Truly Subliminal

THE BLURB:
Once again Ben Highway and Kenton push past the barriers of
what can be done in mentalism and magic. Like Kolossal
Killer before it, this brings a new standard to dealing with
spectator intuition and free spectator choice, challenging
all previous methods.

A card is selected and returned to the deck. The deck is cut
or mixed. It’s NOT a card trick. It is a real demonstration
of subliminal influence.

The spectator deals cards face up on to the table, stopping
whenever they feel the need. They are not to think about
when to stop, but rather to stop when they feel it is time
to stop. In other words, the participant must stop dealing
using only his or her own intuition.

The performer remains hands off as the spectator deals. The
spectator deals using intuition, until they arrive at their
own selected card. The spectator does not know how he or she
deals to their own card. But they do. Really.

The effect may vary slightly, but in any case the effect is
that the spectator is influenced by subliminal impression to
stop dealing and find his or her own card.

The method is even more amazing than the effect, and that’s
saying a lot.

This is as real as it gets to demonstrating intuition and
subliminal influence, because this is in part how the effect
actually works. Yes, we are very serious. It’s little wonder
audiences are completely floored.

Kenton and Ben Highway have had everyone wondering whether
or not they were “just lucky” when they performed this
effect for mentalists and magicians in several countries. It
isn’t luck, friends. It’s a devious secret you won’t believe
until you try it.

Ben and Kenton have worked out all the angles so that you
will never fail. It’s simple and easy to perform. The
audience and participant will always be impressed with their
ability to tune into subliminal influence or use their
intuition.

No conscious cues, no stooging, no trick deck. The spectator
is as impressed as the audience. Standard and basic sleights
are required only, plus a secret bit of something that will
blow you away when you read it.

Just wait until you try it a few times! This is unlike any
other method on the market today. It will change how you
look at spectator influence forever.

We know Truly Subliminal works wonders on our audiences –
Find out how well it will work for you too! The novel
breakthrough that has them all talking...

Pages 14 - Stapled

MY COMMENTS:
This is one of those effects that look really good. And
then you get it and read it. Your first thoughts will be
that you've been had. It's not a truly free choice of cards
as the performer does have some control over that. For
reasons I can't state, the effect isn't suitable to be
instantly repeated (at least, as written). It also is not
truly impromptu in such that someone can hand you a deck of
cards and you can immediately do it. (You'll have to do
another trick of two first.) At this point, you want to
bury the booklet in your files, complain about it on the
Internet, and/or sell it immediately on Ebay.

And later on, when someone fools you badly with this, or
when you see someone fry other people with this, you'll
realize that you made a terrible mistake. Now, if you don't
like using playing cards, then you have no excuse for being
disappointed as you shouldn't have bought this in the first
place. But this isn't really a card trick. It is a routine
that performers will mistakenly judge by what they think
they know, not by what the audience perceives. Magicians
may think that this is a simple effect and that it will not
be a strong fooler. That is, until they try it out and see
just how powerful this puppy is.

According to the booklet, this effect is "inspired by the
research of Pawel Lewicki and his colleagues." Okay, maybe
the presentation is, but not the methodology. I have a
certain fondness for an effect called "The Lazy Man's Card
Trick". It's credited to Jack Miller and can be found in
the classic Close-Up Card Magic by Harry Lorayne.
Essentially, this a brilliantly re-thinking of that -- okay,
a Kentonesque version of that. Also, with a little thought,
one could perform this effect by having someone truly select
any card. To do that, you must also be familiar with
Vernon's "The Card Trick That Can't Be Explained." Armed
with that, there are far more possibilities than Kenton
explained. (So far, in working with this, I've found that I
only need the Q, 10, 6, and 2, with 3 Xs in between all
pairs except the Q and 10 which uses one X. Those who get
this will know what I mean. If not, e-mail me.)

Despite the crediting issues, which are arguably important,
this is a highly recommended mental effect using playing
cards. And, though I think that Kenton and Ben Highway
could have gone farther to eliminate some of the flaws in
the handling, the presentation is well worth it and the
methodology is certainly effective as is.

I should also mention that there's an additional effect
within the pages of this entitled Riffling Intuition. It's
a terrific effect, but I'm fairly certain that I've seen
this before somewhere . . . not sure where, though. I'll
stop short of any accusation that it's an unintentional
ripoff because of that uncertainty (which could mean that
I'm wrong).