A Book at Midnight – Lebanon Circle Magic
(http://www.lebanoncircle.co.uk/ABaM.html" target="_blank" target="_blank)
The Effect (from the website)
"This is a self working baffling effect that is so simple to perform it almost feels like real magic! The mechanics are invisible and foolproof, no gimmicks, no stacked decks, no memory work - just a great story and the imagination of your audience. Transport two minds back in time to the same place, make them hear the same sounds, see the same things. Is it a demonstration of hypnosis? Time travel? Or psychic synchronicity? You decide but either way your audience will be driven to insanity trying to figure this one out!
• 24 commemorative bookmarks from a mysterious bookshop situated just in the home town of the American H.P Lovecraft are shown to two volunteers.
• Each bookmark bears the title of one of Lovecraft's literary works, they are asked to mix the deck and take 12 each.
• They are then asked to imagine they are looking at a large grandfather clock in his study and to visualize a time (a number between 1 and 12)
• Each bookmark is then shown to the volunteers in turn, they are asked to remember the book title that corresponds to the hour they are thinking of.
• They are told to visualize Lovecraft writing the title of the book they have remembered and then to write it themselves nice and large onto a pad or whiteboard.
• When they turn their pads round to show the audience...
• THEY WERE THINKING OF THE SAME TITLE!"
Cost £34.99 (£3.99 shipping UK/£5.99 shipping international)
Difficulty 1 = easy to do
Review
There’s a lot to love with this effect. It’s easy to do, but baffling for the audience, and when performed with the right mood and atmosphere it really does pack a punch. I recently performed this at a library event and ‘sent’ the two volunteers on a journey back to Lovecraft’s study and asked them to imagine the clock on the wall and the book on the shelf. Rather than getting them to write down the title, I asked them to look at each other and say the title at the same time. Of course impossibly they named the same book!
“He just blew our mind!” was the feedback given to the event organiser!
Also, what’s really nice is that you can pretty much perform this anywhere – as part of a stage or parlour show – or in the case above a busy conference event. The book markets are lovely and very good quality. The fact that I could freely hand them out afterwards (talking about Lovecraft’s work) baffled the audience even more. To be honest you can’t find more ‘clean’ effect.
You might guess from this review that I love this effect. It’s really refreshing for me to find something I can work with so immediately.
Recommended.
On a side note the packaging was really good quality, and you get a free badge. ☺
