talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
Spectator separates the colours of some cards (a la Out Of This World) with a full presentation script and a pseudo scientific justification.


Cost
$10 from www.thinklikeaconjurer.com


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)
3 but minimal sleights and everything explained. I mean everything. This thing is actually really easy, deliberately, so you can concentrate on what is important- the presentation


Review
There are lots of great tricks out there, but what is often very lacking is a presentation. Ron Bauer is on a one man (ok he has a few people working with him and he has picked up ideas from lots of thoroughly respected names in magic over the many years he has been a magician) crusade to give us back a bit of drama and show us how to make magic ENGAGING. His preformance scripts are just a single trick but they are so much more than that (if you read a review of any of these scripts you'll find this emphasised over and over). He provides what to say, WHY to say it and how to cover everything you do. He gives motivation to action and builds in misdirection. This stuff is amazing.
Now this script, which is number 3 in the series, sat on my shelf for a while. It uses the theme of intuition to introduce a "guess which colour this card is" game and makes it interesting (you even get to goad the spectator a bit, making it fun for those just watching too). When the final reveal comes (all the reds are in the red pile, all the blacks are in the black pile), it is obvious that you have been messing with their minds, but they'll never work out how and they enjoyed you doing it to them.

Want more- this is completely impromptu! You tell them you are setting up the cards and do it infront of them whilst having something interesting to say (not just "hold on a second, hmm, hmm ,hhmmmm, nearly there...).

It plays great for a group

It takes a couple of minutes and this is fun stuff.

Why did it sit on my shelf? Because I didn't give it the time to work through the presentation and rehearse it. Once I ran through it I realised how strong it was going to be and when I finally performed it- well it got fantastic reactions.

Try this out (I'm currently working on no. 16 The Time Machine and it is going to be a stonker!)


Overall
I give this a 10/10 in every category (even value for money, it is $10 but it teaches you a hell of a lot about how a real piece of magical theatre should look and this is a lesson that is rarely taught)

Good luck

Shanester