Effect: Telethought Pad
Artist: Chris Kenworthey
Producers: Chris Kenworthey
Link: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S13781
Retail Price: $38.50 USD small pad $55.00 USD large
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Notes: This prop will need refills if you plan to use it often.
Features:
• Telethought Pad
• Instruction Booklet
This is the newest creation from Chris Kenworthey that puts the power of telepathy into the palms of your hand. This pad allows the spectator to draw anything they want, and without even touching the pad you can tell with precise details what was drawn, be it a name, a number, a picture, ANYTHING!
When I saw this product demonstrated at the local magic shop I thought to my-self “this thing has potential.” That all quickly changed within three minutes of actually owning this piece of crap device. Suffice it to say that the pad is gimmicked. I can’t go into too many details on why the gimmick sucks, but I will say it is INCREDIBLY angle sensitive, to the point of being more of a hindrance than a necessary evil. You’ll see what I mean if you search this product out for demo videos on Youtube you can find a video by Fantasma Magic that actually flashes the gimmick around the .30 second mark.
Like any good mentalist pad the idea is to have a prop that looks normal, and to get a lot of road work out of it. The second problem with this product comes in to play when you consider that eventually you’re going to need to get refills. The pad isn’t designed to allow you to easily just insert refills that you could buy at an office supply store, so either you’ll need to A) send the pad back into Chris to have him refill it for you, or B) buy a new pad. For a minimum charge of at least $35 dollars per pad you could probably go with another product that delivers about the same function, and save money in the long run while doing it.
The instruction manual is full of really nice presentation ideas so if this is your first introduction into mind reading pad device then you’ve got quite a lot to hit the ground running with. The instructions has clear pictures detailing how to handle the pad, that includes a lot of hand washing; a detail that I think really is more a magician driven need than a mentalist one. I don’t imagine a mentalist would feel the need to justify that the pad is “normal” by showing both sides of it but I digress. Regardless of how carefully you follow the instructions in your handling it still comes back to the angle sensitive nature of the gimmick making this thing impractical for actual work, and reducing it to nothing more than a cool magician’s toy at best. For upwards of $60 bucks I think I’d rather go buy a couple fancy card decks the kids are playing with now days instead.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Practicality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 2
The Telethought Pad was plagued by a list of issues from the start. The fact that the pad is hard to refill, and an unreliable gimmick with severe angle sensitivity coupled with a high price tag make this one of the worst mentalist products I’ve purchased in a long time.
Teaching Quality: 6
The instructions are well written, the pictures are clear, and the additional performance ideas are of value, but even a well written instruction book isn’t enough to save a bad gimmick.
Practicality: 2
Not practical at all. Even the demo video I watched for it flashed the gimmick. It is angle sensitive as hell. This product won’t make it out of your junk drawer.
Overall Quality: 2
Quite possible one of the lowest scores I’ve ever given a product. I just can’t recommend it for any reason. It is a waste of time and money. This product earned the Draven’s Seal of NOT APPROVED!