The Mastermind Deck by Chris Kentworthey

Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
The Mastermind Deck by Chris Kentworthey

The Official Spam-

Chris Kenworthey's Mastermind (Any Card at Any Number) has been featured by Kreskin on both "The David Letterman Show" and "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee." Many top performers such as Wayne Houchin, Kreskin, etc. have stunned audiences using this powerful weapon in their daily work. Mastermind is now finally available in Bicycle Playing Cards produced by the US Playing Card Company.

Let's look at just a few of the many possibilities...

Here is the crowning achievement in test conditions mentalism! If you were permitted to perform only one effect before your town's local newspaper editor, before a Magic Castle membership audition, or for Grand Prix Competition at FISM, this would be it. Special thanks go to Hiro Hirata for releasing this peerless mind teaser to the magic fraternity.

Every mentalist or magician has the desire to foretell destiny, to look into the future. What follows is an eyewitness account of the extraordinary phenomenon now possible with Mastermind!

Imagine... A registered and notarized envelope is mailed to the mayor of your town seven days before your show is to take place. Inside this single, ungimmicked envelope is a single, ungimmicked playing card with a blue back. The mayor is instructed to keep the envelope in his possession and not let anyone tamper with it. (In fact, no one ever does, and there is never any switching of envelopes or cards ever throughout the entire routine.)

On the night of your show, a red-backed deck of cards is freely shown. Each of the cards is absolutely different, and the deck is honestly shuffled and fairly cut. (Note, there are no long or short cards, no roughed cards, no stacked arrangements, no marked cards, no stripped cards, no crimps, no false counts, and no sleight of hand involved whatsoever!) The deck, quite honestly, appears ordinary in every respect. It is openly ribbon-spread face-up on the table, offering a bird's-eye view that each card is in fact different.

Once the mayor is satisfied that the cards are thoroughly mixed, they are then ribbon-spread face down, allowing for an uninhibited, free choice of any card. The selection here is immaculately clean. To repeat, any card may be selected! The card the mayor himself slides out of the deck is immediately turned face-up. Let's say it is the three of hearts. The mayor himself opens the prediction envelope that is still in his possession, and inside is the one card-a matching three of hearts! The "impossible" has just occurred!

Now for the unprecedented test conditions of Mastermind:

1. No forcing procedure of any kind is ever employed! This includes psychological, mathematical, spelling, timing or classic. Just fair, free, and clean.
2. No roughed cards.
3. No duplicate cards relied on.
4. No stacked arrangements.
5. No Himber Wallets or switching of envelopes or cards ever!
6. The prediction card is actually in the envelope for the entire week. It is the same card removed from the envelope by the mayor!
7. Even if the prediction is tampered with, the outcome of the trick will remain unaltered. (This is a first in prediction effects!)
8. Can be done as a test in telepathy between two cities over the telephone.
9. Absolutely no sleight of hand required!
10. No long or short cards employed.

Imagine many other exciting possibilities with Mastermind....

An exceedingly clean selection process as described above is done to the host of your local radio station. Once the card has been selected in the fairest manner as described above, you ask the host to look in the classified ads of the local paper. There is the ad thanking the radio station, giving your contact details, and finishing with the name of the selected card. You have just done a prediction that is captured for all to see, all to remember for years to come.

These are just a few of the many incredible effects possible with Chris Kenworthey's brilliant Mastermind. Now better than ever before... now in Bicycle Playing Cards.

Intro-

Unfortunately, Penguin was out of the Mastermind Deck on Friday when I made this purchase, so I ordered it from MJM Magic. Not to say having to order from MJM was a bad thing; it was just my first ever purchase there, so I was kind of nervous about it. However, it turned to be an awesome thing. I placed the order after the cutoff time for same day shipping on Friday, but nonetheless it shipped out that day. What really impressed me, though, and this had nothing to do with MJM, was that it was here today, Monday. Pretty great service from MJM, surprisingly awesome service from the USPS, as well.

What You Get-

Inside my postal envelope (w00t for bubble wrap!), was an invoice (duh), the Mastermind Deck (mega duh), and instructions for Chris Kentworthey’s effects with the deck (duh). Pretty standard stuff here.

Why?-

You may be asking yourself why I got this deck, because I would wager that a lot of you youngsters haven’t heard of it; much like I was just a few weeks ago. Well, let me tell ya… if you are a fan of the One Way Force Deck… you need the Mastermind Deck. Kentworthey’s deck takes everything that you love about the One Way Force Deck and makes it better. In what way, you ask? The biggest advantage the Mastermind Deck has over the One Way Force Deck is spreadability (spell check tells me this isn’t a word, but I’m leavin’ it). Meaning you can take the Mastermind Deck and ribbon spread it face up across the table, showing all the cards are different. But it still does everything a One Way Force Deck does. The Mastermind Deck requires a teensy weensy little bit of extra work compared to the One Way Force Deck, but it is so, so, so worth it.

Anyway, now that the preliminary mumbo jumbo is done with, I want to tell you how I was convinced to buy the Mastermind Deck. As some of you may know, I attended a Wayne Houchin lecture a few weeks ago in Lenexa, Kansas (amazing lecture, by the way). Wayne’s second effect (following Thread, of course), was… ok, well, I don’t quite know the name of it. But let it suffice to say that Wayne fooled just about every magician in that room. Using, of course, the Mastermind Deck. I don’t think any of us suspected a trick deck… at least I didn’t. It was epicly mind-blowing. And no, I won’t describe the effect to you, out of courtesy to Mr. Houchin. It’s something he performs and teaches in his lectures, and I think that’s where it should stay until he decides to release it. Which I hope he never does, because I’m selfish like that.

Quality-

Feels like a regular Bicycle deck, and looks like one, too (with one minor exception). No issues here. Although there is something different about the box; haven’t quite figured it out yet, though. I’ll just put it in a regular card box, though.

Conclusion-

Overall, this seems like it will be well worth the $30 I spent on it. I should have a performance story by the end of the week that I can post here to let you guys know how it goes. I moved to a new school this year, and I am loosely on the schedule to perform in my first class. Anyway, this is a great investment, and a fantastic upgrade from the One Way Force Deck. Get it.
 

JD

Jul 5, 2009
638
1
Longview, Texas
The routine with the mastermind deck... Was it called Influence? I wanted that deck but there was no way I was paying $45 for it so I got Control for $20 and AOM for $10.
 
Yes, the routine was called "Influence." It FLOORED me. We had an older guy in the room that called out the name of the deck when Wayne was about to show how it worked... So, there was one guy that knew what was going on... But it killed me and I HAD to get it. I love it. I've used it only a few times though... mainly because I haven't performed much at all in the past couple of months. GREAT deck though!!!
 

JD

Jul 5, 2009
638
1
Longview, Texas
I was like, there is no way in hell that just happened. I flipped out so bad. I do mentalism and was floored. I never once thought about a trick deck once he showed the faces to everyone.
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
I, just like you guys, was completely floored when I saw "Influence". Also like you guys, my mind never even thought "trick deck". I varied it up a bit for my performances, so it doesn't really look like it does when Wayne performs it, but it's very similar. All credit goes to Wayne for inspiring me to perform with this deck, though.
 
Aug 1, 2008
47
19
How does the Mastermind deck compare with Brent Braun's Position Impossible?

They are similar. I don't know how I can explain the difference without revealing either, but Brent Braun's deck uses an additional principle. There are some subtleties you can make with his deck, that you cannot with a mastermind deck, for ACAAN.
 
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