Logo
Glance
Glance

Glance - Steve Thompson
$49.99 with 2 magazines
$39.99 with 1 magazine
https://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=61762

The Hype:

A piece of mindreading that will absolutely mystify your audience!

You present the current issues of two popular magazines and allow a spectator to examine both of them and choose one. You turn away and instruct her to open her magazine to any page and think of any word. "But let's find a good word," you say, "Make it a difficult word." She thinks of any word, on any page. It could be buried in an ad or a word from a picture caption. It's all fair game. Once she has a word in her mind, she closes the magazine and you turn around. You look her in the eyes and tell her what word she is thinking of.

Glance is the ingenious creation of Ireland's Steve Thompson. In collaboration with Vanishing Inc. and designed by Andi Gladwin, Glance brings you an entirely prepared contemporary news magazine. Wrap it with any current magazine cover and you will have one of the most potent weapons available to the performing mentalist: an ordinary object that allows you to do extraordinary things.

With the blessing of Ted Karmilovich (creator of Mother of All Book Tests), Glance allows you to perform one of the most impossible, memorable feats of mentalism with an object everyone has heard of and has read before. And with Steve's ingenious new system, you don't even need to fish for any information about the word before revealing it.

No glimpses
No preparation
No counting
No short pages
No stooges
No peeks
No sleight-of-hand
No cues
No guesses

My Take:

I seldom travel without taking my Mother of All Book Tests with me. It is just so strong and totally makes your spectators feel that they have seen a miracle. I have even used it for walkaround as it engages everyone seated at the table. The major problem I have with this is that no one has ever heard of the book before so that might cause suspicion. The price is also excessive for a lot of performers.

Now comes Steve Thompson with Glance. You can purchase it with either two different magazines or one. As the difference is only ten dollars, please do yourself the favor of purchasing the two magazine version. Even if you decide to use only one in your act, you have a backup if the first one becomes damaged or torn. I guess a previous version of Glance was released and has been a big seller for Vanishing Inc. New magazine covers have been designed for the new edition. If you already have the previous edition, it just might be worth purchasing as it would give you four magazines for your spectator to choose from.

These magazines are indistinguishable from those you might see on a newsstand. If you tell your audience that you stopped by the newsstand on your way and picked up a couple of magazines. No one will question that. Actually for me, this puts Glance head and shoulders above the Mother of All Book Tests (sorry, Ted)., It looks so much more innocent plus there is a lot of color used which increases the audience's attention. Obviously, the other big advantage is the extremely low price. Go online and check the prices on decent quality book tests. That will show you just what a bargain Glance is.

Unlike a lot of book tests, you are not required to memorize a list of words. You get a cheat sheet in each of the magazines. However, it would be a good idea to memorize the words that you need. There are not many and it would save you the inconvenience of going to the cheat sheet. A new feature that Steve has added to the principle allows you to find the word with no fishing. You still get the spectator to tell you the information that you need but even this looks miraculous. This is a brilliant addition.

Another plus for me is the thickness of the magazines. They are the standard size of magazines but this format allows them to pack into a much more compact area. I love MOAB but the thickness and the weight can make it impractical in some situations. These magazines are both thin and light.

This will work for either close up or stage. A really nice routine based on the David Hoy Book Test is included. If persons are still standing after you give the list of words, a very clever ploy is taught to totally do away with any discrepancy. Simple but very effective.

For me, this has become my go to book test. MOAB is going to be retired on my bookshelf (at least for now). Andi has spent a huge amount of time and work designing these magazine. If they want, your spectators can even read articles (although he admits they might find the articles a little boring.). Unlike others, there are no instances of large blocks of type being repeated. The trick is easy to do but give it the practice it deserves to make your performance truly memorable. I always anticipate something great if it has the Vanishing Inc logo on the packaging. Once again, Joshua and Andi have turned out a winner. If you do any mentalism (or even want to add a piece to your show), I don't think there is a finer test currently on the market.

Back