Max Maven FM

THE BLURB:
Meet a living enigma. Max Maven is a man who seems to know
what you are thinking, he is known for performing what seem
to be miracles with no possible explanation. He's famous
among magicians - he's probably invented more magic tricks
than anyone in the history of a field filled with eccentric
genius. Can Max actually read minds or is he creating
illusions based on his mastery of certain psychological
insights? This profile of Max Maven is built around his
lifelong exploration of the twilight regions of human
psychology and some of the lesser known regions of show
business. We join Max in a performance that is clever,
intriguing and very mysterious.

Running Time Approximately 48min

MY COMMENTS:
This is a 48 minute documentary about Max Maven, by Canadian
filmmaker Donna Zuckerbrot. It was filmed on the occasion
of Max receiving a special tribute from Magicana. There are
plenty of notable guests in this film, such as Eugene
Burger, Stephen Minch, and Michael Weber. And, as you might
suspect, no secrets are revealed. This is not the next
Videomind or Nothing.

However, since mentalists require a thorough knowledge and
mastery of stagecraft in order to be effective and
successful, this film provides performers of all levels with
invaluable insight from one of mentalism's masters of the
art. Of course, I always find it a joy to listen to Max
talk about the art of mentalism, so I may be a bit biased.

Besides the conversations with Max, this film also provides
a generous amount of glimpses into Max's current one man
show, Max Maven: Thinking In Person, An Evening of Knowing
and Not Knowing. It's a show that many may be surprised
about because his stage persona has evolved into something,
that so far as I noticed, is different than what I had seen
before. I saw one of the early performances of the show a
year or so ago, and though that performance was still a bit
rough, it was an amazing experience.

Now, this is a documentary that's designed for laymen. So
this is a great piece of film that the whole family can
enjoy. Because of that, much of the valuable information
you'll get will be simply by watching Max and seeing just
how he handles certain effects and situations. His handling
of the Seven Keys to Baldplate, for instance, is sheer
genius. You won't get an explanation and experienced
mentalists don't really need one. They know. It's his
presentation that will have you grinning with delight. The
real quibble that I have with this is that it's too short.
That, of course, is not a drawback, just an indication of
how good it is and how much more you'll want. It's still
one of the best mentalism DVDs to come out this year, or in
the past few years.