talkmagic.co.uk

NB. I did a rather extensive search on the forum for this but couldn't find anything; this seemed odd as it looks like it's been available for a while, so perhaps my search was not as extensive as I thought? Anyway...

The Effect

'The Ultimate Mind Reading Trick' (available from www.ultimatemindreadingtrick.com).

You present a spectator or spectators with ten small cards each with ten different countries on each card. You explain that there's a total of 100 countries spread over the cards in a random order. You shuffle the cards they pick one at random and think of one of the countries on the card. They can change their mind and their card as many times as they like; once they've settled on a country you hand the card back, shuffle the cards and turn them over to reveal the same countries printed in a different order on the back. You show the spectator each card one after the other and ask them to say stop when they see their country. After this it's simply a case of revealing their 'thought of' country in whichever impressive way you like!

Cost
$9.97 (supposedly down from $14.75, but that seems more like a sales pitch than a genuine discount)


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)

Method wise it's a 1 - the trick is, as with all self-working tricks, sold on the presentation, so if you find that aspect of magic difficult then you'll find this difficult.

Review

OK; I'm conflicted about this trick. I was shown it by a friend who has just got interested in magic and mentalism and has been buying tricks from various websites of different varieties of repute left, right and centre (I have since lent him my copy of '13 Steps', given him a print out of Craig Browning's excellent "Beginners Guide" to Mentalism and pointed him in the direction of this forum, so he's on a much more structured path and doing rather well) but this was the only one he showed me that really impressed me. Nevertheless there are pros and cons which I'll now list.

PROS:
-Well, for all its faults, this is a solid, clean, self-working mentlism trick that, with a strong presentation, can really wow your spectators. The concept on which it works is also so specific to this particular trick that it'll probably flummox most magicians too.

-The cards are very easy to take around with you so make a great impromptu effect and as it's a travel themed trick the topic comes up enough in conversation for you to work it seamlessly into an evening out with your mates, rather than interrupting the flow and getting a reputation as "annoying magic boy"

-It's good for beginners in the field. For one thing it demands that you focus on your presentation rather than worrying about a swami falling out forgetting your memory system or anything like that and secondly the reactions you'll get from it will be a great confidence booster (they certainly were for my friend any way) which will encourage the beginner to become ambitious and bold.

-Printing the cards is easy enough as you are given a pre-rendered template to download upon payment.

CONS:
- I'm not sure if it's value for money. Sure it's a cool trick and if you're a beginner with some cash to burn why not. But if you're more experienced, or are a beginner with a copy of Corinda, then this seems like a waste of money for a self-working trick. Bottom line if you know what you're doing with mentalism and you've got plenty of self-workers you can crack out then this is a bit pricey for what it is. That said there is a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee on the site which I guess you could take advantage of if you were so inclined.

- The delivery of trick is a bit naff. Instead of an email or link to a .PDF you are immediately transferred to a webpage with the method, a video demo, a video tutorial and embedded links to either PDFs or Word Doc templates for the cards. Aside from your receipt from the payment vendor you receive no other emails so the only way to come back to the material is to bookmark the webpage. Not hugely inconvenient but it doesn't quite have the security of an email.

Overall

Ultimate? I think not.
It's something you'd find padding out the back of someone's "self working mentalism" book and nothing more.
Walk on.