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Cabaret Mindreading DVD

Lesley, Ted

L&L Publishing

(Based on 1 review)
For the first time ever on video, here's your chance to see Germany's legendary master of magic and mentalism, Ted Lesley, mesmerize a studio audience with his "paramiracles." Then, go behind the scenes and learn the real secrets as Ted, along with well-known magic consultant Charles Reynolds, explains everything you need to know in minute detail.

Contains:

* Ace Duet - A deck is freely shuffled a number of times by a spectator yet the Aces are found - all without the performer even touching the deck!
* The Spectator as Mindreader – A baffling effect that finds the spectator locating the card the performer merely thought of.
* The Working Performer’s Card Stab – A card is signed on its back and shuffled into the pack. The cards are scattered face up as the performer thrusts a dagger through one—which is found to be the one previously selected and signed.
* Tossed-Out Deck – Wonderful touches on David Hoy’s mentalism classic. Five spectators merely peek at a card yet the performer flawlessly names them all.
* Black Magic III – A great Bank Night effect as a spectator successfully finds a drawing placed into an envelope and mixed with three others. Unfortunately, she manages to miss out on the currency contained in the others!
* Booktest – The performer divines a word freely selected from an ordinary paperback book. Even more amazingly, the performer then correctly identifies a word the spectator draws out of thin air.
* Pro-monition – A spectator is asked to think of a card, which is found to be the only one missing from the deck. The performer then has a spectator remove the selected card from his pocket.
* Center Tear – Great work on one of mentalism’s most powerful tools. Mastery of this technique will give you the ability to read minds any time, any place.
* Teleportation – A page is selected from a book by one spectator while an empty envelope is given to another. On the performer’s command, a piece of the selected page vanishes and is found in the envelope. When compared, the piece fits exactly!
* Decisions! Decisions! – A powerful version of the classic “Stop!” trick. The performer selects a card and places it into an envelope. Cards are then dealt fairly from another deck until a spectator calls ‘stop.’ Though it’s a completely fair choice, the designated card is found to match the one in the envelope.
* Super Force – Through the performer’s apparent mental powers, one spectator locates another spectator’s chosen card under impossible conditions.
* Bending Wine Glass – Forget spoons! The performer causes a wine glass to visibly bend at the stem though he is nowhere near it. What’s more, he also causes two other glasses to bend—while spectators are holding them!

Reviews

Christian

Dec 27, 2002

This is a nicely packaged and marketed CD. Top quality production. There is one small problem with sound. The volume seems to change from time to time when the DVD is playing. Although it does not stop one from understanding the material, it does create a little irritation. In all fairness, this seems to be a familiar problem in many of the DVDs that are produced in the cottage industry of magic. Until the DVD burners become better I think this problem will persist with many DVDs that are being produced outside of the larger entertainment industry where money is no problem.

If you are already familiar with Ted Lesley’s work, there will be no surprises for you. It is a nice, straight forward presentation of his material. (Refer to his book Paramiracles.) If you have read the book all you will gain is the opportunity to watch him and see the effects performed. But, I must say that watching the bending wine glass was a real treat. Very eerie!

For those that have not read the book and do mentalism, shame on you! There will be a few tricks that will catch you off guard. I particularly enjoyed “The Spectator as the Mindreader”. It was a cute effect that empowers the audience member and offers opportunity for some humor in the mentalist domain.

Many of the effects will be his take on common themes in magic, book test, tossed out deck, center tear, and a bank night presentations. This is not necessarily bad, but for many of the old pros, it will not be earth shaking stuff. For the beginner and intermediate performers, I would tell you to pay attention to his performing style and twists on the tricks that demonstrate that you needn’t always be the winner/super brain. There was an air of fun during the presentations that one seldom sees in mentalism shows.

His thinking and performing style are that of a first class pro. If anything, he will show you how to take the same tired tricks that you have thrown in the bottom drawer and dress them up into real show pieces. If you watch this DVD do not try to copy his presentations but use his thinking to develop your own takes on these classic mentalism effects.

I give it 4 stars.
Sergeant
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