Review: Mirror

Intro: I was lucky enough to receive a pre-release copy of this effect so thank you to all the people at Mental Playground Productions.

Trick: Mirror

Creator: Matthew Mello

History: Matt credits Derren Brown as the starting point for this trick and also credits Banachek for another part of the trick.

Price: $15.00

Where Can I Get It? http://www.thementalplayground.com/mirror.html

Effect: Give your mind reading ability to any spectator. They will read your mind with 100% accuracy, and you can prove it!
Offer to teach your mind reading skills to the spectator, for a price. Ask to borrow a bill, as it will be important later. You tell the spectator you are thinking of a two digit number. The spectator then makes a guess and is correct! To prove it you show the first two numbers of the serial number on the borrowed bill. You say this is how you thought of the number. They match!
• No Stooges
• No Pre-show
• No Electronics
• Nothing is ever written down
• No Force?(And No, you aren't walking around with 99 different bills on you.)

Format: This 16 page PDF comes with 2 alternate handlings, which create seemingly different effects. This along with 12 photos gives you the tools to bring your mind reading routines to another level.

Quality: It’s a fairly normal PDF. Nothing fancy here but it teaches you everything you need to know. The pictures do help out quite a bit as well.

Method: There is a small “gimmick” that is used and might I add, very, very clever. It’s easy to make and can be used for many other things besides this specific trick. Fairly simple and nothing super involved or complicated here.

Preparation: There is a one-time preparation for this effect that should not take you more than probably 15-20 minutes. After that, you can perform this effect as much as you like. Although, eventually you will probably want to remake your gimmick since it might wear out a bit.

Gimmick: Obviously since this is an instant download, you will have to make the gimmick. As said above, it won’t take you long to make and most likely will not have to buy anything to make it. This is a very versatile gimmick and can be used for lots of other mentalism type tricks.

Alternative One: This isn’t as strong as the original serial number variation and I’d rather just use a swami gimmick to achieve this effect.

Alternative Two: This is more of a novel drawing duplication type effect that can be very strong and also a perfect lead in to “Improv Nightshades”. As stated by Matt, this is the version that a lot of people might use and like even more than the original routine. I think I would agree with that. Definitely a good alternative to the original.

Additional Ideas: Here Matt gives some ideas to make your presentation a bit better. He also gives another idea that uses the serial number but in a different way than the original. Both are worth a read.

Angles: There aren’t any angle problems to worry about here. Yay!

Difficulty: On a scale of 1-10 (Ten being the hardest) I’d give this about a 2 or 3. If you run through this a couple of times and get yourself familiar with it, you’ll be fine. There really aren’t any “moves” either.

Overall: The power of this effect can be extremely strong. Don’t underestimate it. This is a “winner” and even if you don’t like that original routine idea, Matt has provided enough additional ideas to make everybody happy. Plus, you learn how to make a really cool gimmick that you can use in other mentalism! So even though I received this for free, I truly think that if I had paid the money I would’ve been pleased with my purchase. It’s only $15.00 and you can’t go wrong with such a powerful effect.

Score: 8/10