Price$50.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedMar 16, 2003
Szechuan Sampler
Earle, Lee
Lee Earle Syzygy Press
(Based on 3 reviews)
After the "table check" for the meal is openly totaled, each "diner" agrees that, if he had picked some other item, the final sum would be a different figure altogether. The gift certificate is opened and read; the printed amount matches the total cost of the meal, to the penny. You also get Lee Earle’s delightful routine with all its subtleties, throw-offs, and laugh lines, for a presentation you can be really proud of. You can even repeat and get a different total. These beautiful menus are laminated (except for the take-out menu) for years of use. This is mental magic at its best. Automatic, easy, and entertaining.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
You've already learned from prevous reviewers that this is a quality product. The dealer description is accurate, the props are well made, and the Chinese menus do indeed look like the real thing. I even showed them to a real Chinese person who confirmed that the Chinese writing is authentic - and not just some squiggles that Lee Earl made up in his bedroom. My only reservation about the props is that the gift certificate is not readable from more than a few feet away. This doesn't really matter, though, as there are lots of other ways of revealing the prediction. There are, however, a few points you may like to consider before you buy.
First, it could be risky sending the menus out into the audience while you remain on the stage. All it would take is one spectator to make a slight mistake, such as chosing a dish from the wrong section, and you would be up a certain creek without a paddle - or canoe. There is also the slight risk of a spectator calling out the wrong price, as the correct price will not always be printed directly next to the name of the dish. So if you want to be safe, and let's face it - you do, you really need to look over the spectator's shoulder and point out the correct price for them to read. This is annoying as, from a theatrical viewpoint, it would be much better to send the menus out into the crowd.
Performers from outside the USA should also be aware that all prices displayed on the menus are in dollars. So if you are a British performer performing in Britain, the menus are much more likely to be seen as magic props.
First, it could be risky sending the menus out into the audience while you remain on the stage. All it would take is one spectator to make a slight mistake, such as chosing a dish from the wrong section, and you would be up a certain creek without a paddle - or canoe. There is also the slight risk of a spectator calling out the wrong price, as the correct price will not always be printed directly next to the name of the dish. So if you want to be safe, and let's face it - you do, you really need to look over the spectator's shoulder and point out the correct price for them to read. This is annoying as, from a theatrical viewpoint, it would be much better to send the menus out into the crowd.
Performers from outside the USA should also be aware that all prices displayed on the menus are in dollars. So if you are a British performer performing in Britain, the menus are much more likely to be seen as magic props.
(Top ▲)
Brad does a nice job summing things up... I give it 5 stars because it is almost a closing trick in my show because I think it is so strong...
I get a killer response to this effect and some great comedy because I pretend to predect the total $$ amount and their menu choices... at the end I unfold my big chart paper prediction and with the total is their 4 menu choices written in chinese (pretend chinese of course) are their menu choices... I get wows and great applause because of my little joke!!!
Great Trick... and covers up the MATH A MAGIC nicely!!!
I get a killer response to this effect and some great comedy because I pretend to predect the total $$ amount and their menu choices... at the end I unfold my big chart paper prediction and with the total is their 4 menu choices written in chinese (pretend chinese of course) are their menu choices... I get wows and great applause because of my little joke!!!
Great Trick... and covers up the MATH A MAGIC nicely!!!
(Top ▲)
How to be a Mind reader in two easy lessons.
Mind reading 101: If the trick requires you to add, multiply, subtract, or divide, the audience will think its just a "math trick."
Mind reading 102: Ok, there are maybe 3 tricks in the history of mind reading where adding up numbers can come off as real mind reading and not math, but only 3...or 4.
Fred Rosenbaum's Szechuan Sampler may be one of those 3, or 4.
For the sarcastically impaired, allow me to be blunt. I hate number tricks. The audience might not be able to explain accurately how they are done; but they either don't care enough to really think about it, or they just figure its a math thing and leave it at that.
Fred has devised a brilliant stratagem to excuse the math, plus he has built in a number of presentational points to totally fry any accountants who might be in the audience.
4 menus are passed out to 4 audience members. If desired, a 5th member can decide who picks what course. Each member picks a different item from their chosen courses, and the prices of each item are totaled.
Here's the cool part. at any time you can ask a different menu holder if he were given the choice of appetizer (or whatever) what would he have selected and at what cost. Both the items and prices would be completely different. (Play up this point and you have not only a fun concept, but a deceptive piece of magic.)
Regardless of their gustatory guesses, our culinary conjurer has prepared a gift certificate for our guests in the exact amount of their total order.
The menus look like something you would find at a real Chinese restaurant, not something manufactured to look like the real thing. Further, you can repeat the effect and have different numbers tallied. Good for repeat customers.
Still not convinced?
True story.
I perform at resorts every year. Some of these places have hosted me for over 12 years running. We have a lot of the same clientele year after year, consequently I need new material each season, and recycle material every two or three years.
I performed Szechuan Sampler about 7 years ago at one resort, just because it fit and was a novel piece. Last year I was talking with some of the regulars about all the shows they've seen and some of the more memorable pieces. Two of them remembered this piece from all those years ago.
The impact of Schezuan Sampler is out of proportion with the apparent effect. Give it some thought, deliver the instruction cleanly, give someone a CALCULATOR to perform the addition, treat your audience with respect, and the Sampler could be a great novelty mind reading piece just ready to be added to your show.
4 very strong stars.
Mind reading 101: If the trick requires you to add, multiply, subtract, or divide, the audience will think its just a "math trick."
Mind reading 102: Ok, there are maybe 3 tricks in the history of mind reading where adding up numbers can come off as real mind reading and not math, but only 3...or 4.
Fred Rosenbaum's Szechuan Sampler may be one of those 3, or 4.
For the sarcastically impaired, allow me to be blunt. I hate number tricks. The audience might not be able to explain accurately how they are done; but they either don't care enough to really think about it, or they just figure its a math thing and leave it at that.
Fred has devised a brilliant stratagem to excuse the math, plus he has built in a number of presentational points to totally fry any accountants who might be in the audience.
4 menus are passed out to 4 audience members. If desired, a 5th member can decide who picks what course. Each member picks a different item from their chosen courses, and the prices of each item are totaled.
Here's the cool part. at any time you can ask a different menu holder if he were given the choice of appetizer (or whatever) what would he have selected and at what cost. Both the items and prices would be completely different. (Play up this point and you have not only a fun concept, but a deceptive piece of magic.)
Regardless of their gustatory guesses, our culinary conjurer has prepared a gift certificate for our guests in the exact amount of their total order.
The menus look like something you would find at a real Chinese restaurant, not something manufactured to look like the real thing. Further, you can repeat the effect and have different numbers tallied. Good for repeat customers.
Still not convinced?
True story.
I perform at resorts every year. Some of these places have hosted me for over 12 years running. We have a lot of the same clientele year after year, consequently I need new material each season, and recycle material every two or three years.
I performed Szechuan Sampler about 7 years ago at one resort, just because it fit and was a novel piece. Last year I was talking with some of the regulars about all the shows they've seen and some of the more memorable pieces. Two of them remembered this piece from all those years ago.
The impact of Schezuan Sampler is out of proportion with the apparent effect. Give it some thought, deliver the instruction cleanly, give someone a CALCULATOR to perform the addition, treat your audience with respect, and the Sampler could be a great novelty mind reading piece just ready to be added to your show.
4 very strong stars.