by seige » May 13th, '03, 22:41
The Hidden by Andy Nyman
£10 - Alakazam.co.uk
Card mentalism - with audience participation
Description
Imagine the scene: you ask a spectator to remove his watch, take out his wallet and a coin, and place them on the table in front of him.
Now, you take a deck of cards. You speak about 'dead' cutting - the ability to cut a predetermined stack of cards, say 12, from the deck without counting. All the time you're shuffling the deck...
You go on to demonstrate... then offer the spectator: cut 10 cards off of the deck. He does. You tell him to put them in front of the coin.
Now, you shuffle, and offer the spectator to cut 15 cards. Place them in front of the watch.
Repeat, but this time, place the final stack in front of the wallet.
NOW... tell them they had a FREE choice of cut (which they do), and they TURN OVER the top card of each pile... on the top card of each pile is a single word: Watch, Coin or Wallet. And they match the object they are in front of.
And the kicker? Every other card in the deck is BLANK!!!!
Review
Now, readers of the May 'uncrashed' forum may remember a few of us raving about a guy called Andy Nyman. Some of you will not have a clue who he is, but if I tell you he's an actor, magician, mentalist and TV producer - plus he's a major influence in the workings of Derren Brown, you'll realise that this 'unknown' is a bit of a dark horse.
And he is.
This effect was my first Nyman effect, although I'd actually heard of his reputation first, and I remember his affiliation with Brown, and that awful TV magic 'mainstream' effort, Monkey Magic.
This effect is licenced soley to Alakazam by Nyman, and was released in March '03. I would imagine by now that it's finding its way into the act of many a magician up and down the country.
If you consider the reputation of Alakazam's Peter Nardi, you'll realise that they don't take mentalism lightly, and this particular effect will NOT dissapoint.
Along with my other favourite mentalism effect (coincidentally, Nardi's Knock 'em Dead) this has to be one of the most awesome effects in my routine show.
It works EVERY time. It resets quickly for walkaround magic, and probably more importantly, it really SHOCKS.
The initial whammy is when the spectator realises THEY have cut to the only 3 'object' cards in the deck. The second whammy comes when they realise the rest of the deck is blank.
It works. And it's easy, too. Only minor card control sleights are needed, and you can even work in your own shuffle/control routines.
The quality of the effect is outstanding: good packaging, good gaffs, excellent instructions. The pack comes in either red or blue bicycle back, and includes both a blank face 'gimmick' and a regular face 'gimmick'.
You'll learn the handling in 10 minutes flat, and you'll be absolutely desparate to try it to get a reaction.
Overview
Probably the best value for money mentalism trick out there, from one of Magic's true geniuses - in my opinion, anyway (and I've been searching for something with this much impact for 10 years!).
Rating
10/10 - Hadn't you already guessed!!!
The bottom line
There's a handful of mentalism effects out there which are truly amazing... and this is one of them. I recommend that if mentalism is your bag, check Alakazam. The Nardi/Nyman effects alone could form the basis of a whole act.
If you're looking for that definitive trick for 2003, which involves audience participation, mentalism and a bit of class - try The Hidden.
It works.