talkmagic.co.uk

Hi guys.

Just a heads up that I have a new book test coming out in the next couple of weeks.

‘STREETWISE‘

A book test that is so much more. It could be remote viewing, a bizarre ability to outdo a London cabbies knowledge or plain simple mindreading. Several strong effects in one simple London Map book.
* A street, road or lane is thought of from the index and you can name it.
* Several areas of London are thought of by 3 or 4 members of the audience and you can name them all.
* Any road/street etc, on any of the map pages is again merely thought of by a spectator and you know exactly where they are.
And best of all - It makes sense to use the book.

It is an idea I have had for six or seven years now but because of the work involved in designing the actual book it has taken a long time to come to fruition. I am just waiting on my proof copy to check that it looks as good as I hope. I have always thought that if a book needs to be given to a spectator for the purposes of a book test then the reasons for that should be clear. Hopefully with streetwise the issue is clear that you want them to think of streets or area's of London that are not the obvious or most most popular choices (Oxford Circus Leicester square etc) then handing them a map book makes sense. Presented correctly it will be more about your knowledge of London than the simple reading of a word.

The book will be a 206 page paperback map-book of London, very similar to the A-Z of London and others of that type. The first 99 pages are maps and the rest is the alphabetical index.

Why London? Well it is an internationally known city so that in the presentation you can say that you have just returned and spent a lot of time travelling by taxi through the old and indeed new streets, gaining an uncanny ability, strong sense of direction or however you choose to get into it.

I have lots of thoughts on the presentation and routining which will be well covered in the accompanying instructions.

Any questions (within reason) then please fire away.

Oh price will be £95 direct from LULU Publishing. Or £85 from myself direct (This method will probably take longer though depending on if I have stock and where I am in the world when you order it

Cheers,

John.

sounds really cool John. Its nice to have something other than words in a book test.

John, can I ask a question.

I have a routine where I use your blindfold to solve a Rubik's cube from memory (Rubik's Remembered). And if this can be done at the same time, while I am sat down, blindfolded and they are holding the book, I would love to use this as a demonstration of how I memorised the London map.

I think it would be cool. Is that possible under those conditions, and could the presentation "look" right?

P.S
Awesome blindfolded routine


Tom
xx

Hi Tom,

in theory yes. You would have a little memory work to do and you would need to plan the audience/spectator control (as you do with all blindfold stuff) but yes it could be used for that.

Cheers,

John.

archini wrote:Hi Tom,

in theory yes. You would have a little memory work to do and you would need to plan the audience/spectator control (as you do with all blindfold stuff) but yes it could be used for that.

Cheers,

John.

When you say "plan audiance/spectator control" what do you mean? I have no problem with that for Rubik's Remembered, as it is ... in my hands all the time.

Eshly wrote:When you say "plan audiance/spectator control" what do you mean?

You know when you perform and you have an audience that you can't see and therefore can only communicate verbally?

Eshly wrote:

archini wrote:Hi Tom,

in theory yes. You would have a little memory work to do and you would need to plan the audience/spectator control (as you do with all blindfold stuff) but yes it could be used for that.

Cheers,

John.

When you say "plan audiance/spectator control" what do you mean? I have no problem with that for Rubik's Remembered, as .... it is in my hands all the time.

yes... but your doing it.

Tom, you don’t see the book when they decide what to choose, so a blindfold will add nothing to the overall effect.

and, of all the presentations you can give a book test, the " look how clever i am i can remember a whole book" presentation, is the worst.
There isn't anything remotely magical or mysterious about remembering books.

Actors do it all the time.

daleshrimpton wrote:

Eshly wrote:

archini wrote:Hi Tom,

in theory yes. You would have a little memory work to do and you would need to plan the audience/spectator control (as you do with all blindfold stuff) but yes it could be used for that.

Cheers,

John.

When you say "plan audiance/spectator control" what do you mean? I have no problem with that for Rubik's Remembered, as ... it is in my hands all the time.

yes... but your doing it.

Tom, you don’t see the book when they decide what to choose, so a blindfold will add nothing to the overall effect.

and, of all the presentations you can give a book test, the " look how clever i am i can remember a whole book" presentation, is the worst.
There isn't anything remotely magical or mysterious about remembering books.

Actors do it all the time.

Its a segment of my act which is based around the brains ability to memorize things. During the routine currantly I get people to call out 20 items and mix up a rubik's cube; I then memorise the cube in a few seconds and am then blindfolded.

While I solve the cube from memory I ask for numbers between 1 and 20 from the audiance, and if they say 13 I name the 13th item.

Ofcourse thats simple mnumonics, but it would be nice to extend this somewhat if I could have the london map memorized at the same time.


I agree with you Dale, it is very much a "hey look at me" routine, but if you have any suggestions please PM me, because theres no way I'm not doing Rubik's remembered after the weeks and weeks of practise it took


Tom
xx

Sounds great John!

daleshrimpton wrote:of all the presentations you can give a book test, the " look how clever i am i can remember a whole book" presentation, is the worst.

I would say that is a matter of presentation, Mr Brown did an excellent job with this concept (of a London A-Z coincidently) in The Gathering, albeit the way it was used to build towards the ultimate finalé was the truly entertaining part but it took nothing away from the earlier presentation in my opinion.

A_n_t wrote:I would say that is a matter of presentation, Mr Brown did an excellent job with this concept (of a London A-Z coincidently) in The Gathering, albeit the way it was used to build towards the ultimate finalé was the truly entertaining part but it took nothing away from the earlier presentation in my opinion.

He also did a book test in one of his early series. I can't remember the details now, but it was brilliantly done.

Of course, my not being able to remember is going to bug the hell out of me now until I go back through all my DVD's and find the right programme.

A_n_t wrote:

daleshrimpton wrote:of all the presentations you can give a book test, the " look how clever i am i can remember a whole book" presentation, is the worst.

I would say that is a matter of presentation, Mr Brown did an excellent job with this concept (of a London A-Z coincidently) in The Gathering, albeit the way it was used to build towards the ultimate finalé was the truly entertaining part but it took nothing away from the earlier presentation in my opinion.

and there is the difference. Tom wants to do it, without that ultimate finale.

Hi Tom,

you only need to peek for one element of the things that the book can do. Which as some people have pointed out is a little pointless. The blindfold would add little to this, if they went on to draw something or do something visual to do with the selections then maybe a blindfold would make sense.
What I meant be audience control has also been pointed out. When you are giving instructions to a spectator without wearing a blindfold you can see if they are following you correctly, make eye contact, nod etc etc. With a blindfold it is harder to control and make non verbal cues.

Hope that helps.

John.

Thanks all, Well it is now live so visit the magician's page of my website http://web.me.com/johnarcher/John_Arche ... _page.html
(Username: elmsley Password: burger)

Buy buy buy.... or wait and see what people say. I know how this works.

J

More like wait until the bank account builds up again...