Magic Tricks

Hermes is a fantastic & very approachable code act & system! I highly recommend it, a 10/10. I'm pretty verbose so that's the synopsis up front!

My wife & I had previously practiced Speakeasy by Dan Harlan. And we had some success there! In casual environments we were comfortable enough to code a coin or bill's denomination and then the date, all seemingly hands off. It worked, but was really mentally taxing & we never quite felt comfortable enough to go further or deploy it professionally. The large leeway and freeform nature of Speakeasy originally appealed to us but ultimately was too much freedom & too little guidance; we floundered. This isn't an indictment of Speakeasy, but just an example of how other code acts like it hadn't clicked for us.

Enter Hermes!

I am, admittedly, a big fan of Phedon's previous work. I love Orion & Sibyl. I routinely perform effects from them or use tools found within. When I saw he was publishing a Code Act I was excited!

My wife a little less so, as she was nervous about how much practice & brain-work Speakeasy took AND we both admitted Speakeasy was pretty simple mechanically. How could this be better?

Well, Hermes really opened our eyes that the free form choices of some other codes were actually too mentally taxing.

Then Phedon spends the rest of the book comfortably adding layer up on layer to what you can divine from the very short and simple code words you have memorized. Essentially paring situations, body parts, colors, materials, and even complex questions to basic single or double-digit numbers. To expand upon them does require more practice between your partner and yourself as it will need more context and routining to know when the number 4 is a 4 and when it is a body part or emotion. To this end there is a full annotated presentation in the back of the book which helps really codify (ha ha) how one can script and structure a routine! It's a very good and inspiring presentation I must say!

There are of course cons with this system, as with any trick:
1. The system is remarkably simple & deceptively robust, BUT because it is a limited number of code words you cannot likely repeat this for the same audience in short order or have an exceptionally long show without either expanding the system or adding in other methods/scripting to lengthen it. Spectators would notice, I think, the repeated words; even though they are very common.
2. This code act is so simple & powerful that my non-professional performer wife was able to learn it & bring down the house for a recent gig, BUT I already know that some of the more juicy revelations and concepts taught in this book might be simple to understand but hard to pull off for someone who isn't a professional mentalist. For instance, there is an incredible and genius section on essentially Q+A style reveals which I know my partner could receive via code but it would require her to deliver a convincing warm-ish reading based on very limited information. That's beyond her comfort level & desire. So the con is that the system is super easy but the skills required for some of the most impressive reveals might outstretch your partners patience or abilities. Coding numbers, body parts, jewelry, bills, dates, etc are trivial though & of course amazing reveals in & of themselves.

To recap on the positives: The code truly is simple. It is taught incredibly well, with an emphasis on your partner not being a professional. Nothing is taken for granted! The routines and presentations presented are top notch & inspiring. This system is the one that finally clicked for us. A couple or partners looking to become a full-time code act could start here happily but would likely need to grow beyond this system eventually, but for people looking to deliver high impact albeit guided & in the 10-20 minute range performances I really don't think it gets better than this!

Once again, I highly recommend it! My recent gigs loved it & my local magician community is shocked at how much information it seems that I'm coding to my wife in such a short & natural time!