Mixed Emotions

THE BLURB:
Would you like to successfully read thoughts from the other
side of the room without having to touch anything?

If your answer is yes, then this routine just may be for
you. But before you decide, ask yourself if the following
features also sound good:

    * No sleight-of-hand
    * No peeks or glimpses
    * No pumping
    * No hidden gimmicks
    * No pre-show
    * No forces
    * No confederates
    * No equivoque
    * No marked cards
    * No set-up
    * No reset
    * No clean-up
    * No need to touch anything during the effect
    * No kidding!

Everything can be examined at the beginning, the middle, and
the end of the routine because there is never anything to
find.

Mixed Emotions is a solid piece of stand-up mental deception
that can fit into just about any performer's repertoire.

Comes complete with 12 page, photo-illustrated instruction
book and 5 special Jumbo Emotion Cards.

MY COMMENTS:
Rick Maue has released his first VDM effect. VDM stands for
Venus de Milo, which means that "from a technical
standpoint, even the Venus de Milo can perform it." This
explains the no sleight of hand, etc., list that's above.
Now, even though everything can be examined at any time and
that there are absolutely no sleights, the performer must
exercise participant management. If the participants does
not follow the directions, there is still a feature that can
be used that will save you. That feature would be that the
cards are marked. Yep, the blurb says "no marked cards."
In truth, that's not how the effect works, so in a way, it's
still accurate. The markings are there only as a backup and
really shouldn't be used except in a case where something
goes wrong (and Rick says that's never happened to him yet).

The blurb doesn't really describe the routine. This is it:
Five cards are handed to a participant who mixes them. Each
card has an emotion on it. While the performer walks to the
other side of the room, one card, or emotion, is selected by
the participant and replaced with the others. The five cards
are mixed again and placed face down on a table. Five more
participants step to the front and take one card, without
looking at, and return to their seats. The performer then
directs them to look at their cards. One by one the
performer eliminates four out of the five card-bearing
participants and leaves the one person who is "channeling"
the chosen emotion of the first participant.

As always, Rick is very thorough with his 12-page
instructions (8.5" x 11", illustrated). This is one of those
packs flat, plays big routines that can be an extremely
powerful effect for the experienced performer. Definitely
recommended.