Entourage

THE BLURB:
Effect

After naming any one of the Queens, a spectator mysteriously
divines its position among four face-down cards. As an
additional climax, all the other cards are shown to be
jokers.

WHO'S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?

A clean, clear effect

With a Legitimately Free Choice,
Any One of the Queens is Named

With a Legitimately Free Choice,
Any One of Four Face-Down Cards is Selected

First Climax: The Selected Card is the Named Queen!

Second Climax: The Other Face-Down Cards Are All Jokers!

REAL-WORLD CONDITIONS

Immediate, Open Reset

Repeatable to the Same Audience with Any Named Queen

No Difficult Sleight-of-Hand

No Table Needed; Perfect for Walk-Around

"This is one of the great packet tricks. Bravo!"
- David Regal

"...a card trick that is not only a no brainer to perform,
but certainly has the potential of becoming an instant
classic. Whether you do strolling magic at parties, work
behind the bar, table-hop at your local restaurant or just
do tricks for friends and relatives, Entourage will have
your spectators gasping in total disbelief. This is no hype
friends, no exaggeration. Yes, this trick is that good."
- Steve Brooks (Featured review on the Magic Cafe)

"@#%*$& awesome!"
- Criss Angel

"Gordon's done it again. This kills."
- Cyril

Comes complete with 6 Bicycle cards (2 gimmicked) in
envelope and a 6 page, photo illustrated booklet.

MY COMMENTS:
At first glance, some of you may think that I've finally
fallen off my rocker by reviewing this as mentalism. But
let me say one word -- B'Wave! Remember that classic from
Max Maven/Phil Goldstein? In essence, this is similar. One
queen is selected and it is shown to be the only queen in
the packet. And the gimmicks are related, though definitely
not identical. The big difference is that there is no
verbal control of any kind.

Unfortunately, the effect description is not quite accurate.
So, let me describe it. Gordon Bean's included patter is
about a queen and her entourage, which the participant gets
to name and locate. I'll describe the mentalist's version
of this effect that I'm currently doing (though I'm still
playing with different variations of the presentations).

The performer shows six cards -- four face down cards
between two face-up jokers. The participant is told that
the face-down cards are the four queens and the jokers are
there to provide some psychological control. In fact, the
performer explains that he will control the participant's
decision in two ways. First, the performer will control the
particiopant to name any queen. The participant names a
queen, say the Queen of Diamonds.

Second, the performer continues, he will control the
participant to locate the Queen of Diamonds. One by one,
three of the four face down cards are eliminated as the
participant freely makes these three choices. When the
remaining face down card is flipped over, it is the chosen
queen -- the Queen of Diamonds. As a kicker, the performer
mentions that as he was sure he'd be able to control the
participant, he didn't need any other queens. As he says
this, he turns over the other three cards to reveal that
they are three other jokers.

Those familiar with B'Wave will notice some similarities,
but this one has some differences. First, as I said, there
is no verbal control. Whichever queen is named is the queen
that's used. Whichever three cards which are selected, the
one remaining will be revealed as the freely chosen queen.
The only sleight, if you can call it that, is simply turning
over cards (This is not the Mexican turnover!).

I've already shown this to a couple of mentalists who hate
packet card tricks and, like me, they were pleasantly
surprised by this and liked it a lot. This certainly can be
presented as mental magic or as mentalism. There is a lot
of room for creating some incredibly strong mentalism
presentations. Though it does take a second to reset, it's
certinly not logical to do it again immediately (unless you
openly pretend to switch the queen, which is still awkward).

This is certainly one of the best mentalism packet card
tricks to be created in the last few years. It's a delight
to perform. Highly recommended.