Michel W. Potts – Hobsons Choice (official pdf)

In his sixth installment of masterful card magic and card mentalism, Michel Potts gives us six more spellbinding effects from his working repertoire. Each one a journey into Michel’s delightful world that transforms mere card tricks into truly effective and well-structured performance pieces. As with his previous works, the plot lines are compelling and the ultimate outcomes…brainbusters for sophisticated audiences. Something that seems incongruous with the underlying ease of working, as you’ll find with most of Michel’s growing body of material. What’s more, all of the effects except one can be performed with a regular deck of cards. 31 pages.

Contents include:

HOBSON’S CHOICE
A spectator mentally thinks of a card. The performer places a card face down on the table. The spectator names out loud his card. The performer turns over the card to show it is the named card. No fishing, no questions of any kind. Four versions are described.

DOUDECUPLE
After the spectator has made sure his selected card is lost in the deck, he deals the cards into a number of packets that he restacks in a random order. The performer is then given the cards and, without ever looking at their faces, he miraculously finds the spectator’s card. For the revelation, two versions are described.

COMPLIANCE
Two spectators each freely chose a card that is visibly buried in the middle of the deck. The performer turns over the deck to the spectators who each go on to find their own selected cards in a fair but astonishing manner.

CURRIED DICE
A spectator rolls three dice to arrive at a random number, which determines how many cards are used. The cards are mixed up, the spectator thinks of one and mixes up the cards again. Only after the spectator returns the cards to the deck and returns the deck to the box does the performer reveal the spectator’s card.

ESPial
Two spectators are given a packet of ESP cards, which they shuffle. Each spectator is fairly shown all the ESP cards and told to think of an ESP symbol. When the spectators later remove their mentally chosen symbol the packet, they will be amazed to find they both thought of the same symbol. Regular ESP cards are used.

FIN DE CHARLIER
A visual, deceptive finish for the Charlier False Shuffle. With the exception of ESPial, all the effects can be performed with a regular deck of cards.

REVIEWS

“There’s gold in those manuscripts. Very clever thinking, and real working material. I would love to get into Michel’s creative mind.”

– Mark Dilliway

“It’s a fabulous occasion when a new Michel Potts book is released. To me, Michel’s material stands above much of the rest. Like great writing in a movie. I use this metaphor on purpose. I have always preferred magic that plays like a 3-minute movie with a strong beginning-middle-end structure. That structure will enhance the plot and method of execution. That is what I like so much about Michel’s effects. They are so well structured and presented that spectators become part of this amazing world.

In the new book, Michel has once again created inventive mentalism card effects in which the performer never seems to handle the deck and makes revelations without ever looking at the faces of the cards. Two effects stand out for me:

I love the ‘Hobson’s Choice’ effect. It’s well-structured and has an elegance to its construction. Plus, it’s entertaining and baffling as hell! But I really got a kick out of the unpronounceable(!) “Duodecuple.” Michel grabbed me with the first sentence, ‘I love card magic and card mentalism that has a lot of deceptive smoke.’!!

I have long pondered whether we really need yet another book of card tricks. Probably not. But the indefatigable Mr. Potts continues to bring card magic to the table. Well-structured, highly deceptive yet interactive bits of theatre. You know: magic. And that is something we can never get enough of.”

– Linking Ring Columnist, Michael Breggar