There are even more ways to perform a book test without any hands. And I'm not familiar with vent, so I can't answer your question. Either way, I wouldn't tell you what a billet is over penguin cause its direct exposure of how some things are done. Get the book.

Thanks Bucky. I believe the book you suggested was "13 steps to mentalism by Corinda,(sic)" Have a good weekend.ron0

I was glad Bucky told me billets are a magical, trade secret.
Is there any way you could steer me toward a mentalism effect which I could use for grades three to eight with my vent figure?
The only book I have heard about that might fit is called Sleights of Mind.
I appreciate your experience in this field.
Thanks.ron0

Sleight of mind won't help your vent. In my opinion mentalism shouldn't need a vent figure to help/work a trick. The best I could see you doing with a vent figure is using the figure to read the minds of the children. Pick up the 13 Steps book and you'll get ideas for sure. My last piece of advice is this: do not expect the rest of us penguinites to hand you information on everything. We've had way too many people get bashed here for asking for everything served to them on a silver platter so they can simply go buy it, learn it, and move on. Please do some of your own research and you'll be better off because of it.

I appreciate your candor, Bucky.
I have a pretty good track records of learning from books. Thus I have learned, to mention a few, how to sail; how to make top quality ale(3rd best porter in the country); how to farm vegetables organically( still doing that); how to do vent; two full university degrees; countless speed reads as an interviewer for national book tours to prep for interviews with major entertainers and four national leaders. The list is goes on and is stupid and of boring no-consequence.
My point is that reading and books have taken me from being underground in a gold mine at 18 to a fairly good life now.
I believe you are still a university student and thus use books to learn. All I was asking was for the right book to read. You've done that;and I thank you.
ron0

Don't get set off, I wasn't trying to be mean, just giving the best advice I could. If it sounded mean, it wasn't intended to. Yes I am still a university student, but rarely will I read the books (haha).

I second that, lol.

Secondly, if you are interested in magic, you shouldn't ask people what book to get. I say this because people often have very biased opinions. They read one or two books on a subject and they think they are experts on mentalism or whatever it may be. Heck, even 10 books is nothing. So I wouldn't trust the advice of 99% of the people on here (including me).

I always do a search for reviews on a book or a topic first. By doing this, you inform yourself and can make your own decisions about products based on 20, 30 or even 40 reviews. I would urge you to go to the magic cafe and look around there. You can type billet in the search and find 100's of topics on it. Then type in 13 steps to mentalism and you will also find 100s of topics.

Like I said, I wouldn't trust people's opinions on this site. Most are young kids who have been performing magic/mentalism for under a few years.

Check out the Cafe. It will be your saviour.

Thank you for your guidance.ron0

The best Book Test I have come across is Luna from Outlaw magic. It’s a fantastic effect if you have the presentation skills, because if you treat it as a magic trick, it will fall flat.

I do not see a hobbyist or beginner performing this however; this should be reserved for the serious performer because it requires loads of presentation rehearsal and good skills communicating with the audience. (I perform this in my Haunted Illusion routine)

It’s about $90.00 and there is a 3 month waiting period because the books are hand-aged and it was very popular with the mentalist performers.

For a good Second, I like the Dracula Book Test…

Have you ever seen Chuck Hickok's? I have never heard of Luna, but I think that Chuck's requires a tremendous amount of presentation rehearsal and good audience communcation skills as well. I still use Autome most of the time though.

I have been interested in Luna over the past couple of months as I am looking at getting into some more Bizzare Magik and presentation. I'm glad to see that it has the DZ seal of approval, I might just have to consider it.

You can also use the dracula book test as a tossed out book, but just pass it to your audience because it migth hurt their head!

Just go with it and Hoy principle for the reveal,
TA-DA.

I second Luna too, I got a look on it and my mentor showed me his script, you can do a lot with this book test, however it's a bit too dark for me.

A lot of people seem to like it though! Too bad 99% of my audience members are french...
Max.

If you want to learn more modern billet work, there is a e-book called switchcraft for sale, it's one of the best selling booklet this year and it's 300 pages long, the author also send suplements via E-mail, a good investment!

http://ebswitch.googlepages.com/home

It's cheap too.
Max.

Like DeZauberer said, Luna is for experianced performers, and best for a 'darker' performace, it's also quite costy. Go with some of the suggestions Blizt has made. Although if you pick up 13 steps, youl find soem book tests in their.

I would recommend the following (non electronic!) book tests as being among the very best.

'Non Plus Ultra' by Harvey Berg.
'Dracula book test' by Alexander Black.
'Witches Almanac' by Outlaw Effects.
'Paul Brook's book test'

'Wicked book test' and 'M.O.A.B.T' are also worth a look but are not for me.

The first three are gaffed but can be examined. The latter (Paul's offering) is an improvement on the David Hoy test and has the advantage over the other two in that it can use any book.

Hope this helps. With best wishes Andy.