The Ultimate Book Test Act (UBTA), is a fantastic book test routine by renowned Italian mentalist Luca Volpe. The UBTA comes with two books and a 12 page pamphlet that describes the effect, the secret and provides a word-for-word routine script. This trick is well-priced for a book test and is guaranteed to deliver astonishment to your audience.
This routine allows you to have the spectators pick words from various positions on the page, allows you to read the mind of the spectator after they read a paragraph, and then draw what they are thinking about after having read the book.
The UBTA can be used as a multi-phased routine that lasts anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes, depending on your presentation, which will require a larger audience that uses 6 spectator/volunteers. The presentation can also be broken down into much quicker acts of mentalism, not using the entire script, that would be more appropriate for a close-up situation with a much smaller audience, using either one or both books.
The two books both measure exactly 5 ¾ inches by 8 ¼ inches, and although I would have liked to see books of different sizes, that does not present an issue from the spectator’s point of view. One book is 155 numbered pages and the other is 203 numbered pages. Although the books have a larger font than I would like for such a small book, I doubt that it will be noticed be the spectators who are only looking at the text of the book for a few seconds. Similarly, the bottom margins on some of the pages are a bit off and while it jumped out at me, while I was scrutinizing the books, I doubt that anyone will notice it, since no one will suspect that the books are gaffed in any way. Other issues that are likely to be invisible to spectators are the fact that the first word in a new paragraph is not indented, the paragraphs are not separated by line spacing and the cover art of each book (one more than the other) looks a bit off. Each book has a realistic looking bar code on the back and they both also have the text “L.V. Publishing Copyright 2014” on it as well. It is a microscopic detail that no spectator will notice, especially since no spectator handles both books. For these very nitpicky reasons, I do not think that the word “Ultimate” belongs in the title (although the word refers to the “Act”). But notwithstanding this strong statement, this product gets an extremely high rating.
Volpe credits David Hoy, Chris Philpott and Steve Hollifield for the “Tossed Out” aspects of the routine, which is something that is risky to perform if you are working with a very small audience that are likely to discuss what they read. Volpe offers his email in the pamphlet and will send you a private link to a performance in Italian if you request it of him. Unless you speak Italian, I suggest skipping the almost six minute video. The books also contain a reminder key of the back of each book, for the other book which is impossible to detect.
While the promotional video is accurate and the ad copy is mostly accurate, the claim that there is a “Free Selection Involved” is vague and does not specify what is freely selected. The book? The page? The word? While the spectator can freely pick either of the two books and also the page from the book that they freely turn to, the performer does offer some guidance as to what words are selected and read. There is no need for the spectator to reveal what page number they have looked at. And because the ad copy claims that this is a “Limited Edition,” I would have liked to know how many copies are actually being sold.
The books cannot be examined closely and may be more prone to discovery due to one of the phases of the routine which relates to the kicker ending, which is very surprising to the audience. The possibility of being exposed is so minimal with easy audience management.
Notwithstanding the criticisms voiced above about the actual books, this product is excellent and lovers of book tests should indulge in this very versatile and worthwhile purchase.