The Modern Mind Reading Magic (MMRM) dvd by Zee and SansMinds presents 10 mentalism effects that use your cell phone, a pad a papers, a pack of gum, business cards and your own wallet. Zee presents 10 effects for $30 and SansMinds labeled a “Worker Series” project in an hour and twenty five minute dvd.
Unfortunately, I do not think this dvd is a compilation of workers and for the most part there is nothing new in here. When I review magic or mentalism products, I take many factors into account and come up with a rating. Many times the rating is personal to me. Would I perform these tricks? Do I think there is anything new here? Can I recommend that you spend your hard earned cash on this project? The answer to there questions is all “no”.
Other than a few moments when Zee is clearly being told what to say on camera, the production value is very good, except for a few shots where Zee if trying to show you something on white paper against a white backdrop which makes it impossible to see what is being shown.
To be honest, I think that this project is mislabeled and should have been called the “Hobbyist Series”. I do think that some of these tricks are great for sitting around with friends, but not working tables or close-up. To give an overview, the first trick, Apple Watch, with an iPhone I would have rated a 3 out of 10 and would never use it. I don’t think the effect is worthwhile or stunning in any way. I also do not care for the iBillet trick which seems a bit too fumbly and I don’t care for the presentation. The next two tricks, Bunny Star and Hello Bunny too are very basic peeks and there are so many better alternatives that I cannot get behind these either.
Breath Mint is too risky for anyone to perform and even Zee indicated that he has issues with this trick. I am staying far away from this one as it will not hit at least 50% of the time. College Tuition is a nice card trick, but nothing outrageously amazing. The Gum Peek is an old mentalism peek applied to a pack of gum in which a thought of word is written on a piece of gum and then inserted back into the pack. Pass on that one for me.
The $1000 Peek Wallet is nothing new and quite honestly, I don’t really know how some of these tricks get passed off as a new compilation. I am more frustrated by this than anything.
The best effect on the dvd is the Perfect Mental Epic in which the performer write a few prediction down on pieces of paper in a spiral notebook. Our of everything presented, this is the one trick that I would consider performing, if I would be willing to carry around a small spiral notebook. But, I am not going to perform this trick because there are so many other ways of accomplishing the same trick. And, a portion of this trick relies upon an app that you need to download.
Finally, and not in any order, 1818 is a really risky trick that is almost guaranteed to fail. I don’t care what Zee says, but this is a big loser and he offers no out! I like the idea, but I am staying far away from this baby.
Below is only a select portion of the ad-copy so you can see SansMinds own description of the various routines.
What you will learn:
Gum Peek (Exclusive content for DVD Format only) – Use a gum pack as a device. Technically a 50-cent peek device!
$1000 Peek Wallet (Exclusive content for DVD Format only) – Thanks to all those peek wallet makers for making awful-looking, unstylish wallets which pushed me to come up with this
Apple Watch -An incredible multi-phase mind-reading routine. (No, you do not need an Apple watch to perform it)
Breath Mint -100% Magician fooler
iBillet – Using any phone as a peek device!
College Tuition – Casually demonstrate the nearly impossible possibility
Bunny Star – Psychometry with a kicker ending.
Hello Bunny – A few pieces of paper and a pen is all that’s needed to trigger a heart-warming emotion.
1818 – Inspired by Seances with slates performed by psychics back in the 20th century
Perfect Mental Epic – Hen Fetsch’s Mental Epic on another level
The presentation and explanations are slow and there are no performances to real audiences.
So, I think you catch my drift about this one. I can’t recommend this for workers, but this is something that friends can use to impress their buddies at home on a Saturday night.
I appreciate Murphy’s Magic asking that I review this product and give it my honest review.