Chris, you won't be disappointed, I assure you. John's new boards are the best available right now..bar none!

Best thoughts,
John Smetana

How do they compare to Bob Cassidy's new clipboards?

I'll only address the comparison of Bob's "Challenger" to the "Brown Hornet" (i.e., the two "real-time" boards), since I don't have John's pre-show boards.

John's board, as manufactured (i.e. with the Magic Slate) has nothing to be replaced, whereas Bob's needs inserts to be replaced.

With John's, you can just lift up the cover to get the peek; with Bob's you have to pop off the clip and pull out the insert.

John's surface cannot warp or tear; Bob's can (it may warp less than earlier boards like the Nelson boards, but boy, did it warp when I hit the humidity in Maryland at Phoenix Gathering).

John's surface looks exactly like a real clipboard, and the front perfectly matches the back. Bob's back doesn't match the front, and depending on how closely a participant looks at the front, it looks fishy (I will say that when I asked my layperson roommate point blank if anything looked funny about it, he said, "No, it's a clipboard" and gave me a weird look as if I was nuts to ask; on the other hand, it stood out to me like a sore thumb). This is a problem that you could easily correct if you're so motivated by following Bob's instructions to recover them, but that's a lot of work to do on a product; especially when it's something that for a very small investment Bob could easily change himself (I hesitate to say more without giving certain parts of its construction away, but if you have one, you should know what I mean).

On the other hand, John's is best for single words or designs; Bob's will show much finer detail.

As far as the other boards go, as I said, I can't speak firsthand on the "Black Mantis", but I can say that Bob's "Master Clipboard" has the same design drawbacks as the "Challenger", although it has the benefit of the ease of a carbon/paper insert, so it's a no mess read backstage. John's needs to be developed with a powder.

Any other comments comparing the two pre-show boards would be better from somebody who's seen both, so I'll leave it at that.

I do dearly love most of the stuff I've gotten from Bob (all of his ebooks and cd's are a steal at double the price), but I definitely have to go with John's boards over Bob's, hands down.

Hope this helps,
Andy

Has anybody tried the "Grey Mosquito" I like the idea of being able to carry something around that doesn't look suspicious. It looks like it would do the trick..

Uri Geller does pre shows when he is on TV

He does not use clipboards...
I am sure you all saw how strong
he present it.
he is doing it from 1970's and no one
came close to him.
why?

Lior Manor

Do we know that for a fact? Im sure he uses some impression device his drawings are even the same size as the ones the other person draws. But Yeah I don't think he would get away with a clip board in that type of situation it would seem a bit suspicious.

Which was one of the reasons I wanted to buy the clone pad by Lea Earle. But that very week I ordered one they became unavailable.

We need a gimmicked drawing pad that doesn't look suspiscious are there any out there these days?

I think I will never write again on this forum ! A friend told me yesterday that he read several of my messages on the Magic Café simply after he searched for my name on Google. And now : he and his wife have understood some important secrets of my mentalism effects !!!

I thought the access of this forum was private. It's not the case and it's a shame. Secret is an important part of our job. I will write only on private forums now. Sorry.

Kopykat for realtime, andy nyman's pro folio for preshow