Ira is the second in the Seven Deadly Sins Series by Colin Mcleod. As this is a limited edition booklet, I would hope that you would respect the work that you have purchased enough to jealously keep it to yourself, and not share it with others. After all, you now own something almost entirely unique. It is for this reason I would ask that you not video this routine and upload it directly to any video websites, thus respecting the others who have purchased this work as well. On the off chance someone should ‘accidentally’ scan this into a computer or photocopier; I should make you aware that each page does contain a microchip which will let me know should they be reproduced… you have been warned!
© All copyright owned in its entirety by Colin Mcleod, June 2008. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the prior written consent of Colin Mcleod. All television and broadcast rights are reserved without prior written consent of Colin Mcleod.
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Introduction 28 First of all, let me express how much I truly appreciate you purchasing this manuscript. I am aware it isn’t the cheapest thing on the market and there are already a number of chair predictions on the go. So let me just begin by making it clear that the reason for the price is that these routines are the ones I use (as you read the progression of the routines you will understand which I use most now) and I do honestly feel they go a step further than every other chair prediction on the market. For me I have found that as far as the regular routine goes, four people sit in four chairs and you predict where they have sat down. Don’t get me wrong, that IS impressive! It is simple and to the point. However there comes a stage with all the routines I do where I don’t want them to be just simple or to the point. I want everything I do to stand out so they all have the ‘wow factor!’ I decided to take my line of thinking towards, if I know where people are going to sit, surely I should know what they are thinking as they sit down. The challenge for me then became much more about predicting what they would be thinking while in their chairs. This would be the information predicted. It’s this point which I feel lifts it to the next step. The following routines have been and will continue to be in my professional repertoire for many, many years to come. I hope you enjoy them, master them, and then use them to amaze.
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There has undoubtedly been a massive rise on the popularity of chair tests over recent years, from David Berglas’s takes on this plot to the modern techniques offered by the refreshing talented minds we have today (who will ALL be credited at the end!). For me this concept happened by accident as I was looking for a routine to fill a gap before a larger reveal and predicting which one of five chairs a person would sit in seemed to fit perfectly. Since then I have seen many performances from other performers using chairs as well as researching as many methods as I could find. What you are about to read are my collection of ideas, concepts and designs for presenting this now infamous challenge. All the ideas have been used by me in performance at one time or another; however for completeness I will be offering all asides I have thought of as well to allow you, the reader, to customise your own perfect chair test to suit your needs and style. Please enjoy my journey so far...
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Chapters 28 In the beginning...
Page 6
Chair Enigma
Page 9
Chair Enigma2
Page 22
Pic Chair
Page 28
Presenting the Chair Test
Page 31
Further thinking...
Page 34
Have a Seat
Page 37
Crediting
Page 42
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In the beginning... 28 As mentioned previously, my original concept was to predict which one of five chairs a person would choose to sit in. This concept, which I thought was quite a perfect idea, was only the start of what I was looking to perform; as I was soon to discover. If you would take a moment to imagine the scene, there are five chairs and I invite a person to join me on stage to look over the five chairs and to settle on one then sit on it. At this point, I would turn around the chairs and showing that four chairs had an X on the back, and one which had a sign reading “You will sit here!” This routine relied completely on multiple outs. The middle chair is the one which had the Envelope with the words “You will sit here!” printed on it, however the envelope also contained two pieces of laminated card. These pieces of cards looked as follows...
You will sit ONE CHAIR THAT WAY!
You will sit TWO CHAIRS THAT WAY!
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The arrows which have been printed on the bottom do not actually contain the arrow portion. When printing, only the line is directly printed on the card. You then take a dry wipe marker and draw the arrow portions on both lines. Depending on where the person sat, I would bring out the required card, and as I am reading it to the audience I would then rub off the arrow I didn’t need. This did mean that once I turned it around and showed it to the audience they didn’t have to spend time reading it, only look at the way the arrow was pointing. I would then end by saying “... and if you’re thinking the others contain a similar message well...” then would turn them around showing they all contained an X. This routine did suit me for a while as, like I said, it was only a small part of a much larger routine, so it seemed to be logical that I was able to predict one in five and then build on that concept. However the more I performed with the chairs, I realised I was far underestimating what they could be used for, so I went from one extreme to the other, thinking of something which seems possible to something which seems impossible. So before I start explaining the impossible to you, let me explain why I have included the above routine. Firstly, and I want to be honest here, looking back at this routine I have to laugh as it really does seem poor compared to what I have seen others do. This is beside the point; because without this foundation routine, predicting one out of five, I would never have followed on to create far more ideas.
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The reason I think this is important is because no matter who you are or how competent you feel you are or are not at creating your own demonstrations, I honestly do not feel there is such a thing as a bad idea... only one which hasn’t been fully developed yet. I urge each of you, regardless of how pointless, silly, dumb... an idea seems, you write it down and keep a note of it. I’m a fan of the word of Sir Edward De Bono, who, as well as his techniques regarding different thinking hats, has written at length about the importance of not breaking your flow when writing ideas. If you tell your brain that an idea is bad, it shuts off to that line of thinking. This is dangerous as if you’re constantly telling yourself ideas are bad, you are essentially closing doors which could lead to opportunities for developing wonderful new concepts, ideas and routines! So the first thing I truly want you to benefit from, having read this book, is that none of your ideas are bad, and if you don’t allow them to flow and develop it will never lead you closer to the end result you desire. So this basic idea of having multiple outs has essentially led to the following routine, which when you step back and look at it, they have the same underlying method, however used in completely different ways and presented differently. I hope this change in perspective is something mastered by more and more people. Using this technique I literally find myself filling note pads of ideas each month and of course I’m not saying that all those ideas are incredible...yet!
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Chair Enigma 28 In its simplest form, three people come on to the stage. Three chairs are put in any order, three envelopes are put in any order and three people sit in any chair. One then thinks of a place, on thinks of a name, one thinks of a word. They say them out loud and when they open their envelopes the prediction in the envelope correctly matches what they have just said. I’m sure you can already see how much stronger the routine becomes by including pieces of specific information. Performance A ball of paper is thrown into the crowd to select a random volunteer. They are asked to join you on stage, and are allowed to make a number of choices. First of all you show them three chairs, and allow them to put them in any order they wish. Next they are handed three different coloured envelopes, and those too are mixed, and any envelope is placed on any of the three chairs. You now allow them to select any two members of the audience, and they are allowed to sit in any chair they would like. Finally the three spectators picked are randomly asked to think of either a name, word or place. Even at this point, in order to make the process as fair as possible, you still allow 9
everyone the opportunity to start the process again. When they are all happy that everything is as they want it, the three people are asked to name whatever it is they are thinking of; “I’m thinking of the name DANIEL”, “I’m thinking of LOCH NESS” and finally “I’m thinking of the word ADVENTURE”. Once everyone is clear on what they have been thinking of, and that everything really was a free choice, the envelopes are opened, and the exact thoughts are found predicted inside.
Discussion Like most of my favourite routines, this test falls into the area of Dual Reality. My upcoming book (called ‘In Reality...’ due for release later in 2008) will explain this concept in detail with MANY different uses, however in its simplest form it means that there are two different effects going on. One for the audience members on stage (the MINOR routine), which IS a strong routine, and second effect to the audience at large which appears much stronger (the MAJOR routine). So of the two routines going on, the audience at large sees the one described above, the three spectators on stage see another whereby they are impressed they have arranged themselves into the right order. The effect they experience is the equivalent of Gary Kurtz’s routine whereby the spectators have sat in the chairs which correspond to their freely chosen envelope. In my opinion if that routine is strong enough to be the one the audience at large sees, then I feel it is definitely 10
strong enough to be the minor effect in a dual reality routine. You simply need any three chairs, because as you'll notice nothing interesting ever happens with them, the mixing around is just to add to the apparent fairness of the routine. What you will need though are three envelopes, one blue, one red and one yellow. The blue one houses a piece of card saying "The name DANIEL", the yellow a piece of card saying, "The place LOCH NESS" and finally the red which has a piece of card saying "The word ADVENTURE". You'll notice now that these are marked, and not in a subtle way as they are all different colours. It was my initial intention to perform this with all the envelopes looking the same with invisible markings that I could see for a distance, however during performance, I don't want to mess up. I also like to think that by making them all different colours throws people off thinking it matters if you know what order they are laid out in. When watching the routine everything else is so fair, it wouldn't matter in the slightest as they still choose where the envelopes get placed. The reason they are marked will make sense shortly. So, let us assume that the spectator has been chosen at random via a paper ball, they've put the chairs in the order they wanted, they've randomly placed the envelopes, two spectators have been picked and seated along with them and now they are randomly asked to think of either a name, place or word.
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Well the way we do this, to ensure they are all thinking of different subjects matters is to remove three cards, all fully examinable... One says: THINK OF A NAME The second: THINK OF A PLACE And the third: THINK OF A WORD In reality, these are brought out at the same time as the three envelopes; however I will detail the entire structure for the routine once the full mechanics are explained. You bring these out and show them to the audience at large while blocking them from the three seated spectators showing they will be used as a means of ensuring each person thinks of something different. Before continuing you need ask, "There's nothing you'd like to change is there?" By saying that, and not "Is there something you'd like to change" you are leading them to think they are happy with their decisions, and even if they do want to change something at this point, it doesn't matter as this is when the 'work is done'. The method now falls down to the fact that those envelopes are clearly marked, and the cards are about to be switched for different cards, which have slightly differently messages on them. There are six different ways the envelopes will be laid out. Blue Red Yellow Blue Yellow Red Red Blue Yellow 12
Red Yellow Blue Yellow Blue Red Yellow Red Blue Meaning that there are also six different ways the predictions can land Name Place Word Name Word Place Place Name Word Place Word Name Word Name Place Word Place Name SO...we need 6 lots of outs. 6 lots of 3 cards. But how do we ensure that the three people think of what we want them too?...Well the only logical way I can think of…tell them! You'll need three cards (the exact size as those which only showed the questions) which ALL say the exact same THREE messages... Person 1: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL Person 2: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS Person 3: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
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Three which ALL say... Person 1: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL Person 2: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE" Person 3: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS Three more ALL saying... Person 1: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS Person 2: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL Person 3: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE" Then three more ALL saying... Person 1: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS Person 2: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE" Person 3: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL Yet another three ALL with... Person 1: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE" Person 2: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL Person 3: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
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And finally, three ALL with... Person 1: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE" Person 2: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS Person 3: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL So in total you will have 18 cards, plus the three 'real' ones. There are two ways of switching these in. The first is to use a Himber wallet. On one side of the wallet you have the cards arranged in the six sets of three so that you can pull out which ever you require. On the other side you have the three real cards. You bring out your wallet and show these three cards and then put them back as you ask if there is anything they want to change, while handing them the envelopes. I stored the wallet in my pocket with the three coloured envelopes tucked away inside it as shown.
When you bring them back out, you simply open up the ‘Outs’ side of the wallet 15
and remove the required sequence of three cards. Hand them back to the person and ask them to mix the cards face down so that they don’t even know the order, then give one to each person. If you choose to use a Mind Spy Wallet, like I have done, you will notice that you can write the order of the predictions on the pad portion and simply remove the cards matching to the required order.
The other is to show the 3 cards, then put them in your outer jacket pocket so that they are still on view the full time. As you then ask if they want to change anything around, you simply pull the required outs from a pocket index in your right pocket, palm then in this hand and then while imitating pulling them out of this pocket, simply push the actual ones further into your pocket with your thumb, done while turning back to face the spectator after looking at the people in the chairs, this will be invisible. 16
Each person will see what the others are to think of, however they will assume the audience has already seen that. The effect to them will now seem like you have PRE printed your prediction so they now understand why you were so fair about the arrangement of the envelopes. You continue by saying… “So keep in mind the chairs have been mixed, the envelopes were placed in a random order and you could each have sat in any chair, so I am now going to ask you each to get your thought in mind.” This very quick recap emphasises the importance of the envelopes being placed in a random order before they look at the cards, ensuring the information on the cards isn’t questioned. “The person who is sitting in chair number one, person one, please now look at your card and read what it asks you to do.” Do this with each of the other two people and by the end they will all be thinking of what is in their envelope. Collect the cards back off them and put them away again. The routine will now conclude by you asking each what they are thinking of, and they will of course tell you their exact thought. If the first person only says “I was thinking of the name” simply guide them for the full answer by saying “And what name was it you were thinking of?”, this will condition the others to simply say what their full thought is. 17
Each are then asked to open their envelope and in turn show that what they were just thinking of is clearly predicted in the envelope. The full routine will play as follows… “I want to try something now, and I want to do it under test conditions to make it as fair and as random as possible.” A spectator is then chosen by throwing out a ball of paper. “As you can see I have three chairs there, the order of them doesn’t matter at all, however If you feel you want to switch any around do so now…” … I would also like to show you here that I have three envelopes, please check they are all sealed, and what is most important is that you can’t see through them.” As I bring out the envelopes from my Mind Spy Wallet, which is the ‘Himber Wallet’ I use for this, I also remove the three regular cards and leave them on show from before the envelopes are arranged in order. “I would also like to point out that I haven’t shown anyone what is in here, and I haven’t spoken to anyone before the show about what’s in them. If that’s not true please stand up now…or forever hold your peace. I’d also like you to invite any two people you don’t know yet to join us on stage to help with this quick demonstration. You can choose any two people and if you 18
decide you still want to change your mind, then that is fine! However once they step on to the stage, there is no going back.” At this point I allow them the option of choosing the two people and she assigns them the seat she would like them to sit in. It is important they are on stage before the cards are shown, because if they were in the audience and had seen one thing, then seen another when they were on stage, they would assume something strange is happening. “Now you’re happy these are sealed yep? Good, please give them a mix, then place any on to whichever chair you like, in any order, and feel free to keep mixing them around until you are settled on where you want.” As the spectator mixes the envelopes and hands two to the other spectators, keeps one for them and sits in the remaining chair, I am showing the remainder of the audience the printed cards. While showing the card, ensure you are standing in front of the other spectators as you do not want them to see the three cards you are showing. Also show all three cards at the same time, because to the three on stage it wouldn’t make sense to show one at a time if they all have the same information. “So as you can see, one of the men will be asked to think of a name, one a place and someone else a word!” After saying this I place the cards back into my wallet and set it aside as I turn back around to the now seated three spectators. 19
“As I have said before all this is fair and random, and there’s no way I could have influenced you to put the envelopes in that order, and even if I did, it wouldn’t matter because I’m still going to give you the chance to mix them up more later, and as you will see shortly that’s all that’s important.” This suggestion re-emphasises the importance to the routine of the envelopes being in a random order. When you are apparently removing the same cards from your wallet, you are in fact opening it on the ‘Outs’ side, and removing the three cards corresponding to the order of the envelopes. “I will ask you to keep them face down so you don’t know the starting order, and if you want, for completeness you can give them a quick mix too.” This option will be understood in a moment as a joke; your audience having seen the faces on the cards and knowing that they are identical.
However to the
audience it appears to be keeping with the theme of ensuring everything is fair and random. “When you are happy those are mixed I want you to hand any card to each person, however I want you to keep them face down, and guys, when you get the card keep it face down until we all turn away so no one here knows what you are thinking, ok?” “Sir, you are in chair one, so will you look at your card and remember your piece of information. The same with you sir, you are in chair two, so will you remember your piece of information…chair two. And finally sir, now look at the remaining card and 20
read your piece of information, and like you had already worked out sir, you are chair three.” This paragraph here is instructing the spectators as to which piece of information to think of, whilst it looks to everyone else like you are just telling them what chair they are in. “When you are all happy that you have done what the card asked, please pass them all back along to this end where I will gather them back in!” Now let us recap what happened here - the first spectator put the chairs in any order, chose any two other spectators and decided where they had to sit, put the envelopes in a random order and finally decided what card to give each person. That should be pretty fair! “Now guys remember, it wouldn’t have mattered what you are thinking of now, as I really couldn’t know the order of the envelopes, but gentleman number one what is it you are thinking of…and I have never spoken to you before this routine true? ‘Spectator two’ what is it that you were thinking of? And again we have never spoken before? And finally sir what are you thinking of? And again just to verify you haven’t been approached by myself or anyone else about this tonight? As far as I’m aware you have thought of those things for the first time right now? Sir (pointing to the first person) you thought of the name Daniel yes? Open up your envelope and hold it high so everyone can see what it says. Now you please (indicating to the second spectator) you thought of the place Loch Ness you said 21
yes? Please open up your envelope and show everyone what is says. And finally sir, you thought of the word ‘Adventure’, will you please open your envelope and show everyone! Thank you all very much indeed, you have all done sensationally.” What you have just read was my original ‘chair test’. I performed it many times in different situations and after gathering the confidence from the first performance, you’ll find that it becomes a joy to perform. As I mentioned already, the minor effect here is that you match each envelope up to the right person, which is the plot in most chair tests! So if that on its own is enough to generate massive success, is there really any harm in building on that and making the reveals any more incredible?... I think not!
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Chair Enigma2 28 After performing the original effect for a LONG time, I decided that I wanted to change it as for me it incorporated too many different areas for discussion within a show and I felt it did slightly limited the other routines I would be performing. Not that it would stop me doing them, however for me I felt that it may make the other routines strong if the chair test was limited to one specific area. I decided that I would change the theme completely to drawings. This also meant the mechanics would have to change slightly however I feel what I have created as a result offers a fresh approach to the routine.
Performance The routine is essentially the same in that I have the three people on stage, each holding a coloured envelope, who are allowed to sit in any chair. At this point I remove from my pocket a stack of roughly 50 cards which have the words “DRAW A PICTURE” on them. Each of the words is written in a different colour which I explain influences the way we draw pictures in different ways. Each person takes one of the cards and from reading it forms a picture in their mind. The cards are then collected back in and placed away. Each person then draws on the envelope the picture they are thinking of.
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They turn their picture around and show it to everyone. On opening the envelopes they find a piece of cards on which a picture has been drawing with almost the exact same design. Discussion Obviously having read the above routine, it should be apparent there is a layer of dual reality occurring, however when I explain exactly what is happening you will notice the slight differences to the above routine. As mentioned, the stack of roughly 50 index cards which say “Draw A Picture” have the words written in different colours. This is important for some of the dual reality language which will be used shortly. The cards I use are simply hand written on blank business card stock using different coloured sharpies as shown below.
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As well as those 50 cards, three more should be written which will be the force cards which say “Draw a picture of a Snowman” “Draw a picture of a Clock” “Draw a picture of a Candle”
However, as I show the rest of the stack to the audience it allows me to say “You can see each of these cards ask you to draw a different picture and they are all different. The way the cards have been written should influence the way you draw whatever you are going to think of.”
To the audience that means the cards look different, to the people on stage it will mean the drawings you are asked to think of will be different. I explain that the way we are asked things determines how we subconsciously decide on how to respond, for example if we are asked something nicely, they will more than likely be happy to respond, whereas is someone asks nastily, then we 25
won’t be to obliged to help at all. I then bring out a fairly colourfully written card … “This is quite a bright card, so if I was drawing a house…” As I say house, I point to the card as if it is written there… “…then I would make it quite detailed and eccentric because that’s the way the card is written does that make sense?” The cards are then mixed retaining the top three in place and in order, and then the cross cut force is used, and each of the three people take one card each from the top. Obviously any force can be used, however having watched my good friend Marc Paul use this simple force by having the cut made in the audience and the person on stage complete it, it seems to be completely fair and I cannot think of an easier way to do it. From this point cut to, the top three cards are taken one at a time by the three seated people. ”Now look at your card for a moment, and in your mind, picture what you are going to draw, and let the way the card is written help you decide how you are going to draw your picture.” I then take the cards off each person quickly, so that they are forgotten about by the audience. I feel the less time something is in play, and provided it is justified, it seems to become invisible to the majority of the audience.
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Having collected the cards back in, I give each person a pen and ask them to draw their picture on their envelope in which ever way they want to draw it. Obviously there are only so many ways to draw the pictures and there will be many aspects which are close which should be pointed out. To the audience the effect is still astonishing as you have correctly predicted which pictures three people would decide to draw, to the people on stage you still knew which card they would take and roughly how they would draw their picture.
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Pic Chair The final evolution of the routine which is the one I currently use in my show is closer to Chair Enigma2; however it involves a popular technique from another well known chair test. I offer my presentation here not to describe his method, as it isn’t mine to describe, rather to offer the insight to the performance as it is the one I have used most and will continue to. This final variation does draw aspects from all of the above routines as well as a few new ones which I will mention. However the key focus here should be the presentation.
Performance I have three chairs on stage and invite three random spectators to join me. They each sit in any chair they want and get comfortable as I explain that in one of four envelopes I have placed a substantial amount of money; in the others, just paper. Each envelope is then numbered one to four and the participants on stage are offered the choice of any number they would like. After each participant has an envelope you ask them each to open their envelope to see what they have. As it turns out each of them has a bit of paper at which point, to avoid sheer disappointment I state... “This was never about winning the money, it was about my proving how easy it is to psychologically guide people when they are focusing on one thing 28
consciously on one thing, it leaves your unconscious open to be guided in other ways. If you look, I was left with the money, but it was actually only monopoly money. You were focusing consciously on winning real money, so I was able to influence you in the ways I wanted. In fact let us take this a step further, because you each did choose any envelope you wanted and in a moment, even though you only have bits of paper we’re going to try something interesting with them. Can I ask you right now to unfold your sheet of paper and take a moment to stare at it? In a minute I’m going to ask you each to draw your own picture. All you need to do right now is to look at your sheet of paper, and as you stare at it I want you to see a picture there. When you can see the picture in your mind I want you to see the picture there on the paper and once you’re happy with seeing your picture on the paper, I’m going to give you each a pen to trace over what you are seeing there. Once you’ve drawn your picture if you could also write down what it is a picture of underneath it.” Each of the envelopes, using the Kurtz method, has been assigned to the specific person in each chair. Why should this matter to the pictures they are about to draw? Well something else is happening now, as far as the dual reality goes. Each of those three pieces of paper has a picture drawn on it in pencil. So when you re read the above script, it should be evident that you are simply telling the person to look at the piece of paper and see a picture drawn there already then to think of it and then trace over the lines with a marker pen. Before I go on and explain exactly why I say each thing, I should make it clear that the marker will cover all the lines because the people on stage do exactly as you ask them and trace over 29
exactly what they see there, however even if they don’t then from the audience you will not be able to clearly see any pencil lines as your eyes will be too drawn to the thick marker lines. As you re-read the script you can begin to see how what I am saying out loud matches to both dual reality effects perfectly. To the audience at large it does sound like you are asking them to think of their own picture, see it in their mind then project it on to the paper to trace over it using your imagination.
To the participants on stage, it is clear that they are to focus on the drawing on the paper then trace over it. Once they have all finished drawing their pictures I then remind them of what has happened otherwise the final reveal wouldn’t be as impressive to them. “Please remember at this point you could have sat in any chair, picked any envelope and drawn any picture. It was all done at random and it felt to you like you were making all the decisions... correct? Good! Would you please show everyone what you have drawn... so we have a Snowman, a Candle and a Clock! Like I have been saying, when I have you focus on one thing consciously, I can manipulate what you are thinking unconsciously. So will you please stand behind your chairs and hold out your drawings...”
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I now turn the three chairs round one at a time to show that drawn on the back of chair one was a Snowman, on the back of chair two was a Candle and finally on the back of chair three is a clock. All three pictures match up perfectly. So to the audience at large you performed two different effects of increasing impossibility, and to the participants on stage you influenced them to choose the right envelope for the chair they were sitting on. This routine has been my close for as long as I can remember in my stage show and comes right before my final reveal and right after my Q+A, that’s how strong I think it is!
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Presenting the Chair Test Another area of this routine and in fact any you do, is quite simply.... why?! Why have people sat in chairs on the middle of a stage, why have them pick envelopes?
I feel that you really have to work out your own reasoning for
displaying your abilities using these ‘props’. I have hinted about the style of presentation I offer, which utilises influence and persuasion, however for completeness I want to offer the entire scripting I use for Pic Chair and a few others which have occurred to me over the years of toying with this routine. Obviously I advise you to create your own, what I do probably won’t suit you; however it may serve as an excellent starting point for developing your own. Let us look at Pic Chair as the first example. Once each spectator has opened their envelope and is holding their piece of paper, before they draw their picture, I take them through a quick visualisation process. “I’d like you each to take a moment to relax and focus and in your mind now see yourself outside coming home from work looking forward to relaxing on your own as you walk in from your car, racing inside to avoid the snow falling from deep in the sky, laying down on the couch beside the warm fire and watching time fly by as you become more and more focused now.” If you examine this script you will notice it mentions snow, for snowman, fire, for candle and time, for the clock. As I say each part of this script I touch the relevant 32
person on the shoulder. This is simply an extra convincer for the audience watching when they think back on the effect however I feel it offers a ‘valid solution’ for anyone looking for the conscious / unconscious link I am apparently toying with. I feel very strongly about the fact that with whatever explanation you offer for an effect you need to back it up either with the process of using that technique, or a more subtle seeming use of the technique. The only other chair routine I do is my take on Patrick Redford’s Ensconced Fundament which I do when working with fewer people because obviously the dual reality would fall flat! I have taken his routine and applied the method to my style however the apparent reason for doing it is to demonstrate that... “...while the way someone stands, their body language, can tell a lot about what they are thinking, where they position themselves can tell you a lot more about what they are going to think. This is an unconscious process which people undertake, the most obvious example being when someone wants to leave a party, their body language may reveal a sense of discomfort, however what you will also notice more blatantly than that is that they will begin moving closer to the door, where it means simply moving along a chair to get closer to the door, or maybe jumping out a window... But it’s this technique I want to play with just now... not the jumping out of windows!” This sets up the premise of watching where people sit on stage and how that affects the way that they act.
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“...you see when I control where someone positions themselves this makes their actions and choices much easier to understand and predict.” This is what suits me, it makes sense to what I do and the way I present it. Obviously this won’t suit everyone however there are so many other ideas, you could like if to absolutely anything you want to as long as you get thinking and get creative!! The number one concern you want to overcome with this routine, and with any you perform, is to ensure it doesn’t merely appear like a puzzle! If you just appear to be doing something without any explanation as to why or apparently how, people merely assume it’s been an interesting occurence. However when you apply your own character and style and invest time to script and convey your message or ideas, it will engage the audience making the demonstration more personable and much more entertaining.
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Further Thinking... Something which came up very early on with my chair routine was that I was carrying around three chairs for one of the shortest routines in my show. It seemed like a lot to be taking all over the place (although it is completely worth it don’t get me wrong!!), so here are a few other options I’ve thought about over time. The obvious one is to borrow chairs at the venue and stick the reveals to the back. However I found not all chairs are suitable so when performing without my chairs I would have three people stand behind the chairs and hold on to a plastic folder. I would try and draw as little attention to the folders as possible and a lot of attention to having the spectators choose which chair they wanted to sit in depending on who is standing behind them. This allowed for a bit of comedy, but more importantly the reveals were much smoother. As a side note, when performing this with the Pic Chair routine, I simply ask each person behind the chairs to take one step back and not look at their drawings yet. This folder idea I also learned is very handy when performing on the same level as the audience and not on a raised performance area. Using the folders allows for both to be held fairly high up so that even the people sitting at the back are aware of what is happening. When there is a wall directly behind the performance area, I would simply stick to the folders to the wall, so I wouldn’t need the extra people to stand behind the chairs, I’d simply leave roughly one foot between the wall and chairs allowing me room to walk behind and unfold the folders to reveal all predictions match.
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Clearly these are not essential, just ideas I have worked out over many performances to make sure the routine is visual for all audience members. Futhermore, the routines themselves do not have to only involve the concepts I have mentioned above. You can quite simply change to anything you want, all places, or all words, ESP symbols, numbers, individual letters to spell a message... the possibilities are literally limitless! Finally, you don’t have to keep it limited to just three people. With any of the routines which I have described, they could be adapted to involve as many people as you so wish! For me three is the perfect number visually and for the structure of the routines I perform. However I highly recommend you giving some serious consideration to every aspect of the routine... why use chairs, why use envelopes, why use drawings... when you can answer all of these, or not!, you will have many of the answers resulting in your designing your ow unique performance piece.
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Bonus Routines What follows are a number of concepts I have worked on to spice up the chair prediction sequence, not just to ‘get more from it’ but more importantly to allow the routine to build to the strong ending.
Have a seat... (Colin Mcleod and Liam Montier) Written up by Liam Montier and first published in his fantastic book Cherry Cola under the name ‘Be Seated’.
Concept Four chairs rest in the centre of the stage. You stand in front of them holding a pad of paper, on which is drawn four chairs. This paper faces the audience at all times. You choose a random spectator, and ask her to pick three others and come up on stage. You then ask her to walk towards the chairs and sit down. Before she gets there, you circle one of the chairs in the picture, and sure enough, that’s where she sits. You repeat this with the remaining volunteers, predicting where each one sits.
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Discussion This is a nice routine that makes a perfect prelude to a lot of other chair predictions, converting the dead time of spectators choosing their seats into a surprising effect. The idea of making the prediction an open one comes from a Tom Stone effect. However, his method limits him to using only a single spectator and four chairs – making four chairs a lot to carry around for a single 1 in 4 chance effect. However, I loved the real time approach of Tom’s effect. So, I mentioned the idea to Colin McLeod, together with my thought that predicting all four places would be much more effective, and make a good lead in for a bigger test. Together we brainstormed ideas, and the following method is what we came up with. You will need a stooge in the audience to cue you. This can be anyone, as they are not bought up on stage at all. You can use one of the mechanical means, or simply have them hold up the correct number of fingers… either works fine. So, set up your stage with the four chairs in the middle, and have a big pad and a marker pen to hand, with four chairs pre-drawn on it. I number the chairs as well, from 1 to 4 on the back rest part. This means that I can number the pictures on the pad, making the effect clearer, and also helping with a ploy we use for the first spectator.
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Performance Begin the presentation by explaining that you are going to try an experiment using the four numbered chairs on the top, and you are going to need four people to help you out and choose a chair. Go to your first spectator, ask for her name, and then ask for a round of applause as she has agreed to help you. Here is where we use an old Joseph Dunninger ploy – as the audience is applauding, we are given enough cover to ask her quietly what number chair
she’d like.
She’ll answer (for example “Three”) while the audience is still
applauding, covering you completely. A note here – you can ensure she answers quickly by stressing at the beginning that whoever you pick will need to choose a chair. Therefore, when you select someone, they will quickly think of one, or maybe even already have a choice in mind. So, with the first spectator’s choice known to you, you ask her to choose three more assistants and bring them all up on stage. Arrange them in a line with your first spectator at the front. Tell the first spectator to take any seat… I use the phrase “Take the seat of your choice” This encourages the spectator not to change their mind and take the seat that they selected at the beginning of the effect. 39
As they go to their chair, face the audience with your pad and circle the chair that you know they are going to sit in, and smile. Your aim is to circle the chair just before she sits down… because the next three you won’t do until afterwards, but most spectators will remember this first effect most. Once that has registered, ask the second spectator to choose a seat. As he takes it, you look more thoughtful, as if this one might be a little more difficult than the other. By this time, the spectator has taken his seat and your stooge in the front row has signalled to you which seat they have taken. This is repeated twice more with the two remaining spectators, ending with you having predicted each person’s chosen position (apparently just before they have chosen each their seats).
Have Another Seat... Taking this basic concept of working out where someone will sit before they themselves sit in that chair is something I have toyed with and feel sets up the idea beautifully for then predicting where a number of people will sit.
Performance I have someone join me on stage and look over the three chairs and I write on my pad, for example, “Sit in chair 3!” I then ask them to sit in any chair and they do
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indeed sit in chair number 3. This is continued two or three more times correctly predicting which chair they will sit in before they even begin moving. The reason this person is on stage is that they then go on to throw out the ball of paper to choose the random people I use for my actual chair test. So their presence is logical and does allow the entire process to build.
Discussion The basic technique being utilised here is pre show. I would simply explain to one person what exactly will happen, that during the show I will influence three people to sit where I want them to sit, so before I have the chance to influence them, I want them to write down the chair they would most likely sit in first, then second then third... if they feel up to it I say a fourth one too! The reason they think they are writing it down is so that I can’t then influence them to change their mind, they are committed. Also, it allows them time to look at it and ensure that they have memorised the order. When I bring them on stage I simply play up the fact that I will try and work out where they will sit, but this builds to them choosing the people for the ‘actual’ routine. I’m sure you will all have your favourite technique and approaches to pre show, so I won’t go in to them here do what works for you!
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Credits I want to be honest and credit the routines which have influenced the people and routines which have influenced my thinking for the routine. I think the first routine I seen someone else do was David Berglas, who, let us face it, is a legend. His chair routines are all fantastic and the footage I have been fortunate enough to see has him doing some seemingly impossible things! An inspiration to all. I then spent the Edinburgh festival of 2004 with Luke Jermay, someone who just gets better every time I see him perform... and he is GOOD! At that time he was performing Gary Kurtz’s chair test beautifully however had already began adding many of his own touches. Watching that routine was fantastic for gauging how powerful it was on an audience, this persuaded me to complete my thinking for my own routine. Since then I have been fortunate enough to learn routines by many good friends... Patrick Redford (Ensconced Fundament) A lovely, simple and direct approach to the chair test challenge which, as I’ve already mentioned, I do use a version of with smaller groups. You don’t have to think about it, it basically performs itself allowing you to focus purely on the presentation.
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Andrew Gerard (The Colour of Money) This man seems to have a knack for taking a simple technique and turning it into a complete performance piece which lifts it to a new level. His presentation is fantastic and I think a lot can be learned from his fun performance style. And last but by no means least Kennedy’s incredible approach (Chairman of the Board) which has so many twists and reveals, it just blows the audience out of the water. I may seem biased as the man is practically family, however having seen the effect his routine has on audience I can safely say he does have some of the most refreshing thinking towards this routine and, annoyingly, anything else he puts his mind to!
Technique Crediting Barrie Richardson- The Lazy Mentalist Theatre of the Mind. This was one of the starting points for the complete routine. The book is a modern classic and if you don’t have it, then it should definitely be the next book you buy! Bruce Bernstein- Perception is Everything. One of the first books I read, and what a place to start! The thinking in there is beautiful and the routine Pseudo Psychometry also offers a lot to the methodology of this routine. Again, you can’t go wrong with this man’s thinking. Gary Kurtz- Ultimate Chair Prediction. Probably the most popular concept with chair tests I have seen, and rightly so! It is simple and direct. If you have the opportunity to buy the manuscript then I’d highly recommend it.
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Docc Hilford- Real Mind Reading. I have been told that my scripting for the Pic Chair routines is similar to a Docc Hilford idea. I’ll be honest and say that I think Docc Hilford is one of the most creative minds we have in magic and mentalism today. From what I have seen of him he is a true performer in every sense of the word and all the manuscripts I have bought of his work are phenomenal. However I want to be honest and state that this idea was created independently to fulfill the required role within that routine. That said, I want to express full credit to Docc Hilford as I truly believe that with anything we do, we are always standing on the shoulders of giants and I have nothing but respect for him and urge you to study as much of his thinking as you can. It certainly has changed the way I look at performing!
Finally... I owe a lot of people a massive thank you for their support with this routine over the years going way back to when I first shared it with Marc Paul and Banachek. They gave me the initial confidence to go out and start performing it. Kennedy, the most talented mentalist I have seen and whom I am fortuante enough to call my best friend, always able to fill in the blanks when I am creating something new. He truly understands my thinking and I am very thankful for all the input and good times! Long may it continue!!
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Liam Montier- Without a doubt, the most creative mind in magic! He is my secret weapon for creating routines! Always happy to throw ideas about which does very much keep me on my toes! Also thank you for the clever title ;-) and all the proof reading . Nicola Ruddy (Trainee Lawyer :-P), thanks for putting up with the hours (and hours and hours...) of my gibbering away while you sit there and smile and nod politely, even sometimes saying words like Annemann and Banachek to make it seem like you are listening! It means a lot and I do really, really appreciate it! And finally thank you (the reader). The fact you have bought this shows a commitment to this art we all love, and your commitment to providing your audiences with the most entertaining and enjoyable experience possible. One final motivation to make sure you start using this routine, apply the thinking or at least let it spark your own creativity... because your investment in this book and my thinking, is only he beginning. I am more than happy and willing to discuss with anyone, at length (on the phone or through e-mail) to make sure you are completely confident in performing this routine, or your own chair routine, before you do it in front of a live audience. So please, if there is anything at all I can help with or explain further or taylor to your needs, it would be my absolute pleasure. Until the next time we meet, I wish you every success!
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