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The Effect
You start by writing a prediction (sight unseen) on a business card, Post- it note etc. The card is folded and placed on full view on the table.

A small card which contains 52 different symbols is examined by your spectator who then merely thinks of one of the symbols.

You now write something on another card and once again fold it and place it in full view. At this point you have committed to two predictions without your spectator giving you any information.

You then ask your spectator to draw his symbol on the outside of the first piece of paper. The second prediction is now placed onto the spectators hand and they name aloud the first playing card that comes in to their mind (absolutely no force) they now write their thought of card on your second prediction.

You now draw attention to a deck of cards which has been on the table since the start of the effect. The cards are removed and shown to have images on the back of each one. You remove their freely chosen card and the card with the freely chosen image on its back.

I bet you can see where this is going!! Your spectator now opens your first prediction (the one they have drawn their image on) and it reads the 5 of clubs. When they turn over the card it is in fact the 5 of clubs!! You now state that the second prediction was even harder as the spectator could name any card. When they open prediction number 2 they see you have drawn a clock. They turn over their freely named card only to reveal a clock on the back!!!



Cost
£19.99 from Alakazam (plus any P&P)


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)

1/2 this is simplicity in itself to perform but you will need to put some practice in to get the order of events nice and smooth. (A bit like any other trick realy!)

Review
A realy good trick that will leave a great impression wth your audience. The use of symbols adds a dimension that makes this feel less like a card trick and moves it more to the mind reading it should be presented as.

The quality of the cards are excelent but you do have to invest some time and effort to drawing all the symbols on the back of all the cards, but even if you have less than zero artistic abilities you'll be fine.

The DVD instructions that come with the product appears to be made in house at Alakazam and whilst its very good I feel it could have been a bit more structured rather than coming across as two magicians talking about the trick. That said, the little nuggets of hints you are given along the way are invaluable.
Don't let the low price put you off! (I hate using well worn phrases) This product is worth double the price!
As with most prediction based tricks you will need to inject your presentation skills here, and as it is a double prediction this may restrict some performances where you're competing against noise and distractions because if your not careful the audience (or you!) may get confused.

Things to note:
The magician (you) make BOTH predictions BEFORE the spectator does anything other than think of their symbol!
No forces. None... I mean it! the spectator can pick any card or symbol.
There is no "one ahead" principal used.
This leaves you clean, "resets" almost instantly, and takes up the space of a pack of cards (yet another pack to carry with you) and a pen.

This should find pocket space for just about any magician as it has a very strong double ending.

Overall
I'm very pleased with this on the whole so I'm offering 8/10
the DVD instructions let it down a bit (I'm being very harsh here).

Go and watch the demo video and see if it will fit in your repertoire!

As this is very easy to perform don't be tempted to miss out on practicing it!! Give it the time and effort it deserves and you'll carry this everywhere.

Trilogy comes to mind here.
I like this version of the method because you can do it easily with just one spectator.
Trilogy makes it a little harder because you have to give your one specator 3 predictions, unless you make a duoligy deck....hmmm maybe I'll do that

great review thanks very much,

Are you guarenteed the right results each time or is there a chance it could all go wrong?

Alec

can the effect be repeated with different symbols

i am not after the method to it i just would like to know before i buy it even though more than likely ill get it anyways just would like to know in advance

Hi guys, yes it's from the same brain as Trilogy so comparrisons are to be made but I prefer the routinig of just the two predictions it makes the effect (for me at least) appear cleaner. That said Trilogy is a great effect too.

You are guarenteed to get this right every time. no fishing for clues or "outs" for alternative endings.

The spectator makes a perfectly free choice of symbol so it WILL be different every time but if you are performing this efect to the same crowd they will more likely than not become suspicious to the workings. If this is vague it's on purpose - the way I perform this is to use two index cards to write the predictions on, at the end of the trick (because in my experience the spectator want to "take home some of the magic") I tear off the relevant part of the index cards with their choices on them and their own mind will fill in the gaps that time will help them forget. you could show them the trick again the next week and to them it's brand new and still as puzzling.

It's only £20.00 I know that can be a lot to some but this is genuinly a snip for the efect you get. Well worth a punt.

Agree with the comment re quality of the DVD , also one thing it did not explain was if they choose (without giving anything away) the one card you choose. !!

laccal142 wrote:Agree with the comment re quality of the DVD , also one thing it did not explain was if they choose (without giving anything away) the one card you choose. !!

Agreed but a little bit of thinking later i just adapted that to realise what could be better! Take second prediction slip and write down their first card choice(your card) then repeat to get a second card choice which is written on the first slip! (read it slowly it makes sense)
If you own this you know what I mean but MODS if I'm giving too much away please feel free to edit me quiet.