The Blurb
Years in the making, Babel is packed full with features
allowing you to present miraculous book test effects. Each
of the special books in Babel has been carefully designed
with one simple goal: to create super direct, super strong
mentalism.
You don’t touch anything, you don’t even look, and yet you
can read the spectator’s mind and reveal his thoughts in an
impossible way.
Multiple divinations, prediction, memory feats: all of
these, and more, are described in the detailed manual, along
with Vincent Hedan’s tips and ideas to perform these
impressive effects.
Comes complete with 50 page instruction manual and 3 special
books.
“Babel book test by Vincent Hedan is another in a long line
of amazing magic effects from one of my all time favourite
performers of miracles.”
– Shawn Farquhar – FISM winner
“TheBabel book test has all the right moves. It’s easy to
do. It’s awesome. You will use it.”
– Dan Garrett
“The most versatile book test I’ve seen. I’m awestruck at
the power of Babel.
– Raj Madhok – member of the Psychic Entertainers
Association
“Vincent ‘Rainman’ Hedan has some powerful magic the world
should see and know about.”
– Obie O’Brien – founder & president of FFFF
“After The Mother of All Book Tests, here is the Father and
all the family in one devilish book! Babelwill allow you to
perform one of the cleanest book tests ever. Vincent has
worked many years on this project and the result speaks for
itself. All the details have been carefully thought of, so
you can multiply the revelations every time in a more
impossible way. It is top-class mentalism that will blow
your audience away.”
– Boris Wild – FISM winner
My Comments
"So is this as good as the MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS?" I know that's the first question that most may want answered. The answer is yes.
"So then is this BETTER than the MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS?" If this were a comparison to the original, which raised the bar for all book tests, I might have to say yes. But the 2.0 version of MOABT raised the bar again.
Asking whether this better is kind of like asking which type of gimmicked deck is the best. You see, both are well done and, to the audience, they both do the same thing. They can be hands off and appear like the word is a totally free choice. But right about there is about the only place where the two book tests meet.
It would be unwise to say this is better or not better. To be more accurate, I'd have to say simply that it's different. It does different things. MOABT 2.0 contains certain types of utility features and BABEL contains essentially a different set of features and principles. It does use Larry Becker's Flashback principle (with permission) along with other principles that are not found in MOABT 2.0.
I suppose the big difference is that one gets three books in this package. Two books are the main ones. One is in trade paperback size and the other is in regular paperback size. The third book is like the third book, which is the dictionary, in the Ultimate Flashback set.
The demo video proclaims "3 books, 7 effects, 13 features." I can say that quite a few of the features in this I really like and there are some really unusual features in there I've not seen in a book routine before. One example is the ability to tell which page a participant is looking at from just reading aloud the first few words. These first few words are not repetitive, either. Some features I don't think were developed as well as others, but they can still be useful.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't have to admit that one really doesn't need to buy this to do some incredible routines with books (see Alain Nu), but this set, as well as MOABT, makes it a little bit easier to pull off these miracles. Sadly, the set does not come as handsomely packaged as Hedan's previous HAIKU. It comes in a plastic bag, but the fifty page perfect bound instruction book is nicely produced.
I suppose, being an English teacher, I'm biased towards book tests. However, I do have very strict standards as I really don't like book tests which simply are a tool for word revelations. I prefer it to have something more and this one does indeed. There are several routines which I can think of (some are my own ideas and some are in the manual) which make this different and have started me thinking on ideas about how to use it. But I certainly think it's one of the best book test packages out there right now and it's certainly a very good companion to Ted Karmilovich's MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS 2.0.