A Critical Examination of the How to Read Minds Kit Kickstarter
/Big news…
Ellusionist is getting ready to do to mentalism what they did to magic!
Take a big, steamy shit on it?
How dare you. This is Ellusionist. Show some respect. Did you know David Blaine ripped off his entire schtick from Brad Christian? It’s true. I’ve done my research, now you do yours.
No, what they’re doing is releasing a beginners mentalism set, similar to their How to Be A Magician set that came out a few years ago. It includes things like a gimmicked book, a peek wallet, and an Add-a-No pad.
The kickstarter page is legitimately hysterical. They took every corny, sad, pathetic stereotype about the sort of people who are drawn to mentalism and then fed that to a bot or something who spit out this ad targeting the loneliest of the lonely.
“The ‘How To Read Minds’ kit is for EVERYONE who wants to be the life of ANY party or social situation. The normal, everyday person who wants to be anything but normal.”
“Here is the path the reaction almost always takes…..shock…. disbelief….. awe…. and finally….utter respect. We’re being honest when we say people want to buy your drinks for you, that’s not sales hyperbole. It happens time and again.”
Ah, yes… “utter respect.” That’s the reaction I associate with people who perform mentalism. And there is no question that’s the reaction you’ll get with this set. Well, either that or, “Look, everyone! This guy is carrying around a fake book with him so he can ‘read our minds.’ What a goon!”
There’s a telling moment in the video where Brad is describing the reactions Peter Turner’s performance garnered. He’s clearly in awe of the response Peter got and he says, “And he does it just through everything in the box!” And his inflection says, “And he does it just through this box full of garbage!”
I’m convinced there is a mole in the Ellusionist offices who can’t stand Brad Christian. Certainly if everyone was working for the same team, someone would have said, “Hey… uhm, Brad? Do you think maybe we should cut this part where you’re clearly shocked that someone got a good reaction from the kit we’re selling? I mean, we’re trying to advertise this as if a 13-year-old will garner incredible reactions from it. Why would you be surprised that one of the biggest names in the mentalism community could make it work? If we were selling a can opener we wouldn’t include a clip of you implying you were surprised someone was actually able to open a can with the hunk of shit we were selling, would we? That doesn’t seem like a good look.”
Captivate ANY customer
Be a stud, instead of a third wheel
Boost your tips
Make meeting people easier (especially dates)
Get known as "the most interesting kid at school"
Okay… I’ve changed my mind. This ad isn’t hilarious. It’s wildly depressing.
Is this what it’s like to not have a personality? Is it just a constant search for a new hobby or outlet that will get people to pay some attention to you? I feel genuinely sad for someone who is like, “Oh, jeez, why doesn’t anyone like me? I know… I’ll learn magic. That will change things!” My advice to you is not to keep the Add-A-No pad in your breast pocket or it will fall into the toilet when one of the cool kids is giving you a swirlie.
That being said, I’ll still probably buy this. I’m a sucker. I love this sort of thing. At the price that this sells for—$99—I can’t imagine the props being anything other than hot garbage. I think there’s probably a reason you don’t get a look at any of the props, and that reason is certainly not because it’s really high quality stuff. It’s kind of a no-win situation for Ellusionist. They put this together at a super fair price so you can’t really expect too much from the props. If they sold it for $300 with really well constructed props, we’d all be complaining about the price.
One of the few props that’s mentioned in the ad is a “Credit Card with 3 powerful secrets.” You get a brief look at this in the trailer. So the idea is you’ll be carrying around a credit card that doesn’t have your name on it? From HTRM Bank? (How To Read Minds Bank) Oof. And this is one of the few props they actually mention. So you can only imagine what the ones they don’t mention are.
But who cares! I’m sure I’ll get something from Peter Turner’s teaching. I always find him interesting to watch. And it will just be fun to get a magic kit around Christmas, sit on the floor like a kid, poke around in it, pull out every item one piece at a time and examine it.
Despite the fact I make fun of everything they do, I have a soft-spot for Ellusionist, so I’m happy to support them.
Is it going to help the art of mentalism to have a bunch of awkward virgins stumbling their way through these tricks and exposing classic methods through sheer incompetence? Probably not. But whatever. Burn it all down, I say. It’s time for something new.
Okay, I do have one last comment…
The fuck are they talking about, “Hidden 2nd layer”?
You’ve made a box with two layers. The same way Russell Stovers does for chocolate. You’ve just stacked some stuff on other stuff. That’s not a “hidden 2nd layer.”
“Hidden” implies some kind of subterfuge. Maybe if the top layer was a chess set you could say the bottom layer was hidden in some way. But the top layer is fucking magic props, you goofballs! What are you hiding and who are you hiding it from? What is the benefit of this “hidden” layer?
“Heh, heh, heh. Look at all those unsuspecting people. All they see is an innocent little box with How to Read Minds on it and a single layer of magic props. Little do they know that hiding beneath this layer of magic props is… another layer of magic props. Oh, you poor naive fools! Blissfully unaware. ‘Oh, that’s just a box that holds 8 custom props,’ you think. None suspect the devious secret truth of the hidden layer !!!.”