Billet Work

At the request of Shawn Mullins, I'm presenting a small guide to billet work resources.  If there are any works you think are missing here, feel free to add in the comments section.

Let me start by saying that 13 Steps to Mentalism and Practical Mental Magic both have some fundamentals, but they're rather light on effects.  If I had to choose between the two however, I'd go with 13 Steps as it discusses billet handling techniques in more detail.

With that said, the effects in the two books aren't bad, but for someone who wants to do a lot of work with billets, you might find yourself wanting a little more.  Especially since some of them as written require specific props and paraphernalia.  I personally don't care for that sort of thing and try to find ways to get the same effect without all the bells and whistles.

Richard Busch's Peek Performances is an excellent resource for grounding peek principles into your head and allowing you to develop your own effects from there.  Richard actually establishes different types of peeks and provides context and sample effects for them.  It's loaded with convincers, info on all the dirty work, and a lot of very practical application of performance theory.  Truly an excellent resource.  If you plan to do a lot of billet work, I consider this a must-have.

Peek wallets are a dicey issue.  A lot of the cheap ones are nice, but not great.  They take a bit of choreography to use properly.  As I said in my beginner's guide to mentalism, I use a homemade peek wallet with the Sight Unseen Case principle.  Outlaw Effects produce some nifty wallets, though they're all a titch on the expensive side.  Make those things last, boys.  The Thought Transmitter uses an interesting principle, but you really need to be wary of what kind of light you use it in.  I won't say more than that.

On the one hand, you can use some peek wallets like the Outlaw series as your regular wallet as well, though I hope you don't them receiving some wear and tear and having to pay to replace them every couple of years.  If you're working regularly and have a decently disposable income, then I suppose it's less of an issue.  Me, I'm a bit of a penny pincher.  What can I say?  Robert Rodriguez is one of my heroes, his affair with Rose McGowan not withstanding.

Banachek is of course a great resource.  Always has been, always will be.  There's some good info to be had on the PSI series, and several principles he uses can be used for billet work as well.  There's a really good switch in DVD 1 for example that can be used in a lot of different contexts.

Richard Osterlind is another obvious choice.  His Perfected Center Tear is still one of the best.  I also highly recommend his Easy to Master Mental Miracles series.  Easy to learn from and packed to bursting with quality material.

That covers the fundamentals and must-haves.  Beyond that, I'd have to say my biggest choice for learning more about billet work would have to be Docc Hilford.  It's his specialization and he has a lot of material out about it.  One thing you can't accuse Docc of is lacking a head for business.  As a result, don't expect large compendiums of his work like Banachek's Psychological Subtleties or Barrie Richardson's Theater of the Mind.  Most of Docc's work is printed on very expensive but cheaply produced booklets.  If this is an issue for you, invest in the Monster Mentalism DVD series and call it a day.  More on those in a second.  If you don't mind that as much, then I'll list some of his best booklets for billet technique.

The Monster Mentalism DVDs are a compilation of the best material Docc has published over the course of his career.  The peek in E'Voque alone is one of those, "I can't believe I didn't think of that," moments and has a lot of applications outside of just the presented effect.  Same with the way he uses a center tear in disc 1.  You'll find plenty of peeks and switches to keep you busy for a long time yet.

Beyond that, he has a couple of booklets you may want to look into.  My first pick is The Rosini Secret as it provides a billet reading method that can be done in almost any context or venue and provides a vast list of convincers and other pieces of advice that have specific as well as more general application.

Also consider The Whispering Buddha, the Book of Numbers series, and The Dark Cloak.  I include them because they either offer new techniques or apply old principles to new and interesting presentations.

Hopefully, this will provide you with some good material to work with.