Tired of doing tricks? Bored of drawing duplications that only involve one person while the rest of the group sits back and watches?
Do you want a dynamic framework that involves the whole group? Do you want methods that rank amateurs wouldn't dream of doing? Do you want a killer performance piece for your next party?
Welcome to Intelligent Design. It is a presentational framework you can mold to your personality and to individual performing needs. It gives you room to participate with your audience and brings them into the action dynamically with often surprising results.
This isn't a drawing duplication you do for one person; this is a shared experience you create for a room full of people.
The method is built on solid mentalism principles and has been performed in every possible setting with devastating results. You literally become the life of the party.
Intelligent Design is for the smart mentalist who enjoys free form performance pieces that demand him to stay in the moment and create a shared experience for his audience. Intelligent Design was created with you in mind.
Price
$29.95 from Hocus Pocus
I Say
Well the blurb is all very nicely vague, but the effect is pretty solid. Essentially it's a group drawing dup, everyone (limited to how many pieces of paper and pens you have) gets to have a go. You of course get it bang on, everyone else... well that's down to luck! But don't let that put you off, this effect is all about presentation and an experienced mentalist will be able to milk it for all it's worth. That's a point worth repeating, to perform this to the best effect, you really need to have some performace experience, it's not a hit-and-run effect by any means. To perform this as a 'trick' would be devaluing what can be a really fantastic group experience. It also requires knowledge of (some fairly basic) mnemonics, which most, if not all, mentalists should be well versed in.
Another fine selling point, which really ought to be mentioned in the blurb, is this is totally impromptu. It doesn't just seem impromptu to your audience, it really is.
I bought this in a CUPS spree over a year ago, read it, thought "that's nice" and consigned it to the dusty end of the magic shelf. Only recently, when thinking about group effects did I dust it off and looked at it with wiser and (slightly) more experienced eyes. I'm glad I did as this is now my primary informal group effect.
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)
Technically, a 2 due to the mnemonics, everything else a 1.
Performance wise, for confident performers only.
Summary
If you look at this as a 'single effect' then $29.95 doesn't seem very good value for money. If you look at it, as the author intended, as a framework from which to build a very nice performance, the price is a little more justified though I still feel it's just a teeny weeny bit overpriced.
The technical aspects are, really, quite insignificant unless you have difficulty with mnemonics. It really could be used in almost any venue/setting from stage to parlour. Even a table hopper might get use out of this. To date, I've only performed this at social occasions... parties and dinners etc. and for me, this is were it's most powerful, allowing people to discuss each other's drawings with one another, creating a real buzz about what's just happened.
7/10 - A few basic mentalism principles rolled into one lovely performace framework. Would score higher if it were a few quid cheaper which I think it deserves to be. There again, I'm tight
