Entertaining ESP: A Book of Tricks with the Royal Magic ESP Deck
by Patrick Page and Ken De Courcy
The Effect
Entertaining ESP is an A5-sized, 22-page booklet containing 31 effects that must be performed with a marked ESP deck (although a standard, unmarked deck can be used for a few of the effects).
Cost
£6.99, post free
from Magic Nevin
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)
1
In terms of manual dexterity, all the effects are simple to perform; as always, it's all in the presentation. (It hardly seems worth mentioning, but I will anyway: two of the effects require a basic sleight).
Review
Like Sam Dalal's Magic with an ESP Deck booklet, this little booklet also comes with an ESP deck. This deck, however, is much better quality than Dalal's deck and is also marked. The deck is a Royal Magic ESP deck and is of good quality (bridge size). The markings are very subtle and anyone with less than perfect eyesight would have to get in pretty close to read them. I have 20/20 vision and can just comfortably read the markings from about 2-3 feet away in good lighting. This is a deck I will actually be using, assuming of course that I can tear myself away from my Beyond ESP 2 deck!
The first section in the booklet introduces the Royal Magic ESP deck and explains how to read the markings. Very straightforward stuff.
Onto the next chapter...
Tricks Requiring a Set of the Five ESP Cards
This section explains nine effects. Some of them are very simple in terms of methodology and may not appeal to some people due to the sheer simplicity of them. For me, the highlights of this chapter are Sight Unseen, in which the spectator's freely chosen card is produced from the performer's pocket. Psychic Feedback Plus is another good one which involves each of five spectators cards being placed in an envelope and the performer correctly matching each symbol to the appropriate spectator. I like this one a lot.
Magical Experiments Using Two Packets of Five ESP Cards
Chapter 2 contains six effects which all use two sets of five cards. My favourite is Will the Signs Match?, which is a speller-matcher effect. These kind of tricks (sorry, I meant to say "experiment" or "test") don't usually appeal to me but this one is pretty good and involves a high level of spectator participation. The other effects did not really stand out for me, so moving swiftly on...
Tricks with a Full ESP Deck
This section contains twelve effects. One force method is also explained (this is very basic and I would expect all but the newest of newbies to be familiar with it). This chapter has a number of revelation ideas and explains them briefly but adequately. There are a couple of effects that utilise the old Down Under deal to good effect. Eliminator is another good one that involves the spectator eliminating all but one of the cards in the deck, in apparently the fairest (yeah, right) of ways, yet the one remaining card matches the performer's prediction which has been in plain sight the whole time. It's a good effect.
Tricks with a Stacked ESP Deck
Four effects here, two of which use a basic, simple sleight. This chapter also explains the cyclic stack and a very nice variation of the Charlier false shuffle. The last effect in this booklet is excellent and is my favourite; The Power of Money uses the deck and some coins to great effect. Fantastic.
The booklet ends with a "cute" way to introduce the five symbols to a spectator using a spelling method. Nice.
Overall
Like Sam Dalal's booklet, Entertaining ESP is superb value for money. True, it doesn't contain as many effects that I will actually use, but the ones I will be using I like very much, especially The Power of Money. In fact, for me, this effect alone justifies the price of admission and it is this that nudges the score up to a eight. The other effects are a bonus as far as I'm concerned. And the fact that you also get a nice, marked ESP deck is great. At £7, you need a good reason not to get this booklet, especially if, like me, you are going through an ESP binge at the moment.
Score: 8/10
