Blessed by Demons by Kaleb Wade. Review and Discussion.

Sometimes a book needs to be spoken about discussed and waffled upon. And this is just that book. This is blessed by demons by Caleb Wade. So if you're enjoying the channel, it makes a huge difference if you hit the like button and you subscribe and you hit the little bell icon for when I go live because it's a pretty random times. And sometimes I do get forget to even to email my mailing list, which you should stuff like podcasts, videos, products, which isn't very often. And all that good stuff. So do that. And you'll notice there is a sponsored ad in this a paid advertisement on I lucky just the only way I can keep doing it really. So please watch that. It's only a minute of your time. And I'm very grateful. So happy. Lovely. Thanks very much. Let's talk about this. Now, many of you will know that when I review a book, I kind of connect with it, spend a lot of time with it, study it. So it's kind of a weird thing. I learn everything in order to not tell you all that stuff. But at least I kind of know it. And that means I can answer questions. So the point of when I go live, if any questions you've got put them below in the comments, I will answer them on the live sessions. That's the point of them. So do that. Also, I have nothing to talk about. I just waffle like I am now. Because I'm not gonna list all the tricks. It's there's too much good stuff in here for me to list or it'll just go on forever. Because it is all good. I mean, I mean, all good. Because I wouldn't review if it wasn't. But what's good about it? Right? That was a preamble and a half one. It could be a long one. So who is Caleb Wade? I suppose I suppose you could describe him as underground. I don't really ever know what that means. Because he releases but he's not kind of all over social media and things like that. And his I don't think he needs to be because the material he puts out he doesn't like just, you know, every week release something. It's considered it's thought out and he cares deeply, very deeply about what he releases to the community. And then word spreads and, and that is all that's needed. And that's always a good sign. I reviewed the Frankenstein book test and perform it. It's brilliant. I mean, it's so good. And also, well, as many of you the out of this world, which is out of this darkness, his version of it, which is, again, stunning. I learned it made it up, showed it to a few people forgot to review it. Sorry about that. But the point being when people come out with independent and individual releases that you really, really love, it's always a little bit worrying when a book comes out, especially a book of this size, because you go, Oh, gosh, how much more has he got? Is this going to be full of filler? I needn't have worried. This is kind of entire working repertoire. And you can tell you really, really can. But before we get to that, oh, there is one caveat, there are six bonus routines, which are either conceptual ideas or ideas he hasn't worked in. Or they require you to go and buy an extra thing. Now, when people say it from their working repertoire, there's always a bit of a worry. How many times do we hear people say, I've been doing this for years? And you go, yeah, you said that on the last 20 releases, how big your pocket see walking around with a wheelbarrow or something. So I don't trust it all the time. But I do with this, right. And that trust thing is an interesting one. When you read a book of mentalism, or one reads a book of mentalism, or I read a book of mentalism, there is a leap of faith that has to happen. For example, if this was just here's the thing you do with a billet, this is how you do it. And that will get this result. I often read it, I read the effects, God sounds amazing. Read the thing and go, I'm not going to get away with that. And then I bought it and I get scared and I don't do it. The leap of faith sometimes is too or not so much anymore. But it's too wide. That that chasm that I have to jump is too terrifying, especially if I'm in front of an audience. And I was thinking, but why is that different with this? Why have I read nearly all of these and gone? Yeah, I could quite happily do that. Now. And I think it's because of the trust, there is a trust that's built up. When you read any magic book that you trust, it's going to work. And that isn't just because they tell you to tell you it's going to and it isn't just because they say from my working repertoire, there are other things that happen in here and reading between the lines. I've been thinking about what that is. A lot of it is the anecdotal stuff. So in this Caleb will, the way he opens the routines, like a script, like a play, and I know it's not the first person to have done that. But it really is like the magician walks up to a load of people, gives it the scenario paints the picture. But also there's humor in there, there's some really funny stuff. And you can tell that's come from things that have happened, it feels like he's right in a scenario that's happened to him before. And has happened to many of us when we're performing. And because I do perform a lot, I recognize a lot of those scenarios. There is also a kind of confidence in the writing that isn't arrogance, it's just a confidence about, you might notice that this is going to happen, this happened for, you know, about a year, and then I changed the thing. If someone says this, don't worry, you can do this. It's almost as if you've got that thing of, you know, when you're reading it, you go, Oh, yeah, but what if, as we all do when we read a method, and then on the next page, you'll say, Oh, if this happens, and it's like all your questions are answered, by the end of it, you go, I can't see a Another thing is that he's, as with all the best magic and mentalism books, he is, as I said before, stood on the shoulders of giants told you who they are, and completely admitted it and said, you know, this is a thing that's been around for ages, I'm not claiming originality there. But I've discovered that if you take this approach, and that approach often for me, and I've read a fair bit of mentalism, I can't say I'm, you know, the most well read mentalist in the world. But I have found that there were a lot of times when I went, I've never, I've never thought of doing it that way. And it might just be a little wrinkle, you know, a tiny little change that has a huge consequence. And that has given me the confidence to do it. I'll go into some specifics in a minute. But again, I'm not going to just list every routine, and most of them do that. So this book is full of, if you're a mentalist, if you think of all the classic routines, fourth dimensional telepathy, calling the cards, book test, PK touches, is there a book test? Maybe I just said that because it's a classic thing. I'm having a mental break talking about book tests and all that. There's a four person on stage mind reading act using the principle that you will all know if you're a mentalist, but again, it's ancient, old as the hills, but he adds so much more onto it that gives it not just an enhancement, but an addition to the routine, like a kicker upon a kicker. And there were a lot of those moments in this book. So various peaks that you'll know there are enhancements of which hand routines, even a ring flight. I don't know if I mentioned yet, I think I did there is a mentalism version of ring flight, a name and place routine, which again, isn't changed loads, but just is is adapted a little bit. And again, I don't want to name all of them. But you'll get the idea pretty much everything's in And that in itself gives me a confidence, because I can see how well read he is, I can see and feel his knowledge through the pages. And that knowledge isn't I've read so many books that are like, they almost over credit. I know you can't but it's like, all right, get on with it. We get it. You know, it is. But it's kind of like, look at the stuff I know. This is just effortless in a book like this, because it's just there you can tell because of the the routines that he's given. And there's a real vulnerability to the writing too. So I hope he doesn't mind me saying because it opens up in the introduction, Caleb talks about his mom and his his mom who's passed away, who was clearly a very close friend of his as well. And when you read about that relationship, and he used to try the routines on her. And she'd be very brutally honest and kind of go, get on with it, you know, all that kind of stuff. And that would make him make him kind of streamline the effects to the point where they were concise, and strong without all the fluff. And that's a big part of his criteria for choosing truth. Like, yes, it can have process, there's nothing wrong with process, but the process has to move along. And it has to have a reason it has to kind of be justified. And then his wife became the confidant, the person who would give him the constructive criticism and feedback. And you can see that he even though I mean, Caleb quite like me, he can fall into that thing of isolation. And I've talked to him about this since connecting with a book, and then, you know, very gratefully, connecting with him as a person. And we're very similar to that. But the, the other people that not just inspiration for the routines, but the people have helped him develop the routines, and other magicians and performers, which again, like me, he felt isolated from for a certain amount of time. But then when connected to the community, if he felt like he could gain that confidence from other people and put his own stuff out. And that is through the whole book. Yes, he does mention it explicitly at certain points, from the beginning introduction to the end routine. But it's, it's sort of peppered throughout there. And there's a there's a feeling of gratitude and vulnerability. And I don't mean vulnerability as in pity for me, I mean, just being very open about the challenges of being a performer, being a creator and being someone that sometimes every now and then can spend too long here and not enough time in the world. And how lovely it is when we when we actually take this off the off the page and, and off the desk into the world and the effect that can be and he has a great respect for the effect that can have. And he also has a great respect for his audience. You know, again, going back to the essays, you know, treat them like they're like Einstein, don't treat them like, oh, I'll get away with this treatment, like, you know, imagine that they can work everything out. And how can you make it even more impossible? No, I'm the worst at that. I'm, you know, I'm constantly saying, or you'll get away with it. And this has really made me look at that. Yes, I think it's valid sometimes, especially when we're starting out. But, but this is definitely some, all the things in here, even though they can read, there's a couple of them almost self working, tried and tested and thought about to be multi layered, that if even if they took a guess and got it right of one method, there'll be two or three other methods going on, that will just completely, you know, take them away from that idea. An example of that, okay, a couple of them that stand out for me. And routine trick affects whatever called dark sun and dark sun, I just made up with it, I just made up with business cards. But you can make them up with double blank bicycle cards. And it's very simple, easy self working trick based on an old card trick, but just elevated by giving the so much freedom to the spectator, I'll put some clips on and I'm gonna put on a separate video, but I'll put some clips on I performed this for Dave Forrest, and then a few other people, and completely floor them. And it's just beautiful, just very quickly, you have a set of cards, it says random drawings that you can tell drawn all these things, you're not going to see him yet, but you're going to have complete control, you give them a very open shuffle first, you say, look, check, I'm genuinely shuffling them. And then they do a number of cuts and choose what pile of cards they want, and then deal four cards down and then eliminate free genuinely eliminate not as in, you know, the other one. And that's lovely, because you can play on that if they're a magician, because they think that's what you're doing, but you're not and then left with one card, you do a drawing duplication, they match, and then you've got this added kicker, and then another kicker where basically all the cards are blank. And it's, it feels amazing, because you've just pretty much they've done pretty much all of it. And the reason I did that routine was because like so many of these, they read so simply you go, they can't be that strong, because we so used to complex meaning strength or something that's expensive, meaning strength in magic, it's got to be a big bit of tech or whatever, which I love. But then you've got some business cards and nothing else depending, you can bang it together in four minutes. And that's really exciting for me. I just I showed it to people. I taught it on my my community on online magic. Everybody loved it. Caleb gave me permission. Thank you. showed it to Dave Forrest. He knows this stuff. And at the end of it, he said, Oh, what is it like rough and smooth? Which is exactly what I thought. Brilliant. Another example is he has a version of a famous peak, which I use all the time and get the information and I give him a bit of a read and I tell him what it is brilliant, very strong. But what if someone even guesses or maybe you look to it, we go, I'm going to add this routine to it, this routine, a witch hand thing, this is going to be about Cluedo. And it just covers in layers so much stuff over it, not for the sake of wasting time, all completely relevant, all completely fits and every move is justified. So even if they had an inkling, or they'd seen something before when someone had given something away, it would fool them. And because then you know, how do you know what hand? How do you know what include the weather room was that I killed them? And none of it is beautiful use of kind of dual reality, mixed with a peak and mixed with another effect, which if I had seen it before reading it, I wouldn't have had a clue how it was He's got a very, again, down to earth, proper sense of humour, and I don't mean sense of humour that we get in some magic commensalism books, which is that kind of sort of you can do this naff gag here, it's not part of the routine, it's kind of making you as a reader laugh, which made the whole thing joyous, which is good, because I've read this twice. So who is it for? And it's, this is a book of sort of contradictions in a good way, I think. I would say, even though all of the routines on here are easy. There's nothing here, you know, Caleb isn't a sleight of hand guy. Yes, he knows his certain moves and things that were mentalism, but he's not a kind of, he says he doesn't really do sleight of hand. It's, it feels like, and they're very different performers. But when I see Andy Nyman, Andy Nyman is one of those people as well that just cutting, why would you do that when you don't have to just do that? It's way easier. Ego is not involved. And Caleb has no ego, as in, Andy doesn't, you know, for me, it feels like this sort of book, or the way Andy Nyman would have gone had he just carried on doing mentalism and not focused on acting, whereas Caleb just does this. And you can you can feel it. So the reason I'm saying that is it, it's an easy book, but it's not a book from for beginners, meaning, yes, there's stuff in here you can do straight away, you know, even if you've never done mentalism, but there is stuff that you will have to go and research, not extensively, but let's say with a death by acid, you can go and learn the thing for tenor, you know, you can get a penguin download for 10, you can learn that. And there's a bit of that going on. Not always, but most of it you can just do. But I like that. I think if when you get into mentalism or magic, it's so overwhelming, like, where do you start? And this is a good starting point, again, even though it's not a beginner's book, because you can get to a point where you learn that, and that's given me a reason to, or adapt it or use something else. So I think it's a good sort of springboard book, it's clear, everything will make sense, there will be moments where you go, Oh, I don't know that I'll go and check it out. But none of it is going to cost you loads of money, other than the couple of the bonus routines, or a massive amount of time. It's also a really big book that feels daunting. But when reading, it's very accessible, well written, and feels very concise, even though there's loads of detail in it, there's not loads of fluff, as Mark Elson says, in the introduction. It is a book that is an investment in time, but and money, it's not a really inexpensive book. However, when you read it, it feels like a gift. And I'm not saying that just to be nice, it really does. When someone gives you their working repertoire, a little bit like I said, with Christopher Carter, but in the spotlight, which has a very different feel, but there's a great companion piece to this, because they, you know, it's all people sharing their working repertoire and giving you all that anecdotal stuff in between that, again, talking about that trust thing that makes you be able to go and do it and gives you that confidence. So on reading this, I was like, well, he must have nothing left. This is all of it. And he hasn't really other than the stuff he's working on now, which he showed me the other day, which I was really excited about. I think the reason I've spent so much time with this is when you take two routines and perform them and they hit, it gives you the confidence and then you want to delve into the rest of it. But also, because I can feel the time and the passion and I've been told that and I mean, Caleb, because of this book got in touch with I did review stuff before we were bitten, but we become friends, I hope to think now. And I know what's gone into this. I know what it means to him. And I know what his work means to me, genuinely, genuinely, very passionate, and it matters. And you as an audience member matter and you as a reader matter. And I love feeling that when I read the book, and then I feel very grateful to be able to share that and hopefully let you know about it. It's brilliant. It stands there again, I've mentioned it next to Christopher Carter's book, but it also stands there next to Luke Jumey and Annaman and Corinda. Because that's the great thing with mentalism, you don't need hundreds of books, you know, you have this that and a few others, and that's your setup. And then the rest of it is just learning for your own enjoyment and knowledge. And I feel like it's a full finished piece. And I've learned a great deal and continue to from doing it. I haven't mentioned sliver, check that out. That's it. I can say that about everything. Right? You see what's in it by reading the thing. So thank you very much. Have a great one. Thank you Caleb for sharing this with us. At the time of recording, there were a few copies left, and then it's going to be available on PDF. I don't like reading PDF. But if that's the only way you're going to get this, I recommend you do please comment on any questions. If you've got any questions about routines, I will expand on that in YouTube shorts and stuff like that. If you want to support me get an online magic.co but the best way of doing it is Steve Faulkner.com forward slash newsletter and of course liking subscribing and sharing. Take care. Have a good one. Cheers.