All About Eve by Steve Dela

I remember some years ago first meeting Steve in Covent Garden, London. At a quirky magic stall called the Magic Cave, I knew little of him at the time. He was young, well polished, a little bit outlandish and fantastically camp. By that time, he had already been awarded many prestigious awards and many raved about him. He brought out a DVD set called ‘Work & Play’ which showcased brilliantly, his thoughts on performance and was possibly my first introduction to the thoughts of a professional working magician. It was a brilliant DVD set and some of his insights I still utilise today. However, past that point, we rarely spoke and whilst he still frequented the same circles as me, sadly we never really spoke.

Fast forward to several weeks ago when I heard about a new ‘Book Test’ that he had developed and released. I’ll be entirely honest and i’m sure he will forgive me in saying this but, I was largely uninterested. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is nothing personal to Mr Dela but whilst I love ‘Book Tests’, so many of them are released for substantial amounts of money and don't often bring much new to the table. Equally, I own the MOABT Pocket and have loved using it at my gigs for a couple of years now. That being said, that fact it was being released by someone whom I know is a full time working magician and it was made for those circumstances did make me follow it’s journey across the magic community.

Fast forward again to last week in which the Alakazam Magic Video Blog reviewed Mr Delas new effect. I respect Peter Nardi hugely and his knowledge of magic and more specifically, mentalism is incredible. So when he rated ‘All About Eve’ as high as MOABT, then I knew I had to get it.

So what do you get for your money? You receive a space age silver bubble envelope to protect the magic. As you peel the shine silver sticker, you slide out a pocket sized novel which has been wrapped in blue tissue paper and once again, sealed with a sticker to protect the book even more. You also get a double sided set of instructions, a small black envelope, a dust cover and another white envelope. Ill explain all of that in a second!

The book is beautifully produced. For those who own MOABT Pocket, it is the same width but a tiny bit longer than that. Making it perfect to not only use along side MOABT but also to fit in your pocket. It looks exactly like what it should be. A small novel with 300 or so pages. The thought that has gone into the design is superb! Even small subtitles like the font size and spacing has been taken into consideration to that those performing in slightly dimmer lighting conditions can benefit from it. Now what makes this so much different to other ‘Book Tests’? Now, whilst I am not a full time magician, I do often perform at weddings, corporate events, parties etc and have worked MOABT to the bone. So knowing what can happen at gigs really aids in reviewing such an effect and let me tell you, I couldn't love this any more than I do! Sometimes in mind reading demonstrations, the smallest subtitles make the biggest convincer that you are actually reading their mind! So, for those who follow and know the workings of MOABT, you will be aware that you must acquire a something in order for the effect to be successful. This creates a real disconnect with the effect and you begin with a miss. Not really what should happen when you are actually reading their mind. However, with ‘All About Eve’, without any pumping or any “progressive” nonsense, you can instantly, without any work, start spelling their word out!

Now, let me outline what happens in real time. You hand them the book, with your back turned, you ask them to think of a word on the page, they close the book and put it into their pocket if you wish. You then instantly, with no questions asked, start spelling significant parts of their word out. It is just incredibly clean looking. Now, you will have to acquire the same information as you would with MOABT but way after you’ve already started to read their mind. It’s hidden in the middle of the reveals making sure they don't even notice it! Whats more, the way the book is designed, it is FAR more examinable than some of it’s predecessors. And whilst Mr Dela hasn’t put it in the instructions, another little hit is, you can tell them pretty accurately where about they saw it on the page! Again, a very small subtlety but another little hit considering they could have thought of any word anywhere on the page!

Memory work is fairly minimal. The same as MOABT pretty much but for those of us cheats, Mr Dela even supplies a couple of cr**s in the package to aid with the effect. He also supplies you with a plastic dust sleeve to protect the book although I like my books to look a little worn. He even goes as far as supplying a library pocket incase you would like your audience to think you have borrowed the book from the library. So he really has thought of everything!

This is definitely going straight into my working set alongside MOABT Pocket and they will compliment each other beautifully! I cannot recommend this little beauty enough and know it is going to be a life long love of mine. For the price, it is a steal and all you have to remember is the amount of real world experience which has gone into creating this.

I should also add, crediting is also substantial which is just the cherry on the cake! This is a brilliant bit of kit for the gigging magician/ mentalist!

It is available direct from Mr Dela at hello@magic.uk.com or from http://www.alakazam.co.uk

I am a sucker for book tests and this one sounds very very good.

I have been searching for a book test. When this came up it got my attention. I would like to see a performance first though. As for me it's quite a lot and would like to see how it works before I press the order button

They did a pretty awesome performance on the Alakazam Video Blog.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GbGKVjN0hFQ

Jamie Daws

Looks nice.

Ordered. The vlog sold me and I already have Moabt.

I just watched the vlog and it does look good, however unless I missed something completely - which is possible, is there a different spelling of the word that was chosen for the UK and USA? If so, it might be an issue - at least for me.

Robert

I watched Peter's Vlog and this does look very promising. For certain, his refinement would seem like a nice "upgrade" over MOAB (IMO still the gold standard). My only hesitation is that this does not include Larry Becker's "Flashback" principle like the MOAB "Pocket Edition" (If I'm wrong please correct me). By adding Flashback to MOAB this became the ultimate (no pun intended)tool for workers because of the additional flexibility.

Interesting question. I would like to know that too.
Michael

Hi,

The word looked at was Handkerchieves and during the presentation on the Vlog I got Dave to change from the word to a mental image. Hope that makes sense. I changed direction to revealing the image and item he was thinking of. Obviously I could just reveal the word.

Best Regards

Peter

While "handkerchiefs" is the more common plural in the US, "handerchieves" is also acceptable.

All About Eve does not appear to be available yet at Alakazam USA, or any other North American shop. Does anyone know the time line for it crossing the Atlantic?

George

As soon as they process my order.

Jared, it doesn't have flashback built in but I don't think that's an issue. It makes everything just that bit better. I'm working on a routine in which you use MOABT flashback. Then tell the second person to think of a larger work from the same book. Then hand AAB to a third spectator. All three are thinking of words. You have one work you already know (flashback). You can already start revealing the next word. (AAE) and after you have the needed information. You can put in strong hits around the pumping. Means they'll only remember the hits. Then I'd reveal the small work from the flashback. Then the word from AAE and for the final word, use the dictionary revelation. So write down "4526". Turn to the dictionary turn to page 45. Second Collin and the 6th word down. Makes for a three phase routine that because of the combined methods make it seem like pure mind reading. And it gets more impressive with each reveal!

Jamie Daws

Looks interesting. I am glad that you guys cleared up the v in handkerchief. I replayed the Vlog 3 times trying to figure out what I was missing. LOL!



Leo

Hi,

We ship orders to the US on a daily basis, the delivery time is usually 4-5 days. So should arrive with you in no time.

I hope this helps

Peter

Jaime,
I like your routine and have one of my own that is similarly constructed for parlor shows. I was asking about the Flashback feature mainly for strolling work. It's nice to only need to carry one book in my breast pocket that I can use for an instant hit (i.e. flashback), and then hand the book to a second spectator to "choose a longer and more interesting word." So basically, it's a matter of optimizing pocket space. Getting the most use out of every prop is essential for such situations.

My "All about Eve" arrived today. The book is exactly as described. Beautiful. My only criticism is that the instructions are awkward to carry around and read. Please make a pdf available instead of a double sided A3 sized sheet of coated paper. Otherwise it lives up to the advanced billing.

I've been using this for just over 2 months now in my working repertoire and I still cannot recommend this highly enough! It is phenomenal! I've just seen Penguin have just started stocking it for you lovely lot in the USA! Id recommend picking it up! I've seen Steve's next release and it incorporates this as well so well worth checking it out! Still one of the best products brought out this year!

Jamie Daws

I just got my order in! I am restructuring both my close up book test set as well as my stage book test routines... lets just say I bought a lot of books in the last few days haha. Excited to add this into my close up set along with my long love, MOABT pocket. I think the two will pair nicely.

Also, penguin has this listed for $120 today, which I believe the normal price(and what they had it listed for a few days ago) was $160! I don't know if this is a computer error or some form of black friday/cyber monday discount extending to the rest of the week, but that is a fantastic price for what sounds like a great book test.

Thanks for the tip Jamie

-Eli