Hello There and Please Help!
My worst fears now been realised with Final Flashback. As an idea it is great but the actual books themselves seem to be spoiling the routine.
The basic problem is that the 2 small paperbacks accompanying the dictionary do not look like standard American paperbacks, or standard paperbacks from any country for that matter. The binding is wrong (it is the kind of thing that you see on academic textbooks, not allegedly best-selling novels), the paper isn’t of a standard usual press and the overall design looks weirdly shoddy. Added to this you have the further problems of the page layout of the novels, which no self-respecting publisher would actually release, and the American sizing of the books when presented to a British audience. Indeed, after two attempts with these I've had people comment suspiciously upon, or otherwise look totally unconvinced by the books on the table before the 'magic' even got going.
In light of this I was wondering how anybody else using Final Flashback had sidestepped around these issues, or if they’d found some way of greasing the presentation to make it fly? The large print overtly American dictionary I can just about get away with, but all the other problems are putting the mockers on a routine that should be nothing short of wonderful.
(NB - for those who do not have it I must add that B&E's Double Vision has NONE of these problems and stands as one of the most deadly, yet outwardly innocent, bits of mentalist kit that you can own IMO).
So I'd like to try an experiment.....