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OddBall - Marc Oberon

PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 09:56
by IAIN


From: http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/ball-ma ... -3961.html

Cost: £14.99

Ease of use: dead easy - 1 out of 5

Blurb says:
You show five small balls to your audience, one black and four white. They're dropped into an opaque bag which is then shaken by an audience member to ensure that the balls are well mixed.

One by one five audience members remove a ball concealed in their hand. Despite the thorough mixing and random distribution of the balls you can instantly tell who holds the black ball!

What i say:
Pretty much the same actually...you get a decent black bag, 5 balls and a couple of paragraphs of instructions...if i had to critise anything, it would be that the paper is far too glossy and shiny...hows that for nit-picking!

The reason why im nit picking is of course that i cant really fault this one. Not from any angle. It's extremely simple in function, lets you play it as dramatically as you want...excellent...no sleights at all infact....

no magnets, no threads, no ducking, no bombing, no weeing in the pool...

overall
not many effects let you build tension in the way that this does - dirt cheap too, AND it involves 5 people, which is always a good thing....9.5/10


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 10:13
by seige
The added beauty of this effect is that everything is examinable. And by nature of the way it's performed, everything is examined as part of the effect... all the balls, and the bag.

Bear in mind that although accurate in saying it can be performed with 5 people, it can also be easily adapted to be performed to 3, 4 or 5.

There really is a lot of thought gone into this, and because it is just so simple to perform, it allows a lot of weaving in and out of storylines/patter.

I've not yet performed this to a set of 'live' strangers, but performing to friends really did have them scratching their heads.

Especially as this can be done blindfolded (with a little thought).

There's very few effects these days that play so hard for under £20. And this is an effect which requires no pre-show, no difficult sleights, and no glimpsing or sighting of any kind. Which in my book makes it clean as a whistle.

I had two theories as to how it was done originally, and both of them were so far from the secret... in fact, one of my methods could have won a science prize—but it just goes to show that creating the impossible doesn't always mean you have to have a convoluted, complex or expensive setup.

Top 'Marcs' again, Mr Oberon.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 12:29
by Farlsborough
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. I thought I was over my bout of CUPS... :roll:


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 12:40
by DrTodd
Sounds too good to be true and loads cheaper than Equinox or Body Language....very tempting.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 12:45
by IAIN
it fits in nicely with eye to eye by Mr. Gauci too....links up well...


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 14:29
by Johnny Wizz
I got mine on Saturday. It is everything everyone says. The method is so simple and yet so impossible to spot and as Siege says absolutely everything is 100% examinable.

If I am not mistaken Derren Brown used this at the begining of his televised show back around Xmas.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:04
by Part-Timer
As far as I could tell, Derren used Kurotsuke, albeit with a slightly different approach to the one Max Maven used. Then again, there are an awful lot of different effects with a similar plot, so maybe I am mistaken!


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:08
by IAIN
There's a pro version of the Gauci one, so it might be that one...

but from what i know of the diamond and brown, its probably the simplist and easiest solution...


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:12
by magicdiscoman
it fits in nicely with eye to eye by Mr. Gauci too....links up well...

yes but from what i understand of both tricks the method is diferent.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:12
by Part-Timer
That was what I thought. The presentation DB used (at least, when I saw it in 2005) was not only simple, but Derren actually got it wrong and lost the money. It could, of course, have been deliberate, to drum up some realism. However, if you know how Kurotsuke works, then it makes complete sense! Lots of balls (ahem) being a classic Nyman factor in an effect.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:20
by IAIN
magicdiscoman wrote:
it fits in nicely with eye to eye by Mr. Gauci too....links up well...

yes but from what i understand of both tricks the method is diferent.


yeah, completely different in method, but as a link between two great effects, it makes sense (to me anyway) to follow one with the other...i'd be inclinded to perform eye to eye first, then oddball as a "bigger" demonstration...


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 15:24
by greedoniz
Can I just say I'm not happy as I wasn't mean't to be buying anything this month and I've just ordered this!!

I'm holding all you lot to account! Shame on you all

I can't wait for it to turn up tee hee :P


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 16:34
by Its magic
I bought this off marc at Blackpool but can't for the life of me recall the number sequence for names on the wipeboard that he did with this in his lecture.

I would be greatfull if someone could PM me with detail.

I recall him asking each person to take a seat on one of the numbered chairs, he then showed he had predicted which chair they would sit on.

I remember the method but not the sequence of numbers he wrote.

If you were there this should make sense.

At the end he reveals he knew where the person with the black ball would sit, I can recall how he did that.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 16:54
by gunnarkr
Yes, this is absolutely brilliant and just like Bang On, you are confident and sure about your performance.

With OddBall it's great to have a good patter and "read people" like so many performers do.

Brilliant item! Can't wait for the next release from Marc Oberon.


PostPosted: Mar 12th, '07, 18:53
by Lawrence
i knew the comparison to kurotsuke was coming, although i see oddball as being the superior version (unless im forgetting which method kurotsuke uses here).
i've thought about buying this after seeing marc's lecture at blackpool, although after the lecture it's not that hard to make it all up yourself, does this then class as stealing though? madness. (this is like my whole, 'no one has a go at you for making your own ID' arguement i guess, but where does one draw the line?)

anyway, yes, fantastic effect