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New iPhone Trick From Richard Wiseman
RICHARD WISEMAN, the noted psychologist and magician, has released a new app for the iPhone called Telepath.
It’s been getting good reviews, including this one from none other than Derren Brown, who said it “genuinely triggers that ‘wow – how did you do that?’ response” which has to be a good recommendation.
It looks like the app was designed and/or programmed mainly by Sarah Angliss.
She says: “Telepath can also be used to predict numbers, cute animals, cards and dates — so can even improve your love life.”
Here’s a video of Richard and his friend demonstrating it. (more…)
Marco Tempest’s Mindcam
IN MY LAST POST, I mentioned techno-magician Marco Tempest, so I thought I’d link to what, in my opinion, is his greatest effect, Mindcam.
In this effect, Marco seemingly psychically projects the image of a card onto a digital photo we saw him take moments earlier. It’s a really stunning trick.
Marco’s web site has videos of a few more performances. In each one, the chosen card is different. I’d love to know how he does this.
Channel 4’s 3D Magic Hour
I CAUGHT CHANNEL 4’s 3D magic special last night. Lots of fun.
Derren Brown was as hilariously pithy as usual, although his role was mainly restricted to providing the links between other magicians’ effects.
As for the rest of it… there were a few too many big, showy tricks for my liking – I usually prefer the close-up stuff – but that’s to be expected with a program designed primarily to show off 3D technology.
It was especially nice to see Marco Tempest, “the virtual magician” and Rubik’s Cube genius, get some richly deserved screen time. He’s one of those technology-focussed magicians who inspired me to create WasThisYourCard.com.
Tempest performed his “Interactive Cards” illusion. It’s a nice card trick in that you can play along with at home, and it has a 100% success rate. It’s a shame it’s been done a bazillion times on the internet already (including this clever YouTube version).
You can watch the full hour of the Channel 4 show, if you live in the UK, here.
Was This Your Card?
LAST SUMMER, I was performing some card magic in a bar when I noticed something interesting – all of my spectators were carrying iPhones.
That got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could make a spectator’s freely chosen card appear magically on their iPhone screen – without me touching the phone?
When I got home that night I immediately set about building that feature into WasThisYourCard.com.
After much experimentation, I finally developed a system that did exactly what I needed. I’ve been amazing spectators with it ever since.
But now I’ve decided that if it’s useful to me, it could be useful to others, so I have opened the system up to other magicians.
WasThisYourCard.com will be available in two versions, Basic and Professional. Right now, only the Basic version is available. The Professional system should be up and running soon.
You can sign up FREE to use the Basic version by entering your email address in the box on the left of this page. After you’ve confirmed your address, you will receive a download link for the Basic Manual.
