Non-App Review - Topix by Pierre Acourt and Sébastien Splitter Macak

Mentalism on Their Mobile Phone!

Have you ever been asked “Show me a trick!“ when someone finds out you’re a magician, but you’ve left all your magic stuff at home, and you haven’t quite worked out your EDC yet?

Most of us carry a mobile phone with us and within them come a whole host of magical possibilities. You have effects using apps, calculator or the browser, which is where Topix comes in. Using a participant’s phone, you can perform mental feats where you divine any image searched and even provide details about the photographer or search terms used.

Let’s dive into the Good, the Bad and The Rest of Topix by Pierre Acourt and Sébastien Splitter Macak!

The Good

When it comes to magic using a mobile phone, one of the common questions is often if you’re limited by the OS of the phone.

A lot of good magic apps are on iPhone only, leaving poor android users stuck trying to find alternatives. In the case of Topix, you can perform it with any phone because there’s no app required! You set everything up through a website and the effect is performed on a participant’s phone.

If you’re familiar with other magic apps, you’ll know that there is often a pairing process in order for the magic to be setup. With Topix, the pairing is done in such a clever way that your participant would not suspect anything odd has occurred. They go to a specific image search website which is like those stock image sites and search for whatever term they want, then look through photos before deciding on one they like. By the end of this process, you have paired with them and are receiving the relevant information required to read their minds.

Which brings me to the process of receiving the information.

Sébastien and Pierre have created multiple ways to peek the information so you can find a method you’re comfortable with. Most of the methods are through your phone of course but there are also smart watch and PeekSmith options.

There’s a Facebook group of users who have Topix, where we get further updates that Sébastien makes to improve it and really give you as a performer many options. Whether it’s adding API integration, create a link so you can pair with Inject or a propless version where you don’t need your phone, Sébastien and Pierre are constantly working on making it better, plus you can give suggestions or brainstorm presentational ideas with others.

The Bad

With so much good things about Topix you’ve got to wonder, what’s bad?

Your participant has to go to a website they’ve never heard of, it’s not like Wiki-Test where they go to Wikipedia or Inject where they go to “Google”. But it does look like other stock image websites so there’s that familiarity there. I like to mention that it’s a stock image website that gives you images you aren’t expecting, since there’s a mix of actual images and what looks like AI generated images that come up.

Since it’s a stock image site, you can’t really search for celebrities as photos of them would not show up. This can lead into really interesting scenarios though, where you divine an image of Tom Yum Soup and then reveal they searched “Tom Hanks”.

You shouldn’t do the effect with your own phone (unless you’re testing it out), and while you can, you really shouldn’t if you have notifications setup otherwise whoever you’re performing for will see how you are “reading their mind”. This effect is best done with someone else’s phone, as it’ll hit harder.

The effect can only be done via mobile phone browsers and is not possible on a computer. If you try to access the site via a computer, you get a screen saying it’s not accessible via PC. This limits your performing areas to everywhere else except your office…

Topix can only be done with one person’s phone at a time. It’s not possible to pair with multiple people at once so keep that in mind in case you’re with a group and they all want to have a go on their own phones.

Topic isn’t always on; you need to activate it before you perform. This reduces the chances of a participant randomly syncing with someone else’s account so while it looks like an extra step and can be negative, I think it protects you well and reduces the risk of synchronisation issues.

The Rest

When you buy Topix and get setup with an account there’s a lot to learn!

The notification system is setup through Telegram, an instant messaging service which is not an app I’ve used before but the steps to setup were easy to follow. Then there’s the pairing system you have to setup, which is very clever as previously mentioned.

One great feature with smart phones these days are being able to setup buttons that correspond to a URL or page. With Topix I was able to setup the following buttons

• A dummy iPhone screen that allows me to activate and view what is being searched and the image selected all disguised as apps

• A drawing app that allows you to peek the image drawn, so you can then draw it yourself

• A link to the Topix page to login to activate and setup things

• A link that activates Topix when you’re ready to perform

• A link to peek at what your participant searched for and the image selected.

Plus, I also have a shortcut setup on my Apple Watch to peek the image and search terms if I want to go phone free.

There’s videos and write ups on how to set all these up and if there’s anything you’re unclear of, you can contact Sébastien directly or post in the Facebook group for help.

This is a solid tool to add to your repertoire and is great at gig and perfect for EDC/social magic in everyday situations. It’s a great alternate flavour to other magic apps out there as no one suspects a gimmicked website.

I’d like to thank Sébastien for the opportunity to review this service and look forward to the continued improvements to make magicians and mentalists life that much easier, and magical for our audience.