talkmagic.co.uk

On a few sites I have seen an item called the Spirit Spelling Board, a quija board type effect which sells from between £120-£199 (depending on the site).
I have looked and looked and cannot find any reviews for this effect. It sounds good and would be ideal for my show but I was wondering whether it was worth the money.
Has anyone purchased, used or seen one of these in action?

I would be grateful for any feedback as I am tempted to invest in it and don't want to waste my money if it's not as good as it sounds.

If I were you rather than wasting time and money on a gimmicked board I'd simply by the Jim Magus book (Jacobs Publishing) THE TALKING BOARD. You'll end up with techniques that can be done even without an actual board (using flash cards or improvised slips of paper with letters & numbers written on them) as well as routines with a standard Parker Bros. game board or one you've made at home.

I WASTED $400.00 on a custom made talking board about two years ago that has NEVER worked... it don't even look as good as it could have due to some very shoddy craftsmanship. I've kept it around because the concept behind how it worked is sound, it just needs to be taken a few steps up the scale... which I will be doing sometime soon. Nonetheless, I get far more out of the $35.00 Magus manuscript and the $50.00 or so I've invested into a real board game and other bits like a rare earth and some loops... I can go anywhere and have a Seance without all the headaches a gaffed board delivers, it's that simple.

Two Other Quick Notes... if you are planning on buying something like this for the current Halloween season DON'T! You wont be rehearsed, nor prepared enough to pull it off. Go ahead and buy one if you feel you must, but spend the next year working with it, studying other material out there on the art of Seance, Ouija and Ideomotor based techniques and create a presentation that flows, makes sense and goes further than naming the card someone just pulled from the deck or some other horse puckey bit of said nature. I'd highly recommend you get a copy of Docc Hilford's $1,000.00 Seance manuscript in that it is quasi-adaptable to the OUIJA idea but much more unique and in many ways, less "suspect" (more real)

The other thing is to get good with it then come June or July of next year, hit up a local pub, hotel or Inn about doing Seance dinner shows. Give the owners/management a FREE demonstration and get things in place BEFORE August so that you can start your advertising, group marketing, generating media attention, and so forth well ahead of the Halloween season (most Halloween articles are written in August and September).

Hope this helps you out

Thanks very much for you advice, it is much appreciated. I will try to obtain a copy of the Jim Magus book you mention.

I was thinking of adding the board to my show in a few months time (after a bit of practice) as the effect (it flies into the air, apparently without strings or magnets) could be an entertaining item in my show which is a variety one.

The talking board you mention, I may be wrong, is a more expensive type of board. There is also one that apparently spells out what you send it via remote control. How effective or worthwhile this is, I don't know, but again it is very expensive.

Truth of the matter is you don't need any kind of mechanical or gimmicked board. I've both used and designed several but find that I can do a lot more with fewer concerns and headaches either working with alphabet cards or a standard OUIJA type set up.

I have always hated that floating board in that too many fools are going to start doing a waltz with the damn thing vs. a short and sweet manifestation that would seem rather "imposing" (obviously shaking up the performer a bit and resulting in an expression of fear due to lost control... when this is done in a subtle way it's amazingly powerful).

I'll PM you with some thoughts But the real key is to keep things simple.

Thanks for your advice Craig, it's much appreciated.