I love the book, very well written and I like Fraser as a magician. The effects are awesome and really can look absolutely impossible. It’s amazing what illusions you can appear to create in the audiences' mind with the power of subtle language and clever wording.
The downsides for me are that a lot of the effects require you to do some mental calculation or to be focused and to work things out mid performance. While it’s relatively easy to do these things, it can lead to awkward pauses while you’re thinking things through and it might be hard to be so focused in a busy environment.
Also, a lot of the effects require spectators to think of a letter, number or card and then to change their minds, and then change again once or twice. This is absolutely fine, some people might say this heightens the free choice feeling the spectator has but I can't help but feel it takes away from the magic a bit. On paper the effects sound on par with Derren Brown but in reality they lose a bit of magic by requiring several steps.
Negative points aside, I would definitely recommend this book, Fraser is obviously an extremely intelligent guy with great ideas and a real keen eye for the way a magician speaks and the way it can be used to create dual realities or mental forces.
The downsides for me are that a lot of the effects require you to do some mental calculation or to be focused and to work things out mid performance. While it’s relatively easy to do these things, it can lead to awkward pauses while you’re thinking things through and it might be hard to be so focused in a busy environment.
Also, a lot of the effects require spectators to think of a letter, number or card and then to change their minds, and then change again once or twice. This is absolutely fine, some people might say this heightens the free choice feeling the spectator has but I can't help but feel it takes away from the magic a bit. On paper the effects sound on par with Derren Brown but in reality they lose a bit of magic by requiring several steps.
Negative points aside, I would definitely recommend this book, Fraser is obviously an extremely intelligent guy with great ideas and a real keen eye for the way a magician speaks and the way it can be used to create dual realities or mental forces.
