David Thiel – Pendulum Magic – Routines for Mystery Performers

This book is about the masterful blending of storytelling and creative use of a pendulum to create effects your audiences will remember long after the show has ended.

If you already work with pendulums, or if you are planning to — Pendulum Magic: Routines for Mystery Performers is THE book for you. Great effects and ideas, designed to work in the real world…written by real performers.

This is a companion volume to Pendulum Magic: A Guide for Mystery Performers and it’s bursting with great presentations and ideas for using pendulums in your performance. There are ghost stories and Victorian legends. You’ll learn how some of the top working pros in the business build routines for maximum impact . But more than this — you’ll be presenting this classic of mentalism in exciting new ways.

You’ll get never-before-seen routines from names like Bob Cassidy, Dr. Bill Cushman and many more. But more importantly, you’ll see how they structure their presentations. Use the routines as written, or put your own spin on them to create something that is pure YOU.

You get six routines:

Bob Cassidy’s “Crystal Pendulum” will take you inside this legendary mentalist’s mind as he shows you how to present the pendulum to an audience — and how to “wow” them with a new pendulum move. It’s something I’ve never seen before. The Crystal Pendulum features an idea so diabolically simple and so devastatingly effective that you’ll be delighted to perform in. This routine alone is worth more than the price of the book.

Dr. Bill Cushman’s “Dr. Bill’s Bend” is more than another pendulum routine. It’s actually a SYSTEM for creating your own pendulum using one of the spectator’s keys and then doing remarkable things! As with much of Dr. Bill’s work — this chapter is full of inventive ideas that will take your art to a whole new level.

Paul Voodini presents “The Hangman’s Noose” which is one of the scariest routines I’ve ever read. Seriously. We’re talking about a pendulum, the spirit of an executioner and a nursery rhyme that will give you goosebumps. This is classic storytelling blended with an hypnotically powerful routine from one of the most inventive thinkers in bizarre magic today.

What do you suppose real pendulum magic would look like? It would have to be something amazing, right? How does this sound: you walk into a room. At the other end of a long table, a randomly selected pendulum starts to move on its own. A pendulum INSIDE a bottle responds to your commands. Would that qualify as “real magic?” Mauricio Jaramillo shows you how. No threads. No magnets. No confederates. Just one of the most jaw dropping effects you’ll ever see.

Paul Prater shows us a dark routine called “The Calling Card.” This routine has everything: a ghost story, a turn of the century vibe and a bold and brilliant system that you will use! When I showed this routine to Sheree she laughed out loud and then told me she thought it was “brilliant.” This is coming from the wife of a magician/mentalist who has literally seen everything.

If you perform with Tarot cards, you already know the work of TC Tahoe. His award winning magic has graced The Magic Castle, cruise ships and working performer libraries all over the world. I asked TC to come up with something special and he did. “Kiss Me, Fate” is a routine using seven tarot cards, a man in a dark blue suit and a technique that opens wide to allow you to take it in SO many different ways. “Kiss me, Fate” is a routine your audience will never forget.

All of these routines plus a few additional nuggets are part of our most ambitious book to date.