Luke Jermay

“On Cody Fisher’s Comedy Confabulation”

© 2013 Cody S. Fisher

www.CodyFisher.com
Note To The Reader: The following text was taken from an e-mail that Luke sent to
me after the release of my original Comedy Confabulation manuscript. I have taken
the original e-mail and “cut and pasted” it together in order to give the reader a good
overview of Luke’s handling and thoughts on my routine.

One of his main concerns was that while the ’gags’ may work for regular gigs and
American audiences, he wasn’t sure they would work for the types of audiences he
was currently performing for. What you have here is a slightly more serious (yet
playful) routine that still holds true to the basic concepts that I developed for my
comedy confabulation. Enjoy!

Introduction: (By Luke Jermay)

Cody Fisher, a working popular American magician recently released his version of
the enduring Confabulation premise. It has been met with seemingly universal praise,
and rightly so. The routine pays close attention to areas that have long been seen as
being weakness by most performers chasing the holy grail of such routines.

What is well thought out in Mr. Fisher’s routine is the gathering of information under
the guise of an apparently unrelated open process. He also pays attention to another
thing that I have long disliked--the closeness in size of the prediction and pad used to
record the information as well as the same color ink in use.

Cody cleverly distances the likeness of these by ending with a prediction that is of
both a different size and written in a different color ink to the openly used pad. Cody’s
method for this is good - however I have been using a method from my friend John
Lovick, who also shared this concern and solved it in a way I think is great for some
time. I will not detail either of these gentlemen's ideas in this write up as this is
intended to share a concept in adjusting the work already presented by Fisher as a
supplement and not as a stand-alone offering. If you do not have the original routine
then this will be somewhat of a mystery no matter how many times it is read!

Performance:

“Right from childhood we begin to develop cognitive links between things. Sometimes
these serve us well; we learn that touching something hot burns us. Other times the
purpose of those connections is less clear. It is especially interesting with linguistics.
For example...”

The performer picks up a large pad and writes something on it. He then
continues:
“When I show you the word written on this pad, respond with the first word that comes
to your mind...”

The pad is turned around to reveal the word love. The audience responds with
the word hate. The performer continues:

“That link is so strong that no thought is required. One instantly leads to the other.
Just like if I said ʻupʼ you say...”

The audience once again responds aloud this time with the word ʻdownʼ the
performer continues:

“Or maybe the word hot...”

The audience again responds with the word cold. The performer smiles and
continues:

“Well this level of connection is really interesting to me. You see if someone where
able to trigger one of those deeply rooted connections without being obvious about it.
It could look like they were literally controlling your mind. In lots of senses they are,
they are thinking about how your mind would react and what choice you would make.
It seems pretty close to mind control to me! We are going to play an interesting mind
game. A game not based on connections but based on aversions. Kind of a reverse
association test. I am going to write a word on this pad and then have one of you read
the word in your head, and then out loud say a word that you think is literally the
furthest from it. A word with no logical connection and word literally that comes from
nowhere but your own free will.”

The performer has a spectator selected at random by throwing a stuffed toy

into the audience. The closest spectator upon the second throw within the
audience is asked to stand. While this happens the performer writes a word on
the pad and then continues with the standing spectator.

“Ok ready? I am going to show you the word read it silently to yourself, then take a
second or two and announce a word that comes to your mind. Interestingly everyone
can play along with this. Just make your decisions in your head. 3....2...1.”
The performer turns the pad around and the word BANANA is seen. Often this
elicits a chuckle as it is a funny word to see after a serious introduction. The
spectator takes a few seconds and then announces a word. Let’s imagine the
word is ʻcameraʼ the performer continues:

“Good job. That felt like a free choice correct? I mean the concepts linked with
banana are many and varied. Yellow, slippery, monkey…but camera? There is no way
I could have controlled that choice? No way. Please remember your word and take
your seat you did perfectly.”

The performer leads in a round of applause for the spectator and continues:

“We are going to play the game again. This time it won’t be a word I write down. This
time I am going to write a number on the pad. Whoever catches the stuffed animal will
stand up and read the number to themselves. Then they will name any country in the
world. However do not make it somewhere you want to visit or perhaps where your
family is from but just a country chosen at random. Try to make it something forming
in your own mind not in your preferences or history. Please throw the animal.”

The animal is thrown and a spectator stands. The performer turns the pad
around and the number 223 is seen. The spectator reads it to themselves and
then the performer has then aloud name the country. He comments on the free
choice and the fairness of the situation and then continues:

“OK, last round of the game. Whoever catches the animal will stand and look at the
image I make on this pad. The image I think will trigger a certain reaction. The first will
be laughter at my artistic skills but then after that something interesting will happen.
An animal will come to mind. Clearly and strongly. Please throw the stuffed toy and if
you catch it stand up.”

The toy is thrown and the performer sketches on the pad. The image is shown
to the spectator; this image is little more than 4 straight intersecting lines. No
logical reference to any animal is possible from its design. The spectator
names an animal and the performer has the spectator bring the animal and
themselves to the stage as he states:

“You did great please give her a round of applause to welcome her up here.”
The performer signs his artwork and tears it from the page. When the spectator
arrives onstage he continues handing the art work to the spectator:

“As a reward for that long walk I have signed my art work so you can sell it on eBay.”

The performer hands the artwork to the spectator. The performer now reveals
he has a prediction inside of his wallet / inside an inflated balloon / locked box /
block of ice / whatever to reveal that he has indeed controlled the minds of each
randomly selected audience member.

Notes:

The core and brilliant concept from Mr. Fisher of distancing what is written on the pad
from the information gathered is clearly retained. All that I have done is change the
manner in which we present this dodge. As an addition - the use of the animal being
thrown around the room creates MASSIVE cover in performance to make your entry
on the prediction as you apparently write / draw the next item for the mind game.

I set my pad by having the top sheet blank, followed by the second seen pre-written
and the final sheet pre-drawn and signed. In performance I then openly write the word
love in the introduction of the routine and then working one behind fill in the prediction
elements finally adding the third and final choice as I apparently sign my drawing.

Structuring the ‘dirty work’ to happen under not only an apparently logical action,
Cody’s brilliant idea but also to happen when something larger and ʻfunʻ is happening
- having the animal thrown about and a spectator joining us while the remainder of the
audience applause gives more than enough time and directed attention for the
performer to not feel he is being ʻburnedʻ during the secret writing.

Aside from that, there is not much to say about my handling. The real secrets are all
in taking Cody’s idea and finding a fresh way that suits me to apply his thinking. I like
this routine a lot and wanted to share it not as an improvement or even as a
alternative but rather to show the multi-purpose aspect of Cody’s concept which I fear
might get lost with performers only presenting the routine as Cody has written
overlooking the real value in it.
I currently reveal my prediction inside of a balloon which has been floating in the air
tied to my case from the early stages of the act. I like this as when I walk on this
balloon is inside my case (A Doctor’s Bag) and when I open the case it floats upward
and remains in view. It’s a pretty looking thing and is totally self-contained. Walk on
with the case set it onto the stage or an awaiting chair and yet it adds a little to the
look of things as well as provides a perfect place to isolate the prediction.

© 2013 Cody S. Fisher

www.CodyFisher.com