Blindsight by Devin Knight
They Say:
One of the most talked about effects at the 2006 Mindvention. It virtually fooled anyone who saw it.
The very latest from Devin Knight's Psychic-Sight series. The first was Farsight and was a runaway hit. Now comes Blindsight.
Effect
Performer patters that Blindsight is the apparent ability to see colors and shapes which cannot be seen. You offer a simple experiment. You introduce 4 ungimmicked colored cards: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. These in turn are sealed into 4 opaque envelopes and mixed so that the spectator doesn't know which color is in which envelope. You ask him to point to any envelope. Free choice, no magician's force of any kind. You hold it up and ask him what color he thinks is inside. Assume he says Blue. You write "Blue" on the envelope. This is repeated 3 more times with the person freely pointing to any of the remaining envelopes. Each time he states the color he thinks is inside and the performer writes it on the envelope.
Performer fans the envelopes out allowing the person to see the names written on each envelope. Magician states he only needs three envelopes for the first part and for the person to remove one envelope and place it off to the side. Let's assume he discards the envelope with the word Yellow written on it.
The other three envelopes are opened one at a time, the spectator has correctly guess what colors were in each envelope. This is pretty amazing in itself but the kicker is still to come.
Magician says nobody could have known what envelope the spectator would discard off to the side. The spectator, NOT THE MAGICIAN, picks up this envelope and opens it. Of course the correct color card is in it, but wait; there is a slip of paper in it and it reads: "THE YELLOW ENVELOPE WILL BE THE ONE YOU DISCARD!"
The magician can then show the other envelopes are empty, in fact all the envelopes can be examined.
Here are the facts:
NO Two-Sided color cards NO Nailwriters or Boomwriters NO Secret Writing NO Switches NO Sleights of any kind NO One Ahead or One Behind Methods NO Gimmicked Envelopes NO Magnets NOTHING SECRETLY ADDED OR TAKEN AWAY Color Cards are not gimmicked in anyway Only 4 Cards are used. The choices are completely free. As clean as it gets. The handling is designed in such a way that spectators and magicians will be unable to backtrack and discover the method.
Another reputation maker that is priced way too low. Complete with color cards, envelopes, marker and all needed gimmicks to make this work.
Look what others are saying:
"The directness and simplicity of blindsight is surpassed only by its impressive cleverness."
- Michael Weber
"The eligantly simple method behind blindsight opened my eyes...even my third one."
- Docc Hilford
"I changed my mind three times and Devin still nailed me! He then showed me the method and I was the perfect mark!"
- Bob Sheets
"Without a doubt, this was the best effect of Mindvention 2006."
-JHEFF
Cost £15.56 from
http://www.world-of-magic.co.uk/magic.asp?id=17201
I Say:
I agree with all the comments above. If you like this type of mentalist effect, (which I do), in the right setting, this is a very impressive piece of work, relatively straightforward to perform and completely baffling. Devin has obviously spent a lot of time and energy perfecting this effect.
The 'principles' employed kind of feel like the sort of thing you would find reading Anneman - (I must read him again). The props are basic, so basic in fact that they invite little suspicion to start with but Devin has done a really sound job in introducing various handling subtleties to throw the sharp eyed spectator off the scent and to iron out any wrinkles, that you just have to stand and marvel at a such a consummate craftsman at work.
Only downside I can see is that you can't repeat this for the same audience so you are going to have to get your excuses ready because they are going to ask to repeat.
Overall
If you work with mentalist effects, in my opinion this is a must have. 9/10