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This review applies to the e-book version of The Impromptu Book Test by Josh Zandman.

The Effect

Any Two Books Any Place, Any Time. No Pre-Show work, Sleights, Tears or Gimmicks. Completely 100%. Truly Impromptu Book Test?
Participant keeps one of the books; you’ve never seen or handled it. You take the second book and flip through the pages until the participant says “STOP.” ?This is an absolutely free choice and the participant may verify the page number. Participant goes to that page in her book and remembers a word. The books are exchanged and the process repeated. You are immediately able to reveal the words in any way you choose.

Cost

$30 (USD) from http://www.outlaw-effects.com

Difficulty

(1=easy to do,
2=No sleights, but not so easy,
3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used,
5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

For the original effect: 1-2
For the variations of the effect: Can scratch a 3

What must be remembered is that with all mentalism-type effects, the actual technique can be quite easy, and such is the case with the IBT and much of its variations. The difficulty rating given applies to only the technique and skills required to pull off the effect. What’s important is the presentation of the material, to which some serious time should be devoted to develop.

Review

I’m a big fan of impromptu effects. The problem with Book Tests is that a lot of them require a fair bit of set-up and pre-work. Not happy with the impromptu book test contained within Corinda’s 13 Steps, which requires the use of foreign objects, namingly playing cards, to produce the desired effect, I set out in search of a completely Impromptu Book Test.

I came across Josh Zandman’s ‘Impromptu Book Test.’ Just what I was looking for! (Kudos to the book’s marketing department).

As described in the books synopsis, the IBT effect IS truly impromptu; there is no pre-work, sleights, tears, or gimmicks. No stooges either. All that is needed is 2 books preferably of the same length, 2 pieces of paper, and 2 pens.

The technique used to accomplish the original effect (Josh Zandman’s base or framework, quite a commendable effect in it’s own right), is extremely simple. The technique can be learnt within a matter of minutes. Though obviously, it would be unwise to rush out and perform the effect without any rehearsal, and any thought given to how the effect is to be presented.

At the end of this first section, the author adds a few additional subtleties to help with the performance.

Read on, and you are then presented with different variation of the effect, from the minds of Bill Cushman, Andrew Gerard, Greg Arce, and Richard Osterlind. All of the variations are then compiled in one example routine by Bill Cushman.

The benefits of these contributions are fantastic, and can improve the impact of the effect vastly, especially when considering the only slightly heightened level of skill needed.

There is, however, a couple of downfalls to the IBT: 2 books MUST be used and MUST be exchanged, and your two predictions can only be revealed together, at the end of the routine. Other than that, if the presentation is up to scratch, there are no other worries.

The IBT is suitable for both close-up work and stage shows.

Overall

8.5/10

8 for the results, +1 for being 100% impromptu, and -0.5 for needing two books to be used.

A book test is a staple in a mentalist’s bag of tricks. As impromptu tests go, I personally cannot see them getting much better than this.


-Adrian

sounds good, and for only 30 bucks for a book test tat is impromptu, I dont see how you could go wrong...

do you know how this compares to the Brook test at all?

No sorry, unfortunately not. Though the Brook test does look interesting, and I would love to buy a copy... my student budget just does not cover it at the moment

For impromptu book tests, the Hoy book test is perfect. And there is scope to put your own twists onto it. Its bold, but thats whats fun about it.

And when you consider it is in this book:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic15469.php&highlight=hoy+faust

For that price you can't go wrong.

AndyRegs wrote:For impromptu book tests, the Hoy book test is perfect. And there is scope to put your own twists onto it. Its bold, but thats whats fun about it.

And when you consider it is in this book:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic15469.php&highlight=hoy+faust

For that price you can't go wrong.

and now, I must get that

thanks for the tip

Unfortunately for myself, my order for The Bold and Subtle Miracles of Dr Faust ran into a bit of trouble, leaving me less $60, which the dealer claims to not have recieved, and which my bank says has been pending for around 5 days.

So for a quick fix, I bought myself the IBT, which is said to have been an improvement (of sorts) on the Hoy book test

I might be wrong, but I think the IBT is a version of the Hoy Book Test. Maybe I am wrong, as TheAge hasn't mentioned it in his review!

EDIT: But he has now!

Just beat ya to it, post above yours

EDIT: So I have!

Just to Clarify, there are numerous tips and hints in the book which make the IBT truly marvellous.

The fact that 2 books are used makes it even stronger in my opinion my friend from Melbourne.

I have received phenominal reactions from this.

If you can get your hands on a copy of psychological subtleties and apply the 'six degrees of seperation' this can prove to be really strong.

In any case, with a good presentation, you can have spectators speechless.

It is VERY strong and I highly recommend it. It is truly impromptu. You could be in a library and perform this. I did this in my wife's uni to some of her friends. Had them run off and bring any two books back.

Strong.. very strong.

I cannot fault this. The only part I didnt like was then given an alternative angle by Osterlind which eliminated the only part of the effect I wasnt keen on.

AndyRegs wrote:For impromptu book tests, the Hoy book test is perfect. And there is scope to put your own twists onto it. Its bold, but thats whats fun about it.

Aye. When it has to work 100%, rather than being something more akin to an ability you're demonstrating over a number of experiments, Hoy is the way to go every time.

And considering you can get Hoy's test for $4 at trickshop.com you just cannot go wrong with it.

Sounds cool. Thank you so much for the review.

My favorite impromptu book-test is Marc Paul's AAA Book Test.

Elliott

I.B.T. takes Hoy to another level.

N.B. After re-reading this, I noticed it was a tad extensive. It's not a hard read - just thought I'd give a heads up on the link before Otherwise...

First of all, I would like to apologise to reviving a thread that is bordering on 4 years old. However, as you may be able to tell from my profile/condensed profile on the left there <-- I haven't been on here in years, and - after a quick search - this is the first thread that came up involving Josh Zandman's 'IBT Script', or 'The Impromptu Book Test'. I thought it would be better to revive an old thread than go about making a new one just to add my own few comments.

A quick background: after I created and published 'Utopian Prediction & Other Mysteries' (under the pseudonym, Alex Blade) I actually "gave up" magic. Completely. I don't know what possessed me to do such a thing but I really did just stop it all together for four years. The only trick I would ever perform was my adaptation of 'The Trick That Cannot Be Explain' by Dai Vernon, which I would perform when I was inebriated and out with 3-4 close friends who had no idea that I was ever into magic. It was the only trick I ever feel I truly, truly mastered [though those who know it's "method" (:p) will see how tha statement can't be 100% truthful] and the trick that I believe to be the ultimate - and above all, impromptu - display of Mentalism. Well, aside from The Berglas Effect.

More to the point, however... I recently decided that I would like to have a small but concrete knowledge of some totally impromptu mentalism effects. Things that I could pull out at any time, years down the line, and just floor people with. Naturally, I went back to look at some stuff from Derren Brown's 'The Devil's Picturebook' and some other stuff from his early days. After a bit of scouring around I became re-familiar with psychological forces (supposed, think-of-any-card-and-i'll-name-it kind of thing). I also went and skim read, for about the 50th time in my life, Corinda's '13 Steps...' just to re-grasp the foundational knowledge....

Like I said at the beginning - this was not my way of getting right back into the thick of Close-Up, Street Magic and Mentalism (my particular specialties), I just basically dug out ALL my old magic stuff so I could brush up on the basic stuff, as well as having a few solid effects under my belt that I could potentially show years down the line if the opportunity arised...

So I had Dai Vernon's jaw-dropping 'T.T.T.C.B.E', footing for some suggestion-esque effects to enhance other pieces of Mentalism from Derren Brown's early days, and rememory of the 'mentalism terminology'. But there was one thing I was missing. A traditional book test.
I wanted something that was not only clean, impromptu and versatile, but something that almost didn't appear to be "magic". I am no longer a "magician" so this wasn't something to put into my repertoire, nor could it be presented under the guise of me showing off my supposed "psychic abilities". I didn't want something with showmanship (well, not the kind of showmanship that is meant to a performer); literally just something that I could present in an offhand manner and still have people completely stumped. Obviously I went straight back to David Hoy's classic impromptu Book Test, as well as spending ~£150/$230 on all sorts of Book Tests - from the completely gimmicked, to the completely convoluted and frankly s**t ones, and most of the others, impromptu or not, that had reviews on them, either here or over on Magic Café.

Then I came to Josh Zandman's IBT Script.
In all honesty, the first read before he moves on to other people's input (such as Arce and Osterlind) is kind of disappointing. I didn't really know what to expect, but I didn't expect something so simple. In fact, it wasn't even simple - it was boring. When the secret to an effect lies in total simplicity = fantastic! But this just came across as...basic (sorry Josh!). However, as I believe many people in this thread have mentioned, the real absolute quality lies in the reams of thoughts and additions by others. Of course, they wouldn't be there had Zandman not brought out IBT first, so lots of kudos to him, but the ideas that appear almost 'casually fresstyled' by other magicians and mentalists are just brilliant.

I had found my 100% Impromptu Book Test, and had completed my series of 100% impossible effects With almost 9 years of practicing magic up my sleeve (pun intended) and a dedicated backtrack to the basics, I now had ways to divine a card, in advance, that a spectator would choose from a borrowed, shuffled and untouched deck; full understanding and performance capability of intermediate/advanced sleight of hand commonly used in mentalism; suggestible, solid patter; and finally an impromptu Book Test. Combining a few ideas of my own and all that with the genuinely fantastic effect and notes included in Zandman's manuscript, I have now got myself a 100% impromptu book test where the spectator merely picks a word anywhere on any page of any book, and I can reveal it. It's something I would like to market, but unfortunately it's faaar to heavily influenced by Zandman and his pals to be feasible to claim as my own!

The point of all this was actually simply to review Josh Zandman's 'The IBT Script' (Impromptu Book Test), but it seems to have turned into a short history of myself (apologies ) but what this ultimately culminates to is this: GO AND BUY ZANDMAN'S BOOK IF YOU ARE LOOKING A WORKING, FLEXIBLE AND 100% IMPROMPTU BOOK TEST THAT YOU CAN ADAPT IN ALMOST ANY WAY YOU CHOOSE!

Rating: 9.5/10 (it could be written a little bit better in my opinion; but it's thorough and understandable and it does the job)

**************************************
Several sidenotes:
1. If anyone knows of any other effects they think might fit into my impromptu, layman-astonishing mentalism 'catalog' of effects, I would really, REALLY appreciated any PM's or replies that recommended stuff that could be of interest to me

2. Bearing in mind I haven't used these boards for years on end, I am well aware that bringing up such a dated thread could be a bit untraditional, so Mods, please feel free to move it (and let me know where these kind of threads should be placed appropriately if possible), that would be be much appreciated.

Alex (KerplunkMagic)