Awesome mentalism trick that anyone can do with a little (not much... just know the steps) practice. No sleights, no gimmicks. Truly impromptu except for quick minor setup. Borrowed sharpie, borrowed business cards... blow their minds!

I wanted to give this 4.5 stars (I reserve 5s for the exceptional, incredible, highly visual, truly magical moment type tricks), but I did dock a quarter star just because of this one thing you have to do in order to identify which name is the one that is special to the spectator. For me, I see an issue with this particular solution because, to me, it seems like it'll be too easy to be identified by the spectator. I don't know if that makes sense... I don't want to give away anything. All I can say is that if you are an observer with a keen eye, it is possible for them to see something they shouldn't.

That's said, this is all-in-all an awesome trick! I mean, what's not to love? This one should play really well and I'm looking forward to trying it! Lewis does a great job teaching this clearly. The actual method is a foundational one, so every beginner should get this. I do like the way he executed this one. Great job Lewis and Shaun!

(By the way, I always try to be honest and straightforward in my reviews, while being respectful to the magician. If you appreciate my reviews, can you please click the "Yes" button below beside the question, "Did this review help you?" It's not like I actually benefit in any way by your clicking it... but it would be nice to see if my reviews are helpful or not. I hope they are. If you ever have suggestions or comments or questions about my reviews, please feel free to leave me a constructive comment. I'm just trying to be helpful. I love the Penguin community and hope that I can someday contribute my own product. :-) Thanks for reading and for any (hopefully positive, but either way, at least kind) feedback!)

This is simply an inferior version of Eric Mead's 'An Auspicious Occasion' from his book 'Tangled Web'. Eric's effect was inspired by Max Maven's 'Desire' (PRISM). The same effect is achieved with better technique and without the weak first half.

The structure of Dunn's piece is weak, due to the handling of the first half, which merely serves as justification for the secret work.
Get Eric's book. You will have a much better effect with much better technique in your arsenal, along with so much more that his book offers.

In essence, the effect is a bait & switch. You lead the participant to believe that you're conducting a four-card living and dead test (or less morbid version thereof), but then transition, at last the last minute, to a name divination.

It's the transition that bothers. The first effect is never resolved, in that the mind reader never proves that he actually found the correct card. He just stops the effect, right at its climax(!), and asks the participant to reshuffle.

Le Val gamely defends the transition by arguing that mentalism should not look "choreographed," and that it's acceptable for the casual performer to apparently figure out the ultimate direction of his effect on the spot.

If you are in agreement, then this might be a worthy purchase. If, however, the idea of abandoning an effect right before its climax bothers you, look elsewhere.

The hype is true (mostly) -- you can perform this trick within minutes of watching the download, it has some solid impact, and it can play almost anywhere. Lewis says there are "no slights" and that could be argued either way; if you consider the secret a slight, it's a very simple one and it's the core of the effect.
It has the usual drawback of it's all shot from the front with a static camera and there's at least one point where a magician's POV shot would be nice. The trick is done with blank on one side business cards and he says he'll talk about how to do it with completely blank ones, but if he does, I missed it.

The method is clever, quick, and takes exactly zero skill, so you will receive another tool in your kit that can be used impromptu or closeup. You will use it.

You will probably write a better presentation.

This routine could easily be cleaned up to rate a 4 or even a 5 however, in the present form there is entirely too much *process*; write this, deal these, mix that, hold these, look here. None of this nonsense is ENTERTAINING. Essentially the audience is forced to wait, interminably, for the climax. It is dull, repetitive, and unnecessary. As performed, the routine is an 4-minute sloppy plod to what could have been an exciting revelation. Instead, this performer provided nothing other than the anticipated revelation; no surprise. Viewing the video I kept saying, "Get on with it!"

Knock out mindreading with a well choreographed method. The demos and teaching don't even scratch the surface of how good this can be.

Zoltar is a powerful routine! Very natural and realistic looking effect. Very easy to do. No gimmicks. No sleight of hand. Good way to practice cold reading. You won’t even need to practice Zoltar. Just learn the secret and turn around and perform it.

It’s effects like this that are helping me transition from a mostly-card tricks-guy, to an artist who uses everyday objects to demonstrate his craft.

Lewis Le Val (played by Jonny Depp, apparently), does a great job of demonstrating and teaching. It’s s fantastic download! I highly recommend it.

I'm disappointet from the trick because in the description stand that's a impromptu trick in wich you don't even touch the cards. But the truth is, it isn't a impromtu trick and you have to touch the cards. So I'm realy disappionted from this trick and would't buy it for this price again.

All I can say is that it fooled me. I knew how to get the right card, but had no idea how he got the name. I do not want to say too much about the secret, but I think it is a very useful and versatile method. It really needs no sleight of hand. Even a one handed magician could impress his audience with that. As a pro I prefer tricks that give me full control of the situation from start to end. I do not care to use the most fingerbreaking method to impress some other magicians. If you do this well, I bet it could fool some other magicians too. I give it 5 stars only for the insane method and artful misdirection to get the name. However: I would not recommend to repeat it for the same audience at the same day...

This is one of the best mentalism routine out there. Shaun fooled me badly the first time he performed it to me. Now I'm constantly using it. The method it's very easy, no sleight of hands required. Simply brilliant. A masterpiece. Highly recommended.