Limelight - Mark Elsdon

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Limelight - Mark Elsdon

Postby FTHO » Nov 21st, '15, 14:05



The Effect

One of Mark Elsdon’s most prized routines is finally available.

Designed to be performed for a group of people, this is a multi-phase card routine that causes absolute pandemonium. The audience reaction is priceless! In my experience there is nothing that can follow Limelight either in terms of mystery or laughter.

A female spectator is quietly given a very simple instruction that enables her to perform incredible card magic. She repeatedly finds selected cards, names selected cards and eventually performs an ACAAN with a free choice of number where the performer never touches the deck at all.

Any deck can be used and there is almost zero sleight-of hand for the performer to worry about and even less for the woman. If she can hold a deck, she's good to go.

And the best thing is that the woman doesn't have a clue how she is accomplishing any of the effects. If she is quizzed afterwards, the most she will be able to say is that she was doing 'something', but neither she nor the other spectators would have any clue how that was related to the effects she accomplished.

In my experience the woman absolutely relishes playing up her role as the star, and refuses all questions about what she was doing, because she loves being the center of attention!

The booklet contains all the handling and scripting details, as well as the psychology which strengthens the theatrical structure of the routine. It also discusses the selection of the correct person to use as the star and how to amplify their role to make their participation the absolute highlight of your performance.

You will receive: One A5 size booklet in the post. This is NOT a downloadable item.


Cost
£45 from http://www.full52.com/limelight/ or directly from Mark http://elsdon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/limelight.html


Difficulty
(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)

2 - This isn't difficult at all, all of the routine is about interacting with the people around you


Review

I had read about this when it was first released and thought it sounded fantastic. The high price did put me off...
I've bought a lot of stuff in the past for similar and higher prices which sounded great at the time... but which after reading I realised I would never use, and I didn't want to fall for that again.

After more than 2 months of considering I eventually decided to go for it. And I am so glad that I did.
This is one of the best purchases I've made in ages.

It's exactly my cup of tea. I don't like a lot of attention when I'm performing, this allows me to give all the attention and credit to someone else if I want to.

I've not tried it out yet (as it will require some work). But it seems like it will be incredibly entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable for your participant.


Roughly the effect goes like this:

1) The participant locates 3 cards selected by other members of the audience
2) The participant NAMES 2 cards selected by other members of the audience
3) The participant names a 3rd card selected by an audience member
4) The names a card seen only by 1 audience member while the magician isn't handling the deck
5) A selection is lost in the deck, the participant names a number and the selection is found at that number.

You do need to give some small instructions to the participant, which she needs to follow. The booklet describes how best to ensure that the participant understands these correctly. The book also describes the best kind of person to choose as a your participant.
The participant will never be able to give the game away (which she's unlikely to want to anyway, after being made the star!) as she only ever knows a small portion of what is going on and she will be amazed that she is able to accomplish these tricks too!

The booklet is thorough and very well explained. The routine is modular, you could cut bits out or switch pieces around, or add things in if you like. But Mark recommends trying it as it is written first.

Highly recommended.


Overall

This is one of the best purchases I've made this year... It isn't just a trick, its a whole act in which you give all of the attention to a member of your audience.
I feel that this routine is best performed for groups who all know each other (or all know the participant), and as such should be great fun with lots of audience participation and humor.

I'm definitely going to use this, as it is just my kind of thing:
Lots of audience participation,
Easy to do,
Allows all the focus to be placed on a participant,
Very playful

Try it out, i think its worth it.

FTHO
Senior Member
 
Posts: 381
Joined: Jan 3rd, '11, 21:45

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