Opus, by Nefesch, is an exceedingly clever mentalism effect – which could be a demonstration of coincidence or influence or prediction depending on how you perform it. In brief, the spectator makes all the choices in relation to how four black backed pieces of plastic are arranged and yet they produce a remarkable result.
What do you get?
You get the nicely produced plastic cards. The version I received is of the Mona Lisa. With an ‘art themed’ effect you would expect high quality printing and these did not disappoint. I have seen some reviewers (perhaps of earlier batches since this is not a brand new effect) complaining about the printing, but mine lined up nicely.
There was a slight colour tone difference in one of the pieces – but in normal lighting and scrutiny I really don’t think this would be any problem at all. The cards themselves are credit card sized and should last well.
You also get a link to the online instructions. Unfortunately the link on mine was wrong! However, when you see the name of the branding on the box it was easy to work out what the correct link should be!
The teaching
The teaching video is about 50 minutes long. The live performances are slightly noisy – but I always prefer real world performances to studio ones – so plus points for including these.
The first time I watched the explanation I was really puzzled. I’ll be honest. I’d been trying to multi-task. I’m a man. I can’t. When I watched it a second time with all my attention it became much clearer.
In hindsight, I think it would have been helpful if at the start of the teaching he outlined the process (the several steps) he was going to teach. Then they would have made more sense on the way through. I think that was another reason it made more sense the second time round.
It isn’t exactly a ‘self-working’ effect, but the moves required are not very complicated. It requires a little thinking and some straight forward procedures to make the thing work. There are plenty of examples to help you get the procedure under your belt. But I think it really will make more sense second time round!
A couple of variant ideas are offered, but like Nefesch, I think the original is the strongest.
I should also mention that there is a one time set-up you will need to do yourself. It will only take you two minutes to do this and it is very straight forward.
Magnum Opus?
I’ve gone on a curious journey with this one. I loved the theme and the idea when I first heard about it. Then when I watched the video the first time I was baffled. And now I’ve watched again I love it again! They’re pleasing props and a clever principle (which I’ve not seen used before) – even when you understand how to perform it you might not understand why it works! For the spectator it seems more impossible than it actually is, and the props are easy to carry around. I can definitely see myself using this.
As with all mentalism type effects, much of the strength will depend on the conviction of your performance. Although the spectator really can place the cards wherever they want, the more you practise this the more confident you will get with the subtle handling which makes sure everything works.
Opus is available from the Merchant of Magic for £25.50 (at the time of writing). It is also available in Vitruvian Man design.
Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.
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