On 2007-10-07 16:15, MagicSanta wrote:
Title: Dial-Abolical by Kockov
Medium: DVD
Arena: Mentalism Parlor or stage
Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies

Once again Jasper Blakeley in his character Kockov brings us a popular theme in mentalism, this time the book test. Kockov is the character used by Jasper and is a mentalist from the former Soviet Union. Kockov is played as comedy but with a seriousness as well, he is a very interesting character. The presentation is Kockov, the explanation is the very British Jasper, thank goodness because it would have been too much to have the explanations as Kockov. The production level is very good in both image and sound. The performance is with a live audience and what kind of surprised me is the jokes played well to my American sense of humor where most British comedy fails in entertaining me. You get two routines on the DVD, both very well explained, and they are both very good and are clearly workers not book test designed just to market.

Dial-Abolical is a great routine with the basic idea being that a three digit number is picked by a spectator, no stooges, and the mentalist writes the number on a eraser board. The reasoning behind the selection and the interplay between Kockov and the spectator is very good. The board is put down and there is a locked box that is opened and inside is a large phone book. The page that corresponds to the three digits is opened and the spectator reads off the first phone number and the board is shown, and it can be picked up and shown by anyone, to have that specific phone number written on in. I should note that for most of this the mentalist is blind folded. I should tell you it is a normal large phone book, a normal board as you can get at any office supply store, the number isn’t forced and there is no swami involved. The method, typical of Jasper, is very direct and effective and leaves your focus on presentation. There will be a bit of pre work to prepare to do this routine but it will well be worth it. He fooled the heck out of me and I like the method and the secret behind it. The biggest problem I’ll have is my local phone book, which is for my town and the one next to us, consist of every ones phone number, government phone numbers, ads, sports schedules, map, everything you could want, and it is 32 pages long. I’ll have to pick up a San Jose Ca. book in order to have enough pages to do this but it is worth it. I liked every aspect of the routine.

Next you learn a book test using six ordinary paper back books, again not gimmicked in any way and again done blind folded. The books are handed out to spectators, none are stooges, and you can go through each person and tell them the word they are focusing on. Might be the first word, could be the last, could be in the middle or off center, it plays very strong. I actually think this played bigger than Dial-abolical! You will need to do pre work on this as well but again the time it takes will be worth it. If you wanted you could do this with two hundred books, you’ll not want to take the time to prep for it but you could. This is as strong a book test as I’ve ever seen. During the performance Jasper shows how quick he is on his feet as Kockov.

There you go. Killer mentalism for the real worker and those not afraid to spend a few hours getting ready. The good news is the prep only needs to be done once and you are set for a long time. Jasper does an excellent job explaining the routines and they are not difficult once you know how it is done. I’ll tell you this, these Kockov DVDs are the best mentalism routines I’ve encountered because they are really from his act and not, as I’ve said, developed just for the market. To be honest I’m surprised Jasper released these, I’d have kept them secret. Well done Alakazam guys in the UK.