Hello all. Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Two items of note: All order for the Mentalist's Kit have been sent as of last week. Many of you have already received them and I am flattered by the feedback received thus far.

A few mentalists asked me about the "instant access" impression device that I have used in many of my shows. I had intended to make it available in limited some time ago but some of the key construction materials were in short supply. No longer.

I have named the device "The Challenger." The "Master Clipboard" supplied with the Mentalists Kit has always been my primary modus operandi for pre-show work.

"The Challenger" is its onstage partner. It is an instant access board that some of my close associates have called "The Rolls Royce of Impressions" The Challenger is now available as Exclusive Release number three.

To view a photograph, read a description, and download a special executable program I created which describes all of its unique features (you'll love the built -in pen/pencil clip device) and how to obtain your own custom made "Challenger," go to:

http://mastermindreader.com/cd/exclusives.html

Best Regards-

Bob Cassidy

Hey Bob,
Out of curiosity, what keeps you using the Master for pre-show as opposed to the Challenger? I'd think that they'd be equally suited to pre-show, in which case I'd lean towards the Challenger since it looks like an office-store clipboard, but is there something I'm not realizing that makes the Master better suited to pre-show?

--Andy

Generally I find that the preshow boards get much more use than the onstage ones. For Q and A I use three to collect five questions each. When I was working cruises I would strip out the inserts and immediately send all the boards out again. The carbon wears out a lot faster than when you use a board on stage for a one-shot.

The pre-show boards get a new carbon with every two piece insert. The challenger's carbon is somewhat permanently attached to the underside of the surface. The tab concealed under the pencil/pen holder allows for a fast strip out of the single sheet of paper with the impressions staring you straight in the face. If the interior paper is the same as the papers clipped to the board, the impression sheet can be removed under cover of replacing or removing sheets.
(Personally, I just strip it out as I put the board into my brief case.)

Now, the carbon in the challenger is pretty high quality and gives excellent impressions for about one hundred uses or so. That's one hundred shows.

If you use it for Q&A preshow, thats five or ten impressions per show and the carbon life is reduced commensurately.

A nice thing about the Challenger, though, is that after the carbon wears out, you can just leave it there and load the board with two piece inserts (Carbon taped to paper) The surface of the board is so thin that there is no noticeable effect on the impressions even though there is an extra "dead" sheet in the board.

You are right about the Challenger looking just like a board you'd buy at office max. But they are significantly harder to make properly than the Master Board due to the permanent clamp which is standard on commercial boards. (The cover has to be perfectly fitted around the clamp.)The actual board material and covering is identical in both versions.)

I hope this makes some sense- I've been up about 48 hours now....

Best-
Bob

Makes perfect sense, Bob, and as I figured, there is a logical reason I wasn't clear on :o)