Balloon Detective

THE BLURB:
A great new tool for both family entertainers and
mentalists. You can use this EVEN if you have never made a
balloon animal in your life. One of the effects doesn't even
use real balloons!

Until now, there have been few ways to tie in your magic
with balloon sculpturing. Imagine having a child or lady
secretly think of a balloon animal and the color she would
like it. You reach into your balloon bag and AMAZINGLY take
out the color she has in mind, you twist it into the animal
she secretly selected! Your participant will have no idea
how you were able to correctly KNOW both the balloon animal
and color.

Picture doing this at a birthday party with all the children
just secretly thinking of the balloon animals they want.
Balloon Detective allows you to do this easily - without the
children ever telling you the balloon animals they want.

This effect will give you a BIG advantage over your
competition in the kid-show market. Almost all birthday
performers offer balloon sculpturing. You will be different.
When a mother calls about a birthday party, you can say in
my show, the kids just secretly think of a balloon animal
they want and I make it for them. This not only sounds novel
to the mother, but completely impossible. You will find in
most cases, this will give you an advantage over other
balloon artists in your area, and you will get the bookings!

INFLATED THOUGHTS- Bonus Mental Effect: You can use Balloon
Detective, even if you do not make balloon sculptures. A
lady thinks of a balloon sculpture and the color of the
balloon. You pick up a piece of cardboard, turn your back,
and draw something on it. You turn back around keeping the
drawing concealed. You ask her to tell you the balloon
sculpture and chosen color. You show your drawing - it is a
sketch of the selected sculpture drawn in the chosen color!

PERSONALITY BALLOON- A very novel way to tie this effect
into cold readings in which you end by making a balloon
animal based on the client's favorite color and animal.

Complete with four balloon menu-cards and directions
explaining every nuance of this effect. Easy to do and the
balloons sculptures are so simple that even a rank beginner
can make them. THERE ARE 10 DIFFERENT BALLOONS ON THE
MENU-CARDS. The directions also give you FREE on-line links
to free videos you can watch to learn how to make any
balloon on my menu!!!

MY COMMENTS:
Family entertainers doing mentalism? Some of the cannier
readers will translate that to mean mentalism for the kids.
And, make no mistake, mentalism and children don't normally
work well together, but this is a pleasant exception. I
actually tried this out on my kids (11 and 9 year old boys)
and they enjoyed it.

Here's another little bit that the blurb mentions and that
I'll agree: Ladies of all ages (and some men) enjoy getting
balloon animals. As the blurb points out, you can combine
that with a reading to make for a very novel and memorable
experience. Now, though it is the special menu cards that
make this, they really aren't necessary as the experienced
professional can do this without using the cards. But they
do serve another valuable function as they effectively limit
the participant's choices so they won't think of something
like "monkey eating a banana on a spaceship" or another
imaginative balloon sculpture you're not prepared for.

The important consideration of this effect is the four
special menu cards with the lists of balloon animals on
them. They measure about 5.5" x 4". All you need to
perform this are these cards and the balloons. By the way,
the cards do all the work for you and the principle is a
very, very old one. Devin says he's added a few new
wrinkles that will disguise the principle and fool
magicians, but I think most magicians and certainly most
mentalists and magicians will know exactly how it works.
This is a minor point, unless your performances are solely
for magic clubs and magician hangouts.

I do think is a fun idea and worth knowing for those times
you may have a kid or two in an audience or with a client.
It would also be good for a lady as they do get to take home
a souvenir (the reading idea was suggested by The Write
Stuff's Tony Eye). The package includes 14 pages of
instructions (8.5" x 11", double-sided, stapled) and the
four menu cards. Balloon supplies can easily be obtained
and, if you've never made balloon animals, Devin supplies a
short list of books on the subject. I'm sure there's some
online instructions, too, if one does a search.