Mind Control by Peter Nardi & Marc Spellman

[MaxDeVill]

Firstly I have to say that with this trick you're getting a gimmick and some written notes for about 35.00. Pretty pricey really and you'll probably end up kicking yourself for not thinking of the gimmick yourself... and to be honest, the gimmick isn't anything new, but the presentation works very well.

Imagine being able to take a person from a group of people and tell them a story... walk their mind through a little journey... to put them into a state of hypnosis and force them to choose the card you have already secretly revealed to the crowd. But not only have you revealed the card, you have revealed that the deck you hold is completely blank.

As they stay relaxed, you have the spectator that is "under" call stop. Inevitably he chooses the card you have predicted. A truly amazing feat of mental suggestion through hypnosis!

If you are a mentalist, this is definitely a gimmick you will want. The possibilities of presentation are almost countless. And if you're a card guy, the gimmick will work well for a quick finishing routine to show that the entire show has been done with a completely blank deck of cards.

35.00 is a bit high, but the results are worth it if you can spare the cash.

 

[Dave Wiltrout]

Could you maybe offer a bit more of a review? You mentioned there's a gimmick and (in your opinion) to be a bit pricey, but that's it.

There's so many questions left unanswered. Like, is it hard to perform? Can you start and end clean? Can the deck be handled during the performance by someone if asked? Have you performed it? If so, what are your thoughts on that? Are the instructions easy to comprehend? Are they thorough? Will you need to replace the gimmick after so many uses? Does it rely more on sleights or presentation? What atmosphere is it mainly meant for? Can it be applied to different settings or is it restricted to only one?

I like to see you taking the time out to post your thoughts on a product, but if you are going to call it a review, then please review the product thoroughly.

A way to tell if you wrote up a good review is by looking at it from an outside perspective. Example....If you were reading this review, would still have questions? If you answered yes, then there could have been more details.

Not trying to offend, but you will probably end up having to come back to the thread and answer questions from different members because the review wasn't thorough.

-Dave T. Wiltrout-

 

[MaxDeVill]

I hear ya.. no offense taken... I'm at work and got called away from my desk so I just sent what I had...

Performance is simple. If you can handle a deck of cards at all, you can perform this trick.

You start pretty dirty, but as I said, the ending shows all the cards are blank, so although you end dirty, the ending covers itself. The deck really isn't examinable which is why I use it as an ending effect. I have performed this effect probably 50 times since I received it and never once have I had anyone ask to see the cards. I always end with, "And as you can see, this entire time, the deck was blank." And thank them for their time and walk away into the sunset...

Performance of this trick is all about how you present it, as with most effects. You can drag it out and do a full on "hypnosis" style effect or you can use it as a quick little card effect to transfer into other mentalism type effects.

As for the instructions, they're simple to understand and basically it is just 3 different ways of approaching the patter. As I said previously, this trick is definitely all about the presentation.

The gimmick seems well constructed so far, and I haven't had any problems with it at all. If you did have to replace it, you could just take some old cards and a common household item to contstruct it.

This effect is pretty much a close-up/parlor trick. Any more than a few people and crowd control and actual visualization of what is occuring would be diffircult. I wouldn't perform it for more than 10 people.

You can do this trick completely surrounded, there are no angle problems what-so-ever.

Having a good deck switch would be very helpful in the performance of this trick as a closer. Being able to switch the deck from a regular one to this gimmick helps a ton when selling the finale.

Hope that helps.. off to do more "work".

 

[Dave Wiltrout]

I'm glad you didn't take any offense since none was meant. Yea, I have had my eyes float to that product more than once in past, but never took the initiative to get my hands actually on it.

I may wonder back over and check it out again. I have always liked plots of this type. Anyways, thanks for the information and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Don't work too hard.

-Dave T. Wiltrout-