Mentalist: How many of you have played the game of Chinese Whispers?

I will throw this ball out and whomever catches it, I would like you to toss it
onto someone else until we have six people. As soon as you have thrown the
ball please come down onto the stage and stand in a line.
While that is going on, I am going to hand out a number of cards and I would
like you to write a single random word on it then pass it on to the person next
to you. The cards have the numbers one to ten written on them. Some of your
words can be similar, but remember there are unlimited words to choose
from. Just make sure you write clearly, and no dirty words please.
The mentalist hands out two small clipboards with cards on them.
As you hand out the first clipboard, say:
Mentalist: Dont be influenced by this: music.
We are using lists, as influencing all of you would be impossible. Or is it? I can
only try and read what type of things people might do. This doesnt always
work but it will be very impressive if we can get close.
The mentalist hands the second clipboard to an audience member.
Mentalist: Dont be influenced by this: Hunting.

The mentalist lines five people up as they come to the stage. The sixth person
is asked to stand on the opposite side of the stage.
Mentalist: For those of you who have never played Chinese Whispers, it works
like this: The first person thinks of a word and whispers it to the person next to
them. That person associates a word with the first and tells the next person
and so on. It is important that you each associate a word with the word you
have been told. Now, before we start I need to speak to you.
The mentalist stands in front of the first person in the line.
Mentalist: Everyone standing in a line, please plant your feet firmly on the floor
Shoulders back

Look me directly in the eyes

Volunteer: 24
Mentalist: Excellent. Please look at the words and then when you have a
word in mind, whisper it to the person on your left. After you hear a word,
associate it with one of the words on your list and so on down the line.
When the last person has associated their word could you please come over
to the microphone.
While this is happening the mentalist walks over to Kim (volunteer #6 and
future psychic.) The mentalist leans over and whispers in her ear, the secrets
of mind reading.
The fifth person in the line comes to the microphone.
Mentalist: Please confirm that each of you had a free and fair choice of any
word and its associations by just raising your hands.
Thats excellent. Please say your name into the microphone for everyone to
hear. Volunteer #5: Paul
Thank you Paul for taking part in this experiment. You can also confirm that
you had a free choice to associate any word you were given to one of your
choosing? And that was as fair as we can be in these conditions? Seven
personalities, five lists, fifty words and one single idea. You cannot not be
amazed if Kim was able to take on my ability to see into the future, right?
Hand Paul the note pad.
Mentalist: Please write the word you are thinking of now.
Actually I dont want to see what it is.
Position clairvoyant Kim in front of the mic.
Mentalist: I am going to count from one to three and on three I want you to
turn your board around Paul and Kim, you must say out loud the word you
have divined. If these two words match I want you to give them a massive
round of applause.
1 2 drop hand as if starting a race.
Pauls board says: Note

Kim shouts: Note!

Little secrets tremor:

Subtleties:
Spectator as psychic:
Say to your would be psychic:
This is how I read minds. I look at volunteer #5 and I think to myself: what type
of things do they do? For instance I have a strong question coming to mind
here. Does this person look as if they can play an instrument? Just whisper the
answer in my ear.Do you think they do?
Psychic: Yes
I think they will choose a musical word. What is all music made up of?
Psychic: Notes?
Yes, thats smashing. That can be your first choice. Just go with the singular for
that. And I think they look like they are quite clever so they may try and
outsmart you by choosing a simpler word, perhaps something that you use to
play the violin with?
Psychic: Bow?
Excellent that is your second choice. So, (increase volume of your voice here)
you have a word in mind that you named on your own?
Psychic: Yes.
So just keep your first choice in mind.
When you say:

Mentalist: Please write the word you are thinking of now. (to volunteer #5)
Have a look what they write
Mentalist: Actually I dont want to see what it is after you see the first letter.
You will now know if they are going to write the word note or bow.
You can then say to your psychic (depending on what you have seen #5
write)
Mentalist: You have a word in mind, your first choice. You can name that one
but not yet.
Refer to the presentation ending.
Or if #5 has chosen Bow:
Mentalist: You have a word in mind, I want you to change your mind to your
second choice. Dont say out loud what it is yet, but can you confirm that I
never told you what to say and you thought of that word?
Psychic: Yes it is my own word.
Alternative presentation: volunteer as psychometrist.
Mentalist: On the table here we have ten envelopes.
Close your eyes for me, can you imagine someones face that you love and
care about? Can you imagine what it would look like if they were to smile?
Now I want you to imagine what it might be like if you were able to see into
the future. What kind of things would you get up to? Now I want you to
imagine that this happens automatically as if there is nothing you can do
about it. I want you to just imagine it happens automatically now.
Mentalist: I cannot let you know what word is in each envelope but what I
can tell you is that I have an idea what types of words each person will
choose. Please hold out your hand above these envelopes. Whenever you
get a feeling to stop above one of them, just go with whichever one feels
right for you, maybe it will be some of the way in maybe not.
You doubt whether we could get this right but then, you might be wondering
how I could know just then that I knew you were doubting that.

Once you have chosen an envelope please pass it to me and we can leave
it in full view.

We expect that you are wise in the ways of mentalism and offer this part only
as a presentational idea to get the creative juices flowing. I am sure you can
think of two thumbtips, or even yet the billet switch.
For some clever sausages you may have picked up some clever wording in
the scripting. My persona is that of a hypnotist and all of my effects use AI*
wording. The you doubt is from Kenton Knepper and it is very clever. Think
about it what it implies and what effect that amount of words might cause a
volunteer.
*Automatic Imagination, Anthony Jacquin & Kev Sheldrake

So another thing for the bookie wook:

If you peek the word volunteer #5 has chosen and the word is: actually, do
not worry your pretty little heads my dears.
You look at the dumbass (don't put that in Alex!) and say:
So, you have freely chosen this word. I do not know what is written on your list
and in Chinese whispers, for our experiment to work, you need to associate
athing to the word whispered in your ear. That word is an adverb, how about
a noun? Something more tangible?

REVERSE ASSOCIATION
Banachek
The following routine is generously offered by Banachek. It doesnt use the (Menta)Lists system, but
if you like the concept of word association in mentalism you will definitely love it.
WHAT THEY SEE:
The mentalist is seated with a group of people at a table (or has a couple of volunteers on stage with
him). He proposes a game of word association. The first person in line is to think of a word, and then
whisper it to the person next to him. He must whisper it softly to ensure the mentalist doesnt hear
anything. The second person now thinks of any word he can associate with the one he just heard, and
then whisper this new word to the third person. This continues down the line until the final person is
thinking of a new word.
This last person states his word out loud for example he says boat. After pondering for a while, the
mentalist writes a prediction on a slip of paper which is left folded up on the table. The volunteers now
start saying out loud their selected words in reverse, i.e. working their way back from the last person
to the first in line.
Let us say the last word called out loud is scissors. In other words, the first person in line started the
whole game by whispering the word scissors to the one next to him.
One of the volunteers is asked to open the prediction slip on the table and read it out. It states the
following:
Because the final association word was boat I think the first word in this game must have been
scissors.
The mentalist could tell the first word thought of just by hearing the final word!
THE MECHANICS
If you read through the description of the routine, you can imagine how powerful this can play to your
audience. The secret is straight-forward but as with all good mentalism routines its success is going to
depend on your presentation, so take the time to create a proper script.
Approach a potential volunteer before the performance and ask him if he would be willing to assist
you during the show. You want him to think of ANY word he has a completely free choice. You then
ask him to write this word down on the back of one of your business cards so that he doesnt forget it
and/or for verification later. He keeps this card on him at all times and must make sure nobody knows
which word he is thinking of.
By now you know exactly what is happening. Use your favourite peek to ascertain the word he wrote,
and all your work is done. The rest is all just your fine acting abilities and fine presentation skills.
The strength of this effect lies in the pure randomness and huge number of possible words that could
have been associated through-out the game, so be sure to play this up. By most estimates the
English language contains well over a million words!

It is also possible to use this presentation with the system employed by (MENTA)LISTS.
Things will be slightly turned around, as you no longer are concerned with the final word selected, but
rather the first. This means that the FIRST person in line gets the forcing card, and the rest of the
volunteers can all receive an indifferent list.
You will need to get the game started now, which can be done in the one of following ways. Either you
also take a card (which will obviously be the priming card) and name one of the words off it.
Depending on the priming word you choose to say, your prediction will be its matching force word.
Or you can play it as a non-event and state that you will just say any word that pops into your head to
get things started. Again, you say one of the priming words and off you go.

RED & WHITE

Greg Arce
This variation comes from the fertile mind of Greg Arce. It is a great solution as well when you find
yourself in a situation where it is impractical to have audience members write down their own lists
because of time constraints or some such reason.
WHAT THEY SEE:
The mentalist shows a clear bag that contains dozens of slips of papers. Some are red and some
white. He explains that in most of his shows he has people write down lists of words, and that he
keeps the most expressive and interesting ones.
Six audience members join him on stage and stand in a line. The mentalist offers the bag to the first
person in line and asks her to take out two slips, one red and one white. She now looks at all the
different words written on the slips and names one out loud. The second person in line also takes out
two slips, red and white, and selects any word from either of them that he can associate with the first
womans word.
This continues down the line, each person choosing a red and white slip and associating a word from
them with the previous persons selection.
Once the final person has named a word out loud, a prediction envelope is opened and the mentalist
correctly predicted it!
THE MECHANICS
This is a very interesting application to the (MENTA)LISTS system, and it also makes it seem that the
participants had literally hundreds of possible choices. Of course, we know better!
The bag is a three-way clear force bag. These are available at most magic dealers, although you
probably own one already. All the compartments contain red and white slips, and on each slip there
are five words. Set it all up in the following fashion.

The slips in the first compartment contain random words these words have no bearing on the
outcome of the effect, as in the original presentation of (MENTA)LISTS. Write any words you like on
them.
The second compartment will be your priming section. The ten words on your original PRIMING
CARD as explained in (MENTA)LISTS are divided into two sets of five words. The red slips all
contain the same five priming words on all of them, and the white slips all contain the other five
priming words. Asking them to choose a red and white slip means they will be holding all ten original
priming words.
Diagram
Finally, the third compartment is your forcing section. Take your force card from the original
(MENTA)LISTS and keep it in front of you. There are of course eight random words and two force
words on it. On all the white slips, write four of the random words and one force word. The red slips
contain the other force word and four more random words.
Diagram
What's interesting about this is that at any time, up until the end, you can prove they had more
choices by having someone else from the group pull out a slip and read out the words. They will
always be different from any other words picked earlier.

(CONFABU)LIST
Greg Arce
Seeing that you have various people choosing different words, it could be very effective to incorporate
a Confabulation-ending into (MENTA)LISTS.
The routine would be presented as usual, only you will have them call out the word they associate,
and write them all down in order on a piece of paper. The justification for this will be clear to the
audience once you do the reveal you predicted the words in order and they will need to check if you
are correct.
You can use any type of confabulation method you prefer. There is the traditional wallet of course, but
you can also use an off-stage assistant or even something like Backdate as described in TA Waters
Mind, Myth and Magick. Double write the words as they are called out and in the end show that you
correctly predicted all six words, in order!

HOYS DICTIONARY
Greg Arce
Here is an alternative method to get the words written on the cards and will also give it a more
involved feeling.

Hand out some blank cards and pens to six people in the audience. Instead of asking them to write
down their own words, take out a dictionary from your case. Talk a bit about how many words there
are in the dictionary (if you have a Websters Dictionary this should be around 470,000) and that you
want them to write down random words as you call them out.
Go to the first person, riffle through the dictionary and ask them to call out stop at any page. You call
out the first word on that page and they write it down. Repeat this process until each person has
about eight or so words on their cards.
Of course, you can also show the word in the dictionary every now and then just to subtly convince
them everything is above board. The first four people will genuinely write down random words, as they
play no role in the working of the routine.
When you get to the final two people, you will employ some sneakiness. Instead of calling out the real
words on the page they stop at, you will obviously have to miscall it and use one the words on the
priming and forcing cards.
This selection process should of course be done at a brisk pace and from there you can ask the
people holding the cards to come up and join you on stage.

CHAIR TEST
Greg Arce
In Another Stage Routine on page 53 of (MENTA)LISTS you have the lists printed or written on
papers with different coloured backs. In the end you not only predicted the final word but also the
order in which those papers will be.
You can of course also have the volunteers seated on chairs during the routine, and after the
prediction for the final word has been read, have them turn their chairs around. On the backs of the
chairs are different coloured stickers, each one matching the colour of the paper that the volunteers
hold.
Because this is a routine based on word association, you might even ditch the colours and rather go
for words!
Have the volunteers on stage in the following fashion: The first person is standing, the second person
is seated on a chair next to him, the third person is standing and so forth. In other words they
alternate between standing and seated, with three people standing and three sitting on a chair.
You will now use three different pairs of priming and forcing cards. The first person in line gets a
priming card, and the person sitting next to him gets the matching force card. The next person
standing in line receives the next priming card, and the person sitting next to him gets its matching
force card. The same goes for the last pair.
This means that you can predict what each seated person will select! Prepare each chair with a
double envelope stuck to the back, and simply take out the correct prediction. On page 64 of
(MENTA)LISTS you will find some ideas for more priming and forcing words.