Building Blocks

by Luke Jermay

Reviewed by Tom Lauten

Alakazam have broken into publishing with the release of Luke’s new book, "Building Blocks".

They say:
Luke has tipped the real work on using Suggestion Techniques. Luke covers the Definition = Creation theory along with several other techniques and teachings. This, coupled with his groundbreaking applications of the four Convincers, is enough to transform and amplify your performances right away. But that’s just for starters! Wait until you see some of the effects he teaches. Imagine yourself performing these routines:

A plucked rose visibly wilts and dies as you talk about the fragility of life…

An aura reading routine, which climaxes with the spectator genuinely seeing your aura - and you can provide proof!

You cause the spectator’s sense of time to physically slow down (we don’t just mean their watch, although of course that happens as well!). They are almost unable to physically move as they are stuck in a single moment of time.

You perform a version of Out Of This World, with a borrowed deck, with no set-up, no sleights or switches. In fact the spectator’s intuition can even be shown as correct for each individual card as it is dealt! This is the real work on the verbal control of a spectator.

Despite being blindfolded, you can read a selected sentence chosen at random from a borrowed book, with your fingertips! You can even scan through the whole book with your fingertips and comment on the story and characters. Did we mention that the blindfold is real and that you genuinely can’t see a thing and you can do this anywhere anytime?!

Imagine having your spectator actually feel their thought leave their mind and enter yours - imagine no more! With the Burst Bubble suggestion, your spectator will believe they felt the moment of magic happen inside their own mind!

These are just a few of the incredible routines that Luke teaches in this new book. Every routine is accompanied by his suggestion techniques as applied to that specific piece, as well as his full performance script, plus many additional touches and ideas.

His sensational Out of This World is taken to an even more impossible level with just five un-gimmicked ESP cards. He has shared his personal Book Test, his acclaimed work on PK Touches, his thinking on playing cards in mentalism and so much more. He teaches the techniques of Anchoring and specifically how to apply them to magic performances.
By blending up-to-the-minute psychological techniques with some classic conjuring methodology, Luke has created cutting-edge Mentalism and Magick effects that will have your audiences believing that you can do anything! Going far beyond the material in his first release, 7 Deceptions, this new book really does teach you the “Building Blocks” of becoming an expert at previously jealously guarded techniques of suggestion and mind control.

Difficulty: Well, it’s a matter of where you are at and where you want to go.

Review: Personally… I have found this inspirational!!! The routines are fantastic, no doubt there… but the real gold is the no-nonsense approach to the hard-hitting psychological use of suggestion in magic / mentalism tricks and routines. Luke breaks down the precepts of goose bump inducing performance into “Building Blocks”... the basic yet powerful elements that mess with the minds of those who will be on the receiving end of your work. What’s more, he even uses these concepts and psychological tools as routines in and of themselves! He also gives you routines that mix these with traditional methods. That’s what the book is all about.

With a forward by Steve Banachek and an essay by Kenton Knepper, this is a fearsome arsenal of mind warping insight. It seems sparse at times but only because it’s power and principles are simple, Luke cuts to the chase. This is not a “tricks book” (although it has a wide range of fantastic routines in it that are worth twice the price), this is a performance-changing bible, you won’t think the same way about tricks again. It works for me…no doubt!

Overall: Killer work in a beautiful, elegant, cloth covered, deep blue hardback. A bit pricey but hell…it’s worth it! Well done Luke and Peter Nardi. Thanks for a classic!

10/10

© Tom Lauten, December 2003

To order a copy from Alakazam Magic Click Here

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