THE BLURB:
3 Common Puzzle books
49 puzzles each
147 puzzles total
Over 3,675 Possible "Answers"
Completely free choice
Puzzles are legitimate
Puzzles are PROVEN to all be different from each other.
3 common Crossword Puzzle Books are shown
2 books are chosen, (the third is used to show examples to
the audience)
Each spectator FREELY opens to ANY page.
The first reads over the clues and chooses ANY "answer" they
wish...
The audience is asked to choose "across or down" and a
number.
The second spectator silently reads the clue at that number.
The puzzle clues are closely scrutinized, Puzzles on the
other pages are compared and it's made VERY CLEAR that all
the puzzles are different, ALL of the clues are different,
All of the answers are different.
With NO fishing
NO "cues"
NO impression devices
You reveal the word Spectator #2 is THINKING of.
And Spectator #1 takes the bookmark out of the book THEY'VE
BEEN HOLDING the WHOLE TIME...
It is has the EXACT word they chose written on it!
ALL SELF CONTAINED
NO IMPRESSION DEVICES
NO MEMORIZATION
NO FISHING
NO FORMULAS OR WORD ASSOCIATION
NO STOOGES
Hundreds of ACTUAL choices of PUZZLES, CLUES and ANSWERS are
closely examined to show NO DUPLICATE CHOICES!
SUPER SIMPLE YET DEVIOUS!
MY COMMENTS:
When I first looked at these props and read the
instructions, I thought that this may be a really cool
effect. A lot of work went into the design of these puzzle
books and everything in the blurb seemed accurate.
But a few things bothered me. First, there was the size of
the puzzle books. Each book is about 3.5" x 4.5". For
close-up work, that's fine. For parlour work, it's okay,
but I would have preferred it to be bigger and more of the
size that I see on the magazine stands, not the small
booklets at the checkout counter (though these are a bit
larger than that).
Another thing that bothered me were the clues. It just so
happened that the answer to the first clue I looked at was
"queenbee" (two words as one). Yet, the secret crib says
that the answer is simply "queen." I didn't check the other
clues and answers, but one incorrect clue is not good. On
the other hand, there was an error or two in the orignal
MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS, so perhaps this one error won't be
much of a bother, so far as one is aware of it. (It's not
mentioned in the instructions, though.)
The main issue I have with this is the puzzles themselves.
They do not look like the crossword puzzles that you'd find
in magazines, such as Dell Crossword Puzzles, or the
newspapers, like the New York Times. It's closer to the
British style of crossword puzzles but with fewer answers.
Now, for those who work with audiences who wouldn't notice
or wouldn't know, then this may be fine. But, to me, they
just don't look like real crossword puzzles and that's a
major issue so far as I'm concerned.
Finally, there's the price. Now, I may be able to justify
this prop and keep it in my case for special occasions, but
the price of this seems just too high to do this. I do know
that these are custom made and there's a lot of work that
went into this. It's certainly appreciated, but the bottom
line is that these puzzle books just don't look like regular
puzzle books and, personally, I can't afford to use
something like that.
Like Solano's INTERNATIONAL POCKET CHANGE, I like the ideas
behind this, but I just don't think it's designed well
enough to be practical for the working professional.
3 Common Puzzle books
49 puzzles each
147 puzzles total
Over 3,675 Possible "Answers"
Completely free choice
Puzzles are legitimate
Puzzles are PROVEN to all be different from each other.
3 common Crossword Puzzle Books are shown
2 books are chosen, (the third is used to show examples to
the audience)
Each spectator FREELY opens to ANY page.
The first reads over the clues and chooses ANY "answer" they
wish...
The audience is asked to choose "across or down" and a
number.
The second spectator silently reads the clue at that number.
The puzzle clues are closely scrutinized, Puzzles on the
other pages are compared and it's made VERY CLEAR that all
the puzzles are different, ALL of the clues are different,
All of the answers are different.
With NO fishing
NO "cues"
NO impression devices
You reveal the word Spectator #2 is THINKING of.
And Spectator #1 takes the bookmark out of the book THEY'VE
BEEN HOLDING the WHOLE TIME...
It is has the EXACT word they chose written on it!
ALL SELF CONTAINED
NO IMPRESSION DEVICES
NO MEMORIZATION
NO FISHING
NO FORMULAS OR WORD ASSOCIATION
NO STOOGES
Hundreds of ACTUAL choices of PUZZLES, CLUES and ANSWERS are
closely examined to show NO DUPLICATE CHOICES!
SUPER SIMPLE YET DEVIOUS!
MY COMMENTS:
When I first looked at these props and read the
instructions, I thought that this may be a really cool
effect. A lot of work went into the design of these puzzle
books and everything in the blurb seemed accurate.
But a few things bothered me. First, there was the size of
the puzzle books. Each book is about 3.5" x 4.5". For
close-up work, that's fine. For parlour work, it's okay,
but I would have preferred it to be bigger and more of the
size that I see on the magazine stands, not the small
booklets at the checkout counter (though these are a bit
larger than that).
Another thing that bothered me were the clues. It just so
happened that the answer to the first clue I looked at was
"queenbee" (two words as one). Yet, the secret crib says
that the answer is simply "queen." I didn't check the other
clues and answers, but one incorrect clue is not good. On
the other hand, there was an error or two in the orignal
MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS, so perhaps this one error won't be
much of a bother, so far as one is aware of it. (It's not
mentioned in the instructions, though.)
The main issue I have with this is the puzzles themselves.
They do not look like the crossword puzzles that you'd find
in magazines, such as Dell Crossword Puzzles, or the
newspapers, like the New York Times. It's closer to the
British style of crossword puzzles but with fewer answers.
Now, for those who work with audiences who wouldn't notice
or wouldn't know, then this may be fine. But, to me, they
just don't look like real crossword puzzles and that's a
major issue so far as I'm concerned.
Finally, there's the price. Now, I may be able to justify
this prop and keep it in my case for special occasions, but
the price of this seems just too high to do this. I do know
that these are custom made and there's a lot of work that
went into this. It's certainly appreciated, but the bottom
line is that these puzzle books just don't look like regular
puzzle books and, personally, I can't afford to use
something like that.
Like Solano's INTERNATIONAL POCKET CHANGE, I like the ideas
behind this, but I just don't think it's designed well
enough to be practical for the working professional.
Cosmo Solano
LEXICAN EXPERIMENT
$139
Sorry, No Discounts on This Item
