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The Effect

The Unexpected a two DVD set by Peter Nardi and Marc Spelmann
On impromptu Mentalisim


Cost

£32.99 from www.alakazam.co.uk

Difficulty

3 its pretty easy stuff but you have to give it some Derren Brown style to sell the effects.

(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)



Review

Mr Nardi’s and Mr Spelmann’s new double DVD set promises to give you some impromptu mental magic does it deliver? Oh yes there are 12 effects on this DVD for the “impromptu” performance. Actually it is not some routines will require a little something extra but its no big deal of the 12 effects I wont list them all because (A I am lazy and B) its on the alakazam website I would use 6 at a paid gig.

What I will say is that half the effects would be good to do in a close up setting at a paid gig. A very nice coin bend and Feel is a great bit of pseudo psychology where you tell a spec what imaginary object they are holding. I feel these are the strongest two effects on the DVD but as I said before 6 of these would work at a paid gig as part of a larger set. And the book test aint half bad either.

Some of the effects are pretty miss well for me. One that stands out to me for not being my cup of tea is the for the money effect a tad long for my liking but if you can sell that kind of effect your self you go for it Jimmy.

I wont go in to all about video production etc I will just say menus and all that well part together and all that jazz.

Now lets talk about the teaching and the two host. The teaching is actually top notch the chaps do an excellent job or getting the message across and when one makes a mistake the other is quick to pick up and ridicule the other. Our two host are very funny chaps Mr Spelmann comes over like a Derren brown, Jay Sankey and Dale Winton cross but it works. Mr Nardi comes across like a east-end gangster and if you ruining his effect he will get the shooters out, both make for very entertaining viewing,

Here is the problem about the set and we all know there would be one, it’s the lack of sponge ball effects, I mean that Nardi and Spelmann do the effects next to each other in fact they could almost be sitting on each others laps, I would have preferred in front of an audience.

Overall


Not a bad little set if you like writing ESP symbols on business cards this is way up your alley , its not advanced mind control or anything like that. It is real working simple and direct stuff, with 6 very strong routines on, how many DVDs do we find with 50% useable stuff nowadays? Not many. I give it a great markdini rating of 8/10.

Cheers for the review ive been thinking about it for a while now so i might, actually i need to buy it. {honestly it's a matter of life and death}.

Well i got a bumper pack of metal efects with this dvd, beyond esp2, blind sight and the afflicted. I am very impressed with Spelmann I am even thinking of getting his 4 Dvd set, well i heard one of them is for close up stuff but on the site it dont say what one, so if some one could tell me.

Ive seen numbers 1,2 and 3 and none of them had any close-up stuff on it so i presume it's number 4 but might be best until someone else replies just to be sure. Some very good stuff on there actually especially i think it's called 1 in 5200000. Its a routine with 4 chairs 4 envelopes 4 name tags well it's amazing if you get them look out for that routine.

Mr. Nardi does remind me of ray winston...nice fella though...

its a pretty good dvd, a few reminders of some old classic methods...that's always nice in this day and age...some of the hints and tips are pretty good too...

The cockney magicians club, Cards, Sponges, Shooters.