- It can just be a lot safer avoiding sneaky spectator eyes catching you getting the peek
- This can be a super fuss free way to do it. Little to no sleight of hand needed
My problems with them started around 10 years ago when I forgot to bring one to my gig. I am not a big fan of using wallets as I have always preferred a simple EDC, as little as possible for me. For years the wallets always seemed to be big bulky ones.
When I left my peek wallet at home I really had to rely on my knowledge of peeks.
This isn't a bad thing. As I truly believe that we should all have a fundamental basis of all subjects in magic. I also feel that you can't truly call yourself a Magician or a Mentalist if you have to rely solely on gimmicks/packet tricks.
My problems weren't to do with the fact that I had to do the sleight of hand.
It was that I realised that it was actually easier to justify what I was doing.
My biggest problem with the wallets is that you have to justify the prop.
Over the years I have heard some VERY questionable reasons for people using the wallet. Some have sort of made sense.
But ultimately if you were going to do what you are claiming...
Surely you would be using their wallet or no wallet at all. I do get that this argument is somewhat flawed, because if you could really read minds you wouldn't need to get them to write anything down in the first place.
Having them write something down isn't really that bad though. I will touch on this a little more further down when I talk about framing the effect.
For me personally the peek wallets are ultimately flawed.
I believe that nothing will beat the simplicity of just the pen and the billet.
If you are still wanting to use something as a convincer or "I can't see through this" element to your performance. Why not add a small envelope like our Thorax Sleeves. I am sure you can find others out there, but these are ones that we use.
Using an envelope isn't the same as a wallet. A wallet can feel gimmicked. You can't really deny that no matter how good the wallet is ... it feels a little funky using a wallet. Where as a small thin envelope feels less gimmicky. Like its something that is so thin that your brain doesn't even associate with gimmicked.
The point of all this is that I feel like as a community we are becoming reliant on gimmicks and things doing the work for us. I will happily admit that I have been there. Relying on a peek device, an app, a switching device. These things can fail and they will always feel gimmicked.
over the last 5 years I have been going back to basics with my Mentalism and Magic. Looking into relearning and improving my fundamental knowledge. Seeing how I can reduce the amount of gimmicks/devices I use.
Since I started doing this, I have released that I am getting better reactions and I am improving on some classics in mentalism.
It has also helped me release my best product yet "The Peek In Plain Sight"
Where at Blackpool Magic Convention 2024 it FOOLED every magician there!
Since then we at 6Shadows have sold out of stock 6 times in just 2 months.
I don't want you to be mislead with that statement. I don't want you thinking that The Peek In Plain Sight is just a classic move that everyone knows.
P.I.P.S looks super clean. Imagine someone talking a billet. Writing or Drawing a piece of information. The billet is then placed on to a stack of billets. You then proceed to tell them the information.
You don't do any folds that look funny, it doesn't get placed into a suspicious object. It is simply wrote down and then revealed.
I wanted something to look as close to true mind reading as I possible could using billets. I mean TRUE mind reading would be actually reading their mind without props... which affectively is propless mentalism. However, I do love a varied style of work and billet work is something I enjoy.
If you frame billet work well, it can look like mind reading. I have often found that mentalists and magicians (Myself included) forget to correctly frame why they are doing the things they are doing. It's often just "Do this" without a reason. That being said there are plenty of times where you shouldn't be explaining to really heighten what it is you are doing. But sometimes it can be as simple as "I want you to write this down. The reason for this is as humans we often get distracted with our own thoughts or misremember things. If you write this down you can focus a little clearer on this thought" ... Extremely simple, completely plausible and it just works!
I have embellished on that a few times in the right moments. Saying things like ... "It is often hard to track people's thoughts. They average person has fifty thousand to seventy thousand thoughts per day, which is roughly 35 to 50 thoughts per minute. These are thoughts that stem into a new thought. Each thought has several words or sentences attached... It can be very difficult to track down and fixate on your thought of word. So, if you right this down we can focus a lot clearer on your word/name/place"
This is when I am in a parlour setting or stage. Although I have another scripting for stage that follows a similar structure. These just help build scenes and understanding of what it is you are doing, also why they are doing these things.
I want to add that if I use this scripting once in a set I don't need to do this again as you have already established this. It can be tricky sometimes to not just go through the scripting when performing an effect.
All this being said, I truly think it's time we all pick up those books that are collecting dust. Lets see what we can create if we all go back to basics.