Harry Houdini

THE BLURB:
Imagine this: you are sitting waiting for an appointment
when someone notices you are reading a book by Harry
Houdini. A conversation ensues in which you begin to explain
how the classic book penned by this famous magician is
purely dedicated to exposing fakes and frauds who use
trickery to deceive people into believing that they have
"supernatural" powers.

Then you say, "For example, take a look at this book real
quickly. While you do that, I am going to write down
something here on a piece of paper, fold it up, and put it
in plain view for you to see." You then instruct them to
turn freely to any page they would like, remember the page
number, and then close the book and put it on the table. You
take the book back and tell them to read the paper: you
predicted exactly what they read!

You can also use this book in conjunction with other books.
Picture this: a participant is freely chosen from the
audience. She is given the opportunity to pick from several
books on a table, which is then handed out to another
audience member for safe keeping. You then select The
Miracle Mongers and give it to the participant. She is
directed to select a random page in the middle, and then ask
the audience member holding the other book to open his book
to the same page. You then begin revealing the content of
the page in the book that the audience member is holding.

No stooges! No confederates. Can be done impromptu. Can be
done completely surrounded. No mirrors. No coins. No breaks.
One of the easiest book tests you'll ever do... and, it is
the real book! The possible routines are limited only by you
own imagination! You can even read Harry's work from front
to back.

Pages 200 - Perfect Bound Soft Cover - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (14cm
x 21.6cm)

MY COMMENTS:
This is a very handsome, well-produced book that any
mentalist who enjoys using booktests will use. However, if
I were to just to make my recommendation based on the
honesty of this blurb, I'd be tempted to not recommend this
at all. This is a very misleading ad blurb.

First, you assume that what's being written down in the
first described effect are some words from a passage that
was read. If so, this would truly be a great effect.
However, in truth, what's being written down is the page
number. That makes this routine incredibly anti-climactic
for the participant who may assume the performer is being
specific about what is being read and not the page number.
Sure, you can set it up so that the participant/audience
expects a page number, but then it's not really that
impressive of a feat. It's almost a letdown, and just a bit
more serious than the "No" gag. In addition, the
explanation for this routine isn't even mentioned in the
instructions!

The other thing not stated in the blurb is that this is
another version of the Sherlock Holmes Inductive Book Test,
except this one uses Harry Houdini's THE MIRACLE MONGERS.
If one were to buy this looking for a completely different
booktest with a new principle, and especially one from
Black's Magic Group, one would feel cheated and
disappointed. For this book, the key page is 92/93. Those
who are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes Inductive Book
Test or the dictionary in Larry Becker's Ultimate Flashback
will understand what I'm talking about.

To clarify, I have nothing against the prop, which is
well-made and better than some of Black's Magic Group's
earlier efforts. What I dislike is the blurb. It makes no
mention that it's a similar version to another of their
booktests, and the first routine described implies an effect
which is misleading. The 8 page instruction booklet (5.5" x
8.5") covers everything you need to know, including a very
brief bio of Harry Houdini, just in case you didn't know
that the latter part of his life was spent debunking
mediums, which is what the text of this book is about.
Unlike their Sherlock Holmes book test, you can definitely
use this with their X3 book test and it's also ideal to use
with Chuck Hickok's book test routine from Mentalism Inc.
If I had to pick between the Harry Houdini book test and the
Sherlock Holmes, I'd definitely recommend this one, the
Harry Houdini book test, over the other.