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BillyTheSquid Veteran user My bamboo hut's supported on 331 Posts |
I bought this one having wanted to get my hands on a diary effect and seen the DVD trailer.
Well, all I can say is - definitely not a killer, unless you're playing to people who have limited short term memory recall. Anyone who can pick the month and then "pick" the day (in a totally non-random, simple mathematical manner), do the simple sum to get this "random" day and then REMEMBER what sum they did to get to the day having picked the random month (twice as difficult as picking the month), is going to see through this clearer than a piece of fibre optic quality glass. I'm not a simpleton when it comes to misdirection and putting people off the scent, but it takes a whole pile of smoke (and time) to get people to forget what they did to generate the day value on this and not back track it. I've done this to both magician and non-magician friends and with the exception of one (of many), all saw through this, despite the amount of smoke and mirrors I put up (having thought long & hard about routining this). All of them have seen me do some pretty "mind blowing stuff" as they tell me and are in awe over, but this was in effect me standing with my trousers down in front of them (in mentalism terms) and they gave it a big raspberry. Thinking of performing this in front of an audience? Yeah, right. Expect many people to start whispering the method to their spouse / friend etc, if only because it's so poor in their minds and they know how it's done. It'll take a huge amount of rappor being built with the audience to get them to forgive this one. As far as being able to pass around the diary when the routine is over, the method is revealed when they look at each of the "random" days in each month (being aware of what mathematical sum they did to get to the day). Clean? Yes, the method is clean. But then it's so clean, it's practically not there. "Clean" is a word I have always regarded as meaning "unable to be back tracked". Maybe I'm deluded here and "Clean" now has come to join the ranks of words such as "Killer" and "Fry" - over used and only useful if you want to sell an effect. I for one feel cheated by the trailer which happens to miss out the tiny 5 seconds between the woman picking the month and "picking" the "random" day in that month, which upon seeing in the trailer you'd immediately guess the method and not buy the DVD. This one leaves me sratching my head as to why anyone would want to put it on its own onto DVD ??? $$£££. In fact, I really am angry that it's taken up my time with preparing the thing (in the blind belief that it may just possibly fool people, lay or initiated). Biggest disappointment of my magical purchases so far - pure hype at worst and possibly jumping on magical advertising's "self delusion" wagon at best. "Killer" my butt. Strong mentalism? This is the weakest effect I've ever seen - lamer than using a breakaway wand in a working men's club act (or what you may end up being if you do use one ). The only thing this has served for me is to devise my own methodology for a diary effect - in itself a good thing for me. Oh, and avoid the hyped DVD trailers - seek out information on magic forums such as this / buddies before making a purchase. A void. Avoid. AVOID. Matt |
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Jarod Loyal user Scotland 226 Posts |
Matt,
thank you for your review with all the details, pro's & con's! I was about to buy a diary effect because I don't have one in my show so far. But I keep looking for something other than Winks Diary now! Cheers, Jarod
It's not the Trick. It's the Magician!
Harry Houdini |
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wsduncan Inner circle Seattle, WA 3619 Posts |
I can't get past the irrational think of a card, now do some math to create a date from the value. That's the date we'll use part. Laymen are used to magicians doing stupid pointless things, so I guess it's not hard to imagine they don't see anything "wrong" with the procedure, but it's about as indirect as you can get. And what does it give you? A random date.
The beauty of the diary effect is that the (freely) chosen card is found on a date that HAS MEANING to the spectator; a birthday, for example. Take away that meaning and you have taken a giant step backwards in effect, no matter what the method is... |
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pctechi New user 9 Posts |
Don't forget that these dealers are just out there to make money from all of us magicians amature and pro !!!
then some pros jump on the band wagon for a bit of cash and hey presto we start parting with our money.its just a more updated version of the Svengali deck salesman years ago at the fairs. not that every magician or dealer is the same,some do actually care.but it does make me laugh the way that these dealers come on the Café and start defending there latest creations.(SORRY RUSS ) LOL LOL |
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Roni Elite user 405 Posts |
Just a quick question:
Do you get the old looking Diary with the effect? Cheers Roni |
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dedikc Veteran user France (Lyon) 340 Posts |
My major problem with this effect is that the laymen think you 'll find his thought card!!
I come whith an out. You find the card like the procedure says, and second you have the time to cull the card and find the card in your wallet or in an enveloppe or in a Mullica type wallet in the diary. The two effect are strong to find the secrets. |
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The Baldini Inner circle I some how pounded in 2445 Posts |
I have this and I mastered disguising the method, and created a patter that made sense, I liked the premise, and I have had other similar effects, but this one, no matter how hard I tried, spectators were not impressed and more important, not entertained by it, so I quickly dropped it, I thought for sure it would be a hit.
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Roger Kelly Inner circle Kent, England 3332 Posts |
The real truth in these desperately sad situations is that the people responsible for all the hype and marketting blah on and on and on all for another sale. Then they disappear out of sight when all and sundry pop up with honest and constructive criticism. If only more would do so, we could probably see the end of the, dramatic music, epilepsy inducing flashes, nano-second almost subliminal messaging frames and overly cut demos of tat! Russ and Peter are great people and at the top of their game when it comes to sales and marketting - but a real pain in the ass when it comes to the, "You will use" hype and BS.
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acortest Regular user 123 Posts |
Thank to everyone who has posted on this thread over the past 2-3 years for all of the reviews and information on this trick. I am currently looking for a good 'Diary' trick to add to my set and right now the 3 I'm considering are 1. Wink's Diary, 2. Chronologue, and 3. Travelogue. I will do some reading in the other 2 threads and in the meantime, if anyone has a recommendation one way or another on any of these three, please reply here or PM me.
Or, better yet, if you know of another one that I am unaware of, please let me know about that as well. Thanks, -Tony |
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Johnny4781 New user 33 Posts |
Hi Guys, just received Winks Diary & as most members here, thought this was pretty transparent... & I'm just a hobbyist. I came up with 2 possibiliies for what might be slightly more baffling (I skimmed over this & have not seen anyone else post these ideas, so I THINK they're being posted here for the first time... if I'm mistaken, I apologize) ok, my thoughts... you COULD use a Svengali, or pop-eyed popper deck, or something of that sort, but that will ALWAYS be the SAME force card... so I thought of using a stacked deck, the spectator picks a random card & can change their mind if they want & they WILL see a different card when they change their mind (this is a plus)... of course, in a stacked deck, YOU will not see the selection or hear the card mentioned, but you KNOW it.... idea #2: Use a regular deck & use a key-card.... the spectator can shuffle (their OWN deck, if you want), take a quick look during a spread saying, "Now you've shuffled these cards & as we can see, it's a good mix"... you note the top card (at the back of the spread) now flip over the deck (use a false shuffle if you like, keeping this key card on top) have them select a card & return it, getting it on top of the key card, spectator can cut the deck... you spread the cards on the table going on about the 'good mix' we see on the table... you can say something like, "Do you see your card? Don't stare at it, don't give me any clues where it is, but I'd like you to mentally focus on your card" as you're finding your key card... for those of you who know the explanation, you can see how these ideas would work... now, the BONUS to all of this... YOU CAN NOW ADD THE "DATE" TO YOUR PREDICTION (or maybe in this case, "MIND READING" since you'd have to know the card selected before you can write the date... if you want to add the "date" to your revelation, it would be more of a mind-reading effect than a 'prediction' of something that is about to happen... this actually may be MORE mind-blowing... sometimes predictions can be TOO impossible, and if, in this trick's case, you're only predicting the CARD, NOT the date... perhaps easier to figure out... but if they know that they truly could pick ANY card, knowing that this will determine the date used & that the date could CHANGE because of the free choice.... THEN you tell them the DATE "AND" the CARD that in the diary that they are merely THINKING of, I think that this seems a little more mind-blowing. Again, I'm just a hobbyist & would love to hear what you pros think of these methods. I could certainly stand to use some constructive criticism... or even a confidence booster if you guys 'like' the 'unknown' card idea that I'm trying to accomplish here. Thanks guys!!
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1KJ Inner circle Warning: We will run out of new tricks in 4385 Posts |
I own this as well as Birthday Detector. I definitively like Birthday Detector much better!
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waldorf New user 16 Posts |
Try Paul Gordon's Gordon Diary. I use it without a deck of cards and it goes down a storm. My favourite.
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Lester Regular user Scotland. U.K 193 Posts |
Hi Magi,
I don't think that you can go far wrong with the classic effects of this genre, namely, Chronologue and Old Moore's Diary by the legendary Pat Page. Best wishes, Lester |
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Merlin Veteran user Palmerton, Pa 362 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-05-14 15:17, acortest wrote: I have been using Chronologue for a few years now, and have always used a deck of cards for the reveal. This method of reveal was either by Richard Osterlind or by Richard Gerlitz, I forget, but it has worked great for me. I have since purchased the "Clarity Box", and now use this as the reveal. The prediction is in full view from the beginning of the effect. Phil |
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