talkmagic.co.uk

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.

What I say:

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!

I'd rush and pre-order this right now except for one thing... I pre-ordered it yesterday! I just hope I'm in the first 100.....

I concur wholeheartedly with Tomo's review. I was there and saw it in the evening and immediately loved it.

This is a great effect and open to lots of possibilities.

Excellent work Ted!

Cheers

Dr Todd

I missed it

Did you get it for free?

Lenoir wrote:Did you get it for free?

Not sure who that question was meant for but, assuming I'm lucky enough to have got on the waiting list in time, I certainly paid for mine - like I do for everything.

I think he was talking to J.T.

Ive not had a copy free.

It does sound absolutly splendid though..

To be very blunt, it would be difficult to give objective assessments with freebies. If I pay for something and I think it's pants then I'd feel quite free to say so - in a polite and reasonable manner, of course!

I just wondered if it was a freebie or not because that is often a very important factor in how a review sways. In no way was I having ago at Jon or attempting to undermine his review, I just wondered if he paid for his copy.

I was lucky enough to get a review copy, which its why I reviewed it. However, like Dr Todd, I saw the reactions and I've also used it myself, in the pub on Wednesday night, which is partly why I had such a bad hangover yesterday. It's a "drinker" (free booze from punters!).

I get sent a few unsolicited copies of things every year. The ones I don't think are ready to be written up I don't review but instead send notes back. Might as well help to make a better product.

to be clear on something here....

If Im given something for free to review,(and i often am) i will heap prase if its due, and offer constructive criticism if i see potential.. and if i think its crud...... I will either say so, or just not write a review.

And i hope that people know me well enough by now, to know this is the case.

Also one other thing.. If i think it's a load of toot, Ill rip the thing apart, work out why i think its pants, and see if i can sugest to the sender a way that it might be improved.

this is why you see my name mentioned in quite a few dealer items out there

however, i feel that this thread is going a wee bit off topic....

There are a few free copies in circulation. Jon has one of them, although he saw the performance(s) before he received the instructions, the kit or even an explanation from me.

In fact, the few people who have an insight into the effect have all received free instructions in PDF format and a set of photos with which they can try the effect. This is because the commercial kits, which include a printed book, are not yet available. They received them as thanks for their help, encouragement and generally being nice to me over the years

I'm taking pre-orders now and the first 100 buyers will receive everything they need by mid-May. I'm hoping to ship the stuff out earlier but I don't want to string anyone along so I'm playing it safe with the dates.

I'm enormously grateful for this glowing review, by the way. And I hope that I'll be able to supply the TM folk here before word spreads and I run out of stock. As Jon says, to keep things exclusive I'm only producing 100 sets of instructions. Once #100 is sold that's it for a full year.

Best wishes,
Ted.

and it works the same way as white-labels do in the music industry...you have to send them out to people for opinions and reviews before you release it...

just 'cos its a good review maybe suggests that humans are suspicious in nature and will always think "something's up"...when its just cos its good...

i got a freebie - not for review, but because Ted and I are lovers...

I wasn't suggesting the only reason it got such a good review was because it was given out for a free.

then why did you ask, lenny?