Multiple Paths

Man Taha just makes mentalism so much more approachable than any other mentalist I’ve seen. His style doesn’t involve overly dramatic presentations or strange props. Everything is justified and of course powerful.

So Taha takes issue with multiple outs having outs that aren't on display at the start of the routine. The routines are aimed at having everything on display and dropping enough breadcrumbs that at the end the audience feels that the routine couldn't have gone any other way. To break it down by routines: A quick effect to explain concepts. It is fun, but Taha’s desire to have the outs on display is done at the expense of you needing to move on quickly after as the props can’t be inspected. 2 as 1 is a thought of card routine. The routine makes use of two cards under the guise of having forgotten you've not got a full deck to find the card you want. It's got issues with how that presents you. Particularly if you are a mentalist who does memory demonstrations. It raises questions of why you didn't just pick another card. On the positive side it’s got some nice discussion of how he psychologically forces people to try and get the best outcome possible. It's not something I could see myself using in a formal setting but potentially as a casual piece when borrowing a deck. Imaginary deck is another thought of card. A way to equivoke your way down to one card. It’s got some nice scripting ideas for how the process goes. This for me was one of the stronger routines because of the scripting. The ending will sometimes fall back on hidden outs, the thing Taha was trying to avoid, but with the scripting and the likely choices people will make, this will probably be less often. Life choices has some interesting ideas around using the one ahead with multiple outs. There are two performances. The second performance spectator is pretty unresponsive. Taha’s cold reading techniques fall flat, the spectator pretty much just states no, no, to each line of fishing inquiry. At the end it receives a polite smile in response to the final revelation. It looks like relief to be able to go back to his seat. This was quite refreshing to see on a purchased product. Rather than just seeing how a routine works when you get a perfect spectator you see what happens when it’s a bit limp. This happens to all of us at times. We all get unresponsive participants, so it’s not a criticism of Taha. It would be nice to see discussion around how this could have been overcome, but the fact that it was included got me thinking of how I’d tackle it. The video finishes with a short description of how you can use his techniques to make your own routines. I would have preferred this section was longer and another routine was cut if time was an issue. I think having a more structured discussion on how you can use the information in the download to make your own routines would have been more useful. Maybe bringing another performer into chat would have added value. Overall, I think you could sum up the project with the meme of the TV show “the good place”. The scene where Eleanor tells Chidi, “you're not getting it. And my thing is different”. Taha continually tells us he has created something new for multiple outs by giving it a new name, but doesn’t really articulate exactly how this system is different from what other people have done before. The continual insistence on referring to it as something new feels a bit disrespectful to the giants that have come before. That said, there are some nice ideas on the project. The ideas around using multiple outs with the one ahead were interesting and feel like they could be developed more. On the positive side there are some good ideas around dropping breadcrumbs and scripting to make it feel like the routine couldn’t have gone any other way. There are a few different ideas given for when you get to a two way out. His ideas around the one ahead were interesting. I don’t feel they are fully developed as far as they can go, but it’s nice food for thought. There were some nice ideas, there were others that I don’t feel were as well developed as they could be. It’s hard to watch something like this and not compare it to other similar projects. Docc Hilford’s Doccinar on equivoke and Max Maven’s multiplicity being the main ones that come to mind. Hilford’s doccinar discusses the importance of scripting through any routine like this more eloquently. While Max gave many more options for how to use the techniques. I think the fact that multiple outs is sold as a masterclass led to me having an expectation for more and that wasn’t really delivered as there were many more basic areas to discuss around the subject that weren’t tackled. I enjoyed the project, it got me thinking, but I think it has weaknesses. Which any routine does. You trade off where you want the weaknesses to be, but I don’t feel this has the awareness of those to address and discuss ways around. Combined with Taha’s insistence that this is a new approach grated a bit, thus the 3 average 3 star rating. It’s not terrible, but it’s not the last word on the subject either.