Out of the Country by Luke Turner

I am biased, as I helped Luke Turner on this project. I will do my best to be objective.

This product gives you a great modular routine. By that I mean that you can very easily remove, replace, and add new things to its structure. For example, I personally feel that using parts of Isolation by Michael Murray with this product might suit some performers very well. The modular nature of this routine gives you the ability to customize the it to your liking.

It gives you one more thing that I think might be even more powerful.
You learn a series of utilities. These are propless ideas that will enable you to divine suits, and countries. You can use these ideas in other routines very easily.

I'm not personally a fan of the bonuses, as I feel that they're not as deceptive as the main routine. It may be that I'm not a strong enough performer, some performers may have the ability to perform them quite well.

What can I say about his material, while he is a newcomer to the field of mentalism his work on this project is super strong. One of the strengths of this project is not only in how Luke scripts this routine, but also how he has created a logical connection between the two revelations. So much of what is lacking in many revelations is a logical progression, this is one of the downfalls of propless mentalism. However, this routine does not fall into those pitfalls. The routine is scripted in such a way to create a logical progression between the selection of the card, and the process to get to the country that we are attempting to divine as well. Throughout this process, this creates positive hits and it gives them the opportunity to change there mind while still create strong moments throughout this routine. Luke provides us with lots of information on outs and different ideas and techniques from other performers to create a cohesive routine. These other ideas allow for other handlings of the routine and alternate endings, as well as different ways to structure the entire routine. Thanks, Luke for this offering to the magic and mentalism community and I personally look forward to many more releases. I would also like to thank Luke for his kindness and being willing to help anyone who comes to him for information.

This is an interesting routine and is easy to implement into your existing work.

I enjoyed reading this piece as it combined a variety of mentalism tools and techniques into a nicely flowing 'bolt-on' to an existing performance piece. I say a 'bolt-on' as I don't feel that this should be used as a stand-alone piece (although it could be done). I have tried it both ways and combining the propless nature alongside a physical/ propped set, it really elevates the impossibility of what you are doing.

I have been using the techniques involved here in a variety of ways and so it was nice to be able to see them all combine to create this nice piece of mentalism. Now that I have learned this, it will be with me in my arsenal forever and so I can put it to use at any point I choose - and you will be the same!

Although this is a brilliant routine that will allow you to proplessly reveal a Playing Card, a City and a Country, I do have a few issues come to mind. The first being the restrictions involved. Without going into detail, I have had people (in performance) suggest that it wasn't as impressive because of the
naturally restrictive field involved with playing cards. Additionally it does feel slightly random in that you are going to reveal a playing card, but jump to completely random thoughts. This can and should be tied up in the premise so isn't a real problem but is worth a mention nonetheless!

All in all, this routine can be tweaked and altered to fit the preferred methods and subtleties of the performer and is completely modular and so can be customised to your wants and needs. Once you understand the processes here, you can change the scope of the routine to fit your choosing.

This will be in my arsenal forever and I'm sure you'll enjoy it in yours too!