Hyper-sensitive Mentalism di Biagio Fasano e Marco Di Biase

Reviewed by Davide Rubat Remond

This latest work published by Biagio Fasano and Marco Di Biase is perfect for improvising a mentalism experiment with just a few cards, eight in total, one of which is chosen by a spectator.
In the absence of a deck of cards, business cards with an inscription on the back or just tickets or pieces of paper prepared on the spot could be used.

The spectator freely chooses any eight cards from the deck and divides them into two sets of four cards eah, one for each hand, and chooses which to turn over on their backs and which to leave face up, and again can decide which of the two groups to arrange on top or bottom of the pack. This moment devoted to choosing and arranging the cards allows the spectator to hand the packet to the performer with the assurance that nothing has been ordered or calculated beforehand.

An additional strength of this effect is that the viewer can choose his or her role as honest, so he or she must always tell the truth, or dishonest, so allowed to always lie. This, in the eyes of the beholder, makes it impossible to tell, even when confronted with the face-up cards, whether the chosen card can be found in that group, or in the set of face-up cards.

The performer proceeds by formulating the question, “Among the face-up cards do you see the card you have chosen?” three times, alternating with two particular shuffles of the pack, which create a dynamic by moving and turning over the eight cards in the pack. After each shuffle, the set of face/back cards undergoes a variation that will be subject to the spectator’s evaluation, who must still respect the role he or she has decided to play until the effect closes.

The FGR shuffle used, analyzed and explained in the book “Bending Minds”, automatically sets up the eight cards for all the planned phases, up to the third shuffle that allows the performer to arrange the cards all from the same direction, without the need to see them. After a check of the cards by the spectator and a confirmation of his/her role, the performer will be able, thanks to his “tactile hyper-sensitivity” to eliminate seven cards one after the other, until he is left with only one card in his hand, just the one he has chosen! It should be remembered that the mentalist performs the shuffles either blindfolded or with his hands behind his back (albeit uncomfortably) without ever looking at the cards; one could think of a cover, folder or laptop open on the table in front of the performer with his hands covered from his view, but visible to the audience.

Fasano and Di Biase return to a classic principle, following Biagio Fasano’s REACT and Unusual Suspects, which manages to give unsuspected force to effects that can be performed with just a few cards or a few objects, incomprehensible to most and always improvisable with little or nothing at hand.

“In this routine Biagio and Marco have managed to make fluid a method that usually requires a rather lengthy process. An effect that engages the viewer in a game of Lie and Truth executable in any situation. Bravo!” – Luca Volpe

“… This booklet is very well done and I like the idea of not having to divide the bundle into two because of the ‘the drunken shuffle’; then certainly the procedure is also simplified because you only need to take into account the affirmative answers. The whole thing works perfectly from the mechanical point of view, but from the theatrical point of view, for the audience the effect results in an impossible finding… which happens thanks to the Mentalist’s psychic gifts… … [The fact that he is] blindfolded, adds that touch of Mystery … and having the viewer answering True or False [to the viewer] adds smoke to the whole thing. This theme has been enriched with your new idea… Thank you for sharing.” – Andy Tedesco

Available at Mentalismo Iper-Sensitivo by Biagio Fasano & Marco di Biase : Lybrary.com