Price$64.95
Media TypeTrick
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedOct 15, 2014
Cody's Comedy Book Test
Fisher, Cody
The Magic Estate
(Based on 3 reviews)
- 10 min of solid impressive mind reading with a killer ending.
- Customize the routine with your own books.
- Learn what ungimmicked books Cody uses and why for maximum entertainment value.
- Can be performed as one, two, or three phases.
- Packs small, plays massive and easy to do.
- Package includes DVD with live performances / detailed explanation and gimmicked book.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Sweating Bullets by Megadeth
Cody Fisher: Cody's Comedy Book Test Review
One DVD, one gimmicked book, 52 minutes and $65 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Many book tests go something like this: They think of a word from the book; they divine it. The end. This effect, however, is much more. You get three phases that theatrically build very well. The routine is modular, so you can use one phase, two phases or all three. It involves 4 books. The only one that's gimmicked is included. The rest you'll have to supply, but they can be any books you want. It gets several people involved, and the final phase has the entire audience extremely engaged.
Method
This combines concepts from Wayne Dobson, Larry Becker and basic book test methods in general. The method is pretty much self-working. You just have to bring your personality. He also teaches you how to customize it for different venues. What you're really buying (other than the book) is Cody Fisher's insight into how to perform this effect, how to make it funny, how to customize it, etc. You're buying his experience and expertise.
Ad Copy Integrity
100% Accurate. Period.
Product Quality
The DVD is well produced: well shot, well lit, well mic'd and well taught. Watching Cody Fisher was easy and entertaining. The training session lasts 52 (ish) minutes and is just the right amount of information. Not too much, not too little. Very . . . Goldilocks. I've watched some DVDs recently where time seemed to stand still. This was the opposite. Time flew by. Everything you need to add this effect to your repertoire is taught excellently.
The book itself is also top quality. It's made to look like an actual joke book that you'd buy at any book store. It actually does have a bunch of jokes in it, but they're never really read. It's not part of the routine.
Final Thoughts
If you're looking for a flexible routine with a solid method that will play for just about any audience, I think you've found it. Just make sure to include your personality.
Final Verdict:
5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!
(Top ▲)
PROS
This is a great comedy book test routine! It comes with a DVD that has a great performance clip and excellent instruction. He has really thought through this routine to make it engaging and entertaining. Anyone watching this can use his performance as a good guide for how to structure a good routine.
CONS
This is a great and thorough routine. My only caution is it might be tempting to perform it word for word and challenging to make this your own and changing the routine to make it unique to you. I do think that this is a routine that could be personalized by using different books, different ways to reveal words, and different scripting. The final phase of the routine probably needs to be done just as Cody does, since it involves the gimmicked book.
In the DVD, he spends some time talking about how you can customize the routine.
VERDICT
Excellent comedy book test routine!
This is a great comedy book test routine! It comes with a DVD that has a great performance clip and excellent instruction. He has really thought through this routine to make it engaging and entertaining. Anyone watching this can use his performance as a good guide for how to structure a good routine.
CONS
This is a great and thorough routine. My only caution is it might be tempting to perform it word for word and challenging to make this your own and changing the routine to make it unique to you. I do think that this is a routine that could be personalized by using different books, different ways to reveal words, and different scripting. The final phase of the routine probably needs to be done just as Cody does, since it involves the gimmicked book.
In the DVD, he spends some time talking about how you can customize the routine.
VERDICT
Excellent comedy book test routine!
(Top ▲)
The Magic Estate claims that Cody’s Comedy Book Test is advertised as “The Funniest Book Test you Will Ever Do!” It is quite a claim and as far as I can tell it is spot on. This trick is so easy to perform, funny, impressive and enjoyable for an audience that it is a must have for those that enjoy book tests or just want to try out a different routine. This trick gets five out of five stars!
This product comes with a gimmicked book entitled “Big Book of Silly Jokes” and an excellent 53 minute instructional DVD. The book itself contains approximately 200 pages of corny Question and Answer jokes such as:
Q: What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
A: Nacho cheese!
The book itself looks and feels like a real book and measures four and a quarter inches by seven inches, which can easily fit in your back pocket. I would feel comfortable handing out the book, briefly, and within my arms reach and control.
The DVD starts with a live demonstration of Cody Fisher doing the full three-phase prediction routine in what appears to be a comedy club. The eleven minute performance uses a pocket dictionary, two random books and the Big Book of Silly Jokes. The routine is hysterical and the predictions are crowd pleasers. Just by watching the routine, you see how Cody handles audience issues such as a spectator that takes too much time, a spectator that does not enthusiastically respond to the performer, how to get a handed-out book back into your hands and how to pause and let the audience enjoy a funny moment, before pushing forward in the routine. Although many performers many feel uncomfortable trying to do something funny, this DVD and routine are so clearly scripted that anyone can execute it and be funny.
The DVD teaches various phases of the routine, which can be reduced to the final phase of the presentation if you don’t have a full ten to twelve minutes to do all three phases. The truncated version should take two to four minutes. The full routine allows you to use four audience members for different mind reading word divinations. After the full live performance, the DVD carefully explains every aspect of the routine and discusses how to customize it. On the DVD Fisher also does a studio demonstration of the routine and explains each step as he goes along. His teaching of the routine is excellent and well thought out. To do the full routine, you will need to get a pocket dictionary, two additional books (they can be any books), thick paper to write predicted words on, a foam board and a Sharpie marker. At the end of the DVD, Fisher tells some anecdotes from his performance of this trick and appropriately credits Walter Dobson for the main effect and also Larry Becker and Anton James.
In the full routine an audience member tells the performer when to stop fanning through the Big Book of Silly Jokes, and selects that page number. Two of the audience members that have been handed out two different books (Fisher’s choice of these books in of itself is funny and ads layers to the comedy effect – but I won’t mention what they are to protect his fantastic routine) then turn to the chosen page number and Fisher is ultimately able to announce the words they are concentrating on, which are different words. Fisher writes the words on a large piece of paper and the way he does the revelation of the words is guaranteed to get laughs. He then has another audience member flip to a certain page in a dictionary to assist in a clever and amazing surprise revelation of one of the spectator’s chosen words. For the final phase of the routine, Cody returns to his joke book. An audience member flips to any page and picks the first word on the page. Fisher then writes the word he believes was chosen on a piece of paper that only the audience can see and not the spectator, who is standing next to him. He then asks the spectator a series of questions about the word to help him guess what the word is and the audience’s reaction is side-splitting laughter. And while most book tests are serious and enigmatic mentalism routines this book test has a completely different feeling to it, but maintains the ability to impress an audience with the several magical predictions. During the course of the routine, the audience believes the performer is talking about one word while the spectator believes the magician is thinking about another word. At the end of the routine, the spectator acknowledges that the magician predicted the word that he selected.
Without giving away too much, this final phase of the routine is based on Walter Dobson’s Exchange, which too is hysterical, but not as family friendly as Fisher’s book test. Fisher’s adaptation added the book test aspect to it and it is slightly risqué, but not too much. It will not be appropriate for young children and would play better for adults.
The ad copy and promotional video are accurate and in fact do not give too much away about the routine and presentation. The price for such a great routine and gimmick is very reasonable. Although the main aspect of the routine is based off of the first word on the page, there is also the ability to do a routine based off of the last word on any page. This bonus feature is not discussed on the DVD and is obviously meant for those that pay careful attention to the book.
For anyone that wants to be handed a great and easy routine that combines mentalism and laughter, and that is also easy to pull off, this is for you.
This product comes with a gimmicked book entitled “Big Book of Silly Jokes” and an excellent 53 minute instructional DVD. The book itself contains approximately 200 pages of corny Question and Answer jokes such as:
Q: What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
A: Nacho cheese!
The book itself looks and feels like a real book and measures four and a quarter inches by seven inches, which can easily fit in your back pocket. I would feel comfortable handing out the book, briefly, and within my arms reach and control.
The DVD starts with a live demonstration of Cody Fisher doing the full three-phase prediction routine in what appears to be a comedy club. The eleven minute performance uses a pocket dictionary, two random books and the Big Book of Silly Jokes. The routine is hysterical and the predictions are crowd pleasers. Just by watching the routine, you see how Cody handles audience issues such as a spectator that takes too much time, a spectator that does not enthusiastically respond to the performer, how to get a handed-out book back into your hands and how to pause and let the audience enjoy a funny moment, before pushing forward in the routine. Although many performers many feel uncomfortable trying to do something funny, this DVD and routine are so clearly scripted that anyone can execute it and be funny.
The DVD teaches various phases of the routine, which can be reduced to the final phase of the presentation if you don’t have a full ten to twelve minutes to do all three phases. The truncated version should take two to four minutes. The full routine allows you to use four audience members for different mind reading word divinations. After the full live performance, the DVD carefully explains every aspect of the routine and discusses how to customize it. On the DVD Fisher also does a studio demonstration of the routine and explains each step as he goes along. His teaching of the routine is excellent and well thought out. To do the full routine, you will need to get a pocket dictionary, two additional books (they can be any books), thick paper to write predicted words on, a foam board and a Sharpie marker. At the end of the DVD, Fisher tells some anecdotes from his performance of this trick and appropriately credits Walter Dobson for the main effect and also Larry Becker and Anton James.
In the full routine an audience member tells the performer when to stop fanning through the Big Book of Silly Jokes, and selects that page number. Two of the audience members that have been handed out two different books (Fisher’s choice of these books in of itself is funny and ads layers to the comedy effect – but I won’t mention what they are to protect his fantastic routine) then turn to the chosen page number and Fisher is ultimately able to announce the words they are concentrating on, which are different words. Fisher writes the words on a large piece of paper and the way he does the revelation of the words is guaranteed to get laughs. He then has another audience member flip to a certain page in a dictionary to assist in a clever and amazing surprise revelation of one of the spectator’s chosen words. For the final phase of the routine, Cody returns to his joke book. An audience member flips to any page and picks the first word on the page. Fisher then writes the word he believes was chosen on a piece of paper that only the audience can see and not the spectator, who is standing next to him. He then asks the spectator a series of questions about the word to help him guess what the word is and the audience’s reaction is side-splitting laughter. And while most book tests are serious and enigmatic mentalism routines this book test has a completely different feeling to it, but maintains the ability to impress an audience with the several magical predictions. During the course of the routine, the audience believes the performer is talking about one word while the spectator believes the magician is thinking about another word. At the end of the routine, the spectator acknowledges that the magician predicted the word that he selected.
Without giving away too much, this final phase of the routine is based on Walter Dobson’s Exchange, which too is hysterical, but not as family friendly as Fisher’s book test. Fisher’s adaptation added the book test aspect to it and it is slightly risqué, but not too much. It will not be appropriate for young children and would play better for adults.
The ad copy and promotional video are accurate and in fact do not give too much away about the routine and presentation. The price for such a great routine and gimmick is very reasonable. Although the main aspect of the routine is based off of the first word on the page, there is also the ability to do a routine based off of the last word on any page. This bonus feature is not discussed on the DVD and is obviously meant for those that pay careful attention to the book.
For anyone that wants to be handed a great and easy routine that combines mentalism and laughter, and that is also easy to pull off, this is for you.