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barkmagicman New user 92 Posts |
Building Blocks, a book in retrospect that is essentially brilliant and malevolent all at once. I had purchased this book for the simple reason of entertaining myself.
Whilst reading the effects on an advertisement I merely laughed and thought, "It'll be interesting to see how these pipe dreams spell out". I imagined his book couldn't be any worse than that of Pure Effect by that cunning charlatan Derren Brown. I purchased the book, burnt Pure Effect, pee'd on the ashes of Pure Effect, then received my book in the mail. At first sight my jaw dropped. This is a tiny book, not only in size, but in pagewise as well. The advertisement showed the illusion of a rather large distinct looking volume. But here, in my hands, was a book smaller than that of the Paper Engine. I read through the book a first time (I'm a cursed speed reader) and scoffed it off. I sighed to myself and thought, "The working mentalist is once again thrown off with wicked hopes of new pristine effects.". Then a few days later I opened it back up and looked over it again. The reason I read back through the book was the fact that I saw some moron staring at his watch counting off every three seconds as one (I imagine this will only make sense to those who already own the book). I picked the book back up again and began to look into it. I am a professional hypnotist and none of the subjects of 'convincers' were anything new to me, but the effects he applied them in on second glance seemed less cursory. In fact I went as far as to memorize and cold run the two effects, "stuck in time" and "remote castle". I began by inviting friends over with the castle built and gave the castle a borodin story treatment with a few subtle 'convincers' and, lo and behold, they were rather impressed. They then proceeded to request one more effect (which is amazing for those friends who have seen their share more than many). I promptly initiated, and you won't believe this, the requested hot blonde participant from the book, for stuck in time. I performed this effect, which went brilliantly. However I made a cunning error. The blonde is rather brilliant, and she really had convinced herself that she was stuck in time, so I released a mild Erickson suggestion that she would now hypnotize herself, which she did. I did a quick bit and awoke her. However to my dismay the gentlefolk I performed for decided the second trick was merely a hypnotic ruse (sigh). In closing, this book is really brilliant. Some of the effects are actually simple, easy to perform, and painstakingly worth the effort. Some not so much. I don't see myself going through stigmata, or wilting flowers, but hey...whatever. As for skulduggery, I am uncertain as to making the purchase. Sense I have given, to the best of my abilities, a thorough description (and uses) of some of the effects in and on building blocks. Would someone be as kind as to release a tally running one on skulduggery? I would like to know if For Andruzzi really works. I can stop my pulse, but the spectators, all of them, that sounds to fantastic, but you never know. -I have learned throughout my life as a magician, chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. |
marky707 Regular user 138 Posts |
I have done for Andruzzi several times without any gimmicks and it worked. I still worry about failure when I do it in performance when I decide to stop someone else's pulse, but if not in a paid performance I will stop someone else's pulse with mine.
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adrian333 New user London - UK 53 Posts |
Oi, I respect your opinion barkmagicman, but I really think you are wrong about Pure Effect. It's an excellent book, and if you don't mind me saying it's rather well written compared to your self-named "formal dissertation".
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david_a_whitehead Inner circle USA 2122 Posts |
Pure Effect is an awesome book. Much better put together than building blocks. Both are great, though.
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Paradise Elite user sheffieldEngland 419 Posts |
I love Pure Effect and Absolute Magic. Would I find building blocks useful, i.e, tips on preentation and performance?
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