talkmagic.co.uk

The effect:


You fan out a deck of playing cards, that are all shown to be entierly different, unmarked and ordinary looking. You then ask them to touch a card; they do. The card is removed, and shown to them.

You know exactly what card they will get; there are absolutely no suspicious moves or tricky slight of hand involved, and you can then reveal your "prediction" for the forced card.

The deck also comes with a single jumbo card, that a person may sit on (for example) and then the card they freely choose matches exactly. In other versions: the spectator halfs the deck, and keeps whichever half they want, then they half it again, and again, and finally make a selection from whatever five or six cards are left... it will always be the card you want.



Points to remember:

1. No deck switches
2. Completely free choice of any card
3. No "magicians choice" or Equivoke (how is that spelt again?)
4. The deck can be shown at any point in the trick to be clean and ordinary
5. You begin and end ultra clean.
6. In the advert for this trick, it is presented as though you must throw the cards over your shoulder. This is not needed at all; and is purely for laughter purposes. I personally just pocket whichever half of the deck the spectator chooses to eliminate, before moving onto the half which remains.




I cannot think of a better force than this; and I've tried a lot. The deck, dvd and jumbo card cost £40 roughly, but it is very, very worth it. I will be using this in EVERY performance I do; because this is as close to as real magic as it is. Here is the quickest effect in card magic:


"Pick a card; as you can see, all the cards are entierly different..."
**spectator freely picks any card**
"The card you picked is The King of Spades."
**spectator faints**


The dvd also acts as a CD-Rom and can be played on your computer to activate 4 very good scripts; two child scripts, and two adult scripts. These scripts are surprisingly helpful; and if you are new to Mentalism they are a great starting point for the performance of the trick.




Final word:

Once I knew the method and power behind this effect I was litterally jumping up and down with excitement; and I am having to stop myself from ordering several more decks, so that I may not just force one card (in my case, the King of Spades), but more.
This is an effect which needs to be seen, in its most basic form to be believed. I have not been in Mentalism long; but I know enough of switches, trick decks and verbal forces to spot most things, and this force totally baffled me - as it will your audience.




10/10
I could not recommend highly enough for any Mentalism or card act.


Tom
xx

I don't own this, but am aware of the mechanics of it, as it's a fairly old bit of business. I only found out how it worked because I showed someone a paired down handling of it, and they said "Oh! That's Smart ass!"

To that end, could you say a bit more about what you get beyond the secret? £40 is a fair amount to pay for an old secret and £8 worth of props, so for a lot of people it will sell or not sell based on what you get above and beyond the props and method.

Mr_Grue wrote:I don't own this, but am aware of the mechanics of it, as it's a fairly old bit of business. I only found out how it worked because I showed someone a paired down handling of it, and they said "Oh! That's Smart ass!"

To that end, could you say a bit more about what you get beyond the secret? £40 is a fair amount to pay for an old secret and £8 worth of props, so for a lot of people it will sell or not sell based on what you get above and beyond the props and method.

1. If you can tell me where I can get another deck like this for £8, please do. I want more


2. The dvd has many routine ideas; instructions and, as I mentioned four entire scripts. Plus of course the jumbo card, but personally I will not use that as my prediction.


However, having said all this, if you CAN buy the deck -with instructions- then I will have to greatly reduce the score, because you are right, £40 is a lot of money.


Tom
xx

PM'd

I ought to say, as well, that I'm not criticising Abbott for releasing Smart Ass. There's a certain bit of not-all-that-bold boldness to the method that I think people should be encouraged to try. The presentation is brassy and fun, so it does have a lot going for it.

This sounds awesome. Being an amateur, I only have about 3 different forces in my arsenal and it seems alot of laymen are now "wisened" up to them. Naturally I've been craving a convincing force, and this does sound like one.

I still think a simple equivoque, or even a riffle force, or a classic force, or a.....

would surfice. Is this really worth £40 for a gimmicked deck?

Or you could make a deck like this.
And i am sure it would cost you a lot less than £40.
Funnily enough i have just made one, after Ian Rowlands lecture at TM.

ChelseaBlues wrote:I only have about 3 different forces in my arsenal

Anneman wrote a book called '202 Forces'. It's available from Lybrary for very cheap. However, both Corinda and Anneman suggest learning one force only and getting good at it. Why learn more? (Actually, I don't agree - you might want to know one really good card force and something more general).

If you learn lots and don't do them right then lots of laymen will learn from your errors, which is very much not ideal.

Lyndon Webb wrote:Or you could make a deck like this.
And i am sure it would cost you a lot less than £40.
Funnily enough i have just made one, after Ian Rowlands lecture at TM.

Would such a deck make my eyes 'pop' out? If so, that's my favourite force deck.

Ted wrote:

Lyndon Webb wrote:Or you could make a deck like this.
And i am sure it would cost you a lot less than £40.
Funnily enough i have just made one, after Ian Rowlands lecture at TM.

Would such a deck make my eyes 'pop' out? If so, that's my favourite force deck.

Nah. To be honest this deck is a bit "rough" around the edges for me to use. With practice though, you may be able to make it look "smooth" enough!

Somebody else may refer to it as being so unbelievable, they compare it to a "mirage" you may find in the desert!

I had it
I sold it
IMHO, the presentation is fun
I did not feel comforteable with the "noise"

finneyfollower wrote:I had it
I sold it
IMHO, the presentation is fun
I did not feel comforteable with the "noise"

Firstly, the noise is MINUTE; its quieter than dropping a pin. Litterally.

Second, just talk when your doing the noise.

Thanks for the tips.
After reading the thread over, looks like alot of sublimittal hints are being given.
Seems like you are paying mostly for presentation which is fine. If this effect will be in your 'act', fine else there are far less esxpensive decks to force a card.

finneyfollower wrote:Thanks for the tips.
After reading the thread over, looks like alot of sublimittal hints are being given.
Seems like you are paying mostly for presentation which is fine. If this effect will be in your 'act', fine else there are far less esxpensive decks to force a card.

Yes, but there are not better decks - atleast none that I know of.

It happens in their hands, with unmarked cards, that are all different and can be shuffled by them. How much more clean can it get?

At one point, the magician spreads the cards, one is touched, right? The reality is MOST of it happens in their hand and you must remove the card she touched.
Still the best deck to do this, but there is room for improvement.