The Blurb
3 Common Puzzle books
49 puzzles each
147 puzzles total
Over 3,675 Possible “Answers”
Completely free choice
Puzzles are legitimate
Puzzles are PROVEN to all be different from each other.
3 common Crossword Puzzle Books are shown
2 books are chosen, (the third is used to show examples to the audience)
Each spectator FREELY opens to ANY page.
The first reads over the clues and chooses ANY “answer” they wish…
The audience is asked to choose “across or down” and a number.
The second spectator silently reads the clue at that number.
The puzzle clues are closely scrutinized, Puzzles on the other pages are compared and it’s made VERY CLEAR that all the puzzles are different, ALL of the clues are different, All of the answers are different.
With NO fishing
NO “cues”
NO impression devices
You reveal the word Spectator #2 is THINKING of.
And Spectator #1 takes the bookmark out of the book THEY’VE BEEN HOLDING the WHOLE TIME…
It is has the EXACT word they chose written on it!
ALL SELF CONTAINED
NO IMPRESSION DEVICES
NO MEMORIZATION
NO FISHING
NO FORMULAS OR WORD ASSOCIATION
NO STOOGES
Hundreds of ACTUAL choices of PUZZLES, CLUES and ANSWERS are closely examined to show NO DUPLICATE CHOICES!
SUPER SIMPLE YET DEVIOUS!
My Comments
When I first looked at these props and read the instructions, I thought that this may be a really cool effect. A lot of work went into the design of these puzzle books and everything in the blurb seemed accurate.
But a few things bothered me. First, there was the size of the puzzle books. Each book is about 3.5" x 4.5". For close-up work, that's fine. For parlour work, it's okay, but I would have preferred it to be bigger and more of the size that I see on the magazine stands, not the small booklets at the checkout counter (though these are a bit larger than that).
Another thing that bothered me were the clues. It just so happened that the answer to the first clue I looked at was "queenbee" (two words as one). Yet, the secret crib says that the answer is simply "queen." I didn't check the other clues and answers, but one incorrect clue is not good. On the other hand, there was an error or two in the orignal MOTHER OF ALL BOOK TESTS, so perhaps this one error won't be much of a bother, so far as one is aware of it. (It's not mentioned in the instructions, though.)
The main issue I have with this is the puzzles themselves. They do not look like the crossword puzzles that you'd find in magazines, such as Dell Crossword Puzzles, or the
newspapers, like the New York Times. It's closer to the British style of crossword puzzles but with fewer answers. Now, for those who work with audiences who wouldn't notice or wouldn't know, then this may be fine. But, to me, they just don't look like real crossword puzzles and that's a major issue so far as I'm concerned.
Finally, there's the price. Now, I may be able to justify this prop and keep it in my case for special occasions, but the price of this seems just too high to do this. I do know that these are custom made and there's a lot of work that went into this. It's certainly appreciated, but the bottom line is that these puzzle books just don't look like regular puzzle books and, personally, I can't afford to use something like that.
Like Solano's INTERNATIONAL POCKET CHANGE, I like the ideas behind this, but I just don't think it's designed well enough to be practical for the working professional.