I recently got a chance to take a look at a new effect created by Thom Bleasdale, creator of Tommy Pad and Lightwish.

I really like this effect. It's a great walkaround piece, but what I liked most was his variation for the stage. I mention it here because I think it's unique, and Thom has been getting great responses from it for a while now. I haven't had the chance to use it yet, only because I'm still busy scripting my own presentation for it.

Here's the description from Thom's page:

"With a theme of music that anyone can relate to, Thom Bleasdale’s ‘Cover Songs’ is a wonderful close up or stage routine using four specially designed CD covers. With three phases, each stronger than the last, and a set of props that appear totally natural and normal that fit in the pocket, ‘Cover Songs’ is the perfect piece for those performers that want something more interesting than the usual set of mind reading props.

It is perfect for walk-around in any situation, it can be done anywhere (although a table or a third persons hands are useful for the first phase). There is no reset, and as the participants handle the CD’s they suspect nothing.

Using three classic mentalism techniques in the one routine, Cover songs is a ready designed professional looking set of CD covers and CD labels, in three different genres - Classical, Jazz and Blues, and Rock. A set for almost any audience.

There are no forces, nothing is written down, no sleight of hand is needed, and there are no visible gimmicks to speak of. A small amount of memory work is helpful although not absolutely essential."

Music is a universal language, and if you are looking for a way to blend the theme of music into your act, this might work perfectly for you.

More info is available at http://www.thombleasdale.com/coversongs.html

Thom is a friend of mine, but I would not bring this to your attention unless I really liked it. And I really like it! Great work, Thom.

D

Yup same here...Thom's a great lad, and sent me this too a little while back...great piece of mentalism, and nice that its more visual as well as auditory based...

Everything I've ever seen by Thom has been class, I'm sure this will be the same.

Andy

I too have had the pleasure of taking a look at this one. I really love the congruent set of effects. It is nice that these effects use an item that is logical to carry around, and once they are in play, there is a lot of mileage you get out of them. I told Thom this was one of my favorite ideas (of all the great ideas he has shared with me). It was great.

With regards,

Sean

Thank you for the kind words gentlemen, I sincerely appreciate it. I am very proud of this project, it is so easy to have with you being that it is so small, and it seems that there is not much mentalism that relates to people with natural objects, so I hoped to fill that gap a bit.
And let's face it, there are hardly any routines based around the worlds most popular artform (oddly, I think - plenty around drawing, not many around music, but music sells far more than visual art...hmmm). Time there were more I say!
Thank you!

Do I need to carry CDs everywhere?

No, you don't need to bring them to the WC

What do I carry?

I use the thin plastic CD envelopes with cd's in them. They fit in my jacket pocket nicely, and they are really thin.

But you do not NEED the cd's for close up work, just the covers in the plastic envelopes is enough. I just prefer to have the discs too, as it is almost no extra effort to carry them. It also allows a crib to be hidden on one of them.

I hope that answers your question, thank you for asking.

I got this!

I loved at first sight the work of love Thom put into this.

The cover graphics are perfect.

The concepts used flow very fluidly across the three sequential phases.

We got Director's Cut for movies... Now we got Cover Songs for music!

A sincere "Well done!" to Thom, from me!

Thank you SO much Paolo. A 'directors cut' but for music was what I saw this as too!
And in case that has confused anyone, NO, this is not a set of cards!