IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD MATT MELLO
No part of this publication may be duplicated or transmitted in any form without written permission from the author. Television performance rights reserved by Matt Mello. Copyright © 2013
Table of Contents
Enter Stage Right……………………………………..…………………………….……………3
The Imaginary Ball………….…….………………………………………….…......…………...4
This Hand, That Hand………………..…………………………………...…..…..……………11
People Skills……………………………..........................................……………..……………..16
Intermission…………………………………………….……………..…………...……………26
Pulse Rate……………………………………………………………….……..………………..27
The Spirit Necklace………………..………………………………...………..………..………33
Ouija………………………………………………………………......……...……….…………43
Exit Stage Left…………………….…………………………….……...…………….…………53
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Enter Stage Right Hello, and welcome to the show! I want to thank you so much for purchasing this manuscript. I’ve had the idea for this project for quite a while, and I’m extremely happy with the final result now making its way into your brain! In these pages, there isn’t just a collection of random effects, but two sets that can be used right out of the box. I’ve omitted particular effects and ideas here and there, some because they don’t belong to me, and others because I’m not quite ready to part with them yet, but still, the basic outline and feeling of the act is sustained. I didn’t want the effects to be your typical, mind-reading mentalism, but more about interesting mental demonstrations, and I tell this to the audience in my opening statements. Many unique and new effects are explored here, and all of them flow nicely together, complementing each other beautifully. Some of the effects can be done in both close-up and stage venues, and others are only suited for the stage. None the less, if you don’t perform everything as laid out, I’m certain that you will find something in here worth the price of admission. This may be a small book, but don’t let its size fool you. It’s packed to the edges with powerful mentalism, and teaches some of my favorite stage pieces. Enjoy the show!
Matt Mello
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THE IMAGINARY BALL
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Effect: The performer drops an imagined ball, and a spectator catches it with their eyes closed.
Introduction: This effect has gone through a few different transformations since the first idea came into my head. In the beginning, I wanted it to be like a psychic game of catch, using an invisible ball that we would throw back and forth across the stage with the spectator’s eyes closed. However, it quickly became apparent that to get that ‘perfect catch’ moment, I would probably have to involve stooges in some way, which I never do if I can avoid it—and it usually can be avoided. So I decided to make the effect slightly smaller, where I would be in closer proximity to the participant, and see if I could create a way for them to know the exact moment to catch; without using a stooge, and I also didn’t want to use invisible thread. What you have here is my bold and simple solution, which is always the best!
Presentation and Method: Nearly every show that I do starts with a quick group exercise of some kind. I feel it’s important to engage everyone from the outset. In this routine, I have everyone in the audience look at their palm and visualize they’re holding an imaginary ball, making it any color they want. “If you imagined a red ball, could you please stand with your hand out, and keep looking at the ball that you see.” Feel free to choose any color that you’d like, but I stick with red because it’s in my favor psychologically that many people will think of it. When a good number of people are standing, you’re going to go out and look at a few of them before making your selection. Whenever choosing someone at random, you should always have them do something, and then choose based on your ‘observations’. Here you will be choosing a specific type of person—not a stooge—but I’ll explain in more detail at the end.
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Passing by a few spectators, I finally choose someone who will work. “I think you will be perfect. And your name is?” “Jessie.” She answers, and I ask for a round of applause as we make our way up to the stage. I seat her in a chair facing the audience, with a small table in front of her. I ask Jessie to place her invisible ball on the empty table, and then tie a legitimate blindfold over her eyes. I ask, “Can you hold your hand out for me? Perfect. In a second, I’m going to drop your red ball, and when I say ‘now’, I’d like you to close your hand and catch it. Ready?” I wait a second, and then grab her ‘ball’ off the table and make a releasing motion with my thumb and first finger, saying, “Now.” And she closes her hand. This part of the routine could technically be skipped, but I think it’s important for a couple of reasons. Regardless of the fact that you’re giving vocal instructions, it still looks interesting, and it gives both the audience and the spectator a conditioning of what’s to happen and what to look for. It also creates a nice build-up, and makes doing it again in perfect silence that much more powerful. “Excellent! You can drop that ball onto the floor. And now this time, I’m not going to say when I’m dropping the ball, you’ll just have to sense it intuitively. It’s important that you don’t just close your hand…really wait until you feel it. It will be like a small vibration in your palm, but you will feel it. Here we go….” To any magicians in the crowd, this will seem like suggestion, but that isn’t how this works. Standing off to the left of the spectator, I grab a second ‘ball’ off the table. Without making the slightest sound, and with my first finger and thumb pinched together above Jessie’s outstretched hand for a few moments, I suddenly open my fingers. Not a second later, she shuts her hand and catches it perfectly. This may not read like the most powerful effect, but it’s quite strong, and I find it to be a perfect opener, kicking things off with something interesting and apparently propless. So how does it work this way every time? It’s almost silly, but I promise that you’ll love it and use it regularly if you try it out. The method works on the fact that you have an extremely tiny
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piece of rubber band pinched between your fingers, colored black with a sharpie marker. Figure 1, 2, and 3, shows just how small. It’s important to cut it as tiny as you can, while still being able to feel it when you drop it into your own hand.
(Figure 1)
(Figure 2)
Some of you may choose to keep the rubber band its fleshy color, but the black definitely aids in hiding its fall through the air, and since Jessie can’t see her hand through the blindfold anyway, I focus all of my attention on hiding the piece from the audience. 7
(Figure 3) It’s this little gimmick that actually gets dropped into the spectator’s palm, and she closes her hand when she feels it hit. But because the gimmick is so small, and the audience is at least ten feet away, they can’t see a thing! This may seem like an instant stooge moment, but it isn’t. When you actually drop the piece of rubber into their hand, it really does feel strange, like a vibration rather than something hitting it. Try it yourself to feel the sensation it creates. The spectator will react to that feeling, and you get the ideal effect every time. I then congratulate the spectator and tell her, “Drop that ball on the floor, as well”, like she did with the first imagined one. This gets rid of the rubber piece in her hand, and leaves everything clean for the next effect.
Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --As I mentioned earlier, your choice of spectator will be somewhat important. The main objective is to choose a spectator wearing a dark colored shirt, or a shirt that has a lot of different designs printed on it. This will help to aid in hiding the falling gimmick, but even on light colored shirts it’s extremely difficult to see at a distance; just something to be conscious of.
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--Some of you may be wondering how I keep track of the tiny gimmick during the routine, and the answer is that I keep a bunch of them in a small plastic baggie, and when I show up to the venue, I just put one or two of them onto the table I know I’ll be using. During the performance, I simply pick up the gimmick, and then drop it into their hand. It doesn’t get any easier. --There’s a possibility that during the drop, the small piece of rubber may stick to your finger or thumb. It’s essential to not just open your fingers during the drop, because if it sticks, it might go flying off somewhere and miss their hand. It’s better to give the rubber piece a slight roll in your fingers and allow it to slip out. This will ensure that it drops straight down into their hand. And I realize this seems like a stupid thing to mention, but you also need to remember to open your fingers when it falls out. When rolling the gimmick out, you’ll sometimes be so focused on making sure the piece falls straight into their hand that you’ll forget to open your fingers after to show that you’ve dropped something. If the audience doesn’t see your fingers open before the spectator’s hand shuts, the effect is ruined. I hope this doesn’t put you off from performing it. As long as you practice dropping into your own hand or with a friend, you’ll understand the rolling procedure, and will be able to drop it straight down without any issues. --Even if you ask the spectator to describe what they felt, it will only confirm everything that you said was going to happen. Being honest, the spectator will say that, “It felt like a small ball hit my hand.” or “It felt like something hit me in the palm.” No matter how they describe it, even if describing the vibrating feeling, it only strengthens and validates your effect. --If you perform in a night club, bar scenario, or anywhere that the lighting is dim enough, you can perform this effect close up, right in front of people at their table or standing. Always test it in the venue beforehand on yourself. I wouldn’t color the gimmick black here, but leave it its flesh color so it blends with their palm color. On stage this doesn’t matter, as I’ve explained, but others looking on close-up could possibly see a black dot appear on the spectator’s hand. --Sometimes rather than just having the audience members imagine a ball, I’ll have them pair up, and one will try to catch the ball while the other drops it. You can do it a few times, then have people stand that did well with the experiment and pick one of them to do it on stage. --This is an effect that could be repeated if you wish, but I personally only perform it as described. If you’re dropping ball after ball, and then having them constantly drop them onto the 9
floor, it becomes obvious that you’re probably just dropping something small into their hand. Having that one perfect moment with the silent catch is much more deceiving. You could also use two people on stage and have them catch the balls at the same time, but it’s much harder to aim over both their hands and synchronize both drops being perfect. I would suggest just performing it as it’s laid out, but I figure some of you may be thinking of doing it multiple times, and thought I should explain why I don’t. Your choice. --I also perform an effect where I appear to throw a thought into a spectators mind. I pick at the center of my forehead, and pull away my first finger and thumb together, as if pinching my invisible thought between my fingers. Of course, I have the gimmick between my fingers, and when I throw this at the spectator’s face—don’t worry, their eyes are closed—they will react. I try to aim for their forehead, so that it feels like a quick pulse, but any contact and reaction is fine. I then have them name the first letter or number that popped into their head, and nail write it on an index card. --You could also use this as a method for Banachek’s Psychokinetic Touches routine, or as a way to repeat it after performing his original effect. You would just have them hold their hand out palm down, you drop the gimmick, it bounces off their hand, and they confirm that they felt it. To everyone in the audience, the motion you make with your hand when you drop the piece looks like an invisible tap.
Credits: Jerome Finley has a routine that’s as close as possible to what I had originally imagined this effect to be. In his routine, rather than throwing a ball back and forth like we’re playing catch, he throws energy across the stage, and the spectator is able to sense when it reaches them. It’s a very strong, impromptu stage routine. Credit also goes to Banachek’s Psychokinetic Touches, for the idea of having a spectator feel something that should only be in their imagination. And finally Lior Manor’s Invisible Touch uses the idea of an invisible item to cause the spectator to feel the moment of the touch; but not the same invisible item is used.
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THIS HAND, THAT HAND
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Effect: A twist on the classic, “Which Hand?” effect, with an engaging presentation, and multiple predictions!
Introduction: Originally, I was planning to sell this with my effect, Pulse Rate, but selfishly kept this variation to myself, knowing I was going to write this book, and that this presentation was a perfect fit to pulling things together. This isn’t just another ‘which hand’ effect, where you have them put an object in either hand and then you guess. Here you really involve the spectators with a fun presentation and process, and get to surprise them with many predictions. And by using an imaginary ball, the whole thing comes off very natural and psychological. Pulse Rate is one of my favorite creations to date, and this effect is a tie with it. I love them both, and they have been hidden away for too long. It’s time to let them both out to play together!
Presentation and Method: We left with Jessie just dropping the second ball onto the floor, and now I remove the blindfold from over her eyes. “You really did incredibly, so I’d actually like to use you again, but along with someone else. Can everyone who imagined a red ball please stand again? And Jessie, I’d like you to just go out and choose any one of them. It’s your choice.” She goes out into the audience and brings up a man we’ll call, ‘Greg’. “Nice to meet you, Greg. I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but could you pick up the two red balls that Jessie rudely dropped on the floor? Thank you, you’re a good guy. And just hand one back to Jessie.” I do this mainly to condition him to follow my instructions, and because it gets a small laugh. It’s also a bit of a witch doctor moment, as Banachek explains in 12
Pyshcological Subtleties. Anytime a spectator is requested to do something strange, it’s viewed by the audience, and the participant, as having some psychological purpose. After Greg pretends to pick up the balls, I say, “In a second, we’re going to play a quick game, something that I used to play with my dad when I was a kid. It’s similar to the ‘guess which hand’ game that we’ve all played, but a little more involved and imaginative. But to start, we’ll do a little practice run. I want you both to toss your invisible ball from hand to hand as quickly as you can, counting aloud as you do so. Go ahead and practice a few tosses.” Jessie and Greg will now follow the instructions, and I watch their movements, studying their speeds. Whoever is the faster of the two is the one that I make win at the end. I pick up a large pad of paper, and without showing anyone, write, ‘Jessie – 31 Greg – 28’ because Jessie was faster in this fictitious scenario. I then write ‘Left Hand’ under Jessie’s name, and ‘Right Hand’ under Greg’s, still not showing what I’m writing. At the end, the audience should hopefully believe that you were correct with your guesses because you calculated how fast they were tossing during this practice session. I now place the pad writing-side down, and we can start. “Greg, we’re going to start with you, and I’d like you to begin with the ball in your right hand.” That instruction is important. “Same as you just did, I want you to toss the ball back and forth as many times as you can in ten seconds, counting aloud so we can all keep track. Do you understand? Then let’s begin.” Greg now throws his invisible ball back and forth as fast as he can between his hands, counting loud enough for everyone to hear, and I stare intently at my watch, as if keeping track of the ten seconds. Those of you familiar with my effect Pulse Rate will realize where this is going. Really I’m not paying attention to the time. All that’s happening is when I hear Greg say “28” I say “Stop!” It’s that simple. I’m not even remotely looking at the time. My eyes are a dazed blur, and all I’m focused on is saying stop the moment he gets to 28. Astute readers and thinkers will see that by stopping him on an even number means his ball will end back in his right hand, making your prediction of the number of tosses and which hand correct.
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Now I instruct Jessie to begin with the ball in her right hand, “So that everything is setup the same as Greg’s attempt.” I then do the same time miscall with Jessie, but let her go three more than what Greg got to, regardless of the time. So since I stopped Greg on 28 tosses, I stop Jessie on 31. And because 31 is an odd number, it will put the ball in her left hand, and make all of your predictions correct!
Additional Thoughts and Ideas: -- If I saw that both spectators were tossing slowly during the practice round, I would predict less tosses, but keep with the same odd and even method. So if I stop him at 24, then I know I need to let Jessie go to 27…or 22 and 25, and so on. It’s really easy math, and as long as the balls start in both your spectator’s right hands, and you stop them on odd and even numbers, everything will always work. --If you think the exact prediction of the number of tosses is too specific, you could just write, ‘Jessie will win by 3’! But this isn’t nearly as strong. --If performing for only one person, just predict their number of tosses and then which hand it will end up in at the end. The effect is much faster, and is still strong. --When using the stopwatch feature on your iPhone, you can stop the time at 10 seconds, close the app, and when you open it again, it will still be set on 10.14 seconds or whatever. Then for the next participant, just quickly tap the start and stop button as you’re supposedly ‘resetting’ the timer, so it goes to something like 10.77 seconds for the next person’s miscall. --Instead of using imaginary balls, you could give them paper balls to throw back and forth, with LEFT and RIGHT written on the inside of them. Then at the end, they can open the balls and see that it’s in the correct hand, and then reveal the number of tosses on a second prediction. --Bonus Effect: * Now I Know My ABC’S * I’ve played around with this idea, but don’t like it as much as Pulse Rate and This Hand, That Hand, as I’ll explain in a moment. But for the sake of completeness, I figured I should give all the thoughts on my time miscall concept.
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The basic effect is to have a spectator say the alphabet as fast as she can once. Based on her speed, I then write two predictions, one that reads, ‘You’ll get through the alphabet two and a half times…’ and another reading, ‘…ending on the letter P.’ I then ‘time’ them for ten seconds, but really just let them go through the alphabet twice, and stop them on P. That’s it. And because that’s it, I don’t use this routine as much. I don’t like that it has no secondary distracter from the method. With This Hand, That Hand, you have the LEFT and RIGHT hand predictions after the number of tosses is revealed to distract. And with Pulse Rate, you have the multiplication of the time. With this, there’s nothing extra. Many of you may be fine with that, and are more than welcome to use it freely and regularly if that’s the case. The miscall really can be applied to timing anything: dealing cards and predicting the stopped on card, or having them quickly sing a song like it’s on fast forward, and predicting the word they stop on, etc. But you should always try to find ways to distract your audience from the method, in any effect.
Credits: This effect has the same methodological credits as Pulse Rate. Banachek—you’ll see his name a lot in here—uses a totally different type of miscall with a watch in his Psychokinetic Time routine. David Hoy was one of the first people to miscall information on a regular basis in his shows, in both The Hoy Book Test and The Tossed Out Deck. As for the ‘which hand’ effect, mentalists have been doing this forever, but many new ideas have been explored with the ploy. If interested in this demonstration, I would lead the reader to Patrick Redford’s Prevaricator, Jerome Finley’s Thought Channel, or Bryn Reynolds’ The Safwan Papers. All will get the job done.
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PEOPLE SKILLS
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Effect: The performer predicts two woman’s mental decisions upon a large crowd of spectators.
Introduction: One of the coolest self-working card tricks I ever learned was Miraskill by Stewart James, in the book, The Essential Stewart James. I can remember doing it over and over in my room, with cards face-down and face-up trying to learn how it always works. Eventually I figured it out, and it wasn’t until I started performing in stand-up venues that I thought of a way to take Miraskill to a whole other level, without the use of cards or props. People Skills is the largest demonstration I’ve ever conceived, and is one of my favorite impromptu effects when I have a large enough crowd to use it. This single routine alone could easily sell for more than the price of this entire manuscript, and I feel would be worth every penny for the knowledge gained. If you enjoy Miraskill—and how could you not—then you’re going to absolutely love this new application.
Presentation and Method: “Being a slightly strange child, I often made up my own games to play with other kids, games similar to the hand toss. I didn’t realize at the time that these were psychological games, and that through playing them, I would learn and develop the skills that I use today. This next effect features one of my favorite games that I created as a kid, and will require a large group of you to participate.” I now go into the audience and grab fourteen people: eight women and six men. “I’m not quite sure how many of you I’ve selected, but there are twenty-five folded slips of paper on that table,” (figure 6) “each with a number written inside between one and twenty-five. I just want you to mix them around, take one, and put it in your pocket
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without looking at it. Everyone do this as you make your way onto the stage. We’ll look at some of them a little later.”
(Figure 6)
Once everyone pockets a piece of paper, I have the spectator’s bunch together into a large group, “I don’t want you all to stand in a line, but just gather into a mob. And while you do that, I’m going to choose two more women to make a few decisions with you.” I continue out into the audience, selecting any two, intelligent looking women. “Hello, what are your names?” They reply ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Amanda’, and I have the audience wildly slap their hands together as I give each of them a large envelope to hold. “Thank you for helping. We’re going to play a very simple game, where both of you will be choosing people at random. You will think either ‘male’ or ‘female’ and then go grab whichever sex you’re thinking of. If you both think of men, they’ll be sent to one side of the stage. If you both think of women, they’ll be sent to the opposite side of the stage. And if you each think of a man and a woman, they’ll be sent back to their seats. Do you understand?” “Yes.” They both reply. “Good, and you’ll just keep doing this until everyone has been sent somewhere. Please begin.” 18
In silence, Elizabeth and Amanda select two people at random, let’s say: a man and a woman, who are sent back to their seats without a word. Next they select two women who are sent to the left side of the stage. Then two more women are chosen to join them. Then two men are selected and sent to the right side of the stage, and so on until everyone has been placed by them. After the sorting, I tally the number of people left on stage. In this case, I would say, “Ah, so four men and six women. Of course, you would choose your own sex to win…how petty.” This will typically get a laugh. “But really you couldn’t help yourself, and anyone else in your positions would have made the exact same choices!” “And this is something I find fascinating, predicting supposedly random actions that we all make. It’s interesting that with any physical skill, even as simple as tossing a ball from hand to hand, we start off being absolutely horrible at it. Then we practice more and more to get better. But it’s strange that we don’t apply this same thinking to guessing and intuition, and understanding that there are natural, predictable patterns that we all fall into. And I’ve played this game enough to prove it. Elizabeth, can you open the envelope I gave you?” She opens the paper inside the envelope, which reads, ‘Subconsciously, you won’t be able to help choosing your own sex to win…’ Then Amanda is asked to open her envelope, and her paper reads, ‘…by two women!’ Anyone familiar with Miraskill will understand the inner workings of this effect. It’s literally the exact same effect as Miraskill, but presented with males and females rather than red and black cards. This makes the routine much larger, and more suitable for a stage or stand-up show. As in Miraskill with colors, in order for the women to win by two, you just need to make sure you have two more women than men on stage at the very start. So long as the women then follow your selection instructions—and you’ll be there to assist if they don’t understand— the women will always win by two; it’s self working. You can practice the concept with 8 red cards and 6 black cards to see the principle in action, but the same effect could be done with 10 women and 8 men, or as high as your performance space allows, and would still work. Just follow the selection instructions and things will always go in your favor. The number of people standing on either
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side of the stage, or going back to their seats may change, but there will always be two more women on the stage than men at the end. It’s how the Miraskill principle works. So just to recap, in the beginning, you pick eight women and six men, and have them go on stage, grab a piece of paper, and gather into a mob. The reason for having them gather into a group, rather than a line, is to disguise that there are more women than men at the start. You can use cards to see the idea at work. Assuming women are hearts, you would want to have the spectator’s standing around like figure 7 rather than figure 8, so it’s harder to count everyone. Plus, at the very start, no one knows the effect that’s about to take place, so they won’t be thinking to count the number of men and women anyways.
(Figure 7)
(Figure 8)
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Then all that’s needed is to have the two women start grabbing people, hopefully not inappropriately; feel free to include that joke depending on the crowd. If they both grab women, they’re sent to one side of the stage. If they grab two men, they’re sent to the other side. Men and women chosen together are sent back to their seats. And because of the Miraskill principle, the predictions in your envelopes will be one-hundred percent correct. Thank you, Stewart James! But the trick isn’t over yet. As the six women and four men left on stage make their exit, I have them remove their unopened slips of paper from their pockets, and drop them into a glass bowl. “For the men and women that Elizabeth and Amanda sent back to their seats, could you stand please? I feel bad that you just came on stage, got a little exercise walking around, and were then just sent back to your seats. So I’d like to try something extra with you. You four should be the only ones left with papers in your pockets, yes? Could you please take them out for me now?” I gesture to the bowl of papers and say, “At no point have the other slips been opened by anyone, so there’s no way I could know which four numbers you’ve chosen. Right now, any other performer might hold his hand out and try to convince you that he’s about to read your minds, but this isn’t about mind reading. It’s about something that I tried to plan before coming here, and even though it seems impossible to plan. These were the numbers that I was hoping to have come out.” I write a bunch of numbers on my large drawing pad, depending on how many people are standing. “And now I’ll cross my fingers. If you see your number here, could you please sit down….” Everyone sits, I sigh in relief, and the audience applauds and applauds, thinking it’s the end; foolish audience. “Thank you, thank you! But there’s more! For this ending to work out, not only did you have to pick those specific numbers, but Elizabeth and Amanda had to send only you four back to your seats. And I’ll show you why.”
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I hold the drawing pad in my hand, “I had twenty-five pieces of paper, and in my mind, each one of them was a letter instead of a number. I didn’t do twenty-six because I didn’t want anyone to be thinking about the alphabet and letters; and because Z isn’t important. But if we look at the four numbers you chose, we can make a word from them.” The first number is 13, the second is 9, third is 14, and the fourth is 4. Rather than laboriously counting out each individual letter on your fingers and toes, make a separate page with the alphabet written in order, and number them 1 to 26, clear enough for everyone in the audience to see. Don’t leave it attached to the pad. Rip it out and place it in the back until it’s needed, so you don’t have to keep flipping back and forth as you write. And when each number is converted, we get the word, ‘M…I…N…D’!!! Figure 9.
(Figure 9)
This ending, like the best of mentalism and magic, works purely on a bunch of lies and a small amount of physical workings. The first lie is that the twenty-five pieces of paper all have different numbers written on them. Really they only have four numbers repeated, 13, 9, 14 and 4; or in terms of letters, M, I, N, and D. It then uses the Tossed-Out Deck principle, with the understanding that as long as you mention those four numbers, everyone will sit because they all have 13, 9, 14 or 4. They will then each assume that the other people have the other numbers.
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And because People Skills can end with a different number of people sent back to their seats each time (but still keep the women winning by two) I need to have a couple of different words to account for having more than four people standing. I use two different messages:
MIND is used if four people are sent back, with 13, 9, 14, and 4 being the numbers you write, in that specific order. OUR MINDS is used with eight people, with 15, 21, 18, 13, 9, 14, 4, and 19.
I would suggest making a cheat sheet by lightly writing the scenarios in the corner of the drawing pad in pencil, so you can copy either one in marker without thinking. Because of the mathematics, the only other amount of people sent back could be twelve, which I feel is too much to write out all the numbers, and then go through the process of converting them all into letters, so I personally only use MIND and OUR MINDS. It will never just be two or six people sent back, but will always be four, eight, or twelve when using a group of fourteen people. And I find it works out that four or eight people are sent back far more often than not. It takes a lot to have twelve people sent back. That means they literally sent men and women back in pairs until there were only two women left standing there to make the prediction correct. This never happens. The moment they grab a pair of men, you know you’ll be able to do the word ending. And if twelve people did get sent back, then I would just present it like mind reading, going completely against the original presentation. As long as you say the four numbers, and then say any numbers between 1 and 25 for the other eight people, everyone will sit, and it will still be a good ending.
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Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --Rather than men and women, the effect could also be applied to a variety of things that can fall into two categories. Hair color or shirt color works well if there are enough people, but I personally enjoy the battle of the sexes feel of the demonstration. --Instead of picking a bunch of men in the same row, or a bunch of women in the same row, spread yourself out. Just grab all of one sex first, then all of the other, but make sure you’re taking them from different areas of the audience. This is so at the end of the first set, the four or eight people sent back can’t compare their slips of paper easily. --It’s optional, but I like to keep paperclips on the folded pieces of paper, to discourage anyone from peeking at their number while standing around. It also adds to the idea that there’s no way I could see through a fold to the number, or any other crazy idea. Completely up to you, though. --You could choose to have a few pieces of paper with different numbers written on them and palm them out of the jar to show, but I think this is overkill. At most, I would open a few papers and just miscall the numbers I’m looking at, saying whatever number comes to mind, “You could have picked, 23, 2, whatever!” --I won’t go into the details of my exact routines, but there are many mathematical card principles that can be applied to people. I have an extremely clean living and dead test that uses the Gilbreath principle with a large number of people. Again, I won’t go into the workings and procedures, but any creative readers should be able to take most mathematical card tricks and apply them to men and women in some way, making the effect much grander!
Credits: Without the genius that was Stewart James, and his Miraskill, this demonstration would never have come to be. I highly recommend picking up his book, The Essential Stewart James. Bill Cushman also has a great manuscript titled, Mirabill, which teaches Dr. Bill’s routine and ideas applied to the concept.
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The Tossed Out Deck by David Hoy is one of the strongest and most versatile ‘word-play’ methods that’s been discovered in mentalism, and the end of this effect is nothing more than the tossed out deck with papers, to which I claim no originality. I just find it makes a perfect ending to the first set, especially with the free word reveal. People Skills is a natural evolution of the Miraskill principle, and I really hope you guys get the opportunity to use it!
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INTERMISSION Feel free to have a drink and a snack before moving on….
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PULSE RATE
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Effect: By merely looking at a spectator, no contact ever involved, you can predict their pulse-rate with 100% accuracy!
Introduction: Aside from this single sentence, the rest of Pulse Rate is exactly as I transcribed it in its original release…. Our pulse is something that we always have on us, and being a huge fan of always-ready effects, I wanted to use it in some way. It is our direct link to life, so messing around with it can be a bit scary for some spectators, but this is why it gets such great reactions! I should clarify that this demonstration is in no way dangerous for you or your participant—as some pulse effects can be—and once learned, can be performed anywhere with no setup! Usually I’ll use this as a lead-in to a variety of mind-reading routines, as it really helps to build a connection between yourself and the spectator.
Presentation and Method: “Many psychics believe that our pulse is directly connected to our aura…our ‘life force’. This suggests that by tapping into your pulse, I can cause a brief link between the two of us,” I say, turning to my chosen spectator with a smile, “hopefully allowing for some fun things to happen. I just need one piece of information for this to work, something to help us both visualize. Do you have a favorite color?” I ask. We’ll assume the spectator, hereafter called Julie, answers, “Blue.” “Perfect, can you find your pulse for me?” I say, gesturing with two fingers on my wrist. “Now I know this will sound strange, but every time you feel your pulse beat, I want you to imagine a blue liquid pulsing out of your body, starting in your center and then flowing out
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of your skin into the air surrounding you, over and over. Don’t move, or give anything away while you do this, just imagine it. Okay?” Julie nods her head in understanding, closing her eyes as she focuses on the unusual task, her fingers pressed into her wrist. I take a step towards her, my eyes not focused on her but the space around her, as if really searching for the invisible, pulsing aura. After a few more seconds of watching, I scribble “72 B.P.M.” on an index card and place it writing-side down on the table next to Julie. “When I say, ‘Now’, I’d like you to start counting your pulse aloud, continuing until I tell you to stop. Just give me a moment, please….” I stare at my watch, and after a couple of seconds, call out, “Now!” She begins counting her pulse aloud…. “1…2…3….” And now we’re in a predicament. For me to get Julie’s pulse rate to match my prediction (72), I have to force things in my favor. This is done very simply and deceptively through a time miscall, used in a way that’s never been applied before. Nearly everyone knows that to take a pulse rate, you find the pulse, count it for fifteen seconds, and then multiply the number of beats by four to get the count for a full minute. All you have to do here is look at your watch and pretend to keep track of fifteen seconds, but really you just let the spectator count until they get to eighteen, regardless of the actual timing! Eighteen times four ALWAYS equals seventy-two, which always matches the prediction! So Julie’s sitting there holding her wrist, counting aloud, and when she finally says, ‘Eighteen’ I instruct her to stop. Looking up from my watch, I’ll usually ask her to repeat the number as if I’d been too focused on the time to pay attention to what number she was on. When she repeats, ‘Eighteen’, I smile and nod, “That’s a healthy pulse. So in fifteen seconds, it beat eighteen times. And if we multiply eighteen by four, we’ll get your pulse rate for a full sixty seconds. Eighteen plus eighteen is thirty-six. And thirty-six and thirty-six is seventy-two. Seventy-two beats per minute. Take a look at what I wrote….” I point to the
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index card lying next to her and she turns it over, instantly reacting to the perfect “72 B.P.M.” match! With a connection now established to her pulse/aura, you can move on to any type of mindreading you can do, knowing that they will be much more involved and engaged after this process. I usually just do a simple billet/center tear after, but any mind-reading will suffice!
Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --The “72 B.P.M.” prediction can be altered; you just have to adjust how long you let the spectator count for. For instance, if you wanted your prediction to be “80 B.P.M.” rather than stopping the spectator at ‘Eighteen’, you stop them at ‘Twenty’, regardless of how many seconds it takes to get there. All the while you just stare at your watch, waiting for them to get to the number. Just don’t get too extreme with the rate. Stay between 68 and 80—which would mean you interrupt their count on 17, 18, 19, or 20, depending on your prediction. --As an interesting side note, this pulse prediction was actually in consideration for one of David Blaine’s shows, around the time of his Drowned Alive special. The routine I submitted involved having a spectator hold their breath for as long as they could, and then take their pulse after and see how holding their breath affected it. I would then flip over my two index cards to show my predictions of both to be accurate. It was just a simple one-ahead, using the pulse force (72 B.P.M.) as the ahead. I would write 72 B.P.M. while the spectator held their breath, then write the number of seconds they held their breath (42 sec…etc) while apparently predicting the pulse rate. The presentation made sense after David held his breathe to challenge the world record. But, the effect never made the show—I think it was submitted a bit late. Fate must have wanted you to have it all to yourself, without it having to be that ‘David Blaine’ trick!
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--I’ve also predicted the color they choose for their aura and their pulse rate using the one ahead in the same way as above. Have them think of their favorite color and write “72 B.P.M.” on a card. Then when they name the color, write it down before the spectator counts out their pulse. I would then end by doing a color reading based on their color choice, using stock cold readings. --You could also pretend to take your pulse, write down 72 B.P.M., then force the spectators pulse to match yours. This way it seems like your pulses are synchronizing and beating at the same time. --Alternatively, rather than sync your pulse with a spectator’s, you could sync the pulses of two spectators, pretending to take the pulse rate of spectator one, then forcing the pulse rate on spectator two. You could then go on to perform a two-person telepathy effect with the connection established between the two of them instead. --Should you, for some reason, absolutely despise wearing watches, you could use the stop watch function on your phone instead, pretending to stop and close the application at the necessary number. --Sometimes I’ll perform a liar/truth teller effect after this routine, apparently ‘seeing’ their pulse, acting as if I’m reading the pulse rate to tell if they’re lying or telling the truth. This is a very fun and interesting take on the plot. --I’ll end with a warning note. There is, as with everything, a possible downside to this effect. That is if someone in the audience keeps track of the time and calls you out on it. I anticipated this being a possible problem, but in all the years I’ve used it—nearly ten—I haven’t run into it once. I assume it’s because most people are more caught up in the effect rather than trying to figure it out, but there are other factors as well. It could be that they aren’t a hundred percent sure of what’s happening and when, so that makes it hard to keep track of. But one other consideration when performing this effect close-up is to borrow a watch from a spectator, and only use your own should you need to. Usually if I’m at a table, there will be three or four people seated. I’d say on average, at least one of them will have a watch on. With the 31
increase of cell-phones over the years, very few people need to wear watches anymore. But, if someone is wearing one, you might as well get it out of play if you can, and remove the chance of them keeping track of the time themselves. If anyone asks why you aren’t using your own, just tell them you want everything to be as fair as possible, so that they’re certain you aren’t using some type of gimmicked watch. This type of excuse always flies when you’re supposedly “thinking of the spectator”. I love these types of excuses!
Credits: Luke Jermay, Docc Hilford, Tony Andruzzi, Paolo Cavalli, Andrew Gerard, Kenton Knepper, Wayne Houchin, Bill Cushman, Bill Montana, Jerome Finley and I’m sure many others have, in some way, utilized the control of a pulse in a mentalism/magic routine. Their work is something that should definitely be looked into should you enjoy and wish to learn all you can about this kind of effect. Type any of their names and ‘pulse’ into Google, and you’ll find more info on pulse control then you’ll ever need in your lifetime. Aside from his pulse work, it should be side-noted that Jerome Finley also utilizes the idea of connecting auras, which is a very powerful concept. His methods are different than mine, but are very out-of-the box and clever. I know that Keith Barry specifically synchronizes his pulse-rate with a spectator too, to allow a connection to occur for mind-reading, but our methods are different as well. Further influence comes from Banachek’s, Psychokinetic Time in which he also uses a miscall with a watch, but in a completely different way, with a completely different purpose. I won’t go into details due to exposure. In regards to miscalls in general, I would think David Hoy deserves a huge nod again, as the miscall technique has surely garnered most of its popularity due to David, and is actually where I was introduced to the idea of miscalling, in The Hoy Book Test and The Tossed Out Deck.
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THE SPIRIT NECKLACE
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Effect: A spectator causes a necklace to move in circles, and when the performer and spectator both hold it, it acts even more bizarrely!
Introduction: Although I mentioned performing a mind-reading effect after Pulse Rate, any type of psychic demonstration plays well with the aura presentation. After having the spectator imagine energy pulsing out of her body, it’s a natural and clean transition to have that person move the necklace or a pendulum with that same energy. What you’ll be learning here is how to make a gimmicked pendulum or necklace that I’ve been making for years. I didn’t want it to be magnetically operated like most, or use invisible threads, and I wanted full control over the motion at all times. This was the most practical, self-contained gimmick I could think of, and they’ve worked out very well.
Presentation and Method: When the applause settles, I suggest trying another test using Julie’s energy, and remove an earthy looking necklace from a wooden box in my case, figure 10.
(Figure 10) 34
I have her grip the knot at the top, with the quartz crystal acting as a weight, figure 11.
(Figure 11)
“I want you to imagine your blue energy swirling down your arm, all the way down into the crystal. Visualize it moving around and around in circles. Good. Now, imagine it getting bigger, spinning in larger circles. Excellent, and now you can slow it down just as easily. How did that feel?” Julie will typically answer with something like, “Blah…blah.” “What you just witnessed is very basic pendulum work, and we all have the ability to do this. But there was a man that I met once, who travelled the world watching and learning from witch doctors and voodoo practitioners as they performed their work. He had a necklace very similar to this one, but it was made from supposedly real spiritual artifacts. And he did something with that necklace that took me a long time to figure out how to replicate, and that’s what I’d like to show you now.” This whole dialog sets up the idea that what everyone has just witnessed is something normal, and anyone can do it. And it suggests that what they’re about to witness is going beyond the regular, and will seem very real and congruent with what powerful pendulum work would look like. 35
So I have Julie grab the left string of the necklace in her left hand, and I grab the right string in my right hand, with the cords draped over the backs of our hands, figure 12.
(Figure 12) I then have Julie place her empty right hand palm out towards the crystal. I have her imagine the blue energy is swirling in her open palm, and have her focus on drawing the crystal towards her hand. After a moment, the crystal begins to twitch in the air, and then stretches and reaches for her hand (figure 13), until her hand is moved away and the connection is broken, and the crystal swings back to normal.
(Figure 13) Before getting into the method, the first thing I’ll teach is how to make the pendulum or necklace, and then show you the very simple way it’s gimmicked. I’ll start with the cord
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material, which is made of round, brown shoelaces. These can be bought at Walmart, Target, or anywhere shoes are sold. This type of cord is important. The next thing you’ll need is a weight to be tied at the bottom. I like to make my pendulums and necklaces as earthy as possible, so I use quartz crystals; but nicely shaped, clean rocks will do the same job and cost you nothing. Tie the shoelace as tight as you possibly can around the rock, and then add a second loose knot, sticking a feather in before pulling it tight to secure it in place, figures 14 and 15.
(Figure 14)
(Figure 15)
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Now you’re going to want to take about six inches of cord on each side of the crystal or rock, and tie a knot on both sides, figure 16.
(Figure 16)
Then you’ll need to go to Michaels or any arts and crafts store, and go to their beads section. You can decorate your necklace or pendulum any way you want, but I alternate between large, round wooden beads, and cylindrical, wooden break beads in between, figure 17.
(Figure 17) 38
When you’ve got all the beads on both sides, you’ll be tying another knot above them to keep them from sliding. Again, I tie the knot loose at first, and put a feather in each side before pulling them tight. This gives me a little triangle of feathers, which can also be purchased at most arts and craft stores. All that’s left is to tie a double knot in the top and you have your completed necklace! To gimmick it will take one more purchase. I know it seems like a lot, but compared to some of the gimmicked pendulums out there, this is a steal! I believe I got my gimmick at JoAnn Fabrics, but if you google, ‘Dritz Doll Needle’, it’s the five inch needle, and comes in a two pack for $5. Any thin and perfectly straight object can be fed into the hollow lace, but I find the sharp needle to be the easiest. You want to start five inches above the crystal, like figure 18, so the entire needle can fit inside.
(Figure 18)
Once it’s hidden in the lace, it can be worn like a normal necklace, or kept in a nice box. And as long as the spectator holds it by the top knot, it looks, and can be used like a completely normal pendulum. After they get it to move in circles, we then each grab an end, and you can easily manipulate the crystal with the gimmick on your side, using light pressure from your middle 39
finger, back to figure 13. Only a small movement is needed with your finger to make the crystal or rock move. Apply slow, even pressure, and it will look as if the crystal is stretching and reaching for their invisible energy. If you don’t like the idea of the necklace and want to stick with a classic pendulum approach, I make twelve inch ones that look like these, figure 19.
(Figure 19)
Two of them are normal, and one has the needle in it. In order to have them ‘examined’, I give the spectator a normal pendulum, then take it back and give them the second normal pendulum. And then instead of handing them the third, gimmicked pendulum, I just hand them the first pendulum again. Trust me, no one notices. You can then use them like normal pendulums, with you using the gimmicked one, which will still work as a completely normal pendulum. Then, when you want to demonstrate the ‘advanced’ stuff’, grip the cord just above the needle, with your middle finger pressing against the side of it, figure 20. A very slight pressure is all that’s needed to make the crystal move towards your hand, figure 21.
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(Figure 20)
(Figure 21)
Don’t be quick with it. Allow it to be a slow, smooth movement out towards your hand. Then move your left hand away and release with your right middle finger to allow the crystal to swing back and forth, like it would even if it didn’t have a needle inside it. To be honest, I present this more often with the pendulums than the necklace, but wanted to offer both options. I just find the pendulums to feel more natural. 41
Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --On the necklace, it’s a good idea to have the bottom feather pointing to the side with the needle in it, so you can easily keep track. --I also suggest making a second, ungimmicked necklace and keeping it in your case. Keep it in a separate area so you don’t confuse them and grab the wrong one. It’s good to have one, should audience members after the show want to play with it and try to make it move themselves. Alternatively, you could always remove the needle when taking it out of the case. But it’s a pain to keep putting it back in, and the more you do it, the more you’ll fray the shoelace.
Credits: The roots of this effect stem from the classic Zombie Ball illusion, except with no apparent cover, because it’s hidden in plain sight. You can’t really mention the Zombie gimmick without throwing Losander’s name into the credits. The man has done more with the Zombie concept than just about anyone. He has applied it to many different items, but I’ve never seen anyone apply the idea to a pendulum. And for classic pendulum work, I would guide you towards Banachek’s Psychophysiological Thought Reading.
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OUIJA
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Effect: A spectator moves a black and white photograph across a Ouija board, and all of the information it gives is shown to be written on the back of the picture.
Introduction: This is one of the most powerful effects that I do. Nothing beats seeing the spectator’s reaction when they feel the photograph physically stop on specific letters and numbers. Then, when they turn over the picture they’ve been using the entire time and see that the details match, it’s very creepy. I’ve always loved using Ouija boards and occult objects, but wasn’t a fan of most of the gimmicked boards available; at least for the effect that I wanted to present. I have a beautiful Dark Board made by Outlaw Effects, and while it does what’s advertized, I find I use my own gimmicked board more, and believe it to be a stronger demonstration. After reading this, you’ll be able to make your own boards for a fraction of the price of the ones on the market, and the impact will be greater because of the natural items being used, all of which are completely examined.
Presentation and Method: The lights are dimmed slightly, and a candle is lit near the board. “The pendulum was, and still is, used as a physical channel to communicate with the spirits. But many other ways were created, the most well known being the Ouija board. What I have here is the old Parker Brothers board, that some of you may have used as kids.” I take it out of the old, original box it comes in, adding authenticity to the fact that it’s not gimmicked, and is the same board people have used for over forty years, figure 22. I suggest you purchase this same board. It can be found online for about twenty dollars. 44
(Figure 22) “Used more often today, another tool for communicating with the spirits are tarot cards.” Feel free to use any tarot deck, but I use the Carnie Tarot from Outlaw Effects, not for the markings on the back, but because like their Dark Board, it’s a work of art. I force The Magician card on Julie, and prefer the ‘turnover force’ in this situation. Having put The Magician on the top of the pack, and standing well away from Julie, I ask her to flip the top quarter of the deck over and place it back on top. Tell her to disregard the card she’s looking at, and to pick up half of the deck this time, and flip that over and replace it on top again. With these two actions, you can now have Julie spread to the first face down card she gets to, and it will be The Magician; I prefer the hands off approach here, but you can use any force. Without allowing her to see what she’s selected, I ask her to completely cover the card under the Ouija board. When that’s done, I remove a black and white picture from my pocket. “We’ll come back to your tarot card at the end, but I’d like you to now focus your attention on the board. I lost the pointer that originally came with it, so instead we’ll be using this photograph. Pictured is the man that created the necklace you just used, and we will be attempting to connect your energy with his for a moment. Are you okay with that? I promise everything will be fine.” I ask Julie to run her hand along the board and make sure there’s nothing sticky or out of the ordinary, and she will confirm there is nothing. I then have her run her fingers along the back of the photo without looking at it, and make sure there is nothing sticky or strange there, which will again be confirmed as normal. But they aren’t. 45
The Ouija board has been prepared by isolating specific letters and numbers through holes cut in a newspaper or construction paper, and spraying them with a clear roughing fluid, figure 23.
(Figure 23) The stuff that I use comes in a large spray paint can, and can be found at most art supply stores or online for about ten dollars. It’s called Krylon ‘Matte Finish’ Spray, figure 24, and you’ll probably never have to buy another bottle once you’ve got one. I’ve had the can I use for over six years, and it still feels pretty full.
(Figure 24) 46
Be sure to spray at least a foot and a half above the board, so it goes on even and not too thick. You’ll also be spraying the back of the photograph, but you want to put an even lighter coat on the photo, so back away to about two feet. The last thing you want is a spectator that can’t even move the picture off the letter A because there’s too thick of a coat on it. Better to spray heavier on the letters on the board instead of too heavy on the picture. Once both have been given a coat and are fully dry—it doesn’t take long—they’re ready for use. You’ll notice that you can now run your hand along the board and along the back of the photo, and nothing feels sticky or different than anything else. But when the two rough surfaces are pushed together, they stop the picture from moving instantly! So after the spectator has had a chance to check that everything is normal, I place the small photograph onto the board and run it all over the surface, showing it doesn’t stop anywhere in particular. This works because the card won’t stick if you aren’t pressing down on it. Holding it very lightly with a couple of fingers, you can run the card over the entire surface, even the roughed spots, and it won’t stick. But your specific instructions to the spectator will get it to stop wherever you’ve sprayed when they do it. “Could you just stand on the left side of the board?” Because of the way they’ll be putting their fingers on the picture, it’s easier for them to stand on the side rather than facing straight on with the board. “And can I have you blow into both of your hands and rub them together? Really get the blood in them so you can get a solid connection.” This instruction is important because it gets their hands slightly moist. If the person has really dry, cold hands, you’ll find that they have a hard time pushing the picture because their dry fingers slide off of it. You really don’t want this to happen, and having people blow into their hands is a natural behavior that remedies the dry hand dilemma. “Now I want you to press down on the photo with your index and middle fingers of both hands, like this….” I place the photograph over the letter A, and teach Julie the classic planchette finger position, figures 25 and 26.
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(Figure 25)
(Figure 26)
“And I want you to follow straight over each letter very slowly, focusing on the feeling of the board and the picture under your fingers. Feel when he wants you to stop. It will almost feel as if he’s grabbing the photo to stop it.” 48
By having them use both hands, and instructing them to move the card slowly across each letter, it forces more pressure on the card, making it easy for it to stick and stop on the correct areas. On this board, I sprayed G and T for letters, and 3 and 7 for the numbers. Now either yourself, or preferably another spectator from the audience, needs to press down on the opposite side of the board to counteract the pushing Julie’s doing with the picture. Otherwise, when she gets to the rough spot, it will stick, but the board will slide around on the table. With someone holding the other side of the board down, it will feel like the card is being grabbed, and will be a very strange feeling for your spectator when they can’t move it further. With the picture being slowly pushed over the letters, it will stop on G (figure 27) and when it does, I write the selection on my drawing pad for everyone to see. I then move the picture to the next line, starting on N, which is pushed until it stops her on T, which is written down. This is then repeated with the number 3, and then I put it on 4 to have her move it again until it finally stops on the 7. Some of you may choose to only do the initials, which is still a strong moment, and keeps things simpler.
(Figure 27)
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At the end, on my drawing pad, I have written, ‘G.T. 37’. After a little build-up, the photograph is turned over to show a name written, ‘George Tarbell’, and the date ‘1937’. The spectator clearly established a connection with his spirit, and received the information perfectly! When the spectator and the audience calms down from this moment, you can then reveal the tarot card under the Ouija board, which more than likely has been forgotten about because everyone now believes you to be a demon-child. Because I know it’s The Magician, I can reveal the card any way that I wish. I usually have her hold the photograph in her fingers, and then take her by the wrist and guide her hand over each letter on the board. I then stop on the first three letters of the card, so M…A…G for The Magician, and then quickly write, ‘MAGICIAN’ on the drawing pad, before having her take the card out from under the board to confirm and finish the show. I don’t mention anything about the selection of The Magician. I think it’s obvious that people will walk out of the show remembering MAGICIAN. I then hope that they think further, seeing how well the psychic stuff can be made to look real, and will second-guess any psychics they see in the future. With that last piece of the show cemented in their heads, take a long, well deserved bow!
Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --I know it’s awful, but this trick really isn’t something that you should practice over and over. The rough and smooth spray lasts a while on an invisible deck, but when you’re consistently rubbing the roughing fluid off while practicing with the Ouija board, it won’t work as well during your performance. And the more fluid that you have to apply, the more discolored it becomes. Eventually, after continuous use, it gets dirty on those specific letters and numbers and is obvious. So at most, test it the morning of your show, and if it seems to stick well, just leave it. If it doesn’t seem to work, spray another layer on. Keep doing this until your judgment tells you it’s time to throw it away and purchase another; it will last a good while if you keep it in its box and don’t overuse it. And for twenty bucks, it’s well worth the price, and will pay for itself in all the shows you’ll use it in.
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--For those of you that can’t contain yourselves with playing with it, you can make a version of this out of a piece of white poster board. As long as it has a slight gloss to it, it will work, but not as well as the Parker Brothers Ouija board. I personally would never perform with just paper—as it isn’t as nice aesthetically—but it has its own perk in the sense that it comes off completely ungimmicked. --Although the Ouija board will feel completely normal, because of the matte spray, it will take away some of the gloss on the letters that are sprayed. This can’t be seen unless there are lights blaring directly down on it, so just be aware. On a stage, you can control the lighting, but if you’re just doing a stand-up venue with lights above, take the board out and do a check to see if you can use it. For the most part, you’re pretty much safe, but always do a check. --Instead of going straight into the described effect, you could attempt to do some real Ouija work by using the YES and NO to answer questions for the spectator. Have them think of a yes or no question, and then imagine the picture moving and answering it. This will use normal ideomotor movements, and they will simply be answering their own questions. If you find it isn’t working for her, just move directly into the normal sequence. --If for some reason the picture does become stuck for the spectator from the beginning, and they somehow can’t move it, you can make that the effect. Make it seem like the spirit is being playful, then have them blow into their hands a few more times and try again, until they finally get it going and stopped where it’s supposed to be. --A good strategy for getting more use out of your Ouija board is to start with spraying the letters on the right side of the board, and then once those are getting dirty, move to the next letter to the left of it. Since the spectators will be stopped before they can get to the letters beyond, you can still use the same board for a few more rounds until you feel it’s time to toss it. So I typically start with H, then once that starts to look dirty, I would spray the G, then F, and so on. You would then just need to change the person’s name depending on whatever letters you spray. Here are a few names to get you going: Harold Tarbell, George Sanders, Fred Rodgers will get you through at least three uses. Use any variety that you wish. --For those of you who don’t have a small black and white photograph, I’ve provided a page of pictures at the end of the book. Go to an office supply store, purchase a slightly glossy paper, and 51
you can print them up in your normal printer. That’s how I made mine, and they look good and work very well.
Credits: As I mentioned, I have a gimmicked, hand-aged Dark Board that I purchased from Outlaw Effects for $600. If you have the money to spend, and do a lot of occult magic, I would still get one, along with their Carnie Tarot. Each one is its own work of art, and all of their material is quality. But as I also mentioned, I use my own gimmicked board more, and the effect is definitely stronger. Peter Loughran and Sean Bogunia also have their Witchboard which can be purchased for the price of a decent used car, and produces an effect closer to this one. Derren Brown, during his Séance show, was able to get audience members to move a glass to spell out a man’s name, which is similar in effect to what I have here, but certainly uses different methods.
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Exit Stage Left I want to thank you again for purchasing this book. I hope that you enjoyed reading it, and found something of value within it. I would like to think that most of you will tailor your own acts to your own styles, and will only pick and choose a couple of routines from these pages to put into your own shows. But for those of you who study this manuscript and perform everything exactly as is, then go for it! Both sets are great, and were always met with good reception when I performed them. Though personally, I would encourage you to do your own thing, and create your own routines. Or you could even separate my two sets rather than performing them together, and use each one as a scaffold to build a larger show from, fitting in your own effects and ideas where you see fit. Even if you think that you can’t, you should try. And if you aren’t happy with the results, try again, tweak, and try again! Don’t ever think that you can’t do something! Remember, it’s all in your head. And now the time has come for me to make my exit from your warm, squishy left brain. That’s the show! Goodnight! Matt Mello
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Photographs for Ouija:
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