Totem Tear by Simon J. Lea

The Totem Tear is a billet technique with a difference. This ebook comes with 10 strong effects. The first chapter deals with the billet technique with 17 large photographs detailing every move step-by-step. The Totem Tear captures an incredible amount of information, quickly and easily.

• No torn center
• No switches
• No peeks
• Spectator destroys the billet
• Natural reason for writing down information
• Easy to learn & Easy to perform
• All natural moves

The classic center-tear move is well-known throughout the mentalist world. And surprisingly well-known in the non-mentalism world as well. Have you ever performed a center-tear and have a spectator speculate that you must have somehow peeked the writing or worse still, torn off the important piece? The Totem Tear and it's applications will completely fool center-tear know-it-alls.

• All the applications use the whole billet which means you discover a huge amount of information.
• So easy to do. The technique is designed so the worst paper-fumbler can perform it with ease.
• Natural reason for writing down information and all natural moves during the performance.

Simon added a bonus section where he describes his billet-reading notepad.

There are ten effects or applications in this ebook:

Totem: Three or four spectators all choose an animal that they feel best represents them. Taking turns they each add their animal to a totem pole. The mentalist then asks each spectator in turn to imagine their chosen animal. Using various mind-reading techniques he is able to discover which animal each spectator added to the totem.

Memento Mori: You and a spectator manage to send a message back into the past. A tomb must be robbed of a single skull but which one? Your spectator must decide. The tomb raider wasn't so lucky first time around can he fare better with your help? Your spectator will soon find out - a telegram written and sent in past will reveal which skull the raider took and whether or not he got lucky.

Little Black Train:
There's a little black train a coming
Coming down the track
You've gotta ride that little black train
And it ain't a gonna bring you back

So sang Woodie Guthrie. A spectator thinks of a celebrity who as passed over and now rides the little black train. You manage to mentally board that train and discover the identity of the late celebrity. Can be performed on up to six spectators at the same time.

Wot no Chads: Chads, Kilroys, Foos - whatever you call them - the little bald men that brought Hitler to his knees and rattled Stalin are remembered in this entertaining effect.

Papped! A group of spectators come on stage and together choose the unlikeliest celebrity couple they can think off - without telling the mentalist who the couple are at any time. You introduce the idea of paparazzi photographers and ask the spectators to imagine how much a papped photo of their couple would be worth. Depending on your presentation, an amazed spectator either opens an envelope you gave him or unlocks a secure box to discover the spectator's freely chosen couple have been papped and you own the photograph.

A Midsummer Sleight's Dream: Traditionally, on Midsummer eve, girls in the villages of Southern England write the initials of boys they wish to marry on pieces of paper which they attach to a post outside of the village. Their hope is that by the following Midsummer they will be married to the boy who's initials they wrote on the paper. This practice has all but died out with just a few romantics keeping the tradition alive.

Five spectators come on stage and each add the initials of their Valentines, partners, people they would like to marry, etc. to a symbolic post. The mentalist never sees what initials are written. Each spectator is thanked and handed a business card. You ask each spectator if she minds revealing to the audience the initials she wrote on the post. In any case, the initials written by each spectator are printed on the back of the business cards they now hold.

Online Dating: A spectator chooses a celebrity date that isn't quite what she expects. A fun comedy routine.

Cartorn: Three spectators work together to draw a comic strip. Three large blank comic strip panels are on stage with you. Once the spectators have finished drawing the strip the mentalist never sees, you ask them to imagine the comic strip like they're watching a movie. To the audience's amazement, you are able to react the entire strip simply by reading the spectator's minds. As you can imagine, this effect plays extremely strong.

Shazamazon.com: A kind of book test billet effect. The spectator is shown a billet with the front pages of 15 books printed on one side. The entire billet is used. Secretly, the spectator circles one book and the billet is destroyed. You ask them to imagine the book, to judge it by it's cover if they haven't read it. After a bit of hard mind-reading you manage to successfully name the chosen book.

Usual Suspects: Spectators are shown a line-up and are asked to identify the guilty party. The mentalist never sees who is chosen. After the billet is destroyed, you bring out a small envelope containing the mug shots of the suspects, which are laid face-down on the table. The name of the identified man is then revealed. You turn over the cards one-by-one to reveal the true identities of all the suspects - including the one correctly chosen by your spectators.

bonus section: An illustrated step-by-step guide to making Simon's billet-reading notepad. A simple way to gaff a notepad that makes reading billets really easy.

1st edition 2007; 60 pages
word count: 12414 which is equivalent to 49 standard pages of text