Magic Tricks

In short, I felt his show started strong. After the first three tricks (the first two I liked a lot), it turned into one of the most boring shows I've ever seen.

Sprinkled throughout are several jokes taken from Derren Brown's stage show.

When Derren said the joke, "...that's also the order in which you're gonna die.. if that's of any interest." That was funny.

When Timothy repeated Derren's joke, I cringed. Not funny.

It worked for Derren because it was said at the exact right moment, in the right context.

It's funny when Derren says it because people in London believe Derren is a god. Derren was making fun of that notion.

Also it was funny because Derren had 8 or 9 people lined up in a line ON STAGE. DERREN HAD ARRANGED them in a line, in a certain order.

Timothy just had 4 people in the audience stand up, left them in that order, said, "You'll be 1, you'll be 2, you'll be 3..." and then said the joke."

Of course it was much less funny to me since I knew it was a joke taken from Derren's act.

I'm not strictly opposed stealing jokes, but I'm puzzled why Timothy Krass would take jokes from the most popular act in his own city.

The patrons of his theater show are the same type of people who would've seen Derren's show.

He goes further and tells the person, “You're going to die on a Monday.”
Personally, I think this could be funny. However, something about the way Krass delivers it wasn't funny (IMO).

Furthermore, in the lecture part, he tells a story of a woman he ran into YEARS LATER who told him that she had been living in fear every week because Monday was coming up.

He also mentions a comment he received from a dad whose children were with him. He told the dad that the dad was gonna die on a Monday. The dad wrote to him because after seeing Timothy Krass's show, his children now believed their dad was going to die on a Monday.

I think as performers, this sort of feedback is gold, and we should assume that if one person makes such a comment, a hundred more have thought it but didn't say it out loud.

I'm not an overly sensitive person, and I like dark humor. But I think he should not be telling people they're gonna die on a Monday.

Did Timothy modify his act accordingly based on this feedback? No.
Krass thinks it's funny, so it stays in his act.

I liked the first two effects (though the first effect depends on p__show, which some are opposed to). There is also some instant st______ used starting in the 5th trick, which some performers have misgivings about.

HIS OPENER

The very first effect, his opener, depends on p__show; but it's p__show that is concealed in a clever way of an apparently random selection of the p__showed participant (even though logically, the p__showed participant selected herself).

Virtues of his opener:

-The entire audience is involved in the opener

-It is apparent direct mindreading ("Think of something. You're thinking of XYZ")

-The way Timothy does it, it would NOT be a good closing effect or grand finale. The performer guesses correctly, but it's not astounding. This is intentional so that the act progresses. However, if you do not subscribe to Chuck Hickcock's idea that a mentalism show should start with something believable and end with the unbelievable, then you could easily change the "Think of a number between one and thirty" to something more hard hitting.

I'm still not sure how much this audience selection procedure (which does not look procedural) conceals the p__show, but it might be valuable. It might be the perfect opener (though of course you could say that about most things that use p__show).

HIS SECOND TRICK - The Psychic Pickpocket

I loved this trick. It's not really a mentalism trick (in that the audience does not believe you're reading the on-stage participant's mind), but it's most suitable for a mentalist to perform it.

It's common knowledge that mentalism shows tend to be boring. This really spices up a show with something different. And though it presents a different skillset, it's not really very different (and the script itself highlights the similarities between a mindreader and a pickpocket).

It's also situation comedy, which I think is the funniest comedy.

Krass said he got the idea from Nico Heinrick's book. After seeing this lecture, I spent $12 on The Psychic Pickpocket, and was disappointed that it was not there. Maybe a sentence or two that Krass used, but not the basic idea.

THIRD TRICK

This one was good, nothing groundbreaking. Basically something we've all done when performing close-up. Krass does it on stage.
I personally thought his peek was blatantly obvious, but apparently it flies by. Plus he does it very quickly.

But I think he should have a short line that justifies his gaze. Anything that would give him reason to look down at the billet (which he does).

His comments on audience management and comments are valuable.

4TH - TOSSED OUT DIE

For this trick you'll need a gimmick that costs $1000+.
I have this gimmick, but for a few reasons I won't be doing this effect. I use the gimmick in walk-around performances. It makes sense to have someone "roll the die" until she's happy with the number and cover the die with a napkin.

In Timothy's trick, there are a few problems:

1. Since there's no table, it's not reliable (in my experience). If a participant doesn't hold the die steady, but instead rolls the die around and then merely glances at the number in an instant and then joggles the die around in his/her hand some more, then you don't know which signal is correct.

2. There is absolutely no justification or motivation to use a die. When I do it, I have them roll the die (reason, it's not a loaded die). Then stop when they're happy.

In Timothy's version, after guessing a 2 digit number someone is thinking of (his opener), then guessing a PIN code without a die, he then introduces a die and hands it to people in the audience and tells them to turn the die so that one number is face up.

It feels too much like a dice trick, and not like a mind reading trick. Yes, laypeople DO often come up with the correct explanation. I've heard it several times (before I started having them roll the die). Not sure if they really believe in the explanation, but they often make the comment.

Once I changed from
"Think of a number, then place the die so the number is face up" to
"Roll the die and stop when you're happy," I stopped hearing laypeople correctly guess the real method.

Long story short, the way Krass does this fools only some laypeople.

5TH TRICK - HYPNOSIS

Now that the audience has seen 3 "guess a number" tricks, it's time to do something exciting.

Without a doubt this was the most boring hypnosis presentation I've ever seen, and possibly the most boring mentalism performance I've ever seen.

6TH TRICK - DREAM

Instead of guessing a number, the performer correctly guesses a "dream" (in one word).

The moment he pulled out the Para__d I recognized it.
This point is negligible since laypeople won't recognize it. But I'd still suggest changing the not-quite-ordinary appearance of the pad to something people have clearly seen before.

In the Live Act, you can see Timothy struggle. This is not a bad thing since it can be valuable to see a performer handle a terrified participant.

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I got a lot out of this, though there were big chunks of it that I felt were a waste of time (especially the hypnosis part...if I were going to see a show, I'd be unhappy with that part--it's neither good mentalism nor good hypnosis).

My favorite thing was the pickpocket effect and my second favorite was the opener.