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Even further off topic but it's quite straightforward to make your own slate.

If a frame is required, check out the Pound stores or Hobbycraft or make your own from softwood beading, stain or colour to suit. Get a piece of thin MDF, cut to size at local woodyard/DIY store if you don't have the facilities at home, paint with one coat of diluted PVA adhesive to seal the MDF. When dry paint with at least two, possibly three coats of blackboard paint (Wilkinson's usually offer the best deal) and once dry you have a bespoke slate which can be refurbished easily enough with a further coat of blackboard paint as and when required. If required the frame can be 'aged' with a bit of careful knocking about, rubbing with sandpaper etc. Magic doesn't have to be expensive!

Mandrake wrote:Magic doesn't have to be expensive!

Indeed and, at the risk of drifting even further off topic, I am breaking from my usual style next month when I perform for five year old girls. The only stuff I've spent money on was a decent needle for needle-thu-ballon, a milk-to-paper jug and a magic colouring book (which I could have made myself, but don't have the time). Oh, and a break-away wand.

Everything else is made from rubbish. The cups and balls are yoghurt pots and marshmallows; I will be producing the birthday girl from an empty cardboard box (courtesy of Tesco Direct's kind staff); and I've fashioned a zombie gimmick from some stuff I had lying around.

I am significantly more frightened about this performance than when I read the minds of the rich and famous - and rightly so!

T.

Thank you all for your comments and advices.
I miss something perhaps, but I do not understand how can you do the same "magic" with an ordinary standard not-gimmicked white board? I do not want to reveal too much, but the white board that I am referring to has the capability to transmit to you the information. Can the standard white boards that have been suggested do the same, as shown in the link of the board that I have referred to?
Ted - you are certainly right about the reflection, but I assume that this can be overcome by directing the board to the "right" direction.
Mandrake - Thank you for your detailed instructions how to prepare a standard board.
And Ted again - Good luck with your performance with not-expensive props, I think that you are perfectly right that a good successful show does not need to be based on expensive equipment, and you can do it not less successfully with your self-made tools.
And in spite of that, I could not have resisted and I have decided to spend money on this "special" White Board and to order it. So now I am waiting for it...

micky wrote:but I do not understand how can you do the same "magic" with an ordinary standard not-gimmicked white board?

You read books. LOTS OF BOOKS.
Do you have a copy of 13 steps?

You can achieve this effect through many methods. Some complicated, some bold and simple. The only issue I have with expensive gimmicks is that that may helpfully break on the night of your performance. You then have to have a backup routine. A slate and chalk is unlikely to fail and when it does you can revert to a paper and pen.

I do like the board though so I'd welcome a review when you get it.

K

micky wrote:Ted - you are certainly right about the reflection, but I assume that this can be overcome by directing the board to the "right" direction.

If you are performing for a small crowd, all sat in one place, then I can imagine how you might be able to avoid shining in their faces, but if you have a larger audience, spread across maybe two aisles, how does that work. I have definitely seen a video of a performer with a hand-held whiteboard and it was very hard to read what was written - even if the light was not shining hard at the camera all the time, something about the surface of the board made it hard to read in general.

I appreciate you may not know the answers - I'm just noting issues that professionals like Bob Cassidy have experienced.

Good luck with the board - I hope it works out very well for you.

T.

The electronic White board is very expensive and only serves to do what many other methods and gimmicks can do. As I said earlier, only the working n professionals would be able to justify such a purchase and even then, they'd probably find the easier and lower cost methods to be more convincing.

In view of the responses so far, it seems to me that the board in question isn't going to be awarded any accolades or reviews here, I see there's an advert for this and the other item from the same manufacturer on page 17 of the October 'Magic' Magazine, price 'only' $440.00 so perhaps the International community might take more kindly to it. Can we now treat this topic as done and dusted?

Again off topic, I was in Poundland this afternoon (Oh yes indeedy, I get to all the top quality places!) and they had small, almost A4 sized, 'slates' complete with chalk and an eraser. These are the same as I bought from The Works a couple of years ago at £1.99, thin MDF in a wooden frame, one side of the slate painted black, the other side is plain MDF. Sadly the black side doesn't take the chalk at all - it just skids all over the place. That's when I decided to take the thing apart, stain the frame with antique oak wood stain and paint both sides of the slate with proper blackboard paint. If I can sort out some photos I'll show you the before and after versions.

I'll have to have a look in Poundland next time I'm in town, I've been thinking about making myself a set of spirit slates for a while and it sounds like these might do the job nicely when painted with the 'special' blackboard paint that I found in B&Q a while ago.

I think it's been said more than a few times, that there is absolutely no "need" for such an expensive bit of technology when there's more than a hundred established ways of accomplishing the same effect for pennies on the dollar. I'll add to this that I've tried communicating with this particular team and they tend to not be willing to respond to inquiries. . . and others have had similar issues. That in itself suggests that one should be cautious in dealing with said company.

Electronics within Mentalism particularly, have a very limited place. When it comes to Seance type settings we find a greater opportunity for using such things but unless you're trying to replicate the Haunted Mansion @ the Disney parks, you really won't need a lot of such things -- less is more. But more to the point, there have been several individuals that went out and dropped tens of thousands of dollars on "neat" electronic systems so as to build a "show" and yet, they couldn't do a single thing when the power went out or the systems weren't cooperating . . . and this has plagued some rather well known people at times.

The Moral of the Story Is. . . really think through the practicality of such things. Magic lovers tend to be Gadget Junkies with James Bond fantasies and as such, we've never met a technical marvel we didn't like -- we're pack-rats when it comes to such things. But which is more practical, a clipboard you can make at home for about $5.00 or some kind of "might work" electronic item that sells for hundreds of dollars . . . (one of which has at least 3 years of very negative press behind it and yet, it retails for over $1,000.00). It's far more practical to work with those systems that don't look like a prop and present a more "organic" feel to them, and that means taking what we find in those Mentalism 101 books like Annemann, Corinda and even those by Hull, Dunninger and Nelson, and apply those basics to what we find surrounding us or that are appropriate to the setting in which we are working. As my old mentor used to say "there are only 4 primary magic shops in the world; Lowes (or one of the other major building supply mega centers), a Fabric Store, a Stationary Shop, and the Flea Market. Aside from the key books every real magician should have on their bookshelves, this is all one ever need access to."

You've been directed to some important resource material and I'm going to suggest one other, Max Maven's dvd NOTHING. I think it will help you see just how potent one can be without all the fancy trimmings.

Craig Browning wrote:You've been directed to some important resource material and I'm going to suggest one other, Max Maven's dvd NOTHING. I think it will help you see just how potent one can be without all the fancy trimmings.

Craig, I've heard bad things about this DVD so I held off buying it. I have (I think) everything else he's produced. Should I think again?????

K

kevmundo wrote:

Craig Browning wrote:You've been directed to some important resource material and I'm going to suggest one other, Max Maven's dvd NOTHING. I think it will help you see just how potent one can be without all the fancy trimmings.

Craig, I've heard bad things about this DVD so I held off buying it. I have (I think) everything else he's produced. Should I think again?????

K

It's worthwhile but you can probably live without it.

It has a fun premise and certainly not bad.

T.

Not sure I could justify £80.00 on something that's 'not bad.' ???

The photo doesn't really show the true appearance (double click the image for a larger version) but, as you can see, the top one is the 'After', the others are 'Before' with the right hand one showing the unpainted side. After treatment the slate looks very much like those in school use in the 1950s - yes, I used one and that was waaaay back in 1954!

Very nice, and a good size too (jinx vs innuendo bingo).
T.

Mandrake wrote:The electronic White board is very expensive and only serves to do what many other methods and gimmicks can do. As I said earlier, only the working n professionals would be able to justify such a purchase and even then, they'd probably find the easier and lower cost methods to be more convincing.
In view of the responses so far, it seems to me that the board in question isn't going to be awarded any accolades or reviews here, I see there's an advert for this and the other item from the same manufacturer on page 17 of the October 'Magic' Magazine, price 'only' $440.00 so perhaps the International community might take more kindly to it. Can we now treat this topic as done and dusted?

From my point of view it is done, as I have decided to order it. (I have decided to order it and not the Smart Chest, which I had a dilemma between both of them, because of the price.)
Are you interested that I post a review after I receive it and experience it?

Craig, thank you for your advices, I appreciate them.