Conversation As Mentalism 4 "The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit." – Sir William Temple “Three out of four ain’t bad!” – Mark Elsdon 1
Copyright © 2016 by Mark Elsdon. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy it, do not scan it, do not upload it. Thank you. More Elsdon goodies are available at: http://elsdon.blogspot.co.uk/ 2
Contents Introduction … p5 Speechless! … p6 Hempnotism … p9 Calendrical … p12 21st Century Telepathy … p15 The Ring … p16 Dream On … p18 The Red Envelope Revisited … p21
Smackeroony … p22 Ran Pink - ONVI … p24
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Introduction Many thanks for buying this booklet, the fourth in the Conversation As Mentalism series. The goal of the effects (referred to as CAMs) contained herein is to allow you the opportunity to perform when you literally “have nothing with you”. That is, no peek wallet, no swami, no loops, in fact no props, gimmicks or gadgets at all. Most of the effects require not much more than just words and language. They are effectively imagination games where physically not much takes place. A couple of them require the use a piece of paper and a pen, maybe a bank note or your watch, but these are always completely justified and a natural part of the conversation. I have a bulging file of CAM material from which to pick so it was an easy job to select a wide variety of interesting, practical and fooling material. And because of that bulging file, I foresee the CAM series of booklets continuing to be released for quite a few more years to come. Some of the material in this latest volume is over a decade old and some of it was created within the last sixth months. As usual, there were some changes at the last minute to facilitate the inclusion of current favourites! Remember, when you are performing a CAM it must appear to the participant that it is simply a natural progression of the conversation, not that you have mentioned the book/game/puzzle/whatever just in order to do a trick! So weave these CAMs in to your everyday conversation as you see fit. Maybe sow the seed by mentioning the premise of the effect in passing and then coming back to the actual performance part later. As well as the effect and method of each CAM I have generally provided you with a presentational hook and an outline of the approach to use, which serves at the ‘conversation’ part of the equation. The very essenc e of these CAMs is that they should be about your conversation, so having you memorise an entire presentation provided by me would have been completely counter-productive. Finally, I’d like to thank my good friend Ran Pink for generously allowing me to include the basics of his ONVI principle. Ran’s approach to mentalism is ground-breaking and I urge you to seek out all of his work.
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Speechless! Effect: The performer borrows a piece of paper and a pen, and w rites down: “For this next imagination game, I will say nothing. Literally nothing. So no persuasion, influence or other cunning linguistics. Ready to play?” The participant indicates that they are and for the rest of the performance the performer remains silent and writes all his instructions. The participant removes a pocketful of loose change and at the performer’s written request eliminates coins until there is just one left – a 10 pence (or 25 cent) coin. The participant notes the date, it is 2005. The performer turns the sheet of paper over, a nd on the back it says “Snap! That’s exactly the same coin I’ve got!” Beneath it he then writes, “Here is the real reason I didn’t say anything – my coin is in my mouth!” He opens his mouth an out slides a 10 pence coin, with exactly the same date.
F.Y.I. As regular readers will know, I love the idea of a physical prediction (this volume once again features a prediction written on your hand!) and the idea of a prediction being in your mouth makes it appear even more isolated and thus ‘safe’. The ide a of a performer having a prediction in his mouth and then using a set of ‘cue cards’ in lieu of talking is the brainchild of Francis Menotti whose Sign Language effect was created in the mid-1990s. The idea was further popularised by Jon Allen with his trick Silent Treatment .
Method and Performance: The method for this effect is a very minimalistic handling of equivoque. The procedure bears more than a passing resemblance to my earlier effect Chocoholic. The addition of writing the instructions on a piece of paper, in order to avoid any ‘spoken influence’ adds another layer of deception and an extra sheen of fairness. In preparation you will need two identical coins, let’s say 10 pence coins (or quarters in the US). They should both have the same date. In preparation for this effect, one coin is in your right hand pocket, along with a pen. The other is loaded into your 6
mouth before the effect starts. If this makes you squeamish, simply put the coin into a small clear ziplock bag, and put that into your mouth. Earlier, without anyone being aware, write “Snap! That’s exactly the same coin I‘ve got!” on one side of a piece of paper and turn it writing side down. Use a ballpoint pen rather than a Sharpie, so that it doesn’t bleed through. This written preparation is not strictly necessary, but it does speed up the finale. Ideally, this paper should be A4 (letter size) so that you can comfortably write quite a few lines on it without running out of space. Finger palm the coin in your hand as you remove the pen. Get the attention of your participant and holding the paper side-on between you s o that he can read what you write, write the following on the blank side of the paper: “For this next imagination game, I will say nothing. Literally nothing. So no persuasion, influence or other cunning linguistics. Ready to play?” Once they respond, you write, “Great! I need to borrow a handful of coins please. What have you got? Once they remove their pocket change, reach over and grab a bunch of coins, adding your palmed one as you do so. It doesn’t matter what the coins are, but you need to pick up eight random coins in total from their hand. Adding your coin makes it up to nine.
Lay these coins in a column between you and the participant, making sure that your f orce coin is second from your end of the column. Write on the paper, “And now a question: odd or even? Please answer aloud.” If they say “Odd”, simply slide the odd number coins (1, 3, 5, 7 & 9, counting from either end) off to the side as discards. If they say “Even”, slide the even coins (2, 4, 6 and 8, counting from either end) slightly out of the column to the left, and then slide all the remaining (odd coins) off to one side as discards. Either way, you are left with four coins in play, one of which is the force coin. Next, arrange the four coins in a row, from left to right, with the force coin second from left. Obviously there could be multiple 10 pence coins at the start, so there maybe more than one still in play. Just be careful to keep track of the force one. Now write on the paper, “This time, left or right? Again, answer aloud.” If they say “Right”, slide the two right hand coins off to join the discards. If they say “Left”, slide the two left hand coins forwards towards the participant and then slide the two right hand coins off to join the discards. Pick up the two remaining coins and place them on to the piece of paper below what you’ve written so far, adjacent to one another and about four inches apart. Draw a 7
line between them with an arrow on each end of the line. Below the coins and the line, write, “Pick up either coin…” Option 1: If he picks up the non-force coin, immediately gesture that he is to put it with the discards. Circle the 10 pence and write “The 10p” beneath it. Slide the coin in front of the participant and write “You’ve got” on the paper in the space where the coin just was, so that the paper now reads “You’ve got” and then “The 10p” below it. Option 2: If he picks up the force coin, immediately slide the remaining coin off to join the discards. Write “You’ve got” on the paper and then look up at the coin he is holding as if to remind yourself of what the coin is, and then write “The 10p” below it. Now write, “So we started with a bunch of your coins. You made some random decisions which eliminated all the coins except one – the 10p. Please read aloud the date on the coin”. He does so and reads “2005”.
Now turn over the sheet of paper so that he can read what it says on the reverse: “Snap! That’s exactly the same coin I’ve got!” The participant will wonder what you are going on about, so you then immediately write, “And here is the real reason I didn’t say anything – my coin is in my mouth!” Open your mouth and allow the coin to slide into view. He will be shocked to see a matching coin. Place it onto the table next to his. You then immediately write, “Oh, and check the date… : -) ” Now he will really be stunned!
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Hempnotism Effect: This is a weird one! The performer talks about the research that has been done into the claims that talking to plants helps them to grow somehow. Research has proved that sound does indeed stimulate the growth activity of plants and although the research is on-going, it appears more likely that it is the vibrations of the sound that are the cause. Suggesting that he is going to try a rather strange experiment involving his hemp shoelaces and an archaic hypnotism technique, the performer openly unties one of his shoe laces and places his foot back beneath the table. The participant looks under the table and confirms that the performer’s lace is indeed untied. The performer places his left hand flat on the table, then bends down and reaches under the table to rub the shoelace briskly for two seconds as he clearly enunciates the words, “Tie back into the knot” in the general direction of his shoe. He then sits back up and says “Done!” The participant looks under the table and the untied shoelace is indeed re-tied into a perfect bow!
F.Y.I. This is a stunt that I have been doing as a CAM piece for many years, since way before I ever considered releasing any of the material in the CAM format. It is something Paul Harris would refer to as ‘a moment of strange’ and performed at the right time can seriously freak people out (particularly if they’ve been smoking something… erm, medicinal!) It will take some practice to learn, but please don’t be put off by that. Fifteen minutes a day for one week and you will be able to do it. And although I use my usual term of ‘participant’ to describe the person you are performing for, they never actually do anything this time, other than sit back and watch you perform something very odd.
Method and Performance: So basically, you need to be able to tie a perfect bow using just one hand. In all the time I’ve been using this effect, I have never met anyone else who can tie a shoelace with only one hand, which is very surprising to me as the big secret is this: it’s act ually 9
rather easy! And as mentioned above, if you practice religiously for fifteen minutes a day for one week you ’ll be able to do it perfectly in just a few seconds. I’m right handed, so it’s my right shoelace that I tie. Here’s the method:
1. Cross one end of the shoelace over the other, then bring one end behind the other one to form a simple overhand knot. 2. Pull the left end of the lace fairly tightly to the left and trap in underneath your left shoe. Keeping that left end firmly trapped under your left shoe, pull the right end of the lace to the right to tighten the knot. 3. Make a loop with the right end of the lace and bring it behind and under the straight lace (which is still trapped tightly under your right foot) and then over the top of it and tuck the loop through the gap where your right first finger still is and pull it tight. 4. Let go of the left end of the lace from under your left foot, form it in to a second loop and circle it around the first one. This second loop is pulled back through the space you create by encircling the first loop. 5. Pull the second loop tight and you’re done. If you want to see this done (and I’m guessing you do!) then a very helpful woman called Hannah has made a YouTube video which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqdQ-f1RO0 There is no shortcut to proficiency and you really will have to practice every day for a week to learn this. Note: this method of tying is not the same as how you normally tie a lace, but once completed it looks identical. Also, I never perform Step 1. When I undo the lace initially, I simple leave the first knot in place. Another important part of the method is that I make the initial loop from Step 3 as I am apparently j ust getting ready to rub the lace and speak the ‘hypnotic’ words. In other words, it is done before I apparently do anything. I only ever perform this effect for one or two people and always seated facing someone across a table. Obviously, you don’t want anyone to see what you’re doing under the table. To set the scene for the performance, talk about the research being done into accelerated plant growth due to people talking to their plants and why this might be the case. Then suggest that you’d like to try something a little crazy using your hemp shoelace. Something using the friction from rubbing and the vibration from sound, combined with an underground hypno technique from the late 60s. 10
Stand up and openly untie your right shoelace. Sit back at the table, pushing your chair back a little so that you’ll be able to reach your shoe. As explained above, Step 1 is already done, as you never actually full untied the lace. Place your left hand flat on the table and whilst you lean down to ‘get ready’ by supposedly loosening your shoe, you surreptitiously perform Step 3. Look up at the person sat opposite and say, “So, just a little rub…” reach down and perform Step 4. As you are completing Step 4 (which is the work of a second) look up at the participant, then look down at your shoe and say slowly and clearly, “Tie back into the knot” and then perform Step 5, pulling the knot tight.
Sit up straight again and direct the participant’s attention back to your shoe. He’ll be stunned to see that your shoelace is indeed re-tied. Allow him to look at it as closely as he likes, but not to pull it undone again. The key to the success of this effect is that so much of the one-handed tie is done before you apparently start doing anything. Once you ‘start’ by rubbing the lace then speaking, the whole thing is over in less than two seconds.
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Calendrical Effect: To test their affinity, the performer asks a participant to open the calendar app on his phone and scroll to any random month from next year, whichever month he chooses. He then picks out any three consecutive days from any week, adds the dates and tells the performer the total. The performer immediately tells him the dates. Continuing, he is told to make it less random – he is to pick his favourite day of the week (e.g. Saturday) and then pick any three consecutive Saturdays (or w hatever day he decides) in that same month. Again he adds the three dates together and tells the performer, who instantly tells the participant the exact dates he is thinking of. Offering to repeat it one final time the performer has the participant stay in that same month and choose any four dates in a vertical column. After a slight struggle the performer reveals all four dates and then the exact month!
F.Y.I. This is a very easy little effect which serves as a perfect introductory piece to something a little more powerful. And don’t worry; there is zero memory work involved and only very simple maths.
Method and Performance: Part 1: the participant picks any three consecutive days. E.g.
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In the above month he has circled the 12th, 13th and 14th so will give you the total of 39. You simply divide it by three, which gives you the middle date – the 13th. The others are simply +1 and -1 of that date. Part 2: the participant picks any three Saturdays (or any day) in the month. E.g.
In the above month the Saturdays he has circled are the 3rd, 10th and 17th so will give you the total of 30. You simply divide it by three, which gives you the middle date – the 10th. The others are simply +7 and -7 of that date. Part 3: the participant picks any four consecutive dates in a column. E.g.
In the above month he has circled the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27 so will give you the total of 66. You simply subtract 14 from the total (52) and then divide by 4. That gives you the second date in the column. The others are -7, +7 and +14 of that date. In all three parts it’s easy to reveal the exact dates. However on the final reveal, you appear to struggle. This is so that you can find out the exact month as follows: although you know the dates instantly, you claim that because there are four numbers there are that many more possible permutations, so you need to use your calculator to help work it out, and apparently open up the calculator app on your phone. Instead, you actually open your browser and go to the following website: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/weekday-sunday-1
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There you can put in a day and date from part 2, where you found out that the first Saturday was the 3rd. Inputting ‘3rd' and ‘Saturday’ will quickly reveal that he must be in June 2017 on his calendar . Immediately close your ‘calculator’ and put the phone away, and tell him the dates. Finally, follow up by revealing the exact month he is looking at. This effect has the feel of the ‘day for any date’ type of effect that some performers enjoy, but with none of the memory work. All four reveals in quick succession make a good sequence and the month reveal at the end switches attention away from maths and dates.
And another great thing is that this effect can be performed over the phone. Simply call someone up and have them put their phone on speaker so that they can open their calendar app. Perform as written except that in this instance you can quite openly check out the exact month at the end of part two, since they can’t see you! And then you can reveal the month at the end of part three, without any pretence of having to use the calculator because you are struggling a bit with the maths involved.
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21 Century Telepathy Effect: After talking about some people’s belief in telepathy, the performer admits that he is a complete sceptic. However, he proposes a mind-game which he claims will look 100% identical to the real thing! First he asks for a participant who will act as the transmitter. The performer asks that person to open up the doodle app on his phone, and write down, anywhere on the screen, a single item of clothing that will be the ‘target’ for this test. Once he has concentrated on that item for a few seconds and mentally transmitted it to the performer, he then also writes any other four items of clothing in random positions on the screen.
The performer explains that he had zero control over the choices of clothing items and that logic dictates that there is only one possible way he could know the target object: telepathy. A way that he himself does not believe exists. Nevertheless, he looks over the list and correctly names the target item with 100% certainty.
F.Y.I. This is simply a methodological update of Bruce Bernstein’s classic Telepathy By Item from his book ‘Twenty Effects For Psychic Entertainers’. Any phone, no special apps required.
Method and Performance: Whereas the original relied on the workings of a pen or pencil, this relies on nothing more than simple psychological limiting, and once you understand the secret, you’ll be able to use any items you want rather than just items of clothing. In Bernstein’s original, the target item was freely mentally selected before any mention was made of it being written down. In this handling the opposite is true: the participant knows that he will be writing it in the doodle (or note) app before he decides what the item of clothing will be. He also knows that he will be writing it with his finger, not typing it. What he does not know at that point is that he will shortly have to write four more items on the screen. For all of these reasons, the item of clothing he initially picks as the target will be written larger than the other four items 15
he writes afterwards. It will most often be a shorter word too, such as hat, shirt or coat. It will almost never be trousers, cardigan or sweatshirt. Often it will be the centre word, and almost always one of the middle three. And it will usually be the neatest word too. However, these additional qualifiers are just that – additional. Simply look for the word that is written the largest. 99 times out of 100 you will be correct. Often, it will be so obvious to you what the target wo rd is that you’ll want to laugh out loud and you’ll be certain that it must be obvious to everyone else too. Experience has shown that this is not the case. And finally, what to do on the 1 occasion out of 100 that you are wrong? Simply comment that this confirms your belief that telepathy is impossible even with your tricky abilities! And move onto something more sure-fire. I can assure you that with a little experience performing this though, you will very, very rarely be wrong. And now that you know what to look for, then you can use any category of objects: cars, countries, rock bands, whatever. I will caution you that I’ve found that it is definitely preferable to stick to a single category, whatever that might be, than to just have them write any five random words.
The Ring Effect: The performer explains that he has witnessed many times that the human mind is far more predictable than people realise and that the illusion of choice is simply that – an illusion. After some discussion back and forth the performer proposes a little imagination game to prove his point. He says that the participant will make three separate choices: one guided by random chance, one guided by a memory only the participant could know and one guided by fact. The partici pant removes a finger ring and hides it in either hand behind his back and the performer turns away. The participant then swaps hands multiple times in ways the performer could neither know nor guess. He brings his hands out in front of himself and the performer immediately identifies which hand the ring is in.
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F.Y.I. This could of course be done with a coin or any other object, although as you will see, the ring makes more sense in this particular context. Rather than revealing where the ring is you could easily predict it, by having your own ring in the same hand. This can also be performed over the phone. And finally, it makes a great lead in to my Tequila Hustler effect.
Method and Performance: After introducing the premise, ask the participant to remove a ring and hide it in either hand behind his back. You now direct him to think of any number he likes, no limits, and swap hands that number of times. Next he thinks of the person who bought him the ring and uses their name (if he bought it himself he uses his own name). He again swaps hands, spelling the name to himself and making one swap per letter. E.g. if the ring is in right hand and he spells the name ‘Jenny’ then he swaps it to the left hand (J), to the right hand (E), to the left hand (N), to the right hand (N) and finally to the left hand (Y). Make it clear that there is no way that you could possibly know where he started, what the name is or where he ended up. Finally instruct him to make one final set of moves: if the ring is in his right hand he spells the word ‘right’ to himself and makes one swap per letter, and if the ring is in his left hand he does likewise, spelling the word ‘left’ to himself and making one swap per letter. Because of all the randomness at the beginning with a free choice of number, then an unknown name, this all seems very fair to the participant. That is of course nonsense; because of the final spell of ‘right’ or ‘left’ the ring must end up in his left hand. Everything that goes before is simply camouflage. Reveal the ring’s location however you choose.
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Dream On Effect: After discussing the power of dreams and the meanings of certain dreams, the performer confesses that like many people he can rarely remember his dreams. However he states that the one dream he does remember is because of the fact that he keeps having exactly the same dream over and over again: one in which he wins the Lottery. As confirmation of the yet-to-happen events in this dream, he writes down three pieces of information – the date and the year of his future ‘win’ and the final Lottery number that gives him the six perfect numbers required for the Jackpot. The participant now uses his intuition to discern the date, the year and the final required number. Unbelievably, he is 100% correct with all three!
F.Y.I. All that is required to perform Dream On are some slips of paper or business cards and a pen. No sleights, no gimmicks, no dual-reality. As you may have guessed (from the use of the slips of paper) this relies on the venerable one-ahead principle. However, I have taken the direct opposite approach to its normal use, an improvement which has far wider applications than just this effect. Usually with one-ahead, the participant makes three choices and each time the performer makes a written prediction as to what he thinks the participant will choose. So in effect, the performer is trying to deduce/guess what the participant is thinking. I’ve reversed this: in Dream On the effect is that the spectator is the one trying to deduce/guess what the performer is thinking. The shift of focus both increases the impact of the effect and further obfuscates the nature of the method. All the heat is now on the participant’s choices, not the performer’s. As usually used, the one-ahead methodology leaves the participant and spectators thinking, “Why do I have to say my choice out loud straight after the magician has written it down? Why doesn’t he just show me?” With this approach, you are writing down information that you already know (after all, it was your dream!) and which the spectator does not. It makes complete sense for him to make his guess after you’ve written down each ‘fact’. 18
Further, this tactic opens up a multitude of other presentational uses which will be discussed in detail in a future publication, although I’m sure you will no doubt think of some possible applications immediately. Finally, the presentation seeks to solve the other huge problem with one-ahead - the force of the final object. You know how it usually goes: Question 1, name any person who ever lived. Question 2, name any place in the world. Question 3, pick any playing card! The final choice is always so narrow in scope compared to the previous two that it jarringly points directly to the method. In this instance he is picking from an already limited field (the lottery numbers) but you make it even easier for him by telling him that the final number you needed was a number between one and twenty. And it makes sense that you’d want to help him with the last choice, as you obviously know how well he has done with the first two attempts.
Method and Performance: You will need 3 slips of paper, double- blank business cards (don’t use the back of your actual business cards as somewhere to write, as this treats them as just bits of paper, which cheapens them immeasurably) beermats or whatever. All t hree must look the same, since the order in which they are written on will be lost as they are folded in half and dropped one at a time into an empty glass or cup. You will also need another couple of sheets of paper which are big enough to tear into ten pieces each for the force at the end. Introduce the premise of the effect by claiming that you had a very vivid dream in which you won the Lottery. Explain that you remember all the details about exactly when you will win and with which exact numbers. Tear the sheets of paper into ten pieces each and write the numbers 1-20 on the pieces, without letting anyone see what you are doing. The number 15 will be your force number, so end up with that on the bottom of the stack. Tell the participant that you are going to write down the exact information from your dream and that he will get the chance to use his intuition to see if he can discern what it was you dreamt. Next you pick up the first slip of paper and write down the name of your force number, 15. Fold the slip in half and drop it into the empty cup. Tell the participant that you have written the year in which you won the Lottery in your dream. Ask him to think carefully for a moment and then tell you which year he thinks. Whatever he says, reply enigmatically, “Really? That’s the year you think? Interesting…” If he says a 19
year very close to now , next year for example, continue by saying “So… just one more year ‘til I hit the big time!” or something similar. Likewise, if he says a year that is a long way off, you comment, “That means of course that I’ll be 82 years old when I win!” Whatever he says, make a bit of a joke out of it. Now, pick up the second slip of paper and write down the year that he said. Fold that in half, drop it into the cup say that you’ve written the exact date down. Then ask the participant which date in the year he thinks you will win on. Whichever date he says, immediately say “No! Not even close! Think again, but concentrate this time…” Of course, this is just bluff, since any date he says will work, but your rebuttal further serves to hide the method. When he gives his second response, simply reply “Oh… OK. Now, you’re letting your intuition guide you.” Pick up the final slip of paper and write on it the date he just gave you. Again, fold it and drop it into the cup. Say that yo u’ve written down the name of the final number that always completes your Jackpot win. Explain that for this final choice, you will allow chance to play a part, as in the real (dream!) game. And that you want to give him the best possible chance by letting him know that the number is between 1 and 20. Pick up the stack of papers and start to deal from the top into a pile on the table. After dealing three or four pieces tell the participant that he may choose when to stop dealing. Whenever he does, place the packet of papers still in your left hand on top of those dealt, but off-centre at a 45° angle. This leaves your force number 15 (the original bottom number) on the face of the upper packet, ready to show as ‘where they stopped dealing’. You will get back to this in a moment. This ‘dealing’ handling of Max Holden’s Cross-cut force is Ben Earl’s and was published in Gambit magazine. Tip all the slips of paper out of the cup. Find the one with the year on it. Ask the participant to repeat what year he said and then read and show the paper to confirm that the participant was correct. Do the same with the date – again proving that the participant’s intuition was correct. Finally, read and show the last slip, identifying 15 as the sixth and final number that won you the Jackpot. Slowly turn over the upper half of the packet of papers that you dealt onto the table to show that it is indeed the number 15. Everything in play can be examined should you so choose. A couple of things need to be mentioned. Firstly, you may wonder, as many have with other effects using the one-ahead principle, whether it might strengthen the effect to work things so that the participant doesn’t get the date exactly right, maybe out by one or two days. In the past I did try that and found that in this instance it didn’t seem to make any difference. Instead I eventually opted for the ruse of telling them “No! 20
Not even close! Think again, but concentrate this time…” when they make their in itial date guess. This offers plenty disconnect I think.
Secondly, pay attention to your actions when are writing on the slips of paper. In the first instance you are meant to be writing down a four-digit number. So, writing just the two digits for ‘15’ must be extended by miming the writing of two more numbers. Similarly with the second thing you write. You are only writing a four-digit number (the year) but are supposed to be writing a date, so make it look a little longer, maybe miming the writing of a couple of extra characters. Finally, yes of course you could have more than twenty slips, but it would start to get rather messy and unwieldy. And as already mentioned it makes sense that you’d want to help him with the last choice, as you obviously know how well he has done with the first two attempts!
The Red Envelope Revisited R&D Required: One of my favourite effects that I have published in the CAM series is the The Red Envelope from CAM2, and I know from the emails and conversations I’ve had that it is very popular with readers too. Several people have suggested that it might be cleaner in performance if there was never a need to switch the prediction card. So I have developed two alternative handlings which facilitate that. One approach is a change in how the Equivoque is handled and the other one is a way to allow the two possible outcomes to be selfcontained within the prediction. I’m not going to explain them here, but will do so in CAM Volume 5. However, now that you know that both options are possible, I encourage you to get creative and work out a solution of your own. I’d love to include some other options along with mine in CAM5, so please email me whatever you devise.
And likewise with any other re-handlings, extensions or alternative versions of any of the CAM material: please send it my way, I’d love to read it!
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Smackeroony Effect: Proposing to demonstrate an affinity he has with one of the group, the performer invites half a dozen or more participants to grab a coin each from their pocket and place them all in a pile on the table. One by one they each say the initials of the first person they ever kissed and these are each written on one of the coins. The coins are now shaken up in a cup and tipped out onto the table. Any that land initials side down are eliminated and the rest placed back in the cup and shaken by a different person. Again they are tipped out on to the table and the ones with no initials are eliminated. This continues until one coin remains. The initials on this coin are ‘EW’. The performer asks who wrote the initials and one of the participants identifies themselves. The performer explains that it’s an incredible coincidence, but that the initials of the first person he ever kissed were also ‘EW’! He proves it by showing them written boldly on the palm of his hand.
F.Y.I. This CAM is based on Marcello Truzzi’s classic routine from Magick magazine (Issue 184). To accomplish this version of the effect you will be making an impromptu double-headed coin and doing some of the easiest double-writing you can possibly imagine. Twice! You need to have a couple of Sharpie markers on you.
Method and Performance: You need a group of at least 10 people to make this fun. Ask each of them to find a 5p coin (a dime in the US) and place it in the middle of the table. If they don’t all have one, ask anyone who has a few to add them in, or get some change from behind the bar, or add several of your own in. As they are doing this, grab a Sharpie. Explain the premise and ask the first person for the initials. Let’s say she says ‘PJ’. Write the initials on the heads side of the coin, going over each letter several times to make the letters bold (and to c over the upcoming dirty work!) Read the initials you’ve just written out loud then drop the coin in a cup or mug. You will do this each time you write, going over the letters several times with the Sharpie and then reading the letters aloud before you drop the coin into the cup. 22
Pick up a second coin and ask a second person for the initials and write them on the tails side of the coin and drop it in the cup. Ask someone to hold the cup and give it a shake each time a new coin is added. Ask someone else to pass you another coin. This is to start getting several people doing tasks and make them become disinterested in this early writing-process part of the trick. Ask for a third set of initials and write them on the heads side of the coin then drop it into the cup. Have a fourth coin passed to you and ask for the next initials and write them, going over them twice, then lose interest in the coin for a minute as you comment, “This is going to take all night!” Remove the second Sharpie and ask the first participant who gave initials to help you write the rest. Direct her to start asking the others what their first kiss initials are and writing one set of initials per coin. Turn your attention back to the coin in your hand, which you have secretly reversed as you were retrieving the second Sharpie. Repeat the initials aloud as you apparently go over what you have already written to make it bold. In reality of course, you are writing the initials on the other side of the coin, making your impromptu double-header. The reason for using t he small coins is that the writing takes up almost the entire surface, making it almost impossible to see whether the writing is on the heads or tails side of the coin. Ask the next person for the initials, writing them and then again going over the writing several times to make it bold, however this time repeat the initials as you are doing the go-over, rather than as you drop the coin into the cup. Ask for the next set of initials and as you write them, this time part of the process of going over them again to make them bold is actually to write ‘EW’ (or whatever is on the double-header) straight onto the palm of your hand! There is very little heat on this; the participant’s attention is split between two of you asking for and writing initials, plus someone else is busy mixing the coins in a cup, and finally everyone will be getting tired of all the writing and glad it’s almost finished. Once all the coins are in the cup, tell the participants that although you expected that this might happen it still feels a bit odd – that one of the sets of initials is identical to that of the very first person who you kissed! Now have the cup shaken and the coins tipped out, eliminating the ones that don’t show the initials. Of course, due to the force coin having the initials on both sides, it can never be eliminated. Each time make sure that a different person tips the coins out. Continue until there is one coin left. And read out the initials. Comment that it’s quite unbelievable – this final coin is the same initials. At this point, you want to get attention off the coin, so ask who gave those initials ‘EW’? Once the person has identified themselves, keep the focus on them and ask them if they believe your claim. Then before they can answer, say that you knew there would be doubts without proof, so before you met everyone you wrote a set on initials on the palm of your hand. Slowly open you hand to reveal the match. To clean up, collect up all the coins and put them into the nearest tip jar. 23
ONVI Ran Pink Open Number Verbal Index This is something I've been keeping to myself and inside my close circle of mentalist friends for quite a while now. Paul Carnazzo has been brainstorming this with me and is the only other mentalist currently using this with great results. I hope you enjoy this as much as we have. When I begin a demonstration of mind play, I'd rather just be myself and perform something interesting and hands free that doesn’t require any thinking about gimmicks or props. I admit that I love using my swami gimmick and pocket writing for more impossible number revelations, but ONVI is something I’ll do before I pull out a card or write anything down. In other words there is nothing else to look at but me, and my natural display of speaking with my hands and using gestures to express my thoughts. This allows me weave a story or ’jazz’ around the appropriate premise in a way that is most comfortable and natural for my speaking style. I use ONVI to set up the gestures that will be useful later in the show. Such as: my hands will go in the pocket when I’m asking for the number, though I’m not doing anything secret in there for now. Or when I gesture to breathe in, I do it in such a way that mimics the way I gesture when I’m using my business card peek, which I might use later. After the opening demonstration, I’m more relaxed, I’ve clicked with the audience and I can easily move into something more impossible using the tools of the trade to build up a whole routine. I’ve also just used ONVI as a stand-alone display of subliminal influence for a fascinating little moment.
So I bet you’re asking yourself what the #@%& is ONVI? Read on my friends.
ONVI For One on One I've always liked effects using the 37 and 68 forces when performing for a large audience but as we know it's not 100% reliable one on one. ONVI allows you to
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remove the odd/even restrictions and allows the participant to choose any number. You can prove that you knew they would choose that number. So here is ONVI, a simple opener that will allow you to set up the rest of your effects. After you establish yourself as the mentalist and what it is a mentalist does, you ask the willing participant to close their eyes and take a deep breath in and out. Have them repeat the breathing and as they exhale, put them into the right frame of mind by saying: "Wonderful! Before we proceed, feel free to take several moments to put yourself into a relaxing state and you'll do fine." Have them name the first 2 digit number that comes to mind making sure that each digit is different. Whatever 2 digit number they say, you ask if they felt it was a free choice. You tell them in fact that it was not a free choice and that you were able to influence them to pick that number by using subliminal linguistics and you can prove it. Here's how: This is the opening sentence, as the mentalist should see it. 1derful! Be-4 we proceed. Feel 3 2 take 7 moments. 2 put yourself in 2 a relax-6 st8 and you'll do (fine) 5 or 9. The word moment is in bold because it is another option for the number One. The number 2 is represented by the word to, which appears three times. This will increase your options. These extra options will be covered later. As you speak this sentence, you’ll want to SUBTLEY muffle the word Free and when you say relaxing, swallow the end of the word. Now whatever digits they call, you will only recap the part of the sentence that matters. You can also define where you began and where you ended. Another ploy is to re-phrase the other irrelevant words from the ONVI sentence. All will be demonstrated in some of the examples. Notice how 37 and 68 are grouped together. This is useful when applying the 37 and 68 forces with a larger crowd and using only that part of the sentence as a pseudo explanation. (You’ll find more on this in the Stage version of ONVI). You'll have to practice the recap with different combinations to get used to all the possible outs but you'll find it's easy to make it work off the cuff. Just pay attention to the number called out and repeat it out loud several times so you don’t forget it. You need to appear confident and full of conviction that you have proof that you 25
influenced that specific number. You cannot ask the participant to repeat their second digit halfway through your explanation because you forgot. Let’s try some examples: 49 "49 is exactly the number I wanted you to say. 49! It’s unbelievable how easy it is to influence the number 49. I’ll show you how I did it. Remember at the beginning I said 'be-Four we proceed, you need to relax…' (hold up 4 fingers) and at the end I said 'you'll do fine'. I accentuated the ‘ine’ in ‘fine’, which sounds like nine and since these numbers were the first and last things I told you, that's what you picked up on."
65 "65! Exactly right! Remember I told you to get into a relaxing state. That's an odd way of saying that. It should be ‘a relaxed state’. What I actually said with a bit of a slu r was relaxsix and your mind picked up on that. The last thing I said was you'll do fine. I accentuated the F on fine and you picked that up as five. Isn't it amazing how the mind works... 27 There are several outs for 2 as you must have noticed. This allows you to move the 2 to where you need it to be. You might need to use the In Reverse gambit, explained in a moment. So you would recap, “ When you were breathing, I said ‘feel free 2 take (hold up 2 fingers) SEVeral moments….by accentuating the SEV of several, I was able to influence you to name SEVEN as your second digit.
In Reverse Let's say someone names a number like 84. The order of the sentence doesn't match. Instead you will tell them you were actually trying to get them to say the number 48 and instead they got it reversed. 84 “I was trying to influence you to say 48, but you said 84 which I consider a hit anyways. At the beginning I said ‘beFour we proceed’ (hold up 4 fingers), that you need to be in a ‘relaxed stEight’.Like the number 8. That’s why you got those digits”. 26
Explain that now that you understand their mind senses things in reverse, you will make the proper adjustments for the next experiment. This would be a great moment to continue with "non verbal suggestion" and a swami gimmick to send a 3 digit number into their mind. Here are some examples for dealing with the number One: 31 Option 1-derful (wonderful) For 31 you could apply the In Reverse ploy. You’d point out that you began by saying “Wonderful” which influenced the digit 1 and that “Feel free” was actually “feel three”.
Option 2 – ‘Moments’ and More. Here are other options to represent the number One using the word moments instead of wonderful, since the word wonderful might be awkward coming from some mouths. "Remember I said 'feel free to take several moment'. What I actually slurred was ‘feel three’ (hold up 3 fingers) and normally one would say ‘several moments’ but I swallowed the s on moment. Your mind picked up on that interruption and thought of a singular moment. One. That's why the number 31 popped into your head." Or you could point out the word “Yourself”. Which made them think of their singular self, therefore, One. Not my favorite option, but worth expressing since this may give you other ideas if you feel like making adjustments in the script.
You only need to review the parts of the sentence that apply. Also it's a good idea to hold up your fingers as you recap the numbers. Here’s how to cover for 59 or 95. This is one of the best scenarios.
95 or 59 “It’s amazing how that works. The last thing I told you as you were exhaling was that you’ll do fine. Notice how fine is a combination of five and nine and it was the last word in the sentence. It’s known that if you want someone to easily remember something, put it at the end of the list.”
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Notes and Brainstorms I’ve discovered that sometimes the ONVI sentence is truly influential. I've had success with the 37 and 68 force without eliminating options by giving too many examples. I only eliminate numbers with repeating digits. It works over the phone as well and if you use the whole sentence you are prepared for any out.
Find out if the number has any meaning to the person and take credit for knowing that as well. Remember you can have them reveal their number and then continue with having them think of another set of numbers before you reveal the subliminal language prediction. This applies to one on one situations. If you offer a limited choice of a 2 digit number between 1 and 50, without any restrictions aside from no repeating digits, you’ll find that 37 is still a common choice. So it may be worth asking, “you’re not thinking of 37 are you?” If no, you say, “Great! That means that my subtle influence worked over the power of common choices.” Then use the verbal index to explain further. Paul uses a presentation along the lines of: “You were in my dream last night, and something weird happened! Let’s see if this will work…” Deliver the ONVI sentence, and continue, “Now, think of a two digit number, lower than 50, with different digits. Got it? Ok, you’re not thinking of 37 are you?” If so, continue with: “Great! That’s exactly what you chose in my dream!” If not, say: “Great! That’s what you said in my dream, and what I was trying didn’t work in my dream…let’s see if it worked now, which number did you choose?” continue with ONVI.
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