Mr. Strange, Weird Things, etc... these are the images conjured up when I think of Andrew Mayne. You
know what that means. It means I'm a fan. I own and have read quite a few of Mr. Mayne's work. For
the most part I really like his stuff. This one, I'd say was above average compared to some of his
other work.
For .00 bucks you get a 16 page 8.5 X 11 staple-bound book. The production
quality is solid, although I felt it could have been done in a smaller half size booklet in about
the same amount of pages...
Throughout the book, for comic relief, there are several
photographs of Mr. Mayne that are quite funny and add a bit of levity to the product. This I like.
It reminds us all not to take ourselves too seriously, and it adds entertainment value to the
reading experience.
Basically, what you are getting is a combination of several different
ideas into one that results in three different magazine tests. There are some clever combinations of
ideas here that the mid-range to well-experienced mentalist will find valuable. Beginners could
easily do this as well, but it's likely that they will not appreciate the cleverness.
One
of the techniques is a method for doing it over the phone that involves an overly complicated set of
number crunching. This same technique is also used as an "out" for the face-to-face version if
something "goes wrong." I'm not a fan of telling people to take numbers and reverse them and then
add the digits, etc. Unless you've got some really solid "reasoning" you can sell the spectator, I
just don't prefer this method.
Another version in the book called "Zine Test" is very
similar to Richard Osterlind's magazine test. Both Osterlind and Mayne credit the original version
as Dai Vernon's magazine test from Tarbell 5. This is a pretty decent version, and likely the one I
would use the most from this book.
Mayne does offer a fair bit of advice and patter on how
to properly "sell" the effect. Although the ad copy is a little bit over-hyped, I still think it's
worth the .00 if you do any kind of mentalism in your act.
Borederline . . .
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