As the purpose of No Camera Tricks was to demonstrate that powerful effects didn't need any "faking," then this bonus disk follows right along. But the big bonus is something which has little to do with the topic, and that's a demonstration of Richard's hypnosis show.

Now you've probably seen a hypnosis show, and you know that they usually consist of embarrassing the participants, having them do things which will carry over into their social lives. (Some college kids like this idea of acting out fantasies; some participants do not.) It is refreshing to see participants treated with dignity in this act. Well, as much dignity as one can have when one foot is stuck to the floor!

At no time did I see anything which would cause humiliation to a participant. Yet the show was uproariously funny, and I only hope the participants got a copy of the video -- otherwise, that command to forget everything and think the show hadn't started would leave them without the fun everyone else had.

I was particularly interested to see how quickly the subjects "went under," and wondered if there had been some pre-show prepping. Something which added entertainment and educational value, was seeing several times when the subjects resisted suggestion. There was a marvelous scene where a young lady was unable to count to ten because the number seven had ceased to exist. When faced with physical proof that "seven" did exist (counting her fingers) she resisted and the suggestion had to be strengthened.

A couple of decades ago, Richard's editor suggested that hypnosis, as we think of it, does not truly exist. Since then, there have been MRIs and CATs which show differing brain activity during "trance" sessions, and I wonder what his latest take on this is. It does look, during this presentation, as if no one is being forced into anything.

The rest of the DVD ain't chopped liver either. Almost all of these demonstrations (out-of-the-studio vignettes) were, originally, meant to be in lieu of commercials during the simulated Jim Sisti Show. At some point, L&L decided to lump these on the bonus disk. From an impossible design duplication (with an insane method!) to a method to grab four minds' thoughts at once, this runs the gamut of powerful, useable methods for really getting inside others' brains. A marvelous demonstration of "Double Down" by Bryn Reynolds shows there is more power in the routine than I suspected -- because Richard is faced with a participant who could not see the card, and still makes it work.

Which points out the real value of these disks, and this one in particular (because it also includes the out-of-the-studio experiences). These are events in which to study the audience manipulation of someone who really knows what they are doing. If there was such a thing as virtual apprenticing, these videos might just be them. As the old masters of different crafts used to say "Watch and learn." And one doesn't even need to indenture oneself to Richard as would have happened in the "good" old days.

*jeep!
--Granpa Chet

Sorry but I can't help but reply to those who are disappointed with NO CAMERA TRICKS. Perhaps you wanted Richard to hand you a complete act so you could be a "duplication". For myself I want to be different. I would like to be as successful as Richard but I'm not. I do not perform one of his effects the way that he does. When I buy an effect or a dvd of effects I am only concerned with the principle involved in each effect. I then adapt my own presentation to that effet.NO CAMERA TRICKS is loaded from top to bottom with enough material to present a complete act with a wide variety of effects and you do not have to copy Richard.