I'm aware that this JUST came out and I'm sitting anxiously awaiting for it to show up in my mail box. Does anyone have theirs yet?

Here's the Blurb:

Square - Four Deadly Mental Feats with Cards


Powerful Impromptu Mentalism with a deck of cards!

As part of a 5 comic book series, Square (preceded By Triangle & Heptagon), is a comic devoted to mental feats with a deck of cards. As usual, all of the material is 100% impromptu.

Imagine being able to appear to clock a deck in less than 30 seconds (with little real effort) and give your subjects the power to do the same. Imagine a 10 card poker deal routine that allows the subject to choose both his hand and your hand from face-up cards and still lose. Imagine being able to sense the instant someone thinks stop. Imagine an ESP card match routine that requires almost no sleights or one-ahead techniques. Stop imagining and pick up Square, now.

Artist Jesse Rubenfeld's signs back on for this third installment of the shape series and his artwork is unmatched. Join Patrick G. Redford at the Paper Moon Saloon in the old west for an adventure that's impossible to forget.

"I have always stated that there is a place in mentalism for playing cards. The methodology of any card trick presented as a real mental skill or gambling must be well hidden, or there are huge consequences at stake. It can't look like a trick, it must look real! Patrick has provided you with just such effects. The methods are well hidden and the impact each have are powerful. All you need is guts, a deck of cards, and a willing audience." - Banachek

"Killer material even for those who don't usually use cards." - Marc Salem

"The subject freely picks his own cards, face-up, and still loses? That's unreal! You've got me hooked." - Boudreau

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Card Counter: Under the fairest possible conditions, the performer is able to tell the subject what card he's thinking of after quickly looking through the deck of cards once at rapid speed. After proving to be correct, the subject is then given the power to duplicate this difficult feet with uncanny results.

SPOT POKER TELLS: Under test conditions from a shuffled deck of cards, the performer senses the exact moment the subject sees his thought-of-card. At no time need the performer look at or touch the cards during the deal through. The subject is encouraged to remain absolutely silent and yet the performer somehow still knows!

ESP CARDS: Five ESP cards are perfectly matched by the subject in a clean, direct, and mind boggling fashion. Virtually Self-Working. No One Ahead.
30 Card Poker Deal: Harness the power to influence a subject's every decision. The much anticipated release of Redford's poker deal. A killer 3 phase routine that uses real suggestion techniques with a 100% fail safes and a special kicker prediction ending. It even works with jumbo cards on stage!

"The subject freely picks his own cards, face-up, and still loses? That's unreal! You've got me hooked."
- Leo Boudreau

Each effect requires only the most basic sleight-of-hand skills and are virtually self-working.

You'll Also Learn Some Never-Before released card sleights:

The Fishman Shuffle: One of the best full deck overhand false shuffles for the mentalist.
The Fishman Switch: A moveless, sleight free packet switch that's as easy as squaring a deck of cards.
Tetrad Switch: Redford's four object switch strikes again.
The PGR-PM Principle: A virtually self working, totally hands off looking card control that positions a card at any position you wish.

And More!
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Is anyone else as excited as I am? I look forward to these comic books every year!

Anxious,
-Tim

Really! No one? Man!

Yea, there's no accounting for taste. Everyone else must be busy contemplating their navels. Patrick Redford doesn't need my help, but here it is anyway. Young Mr. Redford is one of the most creative guys I know, he really performs this stuff and his stuff rocks!!

This book is fulled with gems, within it is probably one of the best poker deal ever! and many more really good ideas/tricks giving the spectator a magic power.

Pierre

Pierre,

Did you get the update yet? I'm still waiting for mine to arrive.

Hey folks,

I now have Square in stock. Orders are being filled and things sent out.

I'm just about to post a live link back on my site. It's been a long struggle to get this thing out but things are finally running smoothly.

Thanks for your interest and support.

-PGR

Hey Patrick. I got the update . You know I'm a massive fan of your work and I think this, at least for me, is the best in the series so far! I'm not against using cards and for anyone who takes that jump this is some really strong material.

Your ESP card routine is very clever. I don't know why people are clambering over this stuff yet! Maybe they just don't have it in their hands or have been on the fence about taking the plunge.

I will say the artwork this time around the other two. This is really great stuff all the way around. Oh the bits with Kreskin are very funny!

Thanks for another quality piece of work and being such a gentleman with all the mishaps involved with this project.

Tim

Any reviews of this? I'm really interested.

ESP seems to be worth the money alone.

I'm still reading! The poker update was pretty massive. I love the creativity and the options given for the routines. I haven't tried anything out yet, but it's a breath of fresh air from a lot of stuff I read.

Okay , I did that poker deal routine again tonight and it KILLS.

This is the best poker deal I've ever done! Folks went crazy, especially on that last phase!

I would say for me the best two routines are the poker deal and spot poker tells.

I'll want to work more on the card counting routine before I put it in front of an audience...not because it's hard to do I just want to work on the extra techniques Patrick teaches before I start gaining a reputation for this.


-Tim

I sent this to Patrick after reading it:

"Good stuff... as always. I liked your ESP effect using your arrangement force. The 10 Card Poker Deal was quite nice. I generally don't like those effects when they use the entire pack in play, but what I really loved was your ending. I have several other routines that use a prediction ending and this is one that will fit into that structure.
Very nice."

Greg

Outstanding book . . . "Poker Tells" really cooks . . . I have fried with it!

I've come fairly late to the works of Patrick Redford - I bought the 'Prevaricator' dvd and I liked it a lot, it was a good idea, well explained, and the methods taught stuck in my mind.

I've read about PR's books, and never been quite able to gauge whether they would be pitched a bit too 'deep' for me. By that I mean I was unsure whether they would be so utterly dependent on presentation that they would be beyond my skills, or that without constant usage they would just be of no use to me. The effects are, of course, reliant on a good presentation, as is all mentalism (and indeed all magic), but they are not 'out of reach', and this is a surprisingly interesting set.

The format, as pretty well everyone will know, is that the effects are 'performed' by PR and a cast of several other mentalists in the style of a "Wild West' comic book, the kind I recall from my childhood (yes, even in Scotland). It's well done (the text could have been a little larger would be my only criticism), it uses name-dropping and in jokes to good and funny effect as PR runs through the effects. The second part of the book is in text format, with a few illustrations.

The effects themselves are very good, and happily in tune with what I like to do. Having said that, I deliberately chose this one of PR's publications because it is card-based, but what surprised me most was the degree to which PR is a card man. He is happy to use moves which are not for the card beginner, but require average skills, I would say. This addressed my concern that the work would be so presentation-dependent that there would be nothing to fall back on, and was a distinct plus for me.

'30-card Poker Deal' is excellent, PR gives a way to assemble the cards you need on the fly, but also gives you an easy alternative if your card skills are minimal. Despite not being able to bluff to the people I perform for that I am any kind of steely-eyed poker pro, I find that poker-based tricks are readily understandable, and something people 'get'. The way this trick plays out is fantastic, and I thought that the overt 'psychological bullying' technique was entertaining and fits well with the poker theme.

'Spot Poker Tells' is also good, and provides a bit of background along with alternative / additional presentations. It meshes well with '30-Card Poker'.

I haven't tried out 'ESP Cards' yet, and I still have some Nick Trost tricks backed up that I've never got around to doing. This is another trick where some average card skill is required. PR does note that ESP cards are not a necessity, (although they are his preference), so it would be quite possible to add this to a set using a normal deck of cards.

The explanations are for the most part very good, and quite comprehensive in suggesting alternative methods and sleights that you may wish to use. As far as the sleights go, the best one for me is a nice full-deck false shuffle which combines ideas from another couple of shuffles I already knew, but mixes those ideas up to good effect.

Overall, I felt that buying this was a bit of a gamble, but it's one that paid off, and I would certainly recommend this. I should have bought it ages ago.

Interesting - this thread was just pointed out to me. Book sounds great, but - Leo, if doing the 10-Card Poker Deal with face-up cards turns you on so much, you should check out Peter Kougasian's Psych-Out Poker in Best of Friends, Vol. 3 (2007). Re: card counting - My The Epitome Location comes to mind. Just interesting - because then seem familiar to me. Anyway... HL.

The publication mentions a brief published history of counting methods, including giving credit to Harry Lorayne's 'Epitome Location', also noting that "clocking" was popularised by Harry Lorayne. I'm no expert on the subject, although I've used the Epitome Location on occasion, but the text seems to me to be written in a way that is both specific to the methods used by Partick Redford, while also being respectful of those who have gone before.

The card counting routine in specific doesn't require one to know how to clock an entire deck of cards making this three-phase routine very easy for virtually anyone. While the book does discuss how to clock an entire deck using legitimate methods that is certainly not the focus of "Card Counter"

HL - your work on counting is fantastic and I very much respect both you and you work.

Does "Card Counter" differ significantly from "Rain King" in the "Triangle" book? The blurb sounds nearly identical.

Shikina,

Card Counter is about clocking a deck (looking through the deck to figure out what unknown card or cards have been removed from the deck) then passing that same power to a subject... whereas Rain King is about memorizing an entire deck of cards in 30 seconds (memorizing every card by number position) and then passing this power onto a subject who is able to do the same very quickly.

While they are similar in theme, they are very different in method, application, and end effect. They do, however, compliment each other very well.

This booklet is loaded with brilliant thinking. The card counting is just one of many gems in it.

Best

John

http://www.johncareymagic.co.uk