said in their previews here.

Download the first 11 pages and see the ad copy here.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, or PM me. I'll endevor to answer as best I can.

-Alan

There's a very short review at http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......tart=0#1

Please, Alan, please consider pulling this from the market!

*jeep!
--Granpa Chet

Hey guys, I have Alan’s' Creating Magic for a week now. I have combed over it and like to give a review.

Creating Impact

I printed this e-book out on my laser printer and then binded it with my bookbinder machine. It made for a good size book. I then sat down in my favorite chair and got comfortable.

Opening the book I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book had been personalized. It said, “This e-book was purchased by;” and then it had my name and address.

At first I was a little taken back when I started reading. Alan has chosen to explain the effects of Creating Impact by telling a story. It was a story of him performing for a lady at a coffee shop. I read about half the page and thought, “What the heck, how am I going to learn anything from this?”

But I pressed on in my reading and as I turn the first page I found myself being pulled into his world. I could see myself sitting there at the table drinking coffee and talking to this lady.

As I was reading the story of Alan’s performance I was really surprised. I was able to see how he had been able to place so many ideas and methods of suggestion into his presentation. He used conversational hypnotic language and tactics to stir the emotions of the lady during each phase of the routine.

After a little small talk he goes into a very short cold reading. He then sets the framework around the effects as he quickly builds rapport. He used the theme of the movie The Secret to blend all these effects together. This gave his presentation meaning, which held everything together. When I seen that he talked about the movie The Secret I felt it was a smart ploy to help move the effects along and to tie everything into a framework that was 100% related.

If you do not like the book/movie The Secret do not worry. The theme can be anything that you decide on. From reading the story you will quickly get the idea how to theme your own presentation. Just make a theme that you feel will fit you better. I found no concern about this; after all as performers aren’t we supposed to make effects our own and to give it our own personality?

I’ve studied hypnosis years ago and have a good understanding of the use of suggestions. I just smiled when I seen these methods being used while reading the story. He also demonstrated the use of anchoring within the context of this routine.

Alan didn’t pull any punches in creating this routine. What I liked most about the story part of the book was that you could see how a pro handles the sitter.

You get to see how he hooks and moves the emotions of the lady. There is even a clever use of a pendulum, which is handled by the lady!

The last effect is the icing on the cake. It concludes the presentation with a bang. I don’t want to tell you the effects because they are not that earth shattering. Most of us have done effects similar to these. The gem of this routine is not the effects but the presentation that moves this to a higher caliber of mentalism.

I recommend this to anyone wanting to Create Impact in his or her act.

I am pleased with this routine, as I am now Creating Impact!



Best
Ray

Wow! That's an awesome review Ray! Thanks.


Posted: Mar 8, 2007 9:38am
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Hi there,

I just thought I'd share this with all of you who bought Creating Impact:

I bumped into a girl today that I performed the routine on in March last year (she visits her folks here once a year, and then goes back to the UK).

I was surprised when she showed me the business cards used in phase two was still in her purse!!! All four them!!! After a year!!! And she was still talking about it!

Is there a review of this on the Café?

A lot of people seem to be coming out with ebooks these days...

You can buy a book on mentalism like PRISM for $35/40 yet people sell ebooks with one routine in them for $20. If you don't like PRISM you can sell it, what if you don't like the ebook?

That said, I have been happy with some ebooks that I have bought. But I am nervous about purchasing ebooks from people I have never heard of...

I hear your concerns Aussiemagic... here are more reviews of Creating Impact other than the ones in this thread:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......9&21

If you have any specific questions please feel free to PM me.

-Alan

One has to be careful in buying ebooks, but the same holds true when buying any other book. I have many on the shelf, but few that are really worth much in the long run. And, just like the books on the shelf, there are a very few ebooks that are absolute gems...that make a significant contribution in terms of deeping one's understanding of performance...that actually reshape one's thinking about what magic is all about. This is one of the best, in my opinion. In fact, if I had to throw my entire library away and keep only 7 books, those 7 would all be ebooks, and this would be one of the seven. What I have had to do is to discover, through some trial and error, who I can count on for "the gold." I could name a few others, but for our purposes here, I'll just say that I consider Alan to be in that group. We are very fortunate to have some extremely creative and talented individuals here on the Café.

Nicholas, I would be interested in hearing your other 6 choices (just out of curiosity).

Krabat

Krabat,
That might be an interesting topic for another thread. However, it may help to reveal my bias when determining what I consider to be "gold." (I wonder if I share a similar bias with others that enjoy works like Alan's?) I am looking for ways to create, as much as possible, magic that is totally in the minds of the participant. Magic that might even go as far as to require no slights or gimmicks at all. On the other hand, I don't want to present a hypnosis show. "Traditional magic" could be a useful term here as it probably comes closest to suggesting the kind of magic that I am going for. When gimmicks or slights are used, they must fit in a way that is so totally doable in the real world and such a natural part of the process, that I personally can, in a sense, believe that they don't exist and that I'm not really using them. Richard Osterlind expresses this idea in a far clearer manner than I am able. To this end, Alan and a select group of others provide layers of understanding, strokes of insight and splashes of nuance that help to complete the picture that I hold in my mind of how real magic should look (per my bias as mentioned above). Finally, in my performance, I feel that I've struck the mark if the reaction I get is one of awe-struck silence or if the participant / group seem to be held spellbound. I also tend to move in the direction of cosmic humor rather than the type that produces uproarous laughter. I like to see inner absorbtion of the participant rather than hear outward applause. Works like Alan's, Osterlind's, Enrique Enriquez's, and others are easy for me to translate into my performance mode. Although not every performance I give meets my ideal, writers such as these help me to keep moving in that direction.

Finally got a chance to try this over the weekend, thank you Alan for producing some great thoughts on this. It is a well conctructed and well thought out effect that builds on itself to create an effect that does have "impact"

I'm glad this is catching on... I had a short correspondence with Alan before publication and we were both worried that people wouldn't immediately get the value of the routine.

There are no shiny new gimmicks and methods to play with, this is all about building an intimate, multi-phased effect with a memorable kicker using simple props and straightforward methods.

I really enjoy material like this and especially the way it's written. It's like peeping over the shoulder of a fellow performer while he performs a close-up mentalism routine and seeing how he combines presentation, premise, and method.

Some people on this forum may have gotten their first taste of what mentalism can be after playing with the Outlaw wallets or the Stealth Assassin, products that received a lot of attention here.

This manuscript might be a good 'next step' if you're wondering how to integrate your new tool into something more pure and 'real' - it's put to good use in one of the variations.

Nicholas, Paradise, Matthew... all I can say is thanx for the good words!

Yes, it was troubling me that the simplicity of this routine would be passed over, but my fellow performers have proven my fears unfounded and have showed me they have been wanting something like this!

Some good ideas and variations have come from Creating Impact too - but what I'm enjoying most is how friends are incorporating the ideas into their own routines.

I've received a number of unsolicited emails of thanx for sharing this. But I have to say thank you to you guys for taking the chance on an unknown!

Keep it up!

For me this has been one of the greatest purchases in ever. You wouldn't believe how much it's helped me when it comes to understanding what makes a routine powerful and meaningful, and routining in general. It is also a very enjoyable read, and I still keep going back and reading it through.

I totally agree. Normally I'm wary of trying out new authors, especially with ebooks. But Alan's Creating Impact totally rocks! The more I perform it the stronger it gets.

Does anybody have his Simple ESP REading system?

You have got to be kidding mjvermaak.

-Jack

H.O.A-X

Lol

Mjverrmaak,
I'm pleased to say that I have it and love it! I've expanded the system a bit to suit my own background. Although I've heard a contrary belief, I find it very easy to justify the use of the ESP deck and, in fact, that adds to the ease and effectiveness of its use. There really are a lot of ways you can go with this...you can let your own intuition and creativity soar. That is because, within his manuscript, Alan has provided, in the clearest terms possible, the most wonderful way of approaching the interpretation of the symbols. This is an approach...a way of thnking... that is easily applied to other divination systems as well. I don't know Alan at all. But, I'm totally taken up by his work and have had such a positive experience with it that I've become just a little biased.
You will also find other comments on the thread that deals with Simple ESP...just do a search. Hope these comments are of help.
Nicholas

Thanx to Nicolas ...

Hey, I'm just letting you guys and girls know that I've updated my site to include a Paypal Shopping Cart, and you can use a credit card for purchases if it suits you.

Also, I have a new book coming out soon - within the next week or so - so be on the lookout for that!

Thanx

Two of my most favourite releases in Mentalism are Osterlind’s Mind Mysteries Vol 1 and Stuart Cumberland’s update of Annemann’s One Man Psychic Act. Both inspired me beyond just enjoying the work and liking the ideas – they actually got me working on an act and getting off my butt to perform it. Both warrant serious study as to how a Mental Act can and should be shaped. In fact I think it would behoove all would-be performers to put serious work into studying the Annemann Act and searching within themselves on how they can present it before branching out into more elaborate work.



So why am I harping on about these other releases when this is a thread about Alan Strydom’s “Creating Impact”? Simply because Alan’s wonderful ebook easily sits with those other works as a treatise on actually doing it rather than a presentation of a neat idea or a collection of random effects. This is a well thought out routine for a one on one situation or small group. If you perform this people will believe in you – not just because of the material but because of the level of plausibility Alan has built in to the routine. There’s nothing overly difficult or new in the effects – but that’s not where the power of this routine lies. Read it, absorb it, then imagine yourself performing it and as you do that, look for subtle variations and little things you may wish to do differently from the text. Those little pieces are the key to your own performing personality and finding that is the single most important factor to developing as a performer and the one area most sadly neglected in magic and mentalism. Any work which keeps it simple but powerful is a stepping stone to developing that personality and Alan’s excellent ebook will give you a routine which has enough power to stand on it’s own but is also simple enough that you can easily insert your own personality into it and develop it into something even greater.



It’s also worth studying purely for the aforementioned plausibility aspect – you may not like or agree with Alan’s take but that’s OK. It’s a great model for study on how YOU can find your own plausibility level.

Best,

David.