Psypher by Robert Smith

Price: $39.95

http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=2135

What you get- The DVD, a card wallet, a 3"x5" piece of something secret, another secret something for the reset, and a special Expo dry-erase marker. You do not, I repeat, do NOT get a notepad with this.

Intro- This just shows the trailer for the DVD

Gimmick Preparation- Robert tells you how to prepare the gimmicks to make sure they work properly.

Card Box- Robert tells you how to make a gimmick to use with a card box. With this method, you can do Jay Sankey's "Private Property" but with an ungimmicked card case.

Impression Wallet- Robert teaches you how to set up your card wallet with the gimmick. This method is extremely clever and does what a lot of peek wallet do but this wallet costs about .50 cents.

NOTE: With all these methods you will need to cut the gimmick one way or another so think about choosing a method BEFORE you cut anything.

Note Pad- This is a method using a note pad. You can see exactly what this looks like in the trailer. This has to be my favorite method and it is what I use. Robert says in the trailer that the impression goes through ten pages. I tried with ten but could barely read. I do it with two or three pages.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The DVD- Paper Crane, 'nuff said.

Difficulty- Out of ten, I'd give it a three. It's very easy to perform so you can (cliche' time) FOCUS ON YOUR PRESENTATION.

The Secret- Wow oh wow. This is the good stuff. I must say that the description lies- there are NO impressions. The spectator does not need to write hard enough to tear a hole in the paper. They can write in any softness they want.

Reset- The reset takes about five seconds and you can do it in your pocket. The reset is actually a BIT impractical but it works fine.

Clearness of Impression- If you do it through 20 pages, you will have to play a guessing game with the spectator to find out what they wrote. As stated before, I do it through 2 or 3 pages and I get a really strong and clear impression.

I strongly recommend you pick this up. My recommendation: 9/10

Actually I hate it. It's terrible. You shouldn't buy it because it is so bad. At least I'll be the only one to suffer from it's awesom....I mean horribleness.

If you have any questions regarding Psypher, feel free to ask!

Great review! Now that I hear some things about it, I'll be looking into it.

-JT

So you need a special pen to get an "impression" with Psypher?

Yes, that is what some people consider to be one of the "let-downs" of this trick. I really don't mind that. Robert teaches you how to convert the Expo marker to a Sharpie, if you want.

So can you just buy refills from Staples, or do you have to spend $10 on another pen from a magic shop?

You can't buy refills at Staples. Currently the only place I know to get pen refills is at Paper Crane's site for $10 a pop.

UPDATE: I forgot to write that, for some reason, Robert doesn't teach you how to use the note pad version of the gimmick. I just figured out my own way.

And another thing, if you want to use the note pad get one with spirals on the long side. I only had note pads with the spirals on top and I found it a bit awkward to get a peek.

Too bad he doesn't teach that. He did in the original version and that is my preferred method.

I can't believe that he wouldn't afterall, that is the method on the promo video right?

I watched the note pad section twice to make sure and he doesn't teach it. I would call him a jerk but he's such a nice guy.

Greetings everyone,

When I ran across this amazing piece of Mentalism I almost purchased it, until I remembered that I already own a similar device. It's called The Notebook by Kerry Summers. Does anyone here own a copy of the Notebook by Kerry Summers? So if anyone who reads this, I would so greatly appreciate any and all differences between the two? I am not asking for exposure, but from the video demo it looks like it might be a little different. But then again I could be wrong.

So to anyone who reads this and might possibly know the answers to my question(s), I would be extremely grateful because even though the Notebook by Kerry Summers has served my so well over the past 8 years I wouldn't mind buying this as either a replacement or if I should just throw away Kerry Summer's Notebook mentalism device.

Thank you in advance to whomever can help me with this little problem I've been having.

UPDATE!

I just checked Paper Crane's site and they posted the explanation to the note pad method and a video on resetting. I believe these were taken from the original Universal Impression DVD.

And obviously you will need a password to view the videos.

so would be a good first mentalism purchase? cause i still dont have a mental trick in my repertiore yet!

I'd pick up either 13 Steps to Mentalism or Anneman's Practical Mental Magic. Both are filled with dozens of mentalism effects, and you can choose the ones that fit you.

-JT