THE BLACKBOARD PLOY (Bonus PDF No.

2)
Overview:

This is a technique that I use for larger audiences. It is a way to engage everyone in your audience
and get them actively involved as soon as you walk out on stage. To professional performers these
sorts of ideas are gold dust. Although it’s not a trick it serves to establish rapport with the audience
and also has the added advantage of very subtly introducing a pre-showed spectator in a way that
feels random. I’ve arranged things so that this person is in the “middle” of the audience and this
enables me to perform what I call a “Mid Audience Reveal”. She stands up in amongst the audience
and I read her mind, without her coming up on stage. This is VERY strong.

When I perform the pre-show I’ll do it on two different people, the second person is a back-up. If all
goes well with the first person then I have the option to either forget about my back-up OR I can use
her in a piece of “spontaneous” mind-reading that I refer to as the “Call Back Reveal”.

Background:

I had been using a slightly different way of engaging the audience and arriving at my pre-showed
spectator. This had been shared with me by a close friend and he had given me permission to use
the idea in my public shows many years ago, but he didn’t want the idea being shared with the
community at large. So out of respect for him I didn’t use it for my Penguin Live Act. However, he
very graciously worked with me to create an excellent substitute that fits into the show perfectly. It
does exactly what the original idea did but in a slightly different way. We called the idea “The
Blackboard Ploy” and both of us now use it and we love it!

The Pre-show:

You are going to get your pre-show person to think of a drawing. You can use whatever method you
feel comfortable with, but when you perform this you need to casually ask what her name is, let’s
say it’s Maria. Before I leave her I ask her to imagine drawing her picture on an imaginary blackboard
I stare at her while she does and then I tell her she’s brilliant at this and that when I ask her to draw
on an imaginary blackboard later to do exactly what she just did. This acts as a strong psychological
anchor for later.

Script:

After I’m introduced I walk out, say my opening lines and then launch straight into this script…

“Every single one of you, wherever you are in the room, I would like you to imagine that you are a six
year old child. This will be easier for some of you than others! In front of you is a blackboard and in
your hand is a piece of white chalk. What I would like you to do is to walk up to the blackboard and
in your imagination draw a simple childlike picture; a picture of SOMETHING don’t draw something
abstract like a shape, draw a picture of something physical. Do that now…” (Pause to allow them
time to do this.)

“Excellent! Hopefully you all have something in mind. Obviously those of you moving your hands,
your minds are quite easy to read! Now I would like you to approach the blackboard again and this
time to write a letter of the alphabet (pause and then add, almost as an afterthought) in fact make it
the initial letter of your first name. Do that in your imagination now…” (Pause again to allow this to
happen.)

“That’s great. Stare at that letter and say it over and over in your minds, not out loud, just in your
heads. (Pause) WOW! The strongest letter I’m getting is “M”…put your hand up if you are sending
me an “M”.”(Just to be clear here, the letter I announce is the first letter of my pre-showed lady’s
name)

(At this point many hands go up in the audience, including Maria’s. I look around and point to her)

“I think I can work best with you. Please stand. Now, you have a picture in mind I would like you to
draw it again slowly on your imaginary blackboard…” ( I stare at her as she does this, I get my pad of
paper and duplicate her thought!)

__________

See how beautifully the Blackboard Ploy works? It gets everyone involved, and then I apparently
“receive” one of the letters being sent to me. This leads me to a group of great “senders” and I pick
one of them to work with. The impression given is that I could do this with anyone in the audience.
Also see how at the end of the script I ask her to draw the picture “again” on her imaginary
blackboard. The blackboard is a psychological anchor during all of this, each time I mention it I’m
reinforcing for her to draw her picture. This is a really strong and useful technique.

Finally:

You might remember that I pre-showed an extra person to act as a back-up. It’s rare that I need to
use her as the anchoring is so strong and as such I felt it was a waste to forget about her so I now use
her for a “call back” reveal. I usually get her up on stage to help with something else (most likely
“Time to Get to Know You”) but as I start that routine I abruptly stop and stare at her. I refer back to
the blackboards and drawings at the beginning of the show and say to her that I think she still has a
drawing in mind. She says yes and I quickly and spontaneously read her mind by duplicating her
drawing. This creates a lovely moment that appears to happen “off the cuff” and therefore looks
very impossible.

You’ll see how I use The Blackboard Ploy, The Mid Audience Reveal and The Call Back Reveal in some
of the other acts that are listed in the “Eight Acts in One” PDF.

Afterthought:

The Blackboard Ploy can also be used just as an interesting and engaging why of getting someone up
on stage. Perform it as scripted, chose someone at random near the front who can easily get to the
stage. When they come up perform “Challenge Mind-reading” on them but present it as a picture
test and get them to draw the picture they are thinking about on the card and seal it in the
envelopes. You can of course now easily duplicate their drawing!