By Matt Packard
1
The Lost Luggage Book Test by Matt Packard
www.matthewmayavi.com
© 2018 Matthew Lin Packard
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form with-
out permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
For permissions contact:
matthewmayavi@gmail.com
2
The
Lost Luggage Book Test
By Matt Packard
3
I Heart BOOK TESTS!
I fell in love with book tests long before I became a dedicated mentalist. Of course back then,
I was using card forces, the 1089 force, the 14/15 stack, and other terrible ideas that shouldn’t
have been used anytime after the 1960s.
The first gimmicked book test I bought was Larry Becker’s The Ultimate Flashback. In fact, I
still use one of the books in my current show. (I’ve changed the cover though - those covers
were awful). I finally moved up to the mother, and I don’t think there’s anything better.
The method you are about to read came about as I pondered what might happen if I some-
how lost my MOABT and Flashback books before a show. Sure, there are some great ungim-
micked book tests out there, but I wanted something that did just a little more, something that
I could whip up easily myself on short notice.
I believe that what you are about to read is every bit as amazing as most commercial book
tests, while being super practical and easy to make at home (or in a hotel room).
You can pretty much use any two books. Doing a themed corporate performance? Are you a
Bizarre performer? Want to do a something hilarious with romance novels? You can use what-
ever books will best fit your show. This is actually a major advantage over the usual suspects
of gimmicked book tests. And if you want to, you can GIVE THE BOOK AWAY!
I’ve also included something that I call the AWAPAT Book Test as a bonus (it’s on page 12).
This is a simple gambit that can turn a first word test (like Marc Paul’s AAA book test or a
Flashback book) into an ‘any word on any page’ miracle.
Both of these book test methods have been used extensively in the real world and they are
both, as they say, workers.
So..... Let’s get right into it!
My book test collection
4
Lost Luggage - The Basic Principles
The Flashback principle - which is most definitely one of the best book test methods around,
is based on Dan Tong’s Peek-a-book. Peek-a-book is basically a way to make any book into a
Flashback style book.
However, I never cared too much for Peek-a-book. The book is not only unexaminable, but
the participant can’t even hold the book. However, it occurred to me, why not have the cue
words in a second book that was used to select a page in the first (ungimmicked) one? It
would look similar to the Hoy test, but it would be a genuine selection with no miscall and no
force! That’s the basic idea.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense to you, I’ll explain it fully in a moment.
The second part of the method (described on page 9), is a way to create the illusion that your
participant can choose any word on the top line. This addresses another problem common
with book tests, which is when the first word on the page is short or uninteresting.
The combination of these principles allows for a book test that is easily made at home (or
before a show if indeed your luggage was lost) for pennies, yet rivals some of the best gim-
micked books in effect.
5
Lost Luggage Book Test - Construction
If you are familiar with Dan Tong’s method, you might be ahead of me here, but I’m going to
go ahead and explain this as fully as possible.
You need two books that are roughly the same length. I suggest getting them at a thrift store
or a used book store so that they are nice and used looking, but that’s up to you. If you can
find books that have the page numbers at the bottom of the page, it might add a little to the ef-
fect (as it takes away the possibility that you could know the page number). It’s not a big deal
though. My examples just have the standard novel configuration with page numbers on top.
Whichever book is shorter is going to be for your participant (a minor point, but if you think
about it you’ll understand why). You are going to write down cue words from the participants
book into your book. I’ll demonstrate this using the first word on the page, but I’ll explain later
how to make it appear that they can choose any word on the top line.
Your book Participants book
So, on the top right corner of all the right hand pages of your book, you’ll write - lightly in
pencil - the first word from the corresponding left hand pages of the participants book.
See the image above for clarification and note the difference in page numbers. Do this for the
entire length of the shorter book. It’s simple, but make sure you fully understand what you’re
doing before you spend the 15 minutes or so it takes to make this up.
6
Lost Luggage Book Test - Performance
The procedure is similar looking to the Hoy book test (though it may fool magicians that are
familiar with the Hoy test as it’s actually a free choice of a page). The performer flips through
one book, the participant calls stop, notes the page number and then finds that page number
in their own book. I’ll explain how I justify this procedure when I discuss my book test se-
quence later in this e-book, but I do suggest you give a reason for the procedure, if nothing
more than “In order to make sure the choice is truly random....”
....But I’m getting ahead of myself!
Start by giving the correct book to your participant. I guess you could do some equivoque or
whatever, but I wouldn’t suggest it. There’s no need. Just hand them the flippin book.
“In order to make this totally fair, we’re going to use this book to select a random page num-
ber”.
Hold your book up with the spine facing the left and riffle down the top right corner with your
right index finger. What I say is: “I’m going to flip through the pages like this, nice and slow. It’s
important that you know you have an absolutely free choice, so you can tell me to slow down
or go back or whatever you want. Okay?”
You slowly riffle (and please note I used the word ‘flip’ when giving directions. I hope you
already know that you should never say ‘riffle’ in front of laypeople) and they say stop. This
part is the same as the standard Flashback peek. The book is only open a crack, but you can
peek your word.
7
As soon as you get your peek, immediately turn your head away and open the book up fully
with your left hand, covering the pencil written word with your left fingers. As soon as it’s
open, you say “Take a look at this page number” while simultaneously tapping with your right
index finger right next to the page number.
Exposed view -Don’t do this!
8
Now, all you have to do is ask them to open to that same page in their own book and look at
the first word. After that - you do you!
Not Just the First Word!
Now, as I mentioned before - I actually don’t just use the first word. I wanted to create the
feeling of more choice while also making sure that the word revealed was as entertaining as
possible considering I am using real books.
Instead of just using the first word, when I’m making the books up, I look at the top line of
each page in the participants book and decide if I want to use the longest word, the first word,
the second word, or the last word.
For instance, if the top line has one word that is obviously longer than the rest, that’s my first
choice. If there are several long words or none at all but the first word on the line is at least 4
letters, that’s my second choice.
If there’s not a good long word, and the first word on the page is only one, two, or three let-
ters, I use the second word or the last word on the line, depending on which makes a better
revelation.
Finally - if there is no long word, no good last word, and the first two words are very short
(pretty much worst case scenario), then I write both of the first two words.
I use a simple notation to let me know which word we’re using.
If it’s the first or second word, I simply write the word in my book with no extra notation.
During performance, I say “Take a look at the first word on that page..(pause). If it’s a really
short word like ‘to’, ‘a’ or ‘the’, just go to the next word.” This is nice because if there is a short
word first, this makes it look like you already know that. The wording also means you don’t
need to know if it’s the first or second word (though you can usually tell by their reaction).
If I am using the longest word on the line, I simply write a small ‘L’ with a circle around it next
to the word. I say something like “Okay, open your book up to the page and start reading it to
yourself. Is there maybe a longer, more interesting word on the first line? Let’s use that.”
Cues the longest word
9
If it’s the last word on the line, I put a little arrow to the left of the word pointing right.
“Please start reading the page to yourself….(pause) wait, I think I just got something. Can you
read the first line again? I’m getting a word, I feel like it’s towards the end, maybe even the
very last word in the line?”
I much prefer using the longest word, but I’ve found that it’s not too common for the top line in
books to have just one long word. Remember that it needs to be obvious too, you can’t expect
them to count the letters. One word that’s clearly longer.
What that means is that most often, you’ll be cuing the first or second word on the page. The
way I present it, if the first word is one, two, or three letters, it doesn’t count. So it’s just the
first ‘real’ word on the page. If you don’t mind using (or specifically want to use) very short
words, then do it. It simplifies the situation and you’ll never use the second word.
It’s also worth noting that nothing is stopping you from just writing the first two or three words
on every page. I usually opt for two words only when it’s better than the other options, but if
it appeals to you, then knock yourself out. Just make sure you can comfortably cover it with
your left hand when you spread the book.
Presentational Thoughts
I think the Lost Luggage Book Test is especially strong after doing a Flashback or AAA book
test (i.e. a single book where the performer holds it and flips through the pages). That way, it’s
building on the previous effect and there is a semi-logical reason for using two books.
If I had truly lost my props before a show, I would do the AAA book test followed by the Lost
Luggage Book Test and call it good. Luckily - that hasn’t happened. However, I do sometimes
incorporate the Lost Luggage Book Test into my regular book test sequence when I am doing
a longer show.
Here’s the outline of the three phase routine I use for longer shows (for shorter shows, I only
do 2 phases, the first and last) I’m just including this so you can see how I build on each
phase and use different methods to cancel each other out. I’ve included some essential script-
ing, but I’ve left out most of my presentation.
I ask 3 people to join me on stage.
With the first person I start with choice of a Flashback book (I offer several). The word is se-
lected, and I’ll use the Banachek brain game to guess a letter, then I reveal the word.
Then I say “I know there are a few skeptics here, and you are probably thinking ‘well, he was
holding the book… maybe he somehow did something’ - so let’s make this even more fair.”
Now I do the Lost Luggage Book Test (as an answer to the imaginary skeptics).
10
For the last phase I give a choice of MOABT, MOABT 2.0, or Babel to the last participant.
“Okay, I think the skeptics are starting to believe, but let’s do this one more time. This time,
you hold the book, you flip through the pages and stop anywhere you want, and you can
choose any word from anywhere on the page. Just do me a favor and make it a nice long
word. I want to make this last one as challenging as possible.”
Notice that even though it’s not required for MOABT or Babel, I still ask them to flip through
the pages. I think this is a nice touch that ties all of the phases together.
And that’s about it for the Lost Luggage Book Test!
Credits: The main credit is of course Dan Tong and his Peek-a-Book. I should also credit
Larry Becker since he popularized the concept and further developed the handling. Finally,
Banachek deserves some credit as he has created a printed book test where the Flashback
peek cues another (several) books. As far as I know, no one else has combined the two ideas
in a homemade book test.
11
AWAPAT Book Test
If you’ve been performing book tests for any length of time, you’ve likely heard the phrase
“Can you do that with any book?”. If we were really mind readers, then we of course wouldn’t
need any special books. So this method came from wanting to be able to mimic the excep-
tional cleanliness of MOABT with an unprepared book that had just been handed to me.
While you could do this on stage or in a paid performance, I think this is better suited for more
casual, impromptu situations.
All you need is a book and 2 business cards (or two index cards, blank playing cards, etc.).
The effect:
You hold a book and ask a participant to say stop as you riffle through the pages. When they
say stop, you turn your head, hand the open book to them and ask them to think of any word
on the page.
You start to get something and you write it down on the card, placing it face down on the
table. You say something along the lines of “You know, I may need another chance - I think I
was close, but I don’t know if I got it completely…what was your word?”
The participant tells you and you say “Ah, I see. Yeah I was sorta close. I’ll show you what
I mean in just a minute, but let’s do just one more to see if I can get a little closer. Will you
please focus on the first word on the page?”
They do and you write down something on the second business card and put it on the table
as well. “Okay, well I’m committed here… What word were you just sending to me?”. They tell
you and you turn over the second card - it’s exactly right. “With the first one, I told you I was a
little off. You said _____ and I got _____.” Your word is clearly related but a little off.
The method:
Okay - so there are two things going here. A method to get the first word and the one ahead.
I strongly prefer Marc Paul’s AAA Book Test to get the first word, but of course it’s not mine to
teach. It is what I use for this, however, so if you know it, you’ll know how to put this together.
If you don’t have the AAA Book Test, there are still many other methods that will work. With
the addition of another book, this could work with the Hoy book test. John Riggs also has a
very good method to force a page on his Gods With Feet of Clay Volume 2.
In fact, even though this was conceived as an impromptu test, this works very well to turn a
book that has the Flashback feature into an any word on any page test. And of course you
could use this with the Lost Luggage Book Test. Or even a regular crib.
12
Basically, you need to know the first word on a page. Force it or find it out. I assume that most
of my readers don’t need any help here, however you are welcome to email me if you need a
basic method to force a page.
So they are looking at a page and you know the first word. You ask them to think of any word
on the page. You of course, write down the first word. Then you say “You know, I may need
another chance - I think I was close, but I don’t know if I got it completely…what was your
word?”
The participant tells you and you say “Ah, I see. Yeah I was close. I’ll show you what I wrote in
just a minute, but let’s do just one more to see if I can get a little closer. Will you please focus
on the first word on the page?”
Now the important part. In order for the one ahead to be congruous and deceptive, I feel like a
slight miss here is crucial. First off, your whole reason for asking for the word and then asking
for a second try is that you didn’t quite get it. Next, it adds to the deceptiveness of the one
ahead. Why would you miss if you had just heard the word? Why indeed!
How much to miss? Well, I like to make sure there’s no mistake that I was close. So if the
word was ‘receptionist’ I might write ‘secretary’ ;). You’ll need to be creative here.
The only thing left to do is to show the business cards in a way that obscures which was
which. You can use the 2 card monte move if you like, or a Mexican turnover. Or, simply place
the second card on top of the first one after writing, and when it is time to show them simply
pick them both up as one, facing you, and separate them so that you have one in each hand.
If you do so at a reasonable speed, It’s pretty hard to tell which side moved where - especially
if you are using cards that are blank on both sides. There are lots of other methods to do this,
but don’t worry too much about it. Simply picking them up as one and separating them into 2
hands works perfectly well since there are other layers going on.
And that, my friends, is it!
13
G’Bye!
Well thanks! I appreciate you checking this out and I genuinely hope you get some benefit out
of reading my ideas. Please feel to email me at sarvavit (at) gmail (dot) com if you have any
questions or ideas you’d like to share.
Though it’s technically easy to share magic or mentalism e-books, I hope you’ll keep these
methods to yourself as the value goes down every time it’s copied.
Thanks!
- Matt ‘Mayavi’ Packard
November 2018
14
Fin
15
