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Colin Mcleod Deceit
Colin Mcleod Deceit
As this is a limited edition booklet, I would hope that you would respect the work
that you have purchased enough to jealously keep it to yourself, and not share it
with others. After all, you now own something almost entirely unique.
It is for this reason I would ask that you not video this routine and upload it
directly to any video websites, thus respecting the others who have purchased this
work as well.
On the off chance someone should accidentally scan this into a computer or
photocopier; I should make you aware that each page does contain a microchip
which will let me know should they be reproduced you have been warned!
All copyright owned in its entirety by Colin Mcleod, June 2008. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, copied, stored or transmitted in any form
whatsoever without the prior written consent of Colin Mcleod. All television and
broadcast rights are reserved without prior written consent of Colin Mcleod.
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Introduction
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First of all, let me express how much I truly appreciate you purchasing this
manuscript. I am aware it isnt the cheapest thing on the market and there are
already a number of chair predictions on the go. So let me just begin by making it
clear that the reason for the price is that these routines are the ones I use (as you
read the progression of the routines you will understand which I use most now)
and I do honestly feel they go a step further than every other chair prediction on
the market.
For me I have found that as far as the regular routine goes, four people sit in four
chairs and you predict where they have sat down. Dont get me wrong, that IS
impressive! It is simple and to the point. However there comes a stage with all the
routines I do where I dont want them to be just simple or to the point. I want
everything I do to stand out so they all have the wow factor!
I decided to take my line of thinking towards, if I know where people are going to
sit, surely I should know what they are thinking as they sit down. The challenge for
me then became much more about predicting what they would be thinking while in
their chairs. This would be the information predicted. Its this point which I feel
lifts it to the next step.
The following routines have been and will continue to be in my professional
repertoire for many, many years to come.
I hope you enjoy them, master them, and then use them to amaze.
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There has undoubtedly been a massive rise on the popularity of chair tests over
recent years, from David Berglass takes on this plot to the modern techniques
offered by the refreshing talented minds we have today (who will ALL be credited
at the end!).
For me this concept happened by accident as I was looking for a routine to fill a gap
before a larger reveal and predicting which one of five chairs a person would sit in
seemed to fit perfectly.
Since then I have seen many performances from other performers using chairs as
well as researching as many methods as I could find. What you are about to read
are my collection of ideas, concepts and designs for presenting this now infamous
challenge.
All the ideas have been used by me in performance at one time or another; however
for completeness I will be offering all asides I have thought of as well to allow you,
the reader, to customise your own perfect chair test to suit your needs and style.
Please enjoy my journey so far...
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Chapters
28
In the beginning... Page 6
Chair Enigma Page 9
Chair Enigma2 Page 22
Pic Chair Page 28
Presenting the Chair Test Page 31
Further thinking... Page 34
Have a Seat Page 37
Crediting Page 42
5
In the beginning...
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As mentioned previously, my original concept was to predict which one of five
chairs a person would choose to sit in. This concept, which I thought was quite a
perfect idea, was only the start of what I was looking to perform; as I was soon to
discover.
If you would take a moment to imagine the scene, there are five chairs and I invite a
person to join me on stage to look over the five chairs and to settle on one then sit
on it. At this point, I would turn around the chairs and showing that four chairs
had an X on the back, and one which had a sign reading You will sit here!
This routine relied completely on multiple outs. The middle chair is the one which
had the Envelope with the words You will sit here! printed on it, however the
envelope also contained two pieces of laminated card.
These pieces of cards looked as follows...
You will sit
ONE CHAIR
THAT WAY!
You will sit
TWO CHAIRS
THAT WAY!
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The arrows which have been printed on the bottom do not actually contain the
arrow portion. When printing, only the line is directly printed on the card. You then
take a dry wipe marker and draw the arrow portions on both lines.
Depending on where the person sat, I would bring out the required card, and as I
am reading it to the audience I would then rub off the arrow I didnt need.
This did mean that once I turned it around and showed it to the audience they
didnt have to spend time reading it, only look at the way the arrow was pointing.
I would then end by saying ... and if youre thinking the others contain a similar
message well... then would turn them around showing they all contained an X.
This routine did suit me for a while as, like I said, it was only a small part of a much
larger routine, so it seemed to be logical that I was able to predict one in five and
then build on that concept. However the more I performed with the chairs, I
realised I was far underestimating what they could be used for, so I went from one
extreme to the other, thinking of something which seems possible to something
which seems impossible.
So before I start explaining the impossible to you, let me explain why I have
included the above routine.
Firstly, and I want to be honest here, looking back at this routine I have to laugh as
it really does seem poor compared to what I have seen others do. This is beside the
point; because without this foundation routine, predicting one out of five, I would
never have followed on to create far more ideas.
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The reason I think this is important is because no matter who you are or how
competent you feel you are or are not at creating your own demonstrations, I
honestly do not feel there is such a thing as a bad idea... only one which hasnt been
fully developed yet. I urge each of you, regardless of how pointless, silly, dumb...
an idea seems, you write it down and keep a note of it.
Im a fan of the word of Sir Edward De Bono, who, as well as his techniques
regarding different thinking hats, has written at length about the importance of not
breaking your flow when writing ideas. If you tell your brain that an idea is bad, it
shuts off to that line of thinking. This is dangerous as if youre constantly telling
yourself ideas are bad, you are essentially closing doors which could lead to
opportunities for developing wonderful new concepts, ideas and routines!
So the first thing I truly want you to benefit from, having read this book, is that
none of your ideas are bad, and if you dont allow them to flow and develop it will
never lead you closer to the end result you desire.
So this basic idea of having multiple outs has essentially led to the following
routine, which when you step back and look at it, they have the same underlying
method, however used in completely different ways and presented differently. I
hope this change in perspective is something mastered by more and more people.
Using this technique I literally find myself filling note pads of ideas each month
and of course Im not saying that all those ideas are incredible...yet!
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Chair Enigma
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In its simplest form, three people come on to the stage. Three chairs are put in any
order, three envelopes are put in any order and three people sit in any chair. One
then thinks of a place, on thinks of a name, one thinks of a word. They say them out
loud and when they open their envelopes the prediction in the envelope correctly
matches what they have just said. Im sure you can already see how much stronger
the routine becomes by including pieces of specific information.
Performance
A ball of paper is thrown into the crowd to select a random volunteer. They are
asked to join you on stage, and are allowed to make a number of choices.
First of all you show them three chairs, and allow them to put them in any order
they wish.
Next they are handed three different coloured envelopes, and those too are mixed,
and any envelope is placed on any of the three chairs.
You now allow them to select any two members of the audience, and they are
allowed to sit in any chair they would like.
Finally the three spectators picked are randomly asked to think of either a name,
word or place.
Even at this point, in order to make the process as fair as possible, you still allow
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everyone the opportunity to start the process again.
When they are all happy that everything is as they want it, the three people are
asked to name whatever it is they are thinking of; Im thinking of the name
DANIEL, Im thinking of LOCH NESS and finally Im thinking of the word
ADVENTURE.
Once everyone is clear on what they have been thinking of, and that everything
really was a free choice, the envelopes are opened, and the exact thoughts are found
predicted inside.
Discussion
Like most of my favourite routines, this test falls into the area of Dual Reality.
My upcoming book (called In Reality... due for release later in 2008) will explain
this concept in detail with MANY different uses, however in its simplest form it
means that there are two different effects going on. One for the audience members
on stage (the MINOR routine), which IS a strong routine, and second effect to the
audience at large which appears much stronger (the MAJOR routine).
So of the two routines going on, the audience at large sees the one described above,
the three spectators on stage see another whereby they are impressed they have
arranged themselves into the right order. The effect they experience is the
equivalent of Gary Kurtzs routine whereby the spectators have sat in the chairs
which correspond to their freely chosen envelope. In my opinion if that routine is
strong enough to be the one the audience at large sees, then I feel it is definitely
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strong enough to be the minor effect in a dual reality routine.
You simply need any three chairs, because as you'll notice nothing interesting ever
happens with them, the mixing around is just to add to the apparent fairness of the
routine.
What you will need though are three envelopes, one blue, one red and one yellow.
The blue one houses a piece of card saying "The name DANIEL", the yellow a piece
of card saying, "The place LOCH NESS" and finally the red which has a piece of
card saying "The word ADVENTURE".
You'll notice now that these are marked, and not in a subtle way as they are all
different colours. It was my initial intention to perform this with all the envelopes
looking the same with invisible markings that I could see for a distance, however
during performance, I don't want to mess up.
I also like to think that by making them all different colours throws people off
thinking it matters if you know what order they are laid out in. When watching the
routine everything else is so fair, it wouldn't matter in the slightest as they still
choose where the envelopes get placed. The reason they are marked will make
sense shortly.
So, let us assume that the spectator has been chosen at random via a paper ball,
they've put the chairs in the order they wanted, they've randomly placed the
envelopes, two spectators have been picked and seated along with them and now
they are randomly asked to think of either a name, place or word.
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Well the way we do this, to ensure they are all thinking of different subjects matters
is to remove three cards, all fully examinable...
One says: THINK OF A NAME
The second: THINK OF A PLACE
And the third: THINK OF A WORD
In reality, these are brought out at the same time as the three envelopes; however I
will detail the entire structure for the routine once the full mechanics are explained.
You bring these out and show them to the audience at large while blocking them
from the three seated spectators showing they will be used as a means of ensuring
each person thinks of something different.
Before continuing you need ask, "There's nothing you'd like to change is there?" By
saying that, and not "Is there something you'd like to change" you are leading them
to think they are happy with their decisions, and even if they do want to change
something at this point, it doesn't matter as this is when the 'work is done'.
The method now falls down to the fact that those envelopes are clearly marked,
and the cards are about to be switched for different cards, which have slightly
differently messages on them.
There are six different ways the envelopes will be laid out.
Blue Red Yellow
Blue Yellow Red
Red Blue Yellow
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Red Yellow Blue
Yellow Blue Red
Yellow Red Blue
Meaning that there are also six different ways the predictions can land
Name Place Word
Name Word Place
Place Name Word
Place Word Name
Word Name Place
Word Place Name
SO...we need 6 lots of outs. 6 lots of 3 cards.
But how do we ensure that the three people think of what we want them too?...Well
the only logical way I can think oftell them!
You'll need three cards (the exact size as those which only showed the questions)
which ALL say the exact same THREE messages...
Person 1: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
Person 2: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
Person 3: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
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Three which ALL say...
Person 1: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
Person 2: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
Person 3: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
Three more ALL saying...
Person 1: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
Person 2: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
Person 3: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
Then three more ALL saying...
Person 1: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
Person 2: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
Person 3: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
Yet another three ALL with...
Person 1: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
Person 2: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
Person 3: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
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And finally, three ALL with...
Person 1: THINK OF THE WORD "ADVENTURE"
Person 2: THINK OF THE PLACE LOCH NESS
Person 3: THINK OF THE NAME DANIEL
So in total you will have 18 cards, plus the three 'real' ones.
There are two ways of switching these in.
The first is to use a Himber wallet. On one side of the wallet you have the cards
arranged in the six sets of three so that you can pull out which ever you require. On
the other side you have the three real cards. You bring out your wallet and show
these three cards and then put them back as you ask if there is anything they want
to change, while handing them the envelopes.
I stored the wallet in my pocket with the three coloured envelopes tucked away
inside it as shown.
When you bring them back out, you simply open up the Outs side of the wallet
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and remove the required sequence of three cards. Hand them back to the person
and ask them to mix the cards face down so that they dont even know the order,
then give one to each person.
If you choose to use a Mind Spy Wallet, like I have done, you will notice that you
can write the order of the predictions on the pad portion and simply remove the
cards matching to the required order.
The other is to show the 3 cards, then put them in your outer jacket pocket so that
they are still on view the full time. As you then ask if they want to change anything
around, you simply pull the required outs from a pocket index in your right pocket,
palm then in this hand and then while imitating pulling them out of this pocket,
simply push the actual ones further into your pocket with your thumb, done while
turning back to face the spectator after looking at the people in the chairs, this will
be invisible.
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Each person will see what the others are to think of, however they will assume the
audience has already seen that. The effect to them will now seem like you have PRE
printed your prediction so they now understand why you were so fair about the
arrangement of the envelopes.
You continue by saying
So keep in mind the chairs have been mixed, the envelopes were placed in a
random order and you could each have sat in any chair, so I am now going to ask
you each to get your thought in mind.
This very quick recap emphasises the importance of the envelopes being placed in a
random order before they look at the cards, ensuring the information on the cards
isnt questioned.
The person who is sitting in chair number one, person one, please now look at
your card and read what it asks you to do.
Do this with each of the other two people and by the end they will all be thinking
of what is in their envelope. Collect the cards back off them and put them away
again.
The routine will now conclude by you asking each what they are thinking of, and
they will of course tell you their exact thought. If the first person only says I was
thinking of the name simply guide them for the full answer by saying And what
name was it you were thinking of?, this will condition the others to simply say
what their full thought is.
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Each are then asked to open their envelope and in turn show that what they were
just thinking of is clearly predicted in the envelope.
The full routine will play as follows
I want to try something now, and I want to do it under test conditions to make
it as fair and as random as possible.
A spectator is then chosen by throwing out a ball of paper.
As you can see I have three chairs there, the order of them doesnt matter at all,
however If you feel you want to switch any around do so now
I would also like to show you here that I have three envelopes, please check
they are all sealed, and what is most important is that you cant see through
them.
As I bring out the envelopes from my Mind Spy Wallet, which is the Himber
Wallet I use for this, I also remove the three regular cards and leave them on show
from before the envelopes are arranged in order.
I would also like to point out that I havent shown anyone what is in here, and I
havent spoken to anyone before the show about whats in them. If thats not true
please stand up nowor forever hold your peace.
Id also like you to invite any two people you dont know yet to join us on stage
to help with this quick demonstration. You can choose any two people and if you
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decide you still want to change your mind, then that is fine! However once they
step on to the stage, there is no going back.
At this point I allow them the option of choosing the two people and she assigns
them the seat she would like them to sit in.
It is important they are on stage before the cards are shown, because if they were in
the audience and had seen one thing, then seen another when they were on stage,
they would assume something strange is happening.
Now youre happy these are sealed yep? Good, please give them a mix, then
place any on to whichever chair you like, in any order, and feel free to keep
mixing them around until you are settled on where you want.
As the spectator mixes the envelopes and hands two to the other spectators, keeps
one for them and sits in the remaining chair, I am showing the remainder of the
audience the printed cards.
While showing the card, ensure you are standing in front of the other spectators as
you do not want them to see the three cards you are showing. Also show all three
cards at the same time, because to the three on stage it wouldnt make sense to
show one at a time if they all have the same information.
So as you can see, one of the men will be asked to think of a name, one a place
and someone else a word!
After saying this I place the cards back into my wallet and set it aside as I turn back
around to the now seated three spectators.
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As I have said before all this is fair and random, and theres no way I could have
influenced you to put the envelopes in that order, and even if I did, it wouldnt
matter because Im still going to give you the chance to mix them up more later,
and as you will see shortly thats all thats important.
This suggestion re-emphasises the importance to the routine of the envelopes being
in a random order. When you are apparently removing the same cards from your
wallet, you are in fact opening it on the Outs side, and removing the three cards
corresponding to the order of the envelopes.
I will ask you to keep them face down so you dont know the starting order, and
if you want, for completeness you can give them a quick mix too.
This option will be understood in a moment as a joke; your audience having seen
the faces on the cards and knowing that they are identical. However to the
audience it appears to be keeping with the theme of ensuring everything is fair and
random.
When you are happy those are mixed I want you to hand any card to each
person, however I want you to keep them face down, and guys, when you get the
card keep it face down until we all turn away so no one here knows what you are
thinking, ok?
Sir, you are in chair one, so will you look at your card and remember your piece
of information. The same with you sir, you are in chair two, so will you
remember your piece of informationchair two. And finally sir, now look at the
remaining card and
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read your piece of information, and like you had already worked out sir, you are
chair three.
This paragraph here is instructing the spectators as to which piece of information to
think of, whilst it looks to everyone else like you are just telling them what chair
they are in.
When you are all happy that you have done what the card asked, please pass
them all back along to this end where I will gather them back in!
Now let us recap what happened here - the first spectator put the chairs in any
order, chose any two other spectators and decided where they had to sit, put the
envelopes in a random order and finally decided what card to give each person.
That should be pretty fair!
Now guys remember, it wouldnt have mattered what you are thinking of now,
as I really couldnt know the order of the envelopes, but gentleman number one
what is it you are thinking ofand I have never spoken to you before this routine
true? Spectator two what is it that you were thinking of? And again we have
never spoken before? And finally sir what are you thinking of? And again just to
verify you havent been approached by myself or anyone else about this tonight?
As far as Im aware you have thought of those things for the first time right now?
Sir (pointing to the first person) you thought of the name Daniel yes? Open up
your envelope and hold it high so everyone can see what it says. Now you please
(indicating to the second spectator) you thought of the place Loch Ness you said
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yes? Please open up your envelope and show everyone what is says. And finally
sir, you thought of the word Adventure, will you please open your envelope and
show everyone!
Thank you all very much indeed, you have all done sensationally.
What you have just read was my original chair test. I performed it many times in
different situations and after gathering the confidence from the first performance,
youll find that it becomes a joy to perform. As I mentioned already, the minor
effect here is that you match each envelope up to the right person, which is the plot
in most chair tests! So if that on its own is enough to generate massive success, is
there really any harm in building on that and making the reveals any more
incredible?... I think not!
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Chair Enigma
2
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After performing the original effect for a LONG time, I decided that I wanted to
change it as for me it incorporated too many different areas for discussion within a
show and I felt it did slightly limited the other routines I would be performing. Not
that it would stop me doing them, however for me I felt that it may make the other
routines strong if the chair test was limited to one specific area.
I decided that I would change the theme completely to drawings. This also meant
the mechanics would have to change slightly however I feel what I have created as
a result offers a fresh approach to the routine.
Performance
The routine is essentially the same in that I have the three people on stage, each
holding a coloured envelope, who are allowed to sit in any chair. At this point I
remove from my pocket a stack of roughly 50 cards which have the words DRAW
A PICTURE on them. Each of the words is written in a different colour which I
explain influences the way we draw pictures in different ways.
Each person takes one of the cards and from reading it forms a picture in their
mind. The cards are then collected back in and placed away. Each person then
draws on the envelope the picture they are thinking of.
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They turn their picture around and show it to everyone. On opening the envelopes
they find a piece of cards on which a picture has been drawing with almost the
exact same design.
Discussion
Obviously having read the above routine, it should be apparent there is a layer of
dual reality occurring, however when I explain exactly what is happening you will
notice the slight differences to the above routine.
As mentioned, the stack of roughly 50 index cards which say Draw A Picture
have the words written in different colours. This is important for some of the dual
reality language which will be used shortly.
The cards I use are simply hand written on blank business card stock using
different coloured sharpies as shown below.
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As well as those 50 cards, three more should be written which will be the force
cards which say
Draw a picture of a Snowman
Draw a picture of a Clock
Draw a picture of a Candle
However, as I show the rest of the stack to the audience it allows me to say You
can see each of these cards ask you to draw a different picture and they are all
different. The way the cards have been written should influence the way you draw
whatever you are going to think of.
To the audience that means the cards look different, to the people on stage it will
mean the drawings you are asked to think of will be different.
I explain that the way we are asked things determines how we subconsciously
decide on how to respond, for example if we are asked something nicely, they will
more than likely be happy to respond, whereas is someone asks nastily, then we
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wont be to obliged to help at all. I then bring out a fairly colourfully written card