I've always found the 'out of ten' score a bit arbitrary. So I utilize this scoring principle to give it points.
Audience reaction
0. Bad knew how it was done or was bored by it
1. Good intrigued by it, don't know how it is done 'you are clever'.
2. Amazed, Impossible, must be magic/ psychic (whatever you say it is).
Practicality
0. Impractical there are better methods
1. Practical but so are other methods
2. Best method, simple, direct and invisible
Adaptability
0. None. This is a trick not a method can't use it as is? Tough
1. It can be. A bit of redressing and this is plausible in other styles, still need to justify moves/ props.
2. Completely. No props or items needed, invisible method/ gimmick,
Faffing about
0. 21 card trick. Too much faffing about for the payoff
1. O.O.T.W. Some faffing about, but easily disguised/ forgotten
2. Ultra mental deck. What faffing about? The tricks done.
Originality
0. King rising levitation. It may be a a bold and new method but effect-wise we've seen it all before
1. Torn 2 pieces. Another bloody torn and restored trick but with a nice new twist
2. Coinvexed. New method, new effect. No coins switched here.
The Effect
Mind slasher from Unleash Your Dreams
Cost
2.99
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
Review
What the audience sees
They don't really 'see' anything here, what they experience is you correctly divining a persons thoughts.
What they say
Mind slasher is a mental miracle, read the thoughts of a spectator instantly and with a 100% hit rate! Using nothing more than a few business or playing cards at no time do you have to touch what the spectator uses or writes on! They simply write or draw a word. image etc and you will instantly be able to gain the information. This is a mind reading miracle!!! This plays for one at it would one hundred! Fits in your pocket always ready to perform a perfect method to give away a business card can be used with blank playing cards, in fact any type of card can be used! Some of our customers told us that this was better than many of the magicians wallets out on the market as it didn't use a wallet at all and suited everyone's style, whether it be street magic or stage, close up, parlour, mentalism etc.
Transmit thoughts without any electronic device at all! No outs! No rough and smooth! No wallets used! No billet Switches! No funny wallets! No palming! No sticky stuff! No double sided funny business! No funny folding of a pieces of paper! No carbons! No impression devices! No forcing-Write/Draw what you want on the card! No memory system to learn! No pumping or asking questions! 100% self working!! I know you will use this all the time! It's a KILLER trick! Get the mind slasher now, you can use this for mental, bizarre, close up and stage magic Any word or picture can be drawn and within a few seconds you can have the information without touching the the card the spectator wrote on. This method is so sneaky it will fool you even when you know the trick you can use your own business or playing cards, so you will have a never ending supply of cards This photo illustrated e book comes complete with cards template and full instructions on how to make more gimmicks in less than a minute using your own cards THIS IS TOTALLY IMPROMPTU! Simply buy print and perform!
What I say
I'm going to start by pointing out another beautiful piece of 'description magic' (Which I'm honestly starting to think is an art form in itself, Ellusionist should release a DVD on it.) If you didn't bother with my last reviews, description magic is when the manufacture says something that is literally true but it implies something that's not. In this case it's this part: 'Any word or picture can be drawn and within a few seconds you can have the information without touching the the card the spectator wrote on'.
I imagine this paints a picture in your mind of the spectator writing something on a billet, which then remains in their hand or face down on the table and you reveal whats written down, this is a false assumption.
It's true your fingers never have to actually make contact with the card but don't be fooled, it will have to leave the spectators hand (and most likely end up in your pocket) before the thought can be revealed.
Which doesn't make this effect bad but it does raise this question for some of you 'If I already know how to 'read' thoughts that someone has written down, do I need to learn this method?' The answer is probably not, but this will be worth getting for some of you.
If you're new to mentalism or magic and you don't have an easy, straightforward way of knowing what a spec wrote down that requires no set up, If your interested in peek wallets but don't want to spend a ridiculous amount only to find out you don't like performing it, or if you are already experienced with peek wallets but don't like having to come up for some reason why the piece of paper has to go back in you wallet in the first place, then this might be for you.
Essentially this effect is a peek wallet without the wallet and in my mind that makes it instantly superior to every other peek wallet out there as well as a hell of a lot cheaper.
It took me awhile to perform this effect because I didn't really want to perform it. The problem was I already had my own way of doing this, that in my mind was better. It only needed a piece of paper and pencil or pen, something that if I didn't have to hand I could get anywhere at any time.
However the reason I prefer the method I already use is because I've been using it for quite a few years now, I'm comfortable with the set up, technique, patter and presentation. The method I use isn't really better, it's equal, and it's only my experience and deeply routed fear of change that makes it preferable. If you are new to mentalism, then this effect could become a regular in your performance, it could become 'your preferred method' as it were.
Also it shouldn't really matter, but I will point out that while the construction of the effect as described in the e book requires you to buy a tool to make it, you can quite easily build this gimmick with items you have in your home right now. You can also perform it pretty much strait away (although I would never recommend that) it does mean that technically you can download, construct and perform this effect within an hour.
At the end of this review when I give it an out of ten based on my sound mathematical formula, I'm going to leave out audience reaction, which is completely unfair as it got an audience reaction of 2 both times but I have a justification for doing this. The reason is that I don't see 'mind slasher' as a trick or effect that causes any kind of reaction, it's more like a tool or method for creating an effect, and a good tool at that. The audience reaction will not be because of the mindslasher gimmick itself but because of your presentation.
Overall
Unless your a magician with the presentational skills to only perform on youtube this method will be completely invisible to layman and most magicians. You can end completely clean (using a method that isn't described in the e book but it's not hard to figure out how), you can carry this around in your shirt pocket all day, be ready to perform in seconds and it instantly resets.
If your new to mentalism or interested in a good alternative to peek wallets, you should buy this, it may or may not be for you but for £2.99 you really can't go wrong. If your experienced enough or love the feel of leather between your fingers, then spend the money on the 'No card card trick' instead and let me know if it's any good.
Audience reaction......N/A
Practicality................1
Adaptability...............2
Faffing about.............1
Originality.................0
Total........................4/10
Also if anyone can think of a good category to replace 'audience reaction' when it comes to methods rather than effects let me know and I'll edit my score accordingly.
