talkmagic.co.uk

Jay Sankey's Prediction Impossible



£10 at Davenports Magic


Difficulty = 1
(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)



Review
They Say:

The magician's prediction always matches!

Description:
Five cards are introduced, each with a different psychic symbol. The spectator shuffles them behind her back and slips ANY of them into an envelope, but the magician's prediction always matches! It's a totally free choice (really!) and the envelope can be examined! The specially printed cards do all the work for you!

Comes complete with the psychic symbol cards, envelopes, illustrated instructions and an instructional DVD featuring ADDED INFORMATION and NEW BONUS HANDLINGS!

I say:

Firstly thanks for all the info on my previous post (See Review Request for this item). Sorry it's taken so long to actually review it - but I've been waiting to perform it!

I was disappointed with this item. I'd worked out the method from a video demo prior to purchase, but not owning any of Sankey's work, I gave it a go to see his suggested methods and teaching style.

Upon opening the item - I was a bit annoyed with the design of the cards. The backs have a Twinkling Star pattern. (I've since learnt that I saw an old video demo which had plain black backs). To me, the stars scream - 'magic prop'. A plain black back would have been much better.

Secondly, the envelopes are of poor quality. When the spec brings forward the envelope, from behind their back, with their selected card sealed inside you can plainly see which design is inside the envelope! - This has MAJOR implications for the trick!

Thirdly, the sound quality on the first part of the DVD is awful. I mean, really awful - distorted and low. I can't believe Mr Sankey (upon reviewing this DVD - Assuming a QA was undertaken) agreed to release it.

But, what do the spectators think. To be honest, I've not actually performed this effect yet - I need to buy thicker envelopes!
Also, my initial annoyance made me leave it to one side for a while. I'd be interested to hear how other peoples performances have gone!




6/10 - for now. I'll give it a second chance - perform it a few times and re-visit this review.

Thanks!

I bought this trick a while ago, and even though I liked the effect, I ran into the same problems as you.

However, I recently bought Beyond ESP 2 and this comes with everything you need to perform this trick.

The Beyond ESP cards have black backs and are superior quality and the envelopes provided are completely secure, in that you can't see through them.

The comprehensive booklet which comes with Beyond ESP 2 makes no mention of Prediction Impossible but it is possible to do the effect using all of the supplied materials.

Plus, Beyond ESP 2 is awesome anyway so just get it for that reason!

I actually like the effect and do still use it from time to time. I am pretty sure it isn't Sankey's original idea though.

If I remember correctly it's one of Anneman's. I will have to have a look. I think it was one of the things Richard Osterlind did on the awesome ETMMM dvd.

Using the Beyobd2 ESP cards isn't a bad idea at all. If the cards were on the face of the deck, and the deck was used for other ESP effects, it would take some suspicion away from the cards.

I never actually bought this effect. A freind of mine showed it me a few weeks ago and I kinda liked it. I figured it out without too much trouble being a bit of a card-a-holic.

After watching the Sankey demo I decided to just construct it myself. Since anyone who sees my magic will know as more of a "sleight-of-hand card guy" alot more than a mentalist I try to keep all of my stuff looking as homemade as possible. For example, my oil and water cards were constructed by using a set of blank face cards and writing "OIL" on 4 of them and "WATER" on 4 of them, with extra cards showing pictures of an oil drum and a glass of water which form part of the presentation.

This is exactly what i did for this. I took some blank bicycles, and drew the damn symbols myself. I think pulling out some special black backed cards with printed symbols on the front would be very suspicious as an addage to my magical performances, so I decided to do a homemade version using the bicycle cards that all of my spectators will be familiar with after I pulverise them with an all-out assault of tricks starting "pick a card, any card". Only joking, I generally try to avoid standard pick a card tricks unless they're REALLY good.

I have yet to try "Prediction Impossible", but I shall try it on my test spectator at work tomorrow, who catches me out at almost everything. If anything gets by her then I know I'm on to a winner.

Let us know how you get on!

I just got back from work and I tried it on three people. I made an addition to the presentation that isn't in Sankey's preview video. I decided to start the trick (sorry I should mention that I've already drawn a prediction for them at this point) by taking out both envelopes and asking them to choose one. By pure chance all three people picked the empty one. I gave it to them and said something like "okay you picked this one, it's empty, well thats that little game over, now in this envelope however..." and carried on with the trick, it got a little snigger from the person i was showing it to.

Instead of just showing the faces of the cards or using the Flustration Count, I decided to the Orion Count (if you don't know what it is then see my [url=www.geocities.com/magic_evmeister/videos/ashes.htm}ASHES VIDEO[/url] - it's the count I use on the aces at the start).

Of the three people I showed it to two of them were fairly impressed. The other one thought it was just a lucky one in 5 chance. The girl I mentioned who always catches me out (known as Kate) was one of the impressed ones thankfully.

After all of this, I went back to work.