22 Reviewed by Adam Daniel

I will begin this review by stating that no matter who you are, this book is not for you.

I don’t mean the material won’t suit you, it almost certainly will, or that the essays won’t enrich your understanding of the subject, they will, and then some.  No, what I mean is that this is an investment not in yourself, but in those that you will read for, and if you read regularly, that would directly translate to money in your pocket. 

If you are looking for ‘tricks’ that will make those around you fawn over your skills, or for rapturous applause, you are probably approaching this with the wrong mindset.  Certainly, for the latter, this is a distinct possibility with some of the platform demonstrations, but if this is your main aim, I would direct you to Scott’s excellent MMM (volumes one and two).

The thing that is stressed and, in my humble opinion and experience is true, is that as a Tarot reader, the reading is not about you, it is about the sitter, and therefore, this book is not for you, but it will certainly improve you as a reader.

If, however, you have a genuine interest in the tarot, and you are interested in people, and their enjoyment of the mystical, rather than their reactions to yourself, then I cannot encourage you enough to leap, with both feet, down the rabbit hole.

22 is a wonderful work, and one that I wish had been available to me when I first picked up a deck of Tarot cards as a magician and decided to see what ‘this is all about’.  Having made nearly every mistake there is to be made in my early tarot ‘career’ I read this book, particularly the essays, with a wry smile on my face.  My epiphany came whilst reading one of Scott’s anecdotes; I realised that whilst I was enjoying it, had I read this before I first stepped out to be paid for a reading, I would have had the literal chance to buy experience, and how one can put a price on that, I don’t know.  Whilst Scott is willing to sell it, snatch it with both hands, and give him a huge ‘thank you.’

Scott has done something with 22 that not many achieve, straddling the 'open eye' and 'shut eye' divide. The majority of books written for the magic community on the subject, I always find, contain an agonizingly large amount of time discussing whether to use the word ‘shuffling’ or not, which I always find to be the strangest thing to wrestle with, as no sitter in my experience has ever paid the word a moments mind.  Scott, clearly has a wealth of experience reading for real people, as he doesn’t spend his time discussing this, and rather uses his word count to impart his valuable experience on what real people expect from a reader.  It may surprise some to learn that this isn’t numerous disclaimers, or repeated phrases such as ‘for entertainment purposes.’  Nor does he spend his time teaching you the classic meanings of the cards.  Instead, under the heading of Responsibilities, he tells the reader exactly what they need to hear.

The book discusses in the first portion, the set-up, structure, and pacing of home tarot parties, something that most of us from a magical background go into blind, hamming together some magical effects to cut down on the readings, in the belief that because we are magicians, we know what people enjoy.  In this book, Scott saves those second, third, and more parties that are conducted in the knowledge that the people at the first must have been outliers who just wanted readings.  Scott is giving you his wealth of experience to tell you what they want.  They aren’t hiring a magician, a mentalist, or a psychological profiler, they are hiring a psychic.  The essays themselves are worth their weight in gold if you intend to go out and sell yourself as a reader, particularly the essay on cold reading; I would encourage anyone to approach reading this with notebook and pen in hand. 

The second part of the book consists of routines or effects, that Scott actually uses when he presents tarot parties for the public, and don’t lose sight of the fact that these are paying members of the public. 

All these effects are conducted using just the twenty-two Major Arcana cards, and if this were a magic dealer review, the term ‘packs small, plays big’ would come to mind.  Indeed this is all that is required for any of the effects herein, with the option to add in a pendulum, a cheap diary, mini post it notes, a couple of envelopes, a sketchpad and a handful of pens to enhance the impact of certain of the routines, or make them applicable to platform demonstrations.  The effects themselves are clearly tried and tested, written up with clarity and with photographs of anything that may be confusing in text form, any potential pitfalls have been smoothed out over hundreds of performances; again, who would turn down the option to buy experience?

I won’t waste your time writing up each effect, because I won’t do them justice or explain them anywhere nearly as well as Scott does, but suffice to say, having conducted numerous readings within the psychic party setting, these are all extremely applicable and just the sort of aperitif to the main course readings that will fit right in, and give you options to switch in and out routines as you get repeat bookings so your evening presentation doesn’t grow stale.
 
I will however mention two effects.  Firstly, Blind Tarot, I fell in love with this the moment I read it, possibly because it has echoes of Scott’s Veridical Afterimage effect from Surrealchamy and MMM2, which for my money is one of the strongest effects I have ever personally performed - it’s so good, I’m not even bitter that I didn’t think of it, I’m just happy it exists - but wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate at most psychic parties.  Blind Tarot however, takes the core of this and makes a beautiful experiment whereby the reader’s accuracy and abilities are confirmed and demonstrated, with the involvement of a group of sitters, none of whom at any point are left vulnerable as is normally the case if a demonstration of accuracy is conducted for a group.  This is achieved by reading for a well-known person who is not present, but doing so without the reader having the knowledge of who that person is before giving the reading.  As they are well known to all present, the accuracy is confirmed once the sitter’s identity is revealed. 

Secondly, Scott includes within a bonus section of the book an effect entitled Q&A Tarot, where the issue of leaving people feeling like they didn’t get a reading themselves during a platform demonstration is solved beautifully. 
 
If the book contained just these two effects, and the essays, I would be a happy man, and urge anyone who is serious about reading for paying clients to buy the book immediately.  The fact that Scott offers up such a huge amount more makes the purchase of this an irresistible offer, and as I said earlier, whenever Scott is willing to share his experience, do not only yourself, but everyone you will read for, the huge favour of taking advantage of it.
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Adam Daniel

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