The Other Brothers – 2 magicians both called Daryl (though with slightly different spellings) have released their own take on the famous ‘which hand’ effect – called Hands Down. It promises to ‘leave a memory that will last a lifetime’ – let’s go into a bit more detail and see what we think…
The effect
It’s slightly misleading to talk of ‘the effect’ since in fact in essence this is a subtle principle which they then wrap up in a number of different kinds of presentation. The principle helps you to know which hand a small object will be in. The presentations vary wildly. In one, you do a ‘psychological’ experiment – and not only demonstrate that you knew all the choices a spectator would make, but that you predicted the final outcome in advance. In another you also reveal the name of a friend which they’ve written on the piece of paper. The variations are really up to your imagination – and which other principles you might want to bring into play.
Hands Down the best which hand routine?
It is a very clever idea – and the two Darryls helpfully outline a number of sneaky principles you can weave in and subtleties to help to disguise the mechanics. It is pretty easy to do – but perhaps the best part (compared to many other methods on the market) is that it doesn’t require any special props – you can pretty much do it with whatever’s lying around. They suggest using a post-it note in one routine and a playing card in another – but you could use a business card or anything that you could lay your hands on.
I love effects like this which rely mainly on subtlety – and being a step or two ahead of your audience – and I think this would be a great effect to have in your armoury. The ‘psychological’ presentation could be very funny in the right hands (!) but I think the one involving a friend’s name could potentially have greater impact (though does require another principle – which is taught – to be utilised).
You see a live performance of this latter version and a studio performance of the former – which gives you some idea of what the effect looks like in the real world. The DVD also contains a clear explanation of all aspects of the routine. It only lasts 22 minutes – but that is more than enough to get you performing. You don’t get anything else in the package because you don’t need anything else that you wouldn’t already have lying around!
I can see this getting some use – and am looking forward to playing around with the principle to mould it into something which suits my own performing style and preferences. A good release from a couple of magicians I’ve never heard of and at this low price, well worth a punt.
Available direct from Merchant of Magic for £12.99 (at the time of writing).
Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.
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