TO THE POINT

Ok, I’m late to the party with this review so allow me to set the scene:

You know the one.

You’re in Japan. Strolling around Yamanouchi in your finest desert wellies, feeling like John Travolta when suddenly you notice a troop of snow monkeys staring at you.

You wonder what they’re staring at, concerned they might kick off with you. Then you look down at your feet and realise that you’ve committed the cardinal sin of fashion.

That’s right, you’re wearing Oddsocks!

The snow monkeys are mocking you and the embarrassment is just too much.

You wish the ground would just open up and swallow you whole.

 Unfortunately the laws of physics are against you!

You’re too far from your hotel, your phone’s on the blink and you don’t speak the slightest bit of Japanese. Oh how you wish you could speak the language, even just a few words…

最寄りの靴下屋はどこですか

Fear not my friends, for I bring hope in the form of a little picture book that you can just “point” to, in order to communicate with the locals.

One of the locals

This is to the point, by El’ Capitano Mark Lemon , why is he called El’ Capitano? Well it’s a long story involving a Mexican jail and a prison dot just under the left eye!

The only Lemon picture I could find

Earlier this year Mark and a few others from the Ellusionist crew were in my hometown. I was sauntering around the infamous Affleck’s Palace when I received a text asking if I’d be in the trailer for a project they were filming.

I quickly brushed my eyebrows

 And headed to a local bar where I sat in a garden shed with Mark.

He performed to the point on me and I was totally speechless, so much so that he thanked me for the worst reaction shot ever filmed!

I thought I knew how this was gonna play and the method was already formed in my mind, oh how wrong was I?

The method wasn’t what I thought it was.

Hence my stunned silence.

What is to the Point?

It’s a book test but it’s kind of like a tossed out deck in the form of a book.

Here’s how it plays out:

You begin by showing an ordinary ‘point’ picture book that can be used to communicate with Snow Monkeys (or humans if you prefer).

You pass the book out into your audience where up to five spectators can flick through the book and choose an image.

You then divine all the images that were selected.

You can now try to forget about the whole snow monkey thing earlier and pretend you’re some kind of super cool master mentalist!

To the point is great for just about any scenario:

Stage, cabaret, strolling and even close-up.

What do you get for your money?

You get the ‘point’ books, which are really well made and look totally authentic.

One is gimmicked, the other is ungimmicked, meaning you can hand it out afterward for inspection.

I must admit I’d never heard of ‘point’ books before seeing this but I googled them and they are indeed a very popular item amongst backpackers, kerb crawlers and Oddsockers.

There’s just over an hour of instructional video with Mark who is joined by his friend Sylar.

They cover everything you’ll need to know, from justifying the ‘prop’ right the way up to handling, they even discuss methods for the s****ch and little performing convincers.

Mark and Sylar ensured that no stone was left unturned when filming this project.

One thought I’d like to add here:

Whilst Mark and Sylar were discussing the process of divining the images chosen, they spoke of a Scenario where they name the images with just one spectator remaining.

As you already know which image this spectator is thinking of, you could express just how difficult they are to read and invite them onto the stage, where you will attempt something different with them. You could now do a drawing duplication with this spectator, further solidifying your reputation as a sock fashionista, unperturbed by the opinions of snow monkeys!

To the Point is an extremely versatile tool which is easy to learn, simple to perform, looks completely innocent, fits in your pocket and gives you the ability to perform EFFOMS!

Its an EFFOM

All this for the measly sum of £24.

Get To The Point HERE

Because no one should be stuck with Oddsocks!

Ryan