talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect: Perfect Partners

Cost: £12.00 plus p&p

Difficulty: Perhaps a 3 but doesn’t involve iffy sleights, just a weeny easy sleight and a bit of memorising.
(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: You ask the audience: Do they believe in True Love? That there is a Perfect Partner, a Mr or Miss Right for everyone? If they all immediately disappear off to the bedrooms, into the shrubbery or somewhere equally passionate and cosy then you’ve overdone the effect already and need to back off a touch. If they are still there and looking quizzical at you, you can tell them that they will know all in a few moments!

You display a regular pack of 52 cards (mine are red backed Bikes), which has a person’s name written on the back of every card - 26 Male, 26 Female. There really is a different name printed on every card and all are examinable - which is good because you give the cards to a spectator to shuffle and ask them to remember any male and female name as they do so. They tell you any name and this card is found and set to one side, face down. You then ask them to check that all the faces are different. They now tell you the second name. You take back the deck, this card is found and turned over, let’s say it’s the 7 of Hearts. You tell them that the perfect partner or perfect match would be the other Red 7, the 7 of Diamonds. However, what would be the odds, considering every name is different and every card is different, that they select any two names which turn out to be "Perfect Partners" in terms of colour and value? Pretty long odds but, surprise surprise, you display both card faces and show that’s exactly what happened! There’s no set up, no force, no gimmicks and any name can be selected – assuming it’s one of the names on the cards! On this basis, it can be done with a different result every time - great for table hopping.

Overall: A nice, straightforward effect which would be ideal for Valentine’s Day - if I’d practiced it more. The serous professional would make good use of this at Engagement Parties, Weddings etc where partners and compatibility are the keynote. There’s a very, very minor card sleight involved – more of a move than a sleight and is sometimes referred to as DL – but the main part is memorising a certain amount of data (think along the lines of ‘Deep Astonishment’ and you’ll be on the right tracks). Easy stuff, according to the blurb, and I’m quite sure the feeble minded (like me) can arrange a crib sheet if required!

Value for money: Oh certainly good value at £12 plus P&P – I wouldn’t like to have to prepare all the cards for printing and then print them off as I know I’d end up with a 29 card deck and they’d all be named, ‘Xgtyphtimg’ which isn’t a very common name in these parts.

Rating: A decent 8 out of 10, it needs a fair amount of easy memorising work and the end result is deceptively simple so you, or more likely your spectator, will look very magical!

http://www.stevengore.supanet.com/partner.htm