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My Lovely Assistant New user 98 Posts |
REVIEW: The Butterfly Effect by Peter Nardi and Alakazam Magic
RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars! LINK TO REVIEW: www.mylovelyassistant.com/reviews/view/5172 FULL REVIEW: The Butterfly Effect is a Peter Nardi creation released through his company Alakazam Magic. It has an old world feel and is an excellent routine with a very clever, but simple method. This trick is highly recommended. It is simple to learn and you can be performing immediately after watching the instructional video. It is so easy and self working that it allows you tremendous freedom to focus on your presentation. The performer takes out his deck of cards and asks the spectator to cut the deck. The performer takes half and the spectator takes the other half. They each mix up the deck and then drop one half on top of the other. Satisfied that the deck is in a totally random order the performer removes the joker from the deck and places it face up on the table. Then, the performer discusses how a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can cause a hurricane across the world and there is also patter about fate and free will. The performer then instructs the spectator to pick any card (Ace through King) to start off the count and then starts to deal the cards face down. For example, the spectator says “Jack”. Either the spectator or the performer then starts dealing 11 cards down (Jack is the 11th card, Queen is the 12th, etc…) and puts the 11th card face up. Let’s say that card is a 4. Then cards are dealt down until the 4th one which is displayed face up again. This is repeated until you get to the final card that you arrive at when you cannot count down anymore. The performer may allow the spectator to exercise free will and change the card at the end of the count once or twice. No doubt, if the number of cards counted is altered, so will the final card arrived at. Then when the final card is displayed after going through the entire shuffled deck it amazingly matches a prediction that was on the table the whole time. The joker is in fact a double facer and when you flip it over, it matches exactly the spectator’s randomly arrived at card. It is truly astonishing. With the Butterfly Effect you get a 32 minute DVD narrated and taught by Peter Nardi, 2 different gaff cards (the double facer referenced above) and a business card that provides you with a more fooling set-up (set up to be discussed in a bit). You also get a 9 minute additional routine taught by Nardi once you register your product on the Alakazam website. Included on the DVD is a PDF to print cards that say “Fate” or “Free Will” with a card reveal that Nardi uses for parlor performances. The additional routine borrows from the Triple Impact reveal which is one of my favorite tricks. And, if you don’t know Triple Impact, after you reach the reveal card, you have the spectator place the remaining cards in their pockets and the performer amazingly has matching cards from another deck in his own pockets. The DVD starts with a studio performance of Nardi doing the trick to fellow Alakazamer David Loosley while they both sit on a black leather couch in front of a small table. It is the performance that is featured in the promotional video. What you see if what you get and if you love it on the video, you will love it in real life and there is nothing not to love. Nardi explains that he came up with the method, but believed it had to be invented by another. In fact, he discovered that it was created independently (and decades before) and was published in a magazine in the 1950’s. The trick feels like a classic, something you would have read in an older publication. With the DVD, Nardi teaches several good alternate routine and a way to shorten the routine, which can take a few minutes. As said above, this is simple to learn and perform. There are no angles to be aware of and the reset is very quick. If you don’t want to use one of the two gaff cards, the arrived at card can be any card and a prediction can be written in advance. A few issues. First, the promotional video has a quote from Titanas in text that claims that the trick is impromptu. That is not true. There is a set up necessary. If you are handed a borrowed and shuffled deck you cannot perform this trick and it would be difficult to do the set up if spectators are watching you ready for a trick. The set up taught on the DVD would be spotted by most spectators if they were handed the deck to examine, but the alternate set up that comes printed on the business card will not be spotted by your spectators. The easy set up requires no memory work and the alternate set up require either a cheat sheet or some memory work. Nardi does not teach how to set up the deck on the fly so you will need to figure that out yourself or have the deck pre prepared. Also, because the method and trick is something that feels like an old school trick that you would have learned in an old magazine or in an older book, some may feel that the $25 price tag is a bit much. I disagree. You will get your money’s worth from the reactions and no doubt will perform this over and over again.
Visit www.mylovelyassistant.com for magic product reviews.
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magicowner Regular user Los Angeles 114 Posts |
Thanks for that great review, I ordered based off of it!
Best, Nirav |
252life Inner circle Ninth Circle, Hades 3243 Posts |
Ditto, great review, thanks
Look for all the world like you're counting the brain cells in his cranium.
-Theodore Annemann |
SmittyWitty Veteran user Fairhaven, MA 324 Posts |
I recently picked this up. Your review is spot on. Thanks.
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FJR Regular user London 129 Posts |
Thanks for the review.
I agree, this is excellent. The 'secret' is rather simple (and ingenious) but the impact it has on people is remarkable. I particularly like the plot to do with free will. I teach Philosophy and so love using this plot to frame it - free will versus determinism. One can really add so much impact and mystery with the right framing story (as we all know I'm sure). It does need a bit of setup but this would take 30 seconds to do. I like your comment about it being almost like an effect one might learn from a magazine or book of old, but for the impact, it is well worth the money. It takes a little while to do it justice - it's not a 'wham bam' effect - but that's just the way I like it. Highly recommended. Best, Francis
Flaneur / Gentleman Amateur
Member of the I.B.M - Ring 25 |
willmagicman New user 65 Posts |
Thanks for the good review. I love Peter Nardi's tricks and I think he has a brilliantly devious mind! However, after having watched the promo video [the one mentioned above where Peter and the other gentleman are sitting on a leather couch] I am slightly perplexed regarding the moment when Peter spread the deck face down with five face up cards showing! I think that there should only have been two showing ... the Jack of Clubs, and the Seven of Hearts, as Peter had removed the Five of Spades for the finale' Yet I can see clearly in the face down spread the following face up cards: Jack of Clubs, Ace of Hearts, Two of clubs, Seven of Hearts, and the Queen of Clubs? Surely there is something wrong here? I'm not giving any secrets away because what I've noticed in the promo video is clearly there for all to see. I was only expecting to see three face up cards and not six [including the Five of Spades]. Another obvious and also clear for all to see anomaly is the changing of the number of cards in the entire deck. It appears to change from twenty six, when in the spectators hands, to Fifty two when spread on the table by Peter. We all know that as soon as the spectator said he couldn't go any further due to insufficient cards left in the deck as he only had twenty six cards in his hands from the offset. I watched the video a few times and I have taken high resolution snapshots and carefully counted the cards in the deck to make sure of my facts before I go spouting my mouth of here. [I have bad eyesight]. So I'm left feeling puzzled over this. At the end of the performance, Peter makes his usual statement regarding the randomness and fairness of the method of choices and selections etc etc, and you can see by the look on the spectators face that he had noticed all the same anomalies as I have, and yet he [faithfully to Peter] stated that indeed everything had been fair, but I think that in fact if the truth be known, he was probably thinking to himself .... ''Whats going on here? ... why are there all those face up cards showing? ... and how come the deck has expanded to twice its size!!!? Has anyone else noticed?
Regards to all ... Willmagicman.
A Man's gotta know his limitations ... A Magician sets those limitations.
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Dave the Knave Regular user Cochise County, Arizona 163 Posts |
Quote: The demo was edited to expedite the effect. The spectator deals through almost the entire deck.
On Jul 9, 2017, willmagicman wrote: |
willmagicman New user 65 Posts |
[quote]On Jul 12, 2017, Dave the Knave wrote:
Quote:
The demo was edited to expedite the effect. The spectator deals through almost the entire deck. Thank for explaining Dave, I wondered what the heck was going on! I understand now. Cheers. Will.
A Man's gotta know his limitations ... A Magician sets those limitations.
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