Magic Tricks

While you might be tempted to compare this compact show to Max Maven's "Nothing" DVD, you shouldn't. Both are compact mentalism shows that require a little preparation while playing big with everyday items. But Harlan's version is an easy-to-use package that will allow you to concentrate more on performance than a lot of memorization. Using items like books, colored gloves, a crossword-puzzle book, and the like (yes, even playing cards) Harlan has presented a mentalism show that will impress laymen and a few magicians. The book test is a standard, and while Harlan brings very little to the table for it, the performance is easy enough if you don't have a book test in your act. The effect involving mismatched gloves and 10 volunteers is an interesting way to get a lot of folks into the act and add some comedy and confusion, but the payoff really isn't that amazing if your spectators take a moment to consider it. I did like Dan's use of a crossword puzzle book and his method of divining the thought-of word. It doesn't involve any memorization, allows the spectator to freely choose any filled-in word from any puzzle in the book, and will probably fool you the first time you see it. There are other effects like correctly predicting 8 chosen cards from the deck and a voodoo-type trick that's cute.

Again, this won't be one of those DVDs where you grab everything and start performing it blow-by-blow in your own act, but it does allow you some ideas that you can use to build some pretty nice effects with. Good for beginners or guys who want to add a few mentalism effects to their card or coin work concentration.