Michael and Mark...Truly honored by your kind words, and Michael, as you already know, you were a big inspiration in working out many of the effects in 777.

A few updates:

1. I have updated Good Samaritan and I will be sending out a new version to purchasers of the book in the next week or so. I am very proud of this routine, and it is one of the effects in 777 that truly started from scratch with a challenge to myself: I want to tell someone how much cash is in a wallet. From there, it went to a propless routine that I think many will get a lot of smiles with in casual close-up settings.

2. I have also updated (or provided an option for) Deckwavoque that I like very, very much. I performed this as a KK routine this morning while standing in line to serve plates for Thanksgiving dinner at church. My wife was standing behind me, and I asked the lady in front of me if she wanted to take this cool psychological test I saw in my favorite psychological research journal...Cosmo. She said sure, and I performed the test and revealed her single chosen card in my wallet. After a couple of minutes, my wife says,"She gave you one of those looks like they do on those DVD's you're always watching (L&L)!" I took that as a good thing. I will be sending this update to purchasers of the book as well.

3. And finally, unfortunately, the taxman in the EU is screwing with us, and as a result, I will not be able to sell 777 to residents of the EU after December 31. I just don't have the resources or time to worry about VAT, and I did this for fun, not to enter a business per se. I would estimate that about half of my customers have been from the UK/EU, and I am thankful to all of you for giving this project a chance.

Until then, I am still taking orders for "777" at reddevilmentalism.blogspot.com. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Hi, all. Just an update to let purchasers of 777 know that I have sent out an updated copy of "Good Samaritan" and "Deckwavoque" to you all. If I have for some reason missed anyone, just email me at reddevilmentalism@gmail.com.

The year 2014 has been a thrill for me through the 777 project, and I am thankful to all who gave it a shot! I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for all of us...

Great customer service on top of seriously well thought out and USABLE material. We have all fallen for laborious, impractical effects masquerading as miracles. RedDevil's 777 I can gladly say, is not one of them. Without a doubt one of my top 3 purchases of 2014, and for the price bracket, there really is no excuse to let it fall by the wayside. Despite my selfish desires for this material to be known only to those who chanced upon it, I implore all in the 'know' to spread the word. RedDevil deserves the recognition.
All the best,
Ben.

Ben, I'm very glad you liked it. Thanks for purchasing it and giving the project a try...

One day to go for anyone in the EU who hasn't picked this up.

If you were a fan of 'A Piece of my Mind' I would recommend checking out '777'. It plays with and explores similar avenues to Michael Murray's book and includes a lovely business card version of TERASABOS that makes the effect 100%.

And with the new EU rules it will soon be a collector's item- in Europe at least!

Will this still be available to buyers in the US?

Martin, thank you for that kind plug. The effect you mentioned has always been one of my favorites in the book. Yes, it appears I am going to have to play it safe with the new tax laws, and I will no longer be able to share anything via PDF with members of the EU (European Union) after today until I figure out something. This is the last day I will be able to sell it to anyone that lives in the EU.

To give credit where it is due, Michael was a great inspiration to me and spent a lot time with me "harassing" him with unsolicited manuscripts and ideas. He was and is a very positive and encouraging human being. If I had his creativity, I would be, well, giving you a piece of my mind... Instead, he kindly allowed me to use a few of his ideas and suggestions as fundamentals and as a springboard for a few of the routines in 777.

There is another human being that to this day I don't know why he spent so much time with me to help and offer some consulting with pieces of the book. I won't name drop him, but he knows who he is (and if you have purchased the book, you do too). He is a truly generous person, and I hope he knows how grateful I am. Thank you, ****.

And to Lar and Maddy and Art and Pablo and Atlas and Bob, thanks for being willing to give me feedback and spend time reading half-brained ideas from some guy calling himself RedDevil. Bob, you gave me one of the encouragements I will never forget, as I was going to publish it under RedDevil and leave off my name. You told me to put my name on it and be proud of my first book. I will never forget that, and I hope I will have a chance to pay it forward one day.

I have been writing effects as a hobbyist teacher performing for kids in the classroom for about 15 years now, and 2014 has been a dream come true. Café has been a great outlet for me, and I look forward to contributing and growing in 2015. Happy New Year, everyone...

Paid for this right at the end of 2014 via the site - would be a shame to not be able to read this because of the stupid new tax laws. This is sent out manually, not automatically?

Jamie

Hi, Jamie. I have sent it your way. Sorry for the delay. I was out with family for a few hours, and I don't have an automated system. Thanks for your faith in this project and have a great New Year!

No worries - just wondered if it was automated or not. Notes look good but haven't had time to really absorb yet.

Hopefully there'll be something sorted out about the new ebook tax soon, eh.

I absolutely love 777! The routines are solid and the value cannot be overstated. What impresses me most, is the way the Red Devil's scripting cleverly engages the participant and disguises the method. There wasn't anything that I would consider "throw away," and I will definitely be putting in the work to add several of the routines into my repertoire immediately. Buy it....now

Mr. F, thanks so much for these kind words! It's been such a thrill that people responded well to this.

I have an announcement in regards to my ceasing of sales to the EU because of VAT laws. I have decided it is ridiculous of me not to sell to the EU because the law isn't clear in the first place, and I should have told them to kiss my American tail. If the irs asks me to pay taxes to the EU, I will do so. But until then I am now continuing sales of all my PDFs to people around the world.

I apologize to those I had to send refunds to, but I really think it is the writers of this terrible law that owes us an apology...

Hi, all. I just thought I would announce that my e-book of close-up mentalism is now available direct from Penguin Magic. You can find it here for your downloading pleasure:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/5244

Thanks to all of you who have sent me the kind words about this passion of mine...

'777' is excellent. You're not going to like everything in it - that would be almost impossible in a book containing so many effects - but I'd be amazed if anyone regretted buying it.

You can already see in this thread that various readers have different favourites among the contents, depending on their tastes. For me, 'Positively' is a great take on the Max Maven effect. 'Good Samaritan' is fiendishly clever, though I have yet to road-test it. The TERASABOS variant is excellent. But 'Life Lock'... wow, this is brilliant, I cannot wait to use it. A gimmick-and-app-free, amazing and slightly different unlocking of a spectator's iPhone. Very well thought out, worth the price of the book on its own.

I expect most people will like one or more of the other effects and ideas too. I don't think any of them are weak, just not to my tastes in some cases.

It also seems worth mentioning that Robert responded to a post-purchase query of mine remarkably promptly.

In short, '777' is an excellent book and worth every penny.

Thanks, Luke. Means a lot for you to take time to reach out and share this. Have to give credit to Andrew Brown who has become a great brainstorming partner for me and inspired me to stumble on to my Lifelock phone PIN routine. If you guys haven't figured it out, Andrew has a pretty sharp brain for mentalism. The idea I added to this came to me a few minutes after I turned off my lamp to go to sleep one night. I almost literally popped out of bed and giggled when the idea came to me. And it is so simple and has been there in front of us all along.

As for Good Samaritan, this is my baby, and the only way to get good at it is to repeatedly do it until it becomes natural (I guess that goes for all routines). Experience will help you avoid problems or misunderstandings. Your spectator should never even know they are in an effect until it is too late if it is presented well. I want to say too that I have developed a texting/messaging script for GS in combination with Myke's "AUGURE" app. It's built in a flow chart pattern for copying and pasting into a messaging app, and then the spectator opens his email and finds that I predicted the color and contents of his wallet before we even started. The logical disconnect for Augure is that I tell them verbally how much money is in the wallet, not them telling me. Fried some people with this lately. Probably won't release/share this, but those who have this and Augure can probably do something similar.

A huge shout out to a very kind man, Rick Maue, who spent time with me on the phone for about an hour and told me stories about TERASABOS, and he was kind enough to give me his blessing on my business card variant, TERNBATA (this effect requires no balls at all).

As for Positively!, I get defensive on this one because some folks didn't believe in it. But I do, and it works. And I just personally enjoy performing it, and I think that comes out for the spectator. But there I go being defensive again...haha...

People can get this either direct from me at reddevilmentalism.blogspot.com or at Penguin. Thanks so much for allowing me to share this and giving me a chance.

If anyone is interested in a little Easter deal...

Through Sunday, anyone who purchases either ET Q&A or 777 from me personally this weekend will receive a free copy of my Domesday Birthday Revelation routine "The First Time Ever..." (usually sells for $10.00).

You can purchase these on the websites listed on my signature below, and I will attach your free copy of "The First Time Ever..." in your PDF delivery.

Just a quick announcement...I have developed a 2nd Edition of 777 that improves the "Deckwavoque" and "DeckwACAAN" routines (imho) and includes an updated version of "Good Samaritan." This edition is not yet currently on Penguin (though I have contacted them to seek help in replacing the file). In the meantime, I will be glad to send this edition for those who have purchased directly from me.

If you have already purchased 777 directly from me, all I ask you do is email me at reddevilmentalism@gmail.com by forwarding/replying to me with your original purchase email or PayPal announcement. This may take me a while because there are a bunch of you. Since things scroll so quickly on L&G, I will also post on Penny. I just want to take care of those who have honored me with their purchase.

This is great stuff! Really smart ideas and tremendous applications. I gave the updated Good Samaritan the wife test this past weekend. After 15 years, she's wise to many many methods. Even so, when I named the amount of money that she made up in an imaginary wallet, she was clueless to how I knew.

I consider this effect like a PIN divination but with added conviction because the spectator is the star of this entire tale that is weaved, that ends with this revelation out of nowhere!

Thanks Robert!

Regards,
AH

Thanks, Adam. After 19 years at my house, the wife test gets harder and harder. Glad you enjoyed it.

It's hard to believe, but 777 was released just over a year ago, and I never could have anticipated what a great experience it would turn out to be. Thanks to all of you for your support. For those of you not acquainted with it, it has been updated into a 2nd edition.

You can still get this from me directly at http://reddevilmentalism.blogspot.com or if you prefer instant download, you can order through Lybrary or Penguin.

Since that time, I have been immersed in my "real" job. Many of you have contacted me and asked for various things, so I apologize if I have appeared non-communicative. I have a great job, but honestly, the last 12 months have been the busiest in my career!

With that said, the creative bug has hit me in the last few months, and I have been developing and performing some new routines. They are going well enough that I think I may be looking at a new mentalism release in about 5-6 months. In the meantime, I am just playing and having fun with them. If I still feel this way in March or so, I will write them up and send them out to a few folks to make sure I haven't unintentionally lifted somebody else's ideas.