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Further to Allen's posting, I think the Koran book test is a great piece of magic (coupled with the improvement from Nick Einhorn), although Nick's effect is exactly the same but uses a slightly different method.

Most book tests use some sort of force or fishing but the Koran test does give you an entirely free choice.

However, the only draw back with Koran is that your ability to read minds is only as good as your spectator's handwriting.

Peter

You could always have a look at the christmas carol booktest, it's a really nice idea in which any page can be chosen. There are a couple of other version which use the same idea too but I can't remember off the top my my head what books they are. I think there'a Dracula version as well.

Peter;; The actual 'improvement' that NE made is exactly the same as the Harry Stanley improvement. This is according to John Oakley, (an 'elderly magician from the North of England) who sold me the HS improved version.
The only difference was the HS was metal framed--of its time in the 50's/60's and the new one is so light and deceptive.

I would go with the NE always

Allen Tipton

I'm getting to grips with Looch's new book test.

Well worth as look at.



Steve

Edantes wrote:So I've been performing a book test using a deck of cards to select the page of a book but I'd much prefer to perform it where the spectator chooses the page. Does anyone know where I can find such an effect?

well im just learning my first booktest and its a variation between 2 methods. yes it does use cards to select a page but thats hidden amongst other free choice's and i think its going to work rather well, so maybe you can juist add detail to your effect that your using now and it may seem a much more surprising outcome. let me explain what ive got.

i place a sealed envelope in the middle of the table.and a deck of cards.

explain you want this to be as random as possible
take 9 dice out of your pocket and hand them to the spectator and ask them to roll them around to make sure they are not gimmicked in any way.

the spec rolls the dice onto the table , he can choose how many he uses - he can roll all 9 or 4 dice or whatever. lets say he uses 6 of the dice and all together we have a total outcome of 29.

take out the cards and hand them to the spec and tell him to deal down to the 29th card.lets say its the 10 of clubs, he can then run through all the deck to make sure they are all different.and not in any obvious order.

explain that we will disregard the suit but use the number to locate a page and a word. so the 10th page and the 10th word along in the top line.

they find this and the word is 'love'. you point to the envelope and they open it. surprise surprise the word is 'love'


this is just a mix of methods im going to start using, and although it uses cards it doesent seem like a card trick to the audience.hope you enjoy.

Not a book test, per say, but The Magazine Test from ETMMM is fantastic, simple, easy to do and most of all logical. You can have them open to the page after you have been genuinely blindfolded. The method can also be incorporated into other book tests to make them seem much more impossible.

I agree with what you are saying about cards, avoid them for something like this like the plague!

It might sound like a stupid idea but would it be better to have 52 blank cards with just a number written on them to take away any 'normal' looking cards...

I'd second Allen's recommendation of Val Andrews' book test - failing that the Hoy one is great as well.

naychandler1 wrote:

Edantes wrote:So I've been performing a book test using a deck of cards to select the page of a book but I'd much prefer to perform it where the spectator chooses the page. Does anyone know where I can find such an effect?

well im just learning my first booktest and its a variation between 2 methods. yes it does use cards to select a page but thats hidden amongst other free choice's and i think its going to work rather well, so maybe you can juist add detail to your effect that your using now and it may seem a much more surprising outcome. let me explain what ive got.

i place a sealed envelope in the middle of the table.and a deck of cards.

explain you want this to be as random as possible
take 9 dice out of your pocket and hand them to the spectator and ask them to roll them around to make sure they are not gimmicked in any way.

the spec rolls the dice onto the table , he can choose how many he uses - he can roll all 9 or 4 dice or whatever. lets say he uses 6 of the dice and all together we have a total outcome of 29.

take out the cards and hand them to the spec and tell him to deal down to the 29th card.lets say its the 10 of clubs, he can then run through all the deck to make sure they are all different.and not in any obvious order.

explain that we will disregard the suit but use the number to locate a page and a word. so the 10th page and the 10th word along in the top line.

they find this and the word is 'love'. you point to the envelope and they open it. surprise surprise the word is 'love'


this is just a mix of methods im going to start using, and although it uses cards it doesent seem like a card trick to the audience.hope you enjoy.

Well... first of all that's original to me.. I've not seen CAAN to force a page before

Seriously though, how are you presenting this? As mentalism? If so... then, no. Really, no. Why put so many complications (and they are complications to your audience) to picking a page? It screams 'trick'

If on the other hand this is part of a more magicy magic routine then great. My one piece of advice would be to force a book from a choice of perhaps three. This would give you another element of "Had we chosen this book, the word would've been..." before your final reveal.

There's really no need to over complicate the choosing of the page at all. It should seem like a minor part of the effect so should, in my opinion be kept simple. I really like the method that I use for picking the page in Murder in Mind, it's the method that I use for a number of book tests and always works beautifully. It's nothing new or original but it's simple and it works.

Lady of Mystery wrote:There's really no need to over complicate the choosing of the page at all. It should seem like a minor part of the effect so should, in my opinion be kept simple. I really like the method that I use for picking the page in Murder in Mind, it's the method that I use for a number of book tests and always works beautifully. It's nothing new or original but it's simple and it works.

Absolutely. A test of any mentalism effect (in this case a book test test ) should be "If I could do this for real, how would it look?". The more your method deviates from the answer you give yourself, the less time you should give it.

Ask a spec to pick a random page number, perhaps another number for the line from another spec and voila, give those numbers to your book-holding spec to look up. If you're working one on one, thumb through the book and ask your spec to say stop. Or ask them to insert a bookmark into a closed book. Simple and direct mind-reading/premonition etc.

Well... first of all that's original to me.. I've not seen CAAN to force a page before

Seriously though, how are you presenting this? As mentalism? If so... then, no. Really, no. Why put so many complications (and they are complications to your audience) to picking a page? It screams 'trick'

If on the other hand this is part of a more magicy magic routine then great. My one piece of advice would be to force a book from a choice of perhaps three. This would give you another element of "Had we chosen this book, the word would've been..." before your final reveal

o no, now i feel uncomfortable about performing it as i wanted to do it as an mentalism effect... i got the idea from an effect from 13 steps titled a lesson in mentalism..[/quote]

naychandler1 wrote:

Well... first of all that's original to me.. I've not seen CAAN to force a page before

Seriously though, how are you presenting this? As mentalism? If so... then, no. Really, no. Why put so many complications (and they are complications to your audience) to picking a page? It screams 'trick'

If on the other hand this is part of a more magicy magic routine then great. My one piece of advice would be to force a book from a choice of perhaps three. This would give you another element of "Had we chosen this book, the word would've been..." before your final reveal

o no, now i feel uncomfortable about performing it as i wanted to do it as an mentalism effect... i got the idea from an effect from 13 steps titled a lesson in mentalism..

Depends on what do you want the audience to think of you? My book test which is a close involves adding up numbers from the serial of a £5 note, people don't think 'Something weird's going on here...' because the note is borrowed, and the effect closes with something that blows the idea of 'mathemagic' right out of the water. I know this might not suit anyone else, but it works for me, and so I do it. The point is, do you want people to think you are 100% for real, if so then obviously just do it as everyone else has said. If you want to be on the line, then do whatever you think is right for you.

I'm suprised that it's not been mentioned yet but have a look at the Hoy test, simple and about as innocent looking as you can get.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I'm suprised that it's not been mentioned yet but have a look at the Hoy test, simple and about as innocent looking as you can get.

You won't be surprised to know then, that SimonK did mention it