Cousin Of All Book Tests

THE BLURB:
Finally! A book test that offers you myriad choices for your
mentalism arsenal!

There are two basic effects possible with this book.

The book itself, a normal looking novel, can be forced from
a stack of others, or you can order several and recover them
(We will be releasing other versions and titles with the
SAME force pages and phrases at a later date) If you wish to
use the Chuck Hickock Subtlety this is also a good book to
include.

Effect 1 - Similar to Max Maven’s Autome, but using a
different book and offering 6 different force phrases,
rather than one. Several spectators randomly pick numbers
from 1- 400, the number of pages in this book. Another
spectator SECRETLY mentally chooses one of those pages and
opens to that page, silently reading the first sentences on
the page. (Note, we offer a different procedure than Autome
to make this work, and we suggest you invest in Max Maven’s
DVD to find out the clean elegant method HE uses- along with
the original book used.)

The performer makes a sketch of his impressions which will
later be shown to match the images and thoughts suggested by
the phrase read by the spectator. The original natural force
book used for Autome, as well as similar force books in the
past, typically only allowed for one force phrase.

This book allows SIX different sets of force phrases so that
YOU decide in advance EXACTLY what phrase the spectator will
choose. But remember, they MENTALLY choose a page, and
SILENTLY read it- but before they ever open the page, you
will KNOW what they are thinking. This can be used as a
prediction OR a mind reading effect.

Effect 2 - which is repeatable. You hold the book up over
eye level. The spectator opens the book up to several pages
to start, and peeks at the first word or words on the last
line of text on that page. After a couple glimpses, to show
that ALL the words are different. The spectator is asked to
glimpse at a word but keep it secret. The performer,
none-the-less is able to immediately reveal the thought of
word or words. This is NOT a force, and really is a totally
free choice.

Again, both of these methods have been used before in years
gone by, but never have they been combined in a single book.
Also, the phrase force used has never been incorporated in
such a way as to allow for 6 different outcomes which YOU
control. This solves the problem of what to do if there is a
good chance some of the same spectators may see your show
twice in near succession. It also allows you to have two
spectators choose DIFFERENT phrases and reveal them in
different ways in a single routine.

The peek revelation, can lead in to the force presentation
and/or should the spectator select one of the force pages
coincidentally, you can then lead directly in to the phrase
revelation effect without having to force a page.

You want options? You GOT options! The 400 page, soft-cover
book bears a bar code, legitimate ISBN number and looks like
it was purchased at any book store. The book will withstand
average inspection and is a relatively readable novel.

Yes there are some typesetting and syntactic oddities about
it that one MIGHT discover with great scrutiny, and if one
as looking for them- but they are not the sort of thing a
spectator would discover with normal handling.

The book comes with instructions and routine ideas along
with proofs of purchase coupons. Those discount coupons can
be used in future, should you wish to purchase any of the
upcoming related books that may be printed in the future.

Includes instructions with several variations and routines!

MY COMMENTS:
I was really torn as to whether to catalog this or not. I'm
really not wild about this product. But someone may have a
use for it and it isn't totally without merit. And it could
be that I'm just getting burned out on reviewing so many
book tests which have come out this summer.

The book itself appears to be a nice, big thick 400 page
book entitled My Heart is the Only Way. It's about 9 x 12
inches. And the two main features are that it uses the
Flashback peek method and it has a built in Autome feature.
It comes with three stapled double-sided pages of
instructions that contains three different routines. Two
are basic routines that work with the two main features and
the third utilizes a plastic bag.

The built-in Autome feature has six different banks of
phrases to force and each bank has five pages. My first
thought was that they could have used more pages in each
bank, but it isn't really necessary. The built-in phrases
are certainly unique (a shoe hitting a head and a house
falling in a hole, for instance) and are designed to be
visually interesting when revealed.

I do have an issue with the Flashback peek. I'm not sure if
the creators wanted to be original, but the peek is done by
looking at the lower corner of the page. Most people riffle
books from the top corner, not the bottom corner. It seems
kind of odd to do it that way. Not only that but the
embedded word(s) have been tacked on to the end of the line
in a slightly larger font. I think it was done to try to
more effectively camouflage the workings. Now, this
certainly works, but it's just an odd way of doing it.

Also, the text of the book is in block paragraph format. I
don't often see professionally produced novels using that
format and so this just doesn't feel right to me.

Finally, please note that the name has been ripped off from
the classic Mother of All Book Tests. Be advised that this
has has nothing to do with this original classic as far as
method, creativity, or handling. It isn't even an
improvement. Far from it, since this isn't even in the
same class.

The bottom line is that this isn't the worst book test I've
seen, but I think it's far from the best. It utiilizes
principles which you can really make yourself. (See Natural
Force Books which allows you to find your own Autome lists
from ordinary books and you can make your own crude book
using the Flashback principle if you need to). The
principles used are pretty common principles for book tests,
at least by those who seem to only be familiar with the more
popular book tests. But it certainly is another gimmicked
book to throw on the pile if you need a stack of gimmicked
books for your routine.