This is a book test. It is a comedy book test in the same veins as “Paper Balls Over The Head” and Corinda’s “Powers Of darkness”. However, in “Paper Balls” and “Powers Of Darkness”, the spectator assisting the performer does not know the method whereas the rest of the audience can see what the performer does. In “Sheer Luck”, the spectator helping the performer gets to see the “true method” whereas the rest of the audience assume the “wrong method” and then realise later the “correct method”.
In “Sheer Luck”, only the performer knows how the book test actually works, the audience and the assisting spectator assume the “wrong method”. In “Paper Balls” and “Powers Of Darkness”, what the rest of the audience sees is the correct method. “Sheer Luck” is truly a sucker’s sucker trick!
So how does the effect look like?
The performer brings out the book entitles “The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes” and says that he is a friend of the famous detective. He claims that he has memorised the entire book, and proposes to test it out.
He hands the book to a spectator and he stands back-to-back with her. In this position, the spectator will know by feel if the performer tries to turn and peep over her shoulders. He asks the spectator to turn to a random page. While the spectator is doing that, the performer brings out another similar book from inside his jacket and proceeds to turn to the selected page.
He tells the spectator that he has memorised every page, every paragraph and every word in that book. He proceeds to describe in details what is in the selected page, much to the surprise of the spectator, and to the laughter of the rest of the audience who can see exactly what the performer is doing.
Finally, the performer gets the spectator to turn around and “accidentallly” exposes the book in his hand. He shows to this spectator, and then to the rest of the audience, that every page in his book is blank.
The final reaction from the entire audience is one of great laughter and of wow, because it is incomprehensive to everyone how the performer is able to accomplish this fantastic feat!
This is the reaction every performer aims to get from his performance!
You receive the 2 books, both are gimmicked in special ways, and a link to a video turotial. You also get to see 6 video clips of Shawn’s performances in various venues such as in cruise ships, Disney’s and TV.
Shawn is an excellent performer. You can see that he reacted differently to each helper on stage in each of the performances. We can certainly learn from him about how to react spontaneously to our audiences.
His explanation video is only 15 minutes long. He gives an interesting insight into how he came to create this book test. He also explains his several beta versions of this book test before he arrived at the final version.
This is a book test that is easy to learn – there is no memorization needed – it will take only a few minutes to understand the principle behind the book test, and you will be able to perform it. A very good investment. (Rated 5/5 stars)
