Comments on this tape:

"Hi Ian. Well, well, well. Received your video and lo and behold you are a most charming and talented performer after all. Loved it. Love the simplicity of methodology, but most of all, I love your performing persona. You are one funny dude. Ian, and you're far too humble. You are most certainly among the top of the heap. Yours is Mentalism at its best. I haven't counted the laughs yet, but there were many. And that is the most significant sign of a professional entertainer. Your audience was certainly enchanted by the mystery, but totally under the spell of a very talented entertainer along the way. This is not meant to be an 'attaboy' letter, it is meant as a most  sincere appreciation of what you do and how you do it. I'm jealous. Your friend in AZ. Warmest regards" - Larry Becker

"Thanks for your video and lecture notes. I enjoyed watching your performance which was very funny and very polished. I especially liked the "torn card to envelope" routine. The "whats possible/not possible", theme was very clever." - Brian Halliday

"Just wanted to tell you that I recived your video today, and enjoyed it immensely." - Peo Olsson

"Ian, I just watched your tape. WOW. You are a very likable, entertaining performer and speaker. And, you message is very good. Let me know if you ever com to Minneapolis /St Paul area...or if I can help you in any way." - Chuck Hickock

"I got your video yesterday (btw thanks for the very fast and prompt service). Although the cover was damaged (thanks Mr. Postman) I could watch the video with pleasure. Mes compliments! / All in all I liked the video very much and the folks there were also delighted and showed very good reactions. Also your audience management is like a true gentleman. I still have to figure out your role a bit:  magician / Randificated Mentalist / motivational speaker / sideshow man... maybe it is all in all. I liked it!" - Thomas H.

"Bonjour Ian, Just watched your tape and let me say that it was very interesting and at the level of my expectation. You are very intelligent and you shine by your knowledge. I love the way you create your story and patter. I love the PPO...WOW! You start some curiosity on me with this one. You fooled me with your card presentation, I can imagine how much you blow laymen with this kind of ideas. Well done again. So I love every minute of the tape. Thanks again for this fresh entertainment time you gave to me." - Patrik Kuffs

"The lecture video was extremely interesting and as a philosopher I found the points you made about labeling and learning to question what you hear and see very encouraging." - Alan Haden

"Ian, Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed your video. Entertaining and enlightening. I am a novice in Mentalism but I found your lecture to be inspiring, I want to do what you do! I hope you will be giving a lecture in the UK soon and I wish you continued success." - Bob Caren

"I watched the video last night. The lecture was thoroughly entertaining. I liked very much the unique way you delivered your message combined with very powerful "magic" demonstrations and a nice urbane style. I work for a national...service working with 13 to 19 year old young people, helping them achieve their potential and make a successful transition in to adulthood and their intended destination. / I found the style and approach you use in your video very compelling and one (as an amateur) I have tried to emulate in my work. / In common with your video lecture, one of the key messages I am constantly emphasising to young people is the ability to think positively and to effect dramatic change in their life - they can achieve. / Your video and the accompanying lecture notes therefore have given me a lot of inspiration and confidence to develop my work in this area and for this I would like to thank you very much. I  particularly enjoyed the "Impossible - Possible" section of your lecture. This is an area which has much potential as a learning tool for all young people and has great resonance for their future lives. Also the conept of "labels" which you mention is something that young people encounter daily and is a mind set they frequently operate within. Thank you most of all for your hard work and creativity in producing a stimulating and insiprational lecture." - Terry King

"Ian, We've been friends a long time, and I've always enjoyed watching you work - albeit not as often as I might have wished. However, this latest performance is the best I've ever seen. There are few performing mentalists who could even come close to this for style and content.

This is a tape that will appeal to every mentalist, bar none. It's clever. It's informative. And it's funny - very funny. As a performance it's slick and polished, ably demonstrating the great truth that if the performer is enjoying himself, then the audience will enjoy it, too. Sure, there are moments of pure theatre; it's strong and effective. However, taken in conjunction with the lecture notes, this stuff is pure dynamite.

Any performing mentalist - or magician, come to that - is going to have to radically rethink their performance and delivery style after watching this. What you have produced is a performance that positively crackles. It is a delight to watch, that at times draws real belly-laughs, demonstrating a rapid-fire delivery that mentalists will find informative and inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it. You should be very proud of the finished product." - Drew McAdam

"I have just received your video tape and your lecture notes and I very much enjoy and appreciate your thinking and your performance. In particular, I like your no-nonsense approach. It's refreshing to see an example of motivational speaking without the hyperbole and exaggerated flattery.

For me, one of the highlight of the lecture was your talk about the TV show where you did a demonstration of spiritualism. It was very nice to hear you talk about how the participants in the spiritualism demo were treated fairly and considerately. The cold reading demonstration was also very entertaining. You seemed a little bit hesitant about performing cold reading for a large audience. Obviously, it's less convincing when performed in this way. But on the other hand, it was great fun and a very illuminating demonstration of deceptive techniques. I found the lecture very inspiring." - Stefan Nilsson

"It's a great video, really good quality ( a relatively rare thing in the world of magic lecture videos) and the dynamic professionalism of your performance really shines through. I watched it with my wife who isn't usually into anything of a magical or mental nature and she thoroughly enjoyed it too." - Richard Harrison

"Dear Ian, Have just purchased and watched your Mind Power lecture tape and thought it was fantastic. The paper square and foil and paper circle is driving me nuts as I cannot get my head around how you do it. Just wanted to say a big thanks Ian." - Steve Winder

"Hello Ian. Thank you for such prompt service for my order of your Mind Power Lecture tape. It arrived (to Australia) within 9 days of being ordered. I enjoyed the lecture/show very much as did my family; my kids, aged 15 to 20 years, who have grown up with magic, mentalism and psychic "flim-flam" have enjoyed the tape twice. The lecture is very well presented, flows smoothly, is informative and is very entertaining. It was interesting to watch you perform, and the reactions to, some of the items from your Alpha Series Lecture Notes: Mentalism that I was lucky to obtain when you visited Australia" - Richard Paddon

"Hi Ian, Thanks for getting the lecture book and video out to me. WOW! Great Stuff! I really enjoyed your presentation of the material on the video. Very entertaining and very commercial. I'm certainly glad I forced myself to not read the book berfore I watched the video... I might have dismissed some of the routines, but they are stong stuff for real people. Please consider coming to Philadelphia...I'd love to have you lecture for my group." - Marc De Souza

"It was great. You are very entertaining, very funny, and very intelligent all at the same time. I don't see why you think of yourself as 'Ian Who from Where', you're too good for that. Everything in your lecture had such a beautiful framework, that goes way beyond most things that I see. Everything flowed so smoothly from one subject to the next...which is really the way a show should be, and yet it is seen so rarely." - Joan du Kore

Comments on the lecture show itself:

"Of the hundred plus lectures and shows we have hosted at Caltech none have brought more enthusiastic praise than Ian's performance. I have now heard from dozens of people in the audience, all of whom said this was one of the most entertaining, informative, and above all funny shows they had ever seen. Ian is to be congratulated for breathing so much life and class into the science and skeptics community." - Michael Shermer, Executive Director, Skeptics Society

"It is very difficult to deliver a sceptical message on the paranormal to audiences. But Ian has managed to create a unique show in which he blends scepticism and mentalism, two fields often at odds with each other, and delivers it with plenty of sarcastic humour. Humour? That's an understatement. It is very funny indeed, unless you are a 'psychic' in which case you should have had the foresight not to attend!" - David Britland

"I thought your talk was great... the blend of material you presented was very polished and the newspaper flink was a real fooler and a mystery I am still pondering!" - Jeff McBride

"Hello Ian - It was my pleasure to have attended your Skeptic's Society lecture. I purposely did not look you up on the Web ahead of time as I didn't want to have any preconceptions about who you were or what it is that you do. However, after the very enjoyable afternoon, I did look you up later. I would like to say now "oh - you're that Ian!" At any rate, it was my pleasure to have nearly met you... I heartily agree with your assertion that friends can be a tremendous asset, and I always endeavor to promote and help people I know in whatever ways I can. Again - I really enjoyed the lecture, sorry I was a little too shy to speak up - that would have been pretty funny." - Diane Pettey

"Hi Ian! My husband and I enjoyed every minute of your presentation. We were not just entertained, but inspired by your enthusiasm and your generosity. I am a math tutor and have personal knowledge that your comments on how attitude influences success is absolutely true. I know that when students are able to visualize themselves succeeding on a math test, they are more likely to do well. I know that we often rise or sink to our own expectations of ourselves. Are you at all involved in speaking to school kids? Thank you again for a memorable show. If there is a way for me to be of benefit to you, I will gladly do it. I have contacts in the Los Angeles Unified School District, should that interest you." - Nancy Ross

"Hello there Mr. Rowland, I just wanted to take another moment to sincerely thank you for your presentation at TAM II. For me, you were the highlight of the meeting. Not just your awesome presentation on stage, but more importantly, your genuine presence amongst audience members and your candidness during the panel discussion. I commend you for being real. Thank you, again. If it means anything, you have a new fan." - Kevin Weitzel

"Mr. Rowland, I have been a professional magician for over 15 years. I watched your Mind Power performance on video and I was really blown away with your blend of humor, showmanship and very strong mentalism…not the easiest combination of skills to balance! Thanks so much." - Richard Sanders

"Ian, Just wanted to take the time to thank you for your participation at The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. I enjoyed your presentation, except for the part where you asked me to hit you on the forehead with that spoon (probably because I spend 75% of my life reminding my children *not* to do that very thing.) You ARE doing your part, and you probably don't get thanked enough." - Susan Kawa

"Ian was entertaining and authoritative without being pedantic or boring; informative and educational without being stuffy or heavy handed. On any level you'd care to examine, Ian delivered the goods. Ian is the antithesis of the typical boring mentalist. When he works there is a sense of accomplishment in what he does, punctuated by self-deprecating humor and enthusiasm for performing, the latter being something few performers know. Only a few performers ever attain what I consider the highest level: where they make it look easy. Ian's work looks effortless, which I consider something too rarely seen." - David Alexander

"Ian Rowland has got his own franchise on modern, sophisticated mental magic. By combining seeming miracles with blistering honesty, his results are unexpected and fascinating: none of the nineteenth-century hoodoo and all of the puzzling mystery. Best of all, he's smart, and he treats his audience as if they're smart, too." - Jim Steinmeyer

"I received the video today, so thank you for sending it. Before I start giving you my honest opinion of it, I would like to say that it is not because I love your material, it is not because I am a friend of [ Drew McAdam ] and I respect his friendship with you, it is because these comments are what I feel to be the utmost truth.

As a performing mentalist, a university student, and a human being, your tape has benefited me in every way. It has caused me to really think about the way I present things when I go out to perform, as a student, it has really made me think about how to go about motivating myself within my learning, and as a human being you have taught me many valuable lessons about how to protect myself against charlatans in the real world.

I greatly admire the way you presented your lecture of incredible advice, interspersed with excellent routines. Both complimented each other perfectly. Through my years of schooling I have had to 'endure' many motivational lectures, none of which were as entertaining or thought provoking as your own. I truly hope you do get to travel to many more locations to perform similar lectures so that even more people will benefit from your teachings.

I look forward to watching the video again in the future to again refresh my thinking, as you have honestly produced one of the best learning tools I have yet seen, reflecting on many areas of my life." - Colin McLeod