Word to your Mother Booktest by Joshua Quinn
“Word To Your Mother may well have set a new standard to which future book tests will be compared. In the right hands, it approaches true miracle status.”–Dick Christian.
“This is the best book test I have ever seen.”–Sean Waters.
“Joshua’s thinking behind this book test is fantastic.”–Paolo Cavalli.
“Thanks so very, very much for your book test. Now can you send me the directions? I can’t see the **** method even though I know it.”–Banachek.
“It’s goddamned good.”–John Riggs.
The basic effect is the classic book test in its simplest form: someone freely selects a random word from a book, and the performer is able to read her mind and reveal the word she’s thinking of. So then, what distinguishes this from the legions of other book tests with that same plot? Two things: the unimpeachable fairness of the word selection, and the “unbacktrackable” realism and “inside their head” nature of the revelation.
While previous book tests may have offered one or the other, this is the first that offers both a selection and a revelation that are this strong and this free of compromise. Here’s a summary of the procedure and the conditions: To begin, the performer hands the book to the participant, after which he never needs to see, touch or go near the book (or, for that matter, the participant) again; he can proceed with his back turned, or even from a different room if desired. The book can be freely handled by the participant for the course of the routine.
The participant has a genuine free choice of pages and words; her instructions are merely to open the book to any page and focus on any word from that page, as long as it’s one that’s neither trivially short, nor so long that it would make the process tedious and boring.
In the right hands Word To Your Mother approaches true miracle status; however, because the subtleties involved require the quick thinking and audience management skills of an EXPERIENCED MENTALIST it is definitely NOT for the novice or newcomer to the art.
