You line up a bunch of people. Have them select one to be the murderer and have everyone decide to
be either a truth-teller or liar. With a few simple questions, you can figure out who is the
murderer and who is lying. Of course, this is the old Banachek Ring of Truth premise in different
clothing. (Some may even recognize Atlas Brookings's Imbalance, but trust me, this is a lot easier
to understand.)
In the past couple of years, we have seen an influx of these type of
effects such as MANOEDA, Tequila Hustler, Rock Paper Lies, V, Strange Oblique, and others. And once
you see how one works, it's just a matter of understanding the "process" in figuring out the others.
If you like these--and I certainly do--then you'll love Andante Murder Mystery. If this kind of
stuff gives you a headache, then stay away. I will say this, like a few of these methods, this one
has the flaw where certain responses are ipso facto mutually inconsistent, and a really sharp
observer--probably one with a degree in philosophy--while perhaps not knowing exactly how it works,
will see the overall picture behind the effect. (Tequila Hustler and V are both good at hiding the
process.) It's not fatal, and a good performance will camouflage it, but it is there. The ebook
gives some helpful performance tips.
At first blush, the ebook, like this creator's other
effects such as Zodino, is exhausting in its detail. But if you take a deep breath and first
concentrate on the bold-faced principles, the colorful diagrams will make sense. And if you are
familiar with Tequila Hustler or another similar effect, figuring it out will really take no time at
all.
You'll know whether you want this or not. If you do, you'll use it because it's smart
and well worth the cost. It will undoubtedly be great to use in a room full of strangers or for a
stage performance.
3 of 3 magicians found this helpful.
I love the fact that you can just walk up to random strangers with nothing in your pockets and
create a moment of true amazement.
Initially I thought it might be very similar to Marc
Paul's "True Lies" stage trick shown in his Penguin lecture. But it isn't. This one is of the same
calibre but using an entirely different technique, which is completely propless and impromptu. So,
you don't need to handle cards and you can start straight away with all participants. That's cool!
The PDF file is well illustrated and covers lots of angles from stage techniques to ways of
reducing the number of questions asked. The booklet might be overwelming at the beginning but is
well summarized towards the middle and the actual technique is very simple. The mini cheat sheet is
a nice bonus that might come in handy after a while. How often have I forgotten how exactly an
effect works... So, the cheat sheet is already in my wallet:-).
This is a beautiful piece
of mentalism with a ground breaking new technique.
Two thumbs up!
3 of 3 magicians found this helpful.
Bought it the other day and used it straight away. Awesome reactions, excellent!
This is
practical, real-world mentalism. Not complicated lip reading or convoluted anagrams. And yet, no
gimmicks or other stuff are involved. Plain and simple. For me, that's how great magic should be!
I realized with difficult, "super clever" crowds, it's best to ask each player only one
question initially. That way virtually no-one can backtrack your method. For the second question
only ask those players that are mentioned in the PDF.
With that in mind it is solid gold.
Go and get it!
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Bought it the other day and used it straight away. Great reactions!
This is practical,
real-world mentalism. Not complicated lip reading or convoluted anagrams. And yet, no gimmicks or
other stuff are involved. Plain and simple. For me, that's how great magic should be!
I
realized with difficult, "super clever" crowds, it's best to ask each player only one question
initially. That way virtually no-one can backtrack your method. For the second question only ask
those players that are mentioned in the PDF.
With that in mind it is solid gold. Go and
get it!
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
Went straight into my stage act. I like this a lot: It's really simple - so you can fully focus on
your presentation. As with all mentalism, without the right presentation you wouldn't get the
mind-blowing reactions. Here the presentation is simple: Just step into the shoes of Dr. Lightman
and they'll love it.
The explanation booklet boils down heavy theory into a simple pattern
that is 100% reliable and easy to remember.
Now you can approach a group of 20 people
with no gimmicks, no cards, no pens nor anything else and create a moment of mystery with all of
them. A first-class opener!
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
Bought it today and used it straight away. Excellent!
This is practical, real-world
mentalism. Not complicated lip reading or convoluted anagrams. And yet, no gimmicks or other stuff
are involved. Plain and simple. That's how great magic should be!
I realized, with
difficult or "super clever" crowds, it's best to ask each player only one question initially. That
way virtually no-one can backtrack the method. For the second question only ask those players that
are mentioned in the PDF.
With that in mind it is solid gold. Go and get it!
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Am really happy. Tried it out in my stage performance yesterday and it was amazing. Gave me great
reactions! The entire audience stepped into the role of being detectives and tried to identify the
murderer. So I had full audience involvement that sparked a lot of interesting discussions during
intervall. How cool!
What other reviwers said is true: You don't need to read the theory
part of the trick at all. Just read the summary on the last two pages and you are ready to go. The
steps are quite simple and the cheat sheet is great to refresh them before performances. The best
part: no props needed at all!
Another excellent trick in my toolbox.
Undoubtedly the best effect I've purchased this year! Propless, impromptu, surprisingly simple and
gets massive reactions.
Just read the last page of instructions, rehearse it twice and you are
ready to go. Tip: Initially just try it with groups of 3 or 5 people before you move on to other
sizes of groups. Then, it's super easy.
A miracle at a moment's notice!
I'm not sure why some peeps don't like the 'which hand' effect, I know a few of them. Having said
that, I really have always liked the effect to include 'Kurosuke'.
This Andante Murder
Mystery adds to my repertoire of 'propless mentalism'. Walk into any home, bar, restaurant and
voila!
I don't have to be dressed a certain way to perform, it becomes 'real magic' being
able to perform this material. It leads away from the tricky side of magic to the real side which is
in my opinion, mentalism.
To those who do not like the 'which hand' effect, thnx for
staying away. To those who like real magic, get this!
MAGIC ALERT: This does require an
effort and practice! It's real Magic!!!
It is a clever trick, but in order to make it look like a magic trick and not just a riddle game you
need to try a lot harder than you think!
The first time I tried this I failed, and I am
sure that the drinks I had before my "performance" were not helping either.
Fortunately my test
audience - friends are more forgiving than paying audience.
Bottom line:
0 of 1 magicians found this helpful.