I don't ever write reviews on forums, but this is something I wrote in preparation for a new magic news site I'm involved in debuting next month with a 24/7 magician's channel, rss news feeds and video reviews. Keep your eyes open. Enter the main feature...
Identity - Daniel Madison (Review by Dee Christopher)
Available at: www.danielmadison.co.uk/ID.htm
Priced at: £15 / $27 (approx)
Daniel Madison is quickly becoming a very respected name in the industry for bringing a great array of highly impactful, underground material to the table mixing psychological influence with memory feats, inconceivable mentalism and a good dose of visual magic, sleights and flourishes thrown in for good measure!
Identity is an instant download - 95 pages of printer friendly, very workable material in the vein of modern, underground close up magic.
When Daniel first mentioned the concept of Identity to me I thought it was a great idea. it was however quite controversial in that he was taking the majority of single effect releases of his and binding them all together in one pdf for a little more cash than each individual effect was released for primarily.
Either way, people not familiar with his work have a fantastic starting point and long term fans have the ultimate Madison collection for a very low price.
ID contains 11 effects with over 40 variations over it's nicely laid out pages. In my personal opinion I'd go as far as to say this is the new underground magic bible.
Within the book is some incredibly powerful routines including a visual, signed card through glass table penetration, instructions to make THREE very workable gaff decks including Memento, (which retails for £14.99 alone) Daniel's work on double writing and my personal favorite routine 'E18ht2wo' which is an incredible memory demonstration. From a shuffled deck you can cut, tell the spectator exactly how many cards are in their half, how many of each colour, then suit, then even name every card they are holding - just by scanning the deck before hand to 'memorize' it.
Oh, and there's also a triumph routine where the SPECTATOR shuffles the face up and face down cards into each other and selects and returns a card without the magician seeing.
I'll be honest now, as this is a review... I have nothing bad to say about this manuscript at all.
There is no bad material, no b-sides, this is the result of Daniel looking at his published material and essentially making a 'best of' compilation.
The only thing I will say is that naturally if you entertain children, perform with doves, or model balloons, this is not necessarily for you.
However, if you are interested in performing simple to understand powerfully routined magic and mentalism you will not be disappointed. The book is focused toward the close up performer, but the Devil's touch and e18ht2wo would easily hold in a caberet or stage environment.
In conclusion I cannot stress enough how essential a buy this is for anyone interested in close up magic. These are routines that could be performed in any situation. Five inverted pentagrams from me!
D.
Identity - Daniel Madison (Review by Dee Christopher)
Available at: www.danielmadison.co.uk/ID.htm
Priced at: £15 / $27 (approx)
Daniel Madison is quickly becoming a very respected name in the industry for bringing a great array of highly impactful, underground material to the table mixing psychological influence with memory feats, inconceivable mentalism and a good dose of visual magic, sleights and flourishes thrown in for good measure!
Identity is an instant download - 95 pages of printer friendly, very workable material in the vein of modern, underground close up magic.
When Daniel first mentioned the concept of Identity to me I thought it was a great idea. it was however quite controversial in that he was taking the majority of single effect releases of his and binding them all together in one pdf for a little more cash than each individual effect was released for primarily.
Either way, people not familiar with his work have a fantastic starting point and long term fans have the ultimate Madison collection for a very low price.
ID contains 11 effects with over 40 variations over it's nicely laid out pages. In my personal opinion I'd go as far as to say this is the new underground magic bible.
Within the book is some incredibly powerful routines including a visual, signed card through glass table penetration, instructions to make THREE very workable gaff decks including Memento, (which retails for £14.99 alone) Daniel's work on double writing and my personal favorite routine 'E18ht2wo' which is an incredible memory demonstration. From a shuffled deck you can cut, tell the spectator exactly how many cards are in their half, how many of each colour, then suit, then even name every card they are holding - just by scanning the deck before hand to 'memorize' it.
Oh, and there's also a triumph routine where the SPECTATOR shuffles the face up and face down cards into each other and selects and returns a card without the magician seeing.
I'll be honest now, as this is a review... I have nothing bad to say about this manuscript at all.
There is no bad material, no b-sides, this is the result of Daniel looking at his published material and essentially making a 'best of' compilation.
The only thing I will say is that naturally if you entertain children, perform with doves, or model balloons, this is not necessarily for you.
However, if you are interested in performing simple to understand powerfully routined magic and mentalism you will not be disappointed. The book is focused toward the close up performer, but the Devil's touch and e18ht2wo would easily hold in a caberet or stage environment.
In conclusion I cannot stress enough how essential a buy this is for anyone interested in close up magic. These are routines that could be performed in any situation. Five inverted pentagrams from me!
D.
