Mendacity

THE BLURB:
Mendacity is a bold collection of lies from the professional
repertoire of Patrick G. Redford. Imagine being able to
describe a photograph you’ve never seen, or identifying the
owners of five different drawings, all while the drawings
remain behind your back. These are among the six routines
and two essays that Redford reveals here for the first time.

Full Contents

Malicious Delight
Introduction

Photo Reading -
The Performer describes a photograph he has never seen.

Fabricated Truth -
Sneak Thief Out Done

Malicious Delight
Finding Your Need to Know

Eschew Obfuscation
Eschew Obfuscation

Cell 'O' Phone Oracles -
Cell Phone Effect for the Stage

Auspicious Coincidence -
An Impossible Any Card @ Any Number (This Could be the Final
Word)

Naughty Bits -
An Odd Sequence of Events

The Forgotten -
A Subject Forgets The Name of a Playing Card

What Folks Are Saying About Mendacity:

"I would recommend these books (Mendacity and Consecution)
in a heart beat. Patrick is a real worker, he makes a living
at this. As a result he knows all the subtleties one says
and does and how very important each piece of verbiage is.
He understands that the wrong word can signal things we do
not want a spectator to even think about.

...The first effect is called Photo Reading:In this effect
Patrick gives us a wonderful way to describe a photograph in
great detail that belongs to someone else, a photo that we
have never seen. This does take a stack of photos that
someone has taken and has possession but in the right hands
this effect can be a reputation maker. It certainly has that
â?~in the momentâ?T feel to it. One should pay very, very
close attention to the details of this effect. These details
are a true lesson in making a small effect very large.
Anyone thinking of performing a Q&A style effect will get
much from this. Patrick gives away some great tips on making
this kind of cold reading much easier. (Not to mislead you,
this effect is much more than cold reading.)."

-Banachek

"This booklet is packed with great ideas and tips.

Mendacity is a booklet containing various effects and some
brief essays. I loved to read what George had to express in
his essays and I loved some of the effects more than others.
The ones I particularly liked are:

Auspicious Coincidence, which is, from the performance point
of view, a very neat Any Card, Any Number effect. It may not
be the final word on this kind of effects but it really
comes close to that.

The Forgotten in which a playing card is forgotten by a
participant. I particularly liked the bold and new way in
which a common card gaff is used here. Your script and
presentation must do the rest.

Naughty Bits in which an object created in the minds of your
audience is revealed by the performer in a physical,
concrete form. This is one is really NAUGHTY... You will get
what I mean when you read it.
And of course there are some other effects as well as a cell
phone effect suitable for the stage and, as I mentioned
above, some essays and other reflections… Both booklets
(Mendacity and Consecution) are recommended without reserve
to the discriminating performer. "

-Paolo Cavalli (Author of Upsilon and Omicron)

"I've really been enjoying both Mendacity and Consecution
and I've been taking my time absorbing them. That's always a
good sign for me. Do you know what I mean? (Some issues of
MAGIC for example I fly through in minutes - others I savor
for the month. Good stuff is like that).

George has a wonderful writing style that exceeds so much of
the self published "booklets" all of us have struggled with
for so many years in magic. We're very fortunate that George
and Derren Brown, Max Maven and Barrie Richardson and others
have the ability to write well in addition to sharing great
material. (There are others who sadly fail in this regard,
despite their popularity).

There are some very clever ideas in the book and I agree
with others that there are a couple which really stand out.
NAUGHTY-BITS is delightfully mad and I will probably never
perform it as is. (My gawd...look how much **** I've gotten
over my KNICKERBOCKER effect!!!) But you can bet that my
creative little mind is playing with it and tweeking it to
fit my own performing persona.

There's much more and I highly recommend you explore
Patrick's thinking for yourself. "

- James Biss (Author of Messing With Minds)

"One of my favourite routines of all time is Larry Becker's
Sneak Thief. I thought it couldn't be improved...WRONG. In
his book, Patrick allows you to perform this routine while
the spectator holds the cards behind your back. So, that's
right you cant be looking for little marks or anything like
that because the pictures are held up behind your back, by a
spectator. Of course, it ends with the diabolocal image
duplication as you would expect.

If you like dual reality, bolder than bold mentalism (and
that's what I LOVE) then there is somethign in these pages
for you.

I hope people get as much out of this as I have, I'm sure
these will play well for any audience you perform to. As
ever it's all in the presentation."
Kennedy (Author of Thoughts So Far)

MY COMMENTS:
I know some who think Patrick Redford's stuff is brilliant
and some who feel that Patrick's stuff is OK and a bit
disappointing. To me, Patrick knows exactly what he's doing
and it's a joy to explore his routines. It's obvious he
knows what he's doing because only a true professional can
pull off the bold maneuvers needed to accomplish many of
these effects. I won't argue with those who claim he has no
new techniques or even groundbreaking plots, and to a
seasoned and knowledgeable professional this may be true,
but this material consists of solid, well-thought out
routines that have been crafted to fit Patrick's style.
This alone makes this material worth reading.

Mendacity is a 94 page perfect-bound book which measures
about 9" by 6" contains six routines and two essays. Photo
Reading involves describing a picture held by the spectator
which the performer has never seen; Sneak Thief is a drawing
pseudo-psychometry routine with a twist; Cell 'O' Phone
Oracles is a cell phone routine cleverly using an old
mentalists' friend; Auspicious Coincidence is an
any-card-at-any-number plot; Naughty Bits involves the
choice of some attributes which add to be a very funny,
perhaps off-color, surprise ending; and The Forgotten has a
participant forgetting a playing card that was seen.

Be warned, though. Though some of these plots sound like
they make have some ingenious new principles or handling,
Patrick uses a very straightforward, often familiar,
solution that may seem too simple or bold to you. And
that's exactly what mentalism should be.