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Welcome friends, to the Happy Books, Book Shop, Book Test (try saying that after a few drinks lol) by me John Morton.
This is a little project I created to give something back to the magic community that have been so generous to me over the years.
WARNING:
Before we get into what it is and how it works its worth pointing out the following:
This secret hidden page is for the performer only to help you learn the effect.
You MUST hit the HOME button on the top menu to restart the website. If you just hit back on the device you are using the spectator could still access this page by hitting the green Expert At The Card Table. By using the Home button the Expert At The Card Table will again become "Strong Motive".
The chances of the spectator hitting the book icon then the correct book is slim.
So on with the instructions:
If you have got this far you will already know this is no ordinary online book shop.
It is actually a book test designed for both the beginner and advanced magician.
About the site:
The site is a fully working online book shop that will allow any people who stumble upon it to look at the genuine book details. If they click the amazon "buy" button they will be taken to the actual book's amazon page so they can genuinely buy the book from amazon. NOTE: I have no connection to the books being sold I'm literally pointing them to the link where they can buy it, remember Happy Books is not a real business.
How it works:
The book shop is basically a simulation. When you first bring up the site it will bring you to the home page (this has been made to look like a real online book shop).
At this point all the books can be looked at and they will all be different as the information that comes up will is the genuine text from the adverts for the books.
Here's where we get sneaky...
If you look at any of the books, EXCEPT from "What She Saw", when you hit the black "Back to Main Menu" button , it will take to back to the genuine HOME menu.
NOTE: Do not use your back button on your device.
If you click on the book "What She Saw" it will take you to the genuine "What She Saw" book page BUT when you hit the "Back To Main Menu" button it will actually take you to an alternate menu (Menu 2) that looks like the HOME page but isn't, this is where the simulation begins.
Let's get into the performance:
I explain that during the lockdown I read a lot of books as I had so much down time, my favourite online book shop is called Happy Books. At this point I ask them to go on the internet on their device and go to www.happybooks.shop this will bring up the site.
I explain that its a really good book site and ask them what the current number one best seller is (The number one best seller is "What She Saw").
I ask them to click on the picture of the book "What She Saw" and go on to explain the page that comes up - there is always a synopsis of the story, a picture of the book and normally one or two reviews so you know what your buying.
If they have other people with them you can say to them to go on the site too and choose a different book. At this point you can ask the person you are working with to read the first couple of lines out loud and have everyone confirm that the books are in fact all different. After this is done get them to put their devices away again so they can watch.
You now ask the person to press the "Return to Main Menu" button at the top (or bottom) of the page (NOTE: make sure they do this and not hit the back on their device) - this will take them to Menu 2.
Ask them to choose another book - after they have chosen ask them casually which they chose (this needs to be relaxed) again ask them to read the first few lines but this time to themselves.
Ask them if there is an item or thing they could draw or at least visualise.
At this point they will settle on one of the 7 force items in the book test.
The key to knowing which force item they have chosen is by knowing the title of the book - this is why you asked, you need to know the number of words in the title and the first letter of the last word.
I will break down how to identify the word in sections (it seems hard but isn't once you get understand it).
The books are broken down into 4 sections based on how many words are in the title.
1 word titles, 2 word titles, 3 word title and 4 word titles.
To make the book test more repeatable there are 2 force words for each of the 2,3 and 4 word title books.
These are the following:
1 word title books (eg: Legacy) the force word is Car.
2 word title books (eg: Oceans Prey) the force word will either be Sun or Tree
3 word title books except What She Saw (eg: The Midnight Library) the force word will be either Dog or House.
4 word title books (eg: The Thursday Murder Club) the force word will be either Clock or Man.
To know which of the two words is the correct one you just listen out for the last word in the title and think if the first letter of that last word has a straight shape to it or a curved line in it (capitol letters).
For this example lets say the book is a 3 word title - "The Midnight Library" the last word is "Library" the first letter of which is an "L" (when drawn the capitol letter L is made up of straight lines), so its a straight word.
Because we know the title is a 3 word title we know the force words are either Dog or House.
Because we also know that Library starts with a straight letter we know that the force word would also be a straight letter which in this case is House.
Straight letters: AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ
Curved letters: BCDGJOPQRSU
Other examples:
"The Dinner Guest" for example would be 3 word title and Guest starts with G, a curved letter, which means the force word would also be a curved letter, which would be Dog.
"Hidden Creed" = 2 word title C is curved so the word would be Sun.
"Her Last Holiday" = 3 word title H is a straight word so again the word would be House.
The words can all be drawn or written or just spoken to reveal it.
Once revealed you can repeat this phase again by asking them to hit the "Back to Main Menu" button.
I don't know if this will help you remember how the words are coupled but this is how i think of them (see pictures below).
Next phase (phase 2):
Once they hit the "Back to Main Menu" button a new fake menu will come up (Menu 3) this works exactly the same as the last one (menu 2) but with one exception.
If they were to choose a book where the force word would have been the same again, that word will change to the alternate force word in that group.
Example:
First book chosen "The Midnight Library" (3 word title Straight word) = House.
Second book chosen "The Four Winds" (also a 3 word title Straight word) it would normally lead to House BUT because House has already been revealed the simulation will give you the alternative 3 word title word which is Dog.
This has been made this way so you don't have to remember more than 7 force words.
Next phase (phase 3 - Long review words):
This phase can be done at any point during the simulation but I do this as a final phase.
You can have the spectator choose another book or use the one you are on its up to you.
Ask them to go to the bottom of the book page to the section with a review:
"What People are saying about ..................."
Tell them that the reviewers often use great descriptive words to review the book and ask them to find a really long word.
The key to know the long descriptive word is again in knowing the the first letter of the last word of the title. Whatever the last word starts with the long word will start with the same letter and this will give you the word.
Example:
"The Missing Sister" = S = Scintillating
"The Whispers" = W = Wonderful
C = Captivating
D = Disturbing
F = Fantastic
G = Gloriously
H = Heartwarming
I = Incredible
L = Liberating
M = Mindblowing
N = Nightmares
O = Outstanding
P = Psychological
R = Riveting
S = Scintillating
U = Unbelievable
W = Wonderful
Y = Yearning
These will take a little longer to remember but the fact that they are for the most part all positive words and they all start with the same letter as the first of the last word in the title, hopefully they will not take you too long to learn.
Thanks goes out to my Beta testers for all their help and advice on what to tweak to make the site look and run better and make the code easier to remember - you know who you are and a special thanks to Kevin Peel for debugging it with me.
I hope you enjoy performing this little effect as much as I do.
John
P.S. Just for fun I put all the reviewers names as magicians with the books that they supposedly wrote as clues to their name, do you know them all?
This trick is completely free for you to use and was never created to make money, so enjoy.
However, I know sometimes people want to say thank you or help toward it's upkeep so....
If you would like to help toward the hosting and
domain costs of this site, or just as a thankyou.
You can do it in 2 ways - purchase products from my prop site Custommagic.co.uk
(Just click on the custom magic logo).
or simply send whatever you would like to my paypal:
mortonmagic@hotmail.com
Thank you in advance and enjoy performing it.
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