Title: The Taylor Made Book Test
Medium: DVD
Arena: Mentalism
Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies

Alakazam continues their invasion of America with this release. A book test, for those not hip to it, is a routine where a spectator makes a ‘free’ selection of a page in a book and the mentalist tells them either a word or sentence or describes the page if a magazine is used. This type of routine can really fry an audience and as such there are a great many methods ranging from the blindingly simple to the use of specially made books, they also range in cost from a few bucks to several hundred dollars. Presented well a book test can be a feature piece of mentalism. I first discovered a book test, math based, in Tarbell and used that one for a number of years. Problem was it was math based and often people don’t do math well under pressure. The Taylor Made Book Test false into the simple area.

I don’t want to tip the book test but it takes some preparation that can take 20 to 30 minutes to do. This is a one time thing not something you need to do before every show. After the prep the rest is pure presentation. The general presentation is you have someone pick up a book, in this case we’ll use the dictionary, and the spec has a ‘free’ choice of pages. They memorize the first word on the page and you use your mental powers to determine the word. Here is the problem, if you don’t know how powerful this can be and also don’t realize that the easiest method of learning the word is often the best then you may think this routine is just too simple to work. It DOES work and it works well and you can kill with it if you can present. Is it the best book test out there? No it isn’t. For the price you would find it hard to beat though.

On this DVD, which production wise is pretty good, you’ll get the Taylor Made Book Test, a second version called Secret Santa (interesting presentation ideas here), and the ol’ Hoy Book Test, a test done with magazines that is close to impromptu and works well. All are w/in reach of even the most novice of mentalist. Again this isn’t high end material but you are not paying for high end (that would be specially printed books) but it is material that gets the job done and done well. It is actually similar to some test that have sold in years past for a lot more money. If you are looking for a book test to ad a bit of mentalism to your show or to do at family gatherings this is a pretty good way to go.

Thank you for your review MagicSanta

Peter

No problem sir. I was trying to remember your name, your thoughts on the one ahead principle was very good.

There was a method reminiscent of Taylor's by Gene Urban on the Dessert Brainstorm Tapes. However, David has vastly improved the handling of the pre-effect spectator’s examination of the book and the peek is so simple it’s brilliant. In short, I think David has taken this concept to where it needed to be all along. The price is great too.