$10(1 review, 1 customer rating) ★★★★★
This lightweight mental effect is suitable for close up, parlor or even stage and is very simple to do. A map is shown which has six named locations marked on it. A spectator mentally selects one and records his choice on a small card which is concealed in an envelope. Cards bearing the names of the six locations are shuffled by a spectator and placed by him entirely at random into six envelopes which are then given out to audience members. Despite all this, a prediction shown at the start leads to the correct person holding the envelope which contains the spectator's chosen island location.
1st edition 2017, PDF 3 pages.
word count: 959 which is equivalent to 3 standard pages of text
Reviewed by Douglas Sparkes (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★ Date Added: Thursday 23 February, 2023I love the premise. This type of magic / mentalism appeals to my style and performance. It's not just a trick. It is an audience engaging story and effect. I love the clever buried treasure approach and the fact I can involve up to eight people from the audience. The effect and props can easily be modified from close-up to parlor or even to stage. I must underscore this is a well-constructed piece of mentalism, but as I am a practicing mentalist, I almost immediately recognized the underlying methods used to fool the audience. This is not a complaint. The point is it FOOLED the audience! If the entertainment value is greater than the method, then the method doesn't matter! In this specific case, "Devil's Island" has high audience entertainment value. It is sound mentalism delivered expertly. Additionally, the price for this piece is so reasonable that I appreciated having the short three-page explanation spelling out each step ... saving me reconstruction time (like I said, I know the underlying methods being deployed, but it is not like the steps are crystal clear from a single viewing). The "Devil's Island" concept itself is uniquely entertaining and fun for the audience. I like it a lot, BUT I really love the fact I was also able to rearrange the root premise to fit my own show's approach and style. To be clear, instead of buried treasure I rearranged the foundational method to work with a selection of random movie posters. I do a lot of movie-themed magic, and I believe and hope this will be a nice, entertaining mystery addition for my show. It is a fun piece of mentalism and I highly recommend and commend Mark Leveridge's genius construction.
