The Adjustment Bureau - A.C.A.A.N.

I have been working on this ACAAN routine for a while and would like to offer review copies to a few Café members for feedback and honest reviews upon release. I am wrapping up filming and editing both the performance and explanation this week, and I could send out review copies by this weekend or early next week. Please PM me if you are interested.

A little info on this routine:

The plot is inspired by Philip K. Dick's story The Adjustment Team and its film adaptation, The Adjustment Bureau. The performer tells the spectator about the story's shadowy organization that specializes in manipulating the course of the world with strategic adjustments, predicting the decisions people will make, and using this information to alter their life paths. By anticipating these choices, the organization sets specific events into motion that subtly "adjust" a person's path, ensuring they end up exactly where the organization wants them.

The performer will attempt to do something similar with the spectator, presenting a normal deck of cards placed on the table, which the performer will never touch throughout the performance. The spectator chooses a random card and comes up with a random number. The performer explains that the odds of these choices leading to the spectator’s card in the deck are astronomical—it won’t happen unless a necessary "adjustment" is made. Before the spectator completes their choices or reveals them, the performer writes down an adjustment number that, when later combined with the spectator's number, leads directly to the position of their selected card.

- Extremely easy to do

- The performer never touches the deck—ever

- No sleights

- No peeks

- No mental math

- Completely normal deck; can be used for other tricks afterward

- The card is a completely free choice — no forces. The spectator simply thinks of the card; there’s no awkward handling process

- The number is derived from truly random choices made by the spectator, with no influence from the performer

- There are no outs; the trick plays out the same way every time

- The spectator’s card can genuinely be anywhere in the deck — whether it's the bottom card, the top card, the 5th, the 29th, the 41st, etc.

- The deck can be inspected after a quick shuffle. There is an arrangement they might notice, it is otherwise a completely normal deck

- The performer truly doesn’t know the spectator’s card or number until the end

Hey there Brad, this sounds rather interesting! I've dropped you a Direct Message and hope to speak soon!

Interested in having a look for honest feedback.

Cheers. ????

I'd love to have a look and give a review. Either way, it sounds lovely and well motivated. Excited to learn more.

Sent you a pm

Always interested in ACAAN. Sounds fun! Would love to check it out. I'm a collector of ACAAN over the past 20 years or so, I've seen some good and some bad..my current favorite that I'm working on is Charlie Frye's version from his new book. Before that, I enjoyed John Burns "bakers bested".

Sounds amazing… IIwould be to happy to help and looking forward to the release.

I'll have a look thank you.

Im in ,if still available

Sounds very cool. Look forward to seeing this.

This is right up my alley. Love that movie.

Brad very kindly sent me performance and explanation videos for this effect.

Brad’s presentation is very relaxed and natural, and the effect is totally hands-off which is strong. The method does require the spectator doing a quick calculation on their phone to produce a random number, which does seem totally fair.

What is very strong IMO is that your “adjustment number” is predicted right at the beginning of the routine which ties into the looking into the future premise.

The effect does require a little “process” in generating the random number which adds to the performance time, and the stacked deck does restrict this to more of a one-off performance piece rather than a mix and mingle piece, unless a deck switch is introduced. If the DS was used, this could certainly be a very strong effect to close a formal stand-up set.

Well done Brad, and good luck with the release.

Thank you for the honest review! I appreciate it.

Here's a performance video so everyone can see how the effect goes. Hopefully this helps everyone decide if this is something that fits their performance style.

https://youtu.be/R4FYlOaxhJ4?si=eBH6ZiOEjRL9dHpz

Happy to answer any questions. I'm working on wrapping up a couple of small edits to the videos and then will get it all sent to Murphy's. Will be available soon!

All the best,

Brad

Brad was very kind to send me a review copy. Thank you so much Brad.

As for the overall effect, I totally agree with the above honest review by simplymagicweb. hence I will save your time (& mine ) by not repeating the same opinion/thoughts.

I have gone through the performance as well as the explanation video a couple of time so as to fully understand the working principle behind this effect. I must say the method is simple, easy, effective and foolproof. It isn't easy to backtrack. IMO, the thinking gone behind creating the effect (using a normal deck of cards), has been very logical with good reasoning. Brad's ACAAN effect is based on a totally new method - Its new, its different. Good thinking Brad!

I wish Brad Good Luck and great success for the release.

Brad sent me this as well, and I totally agree with the reviews above! There are no caveats in the list of positive things about this routine - truly no sleights, no gaffs, no outs needed, and 100% hands off every single time - all 52 cards are equally fair game.

As a TV writer I also appreciate the presentational element of this. I like introducing a number early on that's seemingly irrelevant but that will become a bit of a plot twist - or in Brad's presentation, an adjustment - later on.

It's very fair and very clean, and I can see people having a great time with this!

Thank you for sending me a copy, Brad. Man, you are so smart!

Here is what I think:

Your audience can choose any card, and they get to deal the cards. Also, you don't need to touch the deck. Everything seems so fair, because it is fair!

I love the fact that it uses a normal deck and you don't need to make anything (perfect for a lazy guy like me). The setup is so easy that you will remember it for the rest of your life after you watch Brad's explanation. There is a little bit (very little) of memorization to do, but it is not hard. If you don't want to memorize it, you can just write it down on a piece of paper or on your phone. Take a quick look at it before you perform. The whole process is straightforward. It's easy for your audience to follow. One thing that I want to mention is that you write down a number before (yes, before) your audience does. This is so fooling, and there is no way for your audience to know how it works.

Well done, Brad!

Sent you a DM

I’m not qualified to review it but I’d buy a copy.