Ask working performers, who has created the most practical and impressive mentalism in recent times and one of the first names you will hear is Barrie Richardson. Curtain Call is Mr. Richardson's third major collection of mentalism, and in it he has held nothing back. He opens with the full details for his entire professional act, follows up with dozens of wonderful tricks, routines and tools for the mentalist, and concludes with a unique piece that always brings a strong emotional response and a spontaneous ovation from his audiences.
Barrie Richardson has a reputation for devising impenetrable mental mysteries that float upon multiple layers of deception. This is combined with a disconcerting directness that achieves the effect with minimal procedure and maximum power.
Whether you are a fan or are encountering Barrie Richardson's work for the first time, if you enjoy theatrical, commercial and cunningly constructed mentalism, Curtain Call will fulfill your desires and expectations.
Curtain Call gathers the finest fruits of Barrie Richardson's creativity during recent years and embellishes the material he has been perfecting in performance for a decade and more. Included are many of his most guarded pieces...
- An old key that turns and crawls eerily in the hand. Is it haunted? Is it psychokinesis? The effect meets and exceeds that accomplished by expensive mechanical keys, but uses an ungimmicked key that may be thoroughly examined before and after.
- An ordinary pencil, lying across the open hand levitates in full light. Then, when someone is asked to lift it off the hand, he finds it impossible! Once the magnetic suggestion is removed, the pencil may be effortlessly taken and examined.
- The mentalist writes down a target word. Someone then takes an imaginary stroll through a bookshop, chooses any book, any page and any word. When the word is revealed it proves to be the performer's target word! The person is then asked to concentrate on the mentally chosen page number in the imaginary book - and someone from the audience divines it!
- Incredibly powerful tools for the mentalist are revealed. Among them are some of the most deceptive billet peeks and switches ever published; a new gimmicked envelope that permits the contents to be glimpsed or stolen, yet can be freely handled by spectators; a perfected standing switch of a full deck of cards. All have fooled expert performers as well as the public.
- In the past, Mr. Richardson has gained a reputation for coming up with some of the best and most practical methods for the elusive Card at Any Number effect. In Curtain Call he reveals what he considers his finest version, done with an ordinary and legitimately shuffled deck.
263 pages in deluxe hardcover.