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Reading Writing: Handwriting Analysis for Mentalists and Magicians
by Ariel Frailich
Published by I Saw That! Exclusive
Magic
Hardcover, 6" x 9" (15 x 23 cm), 196 pages
Reviewed by Ian Keable
One of the weirdest books in my library is Don Lawton’s Autograph Book which
comprises a number of famous magicians’ autographs, complete with a page of what
their signature tells us about each personality, as analysed by ‘certified
graphologist’ Glenda Ross. She says in her introduction that “all have the trait
of great secretiveness.” I’ve always wondered if she would have written that if
she hadn’t known in advance they were magicians!
You can probably tell from the above paragraph that I’m pretty much a sceptic
when it comes to analysing hand writing, or graphology, to give it its proper
name. It is hard to tell whether Ariel Frailich, the author of Reading Writing,
is of similar thinking. Given that he recommends restricting yourself to upbeat
and positive readings (the classic advice for anybody having a go at ‘cold
reading’) makes me think he probably is. If you were really 100% convinced in
the authenticity of what you are analysing, then surely you should have an
obligation to tell people (or at least their partner) that somebody is a cold
hearted, egotistical psychopath - if that is indeed what you are ‘reading’ from
the ‘writing’.
At the end of the day, however, it is the performer’s decision to determine his
own moral code and the extent he wants his audience to believe he can genuinely
analyse their handwriting. What is certain is this book gives you all the
necessary tools to be convincing.
The first section, Graphology, explains exactly what graphology is and
introduces you to the basic reading of the words (sloping letters, size of
writing, pressure of pen, spacing, where they are placed on the page etc.); it
also covers signatures and the tools required to do a proper analysis. This is
very comprehensive, well set out and the author makes it easy to assimilate all
the information, even giving you a few exercises to check on your process.
The next section, Readings, goes into more detail how to give a full reading –
this is aimed at those who want to earn money exclusively from hand writing
analysis; and this, and the next section on Markets, would be invaluable to
anybody wanting to supplement their income in this manner.
The remaining part of the book is perhaps of most interest to magicians, as it
shows how you can incorporate graphology into your magic and mind reading
tricks.
With the Mentalism section, several classic plots are considered – such as
Living and Dead tests, pseudo psychometry, pendulum swinging and triple
predictions; and the presentation, patter and the many different methods are
gone into in commendable detail. Analysing hand writing is actually fairly
incidental to most of the routines; and in some ways this section is really just
a series of excellent mind reading tricks that anybody into mentalism would find
instructive to study.
Unsurprisingly, when we come to the Magic section, the link to graphology is
even more tenuous; doing a reading of somebody’s signature in an Ambitious Card
routine; getting a spectator to write down a phrase in which a picture changes;
or producing a physical representation of somebody’s favourite colour, stretches
the added presentational angle of analysing their hand writing to almost
breaking point. Magic and graphology seem to make uneasy bed fellows.
The final section, called A Little Extra..., throws in some ‘bonus material’ (a
phrase, along with ‘underground magician’, that should be banned from all magic
literature) on how to analyse individual letters, which could easily have been
included in the first section. Finally there is information on how to interpret
the drawing of a tree – apparently a genuine psychological test – together with
a trick, by Jeff Hinchliffe, to make use of this skill.
Reading Writing is illustrated with many examples of hand writing to assist your
understanding of the techniques taught; and the style and layout makes it an
easy read. The author clearly knows his subject and is very good with his
credits. In summary it is highly recommended for anybody wanting to use
graphology, either as a stand-alone skill, or as an adjunct to their mind
reading repertoire.
Published by I Saw That! Exclusive Magic
Hardcover, 6" x 9" (15 x 23 cm), 196 pages
Suggested retail price: £37.00
Available from the publisher and through magic shops
http://isawthat.com
© Ian Keable, April 2013