Annemann's Practical Mental Effects Volume 5
Osterlind, Richard
Jim Sisti
On volumes 4, 5 and 6, Richard Osterlind and Jim Sisti return to the same school and do it again, but with many amplified versions of other Practical Mental Effects material. For most of these routines, Richard changed the workings and methods slightly (or sometimes very significantly) to make the effects more direct and streamlined. You will love his thinking!
These six volumes truly offer the definitive work on the material from this classic book. There are routines for any situation whether close-up, parlor or stage and, additionally, you will learn classic principles of mentalism which you can apply to your own, original routines. If you ever wondered what this classic material would look like when presented in today's modern world to a contemporary audience, you now have your chance. Every effect is a stunner!
Contents:
- Bert Reese Secrets (for Groups)
- Horrors!
- Who Killed Mr. X?
- Cherchez La Lady
- Between the Lines
- Ultra Slate Message
Reviews
(Top ▲)
How Shall I Judge?
This whole set is a weird set to judge and review. It's not quite fair to judge Richard Osterlind on any weak parts of the performance he may have had because, likely, most of the stuff on this set is not in his regular repertoire so I don't expect it to be polished. Secondly, according to Jim Sisti (co-host), this set also was not intended to be a "best of" series either, so I can't really judge the set based on whether or not the material chosen was the top Annemann stuff either. Due to the way the Annemann book was written (as Osterlind and Sisti point out), it wouldn't make sense to go chapter by chapter (like Osterlind did for the Corinda series), so I can't really judge the set on how "complete" (or not) it is.
So, that leaves me judging the set based on the ad copy claims and the intent (according to Jim Sisti) of the set. My judgement on that is basically the same for all 3 videos (4, 5, and 6), so this part of the review will be found at the beginning of each of the three volumes. Following my general comments about the series, you'll find my thoughts on the effects of whichever DVD I'm reviewing.
General Comments About the Whole Set
A small disclaimer: Jim Sisti is a friend of mine and Richard Osterlind is a cyber-acquaintance of mine. We have a few friends in common (Jim Sisti, Jim Spinnato and Chet Cox). But as you'll quickly see, those relationships have not biased my review. Let's look at the ad copy first. I take no issue with the first 2 paragraphs. However, let's look at the third paragraph:
These six volumes truly offer the definitive work on the material from this classic book. There are routines for any situation whether close-up, parlor or stage and, additionally, you will learn classic principles of mentalism which you can apply to your own, original routines. If you ever wondered what this classic material would look like when presented in today's modern world to a contemporary audience, you now have your chance. Every effect is a stunner!
Definitive? I hardly feel that culling together a couple dozen routines over the course of six videos is Definitive . . . especially when you consider the volume of magic found between the pages of the original book. The next two sentences I agree with. But the third (every effect is a stunner), not so much. That's always a matter of opinion, but I'm gonna go with . . . no . . . not EVERY effect is a stunner.
Let's examine the purpose. According to the discussions (which I did find valuable and insightful) between Osterlind and Sisti, the intent of this set is to inspire people to dig through the book. They were very clear that they weren't trying to replace the book. They were trying to inspire a new generation of Annemannites. Based strictly on the impact the majority of the effects seemed to have on the audience (poor performances not withstanding), I think they nailed this one.
I've personally read the book 2 times from cover to cover and have skimmed and read chapters and studied parts of the book several times over, on top of the 2 full readings. Yet, after watching these DVDs, I now want to go back in and dig even deeper into the book. Most of the time, the audience members were quite astonished and in many cases actually creeped out a bit. It was some powerful stuff. One of the advantages of Osterlind's bare-bones presentations on much of this material is that it gave me the opportunity to project my thoughts and feelings on how I might perform the effects.
Further, a goal of this set was to prove that the material was not "dated." Yep. They proved that too. The material, effects, etc. is anything but dated. Rather, it's timeless . . . and you see this very clearly in the audience reactions. Were I to judge this DVD soley on this part (how well they attained the goals of the project), it'd be hard to give this anything less than 4 stars. So the advertisement and intent seem to balance out each other pretty well.
What you'll find is that pretty much every DVD has one or two standout items that will inspire you to dive into the book more thoroughly. Which effects will inspire you? Everyone is different, so it's hard to say. However, I am confident that you will find at least one effect that "moves" you and gets you to crack open the book again which was their goal. And I must say, that goal alone makes this DVD set worthy of consideration. Anything that inspires us to turn to our roots so that we can branch out is valuable in my book. Let's move on to the DVD at hand . . .
Thoughts on Volume V
I've watched each DVD in this set several times to make sure I give y'all a solid review . . . that's a lot of work! Whew! Yeah; I know . . . Cry Me a River, right? (thank you Justin Timberlake).
Bert Reese Secrets (For Groups) (2.5 Stars)
Well . . . this is exactly the same thing as Bert Reese Secrets From volume 2, yet in volume 2 I gave it 4.5 stars. Here's the problem . . . A) it's the same thing from the previous volume. So why include it? B)It's not taught as clearly in this DVD. In fact, if you follow the instructions given on the DVD, you would have to be an actual mind reader for it to work. I knew what he meant, but it was still a bit fuzzy and very much rushed through. The method is ever so slightly different on this version, but it's the exact same performance and effect as the earlier volume.
In the explanation, Jim Sisti begins by saying that he wants to clarify the difference between this one and the previous volumes, but he really doesn't seem to clarify anything. The things he points out were the commonalities between the two. So the effect is 4.5 stars to 5 stars for sure, but if you're unfamiliar with billet work, you'll be very confused at the explanation. If you are familiar with billet work, you probably already know this effect from its original source. So it's hard to say that much of value was added by including it in this set as is.
Horrors! (2.5 Stars)
This is another one of my favorites from the book. First, it looks and feels like real mind reading, especially with the nice subtle touches that Richard added to it. But we run into this problem again where a thorough explanation is not given and we are referred to the book. This effect has a very specific set up and requirements, and it is impossible to do the effect if you only use this DVD as your source of explanation. So again why include it if you're not going to fully teach it. A five star effect with a 1 star explanation.
I get the point that they want us to dig into the book, but I think it's a bit unfair to perform such a powerful effect without fully teaching the method. The "secret" was exposed to us and walked through, but part of the method requires you to make up some cards with some information on them. Due to the nature of the method, there are some very specific things you must do when creating the cards. Those very specific things were not covered at all. Thus the effect cannot be done based on the info in this DVD.
Who Killed Mr. X? (4 Stars)
This is a good effect that has the potential to play pretty big. It has a built in story that's part of the effect. The method is pretty simple and well taught by Richard and Jim. It does take a little bit of set up for each performance, so it's not the kind of thing you can do strolling unless you've made up a bunch of sets ahead of time. However, I don't think I would do this strolling anyway. It's more of a piece of sit down theater for a set show, in my opinion.
The basic effect plays like a mini "host a murder" game where the picture of the victim (a drawing by you) magically changes to a dead bloody picture with a small straight pin shoved through its heart. Further, you are able to divine the name of the murderer (someone picked out from the audience unbeknownst to you) as well.
Cherchez La Lady (4.5 Stars)
3 Card Monte For the Mentalist. I actually don't remember this from the book. I'm glad I (re)discovered it on this DVD. It's sort of a 3 Card Monte in reverse. The spectator mixes the cards, and you can still find the money card. Then to prove that the cards aren't marked you do it again with the cards shuffled by the spectator and handed to you behind your back. Then to prove that it's not something funny with the cards, you have each card sealed in its own envelope by the spectator.
The spectator then shuffles up the envelopes and you are still able to find the money card. Killer stuff. Great method; great presentation; great effect!
Between the Lines (3.5 Stars)
Not one of my favorites from Annemann, but still effective. Basically it's a book test that uses a deck of cards to "select" a page. It does feel a little contrived and requires some explanation to the spectator as to why you're using this technique to have a page selected. All in all, however, it's not too shabby, and though it uses mutliple outs, it's a lot less than a spectator might think possible.
Ultra Slate Message (5 Stars)
This is a killer effect. Four slates are clearly shown on front and back with nothing written on them. The spectator picks two and sandwiches them together. Magically writing appears on the slates. The method is so simple, and the effect is so powerful. The audience was quite creeped out . . . particularly the girl holding the slates. She actually "felt" something and she kind of panicked and let go of the slates . . . beautiful. One thing I will caution you about is that Richard has a tendency to kind of squash the moment at the end of an effect by pointing out how above board everything is.
In this effect, when the chalk writing appeared, everyone was a bit freaked out; then he immediately says, "look it's real chalk." To me that squashed the effect. It stopped the applause and then suddenly the girl was focused on touching the chalk and not feeling the effect. I'm not letting that impact the score, but I bring it up to you as a caution not to do that when you perform this effect.
The average trick rating is 3.67. Considering, however, that there are only 6 effects on the DVD, and 2 of them are essentially un-usable with the supplied instructions and considering that one of them is essentially a repeat from a previous DVD, it's easy for me to round down (way down) on this one. I've given you a lot of information for you to base your decision on. I think it's been very fair and very accurate. The final decision is up to you.
Final Verdict:
3 Stars with a Stone Status of gem (with a little g).