FOREWORD BY BOB CASSIDY
For countless performances now, my show has ended with a powerful finale.
This finale, called NIX4, is four incredible effects in one and they all fit perfectly together to produce a full-bodied finish to any parlour or stage show.
When the performer uses NIX4, he demonstrates four separate skill sets: Prediction, Influence, Direct Mind Reading and the mastery of Non-Verbal cues. In its entirity, NIX4 uses 5 audience members and has an incredible sixteen moments of amazement.
NIX4 relies on one single moment of sneakiness, just one, and then the effects simply fall into place.
Here’s what you will find in NIX4:
- A new and exciting way to use a Chair Test that makes sense and has strong up-sell possibilities for trade shows, corporate events and other bespoke performances.
- Direct Mind Reading, where you look at your participants on stage and reveal what word they are thinking of, or at least a word that is close to their mental selection.
- The ability to detect which participants on stage are truth tellers or liars.
- A Prediction of one of the participants’ mentally selected words that is on show BEFORE that word is revealed.
-  A Redemption style effect, where you ‘fail’ to divine a word thought of by a participant. Once the end of the show applause dies down, the performer points to an A4 card that has been on show the entire time. Upon turning it around, the word that the performer missed is PRINTED on the reverse side of the card.
Best of all is that everything you need to perform all these phenomenal abilities will pack so flat that they fit into a regular A4 folder. Not only this, but NIX4 was created with larger audiences in mind, so it can be performed in large theatres and everyone will be able to see what is happening, including anything that needs to be read. Naturally, NIX4 also works fantastically with smaller audiences.
Time wise, NIX4 can be played swiftly as a 15 min piece, comfortably as a 20 min piece or as a more leisurely 25 min piece.
- There is no pre-show work. Once you set up, anyone from the audience can be selected at random, by you or someone at the event.
- No electronics are involved. This enables you to have a fun with your show without worrying about battery life or technical glitches.
- With so many skills and abilities being demonstrated, NIX4 can be a completely stand alone piece that provides hit after hit, without making you look like a neophyte effect jockey.
- The entire piece has one logical theme that the performer sets up in his introduction dialogue. After that, the individual pieces link together and make sense. This linking of narrative creates a theatrical performance instead of disparate effects loosely glued together.
- Did I mention that you only have to do ONE sneaky thing and the rest takes care of itself? It’s a very strong point, as this enables you to focus purely on your presentation.
- It took me many performances, but I have ironed out all of the initial issues that I had with NIX4 and in the book I will take you through my original problems and dilemmas and how I circumvented them.
- What you have in NIX4 is a performance piece that has been meticulously carved out, by me, and tried and tested in all arenas; what you gain from this book is not only the methods for NIX4, but you will also benefit from my experiences, meaning that you will avoid my mistakes and learn my well crafted subtleties.
To make the book clear and concise there are numerous illustrations throughout the book that have been created especially for this project. Here are some samples:
NIX4 IS LIMITED TO 200 COPIES WORLDWIDE AND WILL NOT BE REPUBLISHED IN ANY MANNER IN THE FUTURE. ONLY 200 PEOPLE WILL KNOW THE SECRET AND THE REST WILL REMAIN IN THE DARK ABOUT THE TRUE NATURE OF NIX4.
Bob Cassidy –
NIX4 contains some wonderful subtleties, elements of dual reality, and a few logical disconnects that perfectly disguise the amazingly simple methods.
NIX4 has all of the elements of great mentalism – humour, mystery, great audience interaction, very visual and, to top it all off, a surprise ending. And they all mesh perfectly together like a well-oiled machine.
I wish I had come up with it first!
Marc Paul –
Wow! This is an incredibly powerful routine. Paul has worked really hard on this and you can see his heart and soul in it. It has been polished and honed into a gleaming spectacle and that polish has come from real world experience. He generously shares all of that experience and I think it’s priceless.
Derek Heron –
The routine itself is BRILLIANT. It has been incredibly well constructed, it has natural fluidity. The actual routine is very strong, with multiple moments of amazement and a fantastic finish that will bring the house down. I love everything about this routine. It is a masterpiece and Paul should be very proud of his work.
Ken Dyne –
Paul Brook has done it again. Flinging open the doors to the inner workings of one of his most prized routines and boy does he ever give you every detail of this cracking show-closer!
Paul’s experience shines through as every moment and nuance is detailed in painstaking detail and brilliant illustration to ensure that we do this routine justice when we take it to our audiences.
As for the routine itself, NIX4 brings more than just the ‘many moments of amazement’ we all seek, but furnishes us with tension, surprise, comedy and even theatrical redemption – things that we might otherwise overlook in our acts.
From reading this routine you’ll get so much more than an insight in to Paul’s actual closing sequence, but you’ll have your thinking directed toward all areas of your performance to see how you can include the clever presentational and psychological devices discussed.
Ali Said –
This is a tried and tested routine that works! It builds nicely and has a kicker after a kicker. Audiences are in for a wild ride.
This routine packs flat and plays huge. Paul does not discuss methods only but also blocking, staging, and theatrics. He explains the psychology of everything he does and why he does it.
As for the routine itself, it looks like real mind reading while not being as boring as real mind reading is.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interesting in construction and performance psychology in addition to a great routine.
Olivier (verified owner) –
This book should never be printed !!!
The effect is so STRONG (and fully explained in détails….and you know who’s in the détails) that I would have kept it for me !!!
Thanks Mr Brook for you generosity
Dr KREPS