I find the Professional Mentalist's Field Manual to be worthy of anyone's library, as with all your works, Richard . . . your delivery in this book is clear, concise, powerful, practical, accurate and astoundingly profitable for serious students of mystery arts, and I imagine for many professionals as well.

Thanks for the continued and excellent guidance Richard Osterlind!

Richard is old school, and this is definitely a GOOD thing. This compact book is like a sit-down with your dad who is giving you some life advice before you leave home and go into the world on your own. His field manual offers sound, practical advice about how to be appealing to broad markets, what you need to do to be regarded as a professional, what to consider when putting together a commercial act that is ready to go anytime, anywhere. The field manual is aptly named as a basic survival guide. No tricks here, just sound battlefield advice from a senior officer. You will read it many times to absorb the seemingly simple but profoundly practical lessons from a proven self-made pro who has seen it all.

Thought I would chime in and give my two cents of this wonderous eve of the return of Bob and Richard to the P3 Studios in Columbus. I picked up my copy of the Field Manual from Jim Sisti when he was in town and absolutely LOVE this information locked away between it's sleek camo covers. This is definitely worth picking up if you're looking to be in the business or even simply create a moment of astonishment for your friends & family. I am glad to see other's getting as much value from it's pages as I am, read on good people.

XX,
-Jakob

I keep thumbing back through it and discovering nuggets of wisdom that I need to apply. Great little book.

Realy great !
Will follow the advice and read "principles of magic" next.
Thank you Richard!
Greetings from Germany!

Such a great time.

(not only is my copy dog-eared, it is also dog-chewed! My two new puppies got a hold of it before I did when I came in the mail, but it is still readable, thankfully! )

Bryn

I've never read a book twice in my life. Just finished it, and going to start it again.

TOME...I meant TOME, not "time." (Well, reading it WAS a great time, though......)

Bryn

Excellent material. Richard's delivery is flawless, easy to read and he presents valuable pearls of wisdom.

Ray

Got this yesterday.
Was surprised at the advice given regards to PS, although I can fully understand the authors reasoning. However, it begs the question as to how far that advice should be taken literally. I'm thinking of where the line should be drawn, and it's application to B***et work.

Richard is very opinionated on this subject and frankly I think he is spot on in many respects. I think his feeing is that PS can be done as long as it is made clear to all that the two of you met prior to the show and blah blah blah happened (performer never saw name, card, etc).

I used to disagree more but having done some shows where the PS presented some small issues, I am now thinking I agree with his thinking about PS.

Personally, I love PS. And, there is a proper way to handle it. However, this being a googleable thread it is best having detailed discussions elsewhere.

Best wishes,


Scott
p.s. Performed my Banquet Act just last evening which makes very good use of this. Not that anyone asked, but this act includes the revelation of a music act, a famous person, a DD, a magic square, an ungimmicked book test, Q & A and ends with a prediction. All for under 25 bucks.

Your killing me! I gotta catch your show one of these days! Sounds superb

I'm pretty sure that I have not mentioned anything that was not mentioned previously on this thread (including by the author himself) which you may not have observed.
Additionally, the book is available en masse on the big auction site.
I doubt the need for anyone to google something so readily available.

Thank you for your comments, Saysold 1. I'm sure there are some very useful snippets in the book. I'm finding them already !

Regards,

Bobby.

Loaded with advice, theory, philosophy. Any way you look at it it aims to take whatever level of performance one has and elevate it.

Bobby,

Sorry, but I wasn't referring to your post. I meant that I enjoy discussing this topic but would not go into detail here. That's all.


Best wishes,

Scott

Sorry Scott,
guess I picked up the wrong vibes (mentalism powers slipped a bit).

Regards,

Bobby.

A bit late to this thread but I just wanted to add what a great little book this is. I used Richards effects in my shows for well over ten years now, and love his thinkng and his style. There are lots of people putting out mentalism effects but only a few who really perform for real people. Even though I like to think of myself as a pro, Richards work always re inspires me. I nearly didn't buy this book, thinkng I would already know much of what he would have to say. In some cases that was right, in others I was soooo wrong. I read the whole thing in an afternoon and will be dipping in and out of this for a while to come no doubt.

Haven't got this yet but it's literally the first time I so much fancy the look and messaging on the front cover of a book related to our art.

Well done!

This, too, is gold. (Not a lot of Richard's ISN'T, is it??)

and ya just GOTTA love the militaristic look of the cover...like a real Field Manual!

Bryn