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[seige]

Silver Bullet Lite - by Lee Earle

Cost/supplier
About £20-£25 from selected retailers

A routine made possible with this utility - by Seige
You're at a friends house. They've seen you doing magic before - and they love it. But you tell them you're into mind-reading and ESP more these days, and offer to do something impossible.

Take a notepad from your pocket, and a pen. Let them be examined, if you like - they're innocent. You write a single word on the pad, and place it face-down on the table, where nobody can tamper.

You explain that you've just written down a word on the pad which you will force to crop up in conversation - a 'common' word.

To prove it, ask one of the friends to grab a book from a bookshelf - any book. They do. Ask them to flick through and stop at any page, they do.

Ask them to remember the last word on the page. They do. Tell them to concentrate.

The book is placed on the table - closed. You reach over, look at the last page - "Look, there's 300 pages in the book. There's a lot of words in there." Place the book back on the table and lift up the pad...

"So, if I'd chosen a word which I would force to crop up in conversation, and I were to tell you that out of 300 pages in that book, the word would be the last one on the page you chose, that would be pretty amazing?"

Ask them to clearly announce their word, and at the exact same moment, you turn the pad around. There is the 'Common' word - big and bold.

Difficulty - anywhere between 1 and 5 - depends how adventurous you are![b]
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used[b], 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

[b]Review
The Silver Bullet Lite is a wonderful thing. Disguised cleverly as a lip-balm, it will transform your mentalism routines from 'predictable' to magician proof.

The routine described above is just one of the many uses - ways to divine what a spectator is merely *thinking*. It's diabolical method is identical to the original Silver Bullet, only now it's more compact and always ready for action.

The method uses no mirrors, smoke, forces, magnets, aadvarks, drilling, pumping, mining, suggestions - in fact - you're right first time, every time. There are no multi-outs, no stooges, no memory work. It's absolutely great!

The actual 'thing' that does all the work is invisible. In fact, that's almost true - you can't see it. And that's part of the charm... you can finish clean. No inky fingers, no markings, no lemon juice (?).

In fact, the only hard thing about using Silver Bullet is that you'll be asked to do it again straight away - and of course, you can - instantly.

It's uses are almost only limited by your imagination... there's 10 routines included to get your grey matter whirring - or just use the routines supplied. The effects are not just confined to book tests... there's a lot more besides... using cards, banknotes, business cards - plenty to feed a mentalist mind.

The bottom line
This is an absolutely great little utility device. It's one of those little things you marvel at for it's ingenuity and simplicity (owners of such items as the Xpert will know what I'm talking about).

But what means more than anything to me with this utility is that when performed correctly, it's unfathomable - even by your most scrutinous spectators.

Overall
Quality - 10/10, effect - 10/10, Value for money - 10/10...
It's just great...

[roman59]

Siege

You forgot to mention {EDITED - SEE BELOW}

Great review though

Cheers

Roman - thanks for the concern, but I purposely 'forgot to mention' what you wrote... I'll PM you...

[Mandrake]

Bearing in mind the review referred to above for the original Silver Bullet was less than good, is the Lite version better or just better value for money?

[seige]

Whoa! Rewind!

I've never used the 'non-lite' version, although I assume that apart from the neat, compact new design using the Chapstick, the actual method is exactly the same.

A few myths cleared up, firstly...

I think that quite a lot of people buy tricks and effects and just use them as-is. You buy a packet effect or a gimmick, like for instance, the Dynamic Coins.

Yeah, OK, you can follow the instructions and just do the trick - but I think a mark of someone who's really into this sort of thing is someone who thinks - 'Hang on, I've an idea - I could do it this way round...'

This utility is not going to turn an amateur magician or a member of the public into a mindreader. Not by my estimations, anyway.

What it DOES do (and does well) is give a creative magician ammunition and scope to be able to devise ingenious ways of divining information from a spectator's thoughts.

The second myth revolves around the flak which was generated by the original Silver Bullet, by Earle. The main concern there was the price - originally $70-$90. This is EXACTLY THE SAME EFFECT but comes in a different package. The concept and method have been around for many moons - but this is by far the cleanest, most simple way of utilising that method I have seen.

So, it IS better value for money!
That's the bottom line - it's more streamlined, and a heck of a lot cheaper (although I recall that there may have been a demo video with the original)

It's similar to many things magical - don't be put off by what you get for your money materialistically speaking - it's the thought and effect that you're paying for...

[Mandrake]

Thanks - that clears up a great deal - the original review said OK to Good but expensive - and also covered a lot of reasons why this isn't necessarily a bad feature.

I'm not putting it on my shopping list just yet though!

[bananafish]

It sounds really good to me - assuming it isn't over used that is.

I mean a book test you can genuinely do with any borrowed book at all, without seeing it first has to be extremely good and Seiges routine is a killer.

[seige]

Tom's right... this is a total shocker. It works, full stop. Keep it with you wherever you go!

I've even had the pleasure of accidentally having left this in my coat pocket, and performing an impromptu book test on my girlfriend in Waterstones Bookstore. She literally randomly selected a book (controversially, it was a large hardbound cookery book - but I managed to still pull it off) and chose a page. I did the business and read the last sentence on the page. She was gobsmacked.

There's no destruction, marking or tearing. No liquids or dye removers.

It's as Tom says - leave the mechanics to work themselves, then apply the psychology. Gorgeously clean and quick.

[Mandrake]

Oh boy, you pair are really in for severe grief when Mrs.Mandrake sees the credit card bill - you do realise that I now have to go get this just to satisfy my curiosity? And do you care? No? No? Nor me!!

[midge25]

this looks like my next purchase

can i just ask anyone who has this,compared to the other book tests you know where does this rate

i use val andrews book test which needs a bit of setting up or
the marc paul book test no setting up but perhaps BIG B**LS, not to be caught

[SharkTrager]

Was just wondering, can the Silver Bullet Gimmick be used on a deck of cards?

I know the method - just thought there may be a use here and it's not mentioned by Lee Earle.

[seige]

SharkTrager...
If you know the method, you know the answer to your question...

Midge...
It compares VERY well to other book tests, because it's literally impromptu. You can walk into a house, spy a bookshelf, and as long as one very trivial criteria is met - you can booktest instantly.

No memory tricks, no glims or shiners, no stooges... it does what it says.

[magicdiscoman]

so even a MagicDiscoMan can use it wow sounds great can we have a vid demo soon please, i asume this will do for mentalism what rear view mirrors did for pedestrian fatalities.

[seige]

It's not really the sort of effect that would benefit from a demo video. Not at all.

And you DO need to be dextrous.

Basically - all you need to be able to do to perform this trick is click your fingers. If you can click fingers - you can do it.

I suppose that's cryptic, but owners will know what I mean.

OK, get your thinking caps on...

[Scott F. Guinn]

I bought the original and was very disappointed at the vlue to price ratio. The video added nothing that wasn't in the instructions, and although the "bullet" was nicely made, the "special something" that went in it was provided in a VERY scanty amount, with a note that more could be purchased from the manufacturer. The bullet was WAY too large--very noticeable in your pocket (is that a bullet in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?). While the included routines were very good, I just felt the item was much too large and cumbersome for practical real world performance, and I sold mine at a loss.

However, now that it is in a smaller and more reasonably priced version, I may well purchase it...