talkmagic.co.uk

This is my first review, so bear with we if it's not perfect, and I've been unclear about something just ask and I'll get back to you with an anwser

The Effect

The magician writes a prediction on a piece of paper which is then given to a spectator, someone thinks of a number between 1 and 10, when they open the prediction they find a youtube account name, when they visit the account there's only one video, that was uploaded a month ago, and in that video you reveal the number they thought of. This system is fantastic and the tricks you can do with this are limited only by your imagination.
All the tricks have the same ending, their selection is revealed on a youtube video.

Cost
This was the cheapest one I could find:
Magicbox.uk.com: 21.99 pounds


Difficulty

I'd say 1, sometimes 2ish

Review

All together there are 13 effects. The main one where you have a thought of number between 1-10 has multiple methods, so there's something for everyone.
Also there are a number of techniques you can use to reveal the number (although they all use youtube)
Apart from that there are 11 additional effects using the Tube system and a bonus effect.

Draw: A spectator draws an object on a piece of paper, which is then revealed on youtube. This effect unfortunately uses a gimmick that you have to buy.

Shirts or skins: This time it's a thought of football team.

November rain: Predict the presidential election

Magazine/book test: the imfamous book test, very good, but it's a bit time consuming.

Cold tube: More like warm tube, because it uses warm reading, where you describe someone's personality.

A powerful imagination: Based on Jay Sankey's just imagine. A selected simple drawing in a chosen colour is revealed.

Princess tube: The well loved princess card trick. 5 cards ,one selection, one card disappears leaving 4 cards. Oh and of course the selction is missing.

Card at any number: Selected card is in a selected number on the video.

Burnt tube: Rub some ashes on your arm to reveal the selection.

Dead celebrity: not a very pc name for an effect, but what it lacks in the title it makes up for in punches (if that even makes any sense).

Headlines: pretty self explanatory, predict the headlines for that day.

And the bonus effect:

E-prophecy: you say that your "psychic" friend sent you a prediction of a freely selected card, once the card is selected you show them the e-mail, (which hasn't been opened before) and it contains the selected card.

Overall

I'd say this system is an untapped goldmine, there's so many things you can do with this, the possibilities are endless.

I'm going to give it an 8/10, because the technique is so clever, but sometimes it can become a bit time consuming, depending on the effect, but I do think that anyone who's into mentalism would like this book.

Personally, anything that uses the Internet like that is a bit of a no-go for me. There internet and technology has inifinate possibilities and I think it could possibly be pervieved by the spectator as a lot more technologically devided, rather than Mentalism.

This effect seems soley aimed at hobbyists/kids if I am blunt.

How does this fall into 'magic' please? Or 'mentalism'?

It is mainly aimed at the youtube generation. It's not something a working professional would do. I really like the way this trick works (very sneaky), but I wouldn't perform this trick, it doesn't suit my style.

seige wrote:This effect seems soley aimed at hobbyists/kids if I am blunt. How does this fall into 'magic' please? Or 'mentalism'?

I'm not sure I agree entirtely with that. It could be a useful gig-getter, ie something used when discussing a big gig with a potential client.

Thanks for the review.

I'm still not convinced of how it fits in. It's too random, and yet too contrived.

Although I'm probably wrong!

It's a 'cool reveal' of a card/prediction/whatever... so it fits into mentalism just like mailing a headline prediction to a venue ahead of time, or having a prediction removed from a locked glass box, or whatever...

That's how I see it anyway.

[I don't own it, and since I can't personally see myself using it I am therefore fighting that 'just got to see how it's done' purchasing demon]