by NathanielTapley » Mar 7th, '13, 11:41
I've been performing this a lot, and I like it, but I'd agree that the effect just won't be right for a lot of people.
The DVD and 'story' that comes with the photographs is incredibly weak. The performers lack any real engagement with clearly bored and confused audience members, and, a lot of the time, they don't even follow their own guidelines for performance. They say on the DVD that most people will find the Performance section most useful, and this may well be true, as long as they use it to work out how NOT to perform Till Death Do Us Part.
The story, as provided, is a weakness. As people here have pointed out, it's not really a story at all, just a suggestive couple of lines that lack any real drama or reason behind them.
However, neither of those things has made the effect less workable for me. In fact, the deficiencies in the method and story, and the fact that it was clearly weaker than I had expected when buying the effect, forced me to put a lot of work into my own story and presentation, and it's all the better for it. I was expecting a haunting tale that would have a real reason for tearing the photographs, and having the photographs and the effective bits of the method helped me to create the effect I had in my head.
As a result, it's a part of my routine that people remember and ask me about.
I may have been lucky so far, in that the element of a psychological force has worked every time. This has really heightened the impact of the reveal. If you're forced down the other route, I'm not sure what that would do to the power of the ending.