Intelligent Design

THE BLURB:
Tired of doing tricks? Bored of drawing duplications that
only involve one person while the rest of the group sits
back and watches?

Do you want a dynamic framework that involves the whole
group? Do you want methods that rank amateurs wouldn't dream
of doing? Do you want a killer performance piece for your
next party?

Welcome to INTELLIGENT DESIGN. It is a presentational
framework you can mold to your personality and to individual
performing needs. It gives you room to participate with your
audience and brings them into the action dynamically with
often surprising results.

This isn't a drawing duplication you do for one person; this
is a shared experience you create for a room full of people.

The method is built on solid mentalism principles and has
been performed in every possible setting with devastating
results. You literally become the life of the party.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN is for the smart mentalist who enjoys
free form performance pieces that demand him to stay in the
moment and create a shared experience for his audience.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN was created with you in mind.
No Forcing
No Marking
No Stooges
No Dual Reality
No Gimmicks
No Sleight Of Hand
No Set Up
No Pre Show
No Shiners
No Nail Writers
No Peeks
No Pencil Reading
No Lip Reading
No Sound Reading
No Muscle Reading
With a little practice this method is 100% foolproof and
reliable.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN. Drawing Duplications for Smart People!

Pages 20 - Saddle Stitched

MY COMMENTS:
I've always stated that one can never have enough,
well-thought out mentalism routines which are completely
impromptu. With this routine, which can be an entire act,
you can walk into a room with a pad of paper and pencils and
perform this. This is a really strong idea, despite the
blurb being somewhat vague about what it is. On the last
page of this booklet, Jason Messina writes, "...this routine
and method grew out of [Richard Osterlind's] very excellent
Osterlind Design Duplication...The night I left my ODDS
packet at home was the night INTELLIGENT DESIGN was born."
However, though it could be considered as an impromptu
version of ODDS, there's many differences that would make
this perception arguable. The routine is much more than
that. As you might suspect, the principles involved are not
new, but I believe the application of merging the basic
principle with a drawing duplication is new. (I'll note that
I could be wrong on this.)

The blurb doesn't really describe the presentation, but then
that's really what you're purchasing here. It begins with
many members of the audience (all of them if it is a small
audience) creating drawings. Each drawing is given an
interpretation or reading (depending on what you're
comfortable with). The drawings are mixed, one is selected
without the performer seeingit, and the performer duplicates
the drawing. As you may be able to tell, the routine is much
closer to being a version of Larry Becker's Sneak Thief/Max
Maven's Desire, than Richard Osterlind's ODDS. The big
difference is how the drawings are handled coupled with the
method for the drawing duplication.

The only important consideration would be that this requires
a certain amount of mental work in order to do and crib
sheets won't work here. You must do the mental work. For
those who regularly do mental work, this shouldn't be an
issue. For those that need crib sheets, this routine may
not be one that you'll use.

As with many impromptu routines, there's nothing to setup or
re-set. It's completely angle proof, there are no gimmicks,
and it can work with any size audience, but works best when
you have more than about a dozen persons. The 5.5" x 8.5"
booklet contains 20 pages. Though it does describe the
routine, you will get much more out of this the more
familiar you are with classic mentalism techniques. This is
certainly not for everyone due to the mental work, but those
that use this will get exactly what's promised: a framework
for a powerful, shared experience that can be extremely
memorable for your audience.