Eliminator
Alakazam
This effect has been shared with only a select few in the past, and has fooled many a seasoned professional! This is one of those killer routines that has been kept secret for some time. You will be blown away by the cleanness and impossibility of the effect and also it's simplicity! We are very glad Adrian has allowed us to release it to the magic fraternity.
Effect:
Listen to this: Whilst the performer's back is turned, two participants each look at a card from the deck. The selections are free choices and different every time. The deck is then shuffled and dropped into the performer's empty pocket. As each person merely thinks of their card the performer produces it from his pocket! All without a single move!!
But there's more! Check this out: The deck is fairly shown front and back at the start of the effect. The selections really are genuinely free and from any part of the deck. The participants handle the deck throughout. The effect may be instantly repeated and the selections are different every time. The deck is self-contained, nothing extra is hidden in the performer's pocket or added or removed at any time. The deck is genuinely shuffled before being placed in your pocket. If you like, it may be placed in one of the participant's pockets and yet you can still locate the selections! For the 'mental' performer, you can simply name the two selections without producing them.
Want even more? OK, but you'll be sorry you asked:
- No rough-and-smooth,
- No long-and-short.
- No double-faced, double-ended, mis-indexed or other specially printed cards.
- No marked cards.
- No deck switches.
- No pocket indexes.
- No memory work.
- No sleights whatsoever.
- No forces.
- Nothing written down.
- No stooges, no assistants, no secret signalling devices or codes.
- Quick reset.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
The performer dribbles a deck of cards face so the spectators can see it to be a normal deck of randomly mixed Bicycle cards. Two spectators each choose a card by picking a number between 1 and 52 and taking turns counting down to that freely chosen number. To avoid picking the same number, one spectator picks an odd number and the other an even number. The chosen cards can either be removed from the deck or just looked at and kept in the deck. If the spectators just look at the cards and keep them in the deck, the performer can shuffle the cards numerous times and place the deck in his pocket and in an instant, without being told what the selected cards are, he can reach into his pocket and remove them. It is quite stunning. If the spectators remove the cards from the deck, the performer shuffles the deck fairly, several times, looks at the deck for an instant, and has the spectators place their cards somewhere in the middle of the deck. The performer then fairly shuffles again, several times, and places the cards in his pocket. The performer is able to describe as much as he wants about the cards, as if he memorized it a few seconds earlier, (i.e. they are both red, one is a court card and one is a spot card, they are both even numbers, or whatever he wants to reveal). Again, in an instant, the performer can remove the two chosen cards and can do it in order in which the cards were selected. Another amazing handling for which Marc Spellman is credited is taught in which the deck is fanned face-up on the table, faro shuffled and then the above-effect is executed.
Although Mark Elsdon is not published or acknowledged in the ad copy, promotional video or even identified on the DVD, he makes a guest appearance and teaches his own handling, which is a very strong memorized deck routine, called “Eliminate This”, in which one spectator pockets a card and the other spectator moves a card's location within the deck.
The DVD is a total of 19 minutes long, more than 12 minutes of which are taught by Peter Nardi and almost 7 minutes is Elsdon’s cameo appearance. The instructions are in a studio setting and the methods are clearly taught and explained. As mentioned above, this is so easy to perform, that you will be fooling your audience immediately after watching the DVD. The ad copy is accurate and the three-plus minute promotional video shows the effect exactly as it is performed.
Although the deck can’t be examined by spectators or handed out, that is ok since the effect is so strong and the cards are openly riffled at the start of the performance. The price is very fair and you can even make up your own routines with this special deck, including strong mind-reading performances.
This is a special one worth bumping something else out of your limited pocket space.