The Effect
The Third Man by Simon Edwards http://mind.hak.me
Cost
Photos and Instructions: £39.99
Instructions only: £35.99
Replacement photosets: £9.99 for one, £14.99 for two and £19.99 for three
Custom photosets (3 sets): £39.99
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)
1
Review
What they say:
- Be in no doubt, this is a strong effect. I care most about entertaining the public and not in impressing magicians. That said, when The Third Man debuted at the seventh meeting of the British Society of Mystery Performers in April 2010 it went down a storm with seasoned performers. That was, it has to be said, gratifying.
Never before have I seen a professional mentalist reel away and shout "No!" on the final revelation of any trick before that night. The public I performed for during the same evening behaved the same way. This is not an empty marketing claim – this effect can produce great reactions. And now you have the instructions.
- I was there. I saw the reactions. It’s true - all of it.
The best mentalism is both simple to perform and yet completely deceives the audience. The Third Man meets both criteria. My favourite mentalism is also flexible. The principle behind this effect and Simon’s unique customisation service makes it very flexible indeed. So, enough fundament smoke already. What’s it like to perform?
Basically, this is a self-working effect, but with a psychological force you can use that will add to the impact. Like all good psych forces, it’s not essential, so if it doesn’t work, no one need ever know, but if it does it makes the effect all the more powerful. Once you have the procedure practiced, you have lots of space to build up your patter.
Performing is it simple. Like all effects, make sure you understand it and you’re good to go. If you make your living from performing, you should be thinking about getting one of the 100 copies produced. The manuscript is understandably well written (Simon is an editor on a national magazine), and contains tons of extra information on variations, subtleties and other themes for the effect.
Overall
- This is a very nice effect indeed, doubly so considering that it’s Simon’s first release. I would have given it 9/10, but remembering the reactions it got at Tabula Mentis VII, it has to be 10/10!