Product description : I love book test, I’ve got quite a few of them, mainly in French (since I’m French) but I’ve yet to be surprised with a new and revolutionary principle in a book test. Julien David is well known for his work on a famous principle which is not only applied in magic. And he added this into his book test “Tandem” to allow magician to perform new effects which wouldn’t have been possible before. So this a two books book test even if you can use only one if you want to. Let’s find out if it’s worth your money !
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at around $90 (75€) and you can find it on C.C. Edition website : http://www.cc-editions.fr/livres-de-magie/product_info.php?products_id=2146. Unfortunately, it’s only available in French for now.
What you get : You receive 2 books as well as a 36 pages booklet which explains all the routines you can do with it and the subtleties and principles built into Tandem. The booklet is really well done and you learn everything quickly. The books are really well printed and look like real ones, but people can’t read more than 10 to 20 pages (which shouldn’t be a problem since people will read a small part of a page and this will make sense). Inside the books, 5 principles are built in, and 2 of them are never seen before. You get the Flashback, the U.F. Grant, and a few other ones which I won’t detail since they are unique to Tandem. Let me just say that, with the 2 books, each given to one spectator, you’ll be able to divine the word one spectator is thinking about and, without changing your prediction, being able to divine the word the other spectator is thinking about (and they’re not the same !!!). I really like this principle, it was built into the Close Up Book Test by Yves Doumergues but it’s much more elaborated in Tandem. Overall, the quality of the books and the explanations is just amazing and for the price, you can’t go wrong with it.
Teaser : Since it’s a book, there is no real teaser or trailer for it.
The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.
THE CONS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]As I said, people can’t read more than 10 pages but it should not be a problem during your routine.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The books are a bit big, I wouldn’t be able to use them close-up (even if a book test routine isn’t made to be performed in such situation). Maybe a pocket version will be edited in a few years.
THE PROS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I like the price, it’s not that expensive since you receive 2 books for the book test effect and you can a lot of things with it.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The 2 unique principles are well disguised and allow you to do innovative routines with the books such as knowing which word have been selected from which book !
[if !supportLists]– [endif]There is something to do with ambigram, creatively incorporated in the book, so you can do dual reality routines or any other things possible with such principle.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I like the way the book have been printed, they look like real book you could find in a library and they won’t scream “Fake Book” when you will be performing with them.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]Famous principles have been included such as the Flashback or the U.F. Grant. Even if you have a bad memory, they have thought about it and you can use the other book to help you finding their word.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]For $90, you don’t get A routine but a tool which will allow you to do many things, however, I don’t think using the books for more than 2 to 3 effects is effective, people will begin to think there is something tricky about them.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]They also teach you how to make a 4 ways out envelope which can be useful for the routines but also for any other mentalism effect.
Overall rating : I really like this book test, I’m not sure it will replace the ones I’m currently using but I really like the work that have been done with Tandem, I’ll definitely keep it in case I need it later, 3.5/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, a little bit of memory work is needed but you can find ways to get over it, concentrate on your presentation, 3/5 stars.
Similar products : Book tests is a very important part of mentalism, there are a lot of references ! My favourite are The Abyss and Close Up Book Test.