Richard is a great performer and teacher and has offered many wonderful routines over the years,
including several Q&A and audience message reading effects. Unfortunately this is not one of them.
During the performance Richard repeatedly looks down at the stack of envelopes before
revealing information, and it looks suspicious. The audience may not know how he’s getting the
read, but it’s obvious he’s looking at the information. This is repeated over and over again, and
it’s just not deceptive.
Richard mentions he used to perform The Modern Mindreader before
he invented Thought Scan. Thought Scan is what he has used primarily since. It’s obvious why.
Thought Scan is much more deceptive.
If you compare the audience reactions in this download
with those in Richard’s Thought Scan performance his Osterlind’s 13 Steps to Mentalism Q&A module,
the differences are clear. The Modern Mindreader just isn’t going to fool modern audiences. It’s
too obvious what’s going on.
7 of 9 magicians found this helpful.
No matter how slick of a magician you are, you will still look very suspicious performing this. You
cannot create off-beats around the suspiciousness, and when you "activate" the method it looks
exactly like you're doing what you shouldn't be doing. I won't use this.
6 of 7 magicians found this helpful.
An excellent routine taught by a master. It is a Classic, it leaves the audience with nowhere to go
to reconstruct.
5 of 6 magicians found this helpful.
Over the years, I've bought almost every envelopes test routines--Syd Bergson---Jack London--Ned
Rutledge and I mention these 3, which I thought was the best of the lot.
The modern Mind Reader
is in my mind takes the cake. I wish I had this a long time ago.
It can be perform for a large
or small audience. Very deceptive and quite easy to perform.
Tricky Ricky (Toronto)
4 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
Richard Osterlind is incredible, and he always has been. This secret is fabulous and worth more than
I paid, so I am grateful to have it. If you haven't yet - buy it! I am giving it 4 stars, however,
because approximately half of it was the performance. Yes, it is important to know how to read each
mind and how to get into and out of the whole routine, but in my opinion, the performance portion
need not have been so long.
Since I know, and love, Richard personally, I am going to post this
anonymously.
5 of 7 magicians found this helpful.
I don't understand why a few people say that this is not good and too obvious what he is doing etc.
I guess it comes from performers, who is not very experienced yet, and who is still "fumbling
around" a little.
This is very good, because everything can be inspected afterwards. I am used
to mentalism tricks, and I actually thought Richard was looking through the envelopes.Then he proves
he is not.
Why should people write down something, and then you need to have it in your hands
in order to reveal it? I would say people leave a part of themselves when something has been in
their hands, and especially when they have concentrated their minds on special thought while having
the item in their hands. Like if you receive a letter, you can have a feeling about it before you
open it.
Good stuff!
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
I don't understand why a few people say that this is not good and too obvious what he is doing etc.
I guess it comes from performers, who is not very experienced yet, and who is still "fumbling
around" a little.
This is very good, because everything can be inspected afterwards. I am used
to mentalism tricks, and I actually thought Richard was looking through the envelopes.Then he proves
he is not.
Why should people write down something, and then you need to have it in your hands
in order to reveal it? I would say people leave a part of themselves when something has been in
their hands, and especially when they have concentrated their minds on special thought while having
the item in their hands. Like if you receive a letter, you can have a feeling about it before you
open it.
Good stuff!
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
There has been some negative reviews of this download, but that is likely from people who hasn't
seen the impact of this routine on an audience. It is true that this was not Osterlind's most
stellar performance, but he can kill and has killed with it. His handling of this routine was
flawless on his Mind Mysteries Too DVD (vol 5). I bought the download since I wanted to see it
performed in a different setting. It was also interesting to see how this routine has evolved since
the first printing in the original manuscript. I give this download my best recommendations for
anyone seriously interested in mentalism.
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
I am glad that I found this download as it is a very powerful routine to do. The method is not to
hard to learn but one must practice to do it right.
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
This is a simple to perform solid piece of mentalism. Easy to perform with the most basic and easy
of slieghts. Anyone can do this with just a little bit of practice. Worth every penny.
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.