Cost : around $35 (widely availible)
Difficulty- Varies from effect to effect 2-4
List of Effects:
Impossible Choice
A prediction is written on an 'extra joker'. A spectator picks any card from a face up deck. The performer turns both prediction card over and it matches.
I didn't particularly like this effect. It requires a set up and none of the cards can be examined. You also need to make a gimmick although it isnt difficult. However, the spectator can really take ANY card they like.
Great Magazine Test
The performer and spectator each take different magazines. The performer glimpses a page and writes down a word. The spectator does likewise. A second specator opens both predictions and reads them out. Both have seemingly chosen the same word.
I liked this effect. There is a gimmick to make, but its easy to do. You can also borrow magazines to do this and they can be examined after if you have a minute to remove the gimmick.
Number of the Beast
The spectator writes down a 3-digit number on a large notepad and the performer tells her what the number is without seeing it.
This is a cheeky application of stage management along with a home-made gimmick. Again its cheap and easy to make (although there are even easier methods of doing it- PM me if you have this and would like details).
Its Personal
This is the a variation of the 'prediction printed in newspaper' theme. I like the idea, but I much prefer Jay Sankeys professional themed routine for this kind of effect. What can I say- I'm not a romantic kinda person lol
Killer on Tiber Street
This is a routine where people in the audience write down numbers which lead a spectator on stage to select a number and name from a phone book. The theme is that you are a psychic trying to save an innocent victim from an evil tickling killer! From the DVD it seems to play very well on stage, but I don't think I would use it.
Invisible Dice
You introduce some invisible dice and a tiny deck of cards. After some patter about gambling/cheating you invite a spectator to roll out the invisible dice and tell you what the numbers are. The cards that correspond to those numbers are found reversed in the deck.
This was my favourite routine on the DVD. You have to make a gimmicked half-deck. The order isnt actually explained, although the deck is shown briefly, but it is based on a very popular (cheap) deck that EVERY magician has, or should have.
Score (whole DVD) - I'd give it 7 out of 10. Theres nothing particularly new or exciting here. If you've got 13 steps or any other good books on mentalism, then you already have these routines. I think a big minus point of these dvds is that the routines are not actually descibed on the dvd cases. In some cases like (Impossible Choice) it has tosh about a jellyfish creature in the blurb, yet the presentation is a million miles away (bordering on a boring 'corporate' style presentation)
