Volume #6 Numbers

Introduction
Firstly let me start by saying thank you to all the people that have followed this course.
It really is crazy how time flies – This is the 6th volume in the series and this month we
will be looking at ‘Numbers’.
I am writing the introduction to this volume from within a tiny coffee shop in Dusseldorf
(Germany) and was hit with a moment of overwhelming feelings at how far I have come on
my journey. I was reading through an old notebook of mine (of which I have many, stemming
back to scribbles from the first week I became interested in mentalism) and I read a
paragraph that has inspired this introduction.
-
“I really wish I knew more about the grandfathers of mentalism, I know their material
(which is incredible, inspiring and life changing) but I really wish I knew more about
them as people. What they felt like when they were writing, what inspired them, what was
their interests/ hobbies outside of mentalism and what would it be like to sit and have a
conversation with them”.
I wrote that sentiment 4 years ago. It dawned on me just now, even though I never expect
to be as well-known as the greats in mentalism or even spoken of with the same respect, I
may not ever meet you the reader in person. I may not ever get to sit and have a
conversation with you in person (which is a shame as I wish we could all connect) and I
realized that after all of these years that is what my writing is missing… ME
During this volume (and this volume alone) I am going to share my feelings whilst writing.
You will get to know how I am feeling at the time of writing certain sections and I will
be open and honest about me as a person as to give you an insight into my world.
At the time of writing this introduction I am content, I started my journey in magic and
mentalism roughly 23 years ago and cannot believe all of the amazing opportunities and
doors it has opened up for me and I am thankful more than you guys will ever know.
I was a strange child, a little bit distant and had a crazily vivid imagination.
I was bitten by the magic bug the day after my mother abandoned me and my younger brother
‘Sam’ on my Nans doorstep. I remember seeing Lance Burton on television on Xmas day (we
were ditched Xmas eve) and being in awe as I watched him make doves appear and disappear,
candles turn into handkerchiefs and range of other unworldly things. I knew in my heart
from that very moment what I wanted from life… To be a magician.
I was an unruly child, wild and carefree and very, very independent. I think upon
reflection that my Mum leaving was probably the best and worst thing that has ever
happened to me. The best in the sense it changed time and space and opened up this world
of opportunity the worst because psychologically it makes it very difficult for me to
sustain a meaningful relationship with people (as a whole).
I learnt my first series of magic tricks from a supply teacher that came into the school,
I had been making drawings of me performing magic tricks and had told him that when I
grew up that’s what I was going to be… Not what I wanted to be, what I was going to be.
Armed with an array of effects – I wanted to show anyone who would give me the time of
day my skills.
The problem was that no one really cared for my magic as a child, it really fucking hurt
every time I tried to show someone a trick and they never took me seriously or dismissed
me. The only person that ever did was my Granddad and I saw him in-frequently. I started
to become withdrawn and more wild, it seemed the only time people paid attention to me was
when I did something dangerous like jumping out of trees or climbing shed roofs. I became
a fighter, where I grew up you had to learn to defend yourself and this made me more
unruly. It was really strange because my circle of friends were the sort that attracted
bullies, my best friend had (and still has) no hair as he had lost it to alopecia, another
friend of mine was Mark Pearson, was obsessed with Freddy Kruger and used to draw him
all the time and then there was Robert Greenwood who stuck wax crayons in his ears and
ate them (why I don’t know). The only thing that could ever really hurt us? Words – If
anyone even came close to trying to physically attack me or my friends (and they tried on
numerous occasions) I would battle them.
That part of my world was manic.
Magic was the exact opposite - it brought balance and order to my life and it gave me
something to look forward to. Creating effects, sitting and refining my skills, having
something that was just mine that no one could take away from me and it made me feel
alive.
I stayed friends with my small group throughout the entirety of my school life and the
only thing that really changed was the way that magic was perceived. David Blaine came
onto the scene, I was in high school at the time (we call it upper school in England) and
when his special hit T.V suddenly magic was cool. I was constantly flocked at high school
to perform effects.
It was really strange because our little group had shifted from being outcasts to in-
betweeners. We were accepted by the popular kids and even managed to stop a lot of the
bullying that occurred in our year at school. It really was strange because the line
between popular and outcast really became blurred, towards the end of high there really
wasn’t much of a difference anymore. I am not saying I was the sole reason for this
happening but I know the magic certainly helped.
Because I always did my own thing and never cared about anyone else’s opinion, when girls
suddenly ‘appeared’ I was very popular because of my way of life. I used to walk down the
corridors with a guitar on my back twiddling cards around… In hindsight I probably looked
like a complete penis. I never shared with the ladies what I did on a Saturday afternoon
– Each Saturday I worked on a market stall pitching magic products wearing a purple
velvet suit… I can assure you I looked more or a penis than the guitar toting card twiddler
I was Monday through Friday.
I remember being on the stall and picking up a book that was all the way from America
(for the life in me I can’t remember what it was) and closing my eyes and imagining that
someone on the other side of the world would read my creations. It gave me a really strange
warm feeling. I continued creating effects and performing them at school, moving from one
girlfriend to the next (not real relationships, the teenage kind) and was very happy with
the way things were going, life was running smoothly for the first time in what seemed
an eternity.
My school life came to an end at 14 – I never finished upper school.
-
This is a fact a lot of people do not know about me, I started at first skiving (skipping)
school and going round to a friend’s house to build cars and play the guitar. For the
record he never led in anyway, I made my own decisions. This went on for about a year
and then my Nan found out, she took the news surprisingly well but my uncle (My Nan’s
son) who also lived with us went psycho. My uncle was a hot head and was very corporal
with his punishments (too extreme at times) and after a good beating he threw me down the
front steps of the house and told me not to come back.
Things were about to change massively. I had just turned 15 and I was stubborn, if I had
returned home a couple of days later and begged for their forgiveness I would have been
allowed back, I know that in my heart of hearts. At the time I took it as a personal attack
and after remember how my mum had treated me couldn’t help but feel that I was getting
the same treatment. I vowed to punish them by not returning. It was autumn (fall) going
into winter and I had no covers a very small amount of clothing and nowhere to go as my
Nan was the only family that I had that lived in the area.
The first couple of weeks I went to a nearby allotment and made a little shack out of
broken bits of wood, twigs and debris and during the day did the same as I always did
(never telling anyone my situation as I was too proud) and at night when all my friends
had gone in from playing out I returned to my shack.
I got caught living there by one of the residents that lived near the allotments and I
was forced to flee… I needed to change my tactics. I headed for the city center in the day
time and busked using magic to make money get food and sustain myself and the nighttime
I would find a phone box to stay in for warmth.
One day quite by chance my friend Tom (the chap who had lost his hair due to alopecia)
was off of school and I was on my way down towards his house and met a local business
owner John Creber who saw me messing around with the old pasteboards (cards). He asked me
to show him a trick and after showing him a few of my pet effects he asked me what I was
doing off of school. I don’t know what compelled me but I told him I had left school (I
never mentioned the fact that I was living on the streets).
He told me to come see him when I was 16 and he would give me a joinery (carpentry)
apprenticeship, I remember jokingly telling him to pick a card and if I could guess it he
was to give me the apprenticeship early.
Cut a long story short the next day I was working for ‘Accommodate U.K’!
I was finally earning money, I rented a little bed sit on my own at 15 and had a full
time job in a position that most people would have had to finish school with good grades
to get… All because of magic. It was around about this time sat in my bed sit I turned the
television on and saw Derren Brown. My interest in mentalism had started I was hooked and
the rest is as they say – History.
I will save the rest of the story for another time as I feel by now that you are itching
to get into the content. But I wanted to share with you just how much of a consistent thing
magic/ mentalism has been in my life. It is the only thing that has truly stayed with me
through everything, relationships have come and gone as have friendships but the things
I am sharing with you in these volumes come from my heart and soul.
If I went back to having nothing again tomorrow (in the materialistic sense) - I would
still be smiling as I would still have this.
Through thick and thin…

Peter Turner
P.s – My friend stopped eating wax crayon… Well at least I think he did.
What relevance do numbers have when it comes to
mentalism?
Seems like a crazy question right?
Think about it, numbers are something that appear in every single aspect of our life from
pin codes, telephone numbers, addresses, age/ d.o.b to the # code of the hue scripting of a
colour! It makes complete sense to focus on numbers when performing mentalism. There are
so many interesting routines that are created based around number mentalism that it really
would be a shame to not take a look at some of the things that can be created around these
abstract units. I am going to start by sharing the re-workings of an idea of mine from
my very first release ‘Devious realities’ it is strange for me to look back at that work,
it really was a pivotal point in defining who I am now. I look at it and sometimes shake
my head at how naïve I was, the methods and plots were cool but some of my thinking back
then was out there. Kenton really seemed to enjoy this routine, it was my take on ‘Gumball
guessing’ at a fair ground except with Lego blocks?!? Why Lego blocks I do not know but I
got some great mileage out of this routine look how different I look here ha!

An educated guess I guess 2012 (note the lego blocks in the tub)
The main reason I want to share this routine is that within it there is an interesting
principle that takes place towards the back end of the routine (or at least how I would do
it now) after reading this I am going to share a close up variation straight out of my
close up set. The method for this is very, very simple and enables so much in terms of
performance.
I am going to start this routine in an unusual fashion, by sharing the method first!
The method we are going to be employing during this routine is the old ‘Toxic force’ –
Here is the outlined method for the Toxic force.

The TOXIC force

This principle goes all the way back to the 70’s and as far as I am aware is credited to
Bob King. John Cornelius is credited in other literature that I have read on this subject
but I believe it pre-dates him.
This principle enables you to turn some scientific calculators and mobile (cell) phone
calculators into calculators that will force any total you want – Without having to rewire
them or tamper with them. I personally use an IPhone to perform this principle.
I always borrow the participant’s phone, I never use my own. Ensure the phone you use is
an ‘IPhone’ – This will not work on an android. If you have an IPhone you can try this
now, if you do not ask someone who does (that you know) if you can try this.
Type in any total you want to force on your calculator, then press
+ 0 x (
To punch in the Parenthesis (open bracket) on the IPhone you have to rotate the phone on
its side and the calculator on an IPhone will turn into a scientific calculator. Ensure
you press the buttons in that order and if you have done it right the times key will be
highlighted. Simply press the number zero and you are ready to test the phone.
Type in any sum you want, make a few additions, subtractions, and when you are done
press equals and the look at what happens… The total you want to force will be the total
of all the sums you typed in!!
Just like that, you have an Add-A-Number force calculator.
The reason this is called the TOXIC principle should be apparent but even people in the
know sometimes miss this – toxic is the mnemonic used to remember the buttons to press.
T O X I C
+ 0 X |(
It’s a quick way to remember, should you forget the order to press the buttons in.
I will explain how I punch this into the participant’s phone in the second variant of this
effect.
An educated guess, I guess
“A wisdom of crowds was a theory used to guess the weight of an ox. Many people have seen
contests in which they win a prize if a single person can guess the number of items in a
barrel or jar. This is because guessing on your own can deceive you. Working with an
average of many minds often gets you closer to the truth.”
A jar is displayed that is filled with Lego toy pieces (or sweets). Eight people call out
their guesses of the amount of Legos in the jar. A subject acting as judge writes down the
guesses called out. The judging spectator adds up all the numbers called out and gets a
large sum, such as 984. The judge then divides this large sum by the number of people who
called out numbers and gets to the average number of the group. In this example, 123. The
judge then opens the jar (or someone else may do so). Inside the jar, on top of the Legos is
a paper with the true amount of Legos in the jar written on it. Amazingly the total is 123!
The calculations help both to bury and excuse the use of the calculator.
I took the amount of Legos (123 pieces) and decided I was going to have eight people call
out their guesses from the audience, so I punched in this equation on an unprepared
calculator:
123 x 8
This totaled 984, 984 is going to be the number I force.
When I am performing this effect I always use this line –
Performer: “Inside this jar there are a number of Lego blocks, I think it is obvious by
looking there is more than one piece and just so you are aware there isn’t over three
hundred pieces. I want you all to think of how many blocks there are inside this jar”.
I would then ask eight people to shout numbers out, as the numbers are being shouted out I
have a judge on the stage who punches the number into the calculator.
Of course this is when the person uses the IPhone and the total is already predetermined.
They add in all the numbers and hit the = button, thus arriving at the total 984. I then
proceed to address the audience,
Performer: “I did say earlier that there is less than 300 hundred pieces and therefore I
think it is obvious that there is not 984 pieces, but if we take that total and divide it
by the number of people that took a guess we will arrive at the average number of the
group as a whole. This is known as ‘The wisdom of crowds’.”
This is the beautiful part of the routine and the bit that I think completely kills any
notion of the method existing.
I would then ask a member of the audience to remove their phone and go to their calculator
–
While they are doing this I ask the participants that made a guess to raise their hand and
I count them asking each one to drop their hand as I do so. This gives the person getting
the phone out time to access the calculator and kills the dead time.
I then tell the person who has the calculator to punch in the total 984 and divide it by
8 as that is the number of players and then press equals and call out the total.
The total of course is going to be 123 –
This is such a strong routine - it hits hard! I also love the fact that the last section of
the routine ends in the spectators hands.
There is one subtlety that I highly recommend, when applying the toxic force it’s
understandable to be worried about letting the participant punch the numbers into the
phone as they could accidentally punch in the wrong digits or clear the toxic force when
they make a mistake by pressing the clear button.
I had this happen on several occasions when first putting this type of routine into my
close up act.
Whenever you hit a snag like this, it’s very easy to over think the situation and decide
you are going to punch the digits into the phone to save this happening.
This totally detracts from the overall power of the routine, it kills the reaction on the
end and leaves people with theories as to how the effect is achieved such as ‘maybe he
didn’t punch in the right digits’ or ‘maybe he did something sneaky that we didn’t see’.
There is a simple remedy – think about the choreography of the routine and the way it is
constructed.
Sometimes something as simple as one sentence can completely control the entire way a
participant acts.
In this situation the sentence I found worked the most seamlessly.
Performer: “I want you to do your best to punch in the numbers exactly as they are called
out, but if you make a mistake don’t worry just keep moving forwards, don’t try to rectify
the mistake, as the mistake will just add to the randomness of the outcome of the total”.
One thing I focus on extensively that I feel trumps every other principle in mentalism is
‘Reframing’.
There are a lot of times when I feel a routine has a moment or phase that detracts from
the overall performance and the logical thing is to try and hide that moment or make it
as invisible as possible.
I think that the exact opposite logic should be applied sometimes. The process of taking
that moment and making it stand out the greats of mentalism ‘Banachek’ and ‘Ned Rutledge’
call ‘Painting it red’. When I read about this principle I instantly fell in love with it
and it inspired me to think about how I could apply this logic to my performances. After
a while I got so used to taking the negative moments in performance and changing them so
that they made the overall performance seem impossible that I started to call this process
‘Reframing’.
I was asked last week why I name every subtlety or principle and give it a label, this is
something that I feel is a good question, you may have even wondered that yourself and
the honest answer is once I have named a subtlety or a principle its easy when I am
creating an effect to quickly jump to the reference of the principle or subtlety if it has
a name.
Sometimes I create principles and have no place to put them as they don’t naturally fit
the context of the premise or method I am working with at the time and I am never one to
use a method or a principle for the sake of it. So I give it a name, which makes it findable
later when I am going through my notes.
Not only that, when someone asks me questions later it quickly enables me to know exactly
which detail they are talking about.
Anyway back to reframing, in this routine you will notice that the worry is that the
participant may clear the toxic force out of the calculator. We take this moment and we
make it an integral part of the routine and claim that if it happens it is something that
none of us could have pre-empted and it only makes the entire routine as a whole more
impossible.
This from the participant’s perspective seems to be logically true and therefore it is
something that is not questioned because it coincides with their logic.
Rapport building is massively important in mentalism, the only time one should ever try
to go against the grain, is if it completely integral to the routine (in terms of that’s how
the method works or it entails going against the grain in order to re-frame the
performance)… Let me try to give an example that is not relevant to this situation (very
quickly I promise).
Peek Wallets – I fucking hate them, no offence to anyone that has created one or anyone
that utilizes them they just don’t work for me it doesn’t fit my character. A few years ago
I was consulting for a performer who adored them and no matter how much I tried to
persuade him to convert to a good billet peek he wasn’t swaying.
I asked him what his justification was – he told me he didn’t need one and that may be
true (for you the reader) but the amount of times I saw people ask to look at the wallet
after a routine was startling. He asked if I could help create a routine that utilized the
peek wallet.
The long and short of the justification was this –
You find the biggest skeptic in the group, point out that you would like to play a game
where they have the chance to win everything and lose nothing, by everything you mean
all the money that is in the wallet.
This is the point you would open the wallet and show 20/ 30 pounds, and bring out a business
card with a blank side on it.
Explain that the skeptic is to make a drawing on the card – This ensures that they cannot
lie later on or change their mind… Why wouldn’t they if the temptation of money is
involved?
While the skeptic is making the drawing nominate a judge who is going to be the mediator,
it is explained that the card is going to be placed inside the wallet with the money and
they are to hold onto it. This ensures that the skeptic cannot switch the card and that the
money is on display at all times.
I think you can work the rest out.
It is integral to this routine to rub against the grain and create a game type scenario to
justify the need to put the card into the wallet. The logic that was created sits with the
participants understand of what is logical and we have reframed the weakest part in the
routine to be the fairest. This is I feel the only time you should go against the grain –
playfully.
The rest of the time it should be about creating a positive rapport – I have literally seen
performers ask people if they believe in psychics and then tear into the participant for
their beliefs and that is not cool, nor does it make people want to remember you or pay
an interest in what it is you have to show them.
When you reframe the parts of a routine that are the ‘compromise’ - reframe them to fit
the participant’s beliefs and create a logic from their perspective.
Note to the reader*** to stick in line with the way I set out to write this volume (as
mentioned in the introduction) I thought I would share my feelings at this point.
Whenever I am writing I feel one of two ways, excited inspired and raring to go or
irritated, poorly (ill) and the words start to become a blur and I wish the world would
just swallow me so I get away from the same sentence that I keep messing up over and over
again.
It is currently 5.45am I have not slept for two days, I have just finished consulting for
the night and time has ran away with me. This happened yesterday I had not eaten all day
and by the time I had finished around this sort of time, left to get something to eat and
then replied to my mail over breakfast, it was 9am. After breakfast I was asked to go into
a meeting with a magic company – which lasted an hour and a half. I then opened my mail
on Facebook and forgot that I had booked to have a meeting with a graphic designer, after
the meeting I talked with Ben Seward via whatsapp about his new book and wrote a forward
for him and then Skype began to ring and Mijrin was calling me – After an hour on Skype
with Mijrin, a shower and a little bit of writing for myself (this volume) I was consulting
again and today I was filming the introduction to this series and editing it whilst
multitasking and I was supposed to be going on a date this evening but cancelled it as I
was needed for a consultation… Don’t think I will be seeing her again.
Anyway I have ‘Making a murderer’ on in the background and I am now writing again, I
feel dehydrated but no amount of liquid is helping hydrate me. My eyes are burning in the
sockets but I have too many ideas going around in my head right now to sleep.
Mijrin joined me during part of my tour in Holland and he asked me after witnessing it
firsthand how I cope – The honest answer is sometimes I don’t!
What I am about to share is straight out of my working set. I love this routine… It kills
– When you read this, it is going to seem simple and you might dismiss it, try it because
I promise you the reactions you get when performing this routine are crazy. I have shared
this routine with one other performer and he was dubious when he read it, he saw me
performing this routine, added it into his close up set and he now uses this at every
performance he does.
Let me outline the full performance first then break it down piece by piece.
There are a couple of really beautiful moments of psychology in this routine.
I have never given this routine a title – Staying consistent to the type of documentary
that is on in the background I am going to call this routine –

Serial Killer
Effect
The performer is sat at a table after performing several feats of mind reading with a
small group of participants.
One of the participants addresses the performer –
Participant: “Can anyone do what you do or is it something that you were born with”.
Performer: “Anyone can do it, it just takes time, and with the right guidance you wouldn’t
believe the things that are possible. Do you have a bank note?”
The participant reaches into their bag and produces a bank note.
The performer hands the note to another participant at the table whist addressing the
group,
Performer: “I am so confident in your ability to do this, I am willing to bet ten pounds
of Sam’s money on the outcome”.
The performer asks to borrow the participant’s phone and accesses their calculator and lays
the phone face up on the table. He then looks at the participant to his far left.
Performer: “I was asked if anyone can do this, they really can but you need to trust
yourself. I live at a property that has a two digit number on the door, tell me what number
house do I live at?”
Participant: “17”
The performer punches 17 into the phone and then continues,
Performer: “As you walk into my house there are a series of paintings I painted, one is a
triangle with the word freedom under it, what three digits are surround the triangle?”
Participant: “363”.
The performer punches those digits into the calculator, then looks at the second participant.
Performer: “I am going to add whatever digits you say to XXX’s. I have a year in mind, a
year that is special to me. Tell me when you have a year in your head don’t say it out
loud”.
Participant: “I have one”.
Performer: “You second questioned yourself, that’s not the year. Change your mind and tell
everyone what year you feel is important to me”.
Participant: “2008”.
Performer: “Looking at me what singular digit is coming into your mind?”
Participant: “6”.
The performer punches the numbers into the calculator and then quickly addresses a third
participant,
Performer: “Name the first number that pops into your head?”
Participant “9”.
The performer presses the plus key very openly and presses the number nine and then stops
– He readdresses the third participant.
Performer: “In-fact take the phone, punch in a random digit (the participant does)… Another
(the participant does)… another two (the participant does). Place the phone face up on the
table”.
The performer looks at the group for a second and then addresses them,
Performer: “I asked you to tell me the exact address I lived at, I live at 17 Thornton rd.
and the painting inside my house has a triangle with the numbers 363 surrounding it.
Anyone in your position would have gone for the exact same numbers”.
He looks towards participant number 2,
Performer: “2008 was the year that my son was born and the number 6 was the very first
digit I learnt to transmit from mind to mind and started me upon the very journey that
has led me to this table right now and anyone in your position would have gone for the
same numbers also”.
He then looks towards the third participant,
Performer: “The numbers you punched in were seemingly random, had this of been anyone
else these digits would have been different but fate decided you would punch in these
numbers. Fate decided you would be here tonight, out of anywhere else in the world that
you could have been and fate decided that we would meet.
Press the equal’s button”.
Does this total mean anything to anyone here?”
The group proclaim that it doesn’t.
The performer then reaches for his wallet whist saying –
Performer: “Would you believe me if I told you that before I left the house tonight I took
a pen and on a receipt in my wallet I wrote this number down and brought it with me?”
The group look in disbelief as the performer casually shows his hands empty and slowly
reaches for his wallet, the group lean in intently waiting to see the receipt the performer
slowly opens his wallet and says –
Performer: “No I haven’t”
The group breathe a sigh of relief.
The performer then addresses the group,
Performer: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if this total was the serial number on the bank note
that you have been holding the entire time?”
The group look at the serial number… It matches and the group go crazy!
Trust me, when I tell you how amazing the reactions are when performing this routine… It
kills
Hence calling it Serial Killer.
I am going to break this routine down into steps, the first step is stealing the serial
number from the participant’s bank note – This is incredibly easy

Stealing the serial number

When you ask the participant for a bank note, try to ensure that it comes from the
participant’s purse or wallet. The reason being that the note will be in the note section
of the wallet and it will come out flat as opposed to folded. If it does come out folded
don’t worry, just simply open it.
You are looking for the serial number, on the English notes it is on the width edge of
the note. Remember the last six digits, on an English note they are grouped together. There
is no real technique to remembering the 6 digits - let’s say the number was 873456, I just
say it to myself in my head a couple of times. You can break it up into two, three digit
numbers but honestly you are only remember the digits for a few seconds.
On an American note, remember the first 6.
The way that this section of the routine is framed is that you are using this as part of
gag/ prize, there is no heat on the note as that is all it seemingly there for. No one is
watching out for you to be looking at the serial number, just take your time there is no
rush, in performance trust me this flies by.
The mechanics are simple you take the note whilst saying –
Performer: “I am so confident in your ability to do this… (This is where you take your
peek) I am willing to bet (Double check the serial number) 20 pounds of XXX’s money on the
outcome”.
It gets a laugh and you hand the note to someone in the group. You are literally holding
the note for the briefest period of time and handing it on.
When you come to the kicker of the routine the participants will swear you didn’t touch
the note and you didn’t ever know/ see the serial number. The amount of times people will
swear that they handed the note to whoever is holding it is startling.
The next section is loading the total into the participant’s phone.

Loading the total you want to force

This is my favourite section because it is the boldest little moment in the entire routine
but flies by beautifully.
When you get to the calculator hold it towards yourself and look at the participant who
gave you bank note, punch in the serial number on the calculator and apply the toxic
force.
Then proclaim to yourself,
Performer: “In fact, let’s do it this way”.
[The aim here is to make it seem like you were going to get them to do something and then
at the last second changed your mind. I would suggest putting the phone face down for a
few seconds and then picking it up and stating the line above.
After stating the above line hit the number 0 and BOOM! You are ready to rock and roll,
the rest is all presentation from this point. There are a couple of moments in the routine
I want to talk about that make this routine special (at least to me). This first is to pay
attention to what numbers the participant calls out. This routine you will find makes it
incredible easy for you to remember the numbers that are called out as each one you are
connecting to something visual. The numbers are also broke down into sections, so it’s not
like remembering a huge total but a series of broken down numbers.
There is 2 digit address, a 3 digit number around a painting, a year and a random digit –
remembering them like this you will have all the time in the world to commit them to
memory.
You don’t need to remember the last 5 digits that the participant punches in.
When you call out the digits back to the participant in a confident manner (just before
they press the equal’s button) it will be as though the participant’s genuinely guessed
numbers that are tied to your life. When the reveal hits at the end of the routine it
confirms that they genuinely did guess things from your life (giving themselves credit
for doing something that can only be described as inexplicable).
Another little subtlety is when the second participant thinks of a year. It really doesn’t
matter what number the participant thinks of as the total is predetermined so I take
advantage of this tiny moment – I tell the participant the first year they are thinking
of is wrong and to change their mind, without them ever saying the year they are thinking
of out loud. Think of this from a psychological point of view, it suggests that you can
read whatever numbers come into the participant’s head when they were thinking of them
(in a very indirect sense). This is again confirmed when the reveal comes to fruition.
There is one more area I have found gets a great reaction even though I have done nothing,
the wallet. This moment plays a huge part in the routine from a construction point of view
as it releases some of the pressure that has been built up and kills a lot of the participant’s
expectations. When the numbers are revealed to be the serial number of the bank note it
totally takes the participant out of the left field and knocks them for six. I love the
idea of diverting the attention of the audience after creating an expectation, killing that
expectation and then reinstating it with a bang. This routine is one of those routines that
is ultra-simple in terms of mechanics and the big moment doesn’t take a long time to get
to. Try this routine at least once I guarantee you will love the way it plays out.

Cypher
This routine is a routine that I have mass amounts of fun playing around with, the more
you do this the faster you will get at it and the cleaner it will appear.
This is a variant of something that I released in the past that 90% of you wont of seen
or had the chance to play with and this is a variation you most certainly have not seen
as I have been selfish with it for some time.
I am so shocked that no one has come across this before, it is not only clever but fun to
perform and impossible to back track.

Effect
The performer proposes to try an experiment with a couple of participant’s, before he
attempts the experiment he looks at the two participants and tries to work out how each of
them thinks. He proclaims that one of them he believes sees things analytically and the
other aesthetically but he might be wrong.
He asks the first participant to take out their mobile phone and punch in a series of
random digits, whilst the first participant is doing that the second participant is asked
to think of the name of someone that means something to them but not to go for a
ridiculously long name for reasons that they will understand in a moment.
The first participant adds more digits to the digits he has already punched in and whilst
the first participant is punching numbers in the second participant is asked to look at
their dial pad on their phone and under the numbers they will see letters. They are asked
to convert the letters to numbers so for example the name ‘Rose’ would convert to the
numbers ‘7673’ as the letter R appears with the number 7 above it the letter O with the
number 6 above it and so on and so forth.
The participant is advised to not choose a name that is longer than 6 letters as they have
to remember the digits and the entire outcome of the experiment is based on their ability
to do so.
The first participant at this point has finished creating a random pin code, the second
participant is handed the phone and is asked to add their private code to the first
participants and press equals. The performer directs the second participant to not worry
about the total as it will confuse things the total is there merely to obscure the two pin
codes and that if he (the performer) was to look at the total he couldn’t differentiate
between the first pin code punched into the phone and the second.
The participant agrees that is so, just before the phone is handed to the performer, the
performer notices that the first participant is looking dubious so he asks for the total
to be erased entirely.
The performer then looks at the first participant and guesses their pin code confirming
that the participant does think analytically.
He looks at the second participant and starts to struggle, he claims that his suspicions
were true the second participant focuses on things aesthetically and he would like to try
things differently as he is struggling with the number.
The performer takes his mobile phone out and asks the participant to think about the name
of the person he is thinking of.
He takes a photo of the participant and starts to point out things from within the
photograph that are giving him clues and finishes by correctly guessing the name that the
second participant is thinking of!!

Breakdown
This routine was something that was created by accident, I was sat on hold when calling
Virgin media (which is an internet provider in the U.K.) and then an automated voice came
on and said “To help speed things up, use your keypad to punch in the first digit of your
accounts passcode”. Normally I am pissed off at the lack of human interaction during these
phone calls, but this one was different I put the phone down before even connecting with
an actual human to talk about my account.
I ran straight to my note pad and thought about all the different applications, I thought
if I could get hold of the numbers somehow I could convert them back to letters and know
what the participant was thinking of.
The first idea I had was way off base and I was struggling to convert the numbers back
into letters as the time it took was far too long. Disappointed I made my call to Virgin
Media and put the idea to bed.
A few months later I was going back through my notebooks and I saw this idea and thought
I would give it another go. I once read a quote (I don’t know where from) that suggested
if there is ever anything you want to know just Google it.
I Google’d and google’d and after about an hour of searching I came across this –
www.Aer.org
This will convert the numbers back to a word in an instance.
You may be thinking to yourself – Why not just have someone write it down on a billet
and then reveal it. Valid point, put I think it is counter intuitive to have someone create
a passcode on a mobile phone to then have someone else write on a billet – Doesn’t it make
sense to have both participants entering their information on the same platform?
Not only that, as they are changing the letters to numbers they assume you are going to
reveal the numbers making the reveal of the word/ name incredibly impressive as they
never expected it.
Another positive is that it instantly makes the plot credible, claiming that you find one
participant analytical and the other aesthetic based in their thinking and then proving
it in the end by revealing the information the way you first called it.
I believe whole heartedly if the participant is alone and you have a billet to hand
UTILIZE THE BILLET but if you don’t have a billet and you want to reveal words or names
this will work perfectly and is often more impressive as it’s a less direct line to backtrack
than writing on a billet.
Let’s first take a look at the dodge (motivation) to put the numbers into your phone to
convert them back to a word. I am going to describe this in the only way I can (from the
perspective of an IPhone owner) – If you own an android you can do this, I just don’t know
the buttons… Sorry.
On your IPhone visit –
The aforementioned website – www.Aer.org
Note to the reader*** Just to show you how good this website below is a picture of a dial
pad, create a long word and punch the numbers into the website – Here is an example of
how to create a code.

Let’s say you were thinking of the word ‘damage’ look at the numbers that create that word
The first one would be a 3 (as the letter ‘d’ is in the box with the number 3) the second
would be a 2 (as that’s where ‘a’ is) and you would do this for the rest of the letters.
Note on the IPhone the letters are underneath the dial pad.
The numbers that would be used to represent the word damage would be – 326243
If I copy these letters into the website this is what I get

You will notice looking at the photo, there is only one word – The rest are broken in
half, all you need to do is quickly look down through the center of the breaks to the one
whole word (connected) and you know what the participant is thinking of.
The question that should be on your mind right now is how in the middle of performance
do you access the website and punch in the numbers?
Test this out –
Leave the website open, press the home button on the IPhone. The phone will go back to the
main menu, go into your gallery on your phone and look at a photograph (you will understand
why in a moment).
Double tap the home button twice and a quick access menu should appear, swipe up on
anything other than the photo you are looking at and the internet page (www.aer.com). It
will close the rest of the applications and just leave them to open.
In performance you won’t have to set this up again as long as you remember to close all
other applications before you go into performance.
Double tap the home button again it will go back to the photograph.
Let’s pretend you are looking at the photograph of the participant, touch the screen a few
times like you are pointing things out about the photograph (this is purely theatrics but
serves a purpose) double tap the home button after a few seconds and click the safari tab
you will notice it instantly jumps to the webpage!
Under the guise of pretending to point out other things about the participant photograph,
you tap in the numbers and click enter. When you know the word simply double tap the home
button and click the photo and the photo will open again!
It literally takes a few seconds to jump between the two.
If you know the star sign anagram (outlined in several of my earlier works) you can
perform this during looking at the photograph, it is not necessary but can buy you time
if you are slow during the punching in the number process. If you have practiced this
dodge enough it should only take a few seconds to do.
I love the visual of asking a participant to think of the name and then take a photograph
of them whilst proclaiming –
Performer: “Our brains process up to 15,000 thoughts a second, by asking you to focus on the
name and taking a photograph at the exact moment it’s at the front of your mind means
that I can read the photograph without other thoughts clouding the thought that is relevant
to me guessing what you are thinking”.
This I feel is the perfect justification for taking a photograph, I also love the visual
or reading the photograph to deduce things about the participant. Thinking about it, this
is almost a modern take on ‘Sneak Thief’ – It is certainly remnant of it.
For more information on reading the participant, refer back to the ‘Readings’ volume in
this series.
Now I have outlined the process of how to convert the numbers back to words, let’s take a
look at how to retrieve the numbers so that we can punch them into the generator.
The first participant’s number you have a choice you can use the ‘toxic force’ outlined
earlier no matter what numbers they punch into the calculator you know what it is going
to equal in advance – That takes care of the first participant’s code.
If you do not want to utilize the toxic force you can always use the ‘life equation’ this
is something I have covered a few times in my previous works – If you do not know it,
here it is outlined quickly (As I don’t want to keep going over old material).

Life Equation
This is a very, very old effect and one that in its original form was fairly
transparent. With the scripts I offer here, you will never get called on this, as it seems
so fair.
Did I mention this can be done over the telephone?
I will outline the script that makes this seem impossible after the breakdown.
Ask the participant to go into their calculator. Most mobile phones have them, making it
probable that they have one on their person.
At first I will explain the formula, remember this is transparent and appears like math
in its original form (until you add the script).
Ask the participant to type in the year they were born. Make sure they type it in in
full four-digit form.
Tell them to press the plus key and to type in a year that is special to them.
Tell them to press the plus key again and then to type in their age.
Tell them to press the plus key for the last time and to type in the number of years it’s
been since the special year.
Press the equal’s key.
What they have just done is calculated their life number. If you take a look at the math,
you will see an interesting thing has taken place.
They will type in their D.O.B. and then their age. When they total this, it will total the
year we are in currently (2016).
When they add their special year and the number of years it’s been since the special
year, it will also equal the current year (2016).
When you add these together it will total 4032 (sometimes 4031). Stripped down and
arranged like this the equation seems totally obvious.
To hide the process of this mentalism effect, one could stagger the mathematical
operations so that it looked less obvious, but with a little investigative work it become
fairly easy to backtrack.
Here is a script that I use that ensures that it will never be backtracked.
Performer: “There are three ways to generate pin codes, the first is to hit and hope
punching in random numbers and hoping we remember them at a later date, the second is
to choose a number that would represent something that is meaningful to us like a year
and the third is to take a series of events from our life and add them all up and create
a total. The last way is the safest because it is not just one event, and two if at any
point we forget the total, we will never forget the events and therefore we can never
forget the pin code.
I want you to take out your phone and access you calculator, type in the year you were
born—the full four digits if you will. Keep the calculator toward yourself.
There is no way I could know the year you were born. I could estimate, but that’s all it
would be: estimation but I don’t feel this is a fair enough pin code.
Press the plus key for me and then type in a year that is special to you, one there is
no way that anyone here could know again four digit form.
This number is a number relevant only to you and based on probability this number will
be completely different from everyone else’s here. Things are getting a little fairer.
Press the plus key again and then type in your age and press the equal’s key.
I want you to look at that total, my special year occurred in 2010, I am assuming yours
is different right?”
It will be based on probability (if it is not don’t worry).
Performer: “If you were to press the plus key and type in how many years it has been
since your special year, in my case it would be six (2016 is the year we are in) I would
have a different total to you even if coincidentally we were the same age.
So think of how many years it has been since your special year, press the plus key type
in that amount and press equals.
What you have just done is generated a pin code, do you agree that this pin code is
fairer than the actual one you have set on your phone right now?”
The participant will agree it is.
Performer: “Can you remember this number for me?”
(Let the participant respond.)
To reiterate the total will be double the year you are in. It is 2016 here so it will be
“4032”. You will notice that the number will be “4031” if the participant’s birthday has
not occurred yet. If you wanted you can ask off the cuff if the participant has
celebrated their birthday this year. If they say no the total will be one less.
This kills on its own! I have been using this for the last couple of years and I love it
when I have nothing on me, as it can be performed anyplace, anytime.
In performance you might think this takes a long time, but it really doesn’t. It is over
very quickly once you have the scripts memorized. I can have this done in about 30
seconds -
This is the life equation.
It can be used over the phone, as a standalone effect or as part of a larger routine (like
this one).
One thing that is important to know is where I ask participant two to work out their code
–
When participant one presses equals for the first time (after they have punched in their
age) this is where I have participant two take out their phone, give them the instruction
and as they are undertaking their instructions (generating the numbers from the letters
of the word) I then get participant one to finish their final instruction (adding the
amount of years it has been since their special year). This ensures that both of them finish
roughly at the same time.
When they have done this you would ask participant one to remember their total and then
hand the phone to participant two. You would then proceed to ask participant two to press
the plus key and add their pin code.
Tell them to ignore the total, the total is there just so you (the performer) can’t tell the
difference between the two numbers whilst looking at the total. Essentially you have
obscured the two pin codes.
This is where you have a few options open to you –
If you are utilizing the toxic force, you can always use something suggested by Karl Scott
in ‘Isabella’s Star 2’ that was called ‘the poison peek’ essentially if you round of the total
you want to force to a square (ish) number like ‘5001’ for example then when participant 2
adds their number to it you are instantly going to know the second person’s total with a
simple bit of mathematics for example if the total was – ‘9982’ just look at the difference
between each number- you would pretty much instantly know that the second participant’s
code was ‘4981’.
This is if you want to look at the total – and you want to apply the toxic principle.
If you are utilizing the life equation the math is just as simple. Let’s say for example
the code is –
‘9346’
If you look at each digit in turn (from left to right) just look at the difference in size
of each number in comparison to the life equation.
4031 – This is the total of the life equation (2016).
9346 – This is the overall total.
The first one is 5 higher, the second one is 3 higher, the third one is 1 higher and the
last one is 5 higher.
So the second persons pin code should be –
‘5315’
Obviously the more digits the second participant chooses the harder the mathematics becomes
to work out.
I personally prefer to use Michael Murray’s – ‘CAL ender’ principle which I think is
diamond! As with anything Michael does, it is pure genius. If you are interested in getting
any of Michael’s work visit – www.mindfx.co.uk
Note this principle will only work with the IPhone, when you pick your participants save
this effect for when you notice that the participant has this type of phone.
After the second participant has added their number to the first participant’s number and
has pressed equals, if you ask them to tap the erase key (ensuring they tap it just once)
if you take the phone and press equals, just the second participant’s total will pop back
up onto the screen!
Which means that you will instantly know the second participant’s total and all you have
to do is remember it.
We have found out how to gain access to both numbers (as the 4031 should be committed to
your memory and therefore you don’t need to think about the first persons pin code) and
the second persons will just be a case of recalling the total and then after recalling the
total remembering the numbers to punch into the website whilst using the photograph dodge.
Note to the reader*** If you are using the principle that gain you access to the second
participant’s code, then there is no need to see the total of the two participants numbers.
Pay close attention to the section of scripting above where I mentioned that the two codes
are obscured by adding them together and creating a brand new total.
After you have said this, you would then proceed to say –
Performer: “If I was to look at the total now I would obviously not be able to tell your
code (pointing toward participant one) from yours (pointing towards participant two)”.
Both participant’s will obviously have to agree, this is where you follow up with -
Performer: “I know you are a little skeptical (aimed at participant one), you think if
somehow I see the total it might give me a clue, okay I wouldn’t usually do it this way.
Tap the ‘clear’ button for me.”
[Note I use the word tap.}
This is where you would utilize the principle once the participant believes it is gone and
the second participant’s code will come back.
In the participant’s mind, even if you somehow recalled the total (which shouldn’t cross
the participant’s mind) how could you possibly know by looking at the total the pin codes?
You can also perform this with one participant – (if you don’t have a billet handy).
You would ask the participant to create a code and remember it (based on a name or a random
word) then you would ask them to access their calculator and punch in their favorite
number and proceed to ask the participant to add the code to it and ignore the total as in
the performance –
Then use the ‘CAL ender’ principle to gain the second total – This is where you would ask
the participant which number is the most impressive number of the two to guess. Of course
they are going to say the pin code generated by the name as it is the longer number of
the two.
Proceed to move into the photo dodge and boom! You know the exact word/ name the participant
is thinking of.
This is very simple in working but I feel is a very modern way to gain access to someone’s
thoughts without having to rely on billets or mass amounts of mechanical labor.

Additional idea
Just as an idea – Note this is something I have not played with but it might give you food
for thought and I have certainly never seen it used before.
Imagine that you were performing to six participants and you learnt each of their names
–For example
Erik, Oscar, Leanne, Fred, Robert and William. We will imagine the performance is an after
dinner performance for these six individuals.
It is preferred if you know the guests first names from wedding table lists, private dinner
banquets etc.
IF you are bold during performance you can do this real time.
Either way, take the first letter of each of the participant’s names in this case it is –
E, O, L. F. R. W
And visit this site –
Litscape.com
If you punch those letters into the website it will give you a series of words that can be
made up of these letters.
The longest word that can be created from these letters is the word –Flower.
It might occur that all of the letters won’t make a word, let’s imagine 5 out of 6 of the
letters will for example - all you need to do is make whoevers letter doesn’t appear in
the word the judge of the experiment.
With a word like Flower you could probably force this using a psychological force (outlined
in the ‘Drawings’ volume) and therefore you wouldn’t revert to using numbers (as you wouldn’t
need to).
Look at your dial pad and see what numbers make up that word.
In this case (flower) the code is - 356937
This is the total you will punch into the toxic force, hopefully some of you might already
see where I am going with this…
Here is a performance pretending that we knew just the first names of the participants in
advance.

Full performance
We will pretend that the performer has become acquainted with the participant’s. He addresses
them,
Performer: “What I am about to show you is not de javu in the sense that this is something
that I have lived out before but Vu jade in the sense that I have pre-empted what is going
to happen before it happens.
I have here a prediction, a vision of things to come that I think each one of you will
find interesting.
Fred I am going to start with you, take this phone and punch in a five digit number that
means something to you, it can be made up of your date of birth, a pin code or any five
digits that are only relevant to you”.
The performer writes down the name Fred on a piece of card. It is essential that we
remember the order the numbers were punched in – It is essential to the outcome”.
Fred finishes punching in the numbers and then the performer asks the phone to be handed
to Leanne.
Performer: “You do the same, five digits that mean something to you in some way”.
The performer writes down the name Leanne.
The phone is handed to, Oscar, William, Erik and Robert and the process is repeated.
After each member of the group have punched in numbers that mean something to them they
press the equal’s key.
The total is written down underneath the list of names.
The prediction is then opened and inside it says –

‘Take the phone and visit – Www.Aer.com and in the box punch in the total you just
made as a group’.
The group watch intently as the numbers are punched into the box – the group are asked
what coherent word is made from the exact total they punched in.
They come up with the word Flower – It is explained how that word is generated and the
group understand that had the total been different the word would have been different.
The performer then addresses the group,
Performer: “Does the word Flower mean anything to any of you?”
The group proclaim that it does not, the performer continues,
Performer: “Sometimes the greatest things in life are right underneath our nose and we
just don’t know it, this word means a little bit of something to each and every one of you.
There is no way any of us could have known the total right? I asked each of you in a
particular order to punch in digits that mean something to you.
What word do we get if we take the first letter of each of your names?”
The piece of card is turned around and the group realize that the word spelt using the
first letter of each of their names is the word ‘Flower’.
The group go nuts!
I think you can see the potential this type of routine has, the routine is so simple in its
working and I can assure you I will be refining it as I feel that it has some real value.

Feelings
I said in the introduction to this document sometimes I will chime in with my feelings,
right now I am feeling wide awake! I have been writing for a few hours it is currently
3.12am and I think I will do another hour before I try rest my head.
I want to share what helps me decide on pursuing a routine or an idea, this is going to
sound like a really esoteric view (to which you are either going to believe me or not) but
I feel it. I am working on something with a pair of dice at the moment, the routine is not
even about a pair dice (or associated with dice) the idea behind the routine was to force
something else (which I won’t go into right now) and I cannot for the life in me tell you
why I decided to use dice (albeit invisible) to force this thing.
Something just made me feel like a pair of dice would work… I am about 30% away from
finishing it and I really am glad that dice popped into my head as it completely was a
good choice. The point I am making is I feel something no matter how silly it seems I
follow my feelings and see it through to the end. I don’t worry about anyone else’s opinion
I just keep moving forwards.
When you come to creating your material, trust your feelings and instincts and see where
it takes you. Each month I have made an effort to talk a little bit about my creating
process and this plays a big role in it – It works for me.
On another note, I highly recommend ‘Making a Murderer’ – It was insightful and even
though it was only on in the background it was a great series that I watched back to back.
Speaking of dice, here is something that you can have some fun with.

Fate-can
Effect
A performer is sat one on one with a participant (this can be a group).
Performer: “Have you ever had or heard of a numerological reading before?”
Participant: “I have heard of them, but never had one”.
Performer: “The way that they usually work is that the reader would take the date and
month the was born, for example mine is 26 10 and then add those numbers together, which
in my case would be 36 and then they would add those numbers together to create a single
digit in my case 3 and 6 would be 9.
They would then take the number 9 and give you a reading based on that number. What
month and date were you born?”
Participant: “12th of February”.
Performer: “So yours would be 12 and 2 add them together you get 14 and then reduce it by
taking 1 and 4 adding them together to get 5. As you can see our totals are different. I
am going to give you a reading. Before we get into this, name a playing card suit for
me”.
Participant: “Hearts”.
Performer: “I want you to imagine you are holding a dice in your left hand and another
in your right, in a moment not yet you are going to roll the two dice. Obviously each
dice has the numbers 1-6, a different number on each face when you roll them I want you
to see two different numbers, if you rolled them one dice might say 2 and the other dice
might say 6 added together the total would be 8. The total is going to be different each
time you roll it the second time you roll it the total might by 5.
Imagine rolling the dice now, seeing the two numbers and then adding the two random
numbers together”.
Participant: “Done”.
Performer: “Do you agree that this total is completely random?”
Participant: “Yes”.
Performer: “What is the number you created?”
Participant: “7”.
Performer: “If we took this number and the playing card suit, combined them, the playing
card you generated is the 7 of hearts.
Please don’t forget that.
In a deck of cards you have 52 playing cards, I want you to imagine taking a number of
cards out of the box, it is essential that you know the number of cards in your hand and
in the box. For example if you took 13 playing cards out of the box there would be 39
that remain inside the box.
Have you done that?”
Participant: “Yes”.
Performer: “In my case there is more cards inside the box, in your case is there more in
the box or more in your hand?”
Participant: “More inside the box also”.
Performer: “If I took the amount inside my box and used the same numerological principle
that we discussed earlier with the birthdates, I would have 39 cards, so 3+9 would be 12
that’s still a two digit number so I would do this again to get a single digit, 1+2 would
be 3.
In my mind I imagine taking 3 cards out of the box and adding them to the amount in my
hand.
I had 13 in my hand to start with, so if I take three more out of the box and added them
to my hand it would be 16.
Can you do that with yours?
Participant: “Erm.. Yes”.
Performer: “Can you tell me the amount in your hand when you have done that?”
Participant: “25”.
Performer: “Again you can see like our birthdays the number I chose, created a different
total to yours.
Just so we are clear you have 7 of hearts for the playing card and the number 25
correct?”
Participant: “Yes correct”.
Performer: “If we look at the 7 of hearts, in terms of a reading, the 7 of hearts is
representative of the type of person that is outgoing, someone who is guarded when it
comes to their feelings but to family and friends completely open hearted. Someone who
is currently starting a new chapter in their lives be it romantic or in career as it’s
almost like everything was turned upside down but now it has started to take shape or
order.
The number 25 is the number that represents fate, one could say that because you chose
this number if you believe in fate then it was pre-determined that you would choose this
number. It represents the fact that everything is destined to happen for a reason
whether it be love or loss. You being here today, at this time in this place was all
written and coursed out for you before you ever decided upon it mentally.
Do you believe in fate?”
Participant: “Not really”.
Performer: “Well maybe it is a coincidence that you chose the 7 of hearts and the number
25, see that deck of cards that has been sat on the table the entire time?”
Participant: “Yeah?”
Performer: “Pick them up and count them down face down one at a time to 25”.
The participant does this.
Performer: “Turn the 25th card over”
The participant does it and it is the 7 of hearts!!
After the participant reacts they settle down,
Performer: “If you think that was a coincidence then you will think this is one hell of
a coincidence, turn over the rest of the deck”.
The rest of the deck is turned over and it is entirely blank! The seven of hearts was
the only printed card inside the deck.

Breakdown
This routine is incredibly simple and is based on the truthful way that people give
numerology readings. They genuinely do reduce double digits down to one digit and then
use that digit to give a reading, if your participants wanted to Google numerological
readings this would be the first thing that pops up. So if your participant’s wanted to
do this later they genuinely could and it would stay consistent with the story within
this routine.
On paper this is something that is going to seem like a big process, when you perform it
is not. I remember when I wrote up ‘trust your instincts’ and everyone said the process
was far too much and dismissed it (because it was written and not filmed). I then
performed it as the open to my penguin lecture and it fooled the majority of people that
watched it because in performance you cannot from the audience’s perspective see the
process.
You are privy to all the subtleties, details and alternative presentations, so when you
read this it is going to seem like a much longer process than it plays out in
performance.

Forcing the playing card

This is the bit of the routine that is not 100% and I am still cleaning this up but I
have a large amount of success with this way of forcing a card. Because there is a
process in getting to a number from 1-52 the playing card force really needs to be over
very quickly and therefore I feel this is perfect for that. The reason I chose the
number seven is because I can force the number seven in a variety of different ways.
The first way is outlined in the ‘psychological playing card forces’ vol.
Let’s take a look at the combinations in which can be rolled by two dice after I have
eliminated specific numbers from the participant’s choice or range.
The first thing I say is not to throw two of the same numbers on the dice ensure they
are different.
The number 1 cannot be rolled as there are two dice, the number 2 can never be rolled as
that would be two 1’s to make a 2.
I mention that a dice has the numbers 1-6 upon its faces and to roll the dice choosing a
number on each dice FROM 1-6.
From being the key word this should eliminate 1 and 6 from being thrown and any
variant of.
I then also say – “If you threw a 2 and 6 that would be 8”
This indirectly kills a 2 and a 6.
And then say if you rolled the dice a second time it might be a 5, which should kill
them thinking of the number 5 as the total.
I also open myself up for a second chance should it not hit the first – by saying “I am
sure you know that each time you roll the dice it would be a different total if you were
to roll them now for example, the total would be?”
If they say 7 then it is perfect and you have achieved what you set out to achieve. If
they do not roll the number 7 it is fine, just simply say.
Performer: “How fair is this? Roll them again the total will be different and we will go
with whatever the next total is”.
Look at the key line in the script I carefully crafted the words ‘for example’ into the
script– this is placed really cleverly in the scripting in a place that means you can go
with the total they give or point out that when they just rolled it would be an example.
If they hit seven on the second roll you are golden, the first part will only ever be
seen as an example.
If they do not hit either of the numbers do not worry, at the start all you ever did was
claim you were going to give them a numerological reading. Simply give them a reading
based on the number that they have created. Utilize the star sign anagram outlined in
the ‘Readings’ volume to guess the participants star sign and give them a reading to
finish up.
Trust me though, try this a few times and see how cleanly it hits.

The suit
Forcing the suit is simple, you can use any of the rouses outlined in the ‘psychological
playing card forces’ volume in this series. You can play the probability card and assume
women will go for hearts and men clubs or you can frame the force around the number
they have chosen (this will only work if you don’t ask them to verbalize their total. I
might be tempted to have them write down their total on a business card with a marker
pen and listen to the sound the pen makes. If it sounds like it has hit (and you will
know) then proceed by saying
Performer: “Dependent on the number you have in your mind we will decide upon a suit.
If the number you are thinking of is 1-5 we will use a club or a diamond, odd number
clubs and even cards heart. If the number is above five, hearts and spades. We will make
the spades erm... even and the hearts odd numbers”.
If they have picked the number seven it means they have to go for a heart – I honestly
feel there is too much process doing this but you might not. We all do things differently
another variant is to just carry two decks one with the seven of hearts in and one with
the seven of diamonds in.
Then asking for the suit first saying to the participant,
Performer: “I am going to ask you to name a playing card suit and even get you to
completely change if you really wanted so that it really is something none of us could
predict. If you were to name a suit, what would it be?”
At this point if they say a heart or a diamond you are covered but if they say one of
the black suits simply counter with – “I did say I would even get you to completely
change your mind, if you were to completely change your mind at this point what suit
would you be thinking of?”
This subtly suggests to change everything about the suit including the colour. As soon as
the suit is named you pull the relevant deck out, the moment the deck comes out of your
pocket needs to be timed correctly and it should be removed when you ask a participant
to imagine holding a dice in their left hand and one in their right hand. If you ask
for the suit and then pull out the deck straight away the participant might think that
you have more than one deck of cards you really don’t want that to happen.
I much prefer this version – But it does require carrying two decks of cards.
Another variant I have found if you ask a male what suit he would least likely name (to
ensure there is no psychological force) most of the time they will say Diamond. Females
will say Spades.
Forcing the seven of hearts is something for me that I find simple so I never really
worry about this portion of the performance. It is something that becomes easier and
easier with practice.

Forcing the number from 1-52

The way the principle works in this routine the participant really has no choice. As
long as the participant goes for a number over the number 15 the total will always equal
25!
There is a beautiful little subtlety I have added to ensure that they always feel the
total would be different and I have updated an old mathematical principle and adapted it
to be used in conjunction with an acaan.
This routine is inspired by Frederick Demuth’s routine ‘a Divination with matches’. I
absolutely loved this routine and in my DVD ‘Jinxed’ I looked at this routine in depth
and even created an updated modern version using cigarettes. Outlined his routine below,
after you have read the routine I will explain what I loved about the routine and what
I thought I could change.
A Divination with matches
An extremely cute match divination can be presented impromptu with a book of paper
matches. It's ideal for close-up work, and although it's based on an old mathematical
principle this new dress and presentation makes it completely mystifying.
Effect: Hand a book of paper matches to a spectator and ask him to turn his back and
remove several matches. Ask him not to let anyone see how many he's taken and then put
them in his pocket. Next he is to count the number of matches remaining and then tear
out enough of them to represent that number. For instance, should there be 15 matches
left, he is to tear out one and lay it on the table, and then tear out five more and lay
them alongside of the first match. He is to put these matches in his pocket along with
the first ones. He is then asked to tear out any number of the remaining matches he
likes and hold them in his hand.
At this point, you turn around and reveal the number of matches he is holding, although
it is obvious that you cannot know how many matches have been torn out.
Secret: It is only necessary to use a new or nearly full pack of matches. In a new pack
there are always 20 matches. By following the above directions you will find that there
will always be nine matches left after the first two actions. When you turn around, pick
up the pack of matches, light your cigar or cigarette and note the number of matches
left. Subtract this number from nine, and you know the number of matches being held. As
indicated above, this will work just as well if you use a pack that is nearly full.
End
This is the entirety of the routine, not a lot to work with and you have to read it a
few times to be able to properly understand it but the principle itself is beautiful.
This a very old mathematical principle and if there is one thing that I have learnt
about numbers, there is always a formula and pattern that will run concurrent no matter
how big the numbers get. I first tried using this principle with the any card at any
number about a year ago and then put it to bed and it wasn’t until talking with Alex
Hinojosa recently that I decided to revise it. If it wasn’t for Alex I wouldn’t have
chased this up and put on my thinking cap. He believed in the idea even as a seed and I
thank him wholeheartedly as this routine wouldn’t be close to what it is now had he not
pushed me.
I had told Alex previously some time ago that I had used this mathematical principle in
forcing a number from 1-52 he loved it. After a few Skype sessions, he was totally
intrigued with the possibilities and went away and made me a spread sheet of all the
different combinations in which could occur. The mathematics behind all of this boils
down to two numbers - 16 and 25.
Initially this was an issue because if the participant chose a number that was under 15
then they would end up at 16 as the total. The first solution was to place 2 duplicate
playing cards in the deck one playing card at 16 and the other at 25. This is a solution
that will totally work, I prefer however not to utilize this and to steer them away from
the number entirely by giving the participant an example using the number 13. This
should force the participant away from this number and as long as it is over 15 you are
solid. If for whatever reason the participant names a single digit number, just simply
say,
Performer: “make the number you choose two digits as we are going to apply the
numerological principle we discussed earlier”. There isn’t much to this principle just
make sure they choose over 15 – Don’t say “Please choose a number over 15”, it would be a
shame to add that seeming restriction to the routine.
When you give the example of 13 the total will come out 16 and when the participant adds
their number up and it equals 25 it will subtly suggest that the total is always going to
be different. That on top of the demonstration you gave at the start with the birthdays
and there will be no doubt in your participants mind that the totals will always be
different.
When doing it with a deck of cards you need to take into account a few things.
If the participant is bad at mathematics, then tell them to use the cell phone – After
you have explained what they are going to do it doesn’t matter if you see them create
the total as remember they don’t know the outcome. They can always use their cellphone to
help them – I have found that if I show them with the number 13 on the phone and then
ask them for a number and do the math for them, this routine runs smoothly.
When they have imagined taking out a number of cards it is essential that you know if
there are more cards in their hand or inside the box.
As that is where they are going to make the numerological additions.
Let’s create an example –
Let’s for example sake say that the participant says he would take 36 cards out of the
box – 52 minus 36 = 16
There are obviously more cards in your hands.
Take the number in your hands, and create a total 3 + 6 = 9 take those cards from your
hand and place them back inside the box.
If you count the amount of cards inside the box after adding the nine cards it will 25.
In this example there are more cards inside your hand so you would do the mathematics
there (if there was more in the box you would do the mathematics there). If there is more
cards in the box you are removing them and adding the removed cards to the amount in
your hand and if there is more in the hand you would add cards to the box.
Obviously being that there are 25 cards inside the box in the end of the mathematics
here, you would have the 25 cards dealt down and have the participant place them into
the box. They have essentially brought their imagination to life.
(Read on for what to do in this scenario)
Before we get to that let’s give an example for more cards in the box (just for fullness
of vision).
Let’s say for example there are 18 cards in the hand and 34 in the box.
As there are more in the box I would now add the numbers in the box to create a total
which would be 7.
Removing 7 cards from the box and adding them to the hand… 18+7 gives a total of 25.
Then you would use the number of cards inside the hand to create the finish.
I personally never feel there is any issue with having them focus on the number of
cards inside the box instead of the hand.
If you really were worried about the inconsistency one thing that you could do is place
the force card 26th card from the top. That way if you end up with going with the number
in the participants hand you can have them deal that number of cards into their hand
and then point to the top of the deck stating “we have arrived at a card at complete
random, had you of put one more or one less card into your hand the outcome of this
would have been different”.
If it ends up being the number of cards in the box you can simply say – “There were 25
cards inside the box in your vision, so place 25 cards inside the box. (Point to the top
of the deck) we have arrived at a random card, had you of placed one card more or one
card less inside the box this would have been different”.
This is a really simple solution – At the start you can also state that whatever number
they name you will be turning the next card over.
So the mathematics summarized is as simple as –
Ask the participant to take out a number of cards mentally from the box.
Ensure they know the number in their hand and the number in the box.
Ask them where there is more cards, in the hand or in the box.
Wherever the larger total is add those two digits in that two digit number together to
reduce down to a single digit. If the total is still two digits add them two together to
get to a random digit.
Take that number of cards and add them to the other pile (hand or box)
If the larger total was in the hand to start with, the number you would go for in the
end would be the cards in the box. If the larger number was the box to start with it
would be number of cards in the hand you would end with. This bit might sound difficult
but trust me it is simple when you physically try this out.
Hopefully you can see how I force the number from 1-52.
For the reading simply follow the full performance outlined in the effect section. This
is a completely clean hands off acaan that has a beautiful kicker. The credit for the
kicker - I honestly cannot tell you who invented it, I have seen several performers
utilize it and loved the idea of it within the context of this routine.
Additional idea
I was performing this for Martin Adams (magic factory) I was performer the effect and I
said “I would take 13 cards out of the deck. How many would you take out?”
He said 25 – I obviously at this point didn’t need to do the mathematical principle, I
just simply said “I am sure if I asked you this question several times the answer would
be different”.
I just rolled into the effect and BOOM it hit so hard – The participant might say 27
straight off the bat, if they do all you need to counter with is “So that leaves 25 cards
inside the box right?”
They will say yes – Then proceed by simply saying “place 25 cards inside the box,
leaving the 27 cards in your hand. This is entirely fair and had you named a different
number this would have been entirely different correct?”
What you have essentially done is just dealt down the twenty five cards as you would
normally (I mentioned earlier the subtlety about placing the force card at 26) by
shifting the focus on the box it seems so natural to place 25 cards in the box to leave
the 27 cards remaining. Logically the participant will never know the difference as it
seems above board.
Another little subtlety I didn’t want to share, but I feel that I have to for completeness
is the one card readjustment. If you place a joker or game card on the top of the deck
when the cards are removed if it turns out that the ending to the routine is placing the
cards inside the box then the hit card will be the 26th card.
If the ending of the routine ends in the hands, then simply proclaim “I did say a number
from 1-52, I believe I left a joker on the top of the deck let’s get rid of that”. This is
one way to readjust mechanically.
Try it –

Contributions
Let’s take a look at our first contribution in this month’s volume, this contribution is
from a mentalist I have long been a fan of. He is slick, thoughtful and his choreography
is well thought out – I am happy to Present Paul Brook.
For those who don’t know Paul (and you should) before becoming a full time entertainer he
was a psychologist and that is reflective within his materials. He has an innate
understanding of the human mind and uses this understand to create real world materials.
Paul has worked as a professional mentalist for over twelve years for an array of
impressive clients all over the world and has written more than twenty (you heard me
right) books on the subject of mentalism. With all of these accolades under his belt it’s
easy to see why Paul is also kept busy consulting behind the scenes for both television
and theatre shows alike.
It isn’t just mentalism effects that Paul has become known for, drawing on his psychological
education and knowledge he analyses the theoretical applications of mentalism and his
stand alone book on mentalism theory ‘The Alchemical Tools’ is considered by many a modern
classic.
If you are interested to take a look at some more of Paul’s material, visit this link
http://www.HeKnows.co.uk.
This routine is an excerpt from 'The Chrysalis of a Polymath'.

Data Spaced
Data Spaced is a three-phase (or, if you so wished, a four-phase) routine. The routine itself
is fairly fast-paced and demonstrates a range of different abilities in a short space of
time.
I’ll stop writing and get right into it:

The Effect
The Performer has just met a group of chaps. After finding out that the Performer is a
mind reader one of the group asks to see something.
Performer: “It is possible to understand a lot about a person by the numbers that he or she
chooses when given a choice.
Equally, knowing only a small amount of information about a person can give you an idea
as to the number that person is likely to choose.”
Looking over the participant, the Performer appears to be deep in thought before picking
up a business card and pencil.
A few more moments of thoughtfulness pass before the Performer writes something on the
card and places the pencil on the table.
Still holding the business card the Performer continues:
Performer: “Right, think carefully. Only when you are happy with your choice should you
answer.
Think of a number between one and 100.”
The participant takes a good ten seconds in order to decide on his final number.
Participant: “I’m going with 36.”
Performer: “It’s amazing how you can map a person’s mind just based on clothing and body
movement.”
The Performer passes the card to the participant.
Participant: “Shit!”
Spectators: “What does it say?”
Participant: “36.”
Performer: “It isn’t really fair, as I can use your personality to get an accurate estimate
of what number you are likely to think of.
This is why I prefer to create unique numbers using your personal information.
Personal details, such as the house number of your first home, will always remain the same
and are not influenced by your personality.
So we’ll make a unique number now. Can you take out your mobile phone and load up the
calculator, please?
Let me know when you are ready to go. Oh, and make sure I cannot see the keypad.”
Participant: “OK.”
Performer: “We will start off with some information from you. Place your month of birth
into the calculator. Don’t say what it is, but it will be a number between one and 12.”
Participant: “Done.”
Performer: “Now multiply that number, whatever it is, with the number two.”
Participant: “Yeah.”
Performer: “Now add, err, I dunno, five.”
Participant: “OK.”
Performer: “Multiply by, umm, 50.”
Participant: “OK.”
Performer: “We need some more personal info, so add the day of the month you were born.
So if you were born on the 28th you would add 28. ”
Participant: “Right.”
Performer: “Now subtract 365 and press equals, but don’t say what the total is.”
Participant: “Sure.”
The Performer removes a business card from his pocket and picks up the pencil.
Performer: “We now have a unique number. You provided information about yourself that I
couldn’t possibly know. I provided some maths to randomise the information you have given
me.
How many digits do you have in your number?”
Participant: “It is a three-digit number.”
Performer: “Alright, look at me and think about the first digit. Do not say anything and
try not to give it away.”
The Performer looks over the participants face and eyes multiple times.
A wry smile appears as the Performer continues:
 Performer: “Got it. Please try not to trace the shape of the number with your eyes as you
think of it.”
The Performer writes down a single number on the back of the business card.
Performer: “Now think of the second digit. This time I want you to name any digit between
zero and nine. It could be any of the digits, even the number you are thinking of.
In your own time, no rush, just name a digit out loud.”
Participant: “One.”
Performer: “That gives me an idea about the second number. It will be one of two options.
OK, I will take a punt at the number I think it might be, but I’m not 100 per cent on this
one.”
The Performer writes another number on to the back of the business card.
Performer: “Now, with the last digit in mind, please think of a colour, but keep it to
yourself and let me know when you have one.”
Participant: “Got one.”
Performer: “Is it red?”
Participant: “No.”
Performer: “Awesome, then I think I know what the last number is.”
The Performer writes the final number onto the back of the business card and tables the
pencil.
Performer: “Right, I am committed in writing. What number did you create?”
Participant: “401.”
Performer: “Damn! I wasn’t close.”
The Performer passes the card to the participant. As soon as the card is turned over, he
says:
Performer: “I was bang on.”
Participant: “Fucking hell, that’s unreal.”
Performer: “You know what, I want to try something else with you but, as I don’t know you,
I’ll need to ask you a few quick questions.”
Participant: “Go for it.”
Performer: “Do you have a middle name?”
Participant: “Michael.”
Performer: “What year were you born?”
Participant: “1972.”
Performer: “Where were you born?”
Participant: “Cornwall.”
Performer: “Do you believe in star signs?”
Participant: “No.”
The Performer has been making notes on another business card after each answer was given.
After around 20 seconds the Performer writes something down on the business card. Then,
having a change of mind, scribbles out something and writes again on the card.
The card is then tabled, writing-side down, in front of the participant.
Performer: “Right, I wasn’t sure my first answer was correct so I changed my mind. But I
feel sure about what I have written now.
Tell me, what star sign are you?”
Participant: “Taurus.”
Performer: “And there is no way I could know that?
These guys haven’t told me and we have only met each other 20 minutes ago.
Participant: “Unless you have been stalking me, and that’s not very likely, there is no way
you could know.”
Performer: “Please turn over the card.
The card has not been touched by the performer since it was tabled - and it was placed on
the table before the participant named his star sign.
Participant: “Piss off!
That is extreme. Man you’re good!”
The card is shown around and it has the word ‘Taurus’ written on it.
Performer: “You said you were born in 1972?”
Participant: “Yes.”
Performer: “What date?”
Participant: “The 16th of May.”
Performer: “The 16th of May 1972… That was a Tuesday.
You were born in Cornwall, which was sunny but slightly overcast the day you were born.
Please, check the date on your phone if you have a calendar function. If not, write it
down and check it on the internet when you get home.”
Participant: “No, I can check it on my phone.”
The participant removes his phone, opens the calendar application and inputs the date 16th
May 1972:
Participant: “That’s insane! You’re right, it was a Tuesday.
I’m speechless!”

Deception Revealed
The way in which I have constructed this effect allows the performer to demonstrate
various abilities:
Personality Profiling
Body Language Reading
A Large Mental Database Of Information
A Powerful Memory
These abilities are obviously changeable depending on the presentation that you wish to
use. This effect can use used as an opening or standalone effect to establish exactly what
it is that you do. It is for this reason that you should make sure that the abilities are
tailored to fit your persona.
Despite the fact that you are able to demonstrate a range of abilities for prospective
clients, the method requires relatively little work.
The first part of the effect is achieved simply by using a nail writer or boon.
A nail writer or boon is used once again for the second section of this routine. However,
the participant creates a number using a mathematical principle that secretly gives you
his birthday.
Once you know the birthday from the second section it is possible to work out the person’s
astrological sign. I shall provide a nice and simple way to remember where the astrological
signs are within the year. During this section you are also able to ascertain the year in
which the participant was born.
Before the last stage you actually know the participant’s birthday, as well as his year of
birth, whilst the participant only believes you have his year of birth.
With this information you’re able to work out the actual day the participant was born
using the The Day Of Any Date effect.
After calculating the actual day the participant was born, you are able to ask (apparently
for the first time) for his birthday and instantly tell him the day he was born.

Stage 1
The power of a simple nail writer or boon number prediction is often overlooked. It is
straightforward and hard-hitting for the laity. Despite this, I have an ulterior motive
for including it as part of this routine.
As stage two requires the use of mathematics to create a random number, this stage becomes
a convincer. The lack of mathematics in this stage removes any heat from the mathematical
construction of a number in stage two.
For now, all that is required is a little acting and swami ability.
Build up the premise that different personality types are statistically more likely to
choose certain numbers. Look over the person a few times as though analysing his
personality.
Whilst you remain focused on the ‘analysis’, place your hands into your pocket and apply
the nail writer or boon. Keep a business card in the same pocket. Once the nail writer or
boon is attached, removed the business card. The business card should be used as cover for
the swami.
From another pocket remove a pencil and pretend to write down a number. Place the pencil
down quite close to the participant (if standing, have the participant hold the pencil) to
solidify the idea that you cannot write the number after it is named.
Have the participant name any number after considerable thought. As you will be writing
the number after it is named there is a strong position of freedom for the participant.
Make sure that this strong position is not lost by the participant frivolously naming any
number, as he may believe that “everyone must name that number”.
Having him give serious consideration to the number he chooses allows for more emotional
involvement from him. It will stop any ideas of common answers and the extra involvement
will make him ‘own’ the number he names. This adds congruency to the idea that you have
determined the number based on his personality. If he just named the first number from
the top of his head your apparent personality reading would be weakened.
However, once the number is named, make some comment long enough for you to write down
the named number secretly. It is very important that you engage the participant in
conversation before starting to write the answer secretly. This keeps his eyes focused on
your facial area rather than on your hand, which is doing naughty things.
With the number now written on the card, turn the card writing-side down, fingers on the
top of the card and thumb (with swami) underneath it. This way, when the card is removed,
the swami will be shielded from view by the fingers.
Move the card forward, in a giving motion, towards the participant and hold it there until
he takes the card. Once the card is taken it would be unusual to keep your hand hanging
there in midair, giving you reason to return your hand back towards your body.
If you feel comfortable keeping your swami on whilst you continue to talk then feel free
to do so. However, if you are not comfortable with this you are now able to ditch it when
you bring your hand back towards your person. The downside to this is that you will need
to reattach it once again later. But this is a very small downside if your confidence would
be knocked with continued wear.
Stage 2
This stage is the most important in the routine, as the information you gain here will
allow you to get one ahead.
You explain that the chosen number would have been influenced by the participant’s
personality. You are able to profile different personality types, so the test was not very
fair.
To make things a little fairer for the participant it is essential to create a random
number. This number should include information that is static and unchanging, such as the
participant’s house number. The information should also be unknown to the Performer.
Obviously this process, whilst appearing to be fairer, is actually decidedly unfair.
Here’s how the process breaks down:
Month person was born
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ Day on the month born
-365
This process will give an answer. This answer you will apparently ascertain through
reading the participant’s body signals.
After each apparent reading of body signals you should pretend to write down a number.
When you have apparently written down the three-digit number on a business card, follow
the procedure as in stage one.
Once the person names the total arrived at in the calculation, you will swami it on the
business card and pass it to him.
Here is the really cool part.
When the person tells you the number, mentally adding 115 to that number will tell you the
participant’s birthday.
I will take you through a few examples of the maths in a moment, but let me first review
the situation.
If you were to perform the effect with mathematics alone there would be unquestionable
heat on the use of maths. However, having performed the number prediction in stage one
without the use of maths (or restrictions), you have removed any heat. It also helps to
validate the notion that the maths is being used to create a random (and fairer) number.
The personal information the participant inputs into the calculator allows them to feel as
though the number is unique to them. When the total is named, it doesn’t resemble the
birthday of the participant in any way. As far as he is concerned, the effect is that you
are able to use body reading to ascertain the number, not to find out his birthday details.
To get a better idea of the maths involved I shall include a few examples before we
continue.
Example 1
Birthday = 14th of May
Participant inputs:
5 (for the month)
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ 14 (for day of the month)
-365
Total = 399
Secretly 399 is thumb written onto the business card.
Now the Performer must mentally add 115 to this number: 399 + 115 = 514
The last two digits of the number will always be the day of the month that the person was
born. In the example above the last two digits are 14 telling us that this person was born
on the 14th day.
Ignore the last two digits and look at the remaining number. It will be a number between
one and 12, which will indicate the month that the person was born. In this example that
number is 5, indicating that this person was born in the month of May.
Participant’s Birthday = 14th of May
Example 2
Birthday =1st of December
Participant inputs:
12 (for the month)
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ 1 (for day of the month)
-365
Total = 1086
Secretly 1086 is thumb written onto the business card.
Now the Performer must mentally add 115 to this number: 1086 + 115 = 1201
The last two digits of the number will always be the day of the month that the person was
born. In the example above the last two digits are 01 telling us that this person was born
on the 1st day.
Ignore the last two digits and look at the remaining number. It will be a number between
one and 12, which will indicate the month that the person was born. In this example that
number is 12, indicating that this person was born in the month of December.
Participant’s Birthday = 1st of December
Example 3
Birthday =31st of July
Participant inputs:
7 (for the month)
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ 31 (for day of the month)
-365
Total = 616
Secretly 616 is thumb written onto the business card.
Now the Performer must mentally add 115 to this number: 616 + 115 = 731
The last two digits of the number will always be the day of the month that the person was
born. In the example above the last two digits are 31, telling us that this person was born
on the 31st day.
Ignore the last two digits and look at the remaining number. It will be a number between
one and 12, which will indicate the month that the person was born. In this example that
number is 7, indicating that this person was born in the month of July.
Participant’s Birthday = 31st of July
Example 4
Birthday =10th of October
Participant inputs:
10 (for the month)
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ 10 (for day of the month)
-365
Total = 895
Secretly 895 is thumb written onto the business card.
Now the Performer must mentally add 115 to this number: 895 + 115 = 1010
The last two digits of the number will always be the day of the month that the person was
born. In the example above the last two digits are 10, telling us that this person was born
on the 10th day.
Ignore the last two digits and look at the remaining number. It will be a number between
one and 12, which will indicate the month that the person was born. In this example that
number is 10, which indicates that this person was born in the month of October.
Participant’s Birthday = 10th of October
Example 5
Birthday =23rd of January
Participant inputs:
1 (for the month)
x 2
+ 5
x 50
+ 23 (for day of the month)
-365
Total = 8
Secretly 8 is thumb written onto the business card.
Now the Performer must mentally add 115 to this number: 8 + 115 = 123
The last two digits of the number will always be the day of the month that the person was
born. In the example above the last two digits are 23, telling us that this person was born
on the 23rd day.
Ignore the last two digits and look at the remaining number. It will be a number between
one and 12, which will indicate the month that the person was born. In this example that
number is 1 indicating that this person was born in the month of January.
Participant’s Birthday = 23rd of January
As far as the participant is concerned two effects have been performed. One where a number
he was thinking of was predicted based on his personality and a second one where a number
created randomly was ‘pulled’ from his mind.
Sneakily, however, the Performer is now one ahead in the sense that he has obtained the
person’s birthday covertly. This allows us to progress to stage three.

Stage 3
This is, by a long shot, my favourite stage in this routine. In this stage you will perform
one of the cleanest astrological sign predictions possible, add a strong convincing memory
to the routine and gather information for the final stage.
I will progress sequentially in order to maintain the chronology of this effect. If you
get confused at any point, fear not. I include a summary at the end of this effect.
From the scripting you will see that, at this point in the effect, I ask the participant a
number of questions. This appears to aid me in my calculation of his astrological sign.
Secretly, it allows you to write down his birthday and also work out the exact day he was
born on.
The first question:
Performer: “Do you have a middle name?”
Participant: “Michael.”
After this question you apparently write down the answer in one corner of the card,
instead you actually write down the participant’s birthday.
Writing down the date will prevent you from misremembering it or, should you be distracted,
from forgetting it. In the script above the birthday was the 16th of May.
The next question:
Performer: “What year were you born?”
Participant: “1972.”
With both the birthday and year of birth you will be able to work out the day of the week
the participant was born using the The Day Of Any Date effect. However, before you make
any mental workings, make sure to write down the year underneath the birthday.
The next question is filler and should be asked halfway through working out the day the
person was born:
Performer: “Where were you born?”
Participant: “Cornwall.”
Leaving another 15 seconds before you ask the next question should give you ample time to
work out the day on which this person was born. Write it underneath the year that you
have previously written. But remember where the person was born as well, as this allows
you to provide a faux weather forecast for that area on the day he was born.
The day of the week will be used in stage four, but for now there is the matter of the
star sign. Over the next few pages I have included a simple mnemonic in order to mentally
work out where the astrological dates fall in each year. Once you have this mnemonic
memorised it should only take you around six seconds to calculate the participant’s star
sign. Here are the astrological signs and their associated monthly dates in the year:
Aquarius - January 20th – February 19th
Pisces - February 20th – March 21st
Aries - March 21st – April 20th
Taurus - April 21st – May 22nd
Gemini - May 22nd – June 23rd
Cancer - June 23rd – July 23rd
Leo - July 23rd – August 23rd
Virgo - August 23rd – September 23rd
Libra - September 23rd – October 23rd
Scorpio - October 24th – November 22nd
Sagittarius - November 23rd – December 21st
Capricorn - December 22nd – January 20th
It’s a lot of information to remember, in all honesty, and the first time I looked at the
list I thought it would be a nightmare to build a mnemonic. It was tricky and somewhat
stressful at times. However, after having my friends and family learn the mnemonic and
successfully recall the dates, I am confident enough to share it with you.
Here is the breakdown of what each phrase contains, in regard to the astrological signs:
 Aquarium (Aquarius) with one Fish (Pisces)

Rams (Aries) have two Balls [Bulls] (Taurus)

Three Twin (Gemini) Crabs (Cancer)

Lions (Leo) for Fur Coats [sounds like] (Virgo)

Scaly [scales] (Libra) Scorpions (Scorpio)

Citrus [similar like] (Sagittarius)

Corn [abbreviation] (Capricorn)

You may have also noticed that the months have been paired together to reduce the size of
the mnemonic. Please familiarise yourself with this pairing of the months. The year order
remains the same (January to December) so it shouldn’t be too much trouble to the mind.

Paired Month Guide

1 January – February

2 March – April

3 May – June

4 July – August

5 September – October

6 November - December

Just take a little caution when recalling where the required month is in the sequence.
Should you be trying to find the star sign for April (the 4th month) you do not recall
the information for the 4th row down.
Instead, count through the months in your head until you get to April. After counting two
months push a finger against your leg:
January - February
Press one finger against your leg
March April
Press another finger against your leg
Stopping at April, only two fingers are pressing against the leg meaning that we recall
line two from the mnemonic:
Rams have two Balls
April is the second month in the paring, and therefore we look at the latter part of the
phrase. Balls sound like Bulls, which means April has to be Taurus.
Follow this simple process in order to work out what month relates to each star sign.
Observant readers amongst you will have realised that each mnemonic phrase contain
information informing you which section it belongs to.

1 Aquarium with one Fish

2 Rams have two Balls

3 Three Twin Crabs

4 Lions for Fur Coats

Scaly Scorpions
5
[S resembles 5]

Citrus Corn
6
[Cit sounds like Six]

This numbering system is essential to the mnemonic as it prevents any order confusion. It
also allows you to know instantly if you have the wrong set of astrological symbols for
the month you are attempting to find.
For example, if you have been left with five fingers pressed into your leg, but recall the
mnemonic as “Lions for (representing the number four) Fur Coats” you know you are incorrect.
Oh, and if you prefer to do something else other than press finger into your leg, then go
right ahead.
Looking over the astrological date you will have noticed that the star signs begin and
end at various dates. The majority of these dates are a day off of the 23rd of each month.
By assuming that each month’s star sign begins on the 23rd we remove the need for extra
information that will only slow down the process.
In practice, when you get a month of February you would think “Aquarium with one Fish”,
meaning that the star sign for February is Pieces. However, we need to assume that Pieces
begins on the 23rd of February. If a date is given before the 23rd then you must use the
previous month’s astrological sign. In this instance that would be Aquarius.
Anything after the 23rd will still be Pieces.
Should you ever get a date close to the 23rd always write both signs on the card. Look at
the date and, if it is before the 23rd, cross out the next month’s star sign with a single
line so that it can still be read. If the date falls on or after the 23rd, cross out the
previous month’s star sign in the same manner.
In astrology it is often said that people who are in between signs in this way are ‘on the
cusp’. In my experience people often know if they are on the cusp between two signs. This
will give validity to writing both signs and crossing out one. People will offer up the
fact that both answers are correct.
Some people will not realise that they are on the cusp but will, providing you cross out
the wrong one, point out that you initially had it. When you do get a birthday around the
23rd, make sure to always comment that you are torn between two answers and that you will
go with your gut feeling, even though you are being pulled to the other answer. This way
if you are correct it appears that your gut instinct was correct. If you get it wrong,
well, you did say you were going against your intuition, and really you should have known
better.
I know it seems like a lot to remember but after half an hour of learning the six small
phrases, and remembering that each month starts on the 23rd, it will be second nature.
After a few weeks of practice you will be able to work out what the star sign is in the
10 seconds following the fourth and final question in stage three:
Performer: “Do you believe in star signs?”
Participant: “No.”
Apparently analysing these answers you are able to write down the star sign of the person,
at the same time scribbling out the previous notes.
No swami need be used. Write down the star sign and place the card, writing-side down, on
the table in front of the person. If standing, have the participant hold their hand out
flat and use this as a table.
It is important to mimic how you have been placing the pencil down on the table in stages
one and two. In doing so you want the participant to misremember that the previous stages
were this clean. This misremembering is aided by the fact that this is the last part of the
routine where you write anything down on a card.

Stage 4
Stage four is optional if you do not wish to learn The Day Of Any Date methodology, or
if you run out of time.
Having already worked out the day that the person was born, you could name the answer
out loud. However, to do so would imply that you already know his birthday, which you are
not supposed to know.
Reiterate the year that the participant has just told you and ask for his birthday. Make
sure to ask for the birthday, as it is one piece of information as opposed to the two pieces
of information (month and day of birth) that were inputted into the calculator. I do not
think that people would link the two things, but this should tip the stats in your favour.
Within a few seconds of make-believe mental gymnastics you reveal the day this person was
born and then give the weather for the area he was born.
When revealing the weather take a guess at what it would be like in that month of the
year. Given the month of June I would always assume that it would be sunny, as June is
in the summer. Nobody ever really knows what the weather was like and it would always be
difficult to find out. Weather can also be different in areas just meters apart so you are
pretty well covered.
I do like to add more than one weather type to the forecast in order to cover more bases
and sound more specific. I may say:
“Yes, despite the regular sunshine at that time, this day had periods of overcast cloud and
a spot of rain.”
It’s all very vague, yet it sounds specific enough to seem as though I know what I am
talking about. By this point in the routine you have been correct about many things, so it
follows that you are correct about this also.
More and more phones these days have a calendar function that allows the user to go back
to any date. Always ask the person to do this if they have this function on his phone.
Sometimes people do not even realise that they do, so make them check.
In opposition to what I say in The Day Of Any Date effect, I think that you should have
the person check to see if the day of the week is correct. Instantly knowing that you are
correct about the day adds further subterfuge for the other effects in this routine.
However, if the person cannot check that you are correct there and then, always write down
the day that he was born and tell him to check on the internet when he gets home.

Subtleties
If you have not learned The Day Of Any Date method yet, and find it to be too much
information to learn, there is an alternative to stage four.
Add some more questions about the person’s lifestyle and family, such as how old his Mom
and Dad are. Take a minute to think about the answers and say:
“Right, I know you are a [star sign], which gives me a month of dates to choose from.”
Let’s assume the participant was born on the 16th of March.
“From the answers you have given me I would say that, statistically speaking, you must
have been born on the 15th or 16th.”
Of course, you could be dead on each time. However, it would seem somewhat suspicious. I
recommend announcing a date that is slightly wrong – just one day out from the actual
date. This way it seems as though you genuinely do not know.
Along with that last subtlety, you have two possible endings in stage four. This stage, as
mentioned earlier, is not at all necessary.
If you want to cut the routine short to three stages you will still have a number prediction,
a body reading demonstration and a very powerful and clean star sign reveal.
To minimise unnecessary movement, I suggest that you approach the participant with the
swami already attached.
It is fairly straightforward to keep it concealed from view using the fingers in any
manner of ways. When it is time to remove a business card, reach into the pocket with the
swami in place and take out the card. The card now provides the cover in place of your
fingers.
What about writing normally when you are wearing a swami?
This is not an issue, as you will not actually be writing anything with your dominant
hand, other than when you use the swami.
Take the pencil in your non-dominant hand and pretend to write on to the card. The added
bonus here is that the person believes that your non-dominant hand is your dominant hand.
Holding the card in what appears to be your ‘weaker’ hand adds to the idea that you are
not somehow writing in secret.
During stage two, where you ask the participant to input numbers into the calculator, it
is extremely important that your choices appear to be random.
As far as the participant is concerned, the numbers named and the calculations made should
appear to be coming off the top of your head. Even when you are asking him to enter his
personal details it should appear that the idea of using the birth dates appears impromptu.
The worst case scenario is that the participant believes you could somehow work out what
the end number is. However, as you have demonstrated that mathematics was not required to
do this in the first stage, this thought is nullified.
I mentioned in the explanation that you can make reminder notes on the business card
during the questioning. These notes should be written very lightly on the card so as not
to leave an indentation.
You will probably be giving the business card away to the participant or others in his
group. Even though you shall be scribbling out the notations, indentations may still be
read through the strikeouts. If anyone can read what you actually wrote, the illusion will
be destroyed.
Equally, I suggest that you make these notes as small as you can whilst maintaining
legibility.
Make sure that you are clear in your own mind about what you are apparently demonstrating
with each stage of the routine. This will enable your act more convincing.
It can get quite confusing to work on the next stage whilst still apparently working on
the current stage. A good knowledge of what you are supposed to be doing, and when, will
stop any awkward pauses or inaccuracy
Personally, when adding the 115, I will add the 15 first to see how that changes the number.
Then it is fairly simple to add 100 to that number.
It is imperative that you learn the mathematics of this effect off by heart. This is the
method I use to remember it. You may find it of some help:
Month double +5 x50 day –year
It is also important to remember the Star Sign Mnemonic. I recommend reading it out loud,
a few times a day for a couple of weeks. This will cement it in your mind and before you
know it you will be calculating star signs with speed and accuracy.
Make the effects and demonstrations suit your style of performance. It is especially
important to have something to say when you are swami-writing the numbers.
Talking to the participant will distract his attention away from your hand and focus it
upon your face. It will also cover any possible noise that the writing may make. Please, I
beg you not to ask the question, “Why did you choose [number]?” unless it fits in with the
rest of the scripting you have.
When writing, it also pays off to gesticulate a little with the hand you are secretly
writing with. This will cover any movements made by your thumb. But be warned, over
gesticulation or unmotivated movement will draw attention towards the hand.
In the scripting, I mention the memory aid of pressing your fingers against your leg to
work out what part of the star sign mnemonic to use.
This is what I prefer to do, but you can fold fingers into your palm or simply work it
out in your mind if you feel comfortable doing so.

Pete’s added commentary

There is not much to add to this routine in terms of presentation, as it is laid out in
depth. There is one thing I can add to this routine, a mnemonic (even though there is one
already provided) I thought I would share the mnemonic I used to remember the order of
the star signs.
This is a creation by Stephen Eric Young, he added this as a contribution to ‘Isabella’s
star 2’.
“AQUARIUS rains so FISH can swim, The RAM and BULL come charging in. The TWINS on
giant CRABS will ride, The LION sits by the VIRGIN’s side. To BALANCE out the SCORPION’s
sting. The ARCHER shoots the GOAT for its skin”.
Once you have done this for long enough you no longer need to revert to these mnemonics,
it becomes second nature and you will just instantly know which signs fall on which
months.
The next contributions is from a good friend of mine, a guy that really doesn’t need an
introduction. He’s a man that can deduce things about your life from something as small
as the way you wear your watch. He has a brain that works differently to most and his
innate understand of logistics and psychology is second to none.
Ben Cardall.
He is a name many of you already know, if you don’t know this man his material is
simply awesome, keep your eyes peeled as he hasn’t even got close to hitting his peek.
If you are interested in finding out more about ben visit.
www.BenCardall.co.uk
Check out his latest book ‘The Monographs’ on Amazon!

NUMBERS UP
PREMISE: As part of your stage routine you announce the following to your audience.
‘Our minds, our brains, our memories work in mysterious ways at times. Yet at other times
quite similar. Take our memories for example, we have all heard of the phrase, I
remember his face but not his name. Its never the other way around is it? Or I can
remember where everything is in the supermarket but I don’t recall what I need. We get
past these through notes and other helping hands but it is always numbers that escape us.
Phone numbers, house numbers, dates, all seem very difficult to remember. I would like to
show you that with a little bit of practice that it becomes super simple! Before we
started, I had as many of you lovely people as possible write down a 150-200 digit
number, write your name on, and pop them in this box so thank you for doing that…
ONE OF THE AUDIENCE SELECTS A RANDOM SLIP OF PAPER AND CONFIRMS THAT ALL THE
NUMBER SON THERE ARE RANDOM AND SUGGEST NO ORDER OR SIGNIFICANCE
…So here is what is going to happen, I am going to memorise the order of these numbers
from David Theroux (reads name off the back of the paper) , so thank you david. It will
then be up to you sir, to stop me and start me in reciting this sequence whenever you
like. If you would just pass this whistle back to him. David this is for you to signify
when you want me to stop and start ok? Great…
TAKE HOWEVER MUCH TIME YOU WANT TO SEEM AMAZING.
… Okay so where is my helper that picked this piece of paper, just take this from me so
you can confirm what I say or announce any mistakes. David, I am going to start in a
second, then the next blow of your whistle will signal me to stop and then show will
carry on. The next whistle blow will tell me to begin from where I stopped. This can
keep going as long as you like to really make it as difficult as you like, it is entirely
your choice.
THIS SIMPLY HAPPENS. YOU DEMONSTRATE YOUR INFALLIBLE MEMORY SKILLS.
EXPLANATION
I don’t know what I would describe this routine as, other than a very powerful and
relatable demonstration of your mastery of your memory. Some context would help I
suspect though. A few years ago, 2013 to be exact. When Maria Konnikova’s book Master
Mind was released, it gave me an idea for a show. I called it Master of Minds. The aim
of it was simple, someone with nothing supernatural about them at all could give
seemingly supernatural demonstrations through having complete mastery of their mind.
This was one of my demonstrations.
The explanation of how to do it, is quite simple. You switch in a piece of paper with a
list of numbers you already know. The switch you use can be anything from a clear
forcing bag to one of the many Q & A boxes that are available. To get the name on the
paper of one of the audience members, happens as part of your pre show. Are you ready?
It is a mind blowing and revolutionary method…ask them! I know right, madness! Though
you ask a few people as part of your conversation so as not to call focus to that one
person. Then you prepare your forcing slips accordingly. The only other preparation you
need to do is to learn the phonetic alphabet and then choose which one your favourite
movie speeches is your favourite? Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction or Russel Crowe in
Gladiator. The alphabet first though. It is a Mnemonic device to help convert numbers
into letters, so these can form pictures and therefore make something intangible,
tangible.
ALPHABET
0 – S,Z (Zero starts with a Z, and looks/sounds similar to an S)
1 – T,D (1 looks similar to a t and sounds like a D when spoken)
2 – N (2 looks like an N if you were to tip it onto its side)
3 – M (3 Looks like an M if you were to tip it on its side)
4 – R (If you were to say it slowly, as if to someone who speaks another language. The
main noise would be that of an R)
5 – L (Hold up your left hand, put your fingers together and stick your thumb out. You
get an L)
6 – J, SH, CH, soft G as in genes (all sound similar and formed on the face in a similar
fashion)
7 – K, C, hard G as in Golf (When writing in cursive a 7 and k look similar and the
letters are all formed in a similar way in the mouth when spoken)
8 – F, V, PH – (Elongate the lower half of an F and it’ll look like an 8, the letter
formations sound similar when spoken and look similar when formed on the face)
9 – P, B (9 looks like a backwards P, p and b are both plosive as well)
The letters that aren’t part of the phonetic alphabet are the vowels and W H Y. Easy to
remember if you think of it like ‘Why aren’t the vowels in the alphabet?’ They are used
as a filler letters to formulate pictures in a more clear way.
Then we take my favoured piece of Shakespeare, from As You Like It.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
So using the alphabet, this speech then becomes:
551451001621551322132345954018141021142142602123220139032941007109270826018401128213527219727212400430
2102122707591001652162279674927570252552751075216258402757842085955131103409420514855801426602194115
769417502240112217274507727699954911282267220362162660128442195567179252160084219418843571855800021
31422012002109009416066681021652210599419215260971750220219620106805581451118406427627210963258014227
72741065167495990210502002150102855612060014268218501400721651620021349582021602002101028467.
The only difficult part is to remember where the whistle blow stopped you. You are then
free to recall something seemingly impossible at will. So choose your favourite speech,
learn and then convert ;)
The mechanical order is then as follows.
Prepare your forcing slips with the memorised number on, and a matching number of
blank slips.
As your pre-show, hand the slips out asking for a 100-150 digit number made up at random
and then fold it up and write your name on. During your conversation, talk to them
informally getting names. Tell them to hang on to their slips of paper until the show.
Go back stage and write one of the names on the back of all your forcing slips, and set
them in whatever forcing appliance you are using.
Go on stage and deliver your patter, have the slips dropped into the appliance and use a
front row member to select the forcing slip.
Find the person whose name you have and hand them the whistle.
‘Memorize’ the number
Perform the rest of your show.
Enjoy my friends! It is powerful yeah but the most important factor of this routine is
has an extremely relatable element!

Pete’s added commentary

The idea of having a super human memory has always been something that has fascinated
me, Ben has, the plot he has shared above I think is incredible and if you take the time
to learn it then you are going to look like you have the brain of a computer.
One thing I might add is a couple of subtleties – the first is the number that is created
– No one is going to ever notice repetitions in numbers especially that long and the
idea of converting numbers to letters is genius.
As an alternative you could start this with numbers you already know. For example your
date of birth, phone number, address, pin code,
261087075323236101175432
You can see how this is already a large string of numbers that you cannot forget as
long as you remember the order you placed them in, in terms of category.
You could then if you wanted to recite the categories in a different order and no one is
going to know any different as they are merely confirming you are right. This also
means that when the whistle blows as long as you know where about in your categories
you stopped then you are fine, all you have to do is say to yourself for example “2
digits into my pin code” and go from where you left off.
Another thing that I find important to take into account is that the person that wrote
down the number is likely to remember the first three or four digits that he/ she wrote
down and if those numbers are not called out then the likeliness is that they are going
to know that it was not their piece of paper.
There is a simple remedy for this, when you hand the judge the slip of paper ask them to
name the first number that pops into their head. They will likely say seven or there
about. Tell them to count along to the 7th digit and that is where you call out the digit
in that position (just by counting along in your head). Then simply proclaim “We will
proceed from that digit” and now of course you have bypassed the first series of digits
meaning that the person who wrote the digits can never backtrack the fact it wasn’t
their piece of paper.
This is a really simple idea but I feel it covers the one thing in the routine that could
be cautionary. The tail end of the number might also be something that the participant
remembers so after you have called out a long enough series of digits you can simply say
“I think that proves I could consecutively do this for the rest of the numbers”.
I seem to remember (and I might be wrong) watching a Lee Earle vhs tape years and years
ago where he has a premise similar to this one. I cannot for the life in me remember the
name of the routine but if you can find it I would be interested to re-watch it.
I think (if I remember rightly) he asked the audience random member by member to call
out numbers real time which were then written on a board – For obvious reasons I cannot
tip Lee Earl’s routine.
Adding the subtlety of calling out the position of the number is not essential but I
always believe that you should have something like this prepared. I always try to tie
everything up so there is not a solution that can be gained or guessed by the participant
and I feel something like this not only adds to the effect but really helps hide the
method.
Final thoughts
We have come to the end of this month’s installment, each time I come to the end of one
of these volumes I have mixed feelings. I have started recently developing what can only
be described as a fright when sending out or talking about new material.
I don’t know why, the reason I share this material is to help the community move forward
and hopefully inspire people to think. That is what I hope these volumes are doing for
people.
The routines in this volume are simple and straight forward, there is in terms of method
not much to focus on, and the presentation is really where you would make these effects
blossom and grow into something incredible.
If you have read this section of the volume, thank you. When I read a book, I read every
section intently as the beginning and end section of each chapter holds so much value
and I see people skip these sections to jump straight into the material and I feel if you
are doing this you I promise you, you will never get the full experience.
It’s 4.31am and I am finally seeing the finishing line – the birds are singing in the
trees and I am in my own bed in England tonight. It feels strange, when you spend so
much time on the road, you grow to love your own home and area that you live in, in a
way that is hard to describe in words.
When I am coming over the tops of the hills toward my house (after being away) I always
get a strange feeling in my stomach - a warm feeling.
I have been away for too long, they say that travel broadens the mind – It has
certainly helped me get a better understanding of who I am and what I want from life.
The words I am writing are now starting to become hazy, my eyes are closing and I am
fighting the sleep. My bed is becoming increasingly more comfortable and with each
breath I take I am sinking slowly.
I think I just lost the fight.
Until next time my friends.

…Zzz
The end