Mes(s)merize
Ste an Olsche ski
C pyright © 011 Stefa Olschewski
No art of this publication may be re produced r transmitt d in any aterial for or by any means, including hotocopying, image scanning, storing or re cording by any means in any f rm nor br adcasting r transmission through any mediium of any part of this publicati n by electr onic mean and whet er or not tr ansiently o r incidentally to som other us of this publication, without th express ritten con sent of St fan Olschewski.
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“ Men at ome tim are mast ers of th ir fates” Shakespe re, William : “Julius C esar”; act , scene 2
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The Blurb ...... .............................. ............... .............................. .................. 5 The Premise . .............................. ............... .............................. .................. 6 The History ... .............................. ............... .............................. .................. 6 The Secret .... .............................. ............... .............................. .................. 8 The Setup ..... .............................. ............... .............................. .................. 9 The Routine .. .............................. ............... .............................. ................ 12 The Final Selection ...................... ............... .............................. ................ 13 The Revelatio ............................. ............... .............................. ................ 14 The Final Kicker ........................... ............... .............................. ................ 16 The Economy Version .................. ............... .............................. ................ 17 Afterthoughts and Bonus Routine ............. .............................. ................ 19 The Credits ... .............................. ............... .............................. ................ 23 S urces of Inspiratio : ............................ .............................. ................ 23 S urces of
upply: .................... ............... .............................. ................ 23
App ndix ....... .............................. ............... .............................. ................ 25
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This is much m re than ju t a mental effect. Mes(s)merize by Stefan Ollschewski i a bran d-new appl ication of an ingeniou principle t at enables you to ma ke your act mor vivid, per onal and in teractive.
our audien ce will exp rience an ULTRA
CLE N prediction of RAN OM thoug ts that inv lves every single spe ctator and play huge eve on the lar gest stage: A cl ar wine-gl ss is seen on a table enter-stage, containing a black e nvelope wi h a pred iction. Before or durin the show, the specta ors are as ed to conc entrate on single thought, can
rite it down on a card and seal it in an opaque envelop e. They re lly
rite down whatever t ey like, th re is no for ce whatso ver.
At y ur comma d, they all throw their envelopes onto the st ge creatin g a mess o the f loor (hence the title of the effect “ es(s)merize”). A ran om specta tor selects any one of the envelopes (again: NO forc !). Let’s assume the t ought insi e reads “ICECREAM”. HE remov s the prediiction from he glass a d opens it.. SHE read the rediction a loud: it mat ches the f reely sele ted thoug t! Now for the FIN AL kicker: he lady is asked to o en up the rumpled p aper ball that was used to randomly select her as a volunteer. IIt reads: “T night, a b autiful lady called Annie will think of ICECREAM!”
The spectator is ra domly sel cted
No swit h of the paper ball
No stoo es
No secr t assistants
No pre- how
No fum ling
No slee ing
No electronics
They ca really write down an thought
The oth r envelopes may be o pened to s ow they all contain di fferent wor s
Predicti n envelop has a DIF FERENT c lor than the rest of th envelope
Spectat r opens and reads th prediction herself
You never touch th prediction
Spectat r may kee the predic tion and e velope, bo h are com letely unprepared
Are ou ready t “mes(s)merize” your audience!
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I lov predictio effects! I now many technical olutions b t all of the don’t qui e fit my r equirement s. I want a effect to b e able to b performe anywhere , from parl r to stag . As I us ally work alone, I al o don’t h ve the op ortunity to use a hidden back stage assi tant. And till I want o do a pr diction tha is as clea n as it can get with the specta or removing the ungi micked e velope th t has been in full vie all the time. The solution I a going to escribe o the follow ng pages ay not be the Grail to all of ou, but I uarantee t hat if you ead this anuscript horoughly and don’ overlook t he little ps chological details, yo will be amazed how great this plays in real life. Bob Cassidy s ggests o ening your act with n effect t at involve the com lete audi nce – well here you ave the pe rfect open r. Although I sometim es even do this as a closer, it r ally is that strong! Before we go into the expl nation, let’ s first take a look at h w the effe t came ab ut.
I ha e played solutions and fi seve ral well-kn mak your spe imp ssible.
round with the basic idea for a long time now. I tried many different ally ended up with thi s version, hich is ba ed on the combination of wn metho s and cle er audience manage ent. This special mix will tators beli ve in magi c and mira les, as it akes the e ffect absol tely
So if you are looking for brand-new rinciples, ou might be disappoi ted. But if you are looking for an absolutely clean, hands-off mental mi acle your spectators will definitely talk a out, you might consid er reading n. For long time, I have be n performi g a predic tion effect y German magician Joro, who, in 1993, escribed n effect c alled “Joro’s hundert rozentige orhersag ” in Alfred Kellerhof ’s magazine “Zaubert richter”. H introduce the prem ise of isol ting the final predi tion in a glass and already used a similar metho d for the inal revelation I use today. The problem with this version, howev er, was that you only ad a singl deck of c rds in play with only 52 pos ible outco es and t e whole t ing was resented s a variation of the “Stop-Tric ” involving only one s ingle spectator. The s pectator w uld deal cards facedown until he stopped . You wou d then tak the card rom him, put it into the glass t gether with the predi ction card, recap wha had happ ened and t hen take out both c rds togeth r again to how that t ey match. I still like this or iginal versi n, but wa looking for a way to ake the e fect play r ally big, involve more spectat rs and, m st importa tly, to let he spectat ors do mo t of the ork. Finally and mos importantl y, I wante to get away from pl ying cards, as
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the dds of yo predicting the corre t card are only 1 to 1. But if y u use ran om thoughts of a s ectator, re ealing a c rrect predi tion would be a true iracle! An i ea I learn d from an old video t pe on Close-Up min reading b the great Jon Tre aine got y mind going. And a fter a cou le of years and many performa ces und r literally a y imagina le circums tances, I e ded up wit “Mes(s)m erize”. Eve though the basic m thod is no t my own (there are many grea ter minds than min in magic) , I would ike to stre ss that this effect re lly gets a cross bec use ever thing app ars to be absolutely f ir and ope n. That is hy I put a llot of emphasis on proper audie nce mana ement. So, let’s dive d ep into the secret.
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When you read the ads f r magic ef fects on the market t day, you ill often c me across claims such as “no rough and smooth”, no magnets”, “no wir s”, “no sp cial cards”… All t is is true or “Mes(s)merize”. Alll you need to make t is little mi racle work is a trac of non-p rmanent lue, a cou ple of en elopes an a black marker. T at’s basi ally it. A pr eparation one in just a couple o minutes a d you are ready to g . It appears that, in the past few month s, the prin iple of non permanen ly gluing c rds toge her has h ad a kind of revival. If you just think ab ut the lat st release of Anthony Owen (“The Stick Blue Boo ”), “A New Trick” by Lefty and Ju lien Alexandre, or e en Richar d Sanders’ 2008 lect ure notes or his ”Super Cards DVD”, onl to men ion a few, ou will realize what I ean. Nev rtheless, t e basic id a is as old as card m gic itself.
What actually h ppens dur ing the rout ine is this:
The spectators really think of any word or object. hey may hoose to rite down anything they like They se l their “thoughts” in a small envelope and throw it onto the stage A lady f rom the audience pic s up five r six of th envelope s and cho ses one of t em as her final selectiion The sel cted env lope is se cretly swit hed for a duplicate matching our predicti n) in full iew by si ply placin it into th glass to ether with the predicti n envelop – please ote that the predictio envelope has a different color!) The sel cted “thou ht” and pr diction are revealed – they of co rse match The lad opens up the paper ball that w s used to andomly s elect her a d it says in bold printed letters w hat she will be thinki g of and lso states her name ( ethod 1: isreading) and if desir ed even a f ull descriptiion of what she is weari g (method 2: to be re ealed later on) The audience goes crazy (hop efully)!
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Her is what you need to ull off the e ffect:
A c lear (wine) gla s (that is imensione d to hold a small manila envelope upright around) A l ot of manila en elopes (or any ther kind of envelope that will fit into your gl ss) An A4 o r even A3 sized shee t of paper (which ay also be colored re or yellow)
Plenty f your ow business cards that fit into the envelop s
A b lack marker
A s mall piece of p aper
ithout wig ling
Non-pe manent gl ue (If you already own a “ZIG 2 ay Glue en” then fine, if not, I suggest using the UH non-perm nent roller or the 3M Scotch Up Glue stick or – this is the product I prefer and which pro ed to give the best re ults.)
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All y u need to do before t e show is this:
First, ta e one of t e envelop s (envelo e 1) and color it com pletely in black using th marker p n Take a second envelope (en velope 2) and cover only the a ddress side in black – the side ithout the lap – I suggest putti g a piece of thick p per inside s the pen d es not ble d though. Finally put a white uestion m rk onto th address side of both envelopes and apply a trace of n n-perman nt glue to the inside of the fla s so they will remain losed whe pressure iis applied.
envel pe 1 flap side
nvelope 2
env lope 1
flap side
e nvelope 2
addr ess side a ddress sid
Apply a small am unt of glu to the a dress sid of envelo pe 2. A si gle stroke fr om the lo er left to t e upper ri ht corner ill be eno gh. If you use ZIG 2 Way Glue m ke sure yo u wait until the blue gl e gets dry and clear f or a non-per anent co nection, i you don’ , the glue will stick the envel pes together permanen ly during t e perform nce. Align the two env lopes and put them into the lass as o e. Make ure envelop 2 (with nly one b lack side) is in front of envelo e 1, its black address side (with the glue o it) facing the audien e. If you icked the ight size, the glass will elp to alig them.
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Write a random w rd (e.g. IC ECREAM) on one of your busin ess cards and slide it i to envelope 2. Write your predicti n on a sm all piece o paper, fol it in half envelop 1 (the on in the bac k).
nd slide it into
Re-align the two nvelopes i n the glass and place the glas s onto a t ble upstage in full view. Treat th flaps of ll the other envelope with a tra e of non- ermanent lue so they ay be op ned after t e perform nce and c n be used several times. Distribute a fair n mber of e velopes, auditori m.
ards and
ens on th e seats in the
Wait for the audien e to arrive and start your show.
(I will el borate on he final kic ker later on so don’t worry about hat for no !)
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The way I intr duce the ffect depe ds on the situation I am perfor ming in. When doin a full eve ning show I sometim s have a t pe played before I in itially enter the stag with the information that some of the au ience me bers will ind a card, an env lope and a pen on their seat an that they are to con entrate on any word that has an emotional meaning to them. ake sure t ey concentrate on a appy emo ion! Something that makes them feel goo d. God for id someone writes th name of their prec ious dead at. Have t em write d own their thought and seal it in t he envelope at any oint durin the perfor ance. This gives you the opportunity to ref er back to this reque t, thus cre ating a ce tral the e for your how, emp asizing th fairness of their sele tions seve al times and to sho the main ffect as th final piec of your act. You might also have the nvelopes l ing on a t ble near t e stage a d ask the to collect one and seal their houghts in side during the intermission. Or ou can si ply ask them to write down th ir thoughts directly be ore the “experiment” i s carried o t. (I pref r not to be ause the riting can e quite ti e-consumi g and ma produce dead time during the act which you do not n eed.) Eith r ways yo will finally end up wit h a numbe r of people holding se aled envel pes with an arbitrar word on the card in side (remember to tell them that the flaps seal automatically a nd need not be mois tened!). T is is wher e we start with the ain routine: “I would like you all to join me in a very pecial exp riment. It is all about your own min and your secret thoughts. A nu ber of yo are holding o to an envelope carr ing one si gle personal thought. You have not told anybo y what is iinside, have you? To ight I will t ry to show you the power of your ow – subcon cious – mi d.” Ask hem to hold on tight to their env lope and t o think of t e word ins ide. Then raw atte tion to the glass on the table. “In this wine glass I ave place a single b lack envel my predi tion for this experi ent. With your hel challenge fate. All w need to d o is trust in ourselves our subconscious will lead us t the right ecisions. I volunteer for this.”
pe. This w ill be , I will t y to nd believe that need a ra dom
The wording above expl ins to the audience that they re neede to make the exp riment suc essful, thus increasin g their own status. Ta e the crum pled paper ball from your pock t and use it to select omebody t random. I prefer a l dy for this so I simp ly throw th ball into t e audienc and ask them to thr w it again t wo more ti es to s lect a random lady. If a man catc hes the ball at the final throw I as k him to si ply han the ball to a lady of his choice. he lady is sked to come on stag e together with the aper ball. “What is our name, please? – Annie, well Annie, we have not met before, h ve we? W uld you mi nd helping me out wit your intui tion? Great.” Now comes the fun part, the mes s on stag . This m ment may not read too inter esting but in real per ormances this is wh t makes t e effect m emorable. The picture of 50 or so envelopes flying to ards the tage is a sight you wo n’t forget.
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“At the count of thre , I would l ike you to send your houghts to me. And I me n it literall . Please t ke your e velope an throw it at me, right at my left hand. If any of t e envelopes fly too short and la nd in front of t e stage, somebody please pi k it up a d throw a gain. Ready? end me you thoughts now: One, Two, Thre !” Enjo y the fun of the situati n and the act that not a single envelop will actually land in your outstretch d left hand. “Amazing throw. Well, Annie, w ould you do me a favor and sel ect a couple of thoughts f r me? Five or six will be enough, but reme ber, this is your own free decision. I o not wan to touch a ything my elf!” Mar that from his mome t on, I nev r refer back to the co tents of th e envelopes as “wor ds”. I only t lk of them as “though ts”. This is a little but i portant n ance. “Annie, a e you happy with the thoughts ou have selected? G ood, you are n w going to make a fin al, very im ortant decision now, sing nothing b t your sub onscious.”
Annie will now ick one of the envelo pes of the five or six he is hold ing as her inal sele tion. This nvelope needs to be placed inside of the glass in fron t of the do ble env lope. Here is the script I use to m ake this m vement natural and otivated: “Annie, pl ase hold t e thought in your hands and fa them out. ” Gest ure with your empty h nds as if y ou were fa ning out c rds in you hand. “Look at our hands. And when I say ‘now’, simply point to any o f the thoughts ou are holding. Point to the thought that shall be your final decision f or tonight. This will b the thought we will se tonight . Are you ready? … Now!” Peo le who have alread heard of technique such as agician’s choice will be thro n off by the statement above. Y u commit ourself to the envelop e she poin s at to b the one to go for. No funny elimi nating, no moves, n touching t he envelopes. “This one Annie, this is very im portant. Would you li e to stick or would ou rather o for anoth er one?”
ith it
Let er change her mind if she wishe . “Would you please t ke your th ught slowl out of the fan?” Note that I now refer to th selected e nvelope as “her thought”, althoug h a compl tely diffe ent person actually wrote the wo rd inside. hen trying to reconst ruct the ro tine after wards, mo t people will swear th at the lady was merel thinking o f a word rather than just pickin somebod else’s env elope. The situation now is the following: The lady is standing to my rig t, holding her sele ted thoug t and the other env lopes. Th table wit the glas is positi ned
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bet een us bu a few st ps toward env lope inside the glass.
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the back rop so sh
won’t not ice the do ble
I ver y slowly ta e the thought from h r holding it only at m fingertips . If necess ry I turn it so the address side faces the a udience s that the or ientation m atches the one of the envelope inside the lass. I no need to fi d a justific tion to pla ce the sele ted thought inside f the glass. I take the rest f the envelopes from her with m left hand and hesitat e for a se ond as I need both hands to pen the en velopes that were no chosen a d to show the thoughts she di d not sele t. While s ying the f llowing, I simply pla e the sele ted thought in front of the dou le envelop (apparently to get m hands fre ): “Before we move on, let me show you what would h ve happen ed if you had selected a y other t ought. (Pl ce the selection int the glass.) H d you sele ted this on e, what would you be thinking of right now?” I op n the flap f one of the envelope s, take out the card a d have he read the out l ud.
ord
“You’d be thinking of HOLIDA S. Indeed. Or that o e. What ould you be thiinking of h d you cho sen this th ught? A P ARROT. G reat. But your subconsci us drew ou to a different thought. This one here.” After two or thr e of the n t selected thoughts have been r evealed, I imply take the cards and envelopes and asually pla ce them in my outer l ft jacket p cket. This is to cond ition the a dience for the mome t when I l ter ditch t e double nvelope to get rid o the corpu delicti.
Rec p what ha happened and emph asize agai the fairne s of the se lection pro ess and hat it is ab olutely im ossible for anyone to know Anni ’s thought. You will now sl wly reach into the gla s and take out the selection with the pre-loaded env lope stuck to it. To pe fectly align them, sim ly push from above a d then take all the nvelopes i side the glass betwe n thumb and fingers nd apply ome pressure, then take out the double e velope. Do this slowly; no one will notice th pressing action. They will only see you r ach into he glass a d delibera ely pull out the select d thought: “Well, let’s see w at thoug t you w nt for, u ing only your subconscious.” Mak sure to handle the nvelope(s) as if you ere holdin just one, don’t be a raid that they might separate, hey won’t. You could even drop them on t e floor wit out any danger. (Tr ust me, thi accidentally happen d to me s veral time and neve did they come apar .)
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The movement should b smooth a d fluent. Simply take the double , turn it ov r to ope the flap this show both sid s to be n rmal) and pull out t he card inside half ay. Have nnie pull it out compl tely and take a look a it.
“Don’t tell us the th ught right away, but try to ma e up a m ental image in our mind. Could you describe what you ar seeing in your own words without r vealing the particular hought yet?” Annie will now describe hat she re ad only se onds before. What e are trying to achi ve with this request is again t convince the audience that A nnie is m rely thinking of anyt ing in the orld. “Please t ke out my prediction f rom the gl ss and look inside, ju st for yourself.” This is the real convincer and the detail that turns this trick into miracle. The spec tator takes out the pr diction by erself whil you stan far away f rom the ta le. I always have th spectator look at the prediction first before showing t e match to the audi nce, beca se it adds to the impa ct. This is a clever way of au ience man agement introduced b award wi nning mentalist Satori and expl ained by obert Mart eau in his essay “Das Zuschau er-Handlin ” in “Nachtkauz 20 7”. If you think about it, there ar e many ways of purp sely using the assi ting spect tor to add to the imp ct of an e fect; and t us make t he whole t ing even more con incing for the rest of t e audienc .
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Peo le obviously know w at is going to happen; they exp ct the pre iction to c me true. By having the spectator look at t he predicti n first, everybody will focus on his or her ace and the expressi n on it is hat really sells the e fect even efore the inal revelation. Now ask her to read out t e predicti n to the r st of the a dience an d the appl use will ome auto atically. A d it will be a lot loud r and mor enthusias tic if you follow the ctions des ribed abo e compare d to simply showing that the two ords match. “Thank y u very mu h, Annie, or your gr at intuition, and than you all (look into the au ience) for making this experim nt a succe ss – against alll odds!” You will now n ed to get r id of the d uble envel ope by simply placing it into your left ack t pocket d ring this o f-beat to g t your han s free to s ake her h nd. Everyt ing from the envelopes on s age to th predictio itself ca be exam ined. You end com letely clean and leav them baffl ed.
Before the lady leaves the stage, just as an afterthought, h ve her co e back to you and explain: “Annie, we have never met b fore and ou were i fact rand omly selected y the pa er ball rig t at the eginning. ou have been holding o to this ball the whole time and I did not get near it, cor rect? Good. Would you do me a favor and carefully open up the ball.” When she is almost finished take th paper from her and ask her to “read together with me”. That means you are readin g out the rediction hile she is watching ver your shoulder. y predicti n reads as follows:
TH UGHT E PERIMENT N . 12 01/1 /2011 T night, a be autiful lady from he audien e called A nie w ll be rando ly chosen by a throw of t is paper b ll. She will e thinking f
I ECRE M 16
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If th lady is n t called Annie, you wiill of cours cover the name with your right first fing r and sim ly misread the name. All focus ill of cour e be on th e revelation of the elected th ught that i why this s hould be pr inted in bold letters. Whil e reading t e word “I ECREAM”, I turn the paper tow rds the au dience. From a distance, nobod y will notic if the lady ’s name is incorrect, but they will be able to see that our predic ion is inde d correct. Beli ve me, thi final kicker will kill th audience, although it does not redict anyt ing else than the aper insid of the s all envelo pe. But th effect is different. hat started out as demonstr ation of ho the subconscious can be influ enced to ake her ick a thought you w nted her t pick, this final revel tion show that it is also poss ible to influ ence rand m events nd to eve know wh will be se lected to ake all the free deci ions. Try it out and y u will see hat I mea .
Some of you, I m sure, won’t be willi ng to spen money o lots of ma nila envelo es. At l ast I felt t at way w en I did t is in front of several hundred eople. I u e a diffe ent versio in those uge envir nments th t I call the “Economy Version”. his version doesn’t require the use of env elopes at all. I si ply use bl nk-faced laying car s or my o n business cards th t are blan on one side to have them write down th ir thoughts. To prepa e the glas , you will need to c lor one of the card backs black, ake it tac y using th non-perm anent glue and plac it in front f the black prediction envelope. You will need t construct his envelo e yourself to make it exactly th same siz as the laying cards. This is a one-time reparation and done i a couple f minutes.
What really sell s the effec in this ver sion is tha the prediction does ot only ha e a diffe ent color ut also a different m aterial. The spectato s write th ir thought on playi ng cards ( .g. red backed) and in the glass there is a black envelo pe. The id a of a for ce or a swi ch is canc lled out rig ht from the start!
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The second big advantag of this ve rsion is that the prepared predict ion will ap ear very flat as th re is only one single card lean ing agains the addr ss side of the env lope, thus allowing for a close-u p perform nce without any worriies. You will of cour se need to adjust the script and handling a little bit to make sur the spectator doe not look a the card f ces with t e words when choosi g one of t hem. When I’m employing the conomy ersion I us e the follo ing script after the s pectators ave thro n their car ds onto the stage: “Simply c llect six or seven ca ds from the floor. Th exact nu mber doesn’t matter. Remember: thi is your own decision. As this iis all about yo r subcons ious, plea se make sure to pick cards tha t are lying writiing-side d ow n so no body can know whic thoughts they hold.” Mos of the time, she will try to put t he cards i to your hand. Draw and say:
ack your hand
“No, I do not want o touch th e thoughts! Annie, y u are goi g to make a fiinal, very important d ecision now, using nothing but your subconscious. Please hold the thoughts in your hands and fan them out.” Gest ure with your empty hands as if ou were f nning out ards in yo r hand. N tice the ay she is olding and fanning th e cards. If they are fa e up (whic only hap ens very rarely after the initial r equest to p ick cards f ce-down), correct her by saying: “No, don’ let yours lf get influ enced by the thoughts on the c ards. This is s pposed to be a sub onscious ecision, simply turn them over.” If sh is already holding th cards pro perly, omit his part. “When I say ‘now’, simply point to one of ll these th ughts. Poiint to the thought that shall be you r final decision for t night. Are you ready? … Now!” The rest of the outine will move alon the same lines as th original ve rsion.
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As I stated ea lier on, th re is a w y to even predict on the pape ball what the rand omly sele ted person will be wearing. his, of c urse can’ be done by misr ading pie es of infor ation. If h owever, you are familiar with Ke nedy’s “Pr imal Pred iction”, yo will know how this i s possible. Unfortuna ely, as thi is an ori inal idea, I cannot describe the workings ere, but I r ecommend you check out this ef ect, the election of the volunt er itself it orth the m ney. Plea se don’t overlook that the envelo e (or card the spectator selects can be sig ed! This is a very s rong convincer. Have them sign the chosen envelope on the add ess side, then put it into the glass. The si gnature is always visible throug the glass and the thought of a secret swi ch is canc lled out. The word to pr dict is of c urse your free choic . Just mak up a wor that you think peo le will write down when asked to think f something. In fact, the predi tion doe n’t need to be a word at all. How about a d awing? A k them to raw a sim le picture nd you pr dict it. How about the name of city? Ha e them write down names of ran dom cities and prod uce a ph tograph of a landm ark or fa ous build ng from our predi tion env lope. The final kicker may the be a hu e replica of that bui lding that was stan ing on sta e covered with a clot since the beginning f the show . How about a c ar? Ask them to writ down the model and color of th eir favorite car and predict it o an adver isement ri ped from magazin . You mig t also use this as a publicity tunt at a parking lot.. A bag c ntaining c r keys is handed to the spec tator befor the effect. As the fi nal kicker he spectator remove the keys and pres ses the re ote button to open th e doors. The only car that open is the “fr ely” sele ted model in the chosen color. How about a eadline p rediction? Distribute numerous newspape rs in the l bby and have them pick any h adline or ub-headline from any of the pap ers and write it dow . The freely chosen eadline is printed on the piece of paper in the predi tion env lope. As a final kicke you might have a page number and a col mn printe on the rumpled u piece of aper. This refers to an advertisement in th newspap r of the ay of the performanc predicting the chose headline. How about a phone nu ber? Ask a person glas es on sta e each pr dicting a t hree or fo dow a freely c osen number accordi ngly. Both ask nyone to ial both n mbers on after the the arcel (containing your own phon ) starts to
to guard small pa rcel. Have two r digit nu ber and h ave them rite redictions match. As the final ki ker, ther on hi cell phon and suddenly ing.
How about … ou get the idea, don’t you? Treat this trick s a meth d, a vehicl to play with and fin your own applications of this rinciple. T e great thing about th is is that the routine a ound it hid es the fact that this is simply a ay of forcing literally anything. This offers an enormou s potential! *** When I first pr sented the routine to my friends and colle gues, furth er ideas c me up i stantly. I am very happy that hey all allowed me o share t eir fascin ting thoughts with me:
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Mik Ince sug ests that it could be ombined ith a Q&A like Osterli nd's "The ery Modern Mindr ader" in which the performe divines information from se eral env lopes off t e floor thr ughout the performance before losing with the predic ion. That way more of the au ience exp eriences p rsonal int raction wit h you and the Q&A closes st ong every time. In t at sort of presentati n, the for ce card is like Ban chek's fro his dra ing duplic ation on v lume 2 o his Psi S eries. Tha is, though everyone writes 3 r 4 items er card, o ly one pie e of infor ation is le ible on t e forced c rd. Mike also came up with a great subtl ty that I a happy he allowed m e to share with you: He ould try t get a bluff confirma tion from the imaginary person who wrote the pred icted word "ICECRE AM". It's a small lia ility to the presentati n if you on't confirm who w ote it. While reading the unchosen words you migh t get a co ple words verified y their aut ors (don't o this for very selec ion, but on e or two). fter the olunteer r ads "ICECREAM" alo ud, quickly look abov the head of a couple of peo le and say, "ICECREAM? Yes ?" with a small nod. Then pr ceed with the revelation. It isn't necessar y but it's b ld and ma enhance the overall redibility o the effe t. Using a somewhat common p rediction ord (not too common ) might lead to the perfect scenario wh n there r eally IS a person i the cro d who wrote "ICECREAM". *** Lu c Volpe came up wit the idea f using a lottery ticket for the inal predic ion. You could hav the audie ce write d own combinations of everal on digit num ers and he selecte number ould be P INTED on the lottery ticket insid the envel pe. You and nec can
could also have three envelopes on stage i three glasses (a very visual dis lay) present a confabula ion-like ro utine. If y u find a ay to se cretly add the ssary sticky card or nvelope w hen the pr diction is laced into the glass, you ven send he predicti n envelop to the ho t weeks before the sh ow. ***
Gre Ar ce se ms to ov rflow with great ideas and unc nventiona l thinking. The outli ed routi es belo already show the tremendous opp ortunities the “Me (s)merize” method off ers. Enjoy t hem! Pick a Predict i on: What if you reverse the process? ou show a bunch o cards th t have lot of pred ictions on hem. Tho e are toss ed on the floor and a spectator picks a fe at rand om then d cides on o e. This on e is shown to match hat's in th envelope, but also has a list f various t ings you'v predicted throughou the act. S o all the things on t at list are things you f rced earli r in your a t. The Target: You pick a line of people and write ll their na es on car ds. A spe tator rand mly pick one card and you d the envel pe switch. They read out the na e they pi ked and now the pr diction en elope has an exact description f that pers on. So you just hav to know one person' name in dvance and write it the same w y you will later on t e other car d. You do ave an ext ra advantage here: If ou mark t e card you are writi g in front f the audience then y u might g t lucky and see that th e spectato did
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pick that card o now yo don't hav to do a witch. You have the just read the name then clea nly reach i to the env lope and r ad out your prediction . Elab orate Chai rs: Pict re 3 or 4 c airs with small tables behind them. On eac table ther is one of our env lope set u s. The spectators pi k four random envel pes and s it in any c air. The can even mix up their seating nd/or the nvelopes. In the end, each person's env lope has number ard that m atches wh t's in the black enve lopes and you hav one final long paper prediction that matc es the fou digit num ber create by the . Mark that the numb rs are not restricted t 1-4. You ight have an unprep red stac of numb r cards fr m 1-100 t at can be shuffled a d random ly chosen. Not only will the car ds match t e content of the envelopes behi d the chai s, the sele ted sequ ence coul also match a (previo usly forced) time, ph ned numb r or page of a boo . Lo o , I’m a stri pper: Hav people to an envelope. T coul be some You could mak
s dollar bills onto the stage. The spectator icks one a nd he puts it in e serial n mber is pr edicted in your black envelope. I thought t ere funny line about pe ple tossin dollar bill at you in the begin ing. a funny r ference to orking a trip joint in your earlie life.
Dra ing Dupe: You have the a udience wr ite words t hat can be drawn like ball, hous , car, etc. The spec tator picks one of th envelope that cont ins a word and you o your switch. Now they open up the envelope and raw the r presentati n of the w rd on a board. You then take ut the paper in your rediction nvelope, u fold it and it is a dra ing dupli cation of what the spectator just rew. Mes sy Clues: Hav the audi nce put a finish to a Clue gam on their ards. So hey would put things like “Mu derer is Mrs. Plum, ictim is Col. Mustard, Weapon is Knife a d it hap ened in th Billiard Room.” The audience ut their answers on c ards. Now you go t rough the routine an the spect ator pulls ut and reads what h finally pic ed. Your envelope as the predicted outc ome, but y u can als use a visu al predicti n in the nd. I have one I use for Clue in which the force is Col. Mustard, with a rop , in the illiard roo . On the t ble there i a bag an I reach in and pull o ut a small r ope that leads to a oose arou d a jar of ustard. In ide the jar here is a b illiard ball. Mes sy News: A n wspaper is passed ar ound the a udience a d many ar e told to ta ke out a p ge. The everyone with a page is told t rip their pages until hey have pieces that are abo t one-sixteenth the si e of the o riginal page. These p eces are t ossed onto the stag . Another spectator randomly picks up ten piece and pla ces them into env lopes. In th e end you' e not only predicted the word he selects on the final pi ce, but ou had m de a Xero copy of t at particul r area in t e paper a nd that's in the env lope. *** Some of you might want to stick to t eir expen ive prediction boxes hat allow f or a mor detailed rediction. hat’s O.K. – but only if you hav a backsta ge assista t to write that predi tion and 3,000 bucks t o spare.
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If, h wever, yo are doin a one-ma n show, if you need to travel lo g distances to your gigs and try to avoi large eq ipment b t are still ooking for a routine that requ ires almost no pocket space an is yet abl e to fill the largest sta ge with vi ual, thea rical impact, “Mes(s) erize” is a routine I pr dict you will definitely use. Ther e you have it. This is “Mes(s) merize”. F om A to . I hope you will enjoy perf rming this routine. It i really eas y to do an will play g eat in any environme t. If you ant to do omething pecial, try it. I promis you will n ver want t miss it again. Now go ahead nd fool th m! Make t em believ in miracle !
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Sou ces of Ins piration: Bore r, Christop : “Die Tra mfrau” in: “ Seminar 1 97” (Lecture Notes), 997 Burg er, Eugen : “Ein bizarres Ritual (A Bizarre Ritual)” in: “MAGIE – Journal of the Magic Circle of Germany”, 07/1997 Gar ia, Frank: “Super-Sp cial Predi tion” in: “ uper Subtle Card Mi racles”, Million Doll r Producti ns, 1973 Hen ing, Brun (Joro): “Joro’s hund ertprozentige Vorher age” in: K ellerhof, Alfred (ed.): “Zaubertrichter”, 1993 Hen ing, Bruno (Joro): “Die Pritt-Kart e” in: Erens, Oliver (ed.): “Inside Cardmagi II”, Verl g OE, 1996 Hen ing, Bruno (Joro): “D r Umgang mit der Kle ekarte” in “Neues vo alten Jor ”, Zau erbuch-Verlag, 2004 Hen ing, Bruno (Joro): “R twein für Circle of Germany”, 07/20 8 Ken edy (Ken
lte Knabe ” in: “MAGIE – Journ al of the Magic
yne): “Pri al Predicti on”, eBook, 2009
Left and Alexa ndre, Julie : “A New Trick”, 2008 Mart eau, Robert: “Das Z schauer-Handling” i 200 ” Atrioc 20 8
Geue, B rnhard (e .) “Nacht auz
Owen, Anthony: “The Stic y Blue Boo k”, 2008 San ers, Richard: “2008 L cture Not s”, 2008 San ers, Richard: “Super
ards” (DV ), 2004
Tre aine, Jon: “Close-Up Mental Act” (Video Ta e), Trik-A- ape, ca. 1 994 Vern on, Dai: “ Sticky Solution” in: L&L Publishing, 1988
inch, Ste hen: “The
ernon Ch ronicles V l.2”,
Sou ces of Su ply:
3M cotch Up Glue stick:: This is the stic that is perfect for pr paring th avail able in mo t stores.
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prediction card. Mor over, it will be
Mes(s)merize
Ste an Olsche ski
ZIG 2 Way Glu : If yo are looking for the ZIG 2 Way G lue stick, you might o ly find it o the intern t or nee to place an order at our art sup ply store. I also found a couple of Internatio al online hops (see below) th at carry t ese spec ial glue sticks. If you apply the (blue) glu and don’t let it dry, it will crea e a stro g, lasting onnection. If you let i dry until the glue be omes clea r and invisible, you ill get a n n-perman nt connectiion. That’s exactly wh t you need for this eff ct.
Sup ly USA: http ://www.scr pbookpal. om Sup ly Germany: http: /papierstu io.de/scra booking Sup ly GB: http: /www.disc untart.co. k Sup ly Switzerland: http: /www.bas htuegge.c
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All o Stefan’s eBooks are available di rectly from him at ww .stefanma ie.de/shop.htm or at www.lybrary.com or
The
ww.magic hop.co.uk
uthor:
Like any other magicians, Stefan got infected b the bacillus magi us by a ma gic box he got from hi parents hen he wa a child. Since then , magic ha always been part of h is life. In 1 93, at the age of 18, he becom s a memb r of the re owned Ma ic Circle of German y. When he is not p erforming live, Stefan works as a n author and translator for ma ic books and effects. He is chief editor of MAGIE, the jour al of the German Ma ic Circle. S tefan also relea es his own effect cre tions and anuscript to the ma ic mark t. His grea test love b longs to mental magi . Oth r works by Stefan Ols hewski inc lude:
The Key to Yo r Card (St efan’s Bes tseller) A ches is seen re sting on a table center stage. You hand a ke to a lady in the audie nce. Two spectators select a pla ing card a d a number from 1 to 2 in the fairest mann r. They ma y even chang their mind s as often s they wis . Card a d number are written on a sketc pad for ev eryone to see. The la y takes th key and opens the c est. She fi ds a deck of playing cards insi e. She tak s the deck, deals thr ugh the ca ds and fin s the sele ted card e actly at th selected umber.
No awk ard counting or calcullating No stoo es No secr t switches No roug and smo th No pre- how work The spectators ma change th eir mind if t hey like The lad takes the cards out o f the chest She deals the card herself You don’t come ne r the chest You NE ER touch the cards!
“If y u're still searching for the ACAA out.” - Peter Du fie
Holy Graill then I rec mmend yo u check thi
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Lost Luggage Imagine you are b ooked to d a 30 min te mentali m show and all you luggage g ets lost on he plane. I is Sunday and all sh ps are closed. What ould you o without our props, without sp cial wallets, magnets, glue, sciss rs, thumb ips or nail riters – literally without an ything? St fan once h d to cope with such a situati n and this i s what he ame up wi h. A compl ete act of high impact mentalism with nothing but the p ops you wi ll find in yo r hotel r om or borr ow from th venue yo are perfor ming in: Sen itive Silverware A gr at take on the open prediction. A random s ectator is sked to m rely think piec of silverw re and re ove it fro a table on stage. Let’s assume he decide a sp on. The mentalist re oves a sp on from hi coat pocket and sho s it openl the hole audie nce BEFO E she tak s the item from the table. No for e, no stoo no sleights – thi s is so bold and yet ef ective that you will love it!
fa on to es,
Mag ical Chairs (Journey to Jerusal m) This is the clas ic chair pr diction on teroids. F ur spectat rs are wal ing around only three chair s while the performer r ecites pas ages from the bible. henever he clos s the book they are t sit down, t he one wh doesn’t g t a chair is dismissed and one chair r moved. The winner is predicted n a piece f paper in an envelope that as in full iew from t e beginnin g. No special envelop s, no walle ts, no swit hes; just p re entertainment with an additio al kicker in the end w will not reveal yet. Win Win Situat ion Ten or more volunteers ar freely sel spec tator eliminates perso s one by on t e winner o the game. The spect that has been i full view t e entire ti On t e paper is a precise escription desc ription of what the winner looks li ever thing! No iscalling r arbitrary freel selected erson without any gi stro g!
cted. One of them will get a prize in the end A ne until th re is only one left. He freely deci es tor himsel opens an ngimmick d envelop e. He rem ves a prediction and eads it alo d. f what ha just happened includi ng a detail d e, his clot es, his hai color, his shoes, tatements – a 100% pot-on des cription of the micks or s ooges. This is person al – and ve ry
Wra Up Predi ction This is an ultra lean end- f-show pre diction effect. An envelope is see n dangling from the ceiling on a string right from t he beginni g. You ne er touch it. Between t e vari us acts, people seal a signed bill and a piec of a torn ewspaper inside an unpr epared envelope. A random spec tator finally removes t e predictio n from the env lope and r ads it aloud. You hav not only c orrectly pr dicted the ext on the new paper but also the se ial number on the sig ed and bo rowed ban knote! You will not onl learn how to perform these effe ts but also get Stefan’’s complete patt r involving psychologi cal subtleti s, advice n how to s ructure a entalism sho and more. Numerou illustration s make th instructions easy to f llow. With Lost Luggage y u will be able to perf rm a profe sional me talism sho anytime nd any here!
"Wo , what ins ired thinki g. One is t empted to deliberatel lose his lu ggage just to give these routi es a spin. Highly rec mmended! " - Ben Har ris
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