LMANN i8.zc/~ ~ST
OffIce BOX , . . . .
FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY
~~~ 1ilJti~~t~
(201) 431-2429
07728
al"ambit
FOREWORD "There is a weird power in a spoken word Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
"
The Knight's Gambit is a method that plays on words and by which miracles are wroughtl We use words to enchant the audience and to create a non-existing person that assists the Mentalist to present his marvels. Yet, in the minds of the audience this person is real and alive and takes part in the show on stagel This is mental magic in its purest form. We actually create illusions by the spoken word. It is not enough that we know how to use gimmicked books and envelopes. Real mind magic goes a bit farther and here in this treatise is an awakening effort to bring this method to the fore as there is much room for thought a~d farther research. ns a bonus I offer you Fantini's Fabulous Billet work. No less in value and well worth buying the book, Fantini (Gene Grant) illustrates in line drawings what would surely take many words to do otherwise. Fantini worked independently and along the same line of thought, keeping in the present trend of the "peek" technique that was first introduced in the original "I\cidus" rnns. and which later was expanded by Millard Longman and myself in "I\cidus Plus" and in "The Donovon Papers." Fantini is a world famous author and working Mentalist. His center tear technique may at first appear similar to other methods presently on the market but on careful study the student can Bee that his method is superior. It keeps the number of moves to a minimum. Phantini uses it in his shows and appears here by his permission from a letter dated 5/27/82.
f. k/k/fn
1
(201) 431-2429 ST OfFICE BOX 144 •
FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY
!>~ ~.llt~~t;$ C
07728
8am"lli t by Al Mann Exclusives
EFFECT. Any audience is out anyone eces, He ice of any the en eces of the whi or eces a total pieces. The chosen ece is noted or tten on a . Performer states that several days ed a containing a chess book to a person, that person book to and to circle with a red ink
by the sealed readsl open
130. see
is holding packa package is opened and a Mentali while the is book. "Dear Mr. Mentalistl You the book to any page and to chess . Well I the to "
I
Signed. The on holding open k to same chess piece
the
ok is asked the with a red e!
130 which
the ence s a and that the book can are is most implying do with
We are er Mentalist nothing thing is a strange coinThis e ct can ofas a strai prediction where as the BS piece BUT the fit I am calling to the ct participant or a now this mysterious miss person. is on stage who is ted wi aware of him! although he is nonstin?l called This ruse the lng not new. with UP" up the method in effect, "One M sm now sold Micky Hades.
.
THE KNIGHT'S GAMBIT
cont.
...
AN AL
2 MANN EX.CLUSIVE
The Dy-No-Mite Prediction by Donn Davison is the ultimate in this line of thought. Both of the above references are must reading for the serious student in Mentalism. Mis-calling or mis-naming a card or person or anything else is an old principle in magic but one seldom used except by a small group of initiates. It has much room for further developement. METHOD, The audience has a free choice of anyone of the chess pieces, but although it may appear that they have a choice of one of )2 pieces, actually they only have a choice of one in 12 pieces since many of the pieces have the same rank, for example, there are four knights, two white and two black etc. and of course there are eight pawn in the white camp and eight in the black. So actually it boils down to choosing one ' of the followingl King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Castle, Pawn; for a total of six pieces from each color.
THE CHESS BOOK is ungimmicked as far as the printing 2J6 POU~T COUNT CHESS goes. Any chess book can be Matulal, II will be noted, Is absolutely even. Each king Is rela. used. If you examine almost tively 1e"CW'e. White and BI2c:1c pawn structures .ppur to be any text book on chess you will IO\JnG, WhIte's control of the ~II-ofH'l' queen b:"hop file ICe1ru notice that almost every page to be rounterb.tanee
•••
-------------------'._-----
.
m:~---.---...,.. ,~~_.
4
KNIGHT'S GAMBIT
conti •..
AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE
of the page after you have looked at your prompter list when the chess piece chosen is called out by the audience. Say that the 'Castle' has been called for. So you ask, "White or Black?" Say they chose the Whi te Castlel . You then glimpse at the prompter list and notice that the hite Castle is circled on page 1JOI SO every time you see the dash lines on the letter you callout page 1JOI Although no one else need look at the letter, you may fill in the page number with a swami gimmick, if you wish. The letter becomes unimportant after the revelation as the impact of the effect rests on the book. The person holding the book will then open the book in the vicinity of page 1]0. He has no reason to look elsewhere. He will then notice that the pages are stuck together and he will unstick them. This is a most natural gesture since many books have pages that stick together. (see NOTE on page 5) As soon as the page is opened to, you callout the circled piece and look and smile at what the audience thinks is Mr. Faust and take the book from him, thank him and dismiss him. Since the audience thinks that the spectator on stage is Mr~ Faust, they assume that Mr. Faust knows what the circled chess piece is so you must be the one that looks surprised. You callout the chess piece and then ask, "Is that correct? The book is then shown to the audience and may even be riffled although that is also not necessary. The mind of the audience is misdirected by the words that ' you speak, so choose your words correctly. (What will you do? You may ask, if a wise guy in the audience calls out the King's Knight's Pawn or the Queen's Bishop. Well, you say, "The Gentleman has chosen the Pawn - or the Bishop.1f Yes, you could gimmick the book to accomodate every piece on the board, but that is not necessary. Keep it simple.)
.,. '/,dd'r,d
l~
()'a6i t
'
An effect similar to the above can be done by having a person circle a word in a book. First you must force a sentance that contains from seven to ten words. These should be common words that can be found in any boo'k. For example I "Why, who do you think this is?" The above sentance is the third line in the force book "The Hound of the Baskervilles." You can take almost any thick novel and have these words circled. Say the novel has JOO pages. You circle one word in every 35 pages. And then seal the pages after making a prompter list. The line of print in the book is easy to force. First force the page and then tell the person to read off the first three lines and say that the third line is just perfect for the test! Have m secretly circle any word on the line.
5 AN At MANN EKCLUSIVE IN ORBIT
cont. • • •
The presentation follows the theme of the Knight's Gambit. audience is led to believe that the Mentalist had little to do . i t other then to use his psychic influence. A Novel is mailed 'given to Mr. Faust with the instructions to open the book to any and to circle any word on the page. A second book is used on stage to force the line of print. A letter must come with the Novel and since you are writing ,letter you can lay it on thi.ck, for examples "Dear Mr. Mental You have given me a choice of any of 300 pages in the book contains thousands of words and you have asked me to circle word. Well I have chosen page so see for yourself the word t I have circled. In this case you may open the book yourself to the correct and then flash it to the audience. "Amazing" You say! tf
-
NOTEI In the above two effects, if you circle the chess pieces the words with a red ball-point pen. you will not have to cemen.t· pages together. The book can be left as is and the pages riffled nothing is seen. You will only see the circled item when the . orrect page is opened tol Bear in mind that the audience assumes t the page chosen was a free choice and also the word or chess ece. The effect is so strong that no one will imagine that there e more then one word or chess piece circled in the book.
C
'6"'1! $t4Ia, t1.A.,6it I
I am sure that the 1re~der is acquainted with the Five-star e deck. This is only a four~way forcing deck with some indifoards in between each force card. For completeness let us ;that our deck is made up as follows I The four forcing cards , 4s, 5D, 70 and 8H. There are six of each of the forcing cards 24 in all and are in a chain repeated six times throughout 'i deok. There is an indifferent card between each of the forcing making at stack of 48 cards. On top of these are placed four indifferent cards • . For the forcing you give the deck to the spectator and tell to deal the cards face up on the table. After he deals the top ,indifferent cards he is told to stop dealing anytime he wishes. t' .is unlikely that he will deal beyond the next eight cards but -he does he will probably not notice that there are duplicates the deck. _ In any event, no matter where he stops, there will either be force card showing face up on the table, or face down on the top the deck. You point to which ever is the force card and tell the on that he has stopped at that card. As you may already know this deck creates miracles!
6 'S GAMBIT
AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE
., ... cont. . ... this effect, the letter that t wri to the sp~ctator, the mind of the audience and programs thoughts what follows! • Mentalist informs the audience written etter (or instructed) to Mr. Faust wi a most psychic test. He to go into the privacy of s own home ck playing card from his own ck, to it and to seal into an opaque envelope. He is then to furseal the envelope into a second opaque so that no one will be able to tell what the chosen card is. further caution to tell no one what the He then points to a (Mr. ,I sume!?) asked him to . liS ! Will you us and bring the e with you. Thank YOU,ll When person comes on stage say. ttHere is the 8 enve. a minute we will see what the chosen card is." Mr. Faust asked to be seated. ( of course not Mr. Faust you must him by that name) *see Point. . Mentalist on a second person to come on and select a . He is given the 5Miracle deck and one cards is forced. Needless to say when the envelope opened, out comes a seenvelope ( as the audience knows it) the second enand same shown to the audiencel 1 1\ 's say tha t you know the name the person who is holding the envel and that his name is . So in to the audience you mention a Mr. J. Faust. So when you po to the person with the envelope you say "James come on stage and bring the sealed envelope with you." Spectator James responds correctly to his name which may even be his last name. the thinks he is Mr. s Faustl
ENVELOPES: Gentlemen, will introduce f'ourtime. way envelope that to my knowledge afpears here for You will need 2 opaque manila brown)' letter that measure by loi inches. 4 coin (end also opaque manila, size by 4t in. We will use 2 envelopes to envelope which will have three compartments, . - way envelope. Then we wi make 2 2-way envelopes out of the 4 coin the large tter envelopes and place a cement down the center of the address side. Then the seam side leaving only the address with the attached. Then insert this piece into the other letter envelope and
7 AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE
.THE KNIGHT '8 GAMBIT
THE FIVE STAR GAMBIT :" 1,
cant .••.
<;;p,r~ss the cement so that the front compartment (between the insert ~hd the address side of the envelope) will be divided into two com::~a~tments. left and right.
k(. ',
Fig. 2 shows an outline of the J-way envelope. It has one full
' l~ ngth
compartment at the back between the seam 'c alde and the insert. And two half-size com.~partments in the front to the left and '\cr ,ight of the cement strip which is shwon ';~y the dash lines. The two flaps are not , _s.~aled yet. The two 2...,way envelopes conI~talning the force cards of the 5-star iracle deck will be sealed into the two compartments. Then the two flaps e sealed and the back larger compart. ment remains empty for a very good pur~ose as will be seen.
Fig. 2 A J-way Envelope
, To make the double coin envelopes, cut off the seam side from one ,envelope. leaving the address side with the flap attached and ~hen apply a i inch strip of cement to the back top of the address side behind the flap as shown by the dash and diagonal lines and a second i inch strip of cement to the bottom on the opposite side of the insert as ,shown , 'by the solid and cross lines. (Fig. J) , Place the 4 of spades card into a whole coin envelope and then insert the flap to cover the card and cement the top and bottom of the insert to the inside , cif the envelope. Then cement the two flaps together. Next place the 5 of diamonds into the envelope Fig. J and seal the flap thereby sealing the ~nvelope. " Now, if you cut a 118 inch strip off the bottom of the 'envelope, the 4 of spades will fallout. If the top is cut open the 5 of diamonds will fallout. Mark the envelope clearly with pencil dots so that you can identify the cards inside. Do the same with the other two coin envelopes for the 7 of clubs and the 8 of hearts. Next seal the coin envelopes into the small compartments of the large letter envelope. The first coin envelope with the 4s and the 5D goes into the right side compartment as shown in Fig. 2 . The other coin envelope with the 7C and 8H goes into the left compartment. Seal the two flaps of the letter envelope and then Beal the envelope. The back larger compartment of the letter envelope remains empty. NOTE. Be sure to sign all the cards that go into the coin envelopes with the name of Mr. Faust or J. FaustI The envelope is ready to be handed over to Mr. Faust (?). And 'all is ready for the presentation.
8
GAMBIT FIVE STAR GAMBIT
AN AL Ml\NN EX.CLUSlVE cont.
' P~()'DUCING THE CORRECT FORCE CARDI Fig. 4 ~h6ws the outline of the large letter ~hi~lope. The dash iine in the center : ~~r :tically show th; cement that separates .tne "two envelopes ~n the front compart' li1n~nts . ;{"" . If you wish to produce the coin ~ velope with the 4s-5O cards, cut ,)f envelope to the right of the 'q'~.ment strip. As shown by the arrows. ~, Out to the left side of the :6ement strip for the 7C -SH Fig. 4 ardsl ." After the large envelope is cut, . hake the two pieces and of course only one coin envelope will 'drop out. Or the two pieces can be torn further as you wish. , The two pieces of the large envelope are thrown into your : attache case or what have you. 'i" Wi th the coin envelopes you must cut at the bottom to produce i~he lower numbered cards, 4s and 7C and cut at the top to produce ,·the other two. x The large manila envelope must also be marked by you to inl dicate the cards. If someone was to look into the large manila pieces they will ,see them emptyl Due to the empty back compartment .
.:t;t'6-t~ ' ..
1lt~.dr: ~4.~ J
After performing the following effect, you may have earned for
~ourself an armed escort out of town. The effect on the audience is 'S'a tanic to put it lightly. The preponderance of unfathomable phenoin the presentation will dumbfound any audience!
"
~ets
IN EFFECT I You pass out three sealed envelopes to three mem-
of the audience. They are then given a free choice of a pag~ in a book and a sentance. Each of the envelo~e holders then chooses anyone word from that sentance and writes It on the outside of his envelope. Each choose a different word. , When the envelopes are opened and the typewritten (or hand, written in ink) message is read. it tells them of the correct choice . of wordsl The audience of course assumes that they had a free choice of page and sentance, BUT even if someone suspects that the page was forced (it is), they still can not fathom how you knew ahead of time what three words from the sentance would be chosen and by ,whom (?)! The above is THE effect on the audience. now for the --SECRETs You must force the first sentance and a page from a book. AME readers must know a good dozen ways of doing that.
9
AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE
THE KNIGHT'S GAMBIT GIFTS MOST RAREr
cant •...
"The Damned Thing" an AME release is specially designed to force a page. So are the force books put out by the late Jack London. And I am sure there are other books on the market that do the .same thing. The reader may have his own special way of doing it. "Castle Catch," in Phantagraphs, is also good, so is the method of miscalling a page. Books that have the same page repeated throughout 'are also available. First look for a book, a paperback will do, that contain sentances of about 10 words or less. Say that you want to force a page the easy way so you use "The Damned Thing." A person is told to stick a card anywhere in the book and notice the ~age number. The page number is 186' (stick to the left hand page). The paperback that I have in front of me is, "Civilization And Its Discontents," by Sigmund Freud. The first line of print on page 86 of this book is an eight word phrase I contrary, it is the invariable aetiological condition of We will now prepare for doing "Gifts Most Rare" by using the above eight word line. So type out eight different predictions, one for each of the words in the line and seal these in letter envelopes. You must place a secret mark on each envelope to be able to tJll which word is predicted inside. A single pencil dot will do. Place a pencil dot on the edge of the sealed flap at the upper right to indicate the first word. A pencil dot at the tip of the flap indicates the 4th word and a dot on the upper left indicates the eigth word. The other words are indicated in between along the length of the flap in numerical order. These sealed envelopes are now placed one in each of your pockets about your person. Some may be placed under books on the taible but so that they are easily found. THE PRESENTATIONs There are two ways of presenting this fabulous effect. Here I will detail the most direct and therefore the most profound method. Without showing any of the envelopes) the Mentalist saysl "Ladies and Gentlemen. I am going to attempt a most unique test in the annals of Psychic phenomena. I therefor ask for your nd attention and full cooperation. We are going to choose a page . a book. You will have a free choice of any page. From that page e will note the first line of print and from that line we are ing to choose three words, You of course will also have a free oice of any of the words. Next you point to some member of the audience asking him if wishes to participate. If so Thank him and say, "Now Sir. Please oee any number from 1 to 8. We are going to assume that the · tance that we are going to choose has at least eight words in t. So please choose one of the words by number. We do not know t what words will be in the sentance." tt
.
10
THE KNIGHT'S GAMBIT GIFTS MOST RARE
AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE, cont, ...
Say that this person chooses number "7." Say, "Thank you very much. You have chosen the seventh word." While s~ying so· you have taken out the envelope that predicts the seventh ' ~o~d. .. "Please note that I am holding a sealed envelope. This envelope contains a prediction, I am going to write the number "7" on the envelope and hand it to you~ Please also note that I ·am giving you this envelope before we even choose a page in a book. Please sign your name on the outside of it," Repeat the . same procedure with two other persons. Next you must force the page. If you are using a direct force like with "The Damned Thing" where they can open the book to any page and. note the number. your audience will swear on a stack of Playboy magazines that they did get a free choice and could have chosen any page in the paperback. And considering that the paperback is ungimmicked, the illusion' is complete. Have someone open the book to page 86/87 and read the. firs t line of print and then tell the three spectators to open their envelopes and read out loud the messages, one at a time of course. The strong points in this method is that the audience only see three sealed envelopes. They have no reason to believe otherwise, Also the spectators holding the envelopes open them which proves that there is no trickery. In the retelling the audience will only remember that you passed out three sealed envelopes! before anything else was done. We are Mentalists and we stand behind the scenes and know the methods. So it is hard for us to get the full appreciation of the impact of the presentation on the senses. Some of you may think that others can see right through the method, so here is --A SECOND METHOD I In this method, the sealed envelopes are produced before the word is chosen, It uses the one-ahead system. Pick out the envelope that predicts the first word and hold it openly in your hands. The other envelopes are in your pockets· or about the table. Ask someone to participate as you say. "I am going to ask you to choose a number from 1 to 8, to correspond to one of the words in the sentence which will be chosen. But please notice that I am holding a sealed envelope. I have written a prediction and placed inside the envelope long.before your number and the word is chosen. So please callout a number 1 to 8." When the person calls out the number. write it on the outside of the envelope and hand it to him asking him to initial it or sign it. Say he chose number 7. Ne~t take out the No, 7 prediction envelope and go to another person with it and ask him to choose a number. Say he choses number 5. Write a five on the outside of this envelope and hand it to him and ask him to sign it. Next take out the No.5 prediction envelope
11
THE KNIGHT'S GAMBIT GIFTS MOST RARE
AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE cont. •••
and invite someone to take the paper back book while someone else takes the forcing book. ._ Tell the person who is holding the paperback that he also is going to choose a word and since he is holding· ·the book he gets the first word of whatever page is chosen. Again you say. please notice that I am giving you a sealed envelope before the page is .chosen. So write a "1" on the envelope and hand. it to him. Next force the page and retrieve the forcing book and put it away. The other person opens the book to page 86 and reads off the first line. "What is the first word on the page?" you ask. "Please write· that word on the outside of your envelope. You say addressing the person with the paper back. "Now tell us what is the seventh word?" "What is the fifth word" etc. The persons with the envelopes are instructed to write their words on them and then you collect the three envelopes as you say, "Let's see what the predictions are," The three envelopes are taken and placed together with the numbers away from the audience and all three envelopes are opened at the same time with a pair of scissors and the three messages taken out at the same time. Open the message papers which should be plainly marked so that you can pass them out to the correct person. Ask them to read the prediction which will surely astound the audience and then throw the empty envelopes on the table. 1t
This test has been performed and it never fails to baffle everyone. No one can follow what exactly the Mentalist has done. AN INDEX. BOX. Since only eight envelopes are used in the above effect. it may pay you to have built the simple box shown in Fig. 5. This is nothing more than a cigar box with the front panel dettached and made to swivel downwards. The prediction envelopes are then placed flat inside the boX separated by numbered index cards so that any envelope needed can be gotten promply. Fig. 5 You may also use three dummy empty sealed envelopes which are flashed to the audience at the beginning as the three prediction envelopes. Then the three dummies are placed on top of the indexed envelopes. The Q.orrect envelopes are later taken out of the box one at a time. The box can be closed at the conclusion I The books used can also be carried in this- box.
12 (201 ) POST OFFICE BOX 14-4 •
431-2429
FREEHOLD. NEW JER~E¥ 07128
-ItG€o.M£.TRIC.
tpP.AW
I
--~--
-'
@
Fold once
"'i.
t:J~ ®
Fold again
R.i6Hr 1HlIIrl5
1U5Ht.s iN,o foLD·1lJ I.?M IT Up·
A square piece of paper is used.
t1essage is printed in l~er right quarter of paper. After paper is folded grip bet\leen left 1st and 2nd fingers as shown in Fig. 4. Left thwnb comes dwn and llfts up corner X revealing part of mes!3age. Everything stilllooka fair from audience view. Now right thumb comea over to momentarily grip billet and slides under folded section and billows out fold slightly so a quick peek dO\l1lW8rd Yill revea.l the entire mes:·1age as in Fig. 6. You can tear up billet and revaaJ. messa.ge.
(The above is Phantini's own instructions for the latest "peek" technique on billets. It is unedited. AM)
...
. ,
. ._!""!',
.
....
-
,
. ~.
.
.,. '
.
. -,
.
\.
.
.
.
13 THE KNIGHT"S GAMBIT
AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE
~
W
Fold once
o
Fold
RI (;'I1T --rHUMB
'" LE~,... 'rl-HJ~B
~AlF
PI€.:f;. rt:>U:..~ r OPCNltJb ~LD£D
O"{:"
In Fig. 4 after tear turn piece A turn cc clockwise and piece B turn cldlclM..se. Piece B goes on piece as in Fig. 5
t
~ ENrtR$ 1=
pu l.LS 10 P
~gain
i
'Plr.C£ .
'f-AR. .045 S'NcuJN.
PuSH 'TbP Afe£. A Sll-r~ ~orr~
OPE,.) "" R.1' 0 i= ~6L (;) 1$ H t DOW ,~ LE~'f
--to)W PlEC£S j,.J .f 1< o';T .r -rEA R
HAND
AS
s~AJ. :"uJ1£fl
9' L L~.:1"" )5 i.e. r:--r A-r ~~A- p. 0F- (3itc.f S
c> ~
The secret opening of center piece ~o, j\ r f. PI Ecf~
Ytf
tv C l6cl< t.J,s£ t- () ~ N 1...Asr 'ftJl D
"ILl
o.p. PIELl AI ~A. D~ PI£ct.s+ T-I;JI~t-l
'By
-rFARI)./b 4LL
PIt cf 5 JJJ UA l F A 5 y00 6LI M PS£.,. M£.55AG£.
.. "-ft,........ _ ,
. 1
.
.
.
.
. •
during tearing is done as hands together to oake the tears.
come Each done r:rver
time a fold is opened it is by right hand thtnnb coming to grip billet to nake a tear The tear and opening of billet is so natural you do not need to
watch hands until you make glir.lpse
before last tear.
