In this slim volume I have collected three routines utilising billets from my own performance work; drawn over a period of more than ten years.

I have chosen to group these routines together in one volume at the request of many mentalists I have met during my appearances at magic conventions, workshops and masterclass events across the globe.

I also took this as an opportunity to update and add to these routines since first writing them up. In the interest of variety I have broken up each of these routines with two very short essays and thoughts; you will spot these essays as they are all labelled as distractions in their titles; sometimes in these sections there is a trick; other times there is not; these essays are taken from my series of essays published in Genii Magazine several years ago and appear here unchanged.

I hope they will give you a break from thinking about folded pieces of paper, index cards, centre tears, envelopes and billets in general and that they might present some interesting notion you have not considered before.

Finally this volume concludes with a ‘bonus’ section; my personal premise and presentation for a popular commercially marketed prop.

I hope you find something in this slim volume to add to your own performances; I sincerely; and off trend in the current mentalism mainstream, believe that a good solid understanding of billet technique is at the heart of strong, minimalist and utility focused performance tools. Billets offer the performer a great utility tool; often the tools and techniques can be transferred from casual performance to the stage with nothing more than adapted staging and blocking.