Reprinted from a review I did in July for the Mentalist's Only area:
The Gift – The 14th Step to Mentalism by Paul Brook
Cost £35/$70 ( http://www.paulbrook.co.uk/thegift.htm )
Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
It depends. It’s not a beginner’s book, but then if you’re on stage doing a full mentalism act, you’re not a beginner by definition.
Review
When I met Paul earlier this month at the London Mentalist Meeting, he was fizzing with ideas. This is one of them. The Gift is a fundamental method designed to create impossible feats of stage or group mentalism.
The book opens with the method. It concerns an approach to pre-show work that forms the basis of what follows. It’s flexible, fair and completely stooge-free. The spectator is none the wiser for being approached in the foyer and agreeing to go up on stage later. It's not hypnosis either, though it does have some very nice psychological subtleties.
Some of the more seasoned performers reading this might have guessed that there’s a healthy dollop of dual reality involved. There is, but the way in which it’s implemented is particularly clean and baffling even if the spectator tries to describe how she perceived things after the show.
After the method come a number of applications. Paul takes us through what the audience sees first, then the use of the method for setting up each, and finally the performance. The effects covered are:
- Changing Minds: The spectator as a mind reader (you chalk a thought and the spectator – whose eyes are closed – divines it).
Reading Minds: You reveal a spectator’s memories that no one could possibly know.
More than Freud: You predict a spectator’s next action.
Hand of Glory: The infamous “how many fingers” game. Some people have commented that this isn’t original. Well, that may be so, but as a demonstration of an application of the methodology underlying this book, it’s a good and baffling one.
The Pilfered PIN: You divine a spectator’s PIN belonging to her cash card.
Each effect comes with its own tight script and an excellent section on the various subtleties to employ. These are comprehensive, and it’s obvious that they’ve come from experience. Paul’s a psychologist, but he’s also an experienced entertainer, and it shows.
Finally, there’s a section on creating your own pre-show effects using Paul’s approach. This is packed full of hints, tips and subtleties covering everything from designing the effects themselves to selecting suitable candidates to join you on stage.
Overall
This book is intelligently and clearly written, and if you perform stage mentalism, it’s something you really should read. No one is a stooge. No one is aware of the method. That’s the strength behind this work. Once set up, the effects you perform are method free and, dare I say it, “Naked” as far as both the audience AND the spectator perceives them.
Unlike some works on the same subject that assume many aspects of the process, Paul goes into great depth. The Gift is a full approach and philosophy, which eaves you smiling and thinking “you clever, clever sod!”
The price might seem high to some, but I think it’ll keep the wannabes away, and that can only be a good thing.
