Can anybody help me?

I'm currently researching two-way acts and am missing a few "recommended" sources.

First and foremost, does anybody know where I can get hold of "ESP 2000" by The Tuckers. I appreciate this is very old but any help would be very much appreciated.

I recall that there was a fair amount of information about the Zancigs in David Price's "Magic -- A Pictorial History." I believe they were one of the highest-paid "code acts" in vaudeville. The book is out-of-print, but can usually be obtained secondhand from the Advanced Book Exchange, a good used-book website at http://www.abebooks.com.

Although I don't know if there is any information about two-way acts in William Rauscher's "The Mind Readers," I'd be very surprised if they aren't covered. Click HERE for more info.

Finally, there is a great 1947 movie starring Tyrone Power as a carny worker who learns a two-person code, and lots more about the right and wrong way to use it. It's called "Nightmare Alley" and is very interesting, even if it's a little on the hokey side, click HERE to view. SETH

You can purchase ESP 2000 from several different sources; however, it's going to cost you a lot of money.

Most of the time, we refer to these as "two-person mindreading acts."

I might be able to help you find some information, but I have to ask you a question first.

What do you plan to do with this information?

If you plan to use it in a mindreading act, I'll tell you what I know. If you plan to publish a book about it, then I don't think you really need to know the inside skivvy on this stuff.

Just to mention, an excellent classic booklet about 2 persons act : "En Rapport" from Anneman.

It contains the description of how to mix different technics (marking, codes, etc) to blur the traces..

There is also a trick that have been lost but of high value : a divination with 3 different spectators, wit a different solution from "one time ahead" kind of trick. This is gold !

There were a great many such acts over the years. In addition to the Zancigs and Tuckers (I believe Liz Tucker is still alive although Tommy passed away years ago), other such acts include the Piddingtons, Berol and Belmonte, Charles and Martha Steen, Mildred and Harry Rouclere, Mazeppa and Zilla, Mercedes and Helene Stantone, Leo and Myra Tree, Mardoni and Louise, the Ushers, King and Zorita, Fields and Martz, the Graysons and the Mystics (performed at my grandmother's 80th birthday party in the 1950s). I believe Danny and Jan Orleans (trained by Eddie Fields as I recall) still present such an act as do the Falkensteins, and Canadian's Jeff and Tessa Evason (proteges of the Tuckers) who are probably the best and best known doing such an act today. Many of those I've listed are mentioned in varying detail in Rauscher's book which is a very valuable source of information on this subject

Jeff and Tessa are THE BEST. I saw the Tuckers on a couple of occasions and found Liz' incessant chatter to be very annoying. She basically prattled during the entire performance. Meanwhile, Tommy was chattering away in the audience, using a hand-held wireless microphone. I felt that the use of the hand-held wireless mike in a situation that did not demand it necessarily strongly detracted from the performance and hinted at a possible method, even though it wasn't actually used.

When watching Jeff and Tessa, Jeff is almost silent. Tessa speaks, but she doesn't chatter. It comes across as something entirely different and completely magical.

BTW, the ESP 2000 course barely scratched the surface of what Liz and Tommy did.

If you can read French, Mir and Miroska who had an international show running extremely successfully for 50 years, published their system in a small monography (but in French). The coding system is really extremely intelligent and instant

There was the Doublecross booklet published by the Magic Wand in London with the little signet system where the receiver makes three statements which are always replied positively (the way the "yes"/"correct"/"exact" is expressed by the sender supplying the cross referencing).

In the Magic Wand Magazine, there is what is called the Jim Merlini card system which is not restrictd to playing card etc...

There are many more and Bill is definitely more than qualified to help. I would put the same restriction than his to my support: if you are to work on a basis to make magic progress we (I'm convinced) and I (I confirm) will give you not only the infos but also the criteria coming from experience to push whatever you would find fitting your style to a higher and new level.

Naturally none of us will help anyone to purely steal someone's (dead or alive) creation

The Zancigs' code was published a couple of times, but not always in complete form. Laura Fix (a pseudonym) published it for the trade in 1912, Zancig himself published it in an English magazine in several sections (after retiring, I belive), Alexander published it in "The Celebrated Dr. Q." but in terribly abbreviatd and incomplete form, and Will Golston published it as well.

Julius and Agnes Zancig claimed that just to keep their vast code system freshly in mind, they rehearsed for 4 hours a day. That's more effort than most people would put into an act, but I get the impression that they were both fanatic perfectionists.

Because of their code's complexity, they could perform tests such as having Agnes reproduce Hebrew letters, by building from geometric shapes. That goes far and away beyond what a night club or stage act generally covers.

Also, it was nice to see Dick mention the Ushers. They were quite good in their day, and they also ran a 'scope pitch and sold occult supplies from the Nelson catalogue down in Venice, California. I always wondered if they had studied with the Zancigs, because Julius and his second wife and code-partner Ada, had settled nearby toward the end of their lives. I have never met anyone who knows if the Ushers knew the Zancigs. Well, maybe Charles Garner knows -- but he's not telling.

I know that the Evasons practice their work all the time. They have conversations in code while they are going about their daily tasks. It is really the only way to keep facile with a complex code.

The Tuckers' code was really the bare bones of what they did.

The old Calostro Radio Vision code actually works well, but the material needs updating.