Psychic Cents
Type: close up, walk-around
Skill Level: 
Retail Price: $10
Effect: The magician brings out a small wallet containing an envelope
with some pocket change in it. Two spectators are each asked to name a
number between one and nine. One says five. The other says four. "Five
and four, that's fifty-four." The envelope is emptied into a spectator's
hands and is seen to contain fifty-TWO cents. The audience is less than
impressed. The performer was two cents off. He then takes an I.O.U. from
the envelope which reads "I.O.U. TWO CENTS." The envelope is
now empty.
Performance Time: about 2 minutes
Reset Time: 30 seconds
Angles: 
Quality: Not much to evaluate here. You get instructions that are
fairly detailed. The coin envelopes and an IOU card. All in all, the props
can be assembled yourself. You are buying a secret.
Dr. Mitch: Hmmm... when I first read the ad for this, I thought..Nail Writer. Wrong. Then I read the instructions. To be quite frank...I thought..."this is IT ? sheesh". But I determined to give it a try. My first couple of attempts failed miserably. And then...it just "CLICKED". It worked. I got a great reaction. I thought it was a fluke. I tried it on the next audience..great reaction again ! And it KEPT getting great reactions. What I thought was a real turkey turned into something I'm really enjoying.
Now pay strict attention to what I'm about to impart.....you really need to TRY this...and TRY it more than once. Do NOT read the instructions and say .."No Way". Because you might be missing out on a real winner.
Mike Maione: I am not as impressed as Dr. Mitch about Psychic Cents. To me it's a complex version of Mental Choice, that old trick with three different colored dots on a card in which the spectator is asked to pick one. On the back of the card is written, "You will pick blue." On the back of the envelope it says, "You will pick red." And on your pen it says, "You will pick green." Of course, you show the spectator the appropriate prop i.e., envelope, back of card or pen depending on his choice, and he is amazed at your mental prowess. Psychic Cents is similar in that there are a few different endings based on the spectator's choice, but none are as straight forward and direct as, "You will select red." Hence, I think you get a bigger bang from Mental Choice, and without any arithmetic. So, to me it makes more cents to save a few sense and pass on this one.
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