The effect from the participant/spectator’s point of view: Birth Month/Drawing Duplication 2.0 variation.
The mentalist places four business cards on a table. The cards represent the four quarters of the calendar year -each card has three months written on the back. The participant is asked to think of the month she was born. The mentalist turns his back and the participant is invited to mix the cards on the table. She is then asked to pick up the card associated with her birth month and think of a simple drawing associated with that month. She replaces the card on the table and mixes them again.
The mentalist turns around and states one or two impressions he has picked up about the month and/or the object, which the participant either confirms or denies. He draws something on his pad or business card. The participant is asked to state her birth month and the drawing she is thinking of. The mentalist turns around his pad/card. He has correctly divined both the month and the thought-of drawing.
HONEST THOUGHTS
Red Devil has been something of a breath of fresh air in the world of informal, close up mentalism. The hype is normally kept to a minimum, the success of his initial releases hasn’t led to the arrogance that often afflicts creators who receive a little praise on the forums and -most importantly- the effects are almost all strong and thought-provoking. Red Devil also gets top marks for supplying his customer base with full-length demo videos -on this occasion performed with members of his family (Red Devil would probably be the first to admit that he is not the world’s most gifted performer, but the videos are honest and the participants are not acting as stooges). I’m sure I’m not alone in being fooled by the videos accompanying T.I.T.E, but then people with knowledge of mentalism techniques can often be easy to fool as we carry our own particular set of assumptions into any effect that we see -and those assumptions will often be completely different from those brought by normal people. Luckily, I think this effect will be rather good at fooling normal people too.
So what is T.I.T.E.? This is where things get a little complicated. T.I.T.E is the name of the PDF containing the details of a business card application of the C.A.K.E principle. The C.A.K.E principle turns out to have originated with another creator who released an APP featuring it a few years ago. Red Devil had independently created the principle to use with business cards -therefore both men have agreed to team up on a pair of effects featuring the principle. In reality, the core principle is actually quite an old one (as I read the manuscript I was reminded of routines by Barrie Richardson and Marc Paul -reversed), but it is used -as far as I am aware- in an original manner in both T.I.T.E and the original APP effect.
And the principle works as advertised. The mentalist genuinely doesn’t turn around during the routine; he doesn’t peek; he doesn’t use any of the techniques you might suspect in a routine such as this. And yet he will always be able to tell which one of four (sometimes five) business cards has been looked at by the participant. There are limitations: the effect cannot really be repeated; you couldn’t use, say, coins instead of business cards; there is -arguably- an element of dual reality in some of the routines that will make the effect less powerful on the participant than on any spectators; and there is a slight risk that the participant may spot something they shouldn’t -to his credit Red Devil addresses this last issue and offers options to lessen the risk.
The PDF features several routines using the principle, including the Birth Month/Drawing divination outlined above and an ESP variation with an added prediction. Red Devil also includes rough outlines of other routines that have been suggested by early adopters. Many of these -and some of the effects in the original manuscript- strike me as exhibiting a flaw that I think is becoming increasingly common these days. The desire to show new principles off to their best advantage often leads to routines that are overstuffed and lack clarity. Even the birth date/ drawing dupe variation I highlighted above is a little guilty of this. What power is being demonstrated here? Why are you using four cards to tune into a month someone is thinking of? Why are they thinking of a drawing? If they think of, for example, January and the sun, what does one have to do with the other? Sure, you can find justifications to make sense of the above, but fundamentally the routine is contrived to get extra mileage out of the method. The routines are sometimes being shoe-horned into the method instead of it being a seamless fit of method and plot (I feel the same way about any ‘Tossed Out Deck’ that doesn’t involve the deck being ‘tossed-out’: if there is no ‘tossing’, why is the deck being wrapped in rubber bands?). Compare this to the simplicity and clarity of an effect such as TERASABOS by Rick Maue: a wad of paper is placed under a cup while the mentalist’s back is turned. Using his special skills the mentalist divines which cup the object is under. Simple, direct, powerful. The most powerful version of C.A.K.E in the manuscript may well be the ESP symbol test -without the added prediction. Play up the test-conditions impossibility of the situation and you have a close-up miracle.
At $35 for a one-principle PDF, T.I.T.E is over-priced. But, given that mentalism is now a mass-market pursuit- and no longer the rare, mistrusted, black-sheep of magic- all of it is overpriced.
Overall, Red Devil has once again provided us with stimulating reading that will certainly get the old gray matter ticking and lead, no doubt, to some fascinating thoughts on the dedicated Facebook page. The principle lends itself equally well to stage, parlor or close-up and will surely find a home in many a mentalist’s repertoire.
Mentalism Reviews 