This is no doubt a good book,
but the reason I gave it 3 stars is because of the misleading ad
copy. Benefit of the doubt--I think this may have been accidental.
If you're interested in
this for A Head Bloodied But Unbowed,
where the advertising says, "Allows dual reality to be
performed in audiences of any size, including those that know one another well without the drawbacks
typically associated with the method," you may be disappointed.
Two reasons this ad copy is
false:
First, to do this idea in A Head Bloodied But Unbowed for an audience of 3 or 5 or
10, you would need to stand at least 20 feet away from the audience for this to work. Like any other
dual reality, this is ideal for a large audience. I would say it is pretty much impossible to do
this with a small group unless you want to come up with a reason to walk with your main participant
20 paces away from the table or group and then proceed.
If you are using dual reality as a
method or are wanting to use it, you won't find it here. It is a great trick for a larger audience,
but CANNOT be used as a close-up effect. The ad says, "audiences of any size."
Second,
this is simply NOT a dual reality METHOD and it does not use the dual reality principle.
It is a dual reality EFFECT.
There is some bare-bones scripting for the effect but it
is not diabolical or "omg why didn't I think of that!" scripting. It doesn't need to be, because
both the main participant and the broader audience shares the same effect--hence it is not using
dual reality as a principle.
I think it is similar to Luke Jermay's RGM (from
Skullduggery), except in this case you don't need to double lift or top change (and it does not use
playing cards).
Also this does not translate to any other dual reality principle or dual
reality method you are using. If you do this, it will in fact unravel the mystery for the main
participant rather than cement the mystery.
Consider other effects which uses--as its
METHOD--dual reality, like Reminiscence or Pseudo-Telepathy in Perception Is Everything by Bruce
Bernstein (which got a remake by Marc Paul).
In both these effects, the main participant
experiences an entirely different EFFECT from the effect witnessed by the audience. This is not true
of A Head Bloodied But Unbowed, where the audience and the main participant experience the same
exact effect.
In Reminiscence, for instance, the audience sees Derren reading her mind
cleanly and stunningly; whereas the effect she on stage witnesses is that the audience is somehow
picking up on her thoughts. It is a beautiful effect and its method is elegant and diabolical. This
is due to the layered script in which many sentences DB utters mean one thing to a blindfolded (or
eyes-closed) main participant and mean something entirely different to the broader audience who can
see his gestures. Of course Derren uses this as a method in many of his mind-shattering effects.
In Pseudo-Telepathy (or Direct Thought of Projection by Marc Paul which is the child of
Pseudo-Telepathy), the audience witness the performer reading random thoughts that the main
participants think of; whereas the main participants believe the effect was that he ascertained
which cards they selected after mixing the cards up among themselves. Hence, dual reality.
In either of these routine--Reminiscence or Pseudo-Telepathy--if you snap a photo of the (more
blank) card to show the main participant, rather than cementing the mystery, you are practically
educating the main participant as to how it was all done if she discusses it with her friend in the
broader audience--and it becomes a neat gag rather than a mystery.
It seems in his attempt
to solve the CHALLENGE of the dual reality METHOD (that the main participant may discuss what
happened with the broader audience later), Atlas simply arrived at a so-called "dual reality" effect
(that does not REALLY use the DR principle).
Additionally, this effect had been
independently arrived at and published elsewhere. Atlas says so, but does not name the author or
book.
Another matter is personal taste. I could do without the stories or parables in the
book. Maybe I'm too dense to discern their meaning, or just eager to get to the meat of the book.
The book does have great mentalism, such as Quinnfluence which is a combo of thought
chunneling and PA (unfortunately for me this requires memory work like other Atlas works, and I know
myself enough to know I either don't have the same kind of brain Atlas has or I don't have the
discipline to memorize all the branches). Maybe I could come up with a crib.
