Price$95.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedOct 24, 2014
Ultimate Book Test
Volpe, Luca
Titanas
(Based on 2 reviews)
Not just the book test itself; but it includes all the little nuisances that will make YOUR book test PERFORMANCE truly powerful and memorable. Neal Scryer, the famous entertainer, described Luca Volpe as "The Rembrandt of Mentalism".
Using his 20 years of mentalism performing experience in Close-up, Stage and TV performances, Luca Volpe walks you step-by-step through his incredible 8 minute performance routine.
No force book test Free Selection Allowed 5 Phase book test routine Limited Edition
The Ultimate Book Test teaches YOU: How to read MULTIPLE spectator's minds! Maximize the impact of a 5 PHASE routine. Blow your spectator's minds with a BUILT-IN DRAWING duplication
Comes complete with: 2 books Extra BONUS effects included Detailed script built on a lifetime of performances
If you have ever dreamed of performing a book test routine, you cannot be without it.
"This is an incredible book test, and so much more! Luca knows how to amaze audiences; now YOU will have HIS secrets."
- Marc Salem
"Luca's multi-phase 'Ultimate Book Test Act' is probably the best book test routine I have ever witnessed!! This is 10-15 minutes of solid and baffling entertainment, which involves up to five participants but holds the attention of the whole audience...My order is in!!
- Paul McCaig
"Luca Volpe has created the new 'Ferrari' of book tests - devastatingly elegant, hard hitting and offering multiple revelation possibilities. It was THE HIT at MindVention...I want a set!"
- Brett Barry
A great combination of principles leading to a surprise ending which will thrill every audience.
- Nicholas Einhorn
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Alone by Heart
The Ultimate Book Test Act by Luca Volpe Review
Two book test books, one booklet of instructions, eight minutes of mentalism and $95 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Two spectators come on stage. A book is chosen (free choice of two books). Spectator 1 opens to any page and memorizes the last word on the page. Spectator 2 turns to any page and reads the first paragraph and finds a word that can be visualized (i.e., an object).
You read the second spectator's mind (because you're "having trouble" reading the first spectator's mind), and you draw a picture of what he's thinking. You are correct, and spectator 2 sits down.
Still struggling with the second spectator, you try an experiment with the audience to help "open your mind." Toss out four balled up pieces of paper to get four volunteers who stay in the audience. Give them the book. Have them each grab the book, turn to any page and think of the first word on that page. After all four have selected their own word, you then read each of their minds and have them sit down.
Lastly, with your "mind opened," you try again with the spectator on stage. You still can't read his mind, so you have him name his word. Then you remember that earlier that day you had a premonition of four random letters, and you wrote them down. You have the four spectators with the balls of paper un-crumple their papers. There is a letter on each paper. The letters spell out the word that the spectator number 1 was thinking.
That's the full routine. Also keep in mind that this final word isn't always the same word.
Method
The method is pretty much all self-contained in the books that come with the set. You get two books that the audience can choose from. Regardless of which book they choose, this effect will work. You have virtually nothing to remember to perform the effect. It's all self-contained and easy to do.
This is 100% performance. You need to be a good performer to pull this off. Other than that, it's within the grasp of all skill levels. Notice I said "skill levels" not "performance levels." Yes performance is a skill, but in this case, I'm referring to technical skill, not performance skill. There is no technical skill required, only performance skill.
The big claim from Luca Volpe as to what makes this different from other book tests is the "kicker" ending with the paper balls. In order to pull off the paper ball ending, you'll need these books which do all the work for you.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy is solid. All the claims are legitimate. The only thing I would want to clarify is the "no force book test" claim. It depends on how you look at it. Let's take a totally unrelated concept to illustrate the point. Imagine I had a deck that contained 52 copies of the Seven of Spades. If I spread the deck in front of a spectator and told them to choose any card, is it a free selection? Or better put, is it a "no force selection?"
While it's true, the choice of which of the 52 cards they picked was not a force, the end result is the same: the Seven of Spades was forced on them. Those decks are called one-way forcing decks for a reason.
Just in case you're wondering, the books are not the same words on every single page, but some forcing is happening. However, the forcing is all done with a bunch of free choices. They choose which book and which page, and yet there is still a very subtle (and automatic) force happening.
For those in the "know" consider MOABT . . . is it a force? It could be considered a ranging force . . . one of twenty-four possible words. Yet everything about it is a free choice. You get the idea. I just wanted to clarify that "no force" claim - I think I may have un-clarified it.
The only other thing that was a little off was the claim that the instructions covered "all the little nuances that will make YOUR book test PERFORMANCE truly powerful and memorable." While I believe that the performance of this will be powerful and memorable, the instructions were pretty scarce. They covered everything you need to know to do the routine successfully, but I don't feel it covered any "little nuances." It describes the effect, covers the method (i.e., describes the gimmicked nature of the books), gives a script and offers two alternate ideas. That's it. No nuances.
Product Quality
The books are good looking and look legitimate except for one tiny issue. The paragraphs are all squished together with no indentation. I don't know how notice-able it is, but "real books" don't look like that. However, due to the way the books are used, it's probably not a big deal. The only other issue was that one of my books has a damaged corner on the spine, but I think it was a shipping problem. The instructions are found in a twelve page booklet that covers everything that you need to perform the effect as mentioned above in the "Ad Copy Integrity" section.
Final Thoughts
If you like book tests, this is a very good option. Everything's well made and well thought out. As I mentioned in the "Method" section, you'll need these books to pull off the "big ending" that Volpe claims separates this from other book tests. If you like the effect, you'll love this product for sure. So the question for you is whether or not it's worth $95 to do this effect.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.
(Top ▲)
The Ultimate Book Test Act (UBTA), is a fantastic book test routine by renowned Italian mentalist Luca Volpe. The UBTA comes with two books and a 12 page pamphlet that describes the effect, the secret and provides a word-for-word routine script. This trick is well-priced for a book test and is guaranteed to deliver astonishment to your audience.
This routine allows you to have the spectators pick words from various positions on the page, allows you to read the mind of the spectator after they read a paragraph, and then draw what they are thinking about after having read the book.
The UBTA can be used as a multi-phased routine that lasts anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes, depending on your presentation, which will require a larger audience that uses 6 spectator/volunteers. The presentation can also be broken down into much quicker acts of mentalism, not using the entire script, that would be more appropriate for a close-up situation with a much smaller audience, using either one or both books.
The two books both measure exactly 5 ¾ inches by 8 ¼ inches, and although I would have liked to see books of different sizes, that does not present an issue from the spectator’s point of view. One book is 155 numbered pages and the other is 203 numbered pages. Although the books have a larger font than I would like for such a small book, I doubt that it will be noticed be the spectators who are only looking at the text of the book for a few seconds. Similarly, the bottom margins on some of the pages are a bit off and while it jumped out at me, while I was scrutinizing the books, I doubt that anyone will notice it, since no one will suspect that the books are gaffed in any way. Other issues that are likely to be invisible to spectators are the fact that the first word in a new paragraph is not indented, the paragraphs are not separated by line spacing and the cover art of each book (one more than the other) looks a bit off. Each book has a realistic looking bar code on the back and they both also have the text “L.V. Publishing Copyright 2014” on it as well. It is a microscopic detail that no spectator will notice, especially since no spectator handles both books. For these very nitpicky reasons, I do not think that the word “Ultimate” belongs in the title (although the word refers to the “Act”). But notwithstanding this strong statement, this product gets an extremely high rating.
Volpe credits David Hoy, Chris Philpott and Steve Hollifield for the “Tossed Out” aspects of the routine, which is something that is risky to perform if you are working with a very small audience that are likely to discuss what they read. Volpe offers his email in the pamphlet and will send you a private link to a performance in Italian if you request it of him. Unless you speak Italian, I suggest skipping the almost six minute video. The books also contain a reminder key of the back of each book, for the other book which is impossible to detect.
While the promotional video is accurate and the ad copy is mostly accurate, the claim that there is a “Free Selection Involved” is vague and does not specify what is freely selected. The book? The page? The word? While the spectator can freely pick either of the two books and also the page from the book that they freely turn to, the performer does offer some guidance as to what words are selected and read. There is no need for the spectator to reveal what page number they have looked at. And because the ad copy claims that this is a “Limited Edition,” I would have liked to know how many copies are actually being sold.
The books cannot be examined closely and may be more prone to discovery due to one of the phases of the routine which relates to the kicker ending, which is very surprising to the audience. The possibility of being exposed is so minimal with easy audience management.
Notwithstanding the criticisms voiced above about the actual books, this product is excellent and lovers of book tests should indulge in this very versatile and worthwhile purchase.
This routine allows you to have the spectators pick words from various positions on the page, allows you to read the mind of the spectator after they read a paragraph, and then draw what they are thinking about after having read the book.
The UBTA can be used as a multi-phased routine that lasts anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes, depending on your presentation, which will require a larger audience that uses 6 spectator/volunteers. The presentation can also be broken down into much quicker acts of mentalism, not using the entire script, that would be more appropriate for a close-up situation with a much smaller audience, using either one or both books.
The two books both measure exactly 5 ¾ inches by 8 ¼ inches, and although I would have liked to see books of different sizes, that does not present an issue from the spectator’s point of view. One book is 155 numbered pages and the other is 203 numbered pages. Although the books have a larger font than I would like for such a small book, I doubt that it will be noticed be the spectators who are only looking at the text of the book for a few seconds. Similarly, the bottom margins on some of the pages are a bit off and while it jumped out at me, while I was scrutinizing the books, I doubt that anyone will notice it, since no one will suspect that the books are gaffed in any way. Other issues that are likely to be invisible to spectators are the fact that the first word in a new paragraph is not indented, the paragraphs are not separated by line spacing and the cover art of each book (one more than the other) looks a bit off. Each book has a realistic looking bar code on the back and they both also have the text “L.V. Publishing Copyright 2014” on it as well. It is a microscopic detail that no spectator will notice, especially since no spectator handles both books. For these very nitpicky reasons, I do not think that the word “Ultimate” belongs in the title (although the word refers to the “Act”). But notwithstanding this strong statement, this product gets an extremely high rating.
Volpe credits David Hoy, Chris Philpott and Steve Hollifield for the “Tossed Out” aspects of the routine, which is something that is risky to perform if you are working with a very small audience that are likely to discuss what they read. Volpe offers his email in the pamphlet and will send you a private link to a performance in Italian if you request it of him. Unless you speak Italian, I suggest skipping the almost six minute video. The books also contain a reminder key of the back of each book, for the other book which is impossible to detect.
While the promotional video is accurate and the ad copy is mostly accurate, the claim that there is a “Free Selection Involved” is vague and does not specify what is freely selected. The book? The page? The word? While the spectator can freely pick either of the two books and also the page from the book that they freely turn to, the performer does offer some guidance as to what words are selected and read. There is no need for the spectator to reveal what page number they have looked at. And because the ad copy claims that this is a “Limited Edition,” I would have liked to know how many copies are actually being sold.
The books cannot be examined closely and may be more prone to discovery due to one of the phases of the routine which relates to the kicker ending, which is very surprising to the audience. The possibility of being exposed is so minimal with easy audience management.
Notwithstanding the criticisms voiced above about the actual books, this product is excellent and lovers of book tests should indulge in this very versatile and worthwhile purchase.