Out of Focus

Cardboard creations Toby Hudson

© Copyright 2015 by Toby Hudson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. For further information, please contact me at: [email protected]

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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

» PLAYING CARDS » Out of Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vanishing Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The Choice is Yours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Radish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buried Treasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Simple ACAAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

» BILLETS » ThinkTank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lunch at Gerri’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Memory Lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Think Ink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A Simple Peek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Introduction I’ll begin by saying that I’m not very good at introductions, so I’ll try to keep this brief. What you’ve just invested in is a small book of some of my favourite ideas and effects from performing magic and mentalism for over 5 years now. As I’m mainly ‘a close up kinda guy,’ all the effects within these pages use playing cards and billets, items that are readily available. I know there are already hundreds of effects of this nature available already, but I hope I’ve explored some new ideas and concepts. I hope you enjoy these pieces and take the time to practise and perfect them as I have and experience the wonder that mentalism can have on people. I’d like to thank everyone at the Magic Lounge in Sheffield for taking me in 3 years ago and exposing me to the world of magic. Steve Brownlee, Roger Curzon, Russell Hall, Brandon Ellis, the list could 4

go on and on and I couldn’t have come up with any of this stuff without them. Thanks guys, it really means a lot. I’d also like to thank my mum, dad and sister for enduring all the tricks I’ve shown you over the years (even the crappy ones) and pushing me to always do what I love. Best wishes, Toby Hudson x April 2015

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Routines

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Out of focus Effect The spectator is shown a card and asked to commit it to memory. He then closes his eyes and the Mentalist proceeds to replace the card with a mystic black haze, wiping away any memory of the card!

Presentation Someone is asked to come up on stage and assist the Mentalist. His name is Roger. He is asked to close his eyes.

You know how it is when you go into a room and completely forget what you were going in for. It’s natural, us as human beings have a way of filtering out information that isn’t vitally important to us so we can concentrate more on other things. However, some people who have experienced amnesia claim that they see sort of a black haze and they can’t remember anything because of 7

it. A weird concept, I know, but I want to try something with just that idea. A deck of cards is removed and a card chosen at random. The card is shown around. (e.g. 7 ♥) Richardson is then asked to open his eyes and lock the card in his mind. The card is placed in full view and the subject is asked to close their eyes again.

Ok, so what I want you to do is keep the card you saw locked in your mind. Imagine all the intricacies on it, see it all clearly in your mind. Now, imagine a black haze starts to cover the card. You try and look around it but you can’t. It keeps covering the thought until it has completely gone. As you look at the black cloud, it’s get closer and closer to you until… The Mentalist taps the subject on his forehead. He awakes with a start. He is asked what he remembers seeing. All 8

Richardson says is that he can remember a black mist and he claims he has no recollection of the card. Mysterious…

Credits This effect is based on a routine of Patrick Redford called The Forgotten. It really is an excellent routine and I recommend you track down his DVD Glemme for some good presentational ideas and great thoughts on amnesia effect in general. I think that the basic handling at work here can also be credited to the effect R.G.M from Luke Jermay’s booklet 7 Deceptions. Another highly recommended product.

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Concept In its most basic form, what you’re doing is showing the spectator a completely black card and making it appear as though the black is just in their mind. It’s a bold idea, but used with a lot of hidden subtleties, can really appear like amnesia. I’d also like to add that this routine will still work if for some strange reason, the volunteers name doesn’t happen to be Roger. What you need to do is make up a playing card with a regular back and a completely black face. You could print one up on a computer, or do what I do which is take a blank card and a sharpie and get to work. This has the added bonus of looking quite rough, and cements the idea of it being a ‘cloud.’ Set up by placing the 7 ♥ followed by the black card on top of the deck face down. I always use the seven because it allows you to supposedly make them remember the card again afterwards if you so desire 10

it. I don’t always use this last phase as I don’t always think it’s needed, but if you want to use it, go ahead.

Performance Begin by getting someone up on stage and talk about the ‘cloud’ that people with amnesia suffer from. If you really want to go all Derren Brown on them, talk really fast and tap his shoulder every so often. If any mentalists are in the audience, this may throw them off the method and believe you really are using suggestion. Another nice thing about this is that the ‘cloud’ you mention actually exists, so if they were to go home later and Google it, (which they won’t) they would find that many amnesia sufferers do claim that a mysterious black haze blocks off their memories. Anyway, have them close their eyes. Now, for the first time, bring out the deck. It’s very important NOT to say “we’ll use a deck of cards for this effect.” To the audience, it will be clear you’re using 11

playing cards, but if the helper knows, they might get confused as to why they didn’t see a card. Just say something like ‘we’ll use these for the experiment’ and remove the cards. Pick up a double and hold it quite close to the spectators face. Tell him to ‘open your

eyes and commit whatever you see to memory.’ Holding the cards near his face is nice because when he thinks back, he might just remember the blackness and nothing round the edges. If you are afraid they may speak out that they’ve seen something unusual, just add in the line at the start ‘I don’t want you to

talk now until the end of the trick to let the full amnesia take effect.’ However I find it’s not always needed. The next part is just presentation and how convincing you can be supposedly inducing hypnotic suggestion. Place the double on the deck, take off the top card singly and show it around. Talk about the cloud covering the card (Note: 12

At this point, you can refer to it as a card) and as you do, let your voice get louder and louder. Then, pause a beat and tap the participant on the head. Don’t hit him TOO hard, just maybe a little more forcefully than normal. Usually at this point, his eyes will snap open and he’ll look somewhat confused. This is perfect. Quickly ask him ‘use one word to sum up what you saw.’ He will either say ‘black’ or better yet ‘nothing.’ Ask him what he remembers seeing. What you want to do here is twist whatever he says slightly to make it appear as though the ‘black’ was only in his mind. For example, if he says ‘the card was completely covered in black’ you could say ‘so it was covering your view,

almost as if you can’t remember the card at all?’ As you do, nod your head and he will nod too, making it appear as though that’s what he saw. The clincher is when you pick up the card from the table and say ‘so you don’t 13

remember seeing the 7 ♥ at all?’ He will invariably say ‘no’ so congratulate him and send him to his seat. If he looks worried make sure to tell him that the amnesia won’t affect him anymore and that he has no worry of forgetting anything again. (Note: If you want to continue with the second phase, don’t show him the card.’

Phase 2 If you want to, you can bring the card back. Have him close his eyes again and imagine the cloud lifting. Have him call out what colour he thinks the card is. He will say red 9/10 times, but if he says black use the line ‘no, I think that’s the BLACK cloud blocking your view again.’ He will then, of course have to switch to red. Hearts is the most commonly chosen suit. Whichever suit he says, don’t say anything. Then have him call out a value from 1 – 10. Psychologically, 7 is the most common response. If he says a number considerably lower, just ask him to try 14

again. 3/4 of the time you’ll get the card bang on, whereas other times you’ll maybe get the suit wrong, or off by one or two. Whatever he ends up with, congratulate him and say something about ‘as it’s your first time, you can’t be expected to get it bang on.’ Show him the card and send him back to his seat.

Alternative This is quite a bold and cheeky way to have him remember the card again. As soon as you’ve tapped him and he’s opened his eyes, start talking about the cloud. Then say ‘so you don’t remember seeing this card?’ Here, all you’re doing is showing him the card. He will say ‘no.’ Place it back down and have him close his eyes again. Spend a minute or so talking about the cloud lifting to allow some time misdirection to unfold. Then say to him

‘thinking back now, what card did you see?’ Of course now he will say 7 ♥ and 15

you can send him off to his seat. You showing him the card briefly flies past the audience and they won’t remember it, even if they watch the effect multiple times.

Final Thoughts I really like this effect, and it really plays well with audiences big and small. I always have the ‘black’ card in my pocket so that I can whip it out whenever I want to do this effect. It also leads nicely into any other psychological effects that you may do in your repertoire. You can also frame this effect as forgetting an important piece of information. You can have a business card which has the ‘black’ face. The spectator closes their eyes, and you write something like their name on another business card. You can show it around and then switch for the black card and show it to the spectator. Then, you can frame it as them forgetting their name or any personal information. I haven’t really 16

tested this idea fully, but hopefully you can see the possibilities this idea could have if developed.

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Thinktank Effect Three spectators each think of a different thought and write it down. Somehow, the Mentalist manages to divine all three, before showing that he knew way in advance what each of them would pick.

Presentation Three mini slips of paper are shown, with a number 1, 2 or 3 written on each. They are mixed and three spectators (Brandon, Nathan and Gaz) take a card each and remember their number. The slips are then torn up.

Ok, so right now each of you is thinking of a number. If you thought of number 1, think of a simple geometric shape like a square or circle, nothing too complex like a star. If you thought of number 2, think of any playing card for me, but not an ace as they’re too easy. 18

Finally, if you thought of number 3, think of any two digit number from 1 to 50 for me. Please, no decimals or recurring fractions. Each spectator writes their thought down on a billet. These are unmarked and completely normal. The Mentalist is blind folded and is handed the billets. He proceeds to correctly divine all three thoughts perfectly, (e.g. 19, triangle and Q ♣) before giving a short but extremely specific character reading on all three participants.

However, I have to admit something to you. I had a feeling as to what your thoughts were going to be a week ago. I gave you (indicates spectator 1) a deck of cards 2 weeks ago, and I asked you to bring it along with you tonight. Could you please get it out? The spectator takes out the deck, and with shaking fingers, removes the card from the box. He is asked to count down to the 19

19th card. It is turned over. Sure enough, it’s the Q ♣, and scrawled across the face of it, is the word TRIANGLE in big black lettering. The Mentalist never handles the deck, and it is completely ungimmicked.

Credits If you haven’t already guessed it, this effect makes use of the brilliant Hoy Principle by David Hoy. Some noteworthy effects using this idea are Dave’s Pin from Michael Murray’s book A Piece of My Mind and Luke Jermay’s ‘Touching on Hoy from Coral Fang.

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Concept The basic idea at work here is the famous ‘Hoy Principle’ by David Hoy. What this means is that all three participants are actually thinking of the same thought without realising it. To set up, take a deck of cards and write the word ‘triangle’ across any card. Let’s say the 2 ♥. Then place this at position 36 in the deck. It doesn’t matter what card and what number you use, as long as you know them. You can then put the deck away and send it to a participant of the effect weeks in advance. You will also need a small stack of business cards that are blank on one side. Draw a medium sized rectangle in the middle of each card. In one, write the number, in this case 36, and in the other, write the card, in this case the 2 ♥. Place these two cards on the bottom of the business card stack face down in any order. You will also need five mini slips of paper. On three of these, draw a big 21

number 1 on it, and then write 2 and 3 on the other two. Make sure the ink doesn’t bleed through. You’re now ready to perform the effect. When ready to perform, place two of the slips that have a 1 on them on your lap so you can access them easily.

Performance If you saw the ‘presentation’ at the start, it’s should be clear that I don’t really have a set presentation for this effect. Sometimes I’ll talk about premonitions and act serious about it, or sometimes I’ll present it as a ‘exposing the psychics’ routine and do it quite tongue in cheek. It’s up to you really. To begin, introduce the effect and say that you’ll need ‘three random thoughts.’ Show the three slips of paper freely and have them examined. As this is happening, get the two slips in your lap, ready to be palmed. You’ll now perform a simple switch to swap numbers 2 and 3 for the ones on your lap. 22

Switch Take the slips back so that number 1 is on top. Hold them face down and get a break under the top slip. You’re going to let the two below it to slip onto your lap as you place the two palmed on top. Bring your hands together and as you do, briefly dip your hands below the table and drop the two slips below the break onto your thighs. Bring your hands back up as they meet and drop the two palmed slips onto the other hand. Grab all three with your right hand and spread them on the table. To the naked eye, it should appear as though you just transferred the slips from one hand to the other and spread them on the table. Little do they know the slips now all have 1 written on them. What fools they are.

Performance Spread them out on the table and have the spectators take one at random and remember the number. Make sure to tell 23

them not to show anyone else what number they got. This will ensure no one will see that all are the same. Take the slips back and dispose of them. Now follow the presentation written at the beginning. If you word is as shown, then all three of the participants should be thinking of triangle. Each of them also thinks that the other two are thinking of a card or a number. Take three business cards (careful not to disturb your stack) and draw boxes in the middle identical to the ones drawn earlier. Hand one to each participant and have them write down their thoughts in the boxes. Again, caution them not to let anyone else see what they write. Blindfold yourself and take the three cards face down. Mix them up and hover your hand over them one at a time to ‘pick up the auras’ the cards are leaving. You can now proceed to supposedly receive the thought one at a time. ‘I’m

getting a shape coming through here, 24

quite pointy, a triangle maybe? Don’t react anyone, don’t give anything away. Next, the number. This is quite central, like 36? And finally the card. Oh that’s easy, the 3 ….no 2 of hearts! Remove your blindfold and say ‘quick yes or no, did I get yours?’ Ask them one at a time in quick succession and they will all say ‘yes.’ Pick up the three cards and set them on top of the stack casually. Relax a little here and soak up the applause. Pick up the business card stack and transfer the top card to the bottom and turn over the whole packet. Deal the three face cards onto the table. This is discrepant but will fly past the audience. Even though you’ve just switched out two cards, everything should appear normal. Each spectator will see their thought and what they presume are the other two people’s thoughts. You’re now going to do a quick ‘handwriting’ analysis and cold reading (Note: see the end for an alternative for 25

this) I’ll just explain this briefly as it should be pretty obvious. Begin by saying ‘ok,

the way you’ve all written and drawn your answer is very interesting to me. We’ll try this with the ‘triangle’ drawer first. Don’t say who you are, as this might give me a clue, but what I’m getting from you is…’ Give a brief reading with the usual ‘Barnum statements.’ When you’re done, move straight onto the second ‘person’ who wrote the number. As this is no one, you can be as specific as you want as no one can verify it. The same with the last ‘person.’ Now ask each of them ‘what percentage

of the information that I just gave would mean something to you?’ As all three got the reading with ‘Barnum statements’ in, their answer will differ, one maybe saying Because you’ll get different percentages, this cements the idea that all the readings applied to only one person each. Finally, all you need to do now is say that ‘you knew what they were going to pick’ 26

and go into the final reveal with the deck of cards. Make sure you NEVER go near the cards so that any watching mentalists don’t accuse you of switches.

Alternative Here is an alternative to the second phase, the cold reading bit. After you’ve revealed all three thoughts, all the face down cards still say ‘triangle’ so you can have them mixed as much as possible, yet you can identify which card belongs to which person, as they will always get a card with their thought written on it!

Final Thoughts I know this might read a bit dull on paper, but as long as you keep them captivated and involved, there’s no reason for them to be. People love themselves, so as long as you keep it centred on their thoughts and ideas, they’ll be hooked! After showing this effect to a friend of mine, they said that they liked it but they thought that revealing that you knew what 27

they would think in advance kind of ruined the ‘mind reading’ phase, as it was now clear that you weren’t reading their thoughts. This is a good point, but I think that as long as you focus more on the ‘cold reading’ aspect and less on the ‘mind reading.’ This shouldn’t really pose an issue, Make it look as though the mind reading was just a casual extra to the main event (the readings.) But if you just want to reveal the three thoughts with no deck ending, you can. Finally. I’m sure some pessimists out there will be thinking ‘what if a participant doesn’t pick the triangle? What if is all goes horribly wrong?’ The simple answer is that if you’ve built up good rapport with your spectators beforehand, then they won’t try and trick you and they will go for the triangle. Plus, what other shapes can they choose? There’s really nothing to worry about…!

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Vanishing point Effect A deck of cards is borrowed and shuffled in an extremely fair manner by the participant. They then merely peek at a card, yet the Mentalist can nail it every time!

Presentation The Mentalist asks for a participant to help him with his next ‘cardboard creation.’ A deck of cards is borrowed from him (let’s call him Steve) and the cards split into four random piles.

Ok, so you look like a smart guy. You probably know all the tricks using key cards and ‘secret helpers’ and that sort of crap. So what I’ve done is split the deck into four piles. Pick ‘em up on at a time and shuffle to your heart’s contents.

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The helper does just this. He shuffles the packets on at a time. The packets are then gathered and squared.

Right, so I’m going to turn my back and what I want you to do is lift up a section of cards anywhere, peek at the card, then slap the deck back together and thoroughly shuffle. You done? Good. The Mentalist should have no inkling as to what the card is. He stares into Steve’s eyes.

I’m getting a

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