talkmagic.co.uk

Name: Explicit Content

Author: Sean Fields

From: Magictricks.co.uk

Price: £29.99

Genre: Visual Mentalism/ PK Experiments

Presentation:

Its a soft cover , staple bound book with roughly 80 pages. So far , I have only spotted a few spelling errors and on p.15 the words go off the page a bit...but they are still readable. There are lots of black and white photos but they are quite small and hard to see in some points. However , still viewable.

Description:

Hailed by professionals and amateurs alike as innovative, thought provoking and full of solid material, "Explicit Content" has been well received by those who have read the book. Kenton Knepper thought enough of the material to write a foreward, a rare occurrence, and high praise indeed!

Effects:

The Breach Technique - Bend keys and coins in a very convincing fashion at your fingertips!

On Contact - Watch the amazing reactions of the spectator and a coin seems to wrap itself around the performers finger , and is then handed...bent!

The Omni Bender - A key bender for the frugal mentalist. Costing just a few pence to put together, The Omni Bender is a simple gimmick with some unique properties.

The Callous Bend - Borrow a key, and without the aid of gimmicks, bend it in a spectators hand! The method is unique, and the psychology explained can be used with many other bends.

Ringu - Borrow a ring, and cause it to bend visibly! This is a very unorthodox effect, and the method even more so!

Pent - Bend a pen just by thinking about it!

Pen-Ultimate - Banachek read the above effect and immediately offered this for inclusion. The effect is the same as Pent, but the method is even more devious!

The Tesla Experiment - They will remember you for this one! A thought is felt, seen and heard to leave the spectator, and enter the mentalist! Using common gimmicks, and a healthy dose of psychology, this effect is mind reading at its best.

Elemental - Cause a normal glass of water to first boil, then freeze! The effect is a unique display of mind over matter that will keep the audience talking about you!

Glacius - Pour some water into your hand and cause it to freeze solid! A streamlined approach to Elemental, Glacius is simply a beautiful effect.

Molten - For years, mentalists have explained that metal bending is heat induced, now you can prove it! Cause a spoon to become red hot and melt! This really looks good.

That Which You Fear - The PK Touches effect, with a strong emotional hook. First a spectators fear touches them, and then, they overcome their phobia! Taking bits and pieces from Banachek, Luke Jermay, Lior Manor, and Kenton Knepper, Sean has created one of the most spectacular pieces of psychic ability.

Post Impression - An impression device that isn't! This device takes just a minute to make, and will withstand inspection, yet you will be able to discern the spectators thought with ease! Images, numbers, letters or words, it doesn't matter. A simple solution for a wonderful effect

My Thoughts:

The Breach Technique =

Okay , this and the following bend - On Contact - can both be done with keys and coins. Both are very visual (one more so than the other) but they are both usable. In this effect , the perfomer holds the spectators key between his forefinger and thumb....where is bends visually.

This is quite good but is too simple. The key/coin starts off straight and ends up bent. 'On Contact' is better simply because it is more visual. However , this is still good.

On Contact =

This is the better of the two. The performer lays the flat key out on his open palm and begins to rub. As he does so , the key is seen to bend and wrap itself up around the performers finger! It is then handed out for examination.

This looks wicked. The coin or key is visually seen wrapping around the performers finger. No gimmicks and the method is so easy...will definately use this.

Omni Bender =

I have no idea why this is called what it is but it does the job and costs no more than 20p. It is much better than ordinary key benders because it needs only the slightest amount of pressure to bend it. Very useful but not particulary to my style (but then again , I bend nails , cutlery , coins and stationary...not keys)

The Callous Bend =

A spectator is made to actually feel their key heat up and bend and squirm in their own hand.

This is great. Using psychological techniques and a great tricks always work out , and this one is no exception. There are no gimmicks involved and no switches....the key can even be marked. The only drawback I find is that it cannot be done with every type of key there is around...but it'll work with most. Overall? Great trick

Ringu =

This looks brilliant. A borrowed spectators ring is placed flat on the palm of the perfomers hand and begins to shift. It moves around until eventually is has a sizable bend in it. It is then handed out.

Sounds good? Of course. Now imagine this - there are no gimmicks involved. Yes , you heard right...there are no gimmicks involved And astonishing trick. Piece of advice though , do tell the spectator what it going to happen before it happens because the ring does actually bend...

Pent =

An examined straight pen is held vertically at the tip in full view of the spectator. With no moves whatsoever , the pen svery slowly and visibly bends in the middle. No gimmicks.

I cannot begin to describe how brilliant this is...and with no gimmicks it makes it even better. The same method can be use with nails , spectacles , glass rods , spikes ect....10/10

Pent-Ultimate =

The same as above but with some special touches by Steve Banacheck. In my opinion , the touches are not really needed but still...it does make a great effect even better.

Telsa Experiment =

A spectator thinks of a close relative and remebers him/her. She is the asked to try and transfer the thought over to the magician. He asks her to hold out her finger and touch it with his. The spectator feels her finger getting warmer , very warm until...bang! She feels a shock in her finger that runs through her entire body. A light then travels through the air from the spectators head to the magicians and a burst of flame appears. The magician then dramatically reveals the name of the person.

Wow! This - for me - was the highlight of the book...and using such simple ideas as well! Just like Luke Jermay's BB suggestion but with added touches. First of all , the spectators not onlys the thought go from her head but also feels it phyically leave her body (through her finger). She also sees the thought leave and hears the thought leave. What an incredible feet. Well worth the price off this book alone!

Elemental =

Some borrowed water is poured into any clear glass and , with empty hands , the magician focus' on it. It is then seen to start bubbling at the top. The spectator can even hold their hand above the glass and feel the water boiling. Then , with a snap of the fingers , the water visibly starts to freeze from the top down. It is then dumped out as a huge block of ice.

Using two items that evey magician has and one item that can be bought in a food store , this trick can be performed anywhere. You have to perform this trick yourself to see the reactions the spectators give. It is so visual that its...um...very visual! Have performed this several times now and it is fab.

Glacius =

The magicians hand is shown completely empty front and back...water is poured into it and it has turned into ice - not the fake ice magicians use...real ice! A great follow-up trick to elemental.

Not much to say about this. It does exactly what it says on the tin...the hand really is shown empty front and back. Very clever method , how does Sean come up with these things?!

Molten =

A regular spoon is held at the fingertips and begins to glow red. It gets redder and redder and redder (it is obviously very hot) until it melts in full view of the audience. It is then handed out for examination....

Fantastic use of a *^%)?¡ª and can be incorporated into any metal bending routine. Even though it is a very small part of the book , it is a very strong part.

That Which You Fear =

Just like PK Touches except the spectator actually feels the tap when the magician taps the air. Very clever. I believe a method fairly similar to it is in Yigal Mesika's book....Great twist on an old classic - he must of worked for ages on this one.

Post-Impression =

A post-it note impression device.

Most impression devices use carbon paper and the peak is done when the spectator is not looking. Not with this , the actually impression device will cost you no more than a penny and works very well in all enviroments. This one will be used by quite a lot of mentalists I think. There is one bit that put me off at the beginning but after I tried it...no problem. It works great.

Comments:

Apart from the odd spelling error , this book is well presented and contains a lot of strong material. However , you will suffer a fair bit off jiffy bag rage because the ideas are all very simple. And for that reason - and that reason only - I shall lower the overall mark to...

Overall: 8.5/10

Are you sure your only 14?

Excellent review.

You don't need to know any sleights as all are tought in the book(let).

As for the difficulty...it ranges from about 2-4 - fairly easy stuff

Happy Toad wrote:Are you sure your only 14?

Yeah...why do you ask?

Just you write in the style of a much older person.

Oh right...thanks

I'd certainly agree with the review on this. Explicit Content has some great stuff on it - my favourite at the moment being Glacius

I was a little disappointed when I first received this, as it doesn't look much for nearly £30, but as soon as I started reading, i changed my opinion - this is brilliant

Thanks for the review
I bought the book two weeks ago, but it takes ages for anything to be posted to South Africa so I'm waiting paitiently. It sounds like I didn't waste my money

Yay - I finally got it

Here are my impressions:
The book is really small - I didn't even need to fetch it from the post office - they could fit it in my mailbox. When I skimmed through it at first I was a little dissapointed, but then I read Kenton Knepper's forward and he said something like if you don't appreciate what's in the book then you shouldn't be doing metal bending and pretty much you don't have a clue about anything. So I decided I really appreciated the book - I didn't want to be one of those who don't appreciate the depth and seriousness of metal bending. I then read each effect and for each of them Sean said that he really shouldn't be telling us this, or he really wanted to keep this to himself, but..
So I then knew that the stuff had to be good

Ok - that was all very tongue in cheek, but I did feel at first as if I was being 'pitched' by a salesman to appreciate the contents. So my criticism would be that they overdid that a bit.

Having said that, the book is really excellent. There is a lot of good stuff on key bending and I will definitely use it. The psychological subtelties are also really good.
Tesla experiment isn't really my cup of tea, although I could see how it would work.
I was looking forward to Elemental, but I'm struggling to see how it is believable. When I was trying to work it out I thought "you could use .... to make the water look like it was boiling, and you could use .... to make it look like it was freezing - but that's a bit obvious". I was actually right about the method - so I maybe just need to play with it and see.
Maybe after I perform it my opinion will change - I'm just a bit nervous that the people I usually perform for are too intelligent to fall for it, but I guess I felt like that about the good old tt when I first was introduced to it. I suppose it's all about the presentation.


So would i recommend the book - yes, definitely. However, if you want to "start a religion" I don't quite think this will do it..

Although there are some good ideas in this booklet I think it is overpriced. To continue the comparision with DB's work, you can purchase Pure Effect or Absolute Magic for the same price or less.

Would you recommend this material for a close-up mentalist? i.e. My performances contain some card magic, a little bit of coin magic and some mentalism. But this material seems to be purely for hardcore mentalists. My performances arn't particularly "heavy" but I do try to be convincing in the getting my magic accross. Would you recommend this book for me?

Having sent some time with the book I'm not too sure I would recommend it. The point of the book seems to be 'visual mentalism' - if there is such a term. I think most of the routines in the book are good - but for the price you could do a lot better getting something else.

Goldfish I haven't read the book but if your after some practical mentalism, I'd suggest you go for a DVD, either Get Nyman or Bob Cassidy's mental miracles.

Not only will you get to see how they present the very workable tricks along with tips and advice but there is some really strong material and in my opinion if you can get it on DVD it's usually easier to learn from and will not cost you more than a book.