You have 16 cards; each with a different food item displayed on them – this is your shopping list. The spectator mixes up the cards. The spectator then chooses one of the cards. This is done twice. You are then able to tell the spectator which two cards they have chosen without you having to look at the cards. Very impressive!

This is a great effect. You can adapt the patter to suit whatever theme, using food items, you wish. The cards are printed with a food item on one side and the receipt for all of the 16 food items on the reverse.

You can talk about how you purchased these 16 items, but had to return two items due to them being out of date, or of poor quality. The spectator chooses two items, at random, and then you reveal which two items were chosen by the spectator.

As a bonus, you can then reveal that you knew the total that was paid for these two items. As an ‘kicker’, that is just simply genius.

Very easy to perform.

You get:

A DVD explanation
16 customs cards

The routine could be as simple as that, or you can end it with so many different ways. It is pretty straight forward and simple, from the beginning you are presenting something that everyone is familiar with. The food cards show daily products that everyone knows so there won't be any interruption from them asking what the picture is. Even when you are performing for an audience that don't speak English, the crystal clear pictures will represent your patter.

Before I purchased this, I've known the method. It is one of the widest-known and oldest method in our art I guess. Still, I was so excited to get it. First, because I'm teaching English so my performance or routine is motivated. Secondly, the pictures are so great even from the video.

DVD:

It is pretty straight forward. It only has about 12 minutes duration from the performance, setup, ideas and alternative ending. It can't be any simpler than this. It was taken in a studio so there was no echo, blur or choppy images, and no disturbing background noises either. Even I actually have no idea of the guy's name that doing the tutorial Well, first, I'm new at this art, and second I don't live in the U.K. so I don't know him... yet.

Anyway, you won't spend much time on the DVD, it is easy to understand and follow. You might just need to watch it once and you can practice the presentation or patter by yourself after that. There is no sleight taught as you need none. As for credits, as far as I know there is no credit within the DVD. I'm just a new guy on the block so don't shoot me as for my opinion there is no other trick is similar to this (food theme with cards). But hey, if you know better than me, please do and share your thought here.


Cards:

I just love the cards. Period. Each of them is quite thick so you don't have to worry that you might bend them accidentally or your audience might bend them. As a comparison, those 16 cards are a little bit thicker than a half of the deck of regular playing cards. So you can have a roughly ideas of the thickness.

The images are printed in such a good way so they are embossed. So you can feel the difference on the surface. Also with the back of the cards, everything is emboss so it feels great. It gives me a feeling that the cards have great quality and will last for a long time. You don't have to worry that your handling or the way they handle the cards will scratch em.

They're proportional in sizes, meaning that every image is centered so it makes the presentation looks more professional and easy to follow. So no card has the image too low or too high. It's just like flashcards we can find at schools.

On the back of each card, they have a list of all food with their prices and it was designed similar to receipts we get from shops. Now, the best part of the back side is, it doesn't have "$" or "£", so it gives more freedom for us to perform. For instance, if they use "£" then some performers in the U.S. might be a little hesitate to use it. Even for me, I can just tell them the price is in dollars or Poundsterling.

Handling:

As I've mentioned above, it is pretty straight forward and simple. You won't spend much time on how familiarize yourself with the secret. It took me couple of minutes to use the secret method. As that being stated, you have unlimited creative endings or reveals for this. I have some ideas (even I actually don't own the other effects):

Exact Change by Gregory Wilson. So after you reveal their chosen food, you can present a story that you are the owner of the shop, thus you will refund their money. As a matter of fact, you have the exact change in your pocket! I think this will blow their minds. You need, however, to state their choice is totally free, nobody control it. So if they choose different items, the outcome (the changes) will be totally different amount.

Mentalist wallet with m******* o***: the ones that come in mind is some wallets such as Showdown or S.A.W. where you can keep one of the 16 food items. As with Showdown, you can actually have the possibility of having the two items the choose in your wallet. Perhaps others who have the more appropriate wallet can share their ideas here.

RRP is £25 from The MagicTao

What I can say here is, you can't go wrong with this. This is so simple, too simple even. I opened my package at work because I was so excited. I spent only about 5 minutes just to see the card the the secret method. Then at home, when I opened it again, my sister -who happened to stay over at my place for a couple of days- saw me. She took the cards and wondering why I bought cards with food pictures, as she knew the package was actually some magic tutorial DVDs.

So I just told her that the quality of the cards are that great hence I bought them, also I can use them in the class when I'm teaching (ha!) She asked what I can do with that. Oh well, I did the full presentation just like in the demo video and it kills! She couldn't stop laughing even she actually held the cards the entire time and they are always on the table after she made her choices. I only touched the cards to square them. It is that easy and direct.

Hope this helps. Feel free to give some opinions or ideas.

I have and like this. Well made, but I feel bit pricey

Well yeah, thanks for reminding me hehe.. I usually pay in USD, so when I bought this in GBP, I didn't realize it. I thought it was USD 25.

For the quality of the cards, I think it's worth a buy. It will last for a long time. And in my opinion, the more worn out they look, the better they are. No one will take them as props, just regular flash cards.

Thanks for the review Failed Magician, I am glad you are liking Food For Thought

I'm not liking this, I'm loving it!

Great presentational idea of combining this with Exact Change.

Thanks Sini. Maybe one day, someone will put a quick review on combining the two great effects together.

Sounds interesting as an effect.......

The pricing is totally out of line!

This is still one of my best and ready-to-go device.