_ THOUGHTS SO FAR” z SSNS SB) 4 = \ NL a aThoughts So Far 9 Within: Foreword: by Richard Osterlind Introduction 13 15 17 23 33 39 45 53 59 63 67 Kennedy, who | am: A pen portrait. Memory Lane, my motivation and ethos: Where | am coming from. Subliminal Summer: A prediction of a family summer holiday. Ultimate Connection: Two spectators each choose the same card under very fair conditions Mirage: One spectator reads another's mind and still doesn’t know how they did it. Hot Spot: What is the hot spot? A short essay on performance. Cold Bending: A coin bends in the spectator’s hand, in stages. Jackpot: You predict the lottery numbers. Taxi: The audience, correctly name the amount you paid for your taxi to the event. Guardian Angel: The deck of the tarot is cursed after the spectator “breaks the rules”. The Spirits Be With You: The spirits guide your spectator to select two tarot cards over the rest. Kennedy75 81 93 97 103 113 117 123 127 Thoughts So Far Sightless Dupe: An on stage image duplication where you are blindfolded. No use of electronics, peeks or pre-show. Bookworm: A thought of word is divined. A subtlety for any book test. The Hand: Control a spectator to deal to the card that completes your poker hand. The Second Hand: A spectator thinks of a card that matches the performer's poker hand. The Ongoing Argument: My take on the ongoing arguments of mentalism. A Stranger Selection: A thought of card is the only card missing from a red deck, then is found in a blue deck. An Even Stranger Selection: Another method for having a card vanish from one red deck and appear in a blue deck. A Passing Thought: A close up impromptu image duplication. Pre-show Vandal: A subtlety for pre-show work. Second Philling for Graffiti: Spectator thinks of any word in the English language, never writes anything down and you name it. Open Transmission: Continuing my obsession with two. person telepathy effects, one person thinks of a design and another receives it, on stage with no pre-show. Kennedy.137 143 149 15: 159 167 171 177 185 191 199 205 ‘Thoughts So Far "1 Sitting On Rose Petals: A chair prediction with a classical twist. Double Influence: Using your powers of psychology you influence a spectator to select just the right card to match your prediction in one of five envelopes. Thickening the plot: The way in which | construct my routines and act, as a model for your thinking. Convincing Coins: This is a utility move for the coin worker er metal bender. Numerically Correct: You predict a thought of number in a comical manner. Hand Outs: Further solutions for the selection of the correct card to complete the poker hand. A Service with Influence: A major prediction effect with add-a-number in a real world context. Bloodline Divine: A living and dead test with a surprise divination. Digit: A prediction of a four digit number which fools time and again. Pasteboard Lab Test: Mind reading with cards under test conditions, another one for the sceptics. Sympathy: Any card at any number, no moves, only thoughts. On the Line: Using body language techniques you locate the money every time. Konnedy209 213 221 227 233 236 238 239 ‘Thoughts So Far Telepathy with Technology: The spectator reads the mind of the performer. Passing The Power: The spectators read each others minds. Grace: The spectator uses his powers of ESP to great success. Thought Conduction: The spectator conducts a thought he couldn't possibly know. Allis Fair: A subtlety for getting people to do what you want them to do. Additional Ideas: Random thoughts. Some Words Credits Kennedy.Thoughts So Far 13 _ Kennedy, who am I? Well— sometimes it's useful to know a little about the person whose work you are about to read. More often than not it's a waste of time. Nevertheless, | am going to give you a little bit of background on myself. | was born in Northumberland, England in July 1984, My interest in magic began by watching television specials of the great Paul Daniels and David Berglas. They showed me the enjoyment that both their audiences and the performers get out of the art of conjuring. | was a member of many theatres and quickly became very successful as a young actor, playing lead roles in Oliver and The Railway Children at major theatres in the North-East of England. During this time | met someone who | can only recall as Dillon, he was a scenic artist who would show me card tricks for hours on end. | would beg him to tell me how they were done and his answer was “Go fo the magic shop and find out”. | eagerly researched the location of this place of wonder and went along. I did my first paid show when | was 13, where | was humoured by many adults who would say “You're very talented”, at the time it was a compliment but in retrospect, why are people so sickly? | then decided that | wanted to do magic which didn’t require sticking cards to ceilings, signing cards or the likes, but it would be really great to be able to read minds. | was fifteen at this point. | began to work on simple card forces and apparently pluck these thoughts out of people's minds. At school | would hang around the social block surrounded by people younger and older saying “Do me”...and | would! KennedyThoughts So Far 15 Memory Lane, my motivation and ethos A most vivid memory of magic in school was the Pen through Anything, | borrowed a teacher's note, he only had a twenty so | was shaking all over. | went on to say “Now / only just learnt this the other day” and pushed the pen through the note. The expression on the teacher's face was priceless. His eyes were like tennis balls and his mouth looked like something Sylvester the Jester would do. Of course | proceeded to restore the note and all was well However, this taught me a valuable lesson for my magic. The fact was | had only bought Pen Thru Anything two days before and was genuinely unsure how well | would do it, being young | would think twenty minutes reading the instructions was enough rehearsal for a lifetime’s achievement award! However the fact that | had mentioned this in performance made the whole thing more shocking when it all went apparently wrong. This just proves the point that if you invest some truth and personality into what you are doing then it will play 100% better. However | can not stress the importance of thorough practice before you take any piece of magic out and perform it in front of an audience. When performing or creating an effect | think of a motivation for everything | am doing, why am | asking them to choose a card? Why think of someone | don't know? If you know the answer to all of these questions you can excuse yourself to your audience, or at least be humble. Another performance | will never forget as long as | live was at a magic convention. | was performing Luke Jermay's pulse stopping routine. The effect worked perfectly and | was greeted with a round of applause from a crowd standing behind me. Then | was face to face with Luke, who proceeded to shake my hand and congratulate me on my good performance of his creation. As if that wasn't enough, standing right behind him was Banachek, who said “You'll remember this moment for the rest of your life” as | stood there in Kennedy16 Thoughts So Far shock. After all, | had never met anyone who was anyone at all before then KennedyThoughts So Far inal Summer Kennedy 17Thoughts So Fer 19 Subliminal Summer This is is a fun, light hearted little idea which | came up with one ‘July. afternoon, as | sat doing paj wishing | was on holiday with © my friends. This led me to thinkin postcards. The whole intention presentation. Depending:on how you ee difference. between mentalism and mental magic. Effect: The mentalist tells of how subliminal messaging is used to make us purchase things in supermarkets, through their music that plays over their loudspeakers. To further illustrate this he offers to tell a story in which some of this persuasive language is used, just as a kind of experiment and “If it doesn’t work then that's fine”. He tells the story of a young family from his local area - they saved for years to afford a decent holiday and the story goes on. He then takes an envelope from his desk and empties out the contents - six postcards, each depicting a different international location, (Greece, The Caribbean, Egypt, Majorca, Italy and finally Butlins Holidays) and a hotel key. The participant is asked if they feel influenced by the story. They respond in the negative. “That's correct, you were not influenced on a conscious level, but that story contained some very strong persuasive language to get you to place that key on a certain post card. Do that now.” They comply with your request. “Now you still deny any influence?” Kennedy.20 ‘Thoughts So Far “Yes”. “Fair enough, tum over the other five postcards, they are blank, correct?” When they turn over the chosen postcard it has a message from the Bruce Family saying they are having a great time in Greece. The postcards are handed out for inspection, as you would expect. Required: seven (7) postcards Greece (on the back is written, “Having a lovely time, the best holiday for 2000, signed Mrs J. Bruce) Butlins Holidays 2x The Caribbean (on the back of one is written, “It would have been nice in the Caribbean, but Butlins is just as great this year! Signed Mrs J. Bruce” this is placed in an envelope). Egypt Majorca Italy A hotel key, on the back of which is written “The Pyramid Hotel” The envelope (which contains the Caribbean duplicate) written on the back is “Bruce Summer Family Holiday 2000, Mark Aged 10, Majorca.” Method and subtleties: * As you can see there are multiple ‘outs’ at work here. However | wanted to create ‘outs’ which were logical to the situation. | felt that postcards fitted perfectly and were plausibly things one might have had, thus do not look overly ‘proppy’. You will notice that one of the possible selections has not been covered by ‘outs’ and we rely on a few psychological angles for this. First of all, it is the first in the line of postcards (that is first on the left of the spectator) and they will want to steer away from this. If KennedyThoughts So Fer a you want to bury this further then you may employ a great technique from Luke Jermay in his effect “A Darker Die”, (which can be found in his first book 7 Deceptions). For our purpose, you request the participant to hold their hand over the first card (Italy) and then begin to move and then to stop when they feel and affiliation with the card, but only to stop when they are certain. This eliminates their choice of stopping over the first card. In addition to this, we are talking about a family holiday, and very few of us associate Italy with a family holiday, when compared to the other choices available. | know it has certainly not been flooded with children in my travels. So... If they stop on Greece, you simply ask them to turn over the remaining cards and they are blank postcards, and Greece has the letter on it. As for the Caribbean, there is a duplicate in the envelope. If Butlins is chosen (for readers unfamiliar with this organisation it is a family holiday destination looked down upon by a lot of people jin the UK) you bring out the Caribbean postcard from the envelope and look down as you turn it over for a very comical revelation. In the case of Egypt, | say “Absolutely correct, thank you” and pack everything else away. After the initial laugh there is usually a dead silence as they look at you, I then continue “if you did go to Egypt, there really is only one place you would like to stay and that would be...” turn over the key *...the Pyramid hotel, would it not?” Finally if Majorca is to be the destination of the Bruce family then you, once again, put everything back into the envelope and turn it over, where it shows that they went to Majorca that year. Kennedy22 Thoughts So Far | think the importance of this, as with all of the routines is presentation. If you buy into this then so shall your audience. Credits: Ideas for this routine came from Luke Jermay. Asimilar effect is available by Andy Nyman entitled “Killer Elite”. | have to say | have not seen this; however it may well be worth checking out along with everything else that Andy produces. Although the method is very similar | think the application of the holiday theme gives a good rationale for using postcards. The routine is also very appealing to children and is a very light hearted piece of mentalism Kennedy.Thoughts So Far Ultimate Connes Kennedy 23Thoughts So Far 25 Ultimate Connection This little idea came from the idea of creating a whole act on the | theme of two-person’ telepat iter my love began for Psychokinetic Touches by Steve “Banachel Shaw. Ihave documented my, exact presentation of the effect below so we can see just how effective this is and why it really ‘knocks audiences for six! | must also say that there is a great deal of detail i in terms of language: this is primarily due to the importance of the working in ‘an apparent miracle. : Effect: The performer begins by talking about how, over time, people can create subconscious links or tunnels of thought, that is they can develop a psychic link in their senses. They may feel, hear, see and even think the same, Examples of this are under continuing scrutiny as scientists continue to test twins for some kind of connection. He proposes to conduct a test of this nature tonight and asks if there are any twins in our audience who would be willing to undergo a light hearted and certainly not gruelling experiment. If not then a couple who have been together for a long while. (Thanks go to Banachek for this presentational point!) Standing one person (say the male) stage left and the other (female) stage right he hands each a deck of cards, blue for the male and red for the female. The decks are shuffled respectively and inspected to confirm no trickery. The two volunteers are asked to each select a card. In order to make this decision subconscious the selection must be made faced down, and so that the exposure of the backs of the cards does not at all influence their decisions they make the selections with the cards behind their backs. Kennedy26 ‘Thoughts So Far A card is taken out by each and reversed in their pack. The cards are now placed back into their cases and exchanged in order to ensure they don’t cheat. When removed, the cards match. Set up: Have a red deck of bicycle cards and a blue deck on your close up table. In your right jacket pocket have a red bicycle “Invisible Deck”. Method and (more importantly) presentation: The performer stands centre stage. “It is said that if we are to spend enough time with someone then we develop similar habits, and our daily routines alter and become similar. We also know that if one spends enough time with someone you can begin to empathetically feel for and even with that person. You find that you say the same words at the same time, if the person is in trouble you feel uneasy and as if you should go looking for them. This is a connection between two minds.” "Scientists continue to test twins for a psychic link — thinking that since they came from one then they may feel, sense and think as one. We are now going to attempt a little experiment in seeing how we can create such a rapport with someone who thinks and feels in a similar way. You're probably wondering if we have some twins in the audience tonight, well do we? Do we have a set of twins who would be willing to assist us in this experiment this evening?” Everyone looks around nervously to no avail. Of course if there are any twins in the audience that evening then by all means use them. “That's fine; it would have been nice now wouldn't it? I'm sure we have a couple who have been together for a little while who would be willing to help us out?” They are invited to join the performer on stage. KennedyThoughts So Far 27 “Thank you. | will not embarrass either of you — have no fear. Could | ask you sir, to stand over here.” (stage left) “And you madam to stand just over here?” This questioning technique is a nicer way of indirectly saying “go stand there” because you are asking, “Can | ask you.” well of course you can ask, because you just did! They have to agree and so you get what you want. The man receives a blue deck and the woman your regular red. The reason | retrieve the cards from my table is because | do not want my jacket to have any association with containing decks of cards. This is another psychological layer that again adds to the mystery and makes it more difficult to unpick. “Please take the cards out of their boxes and mix them up” Again this word ‘mix up’ is very non-magical, whereas to say ‘shuffle’ would be a card trick (oh nol). “Happy? Good” This says to the audience that they are happy with the fairness of these conditions. “Now — thoughts which commute between minds are those which are held in your subconscious; therefore in order that you make this a subconscious choice place the.cards behind your backs. If you did this out in front you could be influenced by which cards were most exposed, colours, suits or values; so go ahead and place them behind your back. “Now take out a card, one that you feel drawn to. When you have it tum it over, that is you reverse it in the pack. it should be the only card that is reversed in your deck. Once you have done that, please cut the cards once and just bring your deck back round and Kennedy28 ‘Thoughts So Far so that you can’t tamper with anything place them back inside of the card case.” The reason the cards are cut is in order that the spectator does not remember where in the deck they placed their card, which could cause a discrepancy later. “Okay? Did you feel yourself drawn to a card yes? And you revorsed it in the deck did you?” Again they have to agree (this is Kenton Knepper's ‘and’ linkage). “Now to make sure you can’t cheat and we keep things fair you (indicate the female) will hold the male deck” | now take the deck from the man and hand it to the woman, in the process she is inclined to hand you her deck. You take her deck in your left hand (that’s the down stage one) | turn back to the man, as I do so | change hands with the red deck into my right hand, keeping the red deck down stage so the audience can se it “You reversed one card correct?” He replies in ‘the positive. | now turn back around to address the female, keeping the deck in my right hand; therefore it goes upstage and is masked by my body. All this is done while | speak: “Now you take out the cards from the case” | exchange the deck in my right hand for the one in my right jacket pocket. This is not a move, but a casual off the cuff mannerism. | very simply place the deck into my pocket and exchange it for the other deck. I then spin back round to address the gent: “And not even you have any idea as to what card you reversed, right?” Again he agrees (all these nods and “Yes replies you get to look great!) “Here, you hold on to her cards so she can’t tamper with them either” You hand the red invisible deck to him. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 29 Notice that throughout | never mention myself; | never say “! want you to...”| make it all about them and therefore spectators totally forget that | ever touched the cards. This is also ensured by the summary at the end but I'm getting ahead of myself. “Please madam, remove the card which your partner reversed. Just to make sure you don't do anything underhand and to keep them happy, hold it high above your head”. This is another moment, you indicate that you are ensuring against switching, which is what you already did. Thus eliminating this technique from possibility. It also says that you are sceptical and that you are looking after any sceptics in the audience. As well as this itis a bold way of finding out the identity of the card. You now move toward the man. “Keep if up there, don't let it leave your sight” You move down stage of him, standing right in front of him and thus hiding what you do next, which is to take the cards and fan them, exposing the correct reversed card (that which matches the one held by the woman.) This must be done with care in order that you do not flash the other side of the deck, exposing its double-faced nature. This is covered with dialogue of course: “And you also just remove your partner's card. That's the only one reversed in that deck.” These subtle words reflect the same actions as previously conducted with our female volunteer. “Now, no cheating. Hold it high above your head” Again mirroring the actions carried out previously. | sometimes switch the regular deck back in, depending upon the scrutiny of the spectators. Now all you need do is sum up “You both took these decks of cards, mixed them up, placed them behind your backs, and reversed one card and one card only. You now hold the reversed cards elegantly above your heads” Another laugh which also means Kennedy30 Thoughts So Far they accept everything you just said as fact. So apparently you never touched the cards at all. “Sarah, please show us your card!” She turns it around. This also reiterates the fact that you never touched them. To the audience you just said, “Turn your card around”. To Sarah you said “Turn the card that you hold around” and she obeys. “The Three of Diamonds!” Now John — did your subconscious connection serve you well? Turn it round and tell us all what it is!” By the spectator calling out the name of the card this also means that you are, once again, removed from the equation. Also the word “All” is an indication to call it out loud. And of course you direct the applause to your volunteers. | do not present this as a card trick, but as an experiment in telepathy. That's the way | perform it. Hope you like it. Additional Note: the second spectator could be a stooge and do all of the work for you, however this compromises the presentational concept of the two-person link created over time. This would mean, however that the performer need never touch the cards as the stooge will do all the switching of the decks and would remove the reversed card himself — in his own hands. | personally see more impact in the original as both parties involved are as amazed as the audience. John’s face just drops! Another method for this came through conversations with Banachek. The method we discussed was having two decks of double backed cards (one red and the other blue) and a single regular card with matching backs. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Fer Credits: Banachek, for the presentational ideas and his support on this. Kenton Knepper, Wonder Words Kennedy 31Thoughts So Fer 36 | created this with the ‘thoug Vy cabaret act in mind. | joked to perform at some large and rather wealthy house ith my cabaret style act and needed something to blk parties them away. | love the idea oe dual reality immer amazing uses of the concept from the likes of Kenton Knepper. Effect: Two spectators are selected at random (this really is random) One is asked to join the performer on stage and is seated, the other is asked to stand where they are. The standing spectator shuffles and inspects a deck of cards and agrees everything is above board — no marked backs, duplicates or anything of the sort. He then selects a card and retains it. Now the seated spectator is asked to attempt to think about which card from the deck the standing spectator is thinking of. She does this with 100% accuracy. And did | mention there is no pre-show involvement? Neither spectator can explain the miracle they saw. Method: This is an instant stooge effect with a major difference, even the stooge will not have a clue how you achieve this miracle. The gimmick you require is a marketed (or homemade) “Mirage Deck”. That is one which is short and long (the force cards are short) as well as having the short cards adhere to the backs of the regular cards with roughing fluid. Kennedy38 ‘Thoughts So Far The first spectator is asked to inspect the cards; this is very gutsy but really sells the fact that no gimmick is hidden, as you are ‘hiding nothing’. It is not essential but for me it really sells the effect as being above board. “Please spread the cards and confirm for us they are different and look fairly good? Yes” By asking for a quick response they are rushed into agreeing with you. You take the cards back and spread them to the seated spectator, “Are you okay there?” and they reply in the affirmative. “Excellent, now please Brenda take one card irom the deck, just touch one on the back” Now, due to the rough and smooth principle the force cards are the only ones which can be touched on the back. In the deck | am using at the moment this is the Seven of Diamonds. The situation is now this, the two spectators (Brenda standing at her seat in the audience and Steven sitting on stage) have both confirmed that the deck is a regular one and now the standing spectator, Brenda, holds a forced card, the Seven of Diamonds. You now spread the deck once again saying, “You could have taken any one card, correct?” Of course they could have. You now spread the cards for the on-stage, seated spectator and continue “Steven, in a few moments time something unusual is going to happen, you will be able to divine Brenda's card. However you may very well find it inexplicable, you will not know how you are doing it, but just go with it, is that okay?” and they agree once more. I then slowly dribble the cards from hand to hand in the direction that will display only the Seven of Diamonds, our force card, to Steven. This is done casually with no emphasis — the only person who should be aware of what you are doing is the on-stage spectator. | now move away from him before continuing: KennedyThoughts So Far 37 “Brenda, please focus on your card in your mind and imagine sending it through the air to Steven, the colour first, the suit and finally the value of the card. Steven, please tell us which colour you have received?” You of course build this up, as you deem appropriate. “Red” he answers. “Thank you. Brenda, please do not give anything away verbally, just keep concentrating on the card. Steven, a high card or low card?” “Kind of errm...” he will reply a little confused, which adds to the idea that he is ‘psychically receiving impressions’. “Okay Steven, can you now please tell us which card you think Brenda has selected?" he will of course respond with the Seven of Diamonds! Thank both spectators and have them return to their seats. Now as far as Brenda and the rest of the audience are concerned, they have no idea how Steven was able to name the card thought of by Brenda. Steven's bewilderment is in the fact that he cannot understand how a deck of cards all different appeared to be all the same ~ that one ‘freely’ selected card. This is great dual reality. What is more is that everyone in the audience will think he is mad should he tell them “all the cards were the same” as they have seen them all different. Then Steven has to question what he has seen, as he will retrace the events and recall them to be all different as well. This leads to confusion and ultimately an irreversible effect that works very well indeed. Credits: Kennedy38 ‘Thoughts So Far Andy Nyman; for it was his idea to boldly hand out a Mirage Deck to a member of the audience KennedyThoughts So Fer The Hot Spot Kennedy 39Thoughts So Far 4 The Hot Spot Okay, so my background is in theatre, so | must use this to my advantage. If your background is as a mathematician then use this to your advantage. It would be rather ridiculous not to capitalise on the skills you already have. Let us examine some of the greats. Paul Daniels is a businessman through and through (of course he is a great magician too); and look where that has got him. Derren Brown is an amazing Pickpocket, although his show is on mindreading he still displays his abilities, he is also an artist, a skill which he uses amazingly. So, as a theatre person | consider my show in terms of theatrics as well as the effects. | consider the connotations of each move, sound and word in my act. Does any of it drain my authority or control? Do | want to give control over to someone else? One way in which | consider this for magic in particular is to consider the “heat” on the performing area. This can be applied to the close up pad as well as to the largest stage in the world When performing look at which areas are hot, which areas have the focus and how far around that area or object the heat lies. For example, when | am performing a double lift all of the heat is on the deck of cards; the further from the deck | move the cooler | get, touching the deck of cards | am getting burnt. For any sleight to be perfect then one must learn to somehow move the heat away at a critical moment and then be able to move the heat back once again. This heat principle can be adapted to hecklers too. If someone shouts an insult to you from the audience you may see this as a moment of someone trying to upstage you. However, consider it in a different light; this gent has simply shifted the heat - the focus - of Kennedy42 Thoughts So Far the audience. This may be exploited in order that you may perform an otherwise impossible effect, difficult sleight or such. When performing consider the performing area. The close up table for example. The table is your stage; as soon as you move something out of the arena then it is “off -stage”. Unless of course you move the stage and pass the heat to the spectator, this is rather like a follow spot. A difficulty arises in regaining the heat once it is taken from you. If you have momentarily given the heat to someone else, and allowed them to borrow it we can use many different things to take it back. The natural psychology of human behaviour will demand that once you lend someone something you are obliged to return it. Psychologists know this as the rule of reciprocation whereby if you receive something then you should also give. If the heat is stolen, how might one have it returned to them? Well, in order to receive we must give. So | have found by giving this person time and even a round of applause from what is classed as “my” audience he will return the spotlight or the heat to me. | do not want to make this into a treatise on dealing with hecklers so allow me to move on. Consider this: When | create a new show and | am happy with the direction of the piece, my message, my aim and of course the effects contained, | then look at the heat in every single situation. Yes, | am a geek to say the least, but we have to strive and bound toward the coffee shop of perfection. | will set up a video camera and perform my full show with some friends as volunteers (preferably ones who haven't seen it all before) and then we will boil the kettle and deconstruct what they liked and disliked over a good old English cup of tea. | then kick them out of my apartment and study the video, looking at which KennedyThoughts So Far 43 areas are hot, how the heat moves and if it moves to my advantage. lf the heat moves and it is not advancing the performance then | will work ona way of changing this. Just a few thoughts you may want to consider to take a step closer to being the ultimate performer. If you want to see a master of presentation watch Max Maven perform, he has a great presence and pulls the focus impeccably. You need to ask yourself the question — do you really want to be just another person flouncing across a stage, or do you want to demand attention and amaze your audiences with your skills and, above all — your personality. Through considering the theatrics of your performance you are able to look at how the audience sees your show; not just as a string of meaningless mental feats or magical marvels but as an all- encompassing piece of art. Do not allow yourself to forget that magic itself is an art. KennedyThoughts So Far Cold Bending Kennedy 45Thoughts So Far 47 Cold Bending has to be said that this and the previous effect are my two. jourites to perform, There are many coin bends in existence, ny of them are very good indeed, | wanted to create a coin bend ich uses psychology as the method and not just as an additional r to the amazement. | have used this on stage and close up, if conditions lend themselves to some suggestion. | have fond mories of performing this at Newcastle Upon, Tyne University IK) at the Student’s Union. They really did go mad. Effect: The performer asks a spectator if he may have loan of a coin. This agreed, the spectator joins the performer on stage. The performer then goes on to reveal the date of the coin held in the hand of the spectator and then, without touching it the coin warms up and bends like molten metal. The coin is handed out to audience members at various stages and they agree that it bends more each time until the bend is very substantial indeed. Required: Three 10p coins dated 1992. Bend one of them very slightly, the second a little more and the third severely. These shall be referred to herein as “Stage 1”, “Stage 2” and “Stage 3” coins (3 being the most severely bent). These start out in your back right trouser pocket. Method: Request the loan of a coin, a 10p coin and proceed as per Derren Brown’s coin mind reading effect to reveal the date, which can be found in Pure Effect. (This is not essential and | include it only as an additional thought) Following the mindreading demonstration, say you do not want to touch the coin. Ask your spectator to hold the coin with a tight, clenched fist elevated in the air and close their eyes. Now give the following instructions: Kennedy48 Thoughts So Far “You will very soon feel a weight, weighing your hand down. | don't want you to resist it when you feel it, if you try to resist it, it will simply get heavier and heavier and pull your arm down, down toward the floor.” You continue the weight suggestion until indeed the person is struggling with the coin. At this point you know their imagination is in play and they will respond to suggestion. You now ask them to “Forget the weight as it fades and the coin is simply getting warm, like a chocolate coin in the hand of a child, you can feel it beginning already? As it gets warmer and warmer” Credit to Luke Jermay for this "Warmth Suggestion”. See his book Building Blocks for more information on this and other subtleties. “It gets warmer and warmer, now when you feel you need or want to, just drop it into may hand here, go on just drop it now” they do 80. This looks to the spectators like it was so hot that it had to be dropped, of course through this deceptive language pattern this is not the case at all, you simply told him to do it Now immediately hand out the coin for inspection, in doing so, switch in the Stage 1 coin, which is ever so slightly disfigured. See end for my switch. Now replace this coin in the hand of your volunteer and start suggesting the bending. When they open their hand the coin is bent. Ask him to announce this by asking “What's happened io it?” He will reply “It's bent” and you respond “More than it was before?" He answers in the affirmative, obviously. Repeat the process again, apparently handing out the coin but switching it for the Stage 2 coin. Ask a spectator to hand it back to the gentleman on stage. | realise this is really gutsy and requires good control of your volunteer. As soon as he receives it ask him to “Hold it tight and high in the air.” KennedyThoughts So Far 49 Since there are two instructions he is not likely to look at the coin, but instead to comply with both requests. Complete with more suggestions and ask, “Has it bent even more?” to which a positive reply is received. Now make the switch as itis handed out (the Stage 3) to the audience. You now retrieve the Stage 3 and move to the spectator on stage. “How about we make it go visually.” Here | proceed with a visual coin bend as per Banachek (see his ‘Psi Series’ for this and many other PK effects). Obviously this is a long-reading routine; however the amazement it brings is incredible. What | like about it is that the switch takes place when the least heat is on the object, which is of course after the effect has apparently taken place. | really like this a lot. Quick note, the switch | use is very simple indeed. | hold the coin to be switched in, in a right hand finger palm and the switch out coin in between my index finger and thumb. The out coin goes to thumb clip which the finger releases the finger palmed coin. This is the standard Bobo Switch that can be found in Bobo's Coin Magic. Of course this is a handling for stage and formal situations. | do perform using this method close up also. Close Up To perform this close up itis desirable that you have the audience seated around you, including some standing right behind you . However if they are sitting in a sort of semi-circle this will meet our ds. Kennedy50 ‘Thoughts So Far What you will require is the need to twist and turn as you show different spectators the coin. It is during this action of turning from one area of your gathered audience to another that you will perform the switches required. So you perform as described earlier. You do not switch on the first time, then as you turn to another audience member, to hand out the coin you switch it for a slightly bent one (stage one). Once again you return this coin to the hand of your volunteer and continue to perform the stages as before, So now you can perform this very ‘off the heat’ coin bend in stage and close-up situations. If you decide to add the coin date mind-reading effect as | have suggested then you should be aware of a problem which may occur. If the coin date does not match the dates on your pre-bent coins then you will have a discrepancy, in this case I will move on to something else or employ another method such as the Boa Coin Bend. Positioning After having read through this routine, some of my friends asked me to explain how I position the coins in order to allow me to quickly retrieve them. This is my method: Stage 1 is in my front right trouser pocket; stages 2 and 3 are in my back right trouser pocket. This allows me to quickly retrieve the coins as and when | need them. In terms of taking the coins out of the pockets and holding them, ready to be switched; there is plenty of time during all of the suggestion you are directing the spectator with, to casually and very nonchalantly retrieve the next coin from the appropriate pocket. KennedyThoughts So Far 51 In performance, | perform all of the switches as | move, and never as | stand still, this whole body movement allows me great misdirection. Credits: Banachek, for bringing metal bending into the realm of mentalism and making it accessible to mentalists. Uri Geller, for making metal bending public. Bobo for the Bobo's Coin Switch. KennedyThoughts So Far Jackpot Kennedy 53‘Thoughts So Far 55 Jackpot came tor me after a conversation with a good friend of mine. gave me the idea and | added to it and refined it to what it is For that inspiration | am extremely grateful. | hope you like it as much as he and | do. Before reading on, bear one thing in : there is no pre-show at work. : ct: The performer tells the story of every Saturday night when Sang sits around the television at eight o'clock and awaits the ™ Draw, hoping that the six numbers on the screen will match 2 you have on your card, clutched by your dressing gown -clad ther. The numbers are called off; 13, 28, 46, 25, 3, 23...the ment just before the last ball hits the floor of the machine seems anage. Well, this is how it seemed to me in the first year of the tional Lottery in the UK. ir, wouldn't it be great to be able to predict the outcome of the tery? Well believe it or not I...err...well; | am not able to do that. I could, do you think I'd be standing here in front of you guys, you ight be nice people and all that but a deck chair in the Bahamas its reading minds for a living. | would like to ask everyone to ink of a number you would like to place on our imaginary lottery ight. Just go ahead and call out your numbers” - if you were to gamble for a couple of million pounds, what ber, remembering the national lottery in England has a total of nine numbered balls, what number would you be betting on? ion? Thirteen?” is is indeed a strange number, it is unlucky for some and yet you chosen it. 1s there a reason you have focused your mind on number above all others?” please confirm that we have never met before, arranged jing and I have not asked you to write anything down?” Kennedy56 ‘Thoughts So Far “Excellent. Now you will all agree what random numbers these are. Sir, please take the card out of the envelope here and tell everyone what you find.” The spectator then proceeds to reel off the numbers which match those called out previously, finishing of course with 13! Method: This one is gutsy. To perform this you will need a heck of a lot of nerve (to put it politely). | will first describe the gimmick. | must say that | have read about this somewhere, however | must apologise | cannot remember its originator. However this has an improvement as | have introduced the sticker idea. As far as | am aware it is original. You will require a pay envelope. On the side where the address is usually found stick an address label as usual. However on the two sides of the address label cut a slit the width of the envelope with a Stanley/Exacto Knife. Slits Cash Payment: ey [eres || Pabel ‘Thought Reader Tay 2004 KennedyThoughts So Fer 87 Your gimmick is nearly finished. Now on your computer create something that resembles a Lotto™ ticket on one side and is blank ‘on the other. It should be an obvious replica saying such things as “Mental Lottery” or something. ‘On the blank side write in pencil: “The numbers for the lottery are 37, 48, 13, 26, 22,” and then leave blank. You now place the card into the envelope so that the card enters the envelope at the top, exits through the first slit and re-enters through the second slit the use of the second slit is to keep the card in place securely. Slits “Lotto” card All that is left to do is to nail-write, using a Swami gimmick, the number chosen by the man you single out at the end of the random calling of numbers. Here is where it gets bold. As you ask people to call out their numbers listen for anyone who. says the pre-written numbers; you will use this to your advantage later. Kennedy58 ‘Thoughts So Far When you read out the numbers from the card, nod at several people, this looks to the audience as if you are acknowledging their random numbers. Then get the audience member to stand up and ask him to call out his random number once more and turn the card round and say, “Finally, 13!” Itis very gutsy but | really get a buzz out of performing it. Notes: Since the slits are made on either edge of the sticker then they are practically undetectable once the card is removed. Prior to the removal of the card you should be able to easily cover the exposed area with two fingers and thus flash both sides of the envelope. It pays to take the card out most of the way and then let a spectator remove it the rest, as upon recalling the event spectators will think that a member of the audience removed the note from the envelope. Obviously the applications for the method are endless, such as pocket writing and any other nail-writing effects. Enjoy it! Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far Kennedy 59‘Thoughts So Far 61 Taxi Here is another application to the. envelope pringiple. 1’use this as ‘one of the opening effects in my cabaret and stage act and it's a lassic, “Packs small, plays big” effect. Nichi is nice. Effect: ‘I’m really grateful to be here | thought | was never going to make it. | just flew in this morning, I've been working in Florida for a few weeks, and it's good to be home | can tell you.” “The whole thing was a nightmare from start to finish, first my rental car broke down on the way to the airport, so | had to thumb a cab, which is difficult on a Florida Freeway | can tell you” “Then when I got to the airport | check in my luggage and they confiscate my razor, that's after it sets the alarms off. So I'm searched head to foot and then questioned.” “Eventually | get to the departures lounge, you know where you get fo sit in your shorts, all air conditioned while a plane full of us poor Brits arriving in Florida melt down the steps onto the runway with their hand luggage. Anyway, my flight is delayed” “So, to cut a long story short, | got here two hours later than ‘expected (I was just waiting to run out of fuel at 30,000 feet) and go for a taxi to bring me here. | said “The Bridge Hotel and Restaurant” and he brought me here. You will never guess how much it cost? Sir, how much you think?” To which the spectator replies, “Fifteen pounds eighty pence” “Fifteen pounds eighty pence exactly my friend?” “in fact | was so shocked | asked him to write me a receipt, and it is im here” Kennedy62 Thoughts So Far From the envelope I hold in my hand I retrieve a hand written receipt headed with “Premier Taxis” which reads “Newcastle Airport to The Bridge Hotel and Restaurant, £15.80" The same method as before only | prefer this presentation and itis a great opener, due to its story line nature as well as its comedy . | make a small slip of paper and have a letterhead of a taxi firm printed on it (I do this on my computer at home). | write “Newcastle Airport to The Bridge Hotel and Restaurant, £” in pencil and place it in the gimmicked envelope and I'm ready to go. | just nail-write in the amount. When asking for the amount | find it advantageous to request the amount in pounds of one person, and move to another for the amount in pence. The reasons for this are two-fold; it guarantees you getting a total with pence in it which makes the whole thing more exact and impossible seeming, plus the moving between the first and second audience member allows time to write the first two digits just called out. As opposed to having to rush down all four at once. Another advantage of this routine is that it also lets your audience know you travel all over the world doing this stuff — so increasing credibility. Whether it's ethical to lie or not is up to you of course Note: The Nail Writer | am using is the “Koontz Super Writer” KennedyThoughts So Far Guardian Angel Kennedy 63Thoughts So Far 65 Guardian Angel 1 was booked to periorm ata sau "The Blacksmith’s Table’, and began working on ideas that would fit the scheme of the _ restaurant's. reputed haunted nature. | did not use it for that Halloween night, but have used it for other applications. Effect: A spectator is asked to deal through a tarot deck, something that is not often done; in fact something that is frowned upon by the spirits. An envelope from Hugh Lennart, a murderer who guards ‘one of the gates of Hades, is placed on the table. As they deal they are told the following story: “Hugh Lennart The Minder of the Tarot. Seeing as the tarot is one of the many ways in which the spirits of the world beyond may commune with us it requires someone to govern it. Hugh Lennart is a man of grotesque taste and idiotic principles. Things such as the deck of the tarot should not be dealt like the cards of a deceitful or friendly card game.” “if this was to occur he would ensure that they would be drawn to ‘one card.” The spectator is asked to stop dealing when they so wish, ata time they feel compelled to do so. Upon stopping the deal, the card is turned over to show it is the ree of pentacles. @ Séance Master removes the card from Lennart’s envelope that ys ‘If any fool should deal my deck, as in a foolish game of cards, shall lead them to deal the three of pentacles. This is the card of truction and eternal cruelty.” Kennedy66 Thoughts So Far Method: In this routine the magician takes on the role of Séance Master. Just as in the previous two effects. Our special envelope is required. For this | use a black envelope and a piece of makeshift parchment for the letter. Before the performance write the following on the parchment; “If any fool should deal my deck, as in a foolish game of cards, | shall lead them to deal the of pentacles. This is the card of destruction and eternal cruelty.” This should be written in a ‘spidery’ style to match your wobbly thumb-writing! There is an additional layer to the effect however. The tarot deck is stacked, The first 15 cards are indifferent, and then the stack begins. It is very simple in that you alternate the cards, pentacle — indifferent — pentacle — indifferent until you exhaust the pentacle cards and then you have a small block of indifferent cards on the bottom. You begin telling the story as they deal, this will get you through the 15 indifferent cards and into the stack. When they stop you turn over the card stopped on. Ifit is a pentacle then all you need do it move to the end of the effect. Ifitis not then you ask them to tun the card still to be dealt. You now pick up the envelope and using your trusty Swami Writer fill in the value of the pentacle stopped on. Of course the writing Note: | exclude the “court” cards from this stack, you simply wish to write a single number and not a word like “King”. It's just a convenience thing. KennedyThoughts So Fer The Spirits Be With You Kennedy 67Thoughts So Far 69 The Spirits Be With You This next piece was bom out of the need to say to my friends, gathered at my apartment, that the spirits really do have influence: upon our lives without us knowing about it. This Was the “set up” for a séance party. (What cheery friends | have!) The tarot deck | use is a Londa Tarot and is very demonic in its pictures and therefore lends itself to the evening | had in mind. Of course, as with all of the items | have created and share a you, it may be: adapted to other applications also. Effect: The performer tells “The spirits which have passed on to the next life move among us every day. Some people notice them and others are oblivious to their existence. Those people who are open-minded are the ones who see all and are more successful as the spirits guide them through their lives.” “These spirits are able to influence our lives in strange and wonderful ways.” The performer removes a small leather case and opens it flat on the table, sitting back he continues: “| require one person to help me commune directly with the spirits themselves. | need someone to be guided by them in a small experiment. Do not worry; no decisions of life or death shall be involved at all. Marie, would you be daring enough to assist me?” “Thank you; please sit here, next tome. Do you know what these are?” He removes five tarot cards from the leather case, face-down and lays them in a row. Kennedy70 Thoughts So Far “We are now going to participate in the ritual of ‘Dio Moding”, this is a way of using the powers of two spirits; that of yours and mine to guide us toward one card. The cards are kept in leather as black as the night” Through a process of elimination one card is selected (no equivoque) “Now I selected your spirit to participate in this experiment, and by agreeing you allowed your spirit to take part. So please fee! yourself guided to one other card” “You could have been drawn toward the Chariot who is all for fleeing from a situation, but your spirit guided you away. You may have been draw to the Hermit, a lonesome soul, or even the Fool, but you were guided away from these cards. Please take the one envelope that sits in the leather case, break the seal and read the contents” Of course the two selected cards are predicted inside, written in calligraphy. Method: A favourite method of mine, combining forcing and multiple outs. The gimmick you require is referred to as the leather case throughout the presentation; it is in fact a Himber wallet. In one side of the Himber wallet place the five tarot cards: The Chariot Judgement The Hermit The Empress The Fool KennedyThoughts So Far n In this order face-down. It is vital that you know the position of each of the cards. As you may have guessed The Empress is the force card. In the other side of the Himber wallet are envelopes, each containing one of four cards, one to cover each of the non-force cards (a multiple out). Note: Both envelopes and tarot cards are in opposing compartments of the Himber wallet and are in the pockets on the left side. So when you open the wallet to remove the Tarot Cards, the spectator will not see an envelope. In each of the envelopes is a message (see end of this effect for the exact wording | use), everyone says that they will choose the Empress card, however they all alter in their naming of the other selection. For simplicity | place these envelopes stacked in the same order as the tarot cards (of course with the exception of the Empress): The Chariot Judgement The Hermit The Fool The pile is face-down, the top card being the Chariot. Again you must know which envelope is which. To ensure no screw-ups can occur | mark each envelope subtly with the initial letter of the card it represents. Presentation: Introduce the wallet as a leather case, and not as a wallet. You open the side that contains the Tarot cards, and remove them: laying them in the memorised order, face-down on the table. You close the wallet. Kennedy72 ‘Thoughts So Far In order to force the first card (the Empress) | use the PATEO force. Of course, there are a multitude of forces which could be applied here. Once the Empress is selected you ask for a second selection to be made. Once you see which one remaining is selected you move to the wallet and remove the corresponding prediction envelope. Instead of simply removing it | flash it and gesture with it before Placing it in the right side of the wallet. A curious thing now happens, if you now open the wallet to the side where the tarot cards were taken, the prediction envelope shows through. You now ask the spectator to remove the envelope. You may notice there is a logical discrepancy in the effect in that when you open the wallet to remove the cards there is no envelope, however you then later take one out, this is always overlooked by spectators as they are not expecting magic, but rather some spiritual guidance. Below are the readings | enclose as predictions just to get you started and then create your own. Your inner wisdom would be attracted toward the Empress, A card that indicates intuitive knowing without logic or reason. You find yourself knowing instinctively as oppose to having real hard evidence. This is linked strongly with your spiritual journey, as indicated by the Chariot, however be aware that running away from things does not solve them, of course you have already experienced evidence of this. Your inner wisdom would be attracted toward the Empress, A card that indicates intuitive knowing without logic or reason, You find yourself knowing instinctively as oppose to having real hard evidence. You're the type of person who likes to have time to think and to dwell on things. The Hermit also resembles the fact that you KennedyThoughts So Far 73 are a finisher, the person who completes, and does not leave things without an end. Your inner wisdom would be attracted toward the Empress, A card that indicates intuitive knowing without logic or reason. You find yourself knowing instinctively as oppose to having real hard evidence. You have a strong sense of right and wrong, as indicated by the Judgement card. You realise that although we would like to think so, none of us are perfect. Your inner wisdom would be attracted toward the Empress, A card that indicates intuitive knowing without logic or reason. You find yourself knowing instinctively as oppose to having real hard evidence. This is greatly reflected in your second card, the Fool, as he is a one for seeing things in a new light, bringing a new point of view to those narrower minded than yourself. Update: | thought you might like to know my current handling of this, which is slightly different. opposed to a Himber wallet | carry a deck of tarot cards, with the e cards | require on top of the deck. | also have a “WOW Wallet” ich contains the four envelopes, each in a different pocket. Any et which gives you the option of a four-way out can be used. advantage | have found with the “WOW Wallet” is that it looks more deceptive than a Himber style. like the idea of taking the tarot cards from the deck, as se to having them separated and already picked out. could of course thicken the plot further by having the spectator to the five cards you require with a simple variation on a itor cuts the aces” routine. KennedyThoughts So Far Sightless Dupe Kennedy 75Thoughts So Far 7 ightless Dupe | freer of image duplication for stage use which did not require any fancy peeks of electronics, and particularly | wan to wear a legitimate blindfold. Effect: A spectator is asked to join the performer on the stage for a demonstration of mind to mind communication. The performer is blindfolded, turned away or taken from the room. As this is happening the performer is asked to be excused one second as he makes a notation on the reverse side of one of his business cards. The participant now draws any image they so desire on a flip chart, stood on a large easel. Once he is happy with this piece of art the picture is to be concealed by pulling over the cover page of the flip chart. The mentalist now asks a second volunteer to stand and name any card from a regular deck. Amazingly the card is seen to be predicted on the back of the business card. He now asks the first volunteer to concentrate on the image they drew, and finally describes it to a fine detail . Method: This effect came to me very late one Friday night. You have an accomplice at work here. The second “volunteer” is the accomplice. You require a list of the most commonly drawn images; such a one can be located in Angelo Stagnaro’s “Conspiracy”, along with many more effects that utilise the confederate. To each of these images you need to assign a playing card, in my system | have a Dog as the Ace of Clubs. In order to memorise this advise you looking at the “Aronson Approach”. In my image David perfield is holding a dog while he flies through the air. Kennedy78 ‘Thoughts So Far Your accomplice is required to know the same system; in that they need the same playing cards to represent the same simple images as you Thus: You request the assistance of someone from the audience, and it should appear to be a very random one. | use the idea of throwing out a ball of paper and having it thrown around the audience a few times until someone is selected. This person will be your assistant and is asked fo join you upon the stage. | now talk about telepathy and how we are going to work together to send a simple image. By saying “work together” you do not set up a challenge situation, but rather they will work with you and draw something simple in a moment's time. You ask the spectator to check all of the blindfolds, scarves ete you have brought with you to satisfy the fact you cannot see through any of them. While this is being done | point to another member of the audience and ask ‘Please may I use you for an experiment also? Could you stand where you are” This person is, of course, my accomplice. Once you are fully blindfolded you reach into your inside jacket pocket and take out a business card. You now request that the onstage volunteer pass you the pencil on your table so as you may make a note. This should be as if you just remembered or received a thought from the second spectator who is still standing in the audience. The pencil is passed to you and you pantomime making a note, in fact you do not make any marks on the card at all. You now stand blindfolded and turned away as the on-stage volunteer makes his drawing. KennedyThoughts So Far 79 Your accomplice in the audience sees the image and works out with which card itis associated, (To make this lighter on your accomplice the list of these images could be in a pocket organiser...or tattooed on his ankle). While the drawing is taking place your accomplice has plenty of time in which to do this, similarly you have ample time to slip on your favourite Swami Writer from your left jacket pocket. Once finished the spectator covers the image and you are lead centre stage. You ask “volunteer” number two (your accomplice) to “Name any card”. In fact they name your key card. You now nail-write this card onto the business card and ask the spectator on stage to read out what is written. Because you were blindfolded when you apparently wrote it then any untidy writing will be excused. | have even added the line “Can you make it out, | don’t often write in the dark” Now you are home and dry; you know what the image is. In my opinion this is the ideal way of getting the information, itis so bold and apparently two effects are going on at once. When in fact all you are doing is retrieving your information through a code - sneaky! Note: You could of course apparently have the prediction of the playing card in an envelope and use the principle described elsewhere in the book. Here's the way | used to perform it: J would not wear the blindfold throughout the routine — only during ‘the initial drawing being made by the spectator. Once blindfolded | would ask the spectator on stage to throw the ball they caught (for randomising the selection) to anyone else in the audience who was ‘stand. | would then have the first spectator draw his image. | uld make my apparent notation on the back of a business card in Kennedy80 Thoughts So Far pencil and hold the card by my side (Swami at the ready) My stooge would be a third person in the audience who | would then call on, | would say “Danny, would you please stand up, you are a magician Danny, correct, do you have a deck of cards on you? Is it @ complete deck, with no cards missing?” to which he would answer in the affirmative, and then having looked at his list and associated a card with the image just drawn, he would force the correct card on the second spectator. | would then be able to make the calculation In the early days when getting used to the correspondence between playing cards and images | would take my blindfold off after the card revelation, as long as the image was covered and turned away, and then go to my pad, on which a crib sheet was typed in small print along the top. The advantage of this method is that BOTH of your volunteers are random and neither are stooges, | prefer this method, however | do prefer to remain blindfolded throughout, as long as you are able to memorise the cards. People have often asked me about what | do in the case that someone should draw something | have not covered with each card in the deck. This is what | do; as | ask the magician friend to take out his deck of cards | say “/s it a complete deck, with no cards missing?” if they answer “Yes,” then | know | am covered, if he says “No,” then this is a sign that we are in trouble, as the ‘spectator has drawn something which is not associated with any of the playing cards. Of course | have an out or three to get me out of such a situation, but | shall let you ponder over this. KennedyThoughts So Fer Bookworm Kennedy 81Thoughts So Far 83 Bookworm This again came from discussions with a friend of mine. My good friend Rob during one of our long discussions, which have been known to go well a the twilight hours. So thanks again Rob. Effect: During the course of a book test routine the performer asks ‘one person, who is not holding a book to think of a word. The performer then writes something on his pad, asks for the mental selection and reveals the same word printed in bold marker. Method: This is a pre-show effect; however the wording devised is very sneaky indeed. Prior to the show | approach someone and ask that they are willing to be of assistance to me later in the show. Once they agree | ask them to look at a word on one of the pages of the book. | then gain knowledge of this word in one way or another. | may have them write it down, but | prefer to use one of the wonderful Ultimate Flashback books from Larry Becker. | also remember which book | used for this. Now in the performance | give that very same book to the person sitting next to the pre-show volunteer and do an effect or two with them. | am now free to go back to my pre show guy and say “You took a sneaky peek at a word in that book too — did you not?” They agree of course. The book is well out of sight. You now reveal the word. To the audience it sounds like they just looked at a word I have performed this a few times now and it really plays well. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far The Hand Kennedy 85Thoughts So Far 87 The Hand This is one of those éffects that many will shy away from, for two main reasons; many mentalists simply disagree with the use of playing cards and others will not be bothered to seek out the - things that are required. For those who can take the trouble, however, this really is a treasure of : an effect and it has fooled everyone who has seen me perform it. - s : It is not ‘ust the method that is doyous, but: oe ‘ansting and he subtleties | added to it : Ihave used this effect for making a distinct fence! between close up card magic and mentalism half way through an evening. Effect: The performer sits at a table opposite his spectator; on the table is a deck of cards, resting on a green close up mat. “Magicians work with cards and create illusions with the ‘Devils Pasteboards’, but why do they do it?” The mentalist begins “Well they aim to refine their skills to such a level that they may go to the casinos and make it rich! They would do this through deceptive and clever sleight of hand. However ! am not simply a magician — no, my friend; | use techniques of psychology to make my magic. A magician would have you simply reach in and select a card at random would he not?” The performer ribbon spreads the cards across the table face-up “if | was in a casino, however, as a mentalist | would not contro! the cards, but | would control your decisions, and | shall show you how.” Kennedy88 ‘Thoughts So Far From his wallet he removes four blue backed playing cards, which he lays in a row. “First things first, these are cards from a casino, they are printed with blue backs. My deck here is red, this will stop any sleight of hand business as the red would stick out a mile if added to the hand I have here. Now these four cards have been dealt to you, the croupier is about to deal you the final card and you await one card to complete the hand. Please cut the cards” The spectator does so. “Excellent. Now deal through the cards considering each one carefully and whenever you feel you want to simply stop.” She deals through and stops. “Right here? Do you feel influenced? Would you like to continue, or stop right here?” She decides to stop here. The spectator now turns each blue backed card face-up, and then finally she turns the red backed card and it completes the hand, a straight flush in Clubs! There are no sleights, no moves and the mentalist need never touch any of the cards. Method: You require four cards in blue back design; | use the 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Clubs. You then require a special deck of cards, which you will need to make up yourself. Here is what you need. You need to have 13 cards that will complete the hand at its lower end, in our example the 2 of Clubs, 13 cards, which complete the higher end of the hand (7 of Clubs), and 26 indifferent cards. KennedyThoughts So Far 89 | will use the example of the deck that | use to show you the stack that you require: (I) denotes an indifferent card: 2€, (I), 7€, (1), 2C. (I), 7€, (I), 2C, (I), 7C...throughout the deck with an indifferent (I) on the bottom. Now you are set to go. You lay out the four blue cards and explain the story. Ribbon spread the red deck face-down across the table. Now flip the whole spread up so as they are now all face-up. This is very gutsy, however since the stack is spaced out to every fourth card it is not so easily noticed. Perform this as a casual movement and don't be so silly as to say “Look they're all different” and you will find little trouble here. You square up the cards and hold them face-down, This next part really sells the fact that the cards are not gimmicked in any way, manner or form. You hand the spectator the deck and ask that he cut it and complete the cut. As he does this you glimpse the new bottom card of the deck. More often than not, the spectator will accidentally flash the bottom card of the deck; in this case you have all of the information you need. For those times when this is not the case, | simply pick up. the deck, from the table and hand it to them, in doing so | tilt the deck in order to allow myself a very clear glimpse. An alternative to glimpsing the face card of the deck would be to make a pencil mark on the backs of each force card. This would indicate to you whether there was a force card on top, or not. You are now going to ask the spectator to deal through the cards d stop at any point. As they do so you must bear one thing in ind, if the card you peeked at the bottom of the deck was one of force cards then the top card will not be, if it was an indifferent Kennedy90 ‘Thoughts So Far card you peeked then the top card is a force card. You must keep track of each card as it is dealt as to whether it is a force or non- force card. When the spectator decides to finally cease dealing you need to know whether the card on the tabled “dealt” pile is a force card or an indifferent card as this determines how you proceed, If itis a force card you ask the spectator to look at the next card and see what would have been had they dealt one more card. You then look at the card under the stopped at card and display one card earlier and in fact one card earlier than that. When you see the “one card earlier than that” this tells you which of the force cards the spectator has not stopped at, and therefore which one they have stopped at. This is important. If the selected (stopped at) card is the 2 of Clubs ask the spectator to place it with the four blue backs next to the (still face-down) three. If itis the seven, | ask her to place it in the Position after the six. This completes the illusion. Let me backtrack just a little to explain what would happen should the card on the table be an indifferent card. In this case | say “You have stopped right here, correct, and put all of these cards into the elimination pile” and | will more often than that make some bad joke about how the card will feel about this. | turn over the top card of the tabled pile, an indifferent card, as well as the next card — the opposing force card to that which is still on the deck. | now ask her to place the ‘stopped at’ card (the one still to be dealt in fact) in the position on the table so that it may complete the hand. Additional note: to further convince people | have added some additional layers to “The Hand” recently. Firstly | have made all of the force cards into short cards, this allows you, or indeed a spectator (which is preferable) to riffle shuffle the cards. KennedyThoughts So Far 1 To be truthful | really was not going to include this second bit of business, but you have stayed with me so far. | usually give “The Hand” deck to a friend of mine to carry with him. Therefore if someone is showing magic close up then | am able to look impromptu. | shall give an example, only a few nights ago | was at my local Magic Circle meeting. The lecture had come to a close and we were sitting around in the bar afterwards discussing various aspects of magic. Most of those gathered were card men and close-up workers; none were mentalists. Once they had exhausted their diagonal insertions and invisible pass manoeuvres | asked if | may show them something. To which they consented. “Lam going to show you something | have been working on for a litie while now — I call it ‘The Hand”. This had indirectly told my friend what | was about to do. | now requested the loan of a deck of cards from my friend, obviously he handed me my “The Hand” deck and | proceeded to fool them all. Why did ‘The Hand’ fool them | asked myself? Well, perhaps it was because these guys were sleight of hand artists and had just been performing sleight of hand to the nth degree. They were all looking for a clever switch — a move which never came. So they were the victims of their own assumptions as the idea of a special deck never entered their minds. Oh: by the way, if any of you guys are reading this | mean no harm by the previous statement | simply wanted to highlight some areas of interest. Credits: Max Maven, his effect in which he alternates the force ESP card designs throughout a deck was the inspiration for this. This was preceded by Ken Brookes “Nemo 1500” Derren Brown had a similar idea to this. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far The Second Hand Kennedy 93Thoughts So Far 95 The Second Hand Effect: Similar to ‘The Hand’ in presentation. The difference is that you ask the spectator to consider the name of any playing card at all and remove it from the deck, before turning over each of the four blue cards to discover it matches the hand perfectly. Method: My favourite gimmick raises its head again, that is the long and short deck plus the rough and smooth principle. The difference here is that the deck is a reverse mirage deck. Each of the force cards is longer. Unlike the original effect here there is ‘only one force card. You ask a spectator to look through the cards and allow one to come to her head. You hand her the deck having showed her how to peek at a card, by riffling the edge (as in the Tossed Out Deck from David Hoy). This forces them to look at the force card. Be aware that good handing of the spectator is required here. In order that they don't riffle through the cards and see a bunch all the same | use a line which | think belongs to Bob Cassidy “Please simply look at one card, if you riffie through them | will get the sense of a whole bunch of cards and that just confuses me”. I now ask them to imagine the name of this card on a large screen | look deep into their eyes and remove one of the force cards from the deck, and place it on the table saying “! have committed myself. What was the name of the card you merely thought of?” | now spread the deck to show that the cards are all different “Out of all these cards you thought of the Seven of Clubs? That's lucky then isn’t it?” and | turn over the card | removed. “Now that was simply reading your body language and going off your eye signals, however, this is something else” I then reveal the poker hand ‘Maybe you are a mindreader too?” like this last line as it gives the spectator some hope of being close to the performer, yet still bewilders them totally. KennedyThoughts So Far The Ongoing argument Kennedy 97Thoughts So Far 99 The Ongoing Argument Within mentalism there appears to be a great deal of division; those details which separate each of us from the next man (or woman). This is healthy. Imagine if we all agreed that there was no place for playing cards in mentalism, we should all claim to be using psychology and all go around wearing black suits and ties. This world of mentalism would quickly collapse around us. A spectator would not know the difference between any of us, and then again it would not matter if he did as we would all perform the same material. So | propose that these continuing sets of disagreements are healthy and should continue into the ether. Having said all of that, | will outline my perspective on these issues very simply, for |am a man of simplicity. For me itis a simple fact of taking a step back and looking at the situation for what it really is. Can we really read minds? We are certainly trying to create the illusion that we are capable of it, but “No” is the honest answer. We cannot truly read minds. When people question the premise of using playing cards in mentalism it puzzles me deeply. What puzzles me further is the questioning of the employment of Zenner or ESP cards. ESP cards were designed by Dr Rhine of Duke University; you tell this story to every single spectator to whom you perform ESP card effects. They were designed to measure extra sensory perception. If you are a mindreader and you are claiming to be at least alittle legitimate in what you do then surely the one thing you should be performing is an effect or twenty with ESP cards, since they are by their very nature designed to prove that ESP exists. | pose a question — by not performing with ESP cards are you proving you are not legitimate — surely a real contender for ESP would use them as actual proof of their abilities? I digress, | will return to the arguments in general. These arguments for and against stooges, playing cards and the likes are Kennedy100 ‘Thoughts So Far falsely founded in my opinion for one reason only — what we are doing is not real. | must apologise to any new mentalists reading here, but that is the cold hard truth of the matter; its all magic dressed up to be remotely factual or founded in truth. If you could really read minds, predict the future and all manner other claims you make would you really be standing on a stage in Swansea? Wouldn't you be at home picking tonight's Lottery numbers? Saving lives? Solving crimes? Rather than telling a spotty Scotsman which number between 1 and 10 they're thinking of. Of course you would. (No offence was meant by that, | just enjoyed the alliteration) Thus | propose that if we cannot read minds in reality then we create scenarios whereby we are able to create the illusion of mindreading and thought transference, does the medium of this thought transference really matter? When | was younger | was an actor and was always told by my parents “If you make it keep your feet on the ground.” | think itis vital that mentalists keep their feet firmly planted in reality also and remember that they are deceivers and why should they pretend to be anything else? Perhaps in front of an audience you need not claim this deception, as long as one does not deny oneself the reality. If an effect creates wonder, excitement and above all, entertainment then in my book it shall be implemented in my show. If| have to use a stooge, yes | have upon occasion, in order to blow people away, then so beit. In every performance | give | will use at least one deck of cards, do people come up to me and say “Very nice sleight of hand there Kennedy.” No; they do not. They ask for me to tell them about their futures, to read their minds and the likes, so even with card work within the mentalist's set his authenticity is not destroyed. KennedyThoughts So Far 101 | will illustrate this further by telling you | perform a signed bill vanish and reappearance during this very show, they still think I'm a bloody psychic, and never a magician although this is a blatant magic trick. Remember, As long as the magic is strong enough, it really doesn’t matter. Look at Kreskin! KennedyThoughts So Far 105 A Stranger Selection me out of treading a few. versions of the fee effect. poe itis direct ge plays exactly as | ecb ee Effect: Two decks of cards are displayed, one bearing a blue back design and the other a red. You ask the spectator to think of any card at all, perhaps steering clear of the psychological choices of Queen of Diamonds and Ace of Spades if they can. With this card fixed in mind, and without saying a word, you continue to instruct the spectator to deal through the red deck, one card at a time and remember the position at which their card lies. After dealing through the whole deck they notice there are only 51 cards; one is missing. You now ask for the identity of the card and proceed to show that there is one red card among the blue backed deck; the thought of card. Method: You require three decks of cards, each is gimmicked. Two red Gecks each constructed as follows: The two red decks: The decks are split into an odd deck and an Kennedy and me thinking, “There is a much simpler way of doing this”. It ee106 Thoughts So Far They are in the classic ChaSeD order. | simply add the suit value to the numerical value of the card to find out the new value. Ifitis an even number then it is in the even deck, odd is in the aptly named “odd deck”. For example: 2 of Clubs 3 is an odd number The 2 of Clubs is in the odd deck. The blue deck is a marketed item, a Brainwave Deck. This allows any card to appear reversed and to have the mismatched coloured back. For those who are familiar with the Brainwave Deck you will note that in order for the deck to appear blue backed with a red backed “stranger card” that the selection should be red. The way in which | do this is as follows: | approach a table or group of people, or when on stage indicate a number of people, and | ask each of them to think of a card: “1 would like all four of you to think of a card, any card from a deck of 52, please do not make it too easy for me, don’t think of an obvious card like the Ace of Spades” “Now please, who is thinking of a red card, please raise your hand.” | now proceed into this effect and then follow up with other effects that will deal with the other cards. KennedyThoughts So Far 107 “Now we have not prearranged anything have we? Good, now in order that everyone knows we have not cheated please announce in a loud voice, the name of your card” Say the Seven of Hearts is named “This was a free choice, correct? Excellent” In my head | now calculate which deck the Seven of Hearts is in: Hearts = 2 The value = 7 7+2=9 9 = an odd value. Therefore the Seven of Hearts is in the odd deck in my left trouser pocket. If | want the card to be missing | remove the even deck, from my right inside jacket pocket. “Please deal through the cards, one at a time, turning each one face-up onto the table and remember at which position your card lies.” They deal through to find their card missing and of course there are only 51 cards in the deck. | now indicate them to pass me the tabled blue deck (The Brainwave deck in a blue case) spread the deck to show the reversed card... “Earlier | felt a Inge compulsion to remove a card from the red pack and place it this blue pack”...and turn it face-down to display the red back. an added subtlety | often put the selection from the Brainwave k into the red deck, as if to say that is where it came from. viously when table-hopping this is not appropriate, however in a se Up corner” situation it is a great subtlety. Kennedy108 Thoughts So Far It should be noted that you may want to chance the idea that most people do think of red cards when asked to visualise it. Especially if you add some linguistic subtleties such as “See it bright and vivid" (credit to Derren Brown for this idea). If you want to take the risk it is there for the taking... Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far a An Even Stranger Selection Effect: Just as before, but more direct. A card is thought of and named, it is found missing from a red deck and found in a blue deck, this time face-down. Method: Admittedly, this will take a great deal more preparation than the previous method, but | feel it is more direct and original, as it uses no marketed items (not that there is anything wrong with doing such things) You will require the two red decks as outlined above, creating the ability to have any card vanish. However the change comes in the blue deck. There is no need in this version for the identity of the card to be red; the spectator can choose a black card too. The deck is going to be made of a special breed of cards; these are the kind designed for card manipulation and particularly for productions. The quality you require of these cards is that they are / the thickness of a standard card. You require two of these decks with contrasting back designs. You now have to participate in the rather tedious task of roughing each card to stick to the face of another. So that at any point you may spread the two and have a deck of blue backed cards with a single face-down red backed card among it. This will work in the same way that a Brainwave Deck works, in that you will have to count the cards as you spread them and separate at the correct card to show a stranger-backed card. KennedyThoughts So Far 115 A Passing Thought ‘wanted an impromptu and close up drawing duplication, and came - up with this. This is extremely simple and | am oUpised | could not © find it in print anywhere. Effect: A spectator is asked to participate in an experiment of thought-sending; this is one half of telepathy, the easier half to be precise. They are asked to focus their mind upon an abstract image, nothing too detailed at all. Once their thought is fixed you attempt to receive the thought but are not able. You realise that the thought needs to be absorbed into the subconscious mind and therefore must be seen in a visual form by the spectator. They are asked to take a business card and create a simplified replica of their mentally constructed image. Once done it is to be placed in the centre of a pile of cards. The cards are then held up to show that you can’t see through them, and given to the spectator to hold. Slowly but surely you reveal the thought of image. Method: The title should give you a clue. Once the image is returned to the stack of cards | reverse pass the image to the bottom of the face- down stack of business cards, while stating “You can’t see through them, can you?” While | am saying this, | am looking right at the picture as | hold it up to the light. | now go as if to turn them over, and show the other side blank too, as | place them into the hand of the spectator. What | say is “Please hold out your hand” | turn the cards over while executing a turn over pass to return the image to the centre of the pile. KennedyThoughts So Far 119 Pre- show Vandal This is an idea | came up with for a subtlety to be used pre-show. It uses vivid imagery. Before the performance you ask the spectator to do whatever it is you need them to do, let us say they write the name of their best friend on an impression device. | use Earle and Becker's “Mentalism Unlimited” Kopy Kat for pre-show and would recommend Fabrice Delaure's Psychic Clipboard for live show work, obviously both are very good in either situation . Obviously it is entirely up to you whether you retrieve the information under their noses or later, depending of course on which impression device you use. | now move into the following: “Please close your eyes for a moment and concentrate very hard. | will not hypnotise you, do not worry. Now, | want you to think back to your childhood, can you do that? Thinking about the place you grew up can you see an underpass (a subway to our friends across the pond)? Excellent and can you see the underpass elegantly decorated with graffiti?” Regardless of the answer | continue “| want you to take out a spray can and begin, in your mind, to add your friends name to this public wall of fame, spraying their name on the wall, can you do that now please. Concentrate on each line, each curve and each swirl you make, making the colours bright and vivid, making this name stand out above all the other meaningless scrawis” A beat Kennedy120 Thoughts So Far “Now have you finished? Excellent. Place your spray can away and open your eyes. How do you feel? Excellent, ifit is okay with you | may very well ask you fo go back and think about this place and that name again, later in the show tonight. Thank you, enjoy the show” Now comes the important thing that is done incorrectly by 99% of performers. During the show | will have used very specific methods of selection which will ensure that the person who helps me is a completely and undoubted random choice. This ensures that no one is able to scream “Stooge” This is the way in which | subtly bring up my pre-show volunteer Halfway through the second act, | will begin an effect of two-way telepathy and randomly select the first spectator to join me on Stage. | then ask the pre-show spectator to come up and say “You madam, | think you will be perfect for this, would you please join me on stage?” Now this is the vital thing, | do another effect. One which does not involve the pre-show spectator and one which could not possibly be explained by pre-show; this throws everyone off track. Now | move into the second effect and ask that the random Spectator takes his seat. | do not claim that this person remaining ‘on stage is ‘more receptive’ than the random spectator for a number of reasons. First of all it is a direct put-down of the other spectator; you are indirectly saying, “You are not as good as her’, which is not a nice thing to say in front of an audience is it? Secondly it says that this person on stage with you now has something special, which could scream “Stooge”, or at very least, pre-show. | don’t want any chances of any of these ideas popping up into the heads of my spectators even for consideration as it spoils it all. | now say the following to the now on-stage (pre-showed) volunteer: KennedyThoughts So Far 424 “Now madam, your name is...? Excellent and thank you for joining me here on this stage tonight. Do not worry | will not embarrass you at all. Now | would like you to confirm that we have not met before this evening? | have not come up to you in the interval at all have 1? Excellent, what I would like you to do is sit here and close your eyes. | would like you to think back in time to your childhood. | would like you to go for a walk down a road you are familiar with to an underpass, that place where everyone sprays graffiti. 1 would like you to think of a friend of yours who | could not possibly know, | would like you to see their name among that graffiti, can you see it? Can you see it bright and vivid?" Of course they agree and you proceed to reveal the name of this friend. If you wanted to be even more honest you may wish to add the following little linguistic deception to make it clear for our spectator; “So please confirm for me, I have asked you to think of a name, | asked you to write it large, clearly and vividly and of course use your imagination?" This is exactly what you did; but the dual-reality principle means that the audience and spectator will understand different things from the same sentence. The main application for this subtlety | used to use in my shows would be to force a card and then move into the graffiti visualisation. The advantage of this is that you add an additional claim among those like “We haven't met before this evening, we didn’t meet in the interval’ etc, which of course are all true. | must say there are a lot of subtleties within this piece and | consider my words very well in the way | present my show, this | feel gives maximum impact for me. That is not to say that you should repeat this verbatim as it will not fit your style, change things Kennedy122 Thoughts So Far as long as you keep the essence and the subtleties within and | am sure it will serve you very well as it has me. A quick note, | do not always use this visualisation as a subtlety, | have also employed it merely as a presentation all on its own when performing a centre tear routine. | have to say I personally prefer the graffiti visualisation over anything like a film screen, a chalkboard or the likes. The reason is that the colours are so vivid in graffiti and the imagery is so urban and not associated with chalkboards that are in turn associated with school and the depression and institutionalised nature of these things. Remember this is only my opinion. KennedyThoughts So Far 125 Second Philling for Graffiti This is meant as an addition to the Pre-: show Vandal. As outlined previously; the: problem with the presentation of.a, name is that they have to write it down and thus you can not make the claim that they. did not. This is a suggested solution. You will require a marketed item to create this little piece of business. This item is called “Phil 2”, This is a specially designed deck of cards by which a spectator is able to name any card at all in the deck and you can predict which person’s name is printed on the back. Of course, for those of you who already own this amazing piece of kit you will realise that you are not limited to names, but you can force anything at all — a number, a vegetable, an object, absolutely anything at all. This is the way I handle it. My deck is set up to force the word “calculate”. | show the spectator a deck of cards on the backs of which | have written random words. | ask them to name any playing card at all and ask them to take that card from the face-up deck and look at the word printed on the back. | then tell them to keep hold of the card — sometimes even sealing it in an envelope (This | think perhaps overplays the whole thing so | have not bothered thus far in performance. It would however dispel any thoughts of me later looking through the cards and seeing which word she picked.) | have, of course, forced the word and can go on to ask them to visualise it in graffiti, as in Pre-show vandal. Now you can make the statement: “We've never met before this evening have we?" they confirm this is true as before this evening, you had never met. Furthermore if you Kennedy126 ‘Thoughts So Far have an assistant perform the force of the word then you need never meet the person at all before the show. “We did not meet up in the interval to arrange anything did we?” of course they agree, as the pre-show was done at the very beginning of the evening, not in the interval. Since | always like to do my pre-show myself | can then say “No one came up to you on behalf of myself this evening did they?” again they agree. “You could have chosen any word?” here | mime fanning the cards between my hands, to the spectator they re-call the earlier incident, to the audience you are merely gesturing. They answer in the affirmative. ‘In the English language?” they answer “yes,” again, as the word is in the English language; however, to the audience this sounds like “any word in the English language” especially upon recollection. “You did not write anything down?” and again they agree. Of course you do not need to use every word or phrase: you can pick and choose to make the whole situation sound profound and absolutely impossible and, above all, legitimate. This will fool most magicians; believe it or not Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 129 Open Trans in Again this Was born out of my crazy obsession with Psychokenetio. Touches and the idea of the performer apparently having no control over the proceedings in respect of two-way telepathy between two: unreheatsed spectators. Effect: Two people sit on chairs on the stage. You indicate one to be the transmitter and the other to be the receiver. You furnish both people with a drawing board and ask them to draw. The images are turned around; they match. Method: The mentalist begins by talking about rapport and what it means to be in rapport with someone. “Rapport can be identified on many levels; have you ever liked someone but cannot understand why it is you like them? This could be down to the rapport held between the two of you. If you have known someone for a considerable amount of time you might be able to instinctively tell if they are about to call you or turn up. What about when you break up with a girlfriend and you find yourself, rather awkwardly, seeing each other in the street. This may be due to the fact that the pair of you has had such a strong rapport and it takes time to break it.” *! have been studying the psychology of rapport for a little while now and am beginning to understand it quite well. That is probably the reason why all of you feel the impulse to buy me a drink after the show and to lend me your wives for the night. In all seriousness, | am going to show you how it is possible, with the correct level of understanding to create a high level of rapport, very quickly between two perfect strangers. Well...they need not be perfect; but | am sure they will be strange.” Kennedy130 Thoughts So Far “Sir, could | ask you to join me in this experiment, and young lady, would you assist us also. Now please confirm for me, you have never met each other before? Also, neither of you have met me before?” They agree. “And they look rather happy about that. 1 would like to thank you both for coming up here — | know it is not easy. You have my word that | will not embarrass either of you. In a moment both of ‘you, in different ways, will literally have to enter into the mind of the other person, You will need to do this to see what they see and to think what they are thinking.” “Now would you please both stand on opposite sides of the stage. They do so. “Now as you stand there | want you to look at the other ‘person, taking in each of their features, beginning with the head and moving down through the shoulders, all the way down to the feet of the other person.” | pause here and wait to allow them to take in the other volunteer. Of course, this is all build-up and “atmosphere-building’. It gives the audience more ideas to wade through and thus disguising the devious method even further, “Now please will you both take a seat, the lady over on that chair and the gentleman on this chair right here. Now, still thinking about the other person and all of the things you have leamed about them both consciously and subconsciously, close your eyes and listen to every word that I say.” They are now seated, facing the audience, on chairs with around three feet between them, with their eyes closed. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 131 The following is a very devious psychological piece of business which will ensure that the method is hidden even deeper and can not be re-traced after the show, it also sounds very good as far as presentation goes, which is just as important. “Still thinking about the other person, Graham, thinking about Linda, and Linda about Graham. Considering them very carefully as you allow a wave of relaxation fo come over you. Beginning at the top of your head and moving on down your face, through your neck, shoulders, arms and chest. Every muscle, every living cell in your body relaxing on down...down your body through your waist, down your thighs, your whole legs and feet. “In your mind now see yourself floating, floating gently up, out of your seat and over, right over to the other person, entering their body. Feel it happening as you float on down into their body. How does that feel? Thinking now about how that feels to be right in side of the other person’s body, seeing things through their eyes. This is the passage we call telepathy. With this passage you have now created in your mind a psychic link, where messages, information and even images can travel. | will now count to three; on three please open your eyes and be alert and awake. One, feeling relaxed and calm, two, warm and alert, three. Please open your eyes.” You now hand each of the two “linked” spectators a whiteboard and pen. Along the top of each of the boards you have a sticker which is typed with the following information: On one board it says: “You are the sender, please draw a boat. Thank you.” On the other it says “You are the sender. Your job is very difficult so please when | say “Go”, and not before, simply close your eyes, Kennedy132 Thoughts So Far take four deep breaths and visualise a blank screen. Then slowly open your eyes and draw a boat. Thank you.” This is computer typeset in green lettering; this means that it can be in particularly fine print and still be legible. The green lettering is the least legible or even perceivable from any kind of distance. This wording on the boards means that one person will begin drawing, after the other. Since he is also beginning with his eyes closed, it will look like he is receiving the thoughts of the other person. Of course this is one of several convincers going on in this routine. Now both people are seated and asked to close their eyes. You now state: “In. a moment | will tap the “sender” on the shoulder; this person will send an image to the other person who shall be the receiver.” At this point | am standing next to the spectator on my left (that is stage left also) and | secretly touch him on the shoulder, under the guise of straightening his board. | then move over to the other person and very openly touch him on the shoulder. Now | move centre stage and talk once again “The person | tapped on the shoulder a moment ago is to be the sender, the other person...” | indicate with my hand toward the person on my left “...is the receiver, please open your eyes and focus in on your drawing board. Take in the space you have to play with, allow your eyes to become focused once more; since they have been closed you may feel a little disorientated. Do not worry Just begin to focus on the board” This is indirectly telling them to look at their instructions on the board. "Sir, do you know what to do, yes or no?” he answers yes. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 133 “And you madam, do you know what to do?” of course she does. “On the count of three | want you both to begin to draw, it is important that our receiver just draws instinctively and does not try and judge the drawing at all, just go with the flow of things. As for our transmitter please be very focused and see what you are meant to draw in your mind now. One, two, three draw now!” As a result of this dual-reality, what is in fact happening is that both spectators think they are the transmitter and are sending this “boat”, they will also assume that the other person is the receiver. All is above board, apparently. Please, forgive the pun. In addition to this, one person will have begun drawing after the other person started; this will further convince the audience that he is the receiver. Once they have finished, you ask them to hold their pictures up above their heads, you ask the person to your right to reveal first and then follow with the spectator to your left. They match. At this point the audience will erupt in applause (and rightly so). As the applause is dying down, ask your volunteers to stay where they are and to once again close their eyes. “What we have just seen is a demonstration of rapport between these two wonderful volunteers. You were essentially in the mind of another, which for some is a daunting experience and concept. | would like to let you into the real secret of all that has happened, the real secret is that since each of you were both yourself and at the same time the other, neither of you were the real sender or receiver. You simply knew what was going to be sent, and what would be received because while you participated in this experiment with rapport you were both yourself and the other person at the same time. So it should have been just as if you were Kennedy134 ‘Thoughts So Far sending the image to yourself and thus did not have to receive as there really was nothing to receive since you already knew it. | understand that after having been through an experience like that when this sort of thing happens you may very well be confused. You may decide that you were both receivers and both senders as you stepped into the mind of the other person. This blurs the recollection of the events we all just witnessed; please do not get upset with yourself about it, as it is understandable. It is absolutely normal to not remember when things are experimen ted with within yourself and from within the mind of another person. Especially when they all happen as quickly as they just did. So when I count to five please open your eyes and be fully awake and alert. One - forgetting to remember, two - remembering to forget, three - breathing deeply, four - becoming alert and aware, five - open your eyes. A huge thank you to Derren Brown for the idea of ‘Forgetting to remember and remembering to forget” | must say that by asking them to draw a boat you will get a fantastic difference between the pictures which makes the whole experiment seem all the more real. If they both drew a yacht then this would seem a little too exact, but since they are meant to be sending thoughts they are allowed to have interpretation. Please take heed of all the subtleties, including the reinforcement of who is who in the routine, with the tapping on the shoulders as well as the labels on the boards. Together they create absolute certainty in the minds of the spectators that they are the transmitter and they know what to do. | would recommend against using someone who is wearing glasses for participation in this routine. The reason is that many people require different types of glasses, or to remove them for reading small text. When sitting watching your show they will be wearing their long distance spectacles and therefore once on stage they realise they are required to read close up. We cannot have them removing their glasses and straining to read, or worse still, saying “I need my other spectacles from my bag’ this will blow the whole Kennedy.Thoughts So Far 135 effect out of the water. | also dread the idea of a person with vari- focal lenses tilting their head to read, you do not want the audience to realise that the on-stage volunteers ever read anything at all...ever, This is a very strong effect and has been performed many, many times by myself and | have to say it was part of a routine which won Michael Murray the stage award at the prestigious Newcastle Upon Tyne Magic Circle which is quite an achievement if you saw the other competitors, Credits: Banachek, Psychokenetic Touches Paolo Cavalli, Luke Jermay and Morley Budden. KennedyThoughts So Far 139 Sitting on Rose Petals Itis an obsession of the mentalist to predict who will sit where: what” they will choose and how they choose it, so this is my take on the goed old cay prediction, ie a poe one oul | like it. ‘ The idea was born out of my thinking a acct magic and: = perhaps bringing a piece of that class back into. mentalism, — thought back to a manipulation act | saw and the rose which floated then changed into a silk, it was so magical, so beautiful. So, from. thinking “I must do something with a rose” | came up with “Sitting on Rose Petals.” Effect: The performer stands centre stage, where he belongs, behind him is a row of four chairs, each painted a different colour. The performer now invites four female volunteers to the stage, they are asked to take a seat on any chair they wish. The mentalist now walks to his table and picks up a vase which contains four roses. He asks each spectator to take a rose The performer returns the vase to the table and returns with a box of chocolates. Each person is, once again, asked to select any chocolate they so desire and to eat it. Now each spectator is asked to look at the small card tied to the roses, which usually bears the message from the sender. “Please tell us what is written on your card” They proceed to read out the prediction of which coloured chair they will sit on, as well as the flavour of the chocolate they selected. Method: | perform this effect to the backing of classical music. This gives the effect a very theatrical and classic feel. This idea came Kennedy140 ‘Thoughts So Far from the innovative David Copperfield. The way he frames his illusions as fully-fledged stories can make even the strongest men cry. The performance is based around romance, with chocolates and roses. How quaint. This is a strange effect to describe as there really is nothing to it. The premise came from Kenton Knepper and his ‘labelling’ technique. Once the spectators are seated you move to the table with the vase of roses on. Each rose has attached to ita card which bears the information. You need to know which card has what information. Here is an example: First rose to the left: Red chair, Strawberry chocolate Second rose from the left Yellow chair: Mint chocolate Third rose from the left: Green chair, Cherry chocolate Fourth rose from left: Blue chair, Coffee chocolate. Now this is so simple please do not bypass it. It really will fool people. You simply turn your back on the audience and hand each person the correct rose, which corresponds to the chair on which they sit. As you do this you say “Please madam, would you take a rose” This is the labelling | was talking about. To the audience, the spectators are taking any rose at all. To our on-stage spectators they are taking the rose which they are being handed Now you must get a box of chocolates and empty it; yes you have to eat the contents. Shame! In your mind separate the tray into four segments. A Mint segment, a strawberry segment, a cherry segment and a coffee segment. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 141 Now the hard part begins for real. You must search for enough chocolates of that particular flavour to fill its segments. So in the box you will have a lot of chocolates but actually only four flavours. In addition to this you will know where these flavours are. Strawberry Mint Coffee Chery For the chocolates, you know which coloured chair is associated with which chocolate, please do not do something as obvious as “Red Chair is Cherry” otherwise the method may be obvious. All you need do is force your spectator to select from that area of the tray. | do this by again tuning my back on the audience (I always wear a lapel radio microphone on stage) and saying “Please choose any chocolate from here” As | say this | point to the centre of the segment, therefore the spectator is forced to select from the correct area of the tray. As far as your audience is concerned you are asking them to select any chocolate from the tray. All that is left to do is ask them to consume their chocolates and remember the flavours, You ask them to read out loud the attached card and reveal the predictions! Note: Due to the current climate of severe allergies | always ask for someone who does not have a nut allergy. | usually make them Kennedy142 ‘Thoughts So Far aware that | shall be giving out chocolates too. This gets more spectator interest for this effect...which is nice. Credits: Kenton Knepper, Wonder Words. KennedyThoughts So Far 145 Double Influence Me owe you an apology for misleading you. q have to confess that | - have never performed this. It was born out of a conversation with a friend who was trying to convince me that Some things were impossible. | know. differently. : Effect: Five envelopes are introduced and passed to the spectator for mixing. Another spectator is handed a deck of cards and asked to shuffle them. This done the spectator is asked to number the envelopes in any order, ensuring that they do not duplicate any numbers. Now the situation is this, the mixed envelopes each bear a number between 1 and 5; the deck has been thoroughly mixed up. A spectator is asked to call out any number between one and five. This is a free choice and whichever number they call, that is the envelope that is used. In our example she calls out number four. This envelope is taken from the table and held by the spectator. The spectator holding the deck is also requested to call outa number; any number between 1 and 52. They do so, for example; thirteen. The cards are dealt down by the spectator and the thirteenth card is taken and laid on the table. The envelope held by the spectator is opened to find a card inside; itis the Two of Hearts. The card on the table, selected freely by the second spectator is turned over and it is also the TWO OF HEARTS, Kennedy146 ‘Thoughts So Far If you wish you can show the other envelopes to contain different cards, Method: As with all of my ideas, the emphasis again is on presentation and there are very few sleights. What you will require is 5 double-faced cards, all with different cards on one side and the same card on the other. The easiest way to buy these is to purchase Jay Sankey's “Just Name It” from your local dealer and utilise some of the cards from it. Itis an excellent piece of thinking as can be said of all Jay's material. Put each card into a separate envelope and insert them ina way you will remember the orientation of the cards. | prefer to have my force card showing (the 2 of Hearts) on the side with the envelope flap. This means that you are able to remove the card from the envelope as either an indifferent card, or as a Two of Hearts (force card). Now comes the devious bit; there are two possible methods you could employ here. You could use a Mirage or a rough and smooth forcing deck, with the force card being the Two of Hearts. 'hand out a regular red deck of cards and have it shuffled. In my Tight trouser pocket | keep the black permanent marker pen I will require, along with a one-way forcing deck containing the Two of Hearts, After the envelopes are shuffled | hand the deck out for shuffling. Once this is done | take the deck back, then as | delve into my pocket in order to retrieve my marker pen | switch the regular deck for my one-way force deck. All that remains is to have them number the envelopes, select one and call out a number for the card position, KennedyThoughts So Far 147 Now hold your breath and hand the spectator the one-way forcing deck. This REALLY sells the point that all is above board as you apparently never handle the cards. They deal to the card at the position they freely selected and leave it face-down, you retrieve the deck and switch it again as you take the pen and put it away; apparently you are merely clearing up | take the envelopes which remain on the table and remove the cards from them; displaying indifferent cards. (| am able to do this because | know the orientation of the double facers in the envelopes.) You take the selected envelope which has been held by the speciator all this time and comment about how they have freely selected this envelope above all others and have held onto this one envelope. | now remove the card and show it to be the Two of Hearts (as if | didn’t know). | now have the spectator turn over the face-down selected card and they match. In my opinion the best way to present this will be as suggestion, you should constantly be saying “Please, don't let me influence you.” “Do you want to change your mind” and the likes. It really should appear as psychology, as oppose to coincidence. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 151 Thickening the Plot I thought | would take this opportunity to write something on how | create my act and go about routining in order to make my mentalism more baffling, mesmerising and impossible to backtrack. The secret is in the layering of principles and ideas. When | begin looking at a new effect | do not see it on its own; | see it as one piece, one element of a whole. This ‘whole’ | mention is the routine into which it will fit, surrounded by other effects as well as patter. The ‘whole’ is also the act as a whole. The size of the ‘whole’ does not matter; whether it is a simple three minute routine, a 45 minute spot or a complete 90 minute show with an intermission. It is vital that you put each piece into perspective and into context in order to ensure that it fits right along with everything else that you are performing. So how do | go about this procedure of layering? Well, itis nota simple process, let me tell you. | will consider the direct effect | wish to create, and then consider where it will be found within the context and limitations of my act. Once done | will then investigate and, more often than not, create alternate methods for this same effect. With these alternate methods | am able to do many things. | am able to vary my performances in order to cover methods. For example; if | was to perform at a repeat booking or notice a significant number of people in the audience who had previously seen my show then | would switch methods in order to further confuse the issue. Here is an example of this for those who know Bob Cassidy's wonderful Name/Place routine. | noted one night that a few of the tables of the assembled spectators had seen my show only a month earlier. So | changed the method to employ the use of a Centre Tear (actually Busch’s Zen Billet Tear) as oppose to a switch. Now if they were to re-trace what happened they would not be able to put things back together, as there are two different methods at work here. Kennedy152 Thoughts So Far Another way | use this is when | perform an effect with a billet and execute a Centre Tear and then reveal the information. Then later | will have someone record some information and insert it into an envelope, using an envelope switch of some description. These two methods cancel each other out and therefore make not only one effect irreversible, but both of them. This is only one way in which | layer my performances. After | have interchanged methods and created standbys and ‘Just in case I can’t get the peek’ methods | then turn to presentation. This, | feel is the down-fall of many a performer. Many performers forget what they are; and that is, entertainers. So for you to be a success as a mentalist you must first entertain. The next layer | add to my performances, just before the gags and the words themselves, are the subtleties. These are bits of business which convince the audience that you really are doing what you claim to be doing. As an example; ina drawing duplication you would not want to come out and just say “You drew a tree,” there are countless things wrong with this statement. Firstly, what are you claiming to do? Read minds or read drawings? Therefore, they did not “draw” anything: they “thought of” whatever it was in the first place. You are receiving thoughts, vibrations or subliminal signals, or whatever you decided to present this as. In this light convince them of that. In a psychological presentation you might say something like “Are you the kind of person who likes to be outdoors as opposed to being cooped up inside all the time?” Of course this is an utterly loaded question which forces the Spectator to agree and react in the positive. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 153 “So you are an outdoors type person, who perhaps has a high regard for nature, would | be correct?” again they have to agree. Why? They have trapped themselves into agreeing with you, they already agreed with the previous statement so they do not want to appear to be a liar. If the person has drawn a picture of a door and holds their arms folded in front of them you might say “I see you hold your arms crossed, closing me off, like shutting me out, like a window, a shutter or a door? | think in your current siate of mind you would draw something like a door. Am | close?” This is far more believable than simply coming straight out with it. In a psychic explanation you might ask them to “Think of the lines, the shapes which construct the picture. It is much easier to receive simple, abstract images, rather than detailed ones. | can see a circle with a sort of...more circles inside? And a line, it’s a curved line. Oh} see - it's a smiley face right?” All of this adds authenticity to your work and gives the spectators something to believe in. This has a number of advantages. Firstly; the presentation will distance the spectators from your ‘real work’, through creating a time delay between the move, peek, or nail writing and the revelation. It may also create misdirection for the move. You could begin to apparently reveal information BEFORE you get the peek. For example, a spectator has written down the name of someone who is close to them. You hold the billet in your left hand, and have not yet peeked the information. You could begin cold reading information about this person, such as their gender, hair colour etc. This is very effective because now that you have begun revealing information about this person there is apparently no need for you to look down at the billet. Kennedy154 ‘Thoughts So Far Another reason this ‘false explanations’ notion is very effective in mentalism is that it stops your spectators looking for the real explanation. If you tell them that you are reading body language and they accept that is how you are doing it, then they no longer have a need to know how it is accomplished. The minute the audience thinks they know how it is done you have got them. How do you create subtleties? It is often discussed that you must create them, but how does one go about creating your own subtleties for the effects you perform? First of all itis vital that you create your own subtleties for every effect you perform. Even if the effect in question was not invented by you, you must think it through and consider how you can make it more subtle, foolproof and devious. The way in which to do this is very simple. You perform the material. As you rehearse you will think of new ways to perform these miracles of the mind. This might be a little subtlety like turning your head away at the correct time; it may even be a much more suitable method for the effect you are performing (which is where most of my ideas were born). Now on to these layers you must add your words and your presentation. Think about how you can best communicate this mindreading to the larger audience. Alll too often a mentalist (and to some extent magicians) will ask a spectator to join him/her on stage and will then perform only to this spectator, and forget the gathered throng of audience members. This is very foolish; as the majority need to experience your magic too, so please do not forget them. Of course from here you are welcome to add jokes and gags to the presentation. What you have to remember is that the performer who leaves the stage and feels that everything went perfectly is only fooling one person that night: and that is himself. Mentalists Kennedy.‘Thoughts So Far 155 need to learn to become their own worst critic and to strive to be better each time for the indefinite future of their performing careers. KennedyThoughts So Far 159 Convincing Coins This is a utility move for ‘the coin worker. 1 used to apply this for switching ina bent coin in a coin-bending routine, before | created my current handling. The coin to be switched is classic palmed in the right hand. (luse a 10p coin). You request the loan of a coin and place it on the palm of the left hand. At this point you talk about the coin, mentioning its date or whatever business you decide upon. As you talk you casually turn the coin over on the palm with the fingers of the right hand. As you are doing this the palm of the right hand is positioned over the extended fingers of the left hand. You drop the palmed coin onto these extended fingers. In a continuing motion you pick up the borrowed coin with the right thumb and index finger and rotate the right hand palm up. If you do this without moving the left hand at all then the right hand will obscure the coin which is to be switched in (which now lies on the outstretched left fingers). You will now apparently pull the borrowed coin off the right hand and into the left hand; this is when the switch is executed You begin pulling the borrowed coin with the left thumb at a steady speed. As the coin approaches the right little finger it should be held back. Continue pulling with the left hand and bring the switched-in coin into view and holding it between the thumb and index finger of the left hand. You must close or tilt the right hand slightly to hide the borrowed coin which has just been switched out of play. Kennedy160 Thoughts So Far This may read as a complex move, it really is not. | am nota coin worker and have very low level skills in this area and that is why | have created this simple yet very deceptive switch. What | like about it is the fact that both hands are shown empty during the course of the switch. When performing close-up a good friend of mine uses this switch for the Bitten Coin and Cigarette Through Coin. KennedyThoughts So Far 163 Numerically Correct There are so many mentalists performing using a very similar “Oh tm reading your mind” type presentation. This is very dark and serious — which is fine; as long as you have the charm and charisma of someone like Derren Brown who pulls this off to perfection. However there are more people doing it incorrectly and forgetting to put a little piece of themselves into their mentalist character. in my performances | used to be a deep and serious guy until | realised that | was not presenting my true self. So in that light | created the following piece which is rather comical.” This is an idea which | developed to fit into my cabaret show before | came to the discovery of the “Jackpot” principle. it served me very well indeed and perhaps you will get something out of it. Effect: The performer displays an envelope and talks about his abllity to influence people's decisions. He tells the gathered spectators that he has written a number on the card contained within the envelope. “Does anyone know what | have written?” You receive the answer of “No”. “That is fine; we have not pre-arranged anything have we?” Again they reply in the negative. “Okay | would like you to form the image of a three digit number in your mind” (| have upon occasion used 4 digits or pin numbers) "Do you have one? Excellent. | am going to ask you to commit yourself, and! don’t mean to me. | mean to your number. In order that you can’t change your mind and you stay committed to that Kennedy164 Thoughts So Far number | am going to ask you to write it down on one of my business cards. Go ahead; when you have done that, please re- fold the card and place it..errm...here shove it in this envelope.” ‘Lick the flap and seal it” now hand the envelope to someone else in the audience for safe keeping. “lf we have a falling-out up here | will be calling on you to verify the facts, is that okay? Good” “Now, let me see if | am correct in my prediction” The performer removes the card from the envelope and shows the spectator what it says “Tell us what is written on the card please” He answers “The number | am thinking of” After a beat he turns the card round to show that it does in fact say “The number | am thinking of" on the card. The performer continues “However I did try and influence you all along, turn over the card, is that your thought of number” Of course it is. Method: Of course you could very easily employ the method described under “Jackpot” elsewhere in this book; however this does not use a window or cut-out in the envelope. What you will require however is your good old Swami Writer. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 165 In the first envelope you have a card, on one side of which you write “The number | am thinking of’ in a pencil which matches that of your Swami. You will also require a stack of envelopes held together with a rubber band. The top one of which is a flapless envelope. I do however prefer to have the top envelope flapless and the second from top to have a Shaxon flap as it allows the spectator to insert the card much easier and more convincingly (for details please see Bob Cassidy's Mental Miracles). The second envelope also contains a dummy billet or business card, folded in the same manner as the one to be handed out With all that prepared you are ready to go. To present you approach a spectator and ask him to form a number in his mind. He is then asked to join you on stage and commit the number to paper for the reasons outlined previously. As he is doing so you hand the envelope marked “Prediction” to another spectator. You now ask the on stage spectator to re-fold the paper with his number on it and to insert it into this envelope. In fact he is inserting it into the top envelope. You now remove the envelope by its flap, and thus removing the second (Shaxon) envelope, containing the dummy billet. You ask him to seal it and then he is to hand it to another spectator. This is important. He must hand it to another spectator so as to give the illusion that you have not touched it. You now put the envelopes away in your right jacket pocket. In doing so you will empty out the spectator’s billet into your pocket. You ask the spectator to pull the card out of the envelope. You must be aware of how the contained card is orientated in the envelope so they pull it out with the writing facing them. Kennedy166 Thoughts So Far As they do this, there is ample misdirection for you to slip on your Swami and take the folded billet with the spectator’s number written on it into finger palm position The spectator is now holding the card, facing themselves and is asked to read out what it says on the card. Of course they say “The number | am thinking of” At this stage you may well get applause, however | would still goon to reveal the humour of the fact by turning the card around. This is when the work is done. | take the card off the spectator with my right hand (Swami ready to go) and turn it over, exposing the text. As soon as | turn it | am unfolding the billet behind the board, glimpsing the number and writing the number down on the board itself with my Swami. | now move on to say “I really did influence your choice, take a look at the other side of the card; what does that say?” Of course they reel off their thought of number as | casually return the Swami and billet to my pocket. You are now free to open up the envelope held by the spectator which apparently contains the ‘thought of number billet’ and perform a simple switch and all is well. Never forget about this and allow the spectator to take that envelope home. Curiosity will get the better of him and he will open it to find a blank billet in there, and he will be more than a little puzzled by this. This is a really powerful effect as no one will re-trace what happened due to the inherent comedy of the routine. A piece of advice. | would interchange methods for this effect if you have repeat bookings or are asked to “Do that one again”. | would perhaps use the method in “Jackpot” one time, with a gimmicked envelope and then use this method another time. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 169 Hand-outs will now return to the effect in which a spectator selects the only card from the deck that completes the poker hand laid before him. =~ There is a distinct difference between the methods of achieving this outlined previously under “The Hand’ and “The Seene Hand” and the one | present now. : Effect: You ask the spectator to take the cards and to cut them fairly. She is then to go through the cards and select any card which stands out to her — any card which seems, in her mind, to leap out at her as she spreads the pack in front of her face. She selects one and places it face-down. Of course it completes the poker hand laid face-down on the table from the beginning. You will notice that the difference in this presentation is that the spectator selects the card while looking at the faces of the cards and is allowed to apparently freely select any one. Methods: In both cases you will be required to force the required card on the spectator. 1) This is a more subtle way of performing the effect and does require a great deal of spectator management. The force card in the deck is one with the same back design as the rest of the cards (say Bicycle); however the front is that of a card with jumbo indexes. By this | mean that the numerical value printed ‘on the card is printed very large and therefore stands out among the other cards. Kennedy170 Thoughts So Far With the correct spectator management this can be quite effective You may argue that this is an instant stooging effect; however, through performance, | have learned that the difference in the index size is not consciously noted by spectators. 2) Now this truly is instant stooging. What you will require here is a blank-faced deck of cards and one card which is to be forced. Bury the force card among the blank-facers and proceed from there. Of course you will be required to use some double-speak and linguistics to cover both realities but | am sure you can work these out for yourself. You could, of course, use a whole host of psychological forces. KennedyThoughts So Far 173 A Service with Influence | love the add-a-number concept, but wanted to create a logical reason for the spectators writing down numbers, and so | came up with waiters writing down the prices of meals. This was born after a discussion with a friend of mine who argued that mentalism wasn’t very magical or visual. So this one has alittle bit of magic added! Effect: The performer asks the audience if they will go on a trip with him, a trip of the imagination. Not a wild or exotic trip to the Sahara desert or the jungles of the Congo; somewhere far nicer indeed, in fact to their favourite restaurant. “Sir, we have not met before this evening, have we ? And | certainly have not asked you to write anything down have I? Excellent, please, calf out the name of the restaurant you are thinking of.” He does so; say he calls out “The Blacksmith’s Table Restaurant.” “Thank you, In fact let us write it up here.” The performer takes a dry-erase marker and writes down “The Blacksmith’s Table Restaurant” on the white board. “Now we know where we are, or at least where we are supposed to be, [need some people to place our order. How many of us are going to. eat? Surly not the whole audience, say four of us? Excellent, madam would you please consider the starter and write down here, on this waiter’s pad how much you think that course would cost” She does so and returns the pad and pen to the performer. “Sir, would you please consider the main course, there are four of us dining tonight, and it is a classy place we are in; not like the (insert name of local eating establishment). When you Kennedy174 Thoughts So Far have done that, please write down, right under the starter course, how much the main course is going to be tonight.” This is done. “What is your favourite pudding sir?” He replies with his favourite dessert. “Please think about the four of us, and how much a dessert each would be, and write it down below the other two numbers on this genuine waiters notebook.” When said tongue in cheek that line might be funny...you never know? “Finally, | think...errrr...yes you will be perfect, why don't you order the drinks. Madam, think about the total cost of our drinks and add it to our bill.” This is done. “Now you will all note that when you ask for the bill it takes the waiter ages to bring it over, just as if they don't want you to go. Do you know why that is? It is because to be a waiter you have to be unable to count, so! need someone to count forme. Sir, you look like a mathematician, could you come up here and add our numbers up.” He calculates the total — as he is doing so the performer continues: “Oh, | nearly forgot, so far your waiter has remained anonymous, and we can’t have that, after all how would you know who to leave the tips for? Sir, again we have not pre-arranged anything and | have not asked you to write down anyone’s name tonight have 1?” He agrees. KennedyThoughts So Far 175 “Please, tell me, what is the name of the waiter you are thinking about?” “Andy.” The performer adds ‘Andy’ to the whiteboard, under the name of the restaurant he previously wrote. ‘And that was a free choice of name, correct?” Again he agrees. “Now before | ask the restaurant owner (indicating our mathematician) the total cost of this evening's meal, | only have a £20 note; will that be enough?” The performer removes a £20 note from his pocket. Of course the ‘owner’ says that this will not be enough money. With this the performer hands the note to a person in the front row to hold for a moment. He now takes back the note pad and asks that the ‘owner’ read out the total “Thank you, now please take your seat back at your table, | mean back in the audience. So this twenty was not enough? How much was it?” “£43.50" “Okay. Watch.” The waiter takes the £20 note and folds it, as he does so it changes into a piece of off-white paper. Kennedy176 ‘Thoughts So Far “Please hold this, as it is worth more than the £20 note. What does it say?” Of course it is the bill from “The Blacksmith’s Table Restaurant” for £43.50, where their waiter was Andy! Method: Very simple indeed. This uses a lot of methods to create the effect. Firstly, all of the information is forced. The total of the bill is a simple Add-a-Number. | use (and would recommend) Banachek's ‘Add-a-Number' as it is by far the most direct. The name of the restaurant and the waiter is an application of my “Second Philling for Graffiti” Finally, the change of the twenty pound note into the bill is the very old, and still exceptional, bill switch. Credits: Banachek, Add-a-Number from the Psi Series KennedyThoughts So Far 179 Bloodline Divine This came to me as | played with another effect | have included in this book, “Double Influence”. At the time | was just about finished ~ the first draft edit of this book. The plot came from the theory of how twins have a spiritual connection and it is also said that close partners have such a connection too. By this | mean that if one member of the partnership is distressed then the other person will sense it and go looking for them. This led me to thinking about the close relationship between a mother and her children. l also love the concept of the living and dead'test and thought that it would be Wonderful for the spectator to do the divining herself. Effect: A woman is asked to join the performer on stage, having just entrusted him with the fact that she has a child. “Do you only have the one child, or more than one?” “Only one.” “Excellent, | would like you to sit at this table and think about your child, is this a son we are talking about? “Yes.” “Tremendous — then we are on the same wavelength.” “What | would like you to do now please, is to take one of these cards,” the performer indicates the stack of business cards on the table “and write in large clear writing the name of your son across the back. It is alright to keep this to yourself; in fact | insist that you do not show anyone what you are writing. So please commit your son’s name, and thus your thoughts of him, to that card now.” The spectator complies. Kennedy180 ‘Thoughts So Far “While she does that; does anyone else have a son?” Having identified more parents the performer hands out four more cards with envelopes and asks that they too write down the name of their sons and slide the cards into their envelopes. He now returns to the on-stage participant. “Excellent. Now please take that card, and so that you cannot identify it | would like you to slide it into this envelope.” He takes back all of the envelopes from the audience and openly places the participant's envelope in the middle of the pile. “I will now shuffle the envelopes so that you could not possibly know on a conscious or logical level which envelope contains your son” “You will agree that, since your card is within one of these completely opaque envelopes, you do not know which one is yours?” They confidently agree. This done, the envelopes are placed in a row on the table. ‘The performer hands the participant a lucky charm on a chain. “This is a ruby; ruby is the stone of everlasting connection and maternal instinct. | would like you to take it and allow it to guide you toward any card whatsoever” The card stopped on is marked by leaving the ruby lying on top of it. The performer now moves to the other four envelopes, opening the first one. KennedyThoughts So Far 181 The performer addresses one of the ladies... *Steven...! think this belongs to you madam...does it? Is your son called Steven?” She agrees. Opening another envelope... “Mark.,.madam, | think you are thinking of Mark tonight. Am 1 right?” “Yes” she replies. Again... “Shaun...is your son | feel?” again the woman agrees. “And finally...-you must be thinking of Graham?” Of course she is. The performer returns to the on-stage participant. “So you were guided toward your son, were you not? Let me make anote.” The performer takes a chalkboard and writes something then places the board face-down on the table. “Let us see.” He opens the envelope and reads the name out loud, showing the card to everyone, “Please look at my impressions on the board.” When she turns it over the name is written in large letters. Kennedy182 ‘Thoughts So Far Method: There are, once again a number of things happening in this routine following the theme of having a spiritual connection to a loved one. | play this as a very serious routine. First of all — the selection of the correct envelope by the spectator. | await the disapproving e-mails but yes, itis simply equivoque. You know all along which envelope contains her son’s name. You will note that in the patter and presentation outlined that | point out the fact that it is important that our participant does not know the right envelope — this gives the underlying suggestion that you do not know. Next — returning the correct names to the people in the audience, this is again very simple. As | hand out the business cards | mark them with a nail nick. Therefore as soon as | remove them from their envelopes | am able to tell to whom they belong. This idea came from Larry Becker's Sneak Thief. Finally — the revelation of the name. This is not a one-ahead with the other names; rather more bold than that. Since | am the only person to handle the spectator’s envelope | am able to have a large window crudely cut into the back of their envelope. With a little more work you are able to show both sides of all envelopes to be solid and completely opaque. Here’s how. You hold the three envelopes containing the indifferent names. when you place the participant's card into her envelope this envelope goes in the third position from the top. Now you are easily able to perform an Elmsley count to show four cards. The window is now on the bottom of the packet of envelopes. You gesture to say something along the lines of “They are completely opaque” and as you do so you lift the envelopes up to show the solid face. This is when you get your glimpse of the window on the bottom of the packet. Kennedy.Thoughts So Far 183 From here you gesture again and cut the packet in half, placing two cards on the bottom of the pile. Now turn the whole thing over and perform another Elmsley count to show the other side. Turn the cards over again and the spectator’s envelope is uppermost. Now you have the information required you force the correct envelope of the spectator using equivoque. This long time delay allows the spectators to forget that you had any opportunity to glimpse anything. Of course this can be applied to glimpsing almost anything printed onto a business card and then put into an envelope. I must warn you that this routine can be very powerful and should be used responsibly. In particular if you make the selection of the woman like I do: “Good evening...| am sorry | have to interrupt my regular routine here but | am getting some thoughts already this evening. There is someone thinking about their son...someone is thinking about their son this evening...! am not at aif sure why they are thinking of him...who is that | am picking up on?” This may sound very Jonathan Edwards but it has a very deliberate purpose. Firstly; it will immediately tell you which women in the audience are more suitable for the routine as they have a son. Secondly; they are open to your suggestions and believe in what you do, since they have applied your comments to themselves. It also gives you, in the eyes of the audience, an apparently impossible effect. | cannot think of many effects as direct as this A performer walks on stage and begins telling people what they are Kennedy184 Thoughts So Far thinking. Surely this is a dream come true for many of us? Maybe I'm getting a little over excited. The final thing this brazen introduction to the effect does is keep it very serious and creates a very specific mood and tone to the show or section. The way I reveal the name is as follows: “Thank you for helping me tonight and sharing your powers with us, and please when you see him, give Christopher our love.” This may appear at first to be a little over the top, but I can assure you that after the build up and the correct handling this really is a nice finish to a very touching routine. From here | will often remind my audience that | am not psychic at all, which confuses them even further. The question has been raised “What if no one responds to your request of ‘who is thinking of their son?” | deal with this as follows. | wait for a little while to allow ample time for someone to associate the statement with themselves, and this does happen nine out of ten times. If| have no luck | point to a lady and say “Madam, you have a son, do you not?” If she agrees then | use her for the effect; if she rejects the statement then | say ‘It is someone around here who has a son...who has a son near here?” Credits: Phil Goldstein for his treatise on Equivoque and Larry Becker for Sneak Thief. KennedyThoughts So Far 187 Digit Okay, so this is one of those routines | really was going to hold back. For some reason this variation on an age-old classic has many people scratching their heads. I wanted to have a clear and dae prediction which was oho stooged and absolutely impossible. Hopefully you will agree with me that this fits the bill perfectly. Effect: The performer points to various people in the audience, requesting that they name any number between 1 and 9. He does this with five people in succession, thus creating a five-digit number. He now takes his marker pen (a blue one) and writes down the newly created number and displays it on his table, against his glass of cheap wine. He reiterates “This was a free selection and | have not pre-arranged anything with anyone before the show, have 1?” which, indeed he has not. “Before the show | had a premonition, | liked it so much in fact as soon as I'd finished I had another one. In all seriousness though, | did write down a number before the show this evening, I placed the card on which | wrote it into an envelope and sealed it. Then! signed it. After that | asked the Stage Manager to pin it to my back,” The performer proceeds to remove his jacket and turn up-stage; his back toward the audience, where they are all able to see an envelope pinned to his back. Kennedy188 Thoughts So Far He removes it and hands it to a member of the audience, who is asked to inspect the envelope and assure everyone that all is above board. They are then asked to tear it open and remove the contents. “Please read out loud what it says on the card.” The spectator reads, “Tonight three men and two women will create a five digit number, it will be 38164.” The card is placed next to the displayed number and it is seen that the information is written in large blue marker pen. Method: There is one basic underlying method with some additional subtleties which add to the mystery. Of course many people will recognise the original effect from T. A. Waters’ Mind, Myth & Magick. However I have added what | feel are important layers to this effect to make it even more deceptive and have taken Water's amazing thinking on a little further. You will require a specific type of marker pen, one of those which have a different coloured nib on either end. For example, one end writes in blue and the other in black. As far as | am aware you can get them in green and red too. First of all tie an elastic cord to the safety pin. Attach the pin to one of the edges of the envelope. Ensure that the position of the pin does not obscure the entrance to the envelope. This piece of elastic goes into your shirt on your back. Thus, if you hold the envelope in front of you and were to let go it will spring up onto your back, and be held in place. Now since there is a pin in the correct place the audience will assume that is how it is attached. That is all very well and goes back to the original TA Waters routine. However, | wanted to move forward Kennedy.Thoughts So Far 189 You write out a card with the blue marker which says “Tonight three men and two women will create a five-digit number, it will be...” and then leave a gap for the number of course. This card is pushed halfway into the envelope, leaving enough sticking out to fill in the five-digit number. You place the envelope, with the card sticking out, onto a pad of paper and walk on stage. You request five people to stand up and name any numbers, ensuring that there are three men and two women to match the other part of the prediction. As they call them out jot down their numbers on the protruding card . After they have finished and you have thanked them you go to your pad and make as if to write the number down. By this point, you have inserted the card all the way into the envelope and closed it shut (use a self sealing envelope). Now act as if your pen ran out and sign your name across the flap, under the guise of apparently scribbling At this point | say “Does anyone have a pen that works?” This is an idea from the mind of Andy Nyman, so my thanks go to him for this. You turn to your right as if to move, and in doing so you allow the envelope to release and spring into your jacket and onto your back. At the same time you turn the pen around, and apparently try it again, this time you get it to write, but now in a different colour! Sneaky. Here is another subtlety...you ask for the number again. You have apparently forgotten it through all this embarrassment and confusion over the pen. This tells the spectators that you didn’t even know the number up until this point, so therefore could not have written it down only a moment ago. Kennedy190 Thoughts So Far You now write the number on the pad and display it. As far as your work is concerned you are finished. All you are left to do is build up the impossible nature of the event, add some bad jokes, and reveal. This is an example of my thinking on layering and “Thickening the Plot’. | have taken a principle and added many more pieces of business to it to make it appear all the more impossible. Credits: T. A. Waters Mind Myth & Magick and his effect “Backdate” Andy Nyman, Get Nyman - Live in London. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 193 Pasteboard Lab Test Whilst watching Richard Osterlind’s Mind Mystery DVDs | was very. interested in following his plot of test conditions. The idea of apparently creating conditions whereby you could not pees Dy, cet and using that very idea to al) an patiect : Effect: ‘When people find out | am a mind reader what do you think the first thing they say to me is? Of course they say “What am | thinking now then?” It is very difficult to read thoughts on the spot like that, but | am going to try that very thing now. Sir...” He points to a member of the audience. “We have not pre-arranged for you to think of any card have we ? Good. | would like you to think of a card — any card at all. You got one? Okay, change your mind...and change it again, think of another card. Excellent. Now the reason | ask you to change your mind is so that you are less likely influenced. Correct me if! am wrong but you are now thinking of a card that you didn’t know you would be thinking of; is that correct?” He agrees. “So this would be apparently impossible; almost like test conditions?” The mentalist now approaches the audience asking if any one of them has a deck of cards on their person. One person's hand shoots up and you request to use them in the following experiment, with his permission of course. “As | have said, we are looking for test conditions, so please; | do not want to touch the cards at all” Kennedy194 Thoughts So Fer “Please thoroughly shuffle the cards until you are happy that they are mixed. Now please hand the deck to someone else and they should shuffle them too. And to a third person who must also shuffle the cards to their satisfaction.” This is done. “Sir, please stand up and hand the cards to any person in this audience, you can walk right over to the other side of the audience if you wish, just hand them to anyone.” He does so. “Madam, please go through the cards and take out any one which you are attracted too, any one you like — any one at all.” She removes one card from the deck. “Now please show the card to everyone here. | shall turn my back, let me know when it is safe to look again” She shows everyone the card and tells the performer itis safe to look back. “Okay now take your card and replace it inside the deck, anywhere at all, and then shuffle the deck” “Excellent. Put the whole pack of cards back into their box and put the box into your pocket.” “Now was that fair? | didn’t touch the deck once...your deck Sir, then shuffled by you, you and you, then a random selection by you Madam and now they are all mixed up in your pocket, correct ? | couldn't have been fairer now could 1?” He now returns to the very first spectator. KennedyThoughts So Far 195 “Sir, you are thinking of a card, you have never written it down or told me anything. Please concentrate. The Four of Diamonds?” He shakes his head. “Really, | am sory — what was the card?” “The Nine.of Diamonds.” “Was it? I'm sorry about that. In all honesty | did not expect to get it right. 1 am afraid | used you in order to influence this young lady ‘over here. Madam did you feel influenced by your decision at all? Although we created these test conditions | was pushing you to choose the correct card, the card | have in this envelope here.” He takes a card out of the envelope and shows that the envelope is now totally empty. The performer now replaces the card in the envelope and hands it to a spectator, who is to hold it high above their head “Please, madam for the first time name your card for the first time” She calls out “The Six of Clubs” “Please open the envelope, what card was | trying for?” “The Six of Clubs!” Method: Before we delve in | must admit that this explanation reads rather long-winded and drawn out. This is because there is a great deal going on at the same time. Basically; there is a stooge or confederate involved here, however the way in which you use them will not be detected. This person in the know is the gentleman who you ask fo merely think of a card. Kennedy196 Thoughts So Far That's right — the one whose card you get wrong, and that is why he is never suspected. The way he is used is that the card he names cues you to the card selected by the other spectator. In essence that is it. You approach the confederate (we shall call him Andy) and ask him to think of a card, change his mind etc, this makes everything look extremely fair indeed, and also builds up the miss later on. You now have the deck borrowed, and shuffled by many people. | have often used my own jumbo deck for this. There are a few advantages to this in that in a larger audience; no matter where your confederate sits he will clearly see the identity of the card. The card is selected and shown to everyone. Now it is your confederate's job to turn the selected card into a card which cues you into what itis. This is very easy to do with any stack at all, whether it be Eight Kings or whatever. In this example | have used Si Stebbins’ stack. So he simply calculates the next card in the stack. In our example he looks at the card the Six of Clubs (6C), adds three and calculates the next suit, which works out as the Nine of Diamonds in my head. So when | apparently miss his card and he calls out the Nine of Diamonds, | know what the first spectators card is. The way you reveal this is entirely up to you, however | use Alan Shaxon's Invisible Card to Envelope. Notes: Of course you do not have to miss, you could nail-write the card onto a business card, however as a mentalist you are allowed misses and they often strengthen your performance. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 197 In performance | sometimes use the Si Stebbins or "Eight Kings" stacks | further complicate the issue by using Osterlind's Breakthrough Card System, this throws the magicians a bit further. KennedyThoughts So Fer 204 Sympathy This is not a piece | have used often. It really is quite a nice easy solution to the Any Card at any Number problem, without any difficult sleights. There are no passes, transfers or ae to perform here, however there are some mental gymnasti : Effect: One spectator is asked to think of any card at all, he does not select it from the deck — he merely thinks of it. Another is asked to think of any position in the deck from one to fifty two. The performer deals down the stated number of cards and finds the named card Method: | did say this was not a physically demanding piece; however it does require some mental dexterity. You will need to employ the use of your favourite memorised deck. That is; any deck whereby you know the numerical position of any and every card from the top down. Once you have this stored mentally you can proceed to cut the cards at 26, so that they are exactly in half, and box them. By this | mean you turn one half over and replace it on the deck so that the backs are outer most on both halves. So no matter which way up you hold the deck it will consist of 26 face-down cards on top followed by 26 face-up. Now | will describe how to calculate the method. It will sound and look complex with practice however it really isn’t that hard — itis a very logical set of calculations to be making. Orientate the deck so that the first card in your system is on top (of course the 27" card is face-up on the bottom). Kennedy202 Thoughts So Far ‘You ask someone to name any card, and as soon as they do you calculate where it is in your memorised system; for example the Four of Diamonds in mine is 16". If the position of the card is under 26 you will need to casually tum the deck over so that you have the 27" card on top of the deck, face-down in order to start. If the position of the card is 27 or over then you can stay as you are, with the first card in your memory system uppermost and face-down. In my case | would turn the deck over, as 16 is less than 26. Now| have the 27" card uppermost on the deck, still face-down. The second person is asked to name any number between one and fifty two, let’s say they name twenty five. We know that the named card is 16°" down from the other side of the deck so we need calculate 25 (the named position) minus 16 (the known position of the card). Which is nine. So from this “wrong side” of the deck we deal down nine cards. Once nine cards are dealt onto the table you put the cards down on the table in order to apparently square the dealt ones, and in doing so you turn your wrist palm down, thus turning the cards over as you table them. You now proceed to count to the 16" card and turn it over. There you have a no sleight, any card at any number. Here are some more examples; Card: 10 Clubs Number: 22 10 Clubs is the 37" card in my deck. KennedyThoughts So Far 203 | keep the cards the right way up. The 37" card is 10 cards from the top of the “wrong way deck” — this is calculated by taking 27 from the number. So I need to count seventeen cards from the “right side”, then turn over to deal the last ten from the other side. Amendum: When you calculate where the named card is in your memorised stack and thus which side of the deck it is located in it is important that the person naming the position names a number greater than the memorised position of that card. For example if the Two of Diamonds is eight cards from the top of the deck then the number they say has to be between eight and 34, this is still a huge choice, however if the number is outside of this parameter then the effect cannot be accomplished in this way. Similarly, if the Seven of Clubs is 35 card in your memorised stack you know that the parameter has to be between 9 and 35 (it is over 26 cards down; therefore take 26 from the position and this is the lower value). Sounds difficult — but in all fairness with no sleights it looks very fair indeed and all of the calculations are very logical once you play around with the concept a little. Credits: Barry Richardson's Close-up Memory Demonstration KennedyThoughts So Far 207 On the Line “| Cannot believe that this has not been suggested before by the likes of Corinda or one of the other greats of the past. | wanted a sure -fire way to. play the Bank. Night or Just Chance. routine, with the spectator apparently doing all of the work, and of course using the presentation of body language. Effect: The performer talks about body language and his innate ability to read the minute signals given off by people as they go about ordinary tasks. “It is interesting and sometimes rather frightening the things you can find out about people through simply watching their body language for these tell-tale signs.” “| am going to put myself to the test today, to see if I'm half as good as | would like to believe | am.” He removes from his case two envelopes. From his wallet, a five pound note. “We shall start off small just to see how we go.” “Please take the money and put it into one of the envelopes and tuck the flap in. And with the other envelope, just tuck the flap in” This is done. “Now, | will turn my back as you mix the two envelopes up and then place them on the table. Please make sure you keep track of which envelope has the money in it, otherwise we're snookered.” Kennedy208 ‘Thoughts So Far The performer turns his back and the envelopes are mixed and placed on the table. “Excellent. | am going to ask you “Which envelope is the money in?” and | do not want you to reply at all. | just want you to look neutral. Try not to look in either direction because then | will catch you out. If! get it wrong by the way, you keep the money.” Of course the performer picks up one envelope and takes out the £5 note. The experiment and stakes are increased several times, as the game is repeated so the amount put in the envelope increases. So does the number of envelopes. So the first time | use £5 and two envelopes, the second £10 and three envelopes, £20 and four envelopes and so on until | think it is getting boring Method: In one of the envelopes (the one into which the money will be placed) you glue a slither of magnetised metal shim. The thinner the better, as it must be totally unnoticeable. You also require a magnet. Whether you choose to conceal one in your hand, or wear one as a ring, under your watch, strapped to your wrist or whatever. This makes it very simple to identify which envelope contains the money each time; you simply look for the envelope which adheres to your magnet. A few hints: | take the envelopes and count through them once the cash is loaded into them, thus identifying the “hot” envelope. | then lay them on the table and act through the presentation. ‘You may wish to insert folded pieces of paper into the other envelopes to make all the envelopes look identical. Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 21 Telepathy with Technology This is an idea | came up with in 2001 and used it only once, as the circumstances permitted it. | confess that few people will employ this technique and include it for two reasons. In the title | promise my thoughts so far; and this is one of them. Secondly, perhaps the more astute reader will consider its devious method and employ it to some. 0 new and exciting pel Effect: This is very clean indeed. A spectator is asked to join the performer on stage and become the receiver for some thoughts. which shall be transmitted to her in a few moments’ time. “Seeing as you have had little or no practice in receiving thoughts | will help you as much as | can. To allow someone to receive thoughts they must create the image in their mind of a blank, white page. Still untouched and unwritten upon. Please stand over here, by this lectern on this side of the stage, and | shall move over to the other side. Now the situation is this: The performer and spectator stand on opposite sides of the stage. The spectator stands at a lectern and the performer by a flip chart or white dry-erase board. “Now, of course you cannot see me or what | am drawing on this pad. In fact so your eyes cannot be distracted just put your head down toward the lectern. | don’t want you to be side-tracked.” The performer now goes on to draw an image, say a circle. “I have drawn a shape; please tell everyone which shape you see.” Of course they reply “A circle.” Kennedy212 ‘Thoughts So Far The experiment is repeated several times, without the performer ever having to go near the spectator. Methods: The original method would mean that the spectator could stand holding a white card in her hands. The way this is accomplished is by positioning the spectator in such a way that they stand directly below a special theatrical light fitting. This light fitting is the type whereby the person controlling the lights can change the shape of the beam. So the light will shine down. onto the card and thus tell the spectator which shape you are thinking of. This is known as a “gobo” effect in the lighting world. This can be further improved by including a colour. So the person could say “a red square” which is all the more impressive. This is even more technical. It is used when you have a podium, as opposed to the card. Into the podium there is a coloured monitor. To the monitor you have connected a video camera, which is focused on the flip chart. Thus, as soon as you draw the image on the flip chart, the spectator looking at the screen is able to see it happening right in front of them. In both scenarios it pays to include a little note to the spectator saying something along the lines of “You will be shown each design, please play along and we will have a lot of fun, thank you.” KennedyThoughis So Far 215 Passing the Power It seems to me that everyone is in search of the perfect “Chair Prediction” “effect. |, for one have waded through a great many concepts and ideas; all of which fell short of what I really needed for my performances. The problem | found with most effects of this kind was that they would involve a strange looking, out of place prop. More importantly, it was a boring process of getting people to sit in.a random chair, and ensuring that the process seemed fair. In the variation | am about to outline the chair prediction concept is taken.into.a. new.context and realised’as a two way telepathy effect e oe = Effect: Five spectators are lined up on the stage. The performer displays five cards. Four of which have “Think of a coloured envelope” written on them, one has “Stand by the table” printed on it. The cards are shuffled and then each person is asked to take one and read their instructions. The person who has the “table” card is to do as the card says and stand behind the table, facing the audience. The other volunteers are to each take a seat in the row of four chairs which is in front of the table. The performer shows there to be six coloured envelopes, one red, one yellow, another green, a blue one, a pink one and a black one. Addressing the person standing behind the table, “Madam, your name is...?” “Sue” “Excellent. In front of you are the six envelopes. Each of our friends who are seated is now thinking of one of the coloured envelopes, correct?” Kennedy216 ‘Thoughts So Far They agree “Sue, please take one envelope at a time and hold it up as you stand behind the person who you think is thinking of that colour’ She takes the blue envelope and holds it behind the first person in the row. Addressing the seated person “Please madam, what colour were you thinking of?” “Blue” This continues with a further three envelopes, all being corre ctly matched. She does so. The situation is now this: Each of the seated spectators is holding a different coloured envelope. There are still two envelopes on the table. For sake of explanation we will say they are pink and black. “Now there are two envelopes left and only two people without one. Please take any envelope off the table and hand it to me. Now take the remaining envelope, which you freely selected to leave for yourself, correct?” They agree “And open it up” She does so and inside is a card which has her name written on it. When | open my envelope it has “Kennedy” written on it. Method: This is one of my favourite effects | have created as it uses my favourite principle. Multiple reality. There are several things going on at once here. Along the way each of the involved KennedyThoughts So Far 217 parties is astounded, the audience is totally amazed and of course there is a logical explanation for it all. Let me run this step by step. To begin with, you have to know the name of one of the spectators before you invite her up onto the stage. This person will be the one you use to deal out the envelopes. You now have five volunteers on the stage, standing in a line, facing the audience. The person whose name you know is right most. You show the audience the cards. This is an old principle; | saw Marc Paul use it in one of his effects. What you do is to show three of the four cards as saying “Think of a coloured envelope” to the audience. In fact each card says something different, they actually tell the spectator which coloured envelope they are to think of. However your thumb or finger covers the colour: Think of a( Thumb >) Think of a blue coloured coloured envelope envelope So now, to the audience, and the spectator whose name you know, the cards simply say think of a coloured envelope. Of course this works in the double speak for both parties also. “Four cards say to think of a coloured envelope” this makes sense to everyone. To the spectator reading the card as a whole it is telling them to think of a coloured envelope, it is also telling them which colour to think of. Kennedy218 Thoughts So Far This area is to fool the person who is dealing the envelopes (the person whose name you know) as well as the audience. Of course these ‘instruction cards’ are mixed. Yes; itis a false shuffle, whereby you retain the order of the entire stack. Now to ensure that each person receives the correct card you simply hand them to them. Once again using double-speak, “Please take a card each”. Since your back is to the audience they will interpret this as the spectators being given a free selection of any card at all. Whereas in reality you hand the correct card to the respective person. Thus the last person in the line (whose name you know), gets the only card which reads “Stand by the table”. Step 2: How the spectator (Sue) gives out the correct coloured envelope to the spectator. On the table, where she stands is a large card which reads Give the red envelope to volunteer number 1 Give the yellow envelope to volunteer number 2 Give the green envelope to volunteer number 3 Give the blue envelope to volunteer number 4 Unknown to the audience, or seated spectators, on the backs of each of their chairs is a card printed with a number. Finally. The last two envelopes; pink and black. Inside the pink envelope | have a card with my name on it, inside of the other one | have a card with “Sue” printed on it. | use equivoque to ensure the correct selections are made. Equivoque with two objects is within the capabilities of most | feel. Alternatively, | place a card with the spectator's name in both of the envelopes. And wear a thumb tip with a card inscribed with my KennedyThoughts So Far 219 name. When | open either envelope | shove the thumb tip in and retrieve the card with my name on it. Keep the surprise of the spectator’s name until last as it really is a kicker finish. Credits: Phil Goldstein for his treatise on Equivoque. KennedyThoughts So Far 223 Grace This is another piece which came from Michael Murray's Beyond ESP cards. 1 was privileged enough to be invited to be the first person to road test the Beyond ESP2 and asked for further ideas. | began playing with the gimmicks. included with the deck and knew | was on to something...a convincing demonstration of ESP which was clean and direct. More importantly. for the mentalist within me, it had a certain amount of risk attached to it. S Effect: The performer makes a prediction of one of the five ESP symbol cards, the prediction is inside the box from which the cards came. Five ESP cards, one of each symbol (A circle, plus, three wavy lines, square and star) are displayed and shuffled by both the performer and spectator. They are then placed face-down in a row on the table. The spectator is now asked to select any one of the cards, using their instinctive powers of ESP. Of course the card they choose pairs up with the prediction card in the box. Method: This effect will very rarely be the same twice, as is has any outcomes depending on what the spectator chooses. From the beginning: You have an ESP card already in the card box. However, this is a double faced ESP card as supplied with Beyond ESP2. On one side is the Circle and on the other are Three Wavy Lines. Kennedy224 Thoughts So Far Now the hand the spectator five, black backed ESP cards and request them to mix them thoroughly. (Again during a mentalism routine | refrain from saying “shuffle” as many associate this with card games and card magic). Once done they are to lay them on the table in a horizontal row. They are now to select any one of the face-down cards. If at this point they select either the Wavy Lines or the Circle then you are home free. In my box | have the Circle uppermost so if they choose the Circle then | pull out the card as is. However, if they choose the Wavy Lines then | turn the box over ina nonchalant fashion. Of course you will know the identity of the card before they turn it over, due to the Beyond marking system. This, | found has been the case for many of the presentations, which makes it very strong and direct. However, if you do miss on the first attempt this is how you proceed. You take the selected card (say the plus), still face-down and thus unknown to the spectator, and place it into the card box directly on top of the double face card. You now go into your pack of ESP cards (red backed) and take out the very same symbol (the plus) just selected by the spectator. In doing so, you state “Very good, so let me see if | am able to influence you again.” You place your second card into the card box and ask that another selection be made. KennedyThoughts So Far 225 You continue this way until they hit on with one of the two force symbols. This will not take long as each time you do it the chances increase incredibly. To remove the cards from the box: If the last symbol was a circle them you simply take the top card and the bottom card out of the box together simultaneously. If the Wavy Lines are the last selection then you turn the box over as you gesture, so that the Wavy lines are now uppermost and do exactly the same. Removing the top and bottom card together, followed by the rest of the pairs. Credits: Michael Murray's Beyond ESP2 KennedyThoughts So Far 229 Thought Conduction This is yet another piece of card mentalism. This uses a very strong presentational ruse to cover for the simplicity of the method. | have used this a number of times and had great success with it. Effect: A deck of cards is introduced and shuffled by members of the audience. A spectator is asked to join the performer on stage to participate in a demonstration of the experimental field of thought conduction. The volunteer is asked to sit at a table, next to the performer. She is asked to cut the cards once, “Just for luck.” The performer is now blindfolded and turned away. The volunteer is to take one card at a time and deal it, face-down, onto the table. Once she has done this she is to place her middle finger onto the back of the card and to concentrate. The performer asks if he may take her other hand and hold it, in an attempt to allow her to conduct the thought from the card through herself and to the performer, The performer is now able to identify the colour of the cards with 100% success. Method: Simply put, there is a memorised stack at work here. However it is the degree to which the performer goes for presentation which makes it such a strong piece of mentalism. You will require an eleven-card-stack. The values are of no interest in this routine, as we will only be identifying the colours. The stack | use is as follows: (R-red, B-black) R, R, R, B, R, R, B, B, R, B, B. Kennedy.230 ‘Thoughts So Fer The top card of the stack is crimped in whichever manner you prefer; personally | use the corner crimp. This stack is on the bottom of the deck. To begin, | remove the deck from its case and perform a very nonchalant overhand shuffle retaining the order and position of the bottom eleven cards. This really looks like a routine, casual shuffle of the cards as you begin your opening remarks about this so-called “Thought Conduction’. | then apparently cut the deck into quarters, and have each quarter shuffled by several spectators. In fact this is what happens: | cut off the first quarter and hand it to someone to the left of the audience, as | move right | cut another quarter and hand it to someone else. The third “quarter” is cut to by taking all of the cards above the crimp, thus | retain the final “quarter” which is actually made of eleven cards, the stack | have memorised. | am now going to apparently retrieve one “quarter” and hand out the one in my hand. What actually happens is that | retain the same quarter and hand the already shuffled quarter back out for shuffling. This is how it is executed. Hold the eleven card “stack” in your left hand between your index and middle finger. When you take back the shuffled cards from the spectator in the audience, hold them in your right hand between your thumb and index finger. As you turn to apparently hand out the “stacked” deck, you exchange the packets. The right hand’s cards are placed into the left hand, between its thumb and index finger and the left hands cards are placed into the right hand, between index and middle finger. This is a very bold move, however done with confidence and without hesitation itis invisible. When | perform this effect | do this a number of times, handing out several packets of cards. This Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 231 makes it more difficult for members of the audience to keep track of where things are. You invite the spectator onto the stage and ask her; “This deck of cards has been thoroughly shuffled by members of this audience tonight so | could not possibly know the order of the cards, could |?” The spectator will agree for two specific reasons; first of all, they have seen the deck shuffled by various members of the audience so you could not know the order of the cards. Also, this phrasing is designed to force the spectator to agree without having to think. Add to this the fact that | shake my head erratically and they will be ‘on your side. From here on in it is simply presentation. Sit them down and blindfold yourself. Give them very specific instructions as to which finger to use to contact the back of the card. | always use the middle finger as itis not so “normal”. By default people are inclined to place their index finger on the back of a card, if you tell them to do something different then surely there must be a reason for it? Well, that is what they will think anyway. Of course, due to the presentation | give | also ask them to hold my hand, “So that | might feel the psychic vibrations and the thoughts transferring, conducting through their very bodies.” This sounds very impressive, even if not plausible. When | have shared this in the past, people have asked me how | excuse the fact that | only call off eleven cards. This is simple. Build up each card, make it a struggle. The audience want to see the mindreading taking place; let them see you struggle to get each one. Credits: Derren Brown for this fantastic switching move. KennedyThoughts So Far 235 Alls Fair lam going to leave you with a subtlety | discovered completely by accident. The purpose of this is to make the audience, and in particular the spectators think all is fair and above board. It can also be used to give the performer permission to do something which might otherwise be seen as out of place. If you create a comparison to an action already undertaken by the other party then you will find yourself being allowed massive leeway as well as creating the appearance of fairness. Here is a real world, non-mentalism example. Lisa lives at home with her parents. It is Christmas Eve and the compulsory tidying has begun. Lisa’s mum asks her to take all of the boxes of sweets and put them away somewhere. Of course, young Lisa, being your typical teenager wants to wriggle out of it, or at least cut down her workload. Without thinking she says, “Is it okay if | put them on the table, like you did last year?” To which the mother agrees. Why does she agree? Well it could be that she wanted the sweets on the table in the first place, however there may very well be something else going on. If she was to tell her daughter that she does not want her to put the sweets onto the table then she would be going against a decision she had made a year before. Of course she would not like to admit that she was wrong and thus agrees. This is merely food for thought and | will not include any further examples of this thinking, in order to allow your mind to germinate the seeds planted. Kennedy236 ‘Thoughts So Far Additional Ideas This little section is dedicated to little ideas | have had which work alongside other people's ideas. | must confess that most people will not understand what is meant by everything | say in this section, as | am being meticulously vague due to the fact that the original creations are not mine to reveal the methods. For those of you who are well-read | hope you gain an insight into some little subtleties, presentations or something of those effects we all love. In this section | reveal no secrets; | only give presentational ideas for some existing items, which you will have to hunt out for yourself, Fabrice Delaure’s Psychic Note Pad/ Clip board Try performing the effect whereby you hand out the clipboard and ask a spectator to write any two-digit number, nice and large so that people will be able to see later. You now place a spectator on stage into a trance and have them take a dry erase board and marker and while in trance they engage in automatic writing and write that very same number. Banachek’s Psychokinetic Touches | perform this as an effect of Voodoo, only with one spectator and a Voodoo doll. | ask the spectator to stand and walk them to the centre of the stage. | ask them to remove their ring (failing that a Strand of hair from their head). | now introduce a Voodoo doll and place the ring inside, thus creating a link between the doll and spectator. | stand the doll on a display table and return the spectator centre stage, where | place them into a trance and ask them to become totally aware of everything they feel around them. ' return to the doll and tap it hard on the shoulder, asking of course what the spectator felt — they felt the tap too! Kennedy‘Thoughts So Far 237 The routines proceeds with me sitting her down and I stick a pin in the bottom of the Voodoo Doll, only to have the spectator jump in the air with a scream. For this I simply use an electric chair. For the tapping aspect of this routine please buy Psychokinetic Touches by Banachek from www.banachekproducts.com and tell them | sent you. Kennedy