Title: Utsukushii
Author: Fraser Parker
Publicist: Intuition Publishing
Retail Price: $40.50 USD. For the book. The download is the same price.
Reading Difficulty: Easy but you’ll want to read it through a couple times to get everything.
Notes: Downloadable PDF version is available. The following review is of the PDF version. Added note: The phone unlock pin code will only work on phones with a numeric pin unlock. Stick to I-phone users and avoid androids that use a pattern recognition.
Divination: A specific form of Extra Sensory Perception, or ESP for short. It deals with obtaining knowledge from remote places that the medium would not otherwise have access to such as the future, or remote places. Utsukushii is a real treat from mentalist Fraser Parker in that it gives the performer near god like powers of divination over a spectator’s secret numbers. This propless routine can enable you to be able to divine serial numbers off bank notes, pin codes to unlock cell phones, or even a single thought up number. The kicker is all of this work is done verbally. You realize you could start a religion with this alone right?
The PDF book that I read can be a little hard to follow in some places. Diving a single thought of number using an adaptation to an older method (trying my best to not reveal too much information in this review so I apologize for the vagueness) uses some mathematical skills. Math was never a subject I was good in. So I had to read through this section a couple of times before things started to make sense to me. However once I had done it a few times I started to find it quite easy after I had my head wrapped around just what it was I was trying to do. Like a lot of propless mentalism the success of this act will depend greatly upon your presentation skills, and your ability to follow a script. If you ad lib too much dialog you will find yourself in trouble.
The divination of a person’s pin number to unlock their cell phone is freaking genius. Talk about getting inside someone’s head and making them feel vulnerable. The silent implied abilities can really give a spectator the creeps. If you can read their thoughts and divine their cell phone unlock code then what ELSE could you divine about them? Their bank account information? Credit card pin numbers? This is the kind of stuff people remember long after they’ve forgotten about the card tricks or the sponge rabbits. This stuff stays with people and haunts them. This is also the level of material where you have to start keeping yourself to a higher ethical code. In the wrong hands or done carelessly you could possibly cause harm to a person by revealing such personal secrets like their bank pin code. Once you’ve learned how to divine a single number a spectator is thinking of from the first half of the book then you can apply that method to divining a person’s phone unlock code.
The scripting in this effect is great. Everything seems motivated by natural causes, and if you encounter a miss just play it off as nothing. The spectators won’t know anything is a miss if you don’t give them reason to suspect it. Not only is this a practical piece of mentalism suitable for close up work but it would play very well on a stage too. This could be a single act or a part of a much bigger demonstration of psychic power. Once again Fraser has put out something that is deceptive and devastating. What will this guy think of next?
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, Readability and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 9
$40 bucks for something that I could start a religion with? Yes please.
Teaching Quality: 8
Fraser is complete with what you need to know and he makes it as easy as he can for you to understand it.
Readability: 7
It can be a tough read at first. There’s some numbers you have to process, and some mathematical skills you have to exercise but once you read through it a couple times things start to come together. It’s not difficult; it just takes a few times reading through it to get it all. At least that was the case for me. Admittedly I’m not a good reader nor am I good at math.
Over All Quality: 9
Fraser Parker is a star. His material so far has been gold, and not only that but Utsukushii is a highly effective piece of mentalism that if you use it right will convince your audience that without a doubt you are some kind of supernatural person with the ability to read minds.
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