For those of you who have complete mentalism shows, think for a moment that you work the most. Be careful, I am not talking about those who make magic and mentalism in places where we walk or where we jump from the table, or even the magicians who occasionally make mentalism in their magic shows. Although what we are talking about here can be of great interest to you if you belong to this last category.

I'm mainly talking about full mentalism shows, with an audience sitting in front of you in one way or another. Some occur in large theaters in front of hundreds, even thousands of people at the same time. But I guess these shows are in the minority in this discussion. I have certainly participated in these shows, but this is by no means the norm for me. I guess it is the same for you.

The vast majority of my mentalism shows take place in front of groups of 30 to 100 people and can therefore be considered as show shows. I think the majority of mentalism shows take place in similar circumstances.

In my general mentalism shows, I have what I call "slots" in my show. By that I mean that there are parts of my show which fulfill specific functions in overall performance. We all have them, and the most obvious examples are the "Opener" and the "Closer".

We all have equipment that we use at these moments of our shows and which fulfill specific functions.

Obviously, the Opnez is intended to attract attention and to open the journey that the show will undertake. The "closer" is obviously the grand finale. The song that kills and that everyone will talk about when leaving the show.

In my show, I have some "slots" that I consider as "maps" slots, which means that a good mentalism number using playing cards is perfectly suited at this place in the show.

I put a point of honor to have additional material with me at any time when I am on stage. There are several good reasons for this. First of all, you never know when something can go wrong and you have to "fill" with another room than the one you had planned. You may suddenly have to add time to your show. You may happen to the show and realize that the conditions for some of your numbers are simply not achievable. All these situations, and many more, are quite possible. It even happened to me, many years ago, to call on a public volunteer who was to follow instructions with his eyes closed. Only problem: she was deaf! I had no way of knowing it. Fortunately, I had another material on stage with me ...

It is in this spirit that I have "options" for almost all the slots of my show. These are routines which, although different from each other, meet the same requirements as those I have at certain times in the show. This is even more true for the "cards" part of the show.

Have you ever participated in a show and, on the way back, in the car, you told yourself that a number different from the one you created may have worked better in this particular show? I know it happened to me. Often.

By having this adaptive program, I can literally decide what I think is the best option for this particular audience, in this particular show.

And this is all the interest of this book.

When they are in a hurry to find numbers around viable playing cards for the majority of stand up situations, most artists immediately turn to the classic Tossed Out Deck, and rightly so. It is not for nothing that it is a classic. But once we have exceeded this stadium, the list falls annoyed quickly. There are a multitude of Mentalism type playing cards for closed-up artists, but as soon as you go to a larger scene, The options available decrease considerably ...

This is where this brand new volume of Mark Strivings.

Over the years, I have accumulated a good amount of equipment that Works wonderfully in these living room conditions. Some of these documents are my own interpretation of certain classic intrigues, while others go out a little more from the beaten track. Anyway, it is always something that I can have ready to use in my case, that I can go out and that I can do. And having the luxury of being able to immediately have a variety of equipment of this type, ready to use at any time, eliminates a large part of the concerns in many performance situations!

For me, the moment of the "cards" of the show is far enough in the performance so that I have a good idea of ​​the public, its reaction and the general atmosphere. Building on this information, I can choose the equipment that seems to me most suitable for this particular show on site. It is a wonderfully commercial way to work.

Admittedly, this implies transporting a little more "equipment", but in the end, it is really worth it. There peace of mind & global flexibility are worth them with gold for me.

This collection includes more 15 articles Covering various intrigues and effects, all using playing cards as the main, even unique, accessory. All these effects can be prepared in advance, they are ready to be used as soon as they leave the case, and all are ridiculously simple to make.

Some effects involve the participation of people from the public, others involve volunteers on stage.

Here are some of the miracles included:

- 2 1/2 Star Miracle: Probably the strongest manipulation of the Koran's Five-Star Miracle never made. This miracle would deceive Koran himself!

- A Perfect Match: An incredibly simple prediction effect which is perfect in the context of a wider scenario or as a separate effect.

- A Work of Art: An incredibly easy and tape of the spectators. She uses art cards.

- The Ultimate Invisible Brainwave (The last invisible brain wave) : Potentially the strongest manipulation of the classic premise of Brainwave ever created. If you are witnessing a show of this type, you will be absolutely dual, that's for sure. If you could do it for real, that's what it would look like.

- Chain of Thought (Chain of thoughts) : Another manipulation of the classic premise of Brain Wave which is incredibly commercial and absolutely brilliant. "That's wonderful !" - Dean Dill After attending a representation of Chain of Thought.

-Name-A-Card challenge: A wonderfully simple and commercial treatment of the classic "premonition" intrigue in which there are no additional cards in the pockets. It's a worker!

- Crimmed coincidence: A fun and easy presentation of "the needle in the hay boot" with a free selection and a bag filled with folded playing cards. It's a breeze!

- Many Tekel Deck: A remarkable version of the classic card game MENE TEKEL which allows you not only to open the game openly, but also to work with four cards simultaneously. If you know the game of Menne Tekel, you know how impressive it is!

- Open & Shut: A classic of Strivings! A card is openly predicted, a number between 1 and 52 is appointed (without any limitation), the cards are counted and the predicted card appears. Incredibly clean!

- PAR-OPTIC PLUS: A version of Annemann's classic "by Optic Vision". Of impeccable cleanliness. You can do it with it, or without a headband. Incredibly strong, and yet so simple!

- Psychic influence: Five different manipulations. Certainly the most unique effect of the book. This prediction simply does not seem possible and can use a borrowed game, which the artist never touches. Absolutely incredible. And practically automatic.

And more.

Features :

• All these effects are incredibly easy to make. There is work to do in advance for practically each of them, but the execution itself could not be simpler.
• No manipulation lap required,
• Simple to make,
• Easy reset,
• Everything is preset in advance. Just take out the game and go around.

Two trials are also included. One deals with my point of view on the use of playing cards in mentalism (apparently, I agree), but it also exposes some ideas that are never discussed when the subject is rebatted each time as It is discussed online. There is also talk of how my position specifically applies to living room work.

The second essay details my philosophy with regard to the organization of a show. Some points have been discussed above, but here we are really getting to the heart of the matter.

There is also a short section on a few very simple manipulation laps which are absolutely not necessary to make one or the other of these effects, but which make very beautiful "convers"For some of them.

Keep in mind that none of these effects requires any manipulation tower, unless you want to add these very simple towers that can suck your show from a solid layer of additional deception.

The book itself has almost 100 pages, perfectly connected in a cardboard cover.

There is nothing comparable in the literature of mentalism, and he must appear on the shelf of each mentalist!