Price$35.00
Media TypeDVD
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedDec 30, 2014
Leading Thoughts
Rawlins, Chris
Vanishing Inc.
(Based on 2 reviews)
This is an evening parlor mentalism performance where you get to see Mr. Rawlins work the room, define his character, and amaze a room full of people with his polished brand of mentalism. You'll learn:
Hack: Involve everyone in your audience with this clean, easy, and astonishing newspaper test.
Credit Guard: A high-stakes yet playful mentalism "game" in which you correctly determine where a spectators credit card is. You end with a hands-off revelation of someone's credit card info, yet you never touch or see their card.
Lucky Lottery: Six number are called at random by the audience. You then reveal the selected numbers printed upon a real, genuine lottery ticket, inside an envelope, inside your pocket.
Flutter: You reveal a thought in a playful and interesting way, that gives both the audience and spectator moments of amazement.
E-Numbers: You demonstrate super-human taste buds by recalling the exact combination of candies that have been created by your spectators. A Little Lead In - A moment to add texture to your show.
Drop Card: A spectator finds another spectator's thought of playing card, while their eyes are closed.
"A fantastic collection of workable material that you can perform as is or add your own style too."
- Chris Cox
"Chris Rawlins has released a very interesting DVD set for the Modern Mentalist. Chris is a charming performer, and his effects are clear and to the point. I was impressed with his approach to Al Korans Newspaper prediction Countdown. His method removes the stress, which I experience when performing the effect. I enjoyed the DVD very much."
- Graham Jolley
"Chris Rawlins' new DVD set is full of practical material that will delight all performers of contemporary mentalism. His effect Flutter is the best use of a certain classic mentalism idea released to date, and it would be worth buying the DVDs even if Flutter was the only trick on them!"
- Mark Elsdon
"Some great and practical methods for a working mentalist"
- John Archer
"Drawing inspiration from masters both past and present Chris Rawlins provides a series of classical effects with modern twists that pack small and play huge. Chris delivers them all with his own unique charm and provides in depth instruction that makes them suitable for even the most novice of performers."
- Michael Murray
"In this DVD Set Chris explains real workers routines from his professional repertoire. All of the routines are very well thought out and each psychological aspect, staging and nuance is perfectly covered. If you want to add some strong routines to your show that are very entertaining and pack a punch, this is the DVD set you are looking for!"
- Luca Volpe
Two DVDs in a beautiful slipcase.
Total running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Father Time by Richie Sambora
Chris Rawlins: Leading Thoughts Review
Two DVDs, seven effects, 2.67 hours and $35 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Check out the written ad copy for a description of the effects. They did a great job explaining them, and there's no need for me to repeat them here.
Method
The methods employed are pretty standard mentalism methods: peeks, "imps," forces, etc. Though there is nothing really new in concept, there are some solid combinations of concepts that make layers of deception. The methods are all straightforward and totally workable. He has a nice and simple idea for making sure that your instant stooge is ready to play that I found to be of value.
The credit card effect is a new-ish and innovative method for getting the information. It will, however, require you to experiment with a variety of different pay envelopes. The ones I have are not quite right for the effect, but I imagine a trip to a stationary store and a little experimentation will get you there.
The lottery ticket effect requires lottery slips that are used for writing down your numbers to help you keep track of them. I've never really seen these before. However, I live in a state that does not have a lottery, so I don't know if these are common or not. He mentioned that they're free at local gas stations in England.
Drop card is an excellent combination of principles that fits the model I mentioned earlier of layering techniques to increase the level of deception. There's not a whole lot to say about the methods. Simple. Standard. Sensible. What more do you want folks.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy is pretty solid. I'll just point out a few things. First, they mention the newspaper test as one of the cleanest they've seen. This may be true. Just keep in mind that the method is nothing new. This basic idea is pretty much the standard for this type of effect. It's just a minor variation which is very similar to other variations of the past. The only other thing worth pointing out is in regards to the lottery ticket effect. They claim that "You then reveal the selected numbers printed upon a real, genuine lottery ticket." This is actually not quite true.
It's not a lottery ticket. It looks like a lottery ticket, but it's a special thing for tracking lottery numbers. My understanding is that it looks like a real lottery ticket. The other thing is that the numbers are NOT printed on the ticket. They are filled in with a pen. Think "fill in the bubble" tests from your school days. That's a big difference compared to "printed on the ticket."
The performance was a bit messy and chaotic. He was throwing shreds of paper, and crumpled up stuff, newspaper, his card box, etc. on the floor. It didn't seem as polished as you might think after reading the ad copy. As for the in-ad testimonials, those, of course, are just opinion, so I won't dispute them.
Product Quality
This DVD is solid overall. The production was good, easy to navigate, lit well, mic'd well, etc. The performances were done in front of a live audience, so some of the stuff happening was hard to see. But it was a bit like being in the actual audience because, for the most part, that was the experience they had. They watched from a distance while Chris Rawlins interacted with one or two people up close.
The explanations covered everything in detail. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much detail. They were very dry overly explained and slightly frustrating to watch. The DVD set was over 2 and half hours long. I think it could have eeeeeeeeeasily been half that time. Other than that, it's solid.
Final Thoughts
If any of the effects listed in the ad copy sound interesting to you and you don't already have a method for them, then I think you'll find real value here.
Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of gem.
(Top ▲)
This is a collection of some new-ish effects with some classic methods.
Overall, the routines are well structured, and work well for Chris Rawlins. I think they will work for other performers as well with a little bit of personalization. The methods are solid, not over the top crazy innovative, but a lot of them are a bit too procedure heavy for my taste.
Granted, not everything has to be to my taste, and so I do believe there are some things here that could be of use. If someone doesn't like the effect, they may like the premise, or maybe a method will jump out and be of use to you for another routine.
If you are not a mentalist, or a mentalism fan, this won’t turn you around. If you collect mentalism ideas, there may be a few things you will like. If you are a professional mentalist, I’m not sure you will replace any of your current repertoire for something here, but you may fine an idea or two to adapt to your own stand up show.
My favorite effect was the idea of eating a bunch of different colored sweets, and you are able to divine how many of each color there are. While the method is not the one I would personally use, I loved the freshness behind the effect and the final stage image.
The DVD quality is very nice, with a very cool cover, and easy to navigate menus. With it being two discs, and with there being video of the live show, I would have liked a bit more information about the show as a whole, and a bit of why he structured effects in this certain order. One other negative is that the ad copy boasts seven effects. One of these “effects” is a quick lead in to another effect. Because of the method used, there has to be another effect that immediately follows it to make it deceptive. I wouldn’t call this a stand alone “effect” because it can’t be performed as a stand alone effect. I also don’t think it’s particularly deceptive, it didn’t seem anyone in the audience thought the apparent effect was deceptive either. I could be wrong, and I wouldn’t feel it even worth mentioning if it wasn’t listed as an “effect.”
Overall, if you are a mentalism collector, you will find something of interest here.
Overall, the routines are well structured, and work well for Chris Rawlins. I think they will work for other performers as well with a little bit of personalization. The methods are solid, not over the top crazy innovative, but a lot of them are a bit too procedure heavy for my taste.
Granted, not everything has to be to my taste, and so I do believe there are some things here that could be of use. If someone doesn't like the effect, they may like the premise, or maybe a method will jump out and be of use to you for another routine.
If you are not a mentalist, or a mentalism fan, this won’t turn you around. If you collect mentalism ideas, there may be a few things you will like. If you are a professional mentalist, I’m not sure you will replace any of your current repertoire for something here, but you may fine an idea or two to adapt to your own stand up show.
My favorite effect was the idea of eating a bunch of different colored sweets, and you are able to divine how many of each color there are. While the method is not the one I would personally use, I loved the freshness behind the effect and the final stage image.
The DVD quality is very nice, with a very cool cover, and easy to navigate menus. With it being two discs, and with there being video of the live show, I would have liked a bit more information about the show as a whole, and a bit of why he structured effects in this certain order. One other negative is that the ad copy boasts seven effects. One of these “effects” is a quick lead in to another effect. Because of the method used, there has to be another effect that immediately follows it to make it deceptive. I wouldn’t call this a stand alone “effect” because it can’t be performed as a stand alone effect. I also don’t think it’s particularly deceptive, it didn’t seem anyone in the audience thought the apparent effect was deceptive either. I could be wrong, and I wouldn’t feel it even worth mentioning if it wasn’t listed as an “effect.”
Overall, if you are a mentalism collector, you will find something of interest here.