Pantheon takes the principle and explores its application to a whole range of ‘classic’ mentalism plots as well as returning to some more familiar 100th Monkey effects. You never get a ‘small’ release with Chris – so this triple DVD set includes 24 effects, 12 postcards, 12 performances (with different performers), 500jpgs (to print your own cards) and a 220 page ebook. By any reckoning that is a lot of material! And if you sign up for updates you’ll actually get a whole lot more too.

Two DVDs of contain performances and basic explanations. One of the great things is that you see a variety of different performers with very different styles working these effects – which gives you a sense of the flexibility of the principle.

The third DVD has all the resource files and the ebook – which is the thing which actually contains the full details (including scripts). These are superbly comprehensive and a brilliant resource.

The whole thing is shot in the same, familiar front room with the dodgy curtains! And that is one of the things I love about these releases – they are very straightforwardly his thing.

The Pantheon Effects

There’s so much on these DVDs we can’t exhaustively cover it all, but I’ll mention some of the key effects.

Mental Epic – to solve the ‘illogical prop’ weakness of the classic mental epic he almost introduces a new one – with little white boards with a label attached to it. These seemed just as odd to me as the original prop – though you could work it with the labels simply printed on heavy board which you write on. But this is no doubt a clever sideways use of the principle.

There’s a good performance (especially in the light of the conditions!) from Steve Valentine and helpful commentary and tips. A number of variations are possible with different themes (film, holiday, dream date etc) – and it could possibly even used close up.

A nice principle which is included on this release is The Forcing Poster. This is essentially a very large scale poster which relies on a dual reality principle to force from a limited range of options.

Drawing Duplication – There are several variations on this theme. Rob Gould performs Monet Monkey. I found him to be a somewhat hesitant performer (lots of ums – but perhaps that is part of his performance persona). This is a pretty pure dual reality type effect – and I didn’t like this so much. Spectator chooses a ‘frame’ which all have different colours and patterns and is inspired to draw a picture – which the performer also draws (approximately).

There are a several more variations on this theme – one of which requires a (rather expensive) additional prop. Some of them rely on the Forcing Poster.

Planet of the Monkeys – performed by Aiden Sinclair (great performance) – I really like the clever idea here – but it partly relies on a US trait of not knowing your worldwide geography too well – it would be much less fooling in Europe! Perhaps with thought it could be re-worked to suit our context better.

Celebrity Baby Gag – Leeman Parker performance – the old trick – but the 100th Monkey Principle Forcing Poster means you can actually force a single person for a strong effect.

Monkeys Ahoy – Michael Rangel performance. Perhaps he didn’t like the idea of the title Tossed Out Monkey? This is based on the legend that is Luke Jermay’s Touching on Hoy. It’s a strong triple mind-reading effect with 2 versions on the DVD.

Chair Test – the chair test is a classic mentalism plot which exists in many variations. In The Monkey Sits (performed Steve Valentine) we see the Monkey principle and another readily available gaff. This is a clever idea – but in some ways I wonder if the principle is overkill here.

The Pupeteer – this is a classic 100th Monkey Effect – and I totally loved the story and plot. A brilliant rationale for the memory alteration effect. Another few memory alteration effects are taught with a nice variety of different presentations – from dealing with anxiety to loving or hating your work!

Book Tests
There are a couple of ideas here which could add an extra layer to an existing book test. You will need to have an existing book test in place really. There are also some interesting ideas which would enable a spectator to read the mind of someone elese in the context of a book test etc.

Monk Night is a bank nite method which would also have other applications. I think John Archer may still have the best method for this!

The Monkey Peeks – another potential layering idea to any effect using peeks.

Laughing Monkey – applying the principle to a classic mentalist’s ‘joke’!

Final Thoughts

As always, there are same ‘physical’ limitations on the principle – you need to watch light levels and people with poor eyesight! Though there is an interesting thought on how to check the latter provided on the DVD.

The effectiveness of the illusion is enhanced by the ‘busy’ (mucky?!) backgrounds on the cards – and to me this seems a little incongruous – when we’re used to neatly printed or hand written words on envelopes. But I may be overthinking this!

As usual, I would say you get a lot for your money. Chris is a creative guy and the ideas he has will get you thinking. He is also very responsive (in my experience) to email contact – so if you have a brilliant idea for the principle he will help you work it out.

As with previous releases you can sign up for updates etc. I have experienced the value first hand in this – when he sent some excellent resources to capitalise on the Yanny/Laurel viral video for example.

I enjoy his quirky and sometimes tongue in cheek explanations and his apologetic partial filming!

In short, if you’re into mentalism in any shape or form, you would be well advised to take a look at this or any of the 100th Monkey releases.

Pantheon is available from MagicShop.co.uk for £68.99 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

Chris Philpott – Pantheon – review

4.4 / 5 Reviewer

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The post Chris Philpott – Pantheon – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Like The End of My Rope Trick we recently reviewed, this appears to be have been filmed at home (you will recognise the curtains!), and the production values of the DVD go with that. There is nothing wrong with the quality – but it feels more homemade than many modern releases.

Chris loves words and there are plenty of them on the DVD – it runs to about an hour and a half, which includes performances of 5 specific effects filmed with real people by the beach!

I’ve got to say I love the routines – they are really strong on an emotional level and the fact that the magic happens in their hands (or on their phones!) makes it really powerful. There is also an incredible marketing opportunity when you leave a video of your magic on their phones – get it on social media and tag yourself up and the bookings will roll in!

I’m not going to describe the routines in detail – since they are really what you’re paying for – but each one is well thought out and evocative. The themes of hypnotism or influence work really well – and in some instances turn a simple card trick into a miracle, or else reveal hidden information in a remarkable way.

The release comes with 2 DVDs – one of which contains full scripts and also graphics to enable you to print all your own cards. Sadly, mine came with two copies of the teaching video, so I’ve not been able to look at the scripts or see the range of images that you are provided with – but from what is said on the video section it sounds like you ought to get a lot of different possibilities. I will chase up the supplier and see if I can get the second disk and update the review later.

All in all, I love this and think they are brilliant effects, but two tiny notes of caution follow. The first is that since this is an optical principle, performing conditions and especially your spectator’s eyesight may have an impact on the effectiveness of the “magic.” There is plenty of discussion on ways around this – and some extra ideas are available on the dropbox which is available to all registered users of the product (this extra material is a nice feature which seems to be a common feature of Chris’ releases) – if you’ve been performing for any length of time you will have the audience-management skills to get round this.

Secondly, if you already own 100th Monkey, you’re only really getting some new presentations. Now I think these are strong presentations and worth the investment – but you will have to decide whether you make that investment. If you’ve not yet bought any of these effects, then Narcissus provides a cost-effective way into this principle, especially if your primary working environment is close up or walk around magic.

So we think Narcissus is a powerful and effective set of routines utilising this ingenious principle. It is available direct from Merchant of Magic for £57.50 (at the time of writing).

PS if you like this principle, you’ll also want to check out Babel!

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

The post Chris Philpott – Narcissus – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

We’re going to start with the incredible Narcissus by Chris Philpott. This takes the principle from the wonderful 100th Monkey effect and brings it to a whole new range of close up and emotionally engaging presentations. If you’re not familiar with the original principle it meant (in its most basic form) that you could appear to make people stop being able to read words. In these effects you take a photo of the spectator with their own phone, holding a card with various things written on it – and when they look at the picture or video, the words have changed in a remarkable way. Fantastic idea, wonderful engaging presentations. Worth every penny! £49.60

Next we’d like to highlight a really innocent-looking but incredibly versatile prop which will enable you to force almost anything. If you’ve been in magic any time the name Svengali Force Pad will tell you all you need to know. But this is an essentially self-working and incredibly versatile item to include as part of a larger effect. We’ve seen them crop up as part of various presentations on things like BGT or AGT. You might be able to make one yourself, but why not get a professionally made one for the very modest price of £10.99.

Regular readers will know that I’m a bit of a fan of mentalism, and Steve Dela has taken an old idea and given it a twist to turn it into a fantastic bit of walkaround magic. Will to Read is a prediction type effect using a page from a book – it takes almost no space in your pocket but has a big impact. And has the potential to be linked in to other effects to make a great routine. £32.50

And finally, since we haven’t highlighted any playing cards for a while, I thought I’d mention the Superior Deck by the Expert Playing Card Co. It comes in an attractive blue, red or black backed deck. Along with the promise of handling well (we haven’t yet had a chance to try them to comment I’m afraid) they also have a tuck case which promises to be more resilient and last longer. All available at £4.99 each. They’ve now released an Invisible Deck, a Marked Deck and a set of popular gaff cards in the same design.

That’s all for this month.  Let us know if you’ve seen anything worth looking at…

The post Trick of the Month – October 2016 appeared first on Bicycle Cards.