talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect

Blurb supplied from the instructions which are well written although they consist of a single A4 page. I suppose that if you need more instructions then this is not for you.

A volunteer from the audience is shown three books. As you hold up each book to show the audience that they are all different, you ask the volunteer to select one of the books.

You ask the volunteer to flip through the book to any page number and ask that they name the page number out loud at which they have stopped. Tell them to concentrate on the first line of the selected page.

Next, tell your volunteer that you will read their mind and write down, (on the slate) the first two or three words of the first line that they are thinking about. You write the prediction in chalk on your slate and then turn it over to reveal the words. You ask the volunteer to confirm that these words match the first two or three words on the first line of the page that they stopped at in the book.

The volunteer will confirm the words are an exact match to those on the page and be left astounded and the audience awe struck.

Cost

$165 from http://www.maverickmagic.com plus shipping. That's approximately £90 at todays exchange rate of $1.83 to the £1 (plus shipping).

£98.00 with free delivery from here: http://www.mikedanatasmagicstudio.co.uk

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 to 2, depending on experience.

Review

This is an ingenious method that is totally self working which leaves you to concentrate solely on the presentation and performance.

The three books are totally different and can be freely handled by the volunteer and audience. Each is a novel of approximately 120 peages and the books and page selection is totally free of any force. That gives you approximately 360 pages of text and there is no peek at the selected book or page required at all.

The slate board is of good quality and in a wooden surround making it easy to handle and a box of white chalk is also provided - everything that you need to perform. The slate can be very closely inspected by the volunteer and spectators but they cannot handle it. It's also angle sensitive during the performance so you need to keep the specs in front of you at all times.

This makes it suitable for stage and / or parlour and with experience of use, possibly also for walk around but definately too risky for tables.

The presentation is where you need to concentrate your efforts in order to sell the whole effect to the spectators. Done well, I thought that the routine was awesome and I had to have it! I'll admit that it's the first book test that I've seen in the flesh and now own. However, a bad presentation will make the whole effect look very suspicious!!!

Overall

An ingenious yet simple method so 10/10 from me for the routine as a whole.
On price, 8/10 as the cost will make it too expensive for some but that leaves fewer performing it, adding to the attraction.
8 out of 10 for quality. Although well made I will need to see how it handles regular use and there could have been a little more attention to the final finish.
Overall, a mark of 8.5

The web site bills it as the best book test ever which is some claim. Others with more knowledge in this area will need to decide on the merit of this claim.

Dat - it sounds like an awesome piece of kit, especially if you do regular stage/parlour work.

Can I assume that the slate can also be used as a normal slate for other effects?

Out of curiosity (not going to buy it) can you use your own books or do you need the ones supplied?

Kati

Bananafish - I think it's awesome and yes, you can use the slate board as part of another routine and it will hold up to very close inspection, from a couple of inches away in fact, although you cannot hand the slate over to the spec for inspection. It's ideal for stage and parlour and I can't wait to use it for real - practicing like mad at the moment on my presentation. The nice thing is that the momentary misdirection that is needed is built into the routine, when the spec looks at the book and the audience look at the spec. Wonderful.

Kati.

The books supplied are not gimmicked and are actual novels. There should be no need to change them as the variations are enormous and unlikely to ever repeat. You would need the same specs to sit through literally thousands of performances as no two pages across the three books are the same. You even get the punctuation right!

However, you could use your own books if you wanted but you will risk ruining the props to set this up. Should the supplied books get tatty then you could order replacements from your local book shop by using the ISBN number.

You can have one spec select the book and another select the page. You can also have 3 specs, each with a book select the same page number and quote the first two or three words for each book page.

When I saw this demo'd, there were 3 of us specs. I chose which book, spec 2 selected a single didit number (1-9) and the second spec selected a 2 digit number. I then had the choice to add, subtract, multiply or divide the single and double digit numbers to come up with a random page. The dealer wrote the text on the slate within seconds and turned the slate to show us the exact text and punctuation on the selected page.

All jaws dropped I can tell you!

I have loved book tests for the last 3 years but this one beats em all...

It's very easy to perform and as far as I'm concerned was worth every penny. The method for it is pure genius.

As said before, it is so easy to 'pull off' that you can really concentrate on the perfromance side of it!! Truly Outstanding!!

Design your own book tests! alot cheaper and still very effective! Example get a phone book or atlas and force a page number you can have a prediction then easy!! try the 37 force or the 68 force! Work like a treat

There are far easier book tests. Marc Paul has an impromptu triple A (anytime, any book, anywhere) book test which I've seen him perform live and it's stunning if you get the presentation spot on.

The Hoy book test is still, to my mind, the best of them all: No gimmicks, as many truly borrowed books as you want, no stooges, nothing written down unless they want it. Best done at someone else's home, using their totally unknown library.
Brilliant!

Sounds very similar to Marc Pauls, his may be a variation?

I saw him perform it at a lecture earlier this year and it was impressive as well as cunning.

dat8962 wrote:Sounds very similar to Marc Pauls, his may be a variation?

They are different. The Hoy method is a classic and, in my opinion, the AAA method is a classic that simply hasn't been around long enough to receive that description.