Greg-arce-simple-minded.pdf

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I hope I don’t need to tell you that passing this document around for free is something you SHOULDN’T be doing. If you do then just consider that brain I’m holding to be yours… don’t make me step on it!!! You are allowed



















INTRODUCTION POINTILISM THINK THAT TUNE AWE-SUM TOTAL PRESENTATIONS IT’S A MATCH & PROHECY PACK TWISTED SISTERS PSI-CON-RUSE A SICK SENSE STP EKUSTORUK YOU ARE HERE SPECIAL THANKS

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Sometimes you don’t need a brain-buster… sometimes you can do something that’s easy to perform, fun to watch happen, packed with entertainment and yet… and yet it’s strange enough that it can be classified as mentalism. What follows I believe qualifies in that a category. The mysteries that are contained here are my takes on simplifying certain effects in mentalism and sometimes just constructing routines that are basically there to have fun… for you and your audience. In my own style, I like to mix the incredibly strong & dark stuff with something light that makes people laugh. This is a personal belief, but I feel that if you do strong enough mentalism, especially in the beginning of your sets, then you can bring in something that is closer to mental magic and they will believe that, too. I don’t think the opposite is true. If you start by doing some fluffy effect that clearly is a magic trick cloaked in mentalism then I think they will conclude that everything you are about to do works the same way… it’s all a trick.



















mentalism. Here is how I look at it and it’s based on an expression I once heard: “If you have a barrel of sewage and a barrel of wine and then you pour a drop of wine into the barrel of sewage you get a barrel of sewage. If you put a drop of sewage into the barrel of wine… you get a barrel of sewage.” Now some of you will now think I believe that mental magic is sewage. Far from it. But I do believe that it works in much the same way as the sewage expression. I think an early “drop” of mental magic tends to make your wine feel like it’s all made of the same substance. I think your audience wants to grab onto the easiest solution possible… it eases their frustration when they see something that is clearly unbelievable. And by “frustration” I don’t mean it in the classic sense as if they are bothered to the point of not being entertained… I mean that the brain is always trying to figure out the problems at hand… always trying to fit the puzzle pieces correctly. So if your brain is given an easy solution like, “Oh, I see, this is all magic tricks” then it applies that to everything that comes after it. It has taken that “drop” and placed it into your entertainment “barrel” as it were.



















I think that most people, even those a little skeptical of things, can take a little leap of faith that these things might be possible. They always take a bigger leap if they are faced with something that is so amazing they have no other way to look at it. For instance, I do a coin prediction, a key bend and a multiple card revelation early in my set where I’ve clearly not seen any of the cards that anyone has taken. Even those that know the basics of magic are a little taken aback by those effects. They don’t seem to have a reasonable explanation. They just have to be real. I can then go into some fun stuff like my presentation for Twisted Sisters because they believe me now. To them, I am someone doing something that is not a magic trick… it seems impossible. Everything I do from then on is pure wine… even though I might throw in a drop or two of sewage. One more real life example to show you how I feel this rule is applied. Oh, for those that have not seen The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable then you should stop reading from now on and go right to the first effect. I had friends that wondered why the film Unbreakable did not do as well as The Sixth Sense. I think Unbreakable was the sewage of this example. Here’s how:





















Now let’s get to the end of that movie: it turns out the guy’s a superhero. C’mon! Have you ever heard ANYONE say they’ve seen or know of an existing Superhero? No. It is beyond reality. Let’s go to The Sixth Sense: What do you think would have happened at the box office if instead of the kid saying, “I see dead people” he said, “I see gnomes”? You see, both have unbelievable subjects, but one is beyond belief… it is not based on anything that anyone has even heard mentioned in present society. You don’t have a neighbor or a friend that’s ever told you a story of someone he knows who knows someone who once saw a gnome… but I bet you can find some people that say they saw a ghost. Magic and mentalism sort of work that way. I’m sure you would be hard-pressed to find anyone that can tell you he knows of a real guy that can take four coins and make them move magically across a mat, but in no time you can find many that will tell you their personal stories



















fun. But I know that even though I’m saying it’s light mentalism, I’m sure someone out there is going to take one of these routines and just kill an audience with it. To be honest, I think my AWE-SUM TOTAL did just that when I presented it in my stage show… and I’ve included it here. Some of these effects I was going to originally market, but I decided I didn’t want to sit around getting all the props and gimmicks ready to be packaged. So have fun making them yourselves. Relax and then start to look at some of these effects & presentations that I’ve put in here. Hopefully, you’ll have as much fun as I had with this wine.



















THE WHAT: You show a connect-a-dots page and a bunch of cards that have long stringed numbers on them like 24-87-34-2-75-91-25,etc…. 24-87-34-2-75-91-25,etc…. you explain that each card has numbers that will a draw different picture. You randomly take out two cards and use the numbers to connect the dots and one picture is a bell and another is a house. You take out another page and hand it to a spectator. You have them take any number card without you looking at it. They walk away and connect the dots while your back is turned. You now take blank card and proceed to draw the exact picture they’ve drawn. THE HOW: You’ve put a bunch of numbers all over one



















make those pictures. Make up a card for each of those pictures that have the numbers used to make them… those will be your cards that you prove any picture can be painted by the numbers. Mark the back of the two cards that make different pictures from your force picture (more about that in a bit)… mark them so you can easily spot them from a distance. Now make another drawing connecting the dots and make up a card that makes up that picture. Make the same picture about three more times, but each time using a different area of the dot sheet to make it. Each time copy the numbers that were needed to make that picture. You should now have four or five number cards that have different numbers on them yet will make the same picture on the sheet somewhere. For example: numbers 318-67-24-99-56-34-64 18-67-24-99-56-34-64 & 66-90-34-12-33-31-76-5 66-90-34-12-33-31-76-5 & 3067-62-91-41-26-7-15 67-62-91-41-26-7-15 all make a picture of a HAT, but in



















with 24, but ends in 67 and all the numbers are in progression in between… this will also make the same picture. You see you will be able to make cards that look like the numbers are different, but yet the same picture can be constructed. Because you made four or so pictures in various areas you will have that many different strings of numbers that can then be changed to other strings by shifting the numbers. You should end up with a packet of thirty or more numbers, but any card chosen will make the same picture somewhere on that sheet.

Display the sheet filled with numbers and hand someone the stack of cards with numbers on them. Have them fan the stack face down and randomly take one card out… actually take one of the marked cards and then draw the picture. Now pull out another card, a marked one, and draw that picture. You’ve proven many pictures can be drawn from the numbers.





















After playing around with the idea of POINTILISM, I thought it would be cool to take the basic idea and apply it to a children’s musical instrument I saw at a Toys-RUs one day. I never put it together because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting all the pieces, but here is the routine I wanted to do: THE WHAT: A children’s xylophone is displayed… it is the kind that has all the little keys numbered. The performer also shows a bunch of cards with numbers that supposedly coincide with tunes that can be played with the instrument.



















as the spectator takes the card stopped at. The spectator takes the card and starts to play the tune, but the performer stops them before they play a note. “Wait. We need a contestant. Please point to someone.” Someone is randomly picked. “Okay, Sue, you will try to figure out what song is played, but you have to see how many notes it takes you to get it.” i t.” The game is played out where the first spectator plays one of the notes first and Sue tries to figure out the song. This goes on until she finally guesses the song. Let’s say in this case it’s Mary Had A Little Lamb and Sue got it in six notes. “Great, Sue! You got it in just six notes. Now let’s see



















THE HOW: Simple method, but I think it can turn into an entertaining sequence… especially if the performer plays up the game show aspects. First, go to any children’s toy store and you can find the little toy xylophones that have numbers on all the keys. These usually come with little songbooks that have numbers that correspond to the keys. Pick a song that is easy to play and understand, but not easy enough that you can get it in a couple of notes. You want it to be a playful game where the second spectator tries to guess what is being played. Now take some 3 by 5 index cards and have them cut in half at your local print shop or copy place. Take half



















and depends whether you want this for close up, parlor or stage. You also need a card that fits into your envelope. At the back of the envelope you’ve cut out sections that will be over the areas that you will later nail write bits of information. As you can see, you will also need a nailwriter. Use the one that you are the most comfortable with. At the back of card you have written, in the same style as the nailwriter, “I would have gotten the song in __ notes, but ___ got it in __… _he’s the winner!” winner!” The spaces shown are where you will later write in the important information. Look carefully, because there should be a space right in front of “he’s”. You don’t know



















Now, riffle the pack and have the spectator stop somewhere, but pick the face down card… it will be the force song. This spectator randomly picks someone to play the game. Get this spectator’s name as soon as you possibly can. In the upcoming game there is plenty of time to joke about your prediction and you can casually write in the second spectator’s name in the correct space as you display the envelope. Let them play the game and play it all for laughs. When it’s done you can reveal the first part of the prediction when you pull it out of the envelope. Hopefully, as the applause starts you can fill in the last two spaces needed in the prediction before you need to turn this





















This is the one certain certain people were waiting for. In Larry Becker’s extensive ideas his has one called SUM TOTAL STAGE. I always loved that that idea and Larry was the first to take a mathematical idea and turn it into a mental





















But what if we took it up a notch? What if the performer could predict a number in the hundreds of thousands… that would be pretty impressive. The performer shows a small gift bag bag and has someone look inside and call out what’s in there. They say it has some folded slips of paper and a calculator. The performer has any spectator reach inside and pull out any of the slips, unfold them, and read it out.





















chosen to come up on stage, the performer sticks the ACCOUNTANT tag on the person and hands them the gift bag that has been visible throughout. This spectator is told to remove all the slips in the bag and write all the numbers from the slips on the large pad, then total all the numbers. Even though the spectator does it all himself, and there are no hidden slips in the bag, and every slip that





















five-digit numbers, but all those numbers total to 111,111… and you can make different numbers on the slips each night as long as when they are all totaled they will still s till equal 111,111 – one-hundred-eleven-thousand-one-hundred one-hundred-eleven-thousand-one-hundred & eleven. There are four slips in the gift bag that equal that fantastic total. Each night you can make up new slips with new numbers that total 111,111.





















another slip has 14,120, another has 43,211, and the last one has 32,403 on it. If you total these up you’ll get to our magic number of 111,111… and you can change the numbers every night. Fold all these slips into fourths so the number is to the inside and drop these slips, along with the calculator, into the small gift bag. You’re basically ready to

Make

little speech























8, or 9… c’mon.” c’mon.” Someone calls calls out 6, let’s say. Write that 6 to the right of your 1 then continue…























So in the case of 164,238 I have subtracted 1 from the last five digits and came up with the number 53,127… that is my new special number. I write that number in on























number and palm it off. That’s why you first pre-folded the slip then opened it























I did this night after night and no one caught either the sneaky writing or the drop into the bag.















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































between C & A and she picked C then her choice will fall between Walls 2 & 3, but if she picked A then it’s between Walls 1 & 2… so on and so on for each envelope. Of course, you can come up with any way that you feel comfortable with in order to remember where the correct predictions are situated. Of course, when you get to the end of this effect you will pull out a slip that is slightly larger, and because you have printed the funny line in the back, they will immediately see some writing as you try to open this slip. This is the time to act a little suspicious. s uspicious. You want someone to wonder what’s on the other side. Once again, I’d like to thank Max Maven for allowing me to put into print an effect and ending that is similar to his version.



















On the subject of Max Maven & envelopes, I will show another effect that relates to both. I really loved Maven’s effect Kurotsuke, which is in is mentalism tapes. It was easy to do and used a devious principle to get to the end. Once again, I wanted to change what was there so I could have a bit more control over the choices, but also put a bit of fun into the presentations. This is what I came up with… I hope you enjoy it. THE WHAT: I display twelve envelopes. I hand out six of the envelopes and tell the spectators to mix them up and randomly take one each, but keep them out of view if possible. Now I speak, "Earlier I wrote six difficult questions about life. I then opened myself to the universe and let the answers flow in. It was a curious experiment. Five of the answers were positive... life-affirming... but one, well, there was one that I'd rather not get back.” “Tonight each of you holds the questions, but one of you is now holding the one I should not have asked. I will



















You stare out at the group and suddenly point to one: "Please open up your envelope and read the question within." They open up the envelope and it reads, "Will the project I'm working on succeed?" You take out one of your envelopes from your stack and remove the paper inside and read, "In time it will happen as you want it." You say, "I like that! Now you!" You point to another spectator and they open up their envelope and it reads, "My wife is distant? Should I worry?" You open up another one of your envelopes and it reads, "Love remains. She is yours." You say, "Phew! It's good to know." You keep doing this three more times and always receive a positive answer to the questions. Then you're left with one envelope, and one person, and he has not read his slip. You open the last envelope and read, "He'd kill you if given the chance." You say, "Whoa! Doesn't sound good to me. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Could you please read the question?" The last person opens up his envelope and it reads, "I have a friend who's changed. Any problems?"



















You end by saying, "You can keep that one. He's no friend of mine." THE HOW: You are going to be making six double walled envelopes. Your envelopes are made similar to the ones you made for STP, but you’ve cut the V shape so only one side remains. This one piece will now be the wall you put inside of an envelope. Make up six envelopes that have one wall in the middle to divide the envelope into two partitions. Now you have to come up with six questions that could have one bad answer and one good one. You will place a good and a bad answer for each question in your envelopes. The spectators get regular envelopes that each contain one question… each of those questions will have a good or bad answer in one of your envelopes. You don’t need to mark the envelopes that are given out into the audience because you will be hearing the question and you know which of your envelopes are connected to that question. How do you know? Well, you are the only one holding your envelopes so mark them in the back to key you into the appropriate question. And the marks don’t have to be



















wife question.” No one else can see that side but you so why try to stress your eyes? Now as for the questions, you can come up with your own, but you should have some funny answers when they hit on the last one… the one that you explain was the bad one. Here are some examples of questions and answers: 1.)

“Will the project I'm working on succeed?" Good answer: "In time it will happen as you want it." Bad answer: “About as good a New Coke did.”

2.)

"My wife is distant? Should I worry?" Good answer: “Love remains. She is yours.” Bad answer: “Right now the distance is 10 miles… she’s on a train headed out of town.”

3.)

“My sixteen year old daughter’s boyfriend seems a bit weird. Anything I should worry about?” Good answer: “No. He might act strange, but he has high morals.” Bad answer: “Strange? He’s only strange if you consider Manson or Dahmer strange.”

4.)

“Should I start a new diet?” Good answer: “It’s the right time now and this one will work.” Bad answer: “A diet isn’t going to do it. Try liposuction





















5.)

“I think my neighbor has some sort of grudge against me. Am I right?” Good answer: “No. This man is a bit moody, but it’s not about you.” Bad answer: “Have you noticed the large hole he’s dug up in the back yard? It’s about your size. What do you think?”

6.)

“I have a friend who’s changed. Should I worry?” Good answer: “Expect a surprise party… that’s why he’s been acting weird lately.” Bad answer: “He’d kill you if he had the chance.”

You see you can have a lot of fun with this especially if you make up some weird questions q uestions and some even weirder answers. I guess I should mention why I called this routine Ekustoruk… well, it’s Kurotsuke backwards and I figured that’s what was going on within the routine.



















This is another idea that I was going to market. Some even told me I should wait on it and still market the idea. Who knows? I might still do that at a future date. Like many other mentalists, I’ve used the old idea of giving a spectator a dried up pen or marker and letting them make a supposed mark on a book or page and later predicting the word that was marked. Of course, he didn’t mark a thing and you had that mark there already for him to find later. What if you could display a map cleanly and give a spectator a plastic dot to stick anywhere on that map, and yet, you’ve predicted where he will place the dot? And you don’t switch maps, or remove the dot he has placed on the map. And you can be far away from the action as he himself places the dot on that map. If you could do that then you already know how YOU



















performer shows that you can stick the dot anywhere on the map to show the kind of You Are Here symbol you see on most maps in malls and other locations. You tell the entire audience that you will now try a form of remote viewing. The spectator will take the map behind is back and randomly place the dot anywhere. You hand the map to the spectator so that it is held behind his back. You hand him the dot and tell him to reach behind and when you say “GO” he is to just stick that dot anywhere. Now you walk away to the other side of the stage and pick up a pad and marker. You yell, “Go!” The spectator s pectator sticks the dot on the map… no one can see where w here that dot ended up. You stand quietly for a while then begin to write. You place the pad down or hand it to another spectator to hold for later.



















You turn to the second spectator, who holds the pad, and ask him to read what you wrote. He reads something like this, “I’m getting a name… starts with G and ends in T-H… something to do with a park, I think… and there’s a highway somewhere around here… I think I see a hill from this spot.” And you take your applause. THE HOW: You’re going to make a very cool gimmick. I once told the idea to Gordon Bean when I was working w orking on it and he had never heard of something being used this way. Here’s what you need: Get a laminated map that has a lot of color, and shapes… the busier the pattern, the better. I like the 3-D maps that are sold to tourists because they work really well with the gimmick. Here’s the gimmick: Go to an office supply store and look for anything that uses black, thin plastic and clear, thin plastic. You can find this material on book covers and



















Cover one side of each quarter-sized piece with double stick tape. You want to have it cover one side completely. Then using your fingers kind of dab at the sticky surface so that it’s a bit less sticky then the side stuck to the plastic. You’ve made your gimmicks and I’m sure you’re way ahead of me. On the map that you will use place one of the black dots near one corner and edge… someplace where your hand will naturally hide it as it holds the map. When you you are ready to begin, stick one of the clear clear dots on your palm… on one of the flattest areas you can find. Put the other black dot on the back of the laminated map. That side is usually all white so it should stand out. Okay, bring up the spectator and talk about the experiment. Show the laminated map from behind and point to the large dot. Unpeel that dot to show everyone what it is then give it to the spectator to hold.





















himself as you take the black dot. You demonstrate by reaching behind him how he is to stick the dot anywhere. When you demonstrate take a look at the actual place you’ve just covered with the dot. That will be your target place that you will write up in a moment. Now, unpeel the other black dot that you’ve been hiding on one of the edges and bring it around and hand it to the spectator. You tell him in a moment he will stick that dot somewhere, but then you realize he should not even know which direction he his holding the map. You take the dot back and tell him to turn the map around, 360 degrees, a few times so that he doesn’t know which direction is north, south, east or west.



















When you’re done, hand the pad to another spectator and walk over to the first spectator as you have him bring the map around. It is really easy to see the black dot from a distance, as you spot it, draw all attention to it by saying, “Here it is. Can you see it?” It is really difficult to spot the clear dot even when you are looking for it, but the black dot catches everyone’s attention immediately. Also, the spectator is in a bad position to see it because the map is held vertically and he is kind of looking down at it. If you are worried at all then just walk over as fast as you can so that you get there just as he turns the



















I’m sure this list will seldom change as I tend to deal with the same people all the time so to Luis, David, Michael, Shoot, Lincoln, Federico, Tony, Jeff, Millard, Brad, Paolo, Gordon, Patrick, Wendy, Valerie, Jamie, James, Max, Larry, Banachek, Banachek, Kevin, Nabil, Nabil, and everyone else I hang out with or share ideas with… Thanks.

Greg-arce-simple-minded.pdf

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