Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Stayin' Alive By The Bee Gees
For $20 bucks you get . . . some jokes . . .
How do you judge something like a book full of jokes? Do you judge them by how funny the jokes are? Isn't that a bit shallow? I mean what I find funny is not necessarily (or likely) to be what you find funny. What about the quality of the book?
Ok. Let's start there. It's paper back, 5x8, 60 pages, well produced and a solid product. Ok now what? What about the content? The best I can do is tell you how funny I thought the book was. It contains over 200 jokes ranging from (in my opinion) totally lame to freakin' hysterical. There are quite a few "classic" (read: hackneyed) jokes throughout, and some of them appeared to be "lost in translation." The book was translated from French to English by four different people, so . . . some stuff is lost in translation as is evident by the (sub)title: Liners especially for magicians & mentalists.
A variety of situations are handled in this anti-tome. Things ranging from lines for different props to "when things go wrong" to "handing out business cards" to "how to end a show," etc., are just a small sample of what you'll find here. I will say this, unlike its sequel, I did laugh out loud several times while reading this book. There, likely, are lines in here that everyone will use. It's a good mix, and some of you will like the lines that, frankly, suck and should not be used in a show unless your goal is to perpetuate the sad state of our art as a bunch low-self-esteem-having-geeks using tricks and jokes to make themselves feel better.
There's good, bad and ugly in this book, in other words, something for everyone. Unfortunately, that's kind of what's wrong with this book. If you're trying to be a vaudeville act with cheesy banter with a stage counter-part then this book is the right generation for you.
If however, you want to have a good act that is solid and entertaining, then this is not the book for you.
Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble