The Effect
This effect involves a story about CAIRO, Palmistry Consultant, whose business card case has come into possession of young woman named Daphne, who experienced Cairo's amazing feats:
(1) He removes five of his business cards, draws a different Rhine symbol on the back of each one, hands them to a guest, who shuffles them freely, and then places them face down on the table. Cairo removes more cards, draws a circle on the first one and places it next to one of the face down cards. He then draws a cross on the next and places it next to another of the face down cards, and so on until all five cards have an additional card next to them, each bearing a different Rhine symbol. The guest turns over the face down cards and they all match!
(2) The original five cards are again mixed by the guest, who places them face down on the table, and then thinks of one of the Rhine symbols.She declares which one she is thinking of and Cairo places his finger on a card, which when turned over matches the one that she declared she was thinking of! He then performs a small reading for the guest.
(3) By now, a crowd has gathered around Cairo, who hands out several more cards and asks the people with cards to write something of personal significance on the back. The cards are shuffled and he selects a few, with which he performs a short reading based on the information on the back of the card and then identifes the person who wrote down the information!
Cost
Available from Mev Pro Shop from 22 September
http://www.mevproshop.com for $37.
You get an ebook (25 pages) and two sets of templates for the cards in MS Word 2003. They can be customised to use your own name and billing.
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=easy to do, no sleights, marvelous design.
Review
This is a high quality and clever set of materials. They are really well-designed and flexible to fit your needs. I really love the fact that the cards can be customised to fit your own performing name and style, yet deliver the three effects described above 100% of the time. The ebook is well-written and includes many suggestions for presentation and doing the third 'reading' effect. It also has a wonderful 'reading' bibliography. The templates are easy to use and well-designed. They are set to print on US letter sized card stock, but I printed mine on A4 card stock and then I cut them out with a hobby knife.
You can make as many as you like and keep them in a business card wallet. There are numerous possibilities to expand the effect, change it to suit your needs, and combine it with other effects and/or utilities (e.g. some kind of mentalist wallet). Your spectators can also take them home!
Overall
I rate this highly because it fits well with my own style of performance and
dramatis personae. I can see lots of TM members using this product.
10 out of 10 for me.