"Can you convince someone that they've vanished? Paul Harris posed this intriguing question in
'Nowhere Man' in The Art of Astonishment Book 3 and it set me thinking. This is the routine that I
came up with. I'm sure there are more tricks waiting to be developed using his novel plot."
How's that for the opening statement of a trick? Oliver Meech's book is a top quality
production. The above quote is from his effect Invisible Man, the first effect in the book. The
premise of the book is that Oliver wants to focus on new or largely untapped plots. His basic thesis
is that we spend plenty of time on method and presentational ideas in the published works of today,
so focus on new effects instead.
This is quite an ambitious goal. Whether he acheived that
goal or not I'll leave up to you. And you should make a decision which means I think you should buy
this book. The effects are great, and the methods are even better. On top of that Oliver really has
fun with his readers.
Each effect, Oliver gives the "spectator" a different name. The name
is somehow linked to the effect. Part of your job as the reader is to find the link. Don't fret. If
you give up, the answers are in the back. He also takes the time to explain a few minor language
differences between the UK and US... for example, in the U.K. what I would call a soda is called a
"Fizzy Drink."
Also, Oliver is a lefty (no wonder he's brilliant). Knowing, however, that
his main readership would likely be righties, he mirror-imaged all the photos to properly reflect a
righty's perspective. The whole production is very thoughtful and thought provoking, and it's clear
he took the time to devlop this properly. He also does an excellent job with credits.
So...
let me give you a sense of what's going on in Oliver's head. He has an effect called "Touching
Transposition." This effect is a transposition of two objects (a coin and a sugar cube). However,
rather than using a visual illusion, he uses a tactile illusion. The audience actually feels the
sugar cube in his hand as it's vanishing... It's very strange and very clever.
There are
just a ton of great ideas in this book, and the writing style and thinking is just plain different
from a lot of what we see today in the magic market. It's worth picking up just for that.
DEFINITE GEM!
