Price$40.00
Media TypeBook
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedDec 27, 2022
Diverse Deceptions
Osterlind, Richard
Jim Sisti
(Based on 1 review)
Most of the greatest mentalism first saw the light of day in small booklets: Annemann's Mental Bargain Effects, The Book Without a Name, and so many others; Milbourne Christopher's One Man Mental Magicseries; Robert Nelson's Miracles in Mentalism series, and on and on. Even Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalismwas first published as a series of small booklets. These books were filled with strong, direct mentalism without any fluff and filler. They also contained amazing presentations and tips for the performer. You knew you were buying quality material that worked and was proven.
In the grand old tradition of those times, Osterlind Mysteries is proud to present Richard Osterlind's Diverse Deceptions! This 50-page book is filled from cover to cover with new and ingenious routines and ideas based on solid principles and secrets.
Watch Out is an amazing effect where you project three times to a person staring at their watch!
Watch Again shows you how to make a fantastic gimmick you can use in a thousand ways and always have with you!
Incredible Insight #2 Revisited is an absolutely wonderful newspaper effect with a fantastic kicker. It is a perfect routine!
How to Practice is a chapter worth its weight in gold to mentalists!
The Double Envelope will teach you how to prepare one of Richard's cherished secret weapons - and the many ways to use it!
Fourth Dimensional Telepathy, Richard's new version of this classic of mind reading, is alone easily worth the price of the book!
Psychic Card Location outdoes so many effects you see advertised these days, using a method that is time-honored and surefire!
Index Telepathy is the ideal routine for both close-up and stage. Every move is totally innocent. Your audience will be convinced you have psychic powers!
There is not a single pipe dream within these pages and each and every chapter will fill you with delight! We are sure that you won't be disappointed with the practical and performable quality of this material.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
1 booklet, 50 pages, 6 effects, 1 essay, 1 "concept", 1 Richard Osterlind, 40 bucks and 1 Diverse Deception review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.Effect
Well. It's several effects.Watch Out
The participant looks at her watch and the mentalist while nowhere near her calls out stop 3 times. She notes the location of the second hand each time. The mentalist has predicted each of the three numbers well in advance.
Watch Again
A clever technique to turn your watch into an incredible mind reading tool.
Incredible Insight #2 Revisited
A bunch of newspaper scraps are given to the participant. She picks one to focus on. All scraps (including hers) are placed into an examinable paper bag. Without hesitation, the mentalist reaches into the bag - he could be legitimately blindfolded if he'd like - and without hesitation reaches in and grabs her specific paper. Further, he then reads her mind and reveals a word from the scrap that she merely thought of.
How to Practice
An excellent essay on how to practice reading minds when you don't have any minds handy to read.
The Double Envelope
This is a simple technique to make a very simple and deceptive mentalist's tool. See title. Additionally a few uses for this tool are given.
Fourth Dimensional Telepathy
If you are a mentalist, you know this effect.
For everyone else: three participants think of and write down (third participant draws a picture) something and seal it in an envelope. The magician cleanly divines each item from the sealed envelopes ending with a design duplication (i.e., redrawing what the last participant drew and placed in her envelope.
Psychic Card Location
The deck is riffle shuffled and overhand shuffled by the performer, then spread to show all cards are different. The spectator is handed the deck and with the magician turned away, peeks at a card in the middle of the deck. The magician then shuffles the deck again and begins dealing cards down onto the table. The participant freely stops the magician. The place that she stops him is her thought of card.
Index Telepathy
Two names are written on two cards by two different participants. The performer divines both names.
Method
The method behind this is so unbelievably clever. It requires a little bit of advanced prep that isn't always possible, but often is. When it is possible it sets you up for a miracle, and Richard even offers a way to drastically increase the odds of the needed prep opportunity presenting itself.Watch Again
This is a one time prep to your own watch that allows it be a devastatingly clever device for secretly getting information. It's turning your watch into something that has existed in magic forever, but not in this specific way. If you wear a watch this is a no brainer. You do need a specific kind of watch band, but that's the only consideration.
Incredible Insight #2 Revisited
This combines several basic principles to incredible effect such that the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Everything here is easy, legit and totally doable.
How to Practice
See effect above.
The Double Envelope
Ditto.
Fourth Dimensional Telepathy
This uses the same basic technique that any other 4DT routine uses, but it has that Osterlind Optimization (I just coined that phrase). He just finds little ways make the method more deceptive, and better hidden.
Psychic Card Location
This is another effect that uses time-tested methods that have existed for decades, yet he again adds the OO (I just coined the abbreviation as well) to disguise the method.
Index Telepathy
This is a variant and, in my opinion, vast improvement on Bob Cassidy's Name and Place routine. I've performed Cassidy's effect and liked it, but was never comfortable with one part of it, so I quit doing it. Funny enough, the part of Cassidy's effect that I had an issue with is actually a creation of Richard Osterlind's.
That said, however, Osterlind's Offering here does not use that technique and solves "everything" and has brought this back into my repertoire.
Method Summary
The above-mentioned Osterlind Optimization is found everywhere in this book (and his work in general). I believe I'm a relatively well-versed mentalist, and often when I see mentalists perform, their methods are transparent to me. Even legends like Max Maven haven't fooled me as often as Richard Osterlind has. His methods are just that proverbial next level.
Product Quality
This little booklet looks great, is super nostalgic - Richard remarks in the book that this was part of the goal. Other than a few minor annoyances in the form of typos, and a couple of grammar / structure issues, this was a joy to read and extremely well produced. It 100% captures the vibe of, for example, Milbourne Christopher's One Man Mental Magic and other booklets of that era.It's hard to judge the price comparison. The Christopher book was published in 1954 and is 14 pages. I can't quite find the "back then" price but these days it's $5.00. Using a little reverse-ish engineering I've calculated that $5.00 today was $.44 back then. I doubt the book sold for $.44 so let's guess that it was $1.00. That's a dollar per 14 pages. Rounding down, a 50 page booklet is about 3.5 14 page booklets which, using my wild math here, would sell for about $3.50 back then . . . maybe.
$3.50 back then is the equivalent to $40 (almost to the penny) in today's money, so I'd say that the booklets are reasonably and fairly priced. When I compare it some other similar-sized booklets that were printed in the 1960s and sold (i.e., purchased by me) in the 1990's, the price also seems to hold up.
Ultimately that's your call. Do you think the above information is worth $40 bucks?
Ad Copy Integrity
The short answer is that the ad copy is accurate. Here a couple of things of note. One claim:"How to Practice is a chapter worth its weight in gold to mentalists!"
Using more mad math, that chapter weighs 2 ounces which, as of today (3/30/2024) is $2,234.10. If you're an actual working professional this might actually be accurate. Even if it's not, I'm not oblivious to ye olde figures of speech. I just wanted to have some more math fun.
Another claim:
"Fourth Dimensional Telepathy, Richard's new version of this classic of mind reading, is alone easily worth the price of the book!"
Oddly enough I thing this statement is quite an under-representation of the facts. So let's end this with more goofy math. Averaging the two claims, they are each worth $1,137.05 each. For a working pro, that's easily made up with a second booking due to people being floored (perfect - I'm listening to Nightwish right now) by how good you are because you've implemented / mastered these 2 specific things. Reasonable.
All goofy math aside, the ad copy is 100% on-point. :0]
Final Thoughts
- Effect(s): Solid. Powerful. Impactful. Memorable. Doable. Practical.
- Method(s): Solid. Easy. Doable. Practical.
- Quality: Excellent. Entertaining. Fun.
- Advertisement: Perfect. Accurate.
If you're a working mentalist, you will use at least one thing (likely more) from this book. If you perform casual mentalism, you will find something that, again, will likely land in your repertoire.
Richard's thinking, advice, tips, tricks, methods, deceptive-ness, etc. is on full display in this little tome-let, and it's difficult to imagine that you won't get your money's worth.
Final Verdict
5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!