Name: Web Test by Pete McCabe
Available from: HERE
Price: $25 / £16
Maker: Pete McCabe
Examinable: Yes, up to a point. The spectator can handle the prop freely, but after the revelation you wouldn't want her to examine it too thoroughly.
Difficulty: 3/10 (see below)
Out of 10: 8/10
Effect
THE BLURB:
You hand the spectator a computer printout from the web site of the Rhine Institute. It contains records for hundreds of people the institute tested for ESP. The spectator just thinks of a name from the list. You read their mind and tell them the name. It’s that direct. It’s that easy. It’s that strong.
• Packs small: 7 sheets of paper stapled together
• Plays big: direct, devastating mindreading
• Works in formal shows, walkaround, casual settings
• Easy to learn, easy to perform
• Lasts forever—print as many as you need
• Completely self-contained
• Built-in presentation, customized with your name
An impressive telepathic demonstration that fits in your pocket.
—Max Maven
A great piece for almost everyone.
—Paul Green
Comments
I SAY:
I really like this. It's a great little piece to keep in your pocket. As a prop, it makes a very natural lead-in to "how I got interested in this mind-reading stuff" and the fact it's also got a powerful effect built in is an incredible bonus! In case you missed it in the blurb above, the PDF you receive will be personalised with the surname of your choice - so you can show a member of your family took part in Dr Rhine's experiments at Duke University back in the 1930s. They seemed to do very well. Have you inherited their powers?
The effect is very clean. Nothing is written down, there is no page forcing, dice rolling, billet switching or any other suspicious jiggery pokery.
Although there are no sleights or other moves involved, some memory work is required to perform this effect. Either that or a cheeky crib hidden about your person, but IMO it shouldn't come to that. The other names in the list are very well chosen. They're memorable - making the cramming very simple (hence the 3/10 difficulty rating above).
I'm hardly a mnemonic powerhouse and I managed to get the list committed to memory in one evening so I could reel it off both forwards and backwards. My other half then spent a few days chucking random letters at me over the weekend to ensure I could recall under fire.
But here's the best bit, not only are the names easy to remember, they lend themselves to creative revelations.
"It's almost like the name is made of two words, does that make sense to you?"
"You're thinking of a famous person who has this name, am I right?"
"There's an object in the name, do you think you could draw it?"
All in all, this is a VERY well designed effect with some brilliant thinking. I believe the method is based on vintage methodology, dating back to a 1930s magazine test, but incorporating some modern subtleties.
My only criticism, and it is very minor, is that once you have revealed the name, there is nothing else. Perhaps I'm being overly demanding, but I'd have liked to see a second revelation - some other effect with the various numbers and dates on the list. There's a whole load of other data that could have had revelations built in IMHO.
That aside, this is an effect that I have already used several times, that has a beautiful built-in back story and gets great reactions. I can see myself using it a lot more in the future and at less than £16 it seems pretty good value to me.
Oh, and because it's a PDF, if your copy gets ripped, coffee stained or eaten by moths, you can just print another one. Web Test, it's for life, not just for Christmas.
Jheff has also reviewed it on Marketplace of the Mind HERE.
