Harris is at it again:
The Marketing
A THOUGHT WELL STOLEN
by Ben Harris
40 page pdf or print edition
US$30.00
A Thought Well Stolen combines two of magic’s great card effects — Any Card At Any Number, and Paul Curry’s Out Of This World — into a wicked hybrid; morphing them into a mind-blowing frenzy. Can you even imagine what this resultant offspring would look like?
As in Any Card At Any Number, the performer reveals the identity of a freely though-of card — and its position in a deck — without asking a single question. Seriously, this is solid and gripping mentalism; there is no force, the card is a free MENTAL SELECTION and NO questions are asked. Having read his spectator’s mind, discerning his card and its position in the deck, the performer follows with a visual display rivalling the wonderful separation of colors in Out Of This World. Your audience is left reeling by:
1. Your amazing ability to read minds.
2. Your insane skill with a deck of cards.
“A Thought Well Stolen is 100% pure as regards its intention: the identification of any freely thought-of card without any questions; without any prodding, probing, dual reality or ambiguity. And, without any limiting procedures. None at all. The result is a selection process about as fair as it can get:
‘Do you have a favourite playing card?’ the performer asks.
‘Yes, yes I do,’ the spectator replies.
‘Okay, that’s great,’ the performer confirms. ‘Don’t tell me. Keep the identity of your card secret, okay?’”
Is there an approach any more fair? I don’t think so.
Ships August 20th, 2015, in both printed and eBook editions.
The reality
- Two decks of playing cards are displayed and the spectator has a free selection of which deck they wish to use.
- The spectator thinks of their favourite card and tells no one. They cut the face down deck multiple times moving their freely thought of card around to different positions only stopping when they wish to.
- The cards are dealt one at a time face up onto the table and the spectator secretly notes at which position their freely thought of card is at. Something ONLY the spectator will know. Remember, nothing is said and nothing is written down.
- The cards are squared on the table and left for a moment.
- The performer then removes the deck that was not chosen from its box and gives it a quick shuffle and a few cuts. He then asks the spectator to think of their favourite card again and stares deeply into their eyes.
- The performer runs through the deck and removes one card, placing it face down on the table so no one can see its value, why waste the surprise at this moment?!!?
- Asking the spectator to think of the number in the deck that relates to the position of their favourite card the performer places the face down card on the table onto the deck and cuts it inside.
- Now is the time for the reveal.
- The spectator is asked to deal down through their deck, one by one, stopping at the position before their favourite card, lets say it is the 21st card in this instance.
- The performer also deals down through their deck one by one in unison with the spectator, also stopping on the 21st card, to build suspense.
- Before the spectator's card (the 22nd card) is turned over the performer spreads the dealt cards out face up and asks the spectator to verify that their favourite card is not in this pile. It of course is not!
- The performer looks the spectator intently in the eyes one more time and names their favourite card!
- The 22nd card of both decks are turned over to show they do indeed match!
- The remaining cards in the performer's hand are given a couple of more shuffles and cuts and the performer now states that he has organised the rest of the deck to indeed match the spectator's order.
- The remaining cards are dealt one by one face up to show that they match perfectly
--
Sigh.
Marketing and Reality
Marketing and Reality
Yes, it is mrgoat, I just can't log in with old account.
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- Posts: 4548
- Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
- Location: austin, tx
Re: Marketing and Reality
Harris should know about stealing. Bought that $100 book from him a few years ago and he never delivered. Use caution buying anything from him.
Brad Henderson magician in Austin Texas
Re: Marketing and Reality
Brad Henderson wrote:Harris should know about stealing. Bought that $100 book from him a few years ago and he never delivered. Use caution buying anything from him.
I think hole in the head is enough for anyone to show more than caution when buying from him!
Yes, it is mrgoat, I just can't log in with old account.
- Richard Kaufman
- Posts: 27058
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- Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
- Location: Washington DC
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Re: Marketing and Reality
What seems to be the problem here?
Brad: what $100 book are you talking about?
Brad: what $100 book are you talking about?
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine
Re: Marketing and Reality
Richard Kaufman wrote:What seems to be the problem here?
Well, the ad copy is, as with I think all of Mr Harris' products, misleading.
And when it is spelled out, the trick sounds absolute bobbins.
I mean, it's fairly standard for magic ad copy to be illegally misleading, but Mr Harris does make an art out making something that is not very good in reality sound amazing. See Hole In The Head for a very specific example. Or any of his other releases really.
Yes, it is mrgoat, I just can't log in with old account.
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Re: Marketing and Reality
a couple years ago Harris advertised a hard copy book, I believe called Anesthesia or something like that. Strictly limited. Believe it was a cel phone trick. books like that, even if the trick is bad, sometimes become collectible so I preordered. As far as I am aware the book never came to exist, nor were emails answered or refunds offered. Emailed him once when the book was supposed to come out and got a 'soon' message. since then, complete lack of response.
I wouldn't trust him again with my money and cannot recommend anyone else does either.
I wouldn't trust him again with my money and cannot recommend anyone else does either.
Brad Henderson magician in Austin Texas
- Joe Pecore
- Posts: 1914
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- Favorite Magician: Paul Harris
- Location: Northern Virginia
Re: Marketing and Reality
Brad Henderson wrote:a couple years ago Harris advertised a hard copy book, I believe called Anesthesia or something like that.
Sold out: http://www.wowbound.com/anesthesia.html
Share your knowledge on the MagicPedia wiki.
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Re: Marketing and Reality
that's the one. never delivered and based on other requests on other forums about it I assume never even produced.
Brad Henderson magician in Austin Texas
Re: Marketing and Reality
Perhaps the advertising & collecting of funds for something not sent were the illegal aspect and burned purchasers disappearing as customers were the fulfillment of making strangers vanish.
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Re: Marketing and Reality
Thanks for mentioning Hole in the Head, Mr. Goat. You've undone years of therapy.
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Re: Marketing and Reality
Just wanted to let you know that Ben Harris has successfully resolved this matter to my satisfaction. yea, genii forum.
thanks RK
thanks RK
Brad Henderson magician in Austin Texas
Re: Marketing and Reality
I am often amazed at the amount of magicians who offer things for sale and then never deliver the goods. It happens all the time. I do not believe it is intentional for the most part. It is usually a function of the vendor being a bad businessman or very disorganised. They run into financial trouble or get cash flow problems and get themselves into a mess. And they compound the problem by hiding from the customer and that is the very WORST thing they can do!
Customers will put up with a lot providing they are communicated with. Hiding always makes things worse. I would advise anyone who gets into a situation like this to be upfront and honest with the customer straight from the start with frequent communication explaining the difficulty. They still won't like the situation but they will be far more forgiving and tolerant and more likely to cut you some slack. It is when you suddenly become invisible that things get out of hand. Complaints are made on the internet which makes other customers panic and put even more pressure on you.
Of course the situation shouldn't have happened in the first place. I personally hate a situation where you take pre-orders. I did it once only and I felt very uncomfortable holding on to people's money and it made me almost paranoic to get the goods to them as soon as possible. I would never take pre orders again. It would make me too nervous. I am a great procrastinator but because of my feeling of discomfort holding on to people's money before they get the goods as soon as an order comes in I send it out no matter how much I can't be bothered or no matter how tired I am. I feel so uncomfortable that I just have to get it off my mind as soon as possible and I won't even put the money in the bank until the goods are in the mail.
I think performers who travel get into a lot of trouble because the orders come in while they are out of town and they build up. Still, they need to make some arrangement to get the orders out and not wait until they come back if they are going away for more than a week. When I was performing in Mexico for two months I made arrangements with someone to send out any orders that came in.
Magicians are just not business people and I include myself in that. And that is why they get themselves in a mess. I have seen an amazing amount of well known people with stellar reputations getting into this mess. And then their reputations become less stellar as a result. I feel sorry for them but their customers are not quite so forgiving.
I would encourage people who sell products by mail to adopt the paranoia habit that I have and feel the same discomfort until the goods are on the way. And above all, if you DO run into trouble of any kind then communicate with the customer at all costs.
Customers will put up with a lot providing they are communicated with. Hiding always makes things worse. I would advise anyone who gets into a situation like this to be upfront and honest with the customer straight from the start with frequent communication explaining the difficulty. They still won't like the situation but they will be far more forgiving and tolerant and more likely to cut you some slack. It is when you suddenly become invisible that things get out of hand. Complaints are made on the internet which makes other customers panic and put even more pressure on you.
Of course the situation shouldn't have happened in the first place. I personally hate a situation where you take pre-orders. I did it once only and I felt very uncomfortable holding on to people's money and it made me almost paranoic to get the goods to them as soon as possible. I would never take pre orders again. It would make me too nervous. I am a great procrastinator but because of my feeling of discomfort holding on to people's money before they get the goods as soon as an order comes in I send it out no matter how much I can't be bothered or no matter how tired I am. I feel so uncomfortable that I just have to get it off my mind as soon as possible and I won't even put the money in the bank until the goods are in the mail.
I think performers who travel get into a lot of trouble because the orders come in while they are out of town and they build up. Still, they need to make some arrangement to get the orders out and not wait until they come back if they are going away for more than a week. When I was performing in Mexico for two months I made arrangements with someone to send out any orders that came in.
Magicians are just not business people and I include myself in that. And that is why they get themselves in a mess. I have seen an amazing amount of well known people with stellar reputations getting into this mess. And then their reputations become less stellar as a result. I feel sorry for them but their customers are not quite so forgiving.
I would encourage people who sell products by mail to adopt the paranoia habit that I have and feel the same discomfort until the goods are on the way. And above all, if you DO run into trouble of any kind then communicate with the customer at all costs.