Contributions Colin McleodContents’ Totroduction The Psychological Tord Force Mind Trip Ro(li)y-trof Change {Tapagemept Serial Prevaricator Thought Lrapsmitted Clish You Were Here Periecttist) Serial Revelation Time for a Date? Final Cabaret The Book Tesi Biop In Closing... Credits’ BERRIES SSRESRI ag 98Tp troduction First of all thank you and welcome to, what | can only describe as being, part one from my note book on ‘Mentalism’. What you're about to read are some of my routines, ideas and subtleties which | have had great pleasure in using over the years. I'll be very honest and tell you from the off that while | enjoy creating material to perform, expressing it in a written form is certainly not one of my strengths. So please consider the following one hundred pages or so a glimpse into one of my many notebooks which expresses a few of my ideas, rouses and techniques. I've tried my best to keep each routine as direct and ‘to the point' as possible. While | envy people who can write thousands of pages (you know who you are!) I find that | prefer to express myself by explaining how the routine looks, then the workings with all the subtleties which make it play so strong. Every one of these routines has appeared not only in my performances, but also in print at some time over the last five years either publicly, or in a private manuscript. | decided it was time to bring them all together in one text with all updates I've made to their mechanics. So sit back, relax and enjoy my ‘Contrioutions’..The Psychological Word Force The following routine first appeared in print in Banachek's ‘Psychological Subileties 3' in 2009. The description in the book at that point is over five years old and since then, has, | feel, come on quite some way through many performances. Visit www.Magicinspirations for more. One thing that's always really interested me are 'Book Tests’. However, | haven't yet found one which suits me and my performing style. | just can't get comfortable with having a number of people think of words from books only to then go on to reveal them. To me, it just seems unjustified Don't get me wrong, | still love watching the footage of Chan Canasta performing his, totally layered with many psychological throw-offs which builds to something totally impossible and then Marc Salem who just makes the whole process seem so fair. Since 1 couldn't seem to find the ‘one’ which suited me, | decided to create my own which suited my own style. After a while of playing with piles of books, and coming up with ways of forcing exact lines in books, it struck me... why even use a book?! Now of course on first reading that, it sounds ridiculous, if you don't use a book, and don't have the person write their word down, well you’d need to be psychic or a mind guru...sort of.One of my main inspirations for what is about to follow is Ted Karmilovich's marvellous ‘Mother of All Book Tests’. Here you hand the spectator a book, and ask them to simply think of any long word. You can then reveal the word. That’s nothing short of a miracle. Whal } noticed though, was that you did have to ask them to think of a long werd. Now this is not for a second ‘a flaw’, rather it makes it more impressive as longer words are bigger, and surely the bigger it is, the harder it is to ‘get’. I took this point on board. After thinking about that for a while, looking for something | knew was there, it hit me. What Mr. Karmilovich has done is guide them to an actual word. There must be a way of doing that without even using the book. What follows is my way of doing ‘The Perfect Book Test’ without the book. You aren't forcing the word on a spectator, you are simply taking their hand and guiding them to it. Once you get them there, they will forget you led them straight where you wanted them to go | want you to read the following and, thinking in terms of an interested laymen, not the type who try to catch you out, but rather, the ones who take a keen interest in what you are doing, simply do what | am asking you to do. “I! want you, in a moment, to think of a word. Make it a long word so that it’s nothing common, so at least 6seven-ish letters, and also make it something you can picture like Computer, Television or Telephone. Now {ve just mentioned technology so stay away from that, just anything else with a long name and something you can picture, maybe like an animal or just anything you can spell easily...you got something?!” Take a moment, imagine the situation, all eyes are on you and | have just asked you that. Really imagine yourself in that situation and then name the first word that comes to mind OUT LOUD. | very much suspect that the word you'll have thought of is 'ELEPHANT'. That is the basics of the word force. Now don’t worry if it didn’t work on you, firstly it needs to be spoken to an audience, reading it makes it much more difficult and very easy to back track, secondly it will only work on around 60% of an audience, however | have included everything you could ever possibly require in order to make it work 95% of the time, then 100% with one further step. I'll break it down into each of its components: -Setting the mood -The Script -The OutsSetting the Mood Anyone who performs any type of suggestion or other psychological effect will know that first of all the audience member participating must take this entirely seriously. Anyone who has performed in the reat world will probably also agree performing close up is much more difficult than on stage. At least on stage, people know they are coming to watch you, whereas close up, they need to accept you into their personal space, and you MUST impress them within the first few moments, otherwise you are going to have a very tough time. That is why | recommend you don’t use this as an opener, not at first anyway. To be honest | used this as the last effect at most tables. The reason is, you must first have the audience impressed in order to allow them to have an appreciation for what it is you do. As soon as you have already impressed them with one demonstration, this will be very workable. So now, | will assume you have your audience’s attention, they are watching you intently after you have warped their spoon out of all possible recognition (meaning they are left with a fork to try and eat their soup), or they have just correctly guessed a number you had written down, written in some shaky locking pencil, etc... | highly recommend you perform a strong piece of mentalism before this routine so they know what to expect!“What I'm going to try with you now is something that genuinely takes a lot of concentration to work, if you'd rather not try this, it’s fine, but if you want to, | need you to really focus and relax and let this one idea form in your mind.” | find that delivering the above line in a serious yet relaxed tone is sufficient. Obviously after performing the first piece, the audience will be more open to what you're doing, and if you say this with a more direct and serious tone, not a demanding one, they will realise that this isn’t the time to mess around.The Script “t want you, in a moment, to think of a word. Make ita fong word so that it’s nothing common, so at least seven- ish letters” | think that speaks for itself, you are directing them to think of a long word. | have never had any problems with being so bold as to just say it needs to have at least seven letters. You are covering this by saying that you just don’t want it to be anything common and it makes it seem more challenging “and also make it something you can picture like Computer, Television or Telephone. Now I’ve just mentioned technology so stay away from that.” Here you are ruling out the largest area of things they can think of, as most technologies have larger names- microwave, calculator, etc. However people will also, in a moment, question what constitutes a piece of technology, so this helps to begin to confuse their subconscious minds, which helps in a few seconds. ust anything else with a long name and something you can picture, maybe like an animal or just anything you can Spell... you got something?!" Now you are emphasising that they can actually think of anything. The more you say “think of anything”, the more chance there is that this is the part they will remember 16most. Every time you say “think of anything”, it ‘resets’ their mind because they are now under pressure and you saying it makes this sounds like it should be an easy task. The fact that they will be unable to do it really backs them into a psychological corner, because to think of 'anything' within those limitations is a difficult feat. You are again emphasising it being a picture, and something else | like to say here, to secure it being elephant, is “and just imagine it coming towards you getting bigger and bigger”. This, | have found, Causes people to imagine an elephant running towards them with the dust storming up behind them. Also saying imagine it getting bigger and bigger, helps add to the idea that this is a big thing Alter saying the above part, stop for a beat before you say “maybe like an animal’. The reason to stop for a moment is because after backing the spectator into a psychological corer, you are giving them an easy way out, and are making it sound, to them, like you are helping them, to everyone else they think you give them a moment to try and think of their own idea. Those who have not yet thought of elephant, are now struggling to think of something, so continue by stating fairly quietly, just loud enough for that one person to near it “maybe like an animal...” let that register and then IIsay louder “...just anything you can spell easily!” This final sentence is what people will remember, and ii sounds like you are giving them a completely free choice, however by making sure they can spell it, it ensures they won’t think of Rhinosaurus, as most people will struggle slightly with the exact spelling of this. You now know the word being thought of is Elephant, or it will be in 60% of all situations, so depending on what you'd like to do with this, you can use Banachek’s wondertul ‘Brain Game’ in order to reveal thought of letters first before revealing the actual word. Personally | like to write the word on a pad, and once the spectator has said it I reveal it. This then makes the spectator laak good, and when they look good they are far less likely to try and work something out...why would they! You have just made them the star, which means for them to try and work it out would take the mystery away. Alter they have said the word Elephant, but before | reveal my word, | like to add “Now you coufd have thought of thousands of different words- Mountain, Waterfall, Aeroplane, Helicopter, Dictionary...” At this point the person involved will realise they could have easily thought ot a LOT of different words, and Jater they will remember you just asked thern to think of any word. Reveal the word you have written down and enjoy this moment of totally direct mind reading! 12The Outs Ok, so what if it's not ‘Elephant’ | hear you ask. Well unfortunately on the odd occasion, and in total honesty, it is a VERY odd occasion after you practice it, you will have someone catch you out and think of an eniirely different word. This word tends to reveals a lot about thern as an individual because they will have gone for something with which they have a personal connection. When first trying this out, | recommend that you aim to reveal the word, not predict it. Just follow the script | have provided and when you go to reveal the word, simply say “fm getting an L near the beginning of the word, although it's not the first letter, am | right?!" \f they say no, then | suggest you use either a Centre Tear, Billet Peek, Impression Device or a Peek Wallet. This is the only way of getting it 100%. Taking the chance of getting the word is well worth doing because when you do get it, you're a real mind reader. This is something | will talk more about in my upcoming book ‘The Art of Knowing’. This, | found, was a great way to practice the routine, and very rarely had to use this out. Personally I'd use Alain Bellon's ‘Obsidian Oblique’ or my own ‘Zen! technique as it Still allows for the direct mind reading effect. So if they say no, just say “Right this is going to be a little bit tricky with you, but that’s my faujt not yours, just imagine it's like written down, in fact, take this piece of paper and just write it here.” 13“Now remember, make it a long word so it’s much more difficult to guess, make suré you can picture if and remember it can be anything! You can even change your mind a few times if you like.” As \ mention each of these points, | write them down in three of the four quadrants in the billet, JLONG, PICTURE and ANYTHING]. | make a point of underlining them, this will ensure thal they also understand to write their thought ‘on the line. “So whatever you're thinking of, just write it here” And as | say this, | point to the line with the pen After they have done that and folded it back up, I lift it up as | ask them to put their right hand out and | dernonstrate with my hand as | get @ one handed peek with the other. The idea is that is looks like | am looking down to make sure they are holding their hand out correctly, when really | am getting my peek of the information. | then continue, in one fluid motion, to look away and fold the billet more as | say... “and | want you to hold on to this cause | don't even want to touch it!" This cheeky little ploy, | have found, actually makes people think you NEVER touched the piece of paper, simply by telling them you won't. Obviously if they forget you 14touched it, they will forget that it is important and almost ail will forget anything was written down at all. | use another handling for peeking when | need to look at more information, however | and the others I’ve shared that with, have found the above to be the perfect handling when you only need to look at one or two things. If nothing else, please enjoy that! Just another little aside here. | personally don't use a ‘Centre Tear’, | have never found a logical reason for something being written down and then torn up. There are a number of other techniques I’d rather use before this, however that is simply my preference. | know the ‘Centre Tear' works for people as | have seen close friends of mine blow people away with it. A suggestion I'd like to make for the ‘Centre Tear' is perhaps a new reason for tearing it up. | will assume you have just had the word written down, and now you'd like to tear itup “Now you've written this down it means that you're mind remembers it written down, so what | want to do is tear this up so that in your mind, you can also imagine it torn | up and | want you to see a different fetter on each little scrap of paper. Now, mix those scraps up in your mind and think of one letter which stands out now...” This is obviously again simply a lead in to Banachek’'s 15‘Brain Game’, however | feel that it makes perfect sense. Not only does it make it easier for the mind to focus on, it also makes the process of the letters being mixed up far simpler to picture. Okay, so you want to do this totally impromptu, no billets, no nothing! You are very demanding! However the lists that follow are the only other words | have EVER come across, and what I'd like to include here is a progressive anagram for all of these words. | am giving you two. One is for the option of trying to hit on ‘Elephant’ first, and if not you can resort to the system, however if you'd feel more comfortable, then the second anagram gives the full procedure. Without Elephant x i MENEARIANESM SUPERCALIPR fh ieThe routine for this, trying to hit on ELEPHANT first, works best when you try to hit for the second letter, the 'L'. | don't go for the E as it may be quite common and obvious to what you are trying to do. Should that fail | move on to the above system. For those unfamiliar with the progressive anagrams, you simply ask the spectator to imagine saying the letters of their word one at a time in their mind over and over again You then say the vertical letters in order starting at the top, working down, in order until you get a 'NO'. When you get a 'no', you move straight along horizontally to the next letter, then continue down vertically again until you land on the word. Progressive anagrams must be presented well, otherwise your spectators will know you're just guessing letters. So the worst case scenario Is that you get two “no” replies when you guess letters, so if the person turns out to be thinking of helicopter, you would enter the system as follows... “T want you to imagine that the letters are in like a lottery or bingo machine. | want you to imagine is that you can just Sée them all getting mixed through the glass. Can you imagine that now? | just saw you look at the letter R, yes? An O? Excelent, and now an A? No sorry that’s an N or H, they both fook quite similar. Now keep mixing them, that’s not an H is it? | thought so. Now just let the balls tip out of the machine and spell the full word. Is that Helicopter?” 7With Elephant LOM APRAGILISTICRSPRAL Here the anagram works exactly the same, however you don’t need to try and hit on elephant first. I'm sure there are more words than this that people could think of, however in the 4 years of using this, those are the only others ! have stumbled on, Should you find there are other words which creep in every now and again, | highly recommend you purchase ‘Panagram', which will allow for progressive anagrams to be generated for you, or you can simply make them up yourself. It is then simply a case of either remembering it, or while you are iearning to remember it, simply crib it on a pen, or write it on a ring bound pad with only part of the sheet still remaining so you are able to see the crib while you write the word. Simply flip this over later as you shaw the word. 18On the other hand, if your preference is to predict the word and you don’t feel comfortable writing it straight on to a pad, then | highly suggest an index system. The one that | use is an Heirloom wallet, however any Balducci wailet will work by having the outs on one side and writing down the word ELEPHANT on another billet, stick it in a compartment on the ‘clean’ side of the wallet. Then either remove the ‘Elephant’ billet, or required word. When using the Heirloom, | have the word ELEPHANT in the window compartment and | simply ask them to open that when they say ELEPHANT. If not, | have the other words in alphabetical order in my wallet and through practice, have remembered which one to take out from where. Again you will simply use the script to force the word on the spectator after you have placed your wallet on the table. You ask them to name their thought of word out loud, you then simply reveal the necessary out. A few other little ideas | have toyed with, although rarely use as | am happy with my handling of the effect, could be to mix the progressive anagram with the outs in the wallet. This way you can begin to reveal the word, then once you know what it is say... “this is scary, but I’ve actually got a word written down in 19my wailtet. Now you've only been thinking of this word, so there’s no way { could have known it earlier right?”. You now bring out the desired billet and place it face down in their palm. Ask them to name their word out loud and then turn it over. The word they have only been thinking off is written in large letters on a card. That is something quite impossible This way of forcing the word can be used on stage directly, or you may wish to add it to another effect whereby you write the word elephant on a piece of paper and throw it out to a spectator. Whoever catches it, use the script and this should cause them to think of ‘elephant’. If not, you are covered, they never knew there was an effect involved, so you can simply give them a cold reading for ihe word they have given. You can also use this out in close up performances. Otherwise, you can ask who else thought of that word, then bring them both up on stage and perform an effect involving both people as they ‘think alike’. | hope that the this idea of ‘psychological leading’ is something which will get you thinking of many more applications. On the note of psychological type effects, one other final psychological ‘force' this time, which | will tip is the force of the number 736. If you ask someone to think of a number between one and 20ten, most people will say '7.. If you then ask them to name another DIFFERENT one, they will say '3'. Then if you ask for one final number it will be '6' although sometimes ‘4° will be named too. Obviously this is purely psychological so doesn't have a 100% hit rate, but | have found it to be very accurate. | genuinely believe that my theory of backing someone into a ‘psychological corner' and then ‘psychologically leading them’ out of it is something which is still in its very basic form. | feel that with some careful thought, it can be used to lead people to the name of a place, celebrity or a film. | won't patronise you by explaining that here, like | say, these are just some example to get you thinking how diverse this principle actually is. 21Jind Trip The fotiowing routine also appears in Banachek's wonderful ‘Psychatogical Subtleties 3’. Since writing the routine for the book over five years ago now, the core routine has stayed the same, however there are now a few other psychological forces | have decided fo add to the picture in order to enfiance the routine. The effect here is simple. The spectator is handed a piece of card which they are not to look at, but should put it in their pocket as you will be coming back to it in a rnoment. You now have them imagine that they are on a journey and they are to name different things they can see as they are on this journey. After naming quite a few specific pieces of information, they take the card out of their pocket only to find they have imagined what it was you have previously drawn. The method for this routine is something that f find particularly interesting due to its structure. You appear to be making it more difficult for yourself when you are actually making it much easier. The drawing which is used is always the same, however as you will see the drawing has some quite interesting properties... 22| recommend the drawing be done in the same way as shown above, sort of rushed yet understandable. lf you notice that towards the bottom of the drawing, there is a road like drawing, however this can aiso be viewed as a fiver, as | have found depending on which route a person takes, it will cover either. Also you will notice there is a bench like drawing towards the right of the drawing, again this can be seen as being a car, if you were looking at the car straight on. The clouds which can be seen in the sky may also be considered birds, again depending on what the persen states hey see, however | will discuss more of this part of the script later on. 23The method relies upon the psychological statistic that most, if not all, spectators will describe the above image. Even though you are apparently giving them a free choice of what io name, the more you have them describe, the more it will cover from the above image, thus, the more impossible it will appear. To begin | have the spectator take the piece of card with the drawing and either place it between their palms, or place it in their pocket depending on what seems more appropriate. I then introduce this premise... “Lam going to have you imagine that you get up one morning, and you see that it is a nice day, so you decide to go for a walk. So you are walking along, what is the first thing you see ?” In this simple description, you have now introduced the idea of this being a sunny day, as you comment the reason they are going out is because itis a ‘nice day’. This will sit in their subconscious for now and further statements later will also help them name it as being sunny. \ usually find that tree is named first, however it may differ, not to worry though as whatever they say you will be covered. If however on the rare occasion they name something which isn't in the picture, | say something along 24the lines of... “Excellent, you're imagining this perfectly. This can be our starting point, so we can now begin on our journey” Just @ small out, and since they have no idea what is about to happen yet, they have never been too bothered, plus | have only ever had to use it two or three times to date and that is after a great number of performances. Now there are a number of different ways this effect can ge after the introduction due to the possibilities in your drawing. You need to be prepared to be flexible. Should they simply begin by saying ‘tree’. Well from here you ask what it is they can see beside the tree. This is also the case with the dog. These are the only two things in the drawing which can't be made 'ambiguous', however | wouldn't include them in the drawing if | wasn’t confident about them being mentioned. Now the rest of the drawings can account for a number of things which will depend on the spectator. Should they name road, they will also usually name car. However if they say river | have also found they often say bench, if not they still say car. Either way these things are all in the drawing, and so you can’t go wrong. Obviously the idea is to have the person imagine they are 25on a journey, and so once they have named one thing which is in the drawing, you simply need to ask what they can see beside the thing they named first. You will find that they begin to start narning the different things the drawing is designed to covered. When they name the house, you will be able to take it a stage further. You ask them to imagine that they are standing looking at the house front on. You can ask them how many windows they see, most people will name four as this is typically the way people imagine a house. After you have them name the number of windaws, you can ask them a detail they notice about this house. They will usually either say that the windows have curtains, or that there is a chimney or that there are flowers in the garden. Again this is all covered. You can also force the door number... 37. It's easy to make it an odd number as you can say you're walking along a street on the odd numbers side. To end with, you take the effect back to the beginning... “Now you look up and you notice the weather...what type of day is it?” You have already implied, earlier in the effect, that it is a hice day, as, after all, that is the reason they have come on the journey. However just to add to that, you ask them what type of day it is. Now people are more inclined to say that itis a nice day, as very rarely will people say ‘i's a 26bad day’. By this point you will have built a rapport between them and you, so they will adopt your basic language patterns and so will phrase answers in the way you ask the questions. The last thing which you say is... “You look up to the sky and see something, what is it you see?” Again they will normally name clouds or birds as commonly that is what you will see when you look up. Again both of these things are covered in the drawing. So I follow this with... “.. and how many of them do you see?” To end the effect you recap what's just happened and this is where you begin to go over the ‘hits’ the person made from the drawing when they were calling things out. This will cause them to forget the 'misses' as they will have named quite a few different things by this point, so the misses will just fade out. Here is a typical script for the Mind Trip which. 1 encounter... “Now Nicola, | want you to help me with this. | will give you this piece of card, but | don’t want you fo look at it just yet, in fact put your hand on top of it. Now | want you to close 27your eyes and imagine for me that you get up one morning, see it’s a nice day and so you decide to go fora walk. Okay?...now you are walking along, so what's the first thing you see?” “A tree” “Ok excellent, now you look to the side of the tree, and what do you see?” “A river’ “Ok what do you see af the other side of this tree?” “A House” “Good, lets iry this, | want you to imagine you are looking directly at the house, please tell me how many windows you see?” “ge “Excellent, and you also notice something else about this house, what is it?” “It has flowers in the garden” “Perfect Nicola, you also notice you're on the odd side of the street and you can see the door number, now both digits are odd and both are different numbers, like when 28you past 13 and 17, but 33 wouldn't work because both digits are the same!” "37" “Now you keep walking past the house, what's the next thing you see?” “Aman walking his dog, stopped beside a lamppost” “Right, you stop walking here, and you take a moment to notice the weather, so what type of day is it ?” “It's a nice day” “Now lastly you look up and you notice something in the sky, what do you see?” “Birds” “And you notice a few of them so decide to count them....how many do you see?” age Obviously that is the ideal script, however this is the one | have honed after countless. performances, and it’s due to that | have settle on the image above to benefit around 90% of performances. 29When recapping the scene, if they have not given me the exact number of birds or windows, | simply say “and you said you saw a few birds”. | have found this routine plays extremely strong on lay audiences and even on other magicians/mentalists | have shown. Thé main idea comes from Banachek and his wonderful book, ‘Psychological Subtleties’. As many of you will know, in that book he has an effect where you ask someone to imagine they are looking out of a window, and they are to name the first thing they see. | have simply expanded upon this idea here through other ideas taught in his book, along with some ideas of my own. If you decide to wear a nail writer you can add little details, like the name of the dog, the time, etc. This obviously all adds impossible details to the drawing which couldn't simply nave just been guessed by the spectator. 30Roi(li)p-trol The following routine will appear with my full permission in a future Kenton Knepper release based on his ‘Kontrol’ principle. Check out www.wonderwizards.com for more. lll be very honest and say I'm a huge fan of the 'Equivoke' technique and feel it is underused, or when it is used, it could be much more polished. Too many people use it without thinking about exactly what they will say and when. What I've been told by people who've seen me use this technique is that | was very quick, like | knew what | was going to say before | said it. I'll let you into a little secret... | did. I've carefully thought out everything | will possibly need to say or gesture during the process so it all seems fluid and seamless. My routine differs from Kenton's in that | only use one person where he uses two. | ask them to hold on to a piece of paper and | request that they remove a few objects from their person for a game. They arrange the objects in any order they want and [ then explain that | have already influenced them physically and | will do it twice more, mentally. Once consciously and once subconsciously. They pick up any two objects and | explain that | have already influenced them consciously and fairly give them a 31chance to change their mind. | then explain | will influence them subconsciously and | request that they hand one of the objects to me, keeping one for themselves. Let's imagine in this scenario they have decided to keep the phone. | request they open the prediction and it reads.. Now this is one ending for the routine, | say that, ail the endings are the same and | don't even want to say that this is the ‘perfect’ ending as every ending will appear just as strong. Even though it is an 'Equivoke', it's almost a multiple out as well as the spectator only ever sees the routine once. It will alwayS appear just as strong as you will always be 32doing exactly what you say you will do! At the start of the routine, you will always give them the prediction first and the prediction will always read as above. There are a number of ambiguities in there which we will get to at the end. For now, let me explain the wording You ask them to remove personal objects. People ALWAYS remove a mobile phone. It's practically the first thing they bring out. Everyone carries a mobile phone these days. So let us assume they now have a row of their own objects one of which is a phone. | now tell them that | have already influenced them physically, meaning | made them bring out those objects, so ! will now influence them mentally. | explain that | will influence them twice more. Once consciously, once subconsciously. This is because the structure of the routine means | will only ever have to ask them to make two choices. | also ALWAYS say that their subconscious choice is the important one which will decide the outcome. The conscious choice is almost a practice... come back to this once you've read the workings and you'll understand why this is so important. | now allow them to make their conscious choice. Let's assume they pick up the phone and something else. 33Great. Make them aware they have just been influenced consciously and you will now influence them again subconsciously. Ask them to hand either one to you and keep one for themselves. At this point it doesn't matter if they have have kept the phone or not. Before we go any further, ! think it's now important you understand exactly how the prediction works. The words "You Should' make it seem very specific, which it is. Even the word KEPT is underlined to make it seem fair. However this is the beauty of the routine. What is written can be twisted depending on how it is spoken and emphasised. If you wanted you could say to them out loud, when they've kept the phone, “i wanted you to keep the phone, you should have kept the phone...”. You must say this in such a way that makes them seem like you've succeeded. Then turn over the prediction and it will match what you've just said perfectly! Or, if they hand the phone to you, you can read the prediction another way. You can read it as if you feel sorry for them by saying “Aww no, you should have kept the phone! You should have kept the phone” as if you're feeling sorry for them. Now you show them the prediction and it will match what you've just said perfectly! You always say whal you want the prediction to be read as 34before you show it. This way they feel like you've committed yourself in words and writing before the reveal. Furthermore, the reason for the winking face is that it too is ambiguous. [t can either be winking because you knew you'd influence them to keep the phone, or it can appear cheeky like you knew you'd catch them off guard. It's a subtle convincer for both which will reinforce what you've said and predicted. So these are the two ways you can ‘reveal’ the prediction, either as a success for them, or as feeling sorry for them depending on the outcome. lve explained what to do if the spectator picks up the phone during the conscious choice, but now what do we do if they don't? Well we tell them, that was their conscious choice and they've already been influenced. So | take both objects off them and tell them they are now to make their subconscious choice. At this point if they pick up the other two objects which aren't the phone, | take them off them, drawing attention to their phone which is still sitting in front of them and tell them “ was hoping you'd keep your phone, you should have kept the phone’ Then reveal the prediction. Before | reveal the prediction here, | play up the fact they have given me four objects. This clearly means, they kept one 35Should they pick up their phone during the subconscious choice with another random object, perfect. Remind them that their subconscious choice was the important one. They have subconsciously chosen these two objects. Now tell them the most important part “You can only keep one... which one do you want to keep”. It doesn't matter which one they keep at this point as you can still reveal the prediction both ways mentioned above, either as a success, of as you feel sorry for them. Once you understand the structure of the routine which is always the same: + Ask them to hold on to the predictions. + Remove 5 personal objects. + Explain they've been influenced physicaily, you'll now influence them mentally, once consciously and once subconsciously. It's the subconscious choice that's the important one. + They pick up two objects for the conscious choice. * Either be handed one of those objects for the subconscious choice or pick up two new ones for the subconscious choice. + The one extra step here might be asking them to keep one and hand one to you. * Speak your prediction first in the way you require it to be intended. + Ask them to open the prediction and read it out 36loud. They will read it in the same way you have just prompled them to read it. Once you're comfortable with the structure of the routine, you can now add in the option of allowing them to change their mind at any point of the routine because you'll always know where you're headed and that you cannot possibly go wrong! Obviously we know words count for very little during communication (7% if we go by Albert Mehrabian) this means, working in our favour is tone of voice and body language. The bedy language is the easy part here, simply looking confident when reading the prediction. The tone of voice is more important. The emphasise obviously comes down to the word 'KEPT'". If they keep the phone, you sound confident as you say it. If they give you the phone you need to say 'KEPT' as if you feel sorry for them. If you've enjoyed this routine then | recommend you check out the entire Kenton Knepper work on it. This is purely my take on it and Kenton has a totally different spin. Kenton is one of the most prolific writers on the art of ‘Mentalism’ and has devised some of the most wonderful creations we have to learn from, get as much as you can! 37Change JRapagemen! The following routine can now be found as part of Paul Brook's routine caifed ‘One in the Hand’. This routine was creaied compleiely independently of Paul's and while similar, it has many differences. Personally, | think Paul copied me :). Visit www paulbrook.co.uk/heknows Anyone who has seen my 60 minute show has always commented on how little | actually use in the way of props. |_am very much of the opinion that Mentalism shguld be minimal. |’m not saying you can’t use big props, I’m just saying | don't. | haven't, as of yet, found anything that’s worth carrying around that 1 can’t get the same, if not better, reaction from that simply uses my personality with the audience member's, doing something very simple and making it play very big! What follows is one of those routines | can do at a moments notice. It uses absolutely nothing on my part but fully capitalises on the use of the the audience members. There is a lot of psychology involved and a slight glimpse of dual reality. I've used this effect with audiences as small as 5 people in close up settings, but have also used it with audiences around the hundred mark. It's one of those things that once you know, you can either 38choose to insert it into your act, or you can have it as a reserve routine for when you need to make up time. The way the effect looks to an audience is that one person is chosen at random (after checking they have a handful of coins on them) and they are asked to join you on stage, bring out their coins and hold on to one. They are told to not let you or anyone else see it! You now have a spectator stand up, again chosen at random, they name any cain and they name a date. The coin inside the spectator's hand isn’t only that coin, it also has the exact same date printed on it! The routine may sound perfect and while the above description is, in my opinion, the strongest out, you will soon find the other ‘outs’ are much stronger to a lay audience. | will explain. Let's break the routine into the three sections. First of all, the spectator who will be joining you with the money, then the second part which will involve the rest of the audience naming the right coin. The third part is the date, which we will come to later. Spectator with the Money So the person who joins you on stage is selected simply because they are someone who has toid you has a lot of coins on their person. You ask them to join you on stage and keep their back to the audience. With their back to the 39audience, you go over to them and ensure all their coins are different. You then say to them ‘hold on to one coin’ as you say this, you simply pick up a 50p coin and place it in their other hand. You then tell them to put the rest of the change away and hold on to that one coin and not ta let “any of us see tf’ By asking them to put their change away while hiding it, they won’t question what you've said as you've just given them two instructions. However what this will allow you to do is later create a false memory that they took a coin, put it in their hand and didn’t let anyone see it. The other interesting thing to note is that most 50p coins in this country have the date 1997 stamped on them. Obviously this is a similar observation made by Derren Brown, however | hope this routine takes it in a new direction, so | hope he won't mind me mentioning it. What if they don’t have a 50p? Well two options, one is that you either have your own coin palmed and mime picking it up from their change while placing it in their other hand, or quite simply pick up another coin and when you put it in their hand and look at the date! Don't make a peek out of it, only one person will ever know what exactly happened and the remainder of the routine is what they will find impressive. So why be sneaky. Be open. Nothing has happened yet... apparently. So quite simply, you have now just placed a cain into a 40spectators hand which you now know the value of and the date upon it. This was either achieved using the 50p principle or picking up another coin and noticing the date. (ask that as they are holding on to the coin, they give nothing away that might tell people if they are right or wrong Getting the Correct Coin Named Part 2 is how do we get the audience to name the right coin and date? Well this is the exciting bit. The following will change every single time you do it! So | will do my best to explain this simply and completely. Let's assume the coin the spectator on stage is holding on to is a 50p dated 1997 for ease of explanation to begin with. You will now have them choose someone in the audience who they don’t know, to tell them which coin they are holding. | have no idea why this works, however what you will find is that most of time, the person in the audience will say 50p coin and when it happens, you can stop there. Why does this happen? Well I’ve tried to examine my exact wording! | say to them: “Get the picture of a coin in your mind make it quite big and bright so you can see it really clearly” 41That is it. If we were to analyse this, | do say 'make it quite big’ that could be either in size or value, perhaps? | say ‘make it bright’ well a pound coin- you can’t really do that with and | didn’t say ‘shiny’ which might have caused people to not think of a lovely new shiny penny. Which perhaps would only leave them with two options 50p and 10p ... | think most people forget about the 5p, | know | do... it's toa small and personally | find it a choking hazard. | think people also think 10p is may be too common, so tney say 50p to try and be unique (perhaps due to it's shape?) | don’t know exactly. What | will say though is that it works! . Apart fram when it doesn’t In this case | do one of two things depending on the size of my audience. If it is a smaller audience | will pursue this using just one person. If they were to say 10p, | would then say and name another coin, and another... normally within 3, occasionally 5 coins they will say 50p. Let’s say that they have just chosen the 10p, 5p(I don’t know why anyone would, it’s pathetic) and a 50p. You ask them to imagine they are mixing them all around in their hands and one falls on the floor... which one was it? If they 42say 50p, perfect. | ask someone to imagine picking it up for them and holding on to it. If they don't, let’s say they still have a 10p and a 50p ask them to hold one in each hand. They are to focus on how different they feel and then you tel! them that they can only hand one of them to you! No matter which one | get handed | ALWAYS give them the option of switching back... they still don’t know exactly where you are going with this. Hf they decide they are handing you the 50p then you hold it up and tell them to imagine the date. H they decide to keep hold of the 50p then you ask them to imagine the date on it. Either way it’s the same outcome... it’s like they never even had a choice... interesting... Obviously the more coins there are, the extra phase might be required for the magicians choice. Ask them to imagine you, the performer, are holding the coins and they can only either have the shiny or the dark coins. The routine will then follow either with you having the shiny coins in your hands and them making the decisions OR the shiny coins in their hands and them making the decisions. Either way it is them making decisions and that is the crucial element here. 43| mentioned on the rare occasion, someone just doesn't want to say ‘50p' | get them to name ALL the coins. | then State that they have now named them all, so | want them to now name a few, but in a totally different order. By stating totally different order, they MUST name them differently to how they named them before. 50p will always be in the first 3 named, or 5 at an absolute stretch! | should stress at this point that you are acting as the means to allowing the spectator succeed in getting the right coin. They should not be out to challenge you, that’s hot the desired effect. You’re acting as a vessel for them naming the correct coin. With a larger audience, if the first person doesn’t name 50p, they are always standing at this point by the way, | ask them to pick someone else who they don’t know and they name a coin and we go round until 50p has been named. It will normally be in the top 3 with a large group of people, however should you need to go to 5 and if it still hasn’t been named, I would do the following. “Perfect, you've aif named your own coins and the only ones left are 5p, 1p and 50p so now that you're ail thinking along these lines | want you all to change your mind and think of a new coin sa | couldn't possibly be influencing your decisions” I'd be VERY surprised if 50p didn’t come up this time! 44This time the equivoke works slightly differently The person doing the eliminating is the person on stage holding the coin. Remember they had iheir back to everyone? Well it was so they couldnt see who was naming each coin. | ask them to eliminate based on people's appearance. Old/Young, Male/Female, Tall/Short... whatever | need to do to have that one person standing. The scripting for that may go as follows. Let’s imagine the person holding the coin is a tall female who is quite young. “Look around and get a feel for who you think might be thinking of each coin. in your mind understand that we are going fo have to ask four people to sit down and keep one standing. if | was to ask you to say out loud male or female, what would you say?” If the guy holding the coin says female, | say “Then will alf the men sit down please!” if the guy holding the coin says male, | say “then will all the men sit down please!” ... the exact same! It doesn’t matter what they say, you will be choosing for them! Other aptions you might like to explore would be to bring them on stage and eliminate them that way. | prefer to keep them in the audience because | like to spread the energy and attention of the performance to keep people, 45and me, on their toes. So you now have one person left standing thinking of the 50pt If the coin at the start wasn’t the 50p, then obviously change the wording above to suit the coin you would like to force. It should all be straightforward as you will just be adapting the routine to that situation. Revealing the Date The finat part of the routine is the date. Now by this point, you will know the date of the coin. If it's a 50p | always assume it will just be 1997 if it’s another coin then you will have noted the date. That one spectator, still standing, will now tell you the date on the coin. | ask them to imagine the 50p like it’s in front of them. I tell them to see the date beginning to appear on it “obviously all 50p’s are quite old now so the date would obviously start 1, 9, 9...” | TELL them to think of 199 as if it’s a throw away that everyone know that all 50p coins start with that. *..but what | want you to do is tell me what that last number is, a number between one and ten!” This is clearly the classic number 7 force which | still find works beautifully. However as the convincer, after they 46have said seven | then get THEM to repeat everything they are thinking of “So what coin are you thinking of? And what's the full date on the coin you are thinking of... so that’s a 50p dated 1997?” Obviously with other coins the date probably won't be a 7. What | do here, something | use a lot, is | still force the 7, but get them to THINK of a number between one and ten, they never actually say it. If the number | need to force is a 38, | then simply say “whatever number your thinking of [this will be the 7] can you take 4 away from it please? {this will leave us with the desired 3]. So what if they don’t say 1997? The following is something I've only dane on a few occasions and | actually credit it to Mark Elsdon, although he bases it on Larry Becker, however | feel my use of it has been done in a more ‘Elsdon’ fashion. If the date has been announced as 1997 and the date on the coin is 1997, two things are about to happen here, you are going to reveal the coin to the audience and read the date off it as being 1997 as you get the person on stage to confirm it’s that date. That is the perfect climax. . If the date however has been announced as being 1993 and the date on the coin is 1997, ihe process is still almost identical. You will reveal the coin to the audience as being 47the right one and you will misread the date from the coin as being 1993. You just never get the person on stage to confirm it. This is where Mark’s thinking comes into play. The first reveal is so visual that they can obviously see you predicted the right coin, it makes sense that the date on the coin would be right too. If you read the date off with complete contidence, obviously angling it slightly as if trying to find it, everyone will be convinced you have the correct date too. Remember, you apparently never saw what the coin was, so before the final reveal, mentioned above, | recap on what happened. “You brought your change up here, chose one coin at random, held it in your fist and haven't let anyone see it [| gesture to the audience at this point so they can’t challenge you on your siatement]. You then chose someone to name a coin and a date. The coin named was 50p and the date was 1997. Please hold up the coin and show everyone which coin it isl...” For something so simple, there are probably lots of people who have inspired me to make this routine exactly as it is... Derren Brown with his Perfect Coin Revelation which must have got the ball rolling for me on this. 48Mark Elsdon with his wonderful creative thinking which can be found put to good use in his No Way routine. Also | need to credit everyone who has had a positive influence on my ability to Equivoke anything on anyone who never knew I'd done it. 49Serial Prevaricator The following routine appears in Patrick Redford’s entire work on his Prevaricator principle, first published March 2008. While | will not be explaining the Prevaricator principle here, | will teach my structure for the routine as the structure can be applied to other methods. | do highly recommend you get Patrick's Prevaricatort package which fully details how to perform his method perfectly. Something which I've always enjoyed toying with is finding which one of a group of people is holding an object and in which hand they are holding it! What follows are a number of methods and ruses | have created and discovered over the years to create this desired effect. Furthermore | will explain my entire ‘Serial Prevaricator' routine which is entirely impromptu and something I've had the privilege of lecturing, with Patrick Redford, at his 'Prevaricator' master class. The routine received incredible feedback from all in attendance including Quentin Reynolds, Patrick himself and Banachek. Since first learning the original Prevaricator many years ago now, | have taken great pride in adapting it to fit many situations and routines where it has proved extremely successful. What follows is a completely impromptu routine, which was one of the original structures | played with, however 50kept going back to due to it’s simplicity. | can’t recommend enough, using this routine to ‘master’ Prevaricator, or at the very least, use it to build your confidence to allow you to learn what to look for in your subjects as you explore the technique. 1 will be completely honest and say that this routine comes from two main sources. One is Banachek. Having first seen his take on this routine in Psychological Subtleties and then on his Psi Series DVD called 'Ring of Truth’, | recognised that there was massive potential to further the routine. In the original, Banachek works out who the liar is and who the truth teller are and as a result can reveal where the money is. The second is obviously Patrick Redford, who’s original technique from Ben Blau is what sparked this entire routine off for me! Performance You have someone remove a bank note of any value. You never touch the note, however you ask them to fold it up into a small packet. You continue to explain the rules of the game, “in a moment one of you will have to decide who is going to tell the truth during this game and who is going to fie.. This will make complete sense in a moment, however it quite simply ensures you both give the same answer. You see, in a moment, one of you will be holding the note. ft’s my job to work out who has it!” 5i| now request one spectator holds the note in his outstretched hand and the other spectator to hold their hand over the note. “Iq a moment you will choose to either take the note, or leave it right there where it is. But once you decide, make two fists right away before | turn back around.” t now turn back around and move to the other side of the room. | ask both spectators in turn “do you have the note.” They must answer in character thus giving the same answer both times. Reveal One- | now correctly state who is holding the note. Reveal Two- | have the person just THINK the true answers when | ask out loud “Is the note in ‘this’ hand”. After they only think the answers, | correctly find which hand it’s being held in. Reveal Three- | now correctly reveal the serial number one digit at a time from the note. The Thinking Behind the Routine (like to think I've coined the phrase ‘Cheeky Mentalism’. That is Mentatism which while bold in method, is clearly disguised to allow for miracles to be presented. | like to consider this full sequence in the genre of ‘Cheeky Mentalism’! 52As previously mentioned, this was a routine | designed to learn to do Prevaricator, however the more | did it, the more | realised it had a natural structure to the performance. The entire routine builds on the previous phases ending in the impossible climax. First of all you are apparently reading verbal cues, next you are reading non verbal cues, finally you apparently now know how this person thinks so you can now work out what they are thinking. Method This method is in three very different parts, one of which is obviously Prevaricator or Banachek's original. However the interesting thing is that you actually set up reveal 3 first, then you set up reveal 2, then you begin the routine with part 1. So you are actually incredibly far ahead. That means the full structure for the routine is as follows: Set up for reveal 3 (The serial number) Set up for reveal 2 (Which hand the note is in). Set up for reveal 1 (Knowing who is holding the note). Reveal first piece of information (Who has the nate). Reveal second piece of information (Where the note is). Reveal third piece of information. (The serial number). As this is the structure for the routine, it makes sense to break it down into those categories to explain it. wa oSet up for reveal 3 To begin the routine, you must request that someone brings out a note of any value from their wallet. It’s in the following 5 to 20 seconds you will peek the serial number through a few ways. First of all, if you are standing beside a person and you ask them if they have any notes, as they are looking through their wallet and you see one note, quite simply look at the number on it and remember it as you say “do you have any others”, At this point step away and state that in fact the first note they had was fine. If you don't get a chance to see the note before it is brought out of their wallet OR if they change to another note, not to worry. Simply ask them to remove it and hold it flat in their palm. You are then going to stand beside them and mime exactly how to fold up the bill into a small packet. Now you have the perfect opportunity to look down at the bill as you explain what they are to do. Practising this a few times, you will learn exactly where to look on the bill for the number. Should you not feel confident remember the whole number, that’s fine! Simply rernember the last two of three digits, that’s more than enough! If at this point you still haven't seen it, you have two options. The one | would use which is to say “actually lets make it really small and tight’, take the note off them and fold it yourself while looking at the number. Or let them fold it and then use Millard Longman’s ‘Acidus Novus". I'll be 54honest, I’ve only had to fold it myself once! Every other time I’ve managed to simply peek the number as they remove it from their wallet. It's at this point | will step away from them and make it very clear | don’t want to touch the note at all! Plenty of time misdirection is to follow whereby they will forget about you being to close to them when they were removing and folding the note. So hy this point in the routine you will now know the serial number, or at least part of it! Set up for reveal 2 Knowing which hand ihe spectator is holding the note in doubles the strength of the original effect for knowing who is holding the note. This sure firé method allows you to have a guaranteed hit to fall back on, on the off chance Reveal 1 doesn’t work. After explaining to both spectators that one will be a liar and one a truth teller, you ask the owner of the note to hold it on their hand while the other spectator holds their hand above the note. It's up to the person holding their hand above it as to whether or not they take it. Regardless of whether or not they do take it, it’s at this exact point in the routine you know which hand the note will be in when you know who is holding it. Confused? Let me explain. 55If the owner of the note is standing on your right and the other subject is on your left, for the owner of the bill to hold their hand out with the note in it, chances are they will hald it in their left hand stretched out. It also makes sense for the other subject to use their right hand to hold above the note as it is naturally closer. This means that when | look away and someone takes/keeps the note, if the person on the right has it they will have it in their left fist and if the person on my left has it, they will be holding it in their right fist. The reason this is guaranteed is that first of all, you've only said you are going to be working out who is holding the note, so they think nothing of where it is being held. Secondly you ask them to quickly take the note or leave it and then say “I'm going to turn around now, so hold both fists out in front of you and make sure the note is hidden!” This quite simply doesn't give either of them time to even think before they raise both fists up. It really doesn’t matter which hand the note is held in or above by both subjects, it’s only important you remember which hand both have used although from my experience, it will be the same layout as described above. This part of the routine is the easiest, so to make it more exciting for you, in the reveal section you will read a little update | have been using to add to the perception of the routine. 56Set up for reveal 1 This part of the routine is the original Prevaricator technique. If you don't own Patrick's 'Prevaricator'... get it! I's a wonderful technique and astonishing to watch it happening. If you'd rather not use it, at this point, you can stil use the original Banachek technique. As I’ve mentioned already, should this first part of the routine not go as planned, you still have two more sure fire reveals to fall back on to solidify the routine in the minds of your audience. Reveal 1 At this point, you're so far ahead, you really don’t need to bother! Although if you didn’t bother it may fook a tad pathetic and boring. With that in mind, lets look at the truly important part of the routine. Revealing the information. So you now want to play up the fact that you are reading each person as you interact with them. | also recommend involving the rest of the audience as much as possible so that they ALL feel a part of the effect. Simply saying “Did you notice that?” then when they say yes you can then decide what they are saying yes to. Any small movement, a look, a gesture... Let me explain. If you say to them “did you notice that” and they say ‘yes’, you can then continue to say “you actually nodded slightly when | asked if you had the note. You then turn back to the audience and state “it was really 57noticeable wasn't it?’. At this point they are in a bind and have to agree with you as they have already partially agreed with you. Most of the time though, the subject holding the note will do something slight, and all you will have to do is pick up on it and use that as the reason for working aut it was them holding it! Get confirmation that they are the subject holding the note, but quickly stop them revealing where the note is. Reveal 2 You now want to establish where the note is being held. Obviously you know which hand it is in, so again you want to present this portion as you are trying to figure out where itis, while at the same time, allowing the routine to build in impossibility. “This time, | don’t want you to even answer out loud, | simply want you to think the answers, but for this to work you've got to be honest both times, no need to lie now! This time | will ask you if you are holding the note in your right hand, then | will ask if you are holding it in your left hand. Simply think the honest answers.” Again, you will ask both questions out loud and pause for the subject to think the answers. Similar to the first time, you will now apparently be looking for some subconscious cue as to where the note is being held. Again you can play up the fact that you have spotted a non verbal clue which allowed you to work out which hand the note was in. 58After a few practices you will now get to this point in the routine with absolute accuracy. So to make it more exciting for you, | have a little gambit you can add which, while still keeps the routine sure fire, does require strong audience management As you know which hand the note is in (let’s Say it’s being held in their left hand) you can ask for them to put their hands behind their back and allow them to switch the note around. You are still able to state with accuracy where the note is being held. This is because you don’t actually say to mix the note around, the exact phrase you will say is “put your hands behind your back and switch the note to the other hand.... or leave it where it is and bring your hands back out now.” The timing here is important, you want to say ‘switch the note to the other hand’, watch their shoulders so you know they've done it (the motion is very noticeable... and something you can practice in the mirror to distinguish) then you want to quickly, but at the same pace, add “or leave it where it is” so that everyone can clearly hear you say this, but you quickly add “AND bring your hands back out now”. So they don't have a chance to switch back. Even if they did, you know what to look for and you're keeping track of it, so you know where it will be. Again this is just something you can add to spice up your performances with the right people in the right groups it just adds that extra layer of impossibility to the routine. 59Reveal 3 By this point in the routine, people will be convinced you know how to ‘read’ people, which is certainly how | like to play it, however | explain that now | know how they are thinking | can work out what they are thinking. Aimost as if l have calibrated their thought process. So | now ask them to unfold the bill and look at the serial number of the note. The inspiration for this portion of the routine comes from an image I've seen of Alain Nu, which ait this point is still on his web site on his corporate events page with both his hands at either side of his head. This image really does convey that he is deep in thought about something, however this image totally gives the impression of concentrating to reveal one specific piece of information. This was the impression | wanted to give for the final part of the routine. | wanted to imply that given everything I have already learned about the subject, this now allows me to work out exactly what they are thinking, however it should still look difficult. | have them stare at the serial number and then count out loud from zero to ten. | then state that | think | know a few of the digits in the serial number, however as some were said a little deeper than others, | think they may be repeated a few times (as will be the case with most serial numbers). Lets imagine the serial number was 876398. | would say that | thought there was a 3, a 6, a 7, a few 8s and aQ in 60the number. After asking if this was correct, | would then go on and get the correct sequence. This does two things, firstly it provides a double reveal for what should be one reveal. Secondly it seems more plausible that, like in the first few phases, you are piecing the information together as you go. More recently | have been remembering only the last three digits. | then reveal them both in slightly more interesting ways. To begin, | have them think of the number and count out loud from 0 to 9. | then state what the number was. The secand time | ask them to count, | ask them to do it silently but ‘do it the exact same way, concentrating on their number’. By saying 'the exact same way' it means they will count in their mind at the exact same rate. As you know what the number is, you just need to pace their counting so that when you think they have just thought of their number you can say “Stop there, your number is a 6, is that right?” This does two things, it allows you to reveal the number, out it also probably the case that they were thinking of that exact number at that time. This will cause them to react even more as they were thinking of that number when you said stop. Even if you are slightly off, or even very off, to everyone else it looks like that is exactly what happened. 61When it does happen, the spectator will react even more. The third digit is named by second spectator. | ask them to think of a number between one and ten. As I'm assuming they will now be thinking of the number '7', | simply tell them to either add to it, or subtract from it so they are on the required number. E.g. If the number on the note was 3 and | force the person to think of 7, | think simply say “actually, can you take four away from the number you're currently thinking of?” This will leave them thinking of 3. One of the earliest memories | have of performing this routine was on my very first trip to London. There | am standing in a theatre surrounded by lan Rowland, Marc Paul, Joe Atmore and Drew Mcadam. This was my first meeting with lan and Joe, so obviously I’m doing my best to make a good first impression. The conversation turned to the recent release of Prevaricator to which | expressed my positive opinion of the routine, so tan asked for a demonstration. | went straight into the routine as described above and it worked perfectly. asked Marc to remove a note from his wallet and fold it up. Joe was to hold his hand over it and either take it or leave it. After correctly stating who had the note, | then revealed which hand it was in and finally the exact serial number. Two pieces of feedback came from it though, which | will pass on to you for your benefit. The only phase they felt 62uneasy with was the second phase where you reveal what hand it's in, as they felt it was very bold. Now that’s from two performers who obviously knew the original routine so knew where | was going with it, most audiences will not. However it does highlight the point I've been making that the presentation you use for any routine determines how successful it is. Since then | came up with the ploy of telling them to “switch hands” to make it seem even more impossible. Obviously later on | can tell them that | allowed them to switch hands as many times as they wanted. This obviously wasn't the case, but the way it will be misremembered. The second piece of feedback was when Marc asked if | wanted to switch our bills back, until | reminded him | hadn't touched it, which | think goes a long way to demonstrating how powerful the time misdirection is between the start of the effect and the conclusion and how spectators remember what actually happened! Even when itis one of the worlds most incredible performers. Footnotes Don’t assign parts- I’ve found that for some groups, assigning the parts can be a little complex. In these situations, | simply miss it out and once someone has the bill | state that they need to bother answer “YES” when | ask them... "Do you have the bill?” This does mean that 63one of them will be lying naturally and it is at this point | deliver the script about the liar being the person who usually ‘gives the game away’. Again when you buy Patrick's routine, this will make complete sense. But you will find that your really don't need to assign the parts for the method to have the same effect. Let them play along- When performing phase two, | still like to keep both spectators involved and at this point, as there is one spectator who is now essentially doing nothing, | request that they watch the body language of the person holding the object, so that they too see what | can see, and | invite them to try and ‘work out’ which hand it is in. Again, the time delay which has occurred, and as they were never aware this was going to be a phase of the routine, they haven’t mentally prepared to even consider trying to catch you out When performing with the routine with the footnote ‘Don’t Assign Parts’, this also means the spectator left doing nothing was the liar, so they have been too busy thinking about giving nothing away to be trying to conceive what is about to take place. Once they've stated where they think the object is, if they are right | give thern full credit. When they are wrong, the iast thing | want is them looking bad, so | simply say “I'll be honest, I'm finding you really difficult to read, because the cues you were giving off did throw me tool”. The suggestion here is, first of ali, that it's difficult so you 64genuinely don’t know where it is, however the larger suggestion, I’m hoping unconscious, to the spectator also ‘guessing’ is that they have it wrong, but that’s okay because you too found it difficult. You are giving them a chance to reconsider where they thought it was, and I’d say 80% of the time they will then change their mind to the correct hand It’s not about you reading their minds!- Docc Hilford has a wonderful manuscript called Cellular Mitosis which I've found to be an incredible performance piece. The routine aside, his opening scripting for the sequence is when people ask “how come you're so goad at receiving thoughts” Doce states that he is not good at receiving them, rather they are so good at sending them. That to me sums up in so few words what Mentalism really is all about. This obviously dates back to Geller and probably way before him (although [| haven't seen many performances from before Geller’s television debut) Serial number tip- When peeking the serial number on the bill, they can always be located in the same place on every bill) Having performed this for so long, | know exactly where | need to look to get the information | need. So before you do this the first time, make sure you know where you're aiming to get your peek. This saves time and allows you to walk away while they are usually putting their wallet back into their back pocket. 65Thought Trapsmitted The following technique first appeared on the ‘Menitalist’s Asylum’ forum on Saturday January the 27" at 6:08pm. I'l be honest from the start and say that | have never used the 'Thought Transmitter’. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware it's an excellent device, I've just created a number of other techniques I'm much more comfortable with and which | feel are more subtle to me. However for those of you who use it, | hope this is of some benefit. It is essentially an interesting subtlely I've created which has been applied by the many professional's I've shared it with. Basically, a spectator writes down a word on the post-it, tears it off, puts it in their pocket, and you reveal the word. When | say word, it could be anything...as you very well know. You will obviously require a Thought Transmitter for this or it won't make any sense, as | won't be expiaining that method. You will have your own method for getting the spectator to write in the ‘hot’ area. What follows is a bold procedure, however it is key that you act as required in order for this to seem genuine. Hand them your wallet and state... 66“You're going fo hold on to this for a few moments. | want you to write down your word in it, and really burn it into your mind" You now turn away as they do that, and after a moment ask... “Have you done that? Okay close it when youre done." Turn back around and take the pen and pad off of the spectator. Up until this point it has sounded to the spectator like they would be holding on to the pad the entire time, as you said they would be holding on to it for a few moments, which could have meant the full effect for all they knew. You've also asked for it to be closed, obviously an important point to ensure you don't see it You are now holding both the pen and closed pad you look downwards and ask the spectator to "Please put the piece of paper away in one of your pockets, | don’t want [o go anywhere near it.” it seems like they were supposed to tear that out and put it away somewhere. This would seem like the obvious thing to do once something has been written down, to ensure you don't see it. However as you have not stated it during the course of your instructions, it will still be in the wallet. 67In your action of looking down to, apparently, avert your gaze, you are getting the peek in the normal fashion. Just to make it clear, your motivation for averting your eyes is so they can put it away somewhere on their person which you don't even see, apparently making it even more fair. Once the spectator says that they didn’t take it out of the pad, act sorry, apologise and hand it back to them to tear the piece of paper out. It's obvious the wallet has remained closed, so there is no way they could have seen what was written anyway. This process will take but a few seconds, and once they have placed it away in their pocket there is now definitely no way you could have seen it. The beauty of this is that during this process the audience will realise what was supposed to have happened, that the person wrote something down, tore it out and put it in their pocket. It is my experience from watching friend's use this, is that when this happens, the audience later comment that this is what ACTUALLY happened. This is of course provided it is executed convincingly! So what if someone says to you "my word fs stiff in there" after you've taken it from them... well peek it hand it back to them and say “oh! please take it out and put it away somewhere, | don't want to be anywhere near it!” Don't make a big deal, or even a joke about it, draw as little attention as possible to it and it will be forgotten. 68The other possibility is someone saying "No / dent want to give you it, my word is in there”...well just use your normal presentation! This above subtlety is just that... a subtlety and when properly convicted, it will make the writing down phase invisible | genuinely feel that with all psychological subtleties, it is well worth attempting them, knowing that if they don't work on that occasion, you can still fall back on the guaranteed routine. It's these layers of subtleties which ensure your audience’s believe you are the real deal The above process should add literally an extra 10 seconds to your presentation, however it's these 10 seconds which will enhance the entire routine. 69Wish You Tere Here The foliowing routine originally appearing in Drew Mcadam's ‘Drooby Book’ back in 2008 under the name ‘Name Strip’ You allow a spectator to write down the name of someone close to them and as many random names as they like. You look at the list and you are able to tell then which name belongs to the person they are close to. This method came about when mucking about with some daft silver stuff Drew Mcadam ordered to periorm the above effect. | feel the need to mention the daft silver stuff because | have never laughed so hard in my life. He spilled a little of it on the table and the more he tried to wipe if up the more mess he made. He did actually end up looking like the tin man. So to save him getting in such a state again | quickly came up with this which we've had a fot of fun with. It may seem simple at first but having used it and making it play dig, people really remember it. Once understood, you'll see how incredibly versatile it actually is You begin by asking someone to think of someone with whom they are close. You then request that they take a pad from you and that they write down the name of the person on there. 70Now the classic methods for this involve gimmicking the pen meaning that when the first thing is written, it leaves some sort of identifiable mark. In Drew's case a silver smudge of powder. | wanted to move it away from this so that you could do it any time. So lets take a step back. You need to remember that during the opening of the routine, the spectator has no idea what you are about to do. So when you ask them to write down the name of someone whom they are close to, they probably assume that's because you're going to just reveal it! Due to this fact, or ‘suggestion’ of what the routine will be, it allows you to tell them WHERE to write the name on the page. | always hold the pad with my thumb on the back and fingers on the front, writing surface. I notice where my index finger is, so that when | look away and tap, | know where | will be tapping for them to write. You will find that where you tap on the page to indicate where they are to write the name, is where they will write it! It's a subtle gesture, because they will be naturally inclined to do what they are told The other option is to ask them to ‘imagine it written there’ and then tap the area on the page, and now ask them to ‘trace over what it is they are seeing’. This extra step ensures they will write it where you want them to. It doesn't have to be the exact middle, | suggest two fifths 7from the top of the page, that way, it seems like the middle to them at the start of the routine, without it being in the middle at the end! Hand the pad to them and let them do that. Since they think you are just going to guess it they will write it in the area you have pointed to. Once you hear the squeaking of the pen and you know they are writing it, state “and feel free to write it any size, at any angle, anywhere on there”. This should all happen fairly quickly so it just sounds like it flows. Now ask them to write lots of other random names, on the page ‘again, anywhere on the page so that when I look at it in a minute | will have no idea which is which!’ | allow them to take their time and write as many as possible. On retrieving the pad from them, | open it and work out which name is the important one to them. I now state | will read out the names from the pad and they are to try and not react, but in their mind, keep saying the name of the person they are close to in their mind over and over again. You begin reading the names from the list. Make sure there are two or three names they apparently 'reacted' to. You now put the pad down and keep saying these three names over and over until you hone in and correctly state the one they were thinking of. 72[ find this fun yet challenging set up causes them to forget about the pad as the presentation is so simple, yet so strong Another routine suggestion at this point is to have them finish writing the names, close the pad and sit it on the table. You now stare at the back of the closed pad, hold your hand above it and begin to say names. The names you say are said almost under your breath, however the names are ‘common’ ones, for example, John, Mary, Mark... For every extra name that you hit, it will enhance the effect. After stating a few ‘random’ names you now say “tl think I've got it? You pick up the pad, open it and circle one of the names. You ask them to tell everyone the name of the person they were thinking of and you open the pad to reveal you have circled the correct one. Due to the convincer of you saying names under your breath, it will seem like you were somehow sensing what was written in the pad and people will be convinced you knew the name before you opened the pad. This could obviously be taken further than just names, it could be words, places, numbers... in fact when Drew does it, he has people write down one truth and four lies about themselves, for example, their childnood nickname. Obviously not mentioning they have to write more than 73one thing to begin with, he uses the same ‘just write it here” ploy as he taps the centre. Hand them the pad and let then write it. He then asks them to write five more false responses “again anywhere on ihe page, but keep them quite spaced out”. We both decided it would be better to have the routine play big by tearing out the answers written down. As you tear them out you simply have to spot which one was written in the desired area. You may then lay them in a line and use pseudo-muscle reading, eye cues, angel whispering... any presentation you desired! Another little subtlety to enhance the impossibility is to never touch the piece of paper after you hand it to them and THEY have torn out all the individual responses. This quite simply requires the use of a flyer of sorts with writing or pictures on it with distinguishable details on it. So now when you place your index finger on the flyer, you simply have to spot which words or pictures are in that area. When you !ook at the torn out pieces later, you are simply jooking for your natural marking on that page. This simple subtlety enhances the routine as it provides a totally hands off approach. 74Periect(ish) Berial Revelation The following ‘principle’ first appeared in a posting on the Magic Cale on the 9° of June, 2005 at 5:28pm. Imagine this. A ball is thrown out and a random spectator is brought on to the stage. They are asked to remove any of their bills while you are at the other side of the stage. They check for mirrors, cameras, earpieces, etc. first. You obviously get up a second spectator to verify it all so people know you haven't just asked the person to agree with what you say or play along. You are standing at the other side of the stage and ask them to bring out their wallet, take out any bill and concentrate on the serial number. You are then able to reveal it digit for digit. Itis as clean as that. Before | explain the method, | also want to explain that’ | have since used this method to reveal a word from a book being thought of, a surname revelation from a credit card and a drawing duplication. All done under seemingly impossible and test conditions. 75The method? Well without wanting to drag this out, | want to simply exptain what I'm doing in a few sentences. You'll know right away whether or not this method is for you and if itis, you will see the incredible potential it has Basically, the person you bring up on stage to act as the ‘invigilator’, there to ensure everything is done under test conditions, is your assistant. They will then secretly cue you, via any of the wonderful cuing devices on the market, each individual piece of information you require. The way | recommend you do this is to choose the people at random using a ball of paper. You start by throwing this to your assistant, who will be sitting near the front, who then throws the ball to a genuinely random person over their shoulder. You ask both of them to join you on stage and you remind everyone that they were chosen at random. This convincer is something I've used a lot when requiring to 'rope someone in’ for use in a routine. In ‘The Art of Knowing' | expiain other uses for this including pre-show techniques. Once your assistant is on stage and everyone is convinced they are there at random, you literally have free reign to do the impossible and be cued any information you require! 76Time for a Date? The following technical addition has appeared no where, however as it is simply a contribution to an already classic concept, | feel it counts as a contribution. | always loved my ‘Time Machine’ watch routine and use it regularly, however as it's something | always have on me, | wanted to be able to use it for more than simply revealing atime. It struck me one day that it can be used to predict something seemingly more impossible than a time... someone's date of birth! Quite simply, the hour hand indicates the month and the minute hand the days. You simply use the watch in the exact same fashion as you would for the time. What | do though, is act as though | want to write it down but | can't find a pen so as an apparently final and quirky effort, | remove my watch and set the time to a date. | begin by asking them what month of the year they were born in. Obviously each month corresponds to the hour on the watch and as the hour takes longest to set, | ask this first. q7Under the guise of asking if they know which day of the week they were born, this allows for some time to get the hour hand to where it needs to be | tell them that | wouldn't dare ask them the year that they were born, again providing you with more time, but you | would love to know what date in the month they were born. It obviously only then takes a few seconds to get the minutes hand to the required destination. Before [ reveal the watch to them, I explain how the prediction works... “So you're birthday is the 15° of February. What I've done is set the hour hand to the month | thought you were born and the minutes hand to the exact date, so in you case, that would be 2:15pm” .. [turn around the watch... fin. 78Final Cabaret Quite simply, one of the most incredible routines devised is Steven Tucker's Visa Cabaret. It is so simple, direct and straightforward. It is genuinely one of my favourite pieces to perform close up or one on one with people. My only ‘gripe’ with it was that it didn't seem to have any real conclusion other than revealing the position of each object. lll be honest and say that | have fallowed Marc Paul's thinking in that | use three bank notes and my ‘Stealth Assassin Wallet' to ‘sense’ when each note is being removed. | highly recommend that you check out Mare Paul's lecture notes for his complete routine, all! am offering here is my presentation with an ending which l've found, makes the routine seem impossible. The routine will begin in the exact same way as Marc Paul's, in that you will present the wallet to the spectator and they take one note at a time placing them in different pockets Obviously due to the structure of the routine you will now know what pocket has each bank note. 79This is where my presentation differs from those which I've seen before. | wanted my presentation to be all about controlling the spectator rather than reading them. Let's assume that you're now in the position whereby the spectator has the three notes in three pockets. Let's say the £5 is in their right trouser pocket, the £10 is in their left trouser pocket and the £20 is in their back pocket. | turn back round and face them... “| find it really interesting the impact that money has on our thoughts. As soon as you bring any amount of money into the equation, peopie become easier to influence. So with that in mind, I'm going to try and control you to do exactly what | want you to do. Whether or not you think you remember where you've placed each note, you do. Subconsciously all that information is siored in your mind and I'm going to use it against you. / obviously have no idea which pocket has each note, but you do! So right now place either hand on either one of your pockets...” At this point, the spectator will do so and due to the mechanics of the routine, you will immediately know which note is in that pocket. However they don't know that you know this. Let us assume they placed their hand on their back pocket. 80“Before you take that out and before | see which note is in there, let me just tell you that | wanied you do was to place your hand on the £20 nate. It's the biggest note and obviously the one most people are drawn to. So if I've been able to controf you, your hand will be on the £20 just now... bring it out and show us?” This is where the effect is different. You are now using this information in the opposite way than all other routines. You are using it to ‘predict’, in a sense, which note you want them to place their hand on. You need to remember that they don't know you know where each note is (that's a mouth full!) so when you boldly state you wanted them to place their hand on the £20, or whichever note it is, you apparently can't know if you are right or not until they remove it. You do this a second time explaining that it now becomes more difficult as there are trying to catch you out now. So tell them to relax, take their time and again place either hand on either pocket. Once their hand is on a pocket, let's say it's their right pocket, continue by stating that the second time you play you wanted them to place their hand on the £5. Obviously again you will be correct and they can remove this note to show everyone else. The kicker is that when they remove the £10 from their 81back pocket, the note has written on it ... “This FINAL note will be in your LEFT trouser pocket” This kicker does two things, it not only proves you knew it would be the last note in the game, it also proves you knew where it would be, so it has a double kicker. | am aware that putting 'LEFT trouser pocket’ on it somewhat ruins the illusion of control, however lay audience's have always reacted incredibly well to it and don't over think things the way we tend to do. They've also stated | must have been controlling them from the start if | even made them put that note where | wanted them to... how right they are! Just to be clear, not only does the £10 note have the message written on it, the other notes do too. So for clarity, here is what | suggest you write £5- “This FINAL note will be in your RIGHT trouser pocket” £10- “This FINAL note will be in your LEFT trouser pocket” £20-“This FINAL note will be in your BACK trouser pocket” lt now doesn't matter which note they are left with at the end as all the notes say that it’ will be the final one. The first two phases act as the logical convincer that you knew which note would be the final one, otherwise ihe first two phases would be impossibie. 82It's for this reason, no one has ever questioned this prediction. The routine is very straightforward and incredibly easy to follow. What | do recommend though is that you write these messages in a dry marker. | find that these are fess likely to bleed through the paper. Obviously if this routine is of interest to you, please check out Steven Tucker's wonderful 'Visa Cabaret’ and also check out Marc Paul's fantastic addition of using bank notes from his lecture notes. With all this information you will have the knowledge to perform one of the most direct routines from my close up arsenal. 83The Book Tesi As I've mentioned earlier in the book, as of yet, | have not found a Book Test, or more suitably named a 'Word Test’, that | am fully comfortable with. What follows though is what | consider to be the closest thing to my ideal test using books. In order for this routine to make sense, you will be required to know Mare Paul's AAA book routine. What | especially like about Marc's thinking is that literally any book can be used. In my mind, that lifts it well above any retailed gimmicked book. My routine is something | have used when impressing journalists during interviews as well as when asked to do something impromptu in a city. I'm of the opinion that if someone asks me to show them something, | don't just want to do something small, | want to offer then an entire experience. The way the participant remembers it is that 1 ask them to go anywhere in a book shop and pick up any book. | then leave the shop and [ phone them from outside. They are then to open the book to their thought of page and think of a word on that page. | then reveal the word they are thinking of over the phone. 84When doing this with journalists | am actually walking back to my car as | reveal it, although they think I'm just waiting outside. When I'm finished revealing it, 1 simply thank them for their time and | turn my phone off. It obviously ends the meeting on a massive high leaving them with no idea what to think. This is all dressing for the basic method which Marc taught me many years ago. For those familiar with Marc's method, | use the normal peek as described in his work. | then open the book and say "Remember the page number” as | turn my head away. | hand them the book and say “when | walk away” ot "when | leave the shop", "open the book to whatever page number you're thinking of, but wait until fm nowhere near youl" The improvement | feel this has over Marc's original method is that first of all it allows for some time misdirection between cause and effect. Furthermore it allows you to put distance between you and the book before anything is being thought of by the spectator! | now leave and they open the book to their thought of page. Obviously at this point | know the word, however the process that | want to leave them with is that they thought of any page, opened it to that page and thought of ANY word! So it now feels like they could have thought of any page, but | now also want thern to feel like they could be 85thinking of any word! Well this is simply in the way | reframe the routine. It has to be the first word, however by saying the following, they remember they had a completely fair choice! "For me to ask you fo think of any word on that page, you would naturally go for one psychologically more appealing. So to make it a fair and random choice think of the first word on the page. Lack that word in your mind and now look over the page to make sure all the words are different.” | pause and give them a second to do that and then continue saying ... “So you can see aif the words are different? And you are thinking of one word now yes?" They have been told to think of the first word on the page, however the way it is remembered is that they looked over the page to check all the words were different and they chose one, which was on a random page, from their own chaice of book, whilst | wasn't even in the building... This presentation is something | am incredibly proud of, as ! genuinely feel the structure makes it seem impossible and fair. Again, the reason | like to use it is that for me, it goes beyond a book test. It’s the full experience offered to thé person in going into a book shop and choosing a book. 86This sets up the routine as noi just a ‘challenge’ but rather a demonstration of how honed your skills actually are. The way people do remember it is that any book was picked, they thought of a page number, | left them, they opened the book to their thought of page, they looked over and seen all the words were different and then they thought of any word on the page. This is the way they will describe it to others as these are the points you have emphasised. One extra thing | use with Marc's routine when it occurs. (although you can force the page ala. Richard Busch's wonderful techniques.). When the first word is a three letter word (lets say the word was WAS), to allow the effect to still play much bigger than it just being a three letter word, | will say to them... “Think of your word and think of one letter in the midafe of your word.” This is a dual reality as the person thinking of the word knows there is only one letter they can think of, however everyone else thinks it could be any letter of a long word, as if they have a few to choose from. “Whatever letter you've chosen, think of a new word that begins with that random letter, make it something you can draw...”. This tends to be APPLE. 87It's a lovely little thing to try as they are then thinking of a word not even from the book. It's subtle, however it is an extra step which further enhanced the entire routine. For my full thinking on this technique and more, please check out Joshua Quinn's book ‘Paralies’. To learn Marc's fantastic routine, you can purchase his lecture notes directly from him at www.marcpaul.com 88gree The following routine has appeared in the work of Thomas Baxter and his search for the perfect method for Stuart dames's ‘Open Prediction’. A borrowed packet of cards are shuffled and mixed by a number of spectators. You now write down the name of a card and show it to everyone, or you can simply announce the card for everyone to remember it. You explain that you will cause someone to stop on the very card you have just decided they would stop on by ‘memorising’ the order of the cards. They won't even be aware consciously how they know. After many hours of contemplating the Stuart James effect, this method struck me as being something not only direct and understandable, but also mechanically quite easy to perform After the cards have been shuffled you have them spread face up on the table and you show the order is random You ask someone to look over the cards because they are- apparently going to ‘subconsciously’ remember the order they are in. What you are actually doing here is remembering the third 89card from the bottom of the deck, AS you square up the deck you will perform a turn over pass whereby you flip the bottom three cards of the face down deck, face up This means that 49 cards will be facing down and 3 cards will be facing up. You hand the deck to someone else, it must be someone who WAS NOT asked to 'mernorise' the order of the cards. You now name the apparently random card. You actually name the card which was previously third from the bottom. Now simply allow the person holding the cards to steadily deal them face up, one at a time, from the top of the deck until the spectator you are aiming to influence to remember the order calls stop. When they call stop, you pick up the cards from above with one hand. 90As you give them to the other spectator, you naturally turn your hand over. You ihen take them with your other hand as you place them in theirs. Here, the larger action of taking the cards from one person and giving them to another hides the smaller action of turning the cards over. 91The spectator is now holding a deck which has only three cards face down, however | feel confident doing this as the only reason they are holding the deck is to take off the top card. After they take off the top card, you then take the rest of the cards from them. They are holding them for less than ten seconds. As they are holding the card and | make eye contact with them saying “Do not look at the card just yet!” | flip over the over 49 cards in my hands as | spread them all out. There is nothing overly fancy about this move. No one suspects anything as up until now, you've been very open and now the effect is apparently over anyway. All the heat is on the one card being held. | now look through all the cards spread on the table to find the one I'd stated earlier. When | can’t find it anywhere | recap what has just happened... “You shuttled the cards, you looked over the order, you dealt through the cards, you called stop, you took the card you stopped on and you haven't fet go of it. lil be honest f can't see the card anywhere...” As | say “can't see the card anywhere’ |'m looking over the order of the cards. | continue looking over the cards for five seconds then slowly look up, keep totally silent and just look at them and wait for them to turn over the card... 92Tp closing... First of all, thank you very much for purchasing this book. Like | said in the introduction, | want you to look at this as an insight to one of my MANY note books on our unique and wonderful art of Mentalism. I've been asked many times before by people to compile all my published works in one place and while this is by no means all of them, | certainly feel that it represents some of my favourites. Something | would like ta leave you with is an idea | will be honest, I've ‘borrowed’ fram Guy Hollingworth where he explains a routine in his introduction. He's of the opinion the people who only want to learn ‘tricks’ will go straight for the tricks. However the people who are willing to spend time and appreciate the entire thinking should be rewarded. So | want to offer you that same privilege. What | want to share with you is my application of Bruce Bernstein's wonderful routine ‘Pseudo Psychometry' from his book ‘Perception is Everything’. Obviously | can't reveal the workings of Bruce's routine, ° however as I'm sure many of you will be aware of it, | would love to offer you my application of the routine. This routine is something | keep in my wallet as | believe it 93offers 10 minutes of strong stage Mentalism and can be made up in just a few moments. Your cards will read, “Think of the word- Cat”, “Think of the colour- “Red”, “Think of the place New York” and “Think of the number 37”. Alf four can be easily psychologically forced. More on that later. For the routine, | ask three people to join me on stage and face the audience. 1 then remove these four cards from my wallet and show them to the audience in the way that Bruce describes. The cards are marked on the back and you ask each of them to look through and choose one card each leaving one at the end. | will explain later why the extra one at the end is so important. You now have three people thinking of different things and due to the dual reality in place, the routine is about to play incredibly strong. You now go along the line keeping the cards face down and collect them back in, one at a time. As you collect them, you simply spot the marking. The cards are now in and out of play before the mind reading begins. | feel this is the first improvement on the original. | now start with the first person and | begin to describe their thought. Now remember the rest of the audience 94don't know you know the exact thought (if you know the original routine, you will understand exactly what | mean here) so it allows you to begin to play the part of the mind reader. This is where my entire routine differs from Bruce Bernstein's original. To the people on stage 1 am not revealing their thoughts, the audience are. | simply begin by apparently describing their thought, when in reality, | am psychologically forcing it on the audience I'll explain. Let's assume the first person is thinking of the number. | continue by saying “Okay, | think | get a strong sense of what you're thinking, so | want everyone else in the room to try and pick up on it too. | think it's a number. It's a two digit number and both digits are odd, but not the same odd digits... so it couldn't be 33... hmmm... Everyone in the room get a number in your mind now...” ' now write down 37 on my pad “Tell everyone what number you are thinking of? How many people thought he was thinking of the number 37?” At this point, there will be a great number of hands go up as you have subliminally suggested it to everyone else. 95As a climax, | subtlety hold up my pad and allow everyone in the audience to see I've written 37. | don't play this up too much as the person on stage knows | would have known the number. | repeat this process with the next thought. We'll assume it's the place “You're slightly more challenging. Really picture whatever you're thinking of. Right I'm starting to get it. Youre thinking of a place. This is somewhere overseas. It’s got a very famous landmark. Everyone here please get a sense of where you think he's thinking of...” At this point | now write down 'New York' on my board. | ask the participant to tell everyone where they are thinking of. When they say 'New York', | ask the audience to hold up their hand if they got it right. Again | conclude by showing what | had written on my clipboard. At this point, if | had only been using three cards and three spectators, by a process of elimination | would know which thought is left. This is why | use four card. Obviously you could use more, but | like to just keep it simple. You do one final psychological force on the audience with the last person's thought in the exact same manor as before. Still writing it on your pad for a double reveal | just want to clarify that the dual reality is now enhanced. 96The audience at large are not only amazed they are getting the correct thoughts, they also don't understand how you can know them. The participant's on the stage are amazed you know who is thinking of what and that many audience member's are able to get their thoughts Obviously you can tweak the psychological forces to suit your style or performance needs. The only point | want to make very clear is that when you are saying the psychological force, you do not want to take it seem like a force, you want to make it seem like you are saying these things out loud as if you are beginning to pick up on the thought. This subtle point is what | genuinely believe makes the routine feel quite incredible to the entire audience. It packs so very small and yet plays so very big involving everyone in the room and some very direct mind reading on the stage. So if you have gotten this far | thank you very much for spending your tirne with my thoughts and | very much hope they have been of at least some benefit to you 97