talkmagic.co.uk

Hi,

I want to learn mentalism with books.

Because of that, today I bought the "Hoy Book test".

But I want to buy the "Impromptu book test".

The method and the effect looks very similar. Because of that, I have some questions:

1. If I have the "Hoy Book Test", is it recommendable to buy "Impromptu book Test". (Is it the same trick or method?).

2. Is "The Impromptu Book Test" 100% reliable (accuracy)?

Your recommendations will be very appreciated.

Thanks.

A. Chan.

I would stick to the Hoy test and also try to get Val Andrews Unfaked Book Test from Martin Breese International..

If you're interested in book tests, you might want to have a look through Karl Fulve's Self Working Mental Magic and Annemanns Practical Mental Magic. They both have a nice book test section in them with some very good ideas.

AND! If you really really enjoy Booktests, and your Mentalism is up to scratch, buy Tomo's Full Scripted Naked Book Test.

I was thinking maybe a book test for a finale of a mini mentalist routine. I've got karl Fulves self working mentalism, so probably be one from there unless anyone wants to recommend any on the market right now. Just wondered what people thought of book tests as a finisher, are the reactions good enough.

They certainly can be good enough to finish with if performed right. I finish with a version of the news paper test from Fulves which always goes down really well.

I was considering maybe the want ad test using the relationship personals as these could be done for a fun effect if there are some suitably humorous candidates.

A Kind Word of Warning (along with my not so typical sermon)

Last I checked Book Tests were not a category of performance but rather a single effect/test/challenge set within the greater whole of a psychic-styled presentation. Then again, given how boorish 99% of all book tests tend to be I can't for the life of me wrap my head around the idea of anyone sitting through more than one such demonstration, prayfully, a short one at that.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with knowing two or three methods for a seemingly improvisational Book Test. The Hoy was the original and is a classic from which at least a half-dozen individuals have offered "Variations" to but little in way of actual "originality"... it's the kind of thing that goes back to the Illusion days of glory when someone would copy another person's idea but claim it different because their box was blue and not red... same basic mind-set of doing the same old thing using negligibly different methods or mods of approach. Then again, to do any act that is 100% scripted in another person's words is... well, signs of a rank amateur at best, in that your patter can telegraph the outcome.

I have and still do programs composed of various book and magazine oriented effects each year as part of an annual book drive and literacy awareness program I've been doing for about a decade now... let's face it, I'm working these promotions within libraries and book retail outlets most of the time so it would make sense to use what it at hand... but doing so cautiously!

If you have had one in 10,000 books freely chosen and properly identified a word, picture or whatever on a freely selected page once... you've proven you can do it and don't have to do it again. In fact, you won't get the same kind of investment from your audience and the redundancy cheapens the demonstration... not my opinion but rather, my experience. Not because I'm a "poor" showman but because I'm wasn't thinking about how the audience would view such things, looking instead at what my ego wanted to demonstrate... going against the words of wisdom offered to me by those that had been around the block a few times more than I had.

When I do my book drive programs these days I promote the idea of personal potential via both, the power of the mind but more to the point, how you empower the mind via books, school, etc. Then as part of "the big deal" that's when we toss in the book test as a kind of punctuation to it all. BUT there are other ways of exploiting book tests and the systems that make them work... no one ever said you have to present them as a feature, did they?

How many of you ever looked at book tests "backwards"? Seeing how you could exploit the methods as a tool that will allow you to create a completely non-related end result?

Yes, you can use a gaffed book as a "key" or part of a force situation. I won't tell you how, but I can assure you that it's done. But then there are other ways of using that same collection of ideas; including routines in which an audience member accomplishes the very task we performers are normally accepting credit for doing -- a change of position that in today's market, shines a bit brighter than the neo-classic head trips of old.

Eugene Burger pointed out something long ago about learning 6 of everything... well, if you learn 6 book tests -- I mean you know them like the back of your hand or better, it's probably way more than you'll ever find yourself consistently needing or using throughout the balance of your lifetime.

if you know Hoy, and you know paul curry's Out of This World, with some thinking, you can link the hoy in with word-cards that you would adapt from OOTW...

the only drawback, and is not so impromptu is that you will have to supply the books yourself rather than grab them off a bookshelf if you're round a friends house...

if its a gig, then not so much of a problem...but for family and friends, hey - just dump the books on their shelves an hour before performing it..

I'm exceptionally guilty of loading gaffed books or duplicate magazines into the bookshelves of a patron or even on their end tables with the other magazines... I can't recall a single client ever questioning the fact that such books were on their book shelves, etc. It's an odd "blindness" I guess you could say.

Chuck Hickok has some nice ideas in his 'Books Galore' in Mentalism Incoporated...I have been combining a number, book test, and card mind reading demonstration that works particularly well for some of the engagements that I have been doing.

For my stage show I sometimes do a single word reveal and then a full sentence reveal for a combined presentation. For after dinner and small parties, I prefer Luna...Then of course, I regularly feature my own book test...

I can also highly recommend Iain's Hateful Page.

I like to have a spectator do the reveal the word or phone number if I'm doing a newspaper ad test. I'll have them select a phone number from a bag of different numbers at the start and ask them to hold on to it. An lo and behold the number they picked matches the one on the selected advert. Dress that up with some psycho mumbo jumbo and it's a very good effect which always gets great reactions.

Wild Card wrote:AND! If you really really enjoy Booktests, and your Mentalism is up to scratch, buy Tomo's Full Scripted Naked Book Test.

Thanks for the plug!

Earlier this year a man called Dick Christian contacted me via Dr Todd. He's writing a book about book tests. He knows of over 1000 of them dating back to the 1890s and has organised them into 29 types by primary method. He says the Naked Book Test is unique in appearing to be the real deal. Personally, I would have thought at least one other would have come close to the same method. After all, 1000 is a heck of a lot of variation, but apparently not.

Tomo wrote:

Wild Card wrote:AND! If you really really enjoy Booktests, and your Mentalism is up to scratch, buy Tomo's Full Scripted Naked Book Test.

Thanks for the plug!

Earlier this year a man called Dick Christian contacted me via Dr Todd. He's writing a book about book tests. He knows of over 1000 of them dating back to the 1890s and has organised them into 29 types by primary method. He says the Naked Book Test is unique in appearing to be the real deal. Personally, I would have thought at least one other would have come close to the same method. After all, 1000 is a heck of a lot of variation, but apparently not.

strangely, he told me that mine was kinda unique too for two elements of my book test...but hey, what do we know tomo! we use forums..

ditto for mine...in that he never saw one quite like it....