The evolution of an effect

I recently purchased a copy of Gordon Bean’s excellent effect Entourage. But it got me thinking about variations on effects and their impact on audiences. I don’t think I will be revealing too much if I were to say that Entourage shares a certain heritage with the classic ‘Parade of the Kings’ effect, which was also something of a fore-runner to the excellent Twisted Sisters. But which has greatest impact on an audience, and are the effects similar from a layman’s point of view?

Parade was a classic and direct effect. I personally found it a regular worker. But it was rather a trick without a premise. Entourage provides an appealing premise, and an extra level of interaction with the spectator eliminating the other ‘queens’ too. But does this make the effect more confusing? Twisted Sisters has a very clever premise and in some ways the ‘doubling up’ of the method makes the effect seem even more astounding. Perhaps this is a case for some magical markup analysis?!

At the end of the day, I suppose we have to perform what suits out style. And for the time being I will be giving Entourage an outing or two. But I’d be interested in others’ thoughts and experiences of this.

PS there is an ungaffed version of Entourage in the e-booklet Mind Blasters which is also full of other excellent mental magic.

[American Links here: Entourage by Gordon Bean
Twisted Sisters by John Bannon]