Guerrilla QA

THE BLURB:
"Jerome Finley is a controversial performer who isn’t afraid
to cross the line separating Performer from Shaman, a line
I’ve treaded vicariously off-and-on myself for most of my
life. In fact, as far as I can tell he isn’t aware such a
line even exists. I’ve taken great enjoyment in watching the
New Generation running amok with the craft, and Jerome is
running with the top mad dogs. Jerome eschews the tricks of
the trade for the Real Work, which in Mentalism can take you
into somewhat esoteric practices. We’re not talking billet
switches here; we’re actually getting into the thoughts and
minds of people. In this book you’ll learn how to do it."
- John Riggs, from the Introduction to 'Guerilla Q&A'

I’ve always felt that Q&A IS/was the penultimate
demonstration of mind reading and mentalism in its most pure
and affecting form. I’ve worked with dozens of methods for
this act and demonstration over the years and am finally
tipping the methods and outline I use today after hundreds
of performances.
Multiple methods are explored in this manuscript including:

• No preparation Q&A! Nothing written down, no questions
asked, no pre-show, no odd handlings or lengthy procedures,
no stooges, gaffs, gimmicks, one ahead, assistants, question
stealing, dual reality or anything set up in advance – you
can walk right out on stage and immediately go into this act
with devastating results. This is the ULTIMATE in ‘thought
of’ question answering and picks up where ‘Dynamite
Mentalism’ left off! It’s updated to work with contemporary
audiences and their modern concerns with a fresh new
approach, handling and presentation that’s sure to work
wonders in your current show and program.

• Other ‘no prep’ methods for Q&A are taught in depth. This
consists of written questions, direct questions and answers,
open audience readings and what I like to call ‘free range’
Q&A. Techniques and subtleties to increase the commercial
value of your existing Q&A act are also revealed and
regardless of the methods you choose or favor, there will be
something of immense value here for everyone.

• A full ‘readings primer’ which details how I give my
readings both up close and personal as well as live on
stage. These are not canned readings or stock lines, but a
fluid system which allows ANYONE to generate and deliver
‘spot on’ readings very easily and naturally. There is
nothing to remember and again, you can do this anytime,
anywhere.

• Short Q&A: a miniature performance best suited for close
up, parlor and even walk around performances, situations and
venues.

• Other techniques and ‘boosters’ to my Q&A are also taught
here and include ‘Hurling the Headlines’, working with a
higher volume of people, opening your Q&A act, psychometry,
direct mind reading, fielding questions, harvesting your
hits, rapport and making deep connections with your audience
members, plenty of hypnotic techniques, suggestion based
work and much more!

• Contributions, subtleties and touches from people the
likes of John Riggs, Paolo Cavalli, Ted Karmolovich, Alain
Nu, George Anderson and many others are also included.

• EVERYTHING you need to perform an incredibly strong Q&A is
here! We’ll look at the show format and outline, building
sequences, how to open and close such an act, sensational
questions and answers, length of readings (and performance),
the psychology behind such a demonstration and WHY it
maintains such great appeal to people and audiences
everywhere.

My goal for this book is for it to become THE DEFINITIVE
guide to no preparation Q&A.
None of the methods taught in this book require ANY
sleights, gaffs or gimmicks. The focus is on prop-free work
and performance; answering THOUGHT OF QUESTIONS and
delivering open readings. For other variations, the most you
will ever require are some pens, paper/index cards and
you’re ready to go with nothing prepared and NO ASSISTANTS.

Q&A is the ONLY thing I perform on stage these days. It
encompasses and exemplifies everything I think and feel
mentalism is and should be. I’ve been honored to share my
work and material in LIVE PERFORMANCE with some of the best
in the business and they all agree on one thing – it’s the
best version of this type of Q&A they’ve ever experienced.

Like ‘Thought Dial’, my ‘Guerilla Q&A’ will be limited to 50
PHYSICAL manuscripts, signed and shipped immediately by
yours truly.

The price is $399.00, will be available to ship BEFORE
Christmas and is sure to be a welcome addition to any
existing, professional repertoire and library. It will top
out at 150 pages and includes EVERYTHING you need to know to
begin performing this act immediately.

If you don’t perform a Q&A, now is your chance to have one
of the best acts around! If you do perform a Q&A, this is
your opportunity to take it to the next level.

Though I’ve simplified the work as much as possible (it
appears as though you stand there and simply receive
specific, thought of questions and answer them!) this work
and manuscript is geared towards the advanced level student
and professional workers in our community. Like all great
mentalism, the focus here is on performance and presentation
with cutting edge methods and devious psychological ploys
which make it work the right way, every time.

I’ve made it easy by removing any odd handlings or lengthy
procedures. You are actually doing what you claim to be
doing (for real). THIS IS THE ULTIMATE ONE MAN SHOW and
plays for audiences of practically any size. It’s always
ready to go and receives the strongest, most powerful
reactions in my program. It’s so incredibly devastating in
performance that I’ve focused my entire career around this
one piece and it’s the ONLY thing I perform in my current
full-length show.

All my best,
Jerome Finley

MY COMMENTS:
In the opening pages of this work, Jerome states that "to be
caught in a process of trickery means game over..." And,
for someone like Jerome, he must maintain this philosophy
because, as he states, "I play FOR REAL because what I am
doing IS real on many levels . . . I HAVE TO BE
bulletproof." I certainly applaud Jerome for taking this
risk and anytime a performer adopts this attitude, it
certainly is a risk. It's a risk that I have trouble
taking. Just as there is no such thing as "foolproof" (if
you think so, I'll find you the right fool to prove you
wrong), I don't believe anything is bulletproof (I know
there's the right bullet out there just waiting). Despite
that, it works well for Jerome.

I claim what I do is real, but I will say, in private and
not during performance, that I do use a little bit of
cheating to ensure that my performances are successfully
entertaining. I refuse to say just how much cheating there
is or identify the parts that I used such cheating. I want
to play for real, but leave the door open so that if they
catch me, or think they catch me, I have an excuse. And so
long as I can duplicate some of what I do for real, that
suits me just fine. The key words are that this latter
approach "suits me."

I began with the above because I wanted to stress that this
material is very strong, though it's clearly not for
everybody. As examples, I described the different
approaches that Jerome and I take to presenting mentalism as
real. If you're not comfortable either taking risks on
stage or having your audience think you're doing this for
real, then you'll clearly not be comfortable with this
material and you'll not be able to successfully perform
this. Incidentally, a large part of your decision should be
due to your persona. My performance persona and Jerome's
are quite different. His audiences can believe him doing
some things that mine won't and vice versa. You could, in
fact, be quite comfortable with this type of routine but it
may not fit with your persona.

With that caveat out of the way, let's continue with a
bald-faced, very subjective, testimonial-type proclamation.
If you want to be known as a real mind-reader, then Jerome
Finley has taken the very best ideas from classic works and
performers and combined them with his own cutting-edge
thinking to provide a solid, modern version of the Q&A act
that can be the highlight of your whole show, if not the
whole show itself!

If you read between the lines, you'll realize that what I'm
saying is that experienced mentalists should certainly be
aware of the foundational techniques that Jerome is using.
He's not necessarily bringing anything ground-breaking in
terms of technique, but he has marvelously put this whole
routine together, provided his insight from his experience
using this, and added some brilliant, insightful touches of
his own. Jerome's using ideas from George Anderson, Orville
Meyer, and Gail Sheehy with additional material by Bob
Cassidy, Michael Weber, Alain Nu, and Paolo Cavalli, plus
others.

This 158-page book is a complete kit on performing "real"
Q&A. Though it provides everything you need to get started,
it's not totally comprehensive. It talks about three
different methods of performing Q&A. There are chapters
that contain many ideas and explore supplementary
techniques. For example, there's material on using names,
dreams, colors, and zodiac signs in order to round out the
Q&A performance. Some of this material is not detailed as
much as it is in other sources and Jerome provided many
references that one should be familiar with (that's why I
say it's not comprehensive), but it will certainly provide
enough info to help those who need to know this to get
started. Jerome also includes a few pages discussing a
short Q&A that he uses at tables or for small standing
groups.

Experienced professionals who perform or have studied Q&A
may not find a lot of new techniques in this 158 page
e-book, but Jerome's routine is solid and worth looking into
if you're needs are for a solid, tested, "real" looking Q&A
routine. Most importantly, Jerome has already crafted a
well-built wheel and experienced professionals are probably
already familiar with the terminology and references.

Novice performers who want to delve into Q&A will find no
better place to start if they want this type of routine.
However, this latter group may have to supplement this by
reading up on material which is referenced and summarized in
the pages. Finally, I'll echo what John Riggs says in the
introduction. Though many mentalists believe Q&A is one of
the strongest routines a mentalist can perform, it is only
such because of the performer who needs a strong routine and
stage charisma to pull it off. Guerrilla Q&A provides that
strong routine for you.