talkmagic.co.uk

Note: I searched for Psypher in the forum, but couldn't find a post.

The Effect
You ask people to write their word in a notebook with a sharpie, tell them to tear the page off (and even the page under it, if they think the markings went through), retrieve the notebook and the pen and... that's it. You now know the word.

Cost
40$. I bought mine from Penguin Magic.

Difficulty
2 - No sleights, but requires a little practice and watching your angles. Also, might have a problem when working in low-light environment.

Review
I'm sure we've all had this happening: you tell a person to think of a word, any word. He writes it down on a billet, just to imprint it in his fuzzy mind. You show everyone that the billet is folded and there's no chance of you ever seeing what's inside, walk a few meters away, yawn and read his mind from afar.

On the following day, when the spec sees you, he asks in full innocence - "Can you do the trick with the paper again?"

/slam head.

Now, I'm well aware that a competent mentalist should be able to make it all work out as though the billets were just an annoyance, and of no importance. Still, unless your acting skills are up to the required level, sometimes there's a bit too much playing around with the billets for comfort. Plus, anyone who knows anything about swammies or you being a magician, is wary of giving you his billet.

While I'd like to think I got better since those early days of billet-using, I was looking for a way to minimize the use of billets as much as possible. The answer I found is Psypher - a cleverly made impression device.

The advantages over normal billets are pretty large. You tell the spectator to just hide the paper on his/her person, and then everybody can forget about it. No need to fold in a specific way, to get near the billet or anything else that might arouse suspicion or draw attention to it. You're the main center of attention with Psypher.

It's not perfect, of course. You'll need to practice a bit with instructing people to write clearly and slowly, concentrating on each letter so that the gimmick works properly. You'll need to come up with a patter for that, but it never aroused suspicion in any of my spectators so far. Another problem is that the sharpie is part of the gimmick and you need to make sure you never leave it with the spectator or that it drops from your pocket accidentally. All considered, however, Psypher is definitely an upgrade from using billets. Too bad it can't be used more than once in a show without reset. The reset, however, takes only a few seconds, and can even be performed during a conversation.

The video is of nice quality, and the inventor offers a few tricks to go along with the gimmick. I liked them, especially the 'card and name' effect, but Psypher is really a utility tool, and I think it would shine as an addition to most tricks in the book of mentalism.

Overall
Great item, clever design. It's not cheap, but definitely worth it's price.