Tossed Out Book Test, Chris Philpott, Osterlind Review

Richard Osterlind's full comments on Chris Philpott's Tossed Out Book Test

"I get a lot of stuff sent to me. Most of the time, I have to force myself to read every word in order to be fair about the material.

"I got home from a 15 hour road trip and opened up Chris Philpott’s Tossed Out Book Test. Since this was a pre-release copy, the instructions were printed out from Chris’s computer instead of the real instruction book. The printing was small and my eyes were tired! And it was 1am! At 2am I was still reading and pondering what a tremendous effect this is! So let me be specific here.

"The books are top class and look like the real thing. They are gimmicked in a very convincing and clever way that must have taken months to figure and work out. The choice of words used shows fabulous insight on Chris’ part making the effect totally realistic. Even the size of the different books is well thought out.

"But the instructions really blew me away!

"Chris is a professional screenwriter and director. It shows in this work. As I read the book I kept thinking, this is a totally perfected, professional routine that could have sold privately for thousands of dollars. It is not the work of some amateur trying to make his effect interesting, or some newcomer trying to fill up a small booklet; rather this is material that any real pro could use exactly as is as a feature in his show. There are so many small nuances that demonstrate real stagecraft that it would be hard to point them all out. Every time I re-read the book, I found something else of great value.

"This is the way mentalism should be. This is totally top class all the way. I salute Chris for this effect and recommend it no matter what the price is.

"Frankly, if this had been mine, I would not have sold it, but kept it for myself."

Richard Osterlind

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