talkmagic.co.uk

The Mind Spy Pad - Mark Elsdon
Available from: http://www.alakazam.co.uk

They say:

This totally new and innocent looking pad is actually one of the cleanest methods you will find today for a real-time peek. Imagine this…you hand out a small, pocket sized notepad to your spectator and ask her to note down any kind of special word, drawing or number that she can think of. Your spectator now tears the piece of paper from the spiral bound pad and places it into her pocket. Bear in mind that you can be totally turned away throughout this entire process. Once the paper is safely in your spectator’s pocket you retrieve the pad, close it and put it away. You now have all the information you require to perform a powerful mental revelation of the secret information in whatever way you wish.


The peek is direct, fast, covered by a natural motion and is totally self-contained. There are no electronics, nothing must be added or removed to obtain your peek and because the pad is put away before the effect really even begins, you are left clean at the end of the trick. Plus, the spectator can feely handle the pad without detection.

Comes Complete and ready to use for only £15.99

I say:
What you get with the Mind Spy Pad is a WH Smith's pocket Notebook, flip up style with rings at the top so you flip pages over at the top rather than the side. Its about the size of your hand and has a red elastic strap at the bottom to keep it shut when not in use.

You ask the spec to draw something on one of the pages and tear that page out - destroy it, pocket it, whatever. They hand you back the pad and you fold it up and put it in your pocket having got what you need in the process.

The peak is neat, its not quite a full page so, similar to the Janus pad it might be a good idea to get the spec to write their name at the top of the page first, before they start drawing.

I ordered this a month ago and it has just arrived so I'm guessing I've got one of the first of the new batch. The reason for the delay, I was told, was a complete revamp of the original Mind Spy pad. I don't have the original but I do have a Janus Pad, hence the comparison with that. See Tom's review here for the Janus Pad: http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic4515.php&highlight=janus+pad
There is a reference to the Mind Spy pad from Happy Toad in the Janus Pad review where he talks about there being 'not much to peak at'. As I say I don't have the original Mind Spy pad but when I look at the Janus pad and the Mind Spy pad alongside each other, there is nothing to choose between them in terms of the size of the image you can get from both.

Without giving too much away, the method is very very similar to the Janus pad but subtley different which means that you only use one sheet of paper each time with the Mind Spy whereas with the Janus Pad I've been using two.

Reset is straightforward and takes a second but you don't want to do it in front of the spec.

Only slight gripe I have is that the instructions that came with the Mind Spy are a bit unclear. I suspect they may even relate to the previous version as they are dated 2003. But there really is nothing that you need instructions for, its so simple. On the plus side the instructions come with five professional routines to use with your pad.

I'm not completely convinced by the claim that 'the spectator can feely handle the pad without detection' - for most people that will be fine, I think though there may be a slight risk of accidental detection and a suspicious spec on a hunting trip could find the gimmick fairly easily if you leave it in their hands long enough - but it'll be fun finding out how much of a risk this really is.

So how do they stack up Mind Spy to Janus Pad.
Well the Mind Spy costs less than half the price of Janus and uses half as much paper before you need to restock. It does essentially the same job. Perhaps the Janus pad is possible to reset in front of your spec but as I'm not sure I'm going to use either of them more than once in the same show that benefit is of dubious value to me. If I want to repeat this sort of trick more than once in a show I would use the Thought Transmitter but then that doesn't have the 'innocent look' that both these pads have.


Rating for the Mind Spy: 9/10

Thanks for the comparison. PMed you.

Can you just elaborate on a couple of point re this review.

When the paper is all used is it a simple matter of buying a new notebook to insert or do you need to buy the whole device again.

Secondly which is the most un-detectable, the Janus pad or the Mind Spy?

On the Mind Spy can you instruct the spec to draw whatever, tear out the page & close the book so it's all done at a fair pace thus reducing the risk of them discovering things they shouldn't?

could people please try and check if there are existing reviews for items BEFORE starting a new thread, it keeps the reviews forum a tidier place.


it only takes a minute or so to use the "Search" function (its in between "FAQ" and "Usergroups" at the top of the page) to find out if there is an existing thread

Thank you