talkmagic.co.uk

From: www.cards4magic.co.uk

Price: £15

Skill level: 1 or 2, depending on your memory

Blurb:
New Self-working handling. A diary is shown (supplied) to have names of playing cards written on each date in the year. Any date is named (by the spectator) and a card is chosen from a normal deck. The card next to the date and the chosen card MATCH.

Review:
The first time i saw a version of this effect performed, was on Bob Cassidy's Mental Miracles - and i loved it. He has some excellent patter about a pack of cards being a calendar, and it really hooked me...

This version, is a stream-lined, and almost completely self-working method (but i've not seen the original version, only Cassidy's).

What you get is a very nicely printed diary, very natural looking (along with some blank pages for numbers and stuff like that), and a couple of pages with birthstones and meaning on them too...all printed inside a small A6ish sized green marble-effect pocket diary...

Now, personally, i'd of liked it if the dates would of been left blank rather than printed in with the name of the playing cards - but thats a small point...

The "thing" you need to remember is nice and simple, you even get a little crib-sheet if you're brain is addled due to bangs on head/drugs/booze/...

It handles very nicely, looks innocent enough to be real. There's one sleight involved if you go with the suggested patter/routine and that's very, very minimal...

Is it worth £15? well, taking into account the very sneaky method and the quality of the diary, as well as the all important brain-work in the first place - i say yes...

Overall: 8.5/10

Sounds cool. International Magic had Nostradamus, which is quite nice and L&L produced the Book Of Days, which is even easier.

I will resist!!!!

I will resist!!!!

Yeah. Right. Sure you will....

i heard this trick is good and have been looking for a diary type effect. may have to get this but what's book of days like, any good?

for the ultimate diary trick - I still think Cassidy's Chronologue is the one.

bananafish wrote:

I will resist!!!!

Yeah. Right. Sure you will....

Still resisting.....although Cassidy does sound tempting

bananafish wrote:for the ultimate diary trick - I still think Cassidy's Chronologue is the one.

No doubt about it but I suggest you go to the source. Yes Collectors Workshop sell Chronologue but due to a missprint it does not do what Bob Cassiday intended it to do. His original, on his DVD, and his book the Art of mentalism II, he clearly explains how to make this up. it will cost you around £5 to make your own.

The most important thing about Bob's routine is that although it has a playing card revelation at the end, NO pack of cards is required. They choose a date and look it up, as they do that you produce one Jumbo card from your pocket. They name the card at their date you turn it over and show the matching card (No you don't have 52 Jumbo cards in your pocket). What could be cleaner. Religions have started with less !

Very interesting all this chat about the 'Diary Trick' which, as we know, there are several versions of. Never mind all the cleverness of any method, it's the effect on the lay person that counts. Quite a few years ago, when Chronologue came out I had it and there really was a misprint in the diary, however at a convention it was gladly exchanged for a 'correct' version.

Also, several years ago now, I devised my own version, using a well known principle, that has served me well. I detailed it in lecture notes on Close-up I produced about 18 months ago.

The effect is that a lady spectator looks in the diary and find different cards printed on each day all in a random order. She locates her birthday and tells all present the name of her 'lucky card'. Magician finds that card in his pack and shows that the named card had a big X (kiss) on the back whilst all the other cards are shown not to have any such markings. The method is so well known but I will say that it's repeatable at once if required and no force etc. What more could one wish for. All you need is a cheap diary (The £1 shops are ideal) and a pack. Let me mention that for me this is a ladies presentation especially in as much as the X is refered to as a KISS. Remember it's simple but it's the effect that matters in all things magical.
Mark

Mark Wynn wrote:Very interesting all this chat about the 'Diary Trick' which, as we know, there are several versions of. Never mind all the cleverness of any method, it's the effect on the lay person that counts. Quite a few years ago, when Chronologue came out I had it and there really was a misprint in the diary, however at a convention it was gladly exchanged for a 'correct' version.

Mark it wasn't that there was a missprint that was the issue. The printer assumed that the card names simply "ran on" through the diary. This was not how Bob created the effect. For me the most important elements of the trick are that 1. It is not perceived as a card trick as no deck is involved and 2 you reveal the card before they name the card at their date.

Bob's original decription gives "reason" for having cards written against every date. To my knowledge no other diary trick provides this. Why do we have cards written in the diary?

For me it is how the effect will be discussed after the show. "I named My date, he took out a giant card from his pocket, it matched the one at the date I just named". As opposed to I looked through a diary and named a card at a date, he then took out a deck of cards.......

Thanks Max. Yes I knew what you meant. What I meant was that all those years ago (Oh I don't know - around 1986/8 or something like that) I used a version that did have something wrong printed in the diary and I can't recall exactly what it was, but the dealer at a British Ring Convention gladly exchanged it. I think it may even been Collectors Workshop themselves. Whilst I liked it for being very clever I changed to the version I use as explained in my previous posting.

You did mention a point that makes me think the effect may have been 'updated' from the version I used. You mention removing a JUMBO card from your pocket . . That certainly was so in the version I used, just the prediction card (?) taken from the diary. Does that make sense? Pete

You did mention a point that makes me think the effect may have been 'updated' from the version I used. You mention removing a JUMBO card from your pocket . . That certainly was so in the version I used, just the prediction card (?) taken from the diary. Does that make sense? Pete

Bob's original method as published did not require you to have the outs in the diary. He had a Jumbo card in each of 4 pockets and simply drew out the one he needed.

I made a slip up in saying That certainly was so in the version I used, just the prediction card (?) taken from the diary. What I meant to say was That certainly was NOT so in the version I used but I think you know what I meant.
Did the Jumbo version come first then, before the cards in the diary?
All very interesting isn't it?
Mark

Further to the above . . . . You mentioned Bob's original decription gives "reason" for having cards written against every date. To my knowledge no other diary trick provides this. Why do we have cards written in the diary?

Well Max, for me the answer in is my own (Comedy??) presentation. I run through the well known reasons why a pack of cards is like a diary . . . (Corny jokes) "but do you know that every day in the diary has it's own lucky card?" Diary is given Lady to look at and you state that "It took me a couple of weeks to do that" Speaking to your lady helper you remark that you know she is really dying to know HER lucky card birthday card. Ask her to look at her birthday date and tell everyone the card. . . . carry on from there. I do have a couple of 'add-ons' to cover certain cards and situations but I'll keep those to myself for a while.
Mark

Mark Wynn wrote:Further to the above . . . . You mentioned Bob's original decription gives "reason" for having cards written against every date. To my knowledge no other diary trick provides this. Why do we have cards written in the diary?

Well Max, for me the answer in is my own (Comedy??) presentation.

Superb Mark. Far too many performers simply miss the point that mentalist style prediction effects need a "hook" to hang on. You clearly have this covered.

I have owned CW Chronologue for years now and have recently just started using it again.

Can I ask if anyone has a particularly clever way of getting past the odd/even question. I have my own approach which works pretty well but I'm sure some clever spark somewhere has thought up a better way than mine. Please PM me if necessary to avoid exposure... I'd really appreciate any help on this.