talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
They Say
Imagine for a moment that you have 1 to 5 people in front of you; you tell them you want to conduct an experiment into the subconscious and you conduct several tests to prove your powers.
This is all done under test conditions, and the results are awesome.

To begin with a bag is shown and the contents tipped out onto the table for everyone to examine. 5 stones are shown four white and one black. They are placed into the bag and shaken to mix them up.
You then instruct the spectator to take one stone and keep their hand closed so no one sees the stone!
This is repeated with the other spectators until the bag is empty and placed to one side.
You then divine who does not have the black stone without looking, peeking or asking any questions! All it takes is a glance into their minds eye and you correctly eliminate the white stones
In fact the spectators do not have any idea which stone they hold, as they have not seen the colour either!
You do this till you are left with two spectators you then go on to correctly divine the location of the black stone and of course who holds the white stone.
Or of course vice versa, this alone is a jaw dropping moment!

Now as if it needed any explanation this in itself is a wonderful feat of mindreading, but wait there is more.
The spectator with the black stone is invited to conduct another experiment.
You have them place the black stone and a white stone into the bag and shake the stones about to mix them
(YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE BAG AT ALL DURING THIS PROCESS). They are then asked to take a stone in each hand but not to look at them just place their hands outstretched and of course keep them closed!
You them take the spectators hands in yours and again after a little talk of the sub conscious being an extremely powerful entity you correctly divine the hand, which holds the black and the white stone.
This can be instantly repeated with a second person with no reset at all.

Cost
£7.99 from Unleash Your Dreams


Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
1


Review
Very accurate blurb, it does exactly what it says on the tin. A nice method for Kurotsuke style effects with the addition of the second 'stone in which hand' phase.
I genuinely rather love this effect. I've been a fan of Kurotsuke from the moment I saw it but since owning SoD I've not bothered with Max's handling. One of the advantages of this method is that you know, instantly, which spec has the black stone. This gives you far more room to play with in creating your own routines with it.
The stones themselves are just that, stones. This is a particularly nice point if you're painting a nice historical or mythical story to your routine without having that slightly rubbish cop-out of "not having the original stones so we'll be using ping pong balls instead". Admittedly this becomes a drawback for the more 'modern' mentalist who might want to go down the body language/lie detector route where ping pong balls would be more fitting.
The nature of the gimmick for the 'which hand' phase is such that it can lend itself to other 'which hand' effects, you're not limited to the stones included, allowing you to perform far more seemingly impromptu demonstrations of that particular talent.
You get absolutely everything you require to start performing this effect instantly, the stones and gimmick all in a nice black velvet-effect drawsting bag. Perfect for table-hoppers, the whole thing takes up next to no pocket space.


Overall
For the effect itself, 9/10. When you consider that it's only £7.99 (Yes, the cost above was not a typo!) it goes up to a 9.5

well that sounds brilliant - and at that price I can't see how you can go wrong. I perform body language a lot still as I love that type of effect.

I personally wouldnt perform as described as to me telling them which hand the stone is in without them even knowing makes it into just a magic trick - I personally feel it needs the audience to be aware of th emethod you are using - whether it is body language, FACS muscle reading or whatever - so I would always make sure they know which hand.

I would also consider performing the 50/50 effect of the which hand first - and actually climaxing with five people taking stones. I daresay though that if you get each spectator to hold both fists out you can not only get the spectator, but also which hand the spectator has it in - of course not knowing the method I don't know if that is true for sure, but it sounds like it could be an option.

Anyway - thanks for the review...

bananafish wrote:well that sounds brilliant - and at that price I can't see how you can go wrong.

I think you're spot on there, in fact I'd go so far as to say that you should buy this even if you never intend on performing the effect, you still get some lovely little gimmicks (and a nice velvet pouch) to incorporate into other effects. For £7.99? That's cheaper than a few pints down the pub.

bananafish wrote:I personally wouldnt perform as described as to me telling them which hand the stone is in without them even knowing makes it into just a magic trick - I personally feel it needs the audience to be aware of th emethod you are using - whether it is body language, FACS muscle reading or whatever - so I would always make sure they know which hand.

I quite agree... whatever your method of divination is, I think you need the specs to know which stone they have. Despite me going down the psychic route, which is possibly the only credible way of performing it without the specs knowing which stone they have, I still prefer them to know so I get the best reaction from them. If you tell someone they have the black or white stone and then they have to look to check if you're right, you lose that brilliant 'instant' whammy... and that transfers to the audience. I want to see an immediate 'wow' on their face which gets a better reaction from the audience too.

Re-reading that paragraph I realise it's a bit nonsensical but I can't be bothered to edit it, I want to go to the pub. In short, "Better spec reaction = Better audience reaction"... and naturally that doesn't just apply to this effect or even just mentalism.

bananafish wrote:I would also consider performing the 50/50 effect of the which hand first - and actually climaxing with five people taking stones. I daresay though that if you get each spectator to hold both fists out you can not only get the spectator, but also which hand the spectator has it in - of course not knowing the method I don't know if that is true for sure, but it sounds like it could be an option.

Yes, that is an option, though you have the added safeguard of already knowing which spec has the black stone before they even put their hands out in front of them.

I'm off to the pub now

Odball? Marc Oberon???

Johnny Wizz wrote:Odball? Marc Oberon???

I don't own Oddball, but from reviews here and elsewhere I think I know his method and I'm not overly fond of it. A big advantage (or not) of this effect is that the stones are fully examinable by the specs before and after, should you so wish (not that you really should need to with a modicum of spec management skills).

Secondly, Oddball uses nice big modern balls which are of no use to me and my performances. I verge on the bizarre side of performance and to have aged books, amulets etc and then suddenly produce a bag of lovely shiny balls just screams PROP!

Johnny Wizz wrote:Odball? Marc Oberon???

I was thinking the same thing, but I don't know about the genealogy of the effect.

Quick google shows that Max Maven had a similar effect?

The price is very nice indeed, but I wouldn't want to buy a rip off.

Can someone shed some light on this?

well you have convinced me - although I have to say from the website - the black stone looks decidedly dodgy...

It may well be that this IS the same working as Oddball and that I got my guesses quite wrong (It's been known to happen). It's far removed from Max's Kurotsuke though, that's an ungimmicked method.

As for the 'dodgy' black stone, the one on the site does look alarmingly dodgy! They're obviously quite 'random' in shape and size, looking like a highly polished smooth black stone (Black moon? ). The one I recieved doesn't look anywhere near as suspect as the one pictured, it's darker and not quite as shiny.

Simon, the main man at Unleash Your Dreams is a thoroughly nice and accommodating chap though and he's recently started posting here too, have a look at the thread about his Spirit Lamp to see how much he believes in his customer satisfaction, I'm sure a quick email will see you recieving a black stone that is to your standards.

Hi Guys
I just need to say this is nothing like Oddball at all.
Regards
Simon

UYD wrote:Hi Guys
I just need to say this is nothing like Oddball at all.
Regards
Simon

YAY! I was right (I love it when that happens).

Hi Van

Re Stones!

As the stones are natural and not man made, I have no control to how they come out of the polishing machine.
In the nearly 20 years we have produced this trick though in the last 5 as SoD no one has ever commented on the shape of the stones, that said, I hear what you are saying and if I could do anything I would.
I always choose to use natural materials as they appeared in performance so ungimmicked and totally examinable.
If I can help further please let me know.
Regards
Simon

Johnny Wizz wrote:Odball? Marc Oberon???

I thought of that too but if you look at the description on the website you'll see it's not the same method.

No Forces,No WeightsNo Outs,No ChemicalsNo Stooges.Yes it?s Selfworking100% easy to do!Comes with 4 white stones 1 black stone all gimmicks and velvet bag plus instructions and routines

Van der belt would you say thats a fair description of what you got?

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:

No Forces,No WeightsNo Outs,No ChemicalsNo Stooges.Yes it?s Selfworking100% easy to do!Comes with 4 white stones 1 black stone all gimmicks and velvet bag plus instructions and routines

Van der belt would you say thats a fair description of what you got?

Absolutely. UYD's blurb can often be said to be overstating it when it comes to things like this and occasionally even dramatic but they're never misleading.

No chemicals? I'm going to wrack my brain to think of a method for this that could possibly use chemicals! LOL

You cover the stone in lots of red paint, so it oozes through their fingers. Obvious joke coming.....

From looking at this I'd be worried that many people these days would know the black stones magical properties. At least if it is what I think it is. It's used quite commonly in new age shops jewellery.

UYD wrote:Hi Guys
I just need to say this is nothing like Oddball at all.
Regards
Simon

OK, will be ordering later today then!