Magic Tricks

Redford unearths and refurbishes Huffman’s Gidrah; now we have essentially Gidrah 2.0. Redford is as much a professional consultant as teacher here. The basic method comes from Mentalism 101, but I don’t want to get a step ahead of myself.

Mentalists increasingly look to building emotional connections with their audience and the spectators who participate. Many mentalists are self-consciously troubled about the contrived process of obtaining three pieces of unrelated, possibly random, information and later revealing them in a way that entertains and makes narrative sense. Redford and Huffman provide several useful ideas about presentation and flow.

I respect Redford’s meticulous work and how he has added value to Gidrah 1.0, e.g. by refining the deceptiveness of the physical handling of the writing pad and the sheets. He also carefully considers how the effect can be upscaled to the stage.

A five-star rating may warranted, but I (as an amateur hobbyist and relative newbie) reserve 5 stars for what is very special indeed, i.e. effects, methods or presentations that astonish or delight me. Call it 4.5 though.

Whether it is 'good value' depends on price paid, discretionary income, and where viewers are on their own journey of development. I picked it up in Open Box at such a good price that 'value for money' definitely applies.