Name: Thought Association Card - Stephen Yachanin
Available from: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33815273/Yachan ... lcome.html
Price: $15
Maker: Stephen Yachanin
Examinable: Yes, up to a point. The spectator can handle the card freely, but as with many props in mentalism you wouldn't give anyone the opportunity to study it in depth, particularly after the effect.
Difficulty: 3/10
Out of 10: 8/10
Effect
Two volunteers are handed a card containing 80 words (no repeats). Each volunteer is asked to mentally select a word (free choice). The volunteers mentally spell their words as you attempt to sense any reactions they have to the letters. Silently focusing on one of the letters, each volunteer is asked to think of a new word beginning with that letter. This process is repeated two more times, making it impossible for anyone to have any idea of the final words in the minds of the volunteers.
You ask the volunteers to concentrate on their final word selections as you write your impressions on the back of your business card. Only after you have placed the business card on the table do you instruct the volunteers to announce the words they have in their minds and have one of them turn over the business card. The words on the business card match the volunteers’ words!
• Nothing written down
• No fishing
• No switches
• No secret writing
• One or two volunteers
• Fits in your wallet
Comments:
Previously, due to certain methodological restrictions, this effect was only available to the US. However, after a lot of work by Stephen, the UK-friendly version will soon be released. I was one of a few people lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the manuscript and helped Stephen 'road test' the effect on British audiences. So, in the interests of 'disclosure' I must state I didn't pay for this effect.
However, it plays just as cleanly as it reads in the blurb above and leaves people gobsmacked. The manuscript also teaches techniques that have changed the way I approach all word revelations - yes, the methods in this manuscript can be adapted to any effect in your arsenal that includes a word reveal. Is that worth $15? I rather think so!
So, what do you get? You get a PDF of well-written and thorough instructions, containing print templates for two different versions of the wallet card. The card itself, as the ad copy states, has 80 words printed on it - but you do not simply reveal which one of these your participants are thinking of, oh no, you do something much more impressive. Starting with any of these words, you can take two volunteers (or one if you prefer) on a guided exercise in 'thought association'. Only the starting word appears on the card, the rest are arrived at through apparently fair and free choices. Nothing is written down and yet you are still able to reveal the words in their minds at the end. Oh and I should make it clear that each of the two participants arrives at a different word by the end of the experiment. There are no "T.O.D."-style "sit down if you heard your word" ambiguities here. The effect is direct, absurdly clean and in my opinion looks pretty close to 'the real deal'.
I've performed this for individuals, couples and once to a small group in a 'parlour' setting and it consistently hits people squarely between the eyes. For the purists among us, there is no 'visible compromise', the words you reveal exist only in the participants' minds. There is apparently no possible way you could know what they are thinking and yet without fishing, writing or other shenanigans, you can reveal the contents of their minds.
Several of these 'wallet card' type effects (Kioku, Dreamweaver and others) use a b*n*** system, which requires some memorisation, but 'Thought Association' applies another method entirely, one that originates in a book by Joshua Quinn and has been developed and refined by Stephen Yachanin. There is a little memory work required for this effect but it is absolutely minimal, no more than the usual effort required to remember a script.
So for $15 and very little effort, you gain the ability to baffle audiences with something that appears completely fair and deeply mystifying. I've had some great reactions to this - it's impossible to backtrack and leaves both the participants and observers amazed. Also, as stated above, I now find myself applying the thinking in this effect to book tests and other word effects to create double revelations, where I can not only reveal the 'association' word they finally land on, but also the word the started with originally - very strong stuff!
In summary: I'm usually pretty wary of single-effect PDFs, but this is one I can recommend whole-heartedly. Strong mentalism at a very reasonable price.