Price$45.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedAug 14, 2010
Haiku Book Test
Hedan, Vincent
(Based on 1 review)
A haiku is a form of codified poetry that appeared in Japan during the second half of the seventeenth century. It consists of a very short text, usually three lines, describing an image, a landscape, an emotion, a feeling...
Mentalism effect
French magician Vincent Hedan had created a wonderful mentalism effect using a notebook of haiku. A spectator chooses freely a haiku, and the magician is able to draw instantaneously what it represents.
To say it simple, it is a very effective book-test effect. But in fact it is a lot more than that. It creates a moment of pure emotion, a moment of refinement and of elegance...
"Vincent Hedan's Haiku is a clever combination of poetry and mental magic beautifully wrapped to create a strong effect with emotion. Everything I like!" - Boris Wild
"Vincent Hedan's Haiku book test is novel, beautifully produced and its method rests on a smart combination of subtle ideas." - Stephen Minch
Reviews
(Top ▲)
There were all kinds of good words going around about this little "book test" that I just had to give it a shot.
This item arrives in quite the neat little package, very nice and very professional. The 10-page instructions come inside a box/folder and the booklet of haiku is tucked away in a recessed portion of the box.
The instructions are nicely written and the book is also of good quality. The cover is sturdy, the paper is a heavier weight and the binding is a sturdy glue binding. I appreciate the fact that, like the haiku poems themselves, the book is simple in its own right and small enough that it fits in your pocket.
There are over 100 different haiku in the book if you count the Japanese pages - every other page is in Japanese and the page that follows it has the French or English translation, depending on which language version you have. I thought it was quite clever because if you happen to come across a spectator that reads or speaks Japanese, they can use those pages to select their haiku if they like. The selection of which haiku they pick is a 100% free choice.
The whole thing works on an old principle that has been used in some other great effects on the market or in magazines - it is still very clever. This brings me to the ability of the spectators and participants to examine the book. Can it be done? Yes, a casual examination is best and they can handle the book freely.
I am not convinced that if you sat down with ten people and let them very closely scrutinize the book that all ten would figure out how it works, apart from one aspect. Maybe 3 or 4 might get close, but at any rate I would not leave it in their hands for too long. The presentation ideas in the instruction booklet tells you exactly how to get around this. If you do not treat the book as being important, nobody will suspect anything.
This effect is not meant to be repeated more than once for the same crowd, but why would you do that for such a thing like a book test anyway? On the other hand, you can absolutely have two audience members at the same table choose two different haiku and divine both of them, but you would not repeat it.
The only thing I would change or rather add is second booklet of different haiku, just to allow for more possible drawings. I cannot really say more without giving anything away, but if you have this or get this, you will know what I mean.
The ad copy is 100% true to its word, but for what you get I think the price is a tad high, though the quality and the cleanliness of the effect is worth it in my opinion.
For the record, I have both the English and the French versions of this. Both are exactly the same except the French and English parts.
If you want something that brings a bit more emotion into your performances and that has the feel of a book test without having to carry books around, or if you are a person that likes to use stories or poems in your work, this is for you.
Recommended!
This item arrives in quite the neat little package, very nice and very professional. The 10-page instructions come inside a box/folder and the booklet of haiku is tucked away in a recessed portion of the box.
The instructions are nicely written and the book is also of good quality. The cover is sturdy, the paper is a heavier weight and the binding is a sturdy glue binding. I appreciate the fact that, like the haiku poems themselves, the book is simple in its own right and small enough that it fits in your pocket.
There are over 100 different haiku in the book if you count the Japanese pages - every other page is in Japanese and the page that follows it has the French or English translation, depending on which language version you have. I thought it was quite clever because if you happen to come across a spectator that reads or speaks Japanese, they can use those pages to select their haiku if they like. The selection of which haiku they pick is a 100% free choice.
The whole thing works on an old principle that has been used in some other great effects on the market or in magazines - it is still very clever. This brings me to the ability of the spectators and participants to examine the book. Can it be done? Yes, a casual examination is best and they can handle the book freely.
I am not convinced that if you sat down with ten people and let them very closely scrutinize the book that all ten would figure out how it works, apart from one aspect. Maybe 3 or 4 might get close, but at any rate I would not leave it in their hands for too long. The presentation ideas in the instruction booklet tells you exactly how to get around this. If you do not treat the book as being important, nobody will suspect anything.
This effect is not meant to be repeated more than once for the same crowd, but why would you do that for such a thing like a book test anyway? On the other hand, you can absolutely have two audience members at the same table choose two different haiku and divine both of them, but you would not repeat it.
The only thing I would change or rather add is second booklet of different haiku, just to allow for more possible drawings. I cannot really say more without giving anything away, but if you have this or get this, you will know what I mean.
The ad copy is 100% true to its word, but for what you get I think the price is a tad high, though the quality and the cleanliness of the effect is worth it in my opinion.
For the record, I have both the English and the French versions of this. Both are exactly the same except the French and English parts.
If you want something that brings a bit more emotion into your performances and that has the feel of a book test without having to carry books around, or if you are a person that likes to use stories or poems in your work, this is for you.
Recommended!