So I have taken some time to really take in the properties of this book, I have tried several of the effects and here I will give MY opinions.

While many of you know I am a friend of Chris’, I really am giving my honest opinion of his new book “Roulette”.

So first we will start with where to get the book from.

If you are interested in a physical copy of the book (at the amazing price of £18), it is available directly from Chris just drop him an email.

Chrisrawlinsmentalist@googlemail.com

If you on the other hand would like the Ebook, it is available from http://www.magicseen.co.uk (at £10)

The price for the material within is fantastic and a steal at less than 20 pounds!

I know a book should not be judged for its cover, but I think quality is another lovely property about this book. The printing is fantastic, everything is easily readable and the pictures are excellent quality.

The book is 82 pages long, is literally crammed with excellent information and contains a lovely forward from Luke Jermay.

Effects:

Credit guard

A psychological game involving two envelopes; the subject seals their credit/bank card into a pay envelope and another identical pay envelope is a dummy credit card. The envelopes are both mixed by the performer and he is able to correctly influence the subject to find his card!
As an added kicker, the subject is asked to remove his card, keeping it hidden at all times and concentrate at the first four digits of the long number on the front. The performer is able to correctly call off the numbers!
The subject seals their card, no gimmicked envelopes, they never write the numbers down, you don’t ever peek at the card and everything is examinable before and after!

Clipboard peek

This is my favourite out of the whole book; this had me fooled for months! This is a real time peek, no carbon, no impressions.
It is like nothing you have read before

My version of a classic

This is Chris’ fantastic take on a chair test, ultimately fair conditions and a fantastic kicker to end with! The same with all Chris’ work everything is clean, clean and clean!

Essay

Here you get to get a look into Chris’ mind, take a look at some of his thoughts.

Scramble

Three subjects are handed a piece of card, are asked to stare at the card and imagine one or two letters of the alphabet and when they have them write them on the card. The audience are then asked to look at the letters, create a set of words out of the letters and decide upon one as a group.

The performer reveals he has already predicted exactly what word the audience will decide upon before the show even started!
The cards do not prompt the subjects; everyone in this routine is thoroughly impressed.
Phonebook prediction (addition).

An addition to any phone book prediction to make the odds seem even more impossible!

The Yellow ball that fooled Mark Oberon

Three cups are verified to be opaque, a yellow ball is introduced and it is explained that the performer will turn his back. When the performers back is turned the subject is instructed to place the yellow ball under any cup he desires.
The performer turns around, he is able to divine which cup the ball is under every time! If that wasn’t enough he invites another subject to participate, the performer/ new subject do not look and the ball is placed under the cup.

The subject is able to divine where the ball is!

The cups are not marked; the subject is not prompted by the performer he has free choice at all times (when it comes to his turn to find the ball).

Kicker chirp top

A small envelope is produced and it is explained that inside there are two poker chips. The performer influences the subject to correctly predict the colour of the two poker chips!

The subject is then asked to choose one of the poker chips (no equivoque) and the performer reveals he knew exactly which chip the subject would choose in a very unusual manner.

Essay

This is Chris’ second essay in the book.

The push slide peek (bonus effect)

A peek for playing cards, and/or business cards (with a little adjusting)

Little lead in

A fantastic introduction to any effect, a subject is correctly able to divine the amount of fingers the performer is holding up (every time).

P.I

This is Chris’ re-adaptation of one of the strongest (in my opinion) pieces of mentalism. Using this utility you can correctly divine ANY piece of information from a subject!

My overall opinions

It is instantly noticeable when reading this Chris has taken his time to really select some of his strongest pieces of mentalism. I know personally each of the routines have been tested live, not only Lay folk, but magi’s alike!

Often you can (in your mind) over hype something and make it out to be at such a high standard (before you read it) and then when you finally get to read it you find you are disappointed by the contents. I can honestly say this book was not a let down. It is layered with fantastic psychological principles and I know each effect will quickly fit into any performers set.

The material is practical, will play of amazingly to any audience and is only moments away from being in your repetoir.

I am not a marketing stooge for Chris, if I thought the book was S**T I would say so! In my opinion this is a fantastic follow on from “Mind experiments” and I really look forward to Chris future releases!

Pete x

Hey guys,

OK so I decided to pick this up from Chris, and please note I have not read any of his previous work Mind Experiments, so this was a first for me.

The book is 82 pages long, and most of the effects in the book can be considered workers, I will give my thoughts on each one.

Effects:

Credit guard

A psychological game involving two envelopes; the subject seals their credit/bank card into a pay envelope and another identical pay envelope is a dummy credit card. The envelopes are both mixed by the performer and he is able to correctly influence the subject to find his card!
As an added kicker, the subject is asked to remove his card, keeping it hidden at all times and concentrate at the first four digits of the long number on the front. The performer is able to correctly call off the numbers!
The subject seals their card, no gimmicked envelopes, they never write the numbers down, you don’t ever peek at the card and everything is examinable before and after!

Thoughts: I love this one, wow, the first effect in the book, and it comes out strong! This is definately a worker, and one you could add into your performances. Uses just pay envelopes, a credit card, and a dummy card, that's it.
I can imagine myself performing this, just like Luke Jermay states in his foreward.

One of my favorite pieces from the book.

Clipboard peek
This is a real time peek that will fool everyone, trust me!
It is nothing like you have seen before.

Another favorite piece from the book.

My version of a classic

This is Chris’ fantastic take on a chair test, ultimately fair conditions and a fantastic kicker to end with!
This is really clean, and spectators will not suspect a thing when the dirty work is done.
I really enjoyed the thinking behind this, and I feel that after studying it, you will be able to frame it so you can add it to your show.

Scramble

Three subjects are handed a piece of card, are asked to stare at the card and imagine one or two letters of the alphabet and when they have them write them on the card. The audience are then asked to look at the letters, create a set of words out of the letters and decide upon one as a group.

The performer reveals he has already predicted exactly what word the audience will decide upon before the show even started!
The cards do not prompt the subjects; everyone in this routine is thoroughly impressed.
Phonebook prediction (addition).

An addition to any phone book prediction to make the odds seem even more impossible!

Thoughts: This reminds me of an effect that I saw Michael Weber perform, and plays really strong on everyone watching.
Another great piece of mentalism for stage, that you will want to perform.

The Yellow ball that fooled Mark Oberon

Three cups are verified to be opaque, a yellow ball is introduced and it is explained that the performer will turn his back. When the performers back is turned the subject is instructed to place the yellow ball under any cup he desires.
The performer turns around, he is able to divine which cup the ball is under every time! If that wasn’t enough he invites another subject to participate, the performer/ new subject do not look and the ball is placed under the cup.

The subject is able to divine where the ball is!

Thoughts: I am going to go to the local supply store right away and buy the necessary props, this is really easy to peform, and once you know the method, you will want to go out and buy everything and try it.

Another favorite piece from the book!

Kicker chirp top

A small envelope is produced and it is explained that inside there are two poker chips. The performer influences the subject to correctly predict the colour of the two poker chips!

The subject is then asked to choose one of the poker chips (no equivoque) and the performer reveals he knew exactly which chip the subject would choose in a very unusual manner.

Thoughts: Although I liked this piece, I am not sure I will ever perform it.


The push slide peek (bonus effect)

A peek for playing cards

Thoughts: This one I will use, cannot stress the brilliance of this peek.

P.I

This is Chris’ re-adaptation of one of the strongest pieces of mentalism. Using this utility you can correctly divine ANY piece of information from a subject!

Thoughts: This is really great, I love it, and something that to me is one of the strongest pieces of mentalism that you can perform.

Overall Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book a lot, and I found at least 5 effects that I will add to my reportoire in the future.

I always think when I buy something, if I can use at least 1-2 items from a book, DVD, or ebook, then the book was worth it, and pays itself over and over again.

This one surpassed all expectations, and is a great find and read as well.

I suggest you pick it up from Chris.

Thanks a lot

Alex

Just redaing this...is very good, BUT the clip board peek is VERY similar to my concept used in my routine THE VISION in my dvd IN MY MIND...plus the use of the envelope was thought by Paolo Cavalli in a bonus pdf...

Yes Luca, but in Chris version is a step more to hide the prinzip better.

Yes, GIdeon but I have find also the "move" that he used for the chair routine to be similar (the same!) with my "bold move" in my Ultimate Chair Test routine, I contacted him and still waiting his answer from two days...I know that this things can accidentally happen, but at least I was waiting an answer and some credits....

I replied to the other post Luca, I rang Chris and had no answer. I think hes just having a couple of days away from the mad rush that hes been under recently and the moment hes back online he will message you.

Please don't think hes avoiding you.

Pete

I have just finished reading my copy of Rawlin`s new book `Roulette` and find myself agreeing with the words of Luke Jermey`s foreward; ".... there will be moments that you will want to adapt to fit your own style". With the possible exception of "Kicker Chirp Top" I cannot see myself adopting any of the material in my act, although in fairness whilst I do often use mentalism as a ploy I am not an outright Mentalist, that said the book is a great exploration of Rawlin`s methodology and how he likes to construct his routines, and in every effect there was something that caught my attention and upon reflection did challenge the way I construct routines. To this end, as Jermey had hinted, there were moments in every effect that I wanted to explore further.

Fans of Mind Experiments (Rawlin`s first publication) will be pleased to see further thought given to "bold moves" and the casual reader will be impressed by the simplicity of these moves and the author`s faith in their employment, calling for the reader to have the confidence of trying them. In places the text feels argumentative, especially Rawlin`s essay about the `Lazy Mentalist`, I am sure everyone that reads the book will be sympathetic with his notes and find themselves in complete agreement but I did feel this essay felt out of place within the book. That said it was well written and true.

To those that know Chris they will know he has been a good student of mentalism, and this book stands testament to that with plenty of references to previous mentalists and magicians and I was extremely pleased to see credits given at the end of each effect.

Finally whilst I started this review by stating that I would not incorporate many of the effects for myself, they are all extremely well explained, very workable and I can see many mentalists, and/or magicians alike, wanting to adopt some of these effects - they would be able to do that very quickly with great success and therefore I would recommend this text. It is a well written book with some impressive effects, and for me some interesting observations about audience management and magical presentation.

I definitely look forward to purchasing this book; however, I do have a question regarding Chris's clipboard peak. Is the method for it similar to his other effect "Reveal?"

Reveal is a professionally made version of Clipboard Peek from Roulette. I believe that Clipboard Peek has now been removed from the current version of the e-book because Reveal has been marketed as a stand alone item with the props.

Tried to order this, but the page claims that my VISA card is not a VISA. Bugger.

Looks like they found out before you do...