Do not be fooled by the low intro price. This is an absolute killer. Hands Off Book Test or in other words, HOBOT is very much like a ROBOT, fully automatic, very efficient, highly effective, self-working, and self-sufficient. Once you hand over the book to the participant, you do not touch it again during the entire routine. You do not just reveal a single word (although you can do that too) but you reveal about 10 to 15 words - one from each line from top to bottom of the page in the correct order as the participant is silently reading the page to himself. It appears as if you are plucking the words from the participant's mind as he passes through that word on the page - from the top line to the bottom line.
You can use pretty much any book. It can be a paperback or a hard-bound book. Fiction or non-fiction. Small or big in size. Any number of pages starting with at least 50 pages (or 100 page numbers).
You need to do a one-time preparation which should take around 20 to 30 minutes and once done you can perform these effects for the entire lifetime of the book. And all you need for the one-time preparation is either a pen or a pencil and the book itself. There is no arts & crafts required.
The routine is completely hands-off. The performer does not riffle the book. The participant does not need to say stop. The participant holds the book in his hands throughout the entire routine and the performer is standing several feet away. The book is completely examinable. The routine is instantly repeatable with a different outcome (not that you should repeat it). This is a novel principle but at its core, it is a classic card magic idea applied to book tests.
You can perform this at pretty much any venue - close up, parlor, street, stage, one-on-one, and even in virtual shows. It is just that in a virtual show the performer himself has to handle the book, obviously.
Best of all, the core principle is language independent and so any language book can be used for HOBOT.
1st edition 2024, PDF 18 pages.
word count: 3161 which is equivalent to 12 standard pages of text
