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Positive Positive

Supplement
Written by Martin Pulman & Pablo Amirá
Edition by Pablo Amirá

None of this work can be copied, resold, shared, uploaded or traded in

any way shape or form without the author’s explicit permission which he
will NEVER allow so don’t even bother. You are permitted to have this
electronic copy and to print out one copy for your own use if you so
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Each eBook has been modified slightly & secretly for each customer to
ensure that if any eBooks end up online, the person responsible shall have
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to the police for illegal file sharing. If you do not agree to these terms
then DO NOT SHARE MAGIC.
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Interested in more ideas?

Interesting themes and ideas for performers.

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Martin Pulman´s idea

Here is the slightly risky psychological ploy I mentioned that Art seemed
to like.

I should preface what I say by mentioning that I like to take Canasta style
risks when I perform, so I know this wouldn't suit everyone. And it does
spoil the 100% purity of the effect if done badly. It's a simple little shift.
When both the spectator and I are holding the imaginary coins (50p's in
mine, pennies in the original) I say- "Now we're both going to toss our
coins in the air, but it's absolutely up to you to decide how they land. So
before we toss, do you want them both to land the same way up, or to
land opposite sides up?" If you very subtly add a tone of "wouldn't that
be boring" when you say "both the same way up" and a slight sub text of
"wouldn't that be interesting" when you say "opposite sides up" they are
almost certain to say "opposite sides up". You then proceed as per the
original.

I would also note that people are more likely to choose the harder, more
interesting option-in the same way that I find they are more liable to say
"odds" than "evens" when given that binary choice.

It has to be very subtle, and as I'm an actor in my full time job I'm not
too bad at verbal forces. If you have a knack for performing Psychic Stop
from Hugard and Braue's Expert Card Technique, for example, you should
have no problem with this. I just really love having offered them such a
free choice, and then for them to see it already predicted. It adds a tiny
layer of impossibility as they try to reverse engineer it. It also gets the
heart pumping for a moment, which I miss sometimes when an effect is
sure fire!
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As a final note, I should add that I present Positive Positive as more of a

spectator as mind reader effect, which I think helps with psych forces.

They want to get it right, and are therefore more likely to follow verbal
cueing.

Anyway, that's it, for what it's worth. Hope you at least give it a try and
get the old adrenaline running!"

Regards,

Martin

Pablo Amira´s thoughts on Equivoque

(from “Ideas Vol 2. Assorted Thoughts”)

I LOVE this technique. I think that it’s really fundamental in our practice
for the simple reason that it summarizes everything that a performer
should have in his toolkit. Good verbiage/script, correct use of non-verbal
communication/subtext, and clever thinking.

In here I will share with you some of my techniques to improve any

“Equivoque” procedure.
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a. Conscious-Unconscious Ploy

This is a ploy that I came up independently but Kenton Knepper told me

that he has a similar idea in his repertoire for years, so credits to the
Wonder Wizard.

If you want to force something on someone using Equivoque, you can

add this ploy to create a possible scenario of a direct decision and not
ambiguous choices. With the participant facing say:

“If I ask you to consciously name an object quickly,

what would you say?”

Now, if your participant names the object that you want to force, add:

“Excellent, that comes from your unconscious and when you made your
decision consciously it becomes conscious. It sounds strange, but it’s the
process that happened inside you, right?”

And move on with your routine.

Now, if your participant names another object, say:

“Interesting. And that’s from your conscious mind, right? Well, I don’t
want to stimulate your conscious mind right now but rather your
unconscious mind. You will decide on a few things just on impulse,
without thinking consciously, okay?”

As you can see, this question becomes an explanation about conscious

and unconscious decisions rather than creating a selection from the first
response.

So now you can go on with your normal Equivoque procedure.

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b. Sure?

The wonderful word “Sure?” after a decision is very powerful. Normally in

Equivoque we don’t explain in a verbal manner what the decision means,
but saying this word will create the appearance that you were specific
about the meaning of your statement, that the participant has the option
to change his mind and you can’t change the meaning of the decision,
when in fact decision is labeled afterwards.

So in this case, you can create the apparent idea at the end of the whole
procedure that the participant EVEN had the opportunity to change his
mind but he didn’t do it. As you know, it doesn’t matter because if he
changes his mind, you will take another action.

c. Energetic last decision

This is a cool way to present the classic last stage of an Equivoque

routine, in which your participant has one object in each hand and one of
them is the one that you want to force. In here you will use the idea that
the participant for a moment will be sensible to energies and will sense a
“different energy”.

“Now as you have both objects in your hand, start to feel the weight, the
form, that´s right, and even, for a moment, you will sense energy coming
from those objects, and in one moment, at the count of 3, you will hand
me the one in which you feel that different energy. Just relax… 1, 2,3…”

As you can understand, this simple action will create the implication that
the participant REALLY felt something, and that by itself creates a
mysterious moment.

Now, if you read the description, you will realize that labeling one of the
objects as the one that has a “different energy can play for both sides.

Lets see an example in which your participant passes you the FORCE
item:
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“Excellent. You feel that this object has a different energy, a special one,
almost like it doesn’t belong to the other one…”

Now let’s read the other example, when the participant hands you the
NON FORCE object:

“Excellent. You feel that this object has a different energy, not a bad
energy perse, rather it feels like it isn’t in tune and didn’t give you
harmony”

On the first example, “different” is “special. On the second example

“different” is associated with “strange” and “undesired”. If you don’t like
the premise of energy, you can substitute that with “emotions” or
“feelings”.

d. Presupposition about the decision

Presupposing an idea in a sentence is very powerful and can allow you to

place secret realities and thought with less caring of scrutiny.

In the context of an Equivoque, I use presuppositions to cement the idea

that the participant really DECIDED on the object in this manner:

(After the participant decides on the forced object)

“Excellent, tell me, what did you feel when deciding on that?”

Or

“Tell me, why did you choose that? You felt something physical, or
something more metaphysical in nature?

As you can see, the question is about what the participant feels, leaving
the idea of a decision on a subliminal level.
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Normally performers try to cement the idea of fairness about the

decisions with the line: “Is all this fair?”, or “It was fair, right?” Those
types of lines are risky. You need to know how handle them and any
possible reply that your participant might give you. Honestly in most
situations, I prefer to use the presupposition. It lets me achieve the same
idea but doesn’t challenge your participant too directly.

As you can also see, in the second example, I gave the participant a
question and immediately some guidelines about his answer. In that way
he will feel more comfortable in answering me and move on with the
performance.

e. Reading after the procedure

When the routine allows me to do it (in my “Decision and Intuition”

piece from my Ideas Vol. 1 Pendulums book for example), after the
revelation of the predicted object I give a reading based on the decision
about the person.

This is powerful and elevates the moment from a nice theatrical and
entertaining moment to a whole new world of symbolism and
synchronicity.

You can use normal borrowed objects, but if you use objects that
inherently have arcane visuals and meanings, you can create the mood in
a direct way.

f. Focusing the attention to the unimportant

As you know, Equivoque is all about controlling in a subtle and secret

way. This is a simple and effective technique that allows you to move the
attention a little bit from the procedure, giving a moment of relaxation.
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Let’s see this in the context of a routine in which you will force a playing
card suit and you are in the moment in which the participant “decides”
on the red:

“And you can see how this red ball breaks in 2 like a coconut when it’s
broken, and all the red juice is flowing, and we leave the hearts at the
right and the diamonds on the left. Be careful; a little bit of red juice
stained your shirt”

As you can read, in that script, the attention for a moment is focused on
how that invisible “red ball” is broken like a coconut. This is a fun
moment in which you can play with smells, colors and sounds, and other
stimulations. Also at the last part, a fun moment is created in which you
can focus attention again to other ideas that aren’t really important to
the decision, but give the process an entertaining dynamic and doesn’t
give the participant a moment to critically analyze.

g. “Forgetting” your script

This is similar to “Focusing the attention to the unimportant “, the basic

idea of directing the critical mind to another thought. I am sure that you
experience a moment during your daily life when someone forgets a word
or can’t remember a name. It´s a strange moment in which you, as a
listener, feel like waiting and even sometimes helping the person to finish
his idea. Well, in here we will use this in our favor.

I use this technique mostly when the participant is using both hands. If
you understand the basic principle behind this, you can apply this
technique to other situations.

“With your right hand take an object. Great.

And now with your …… (act as if your forget) left hand (smile) take
another object, obviously”
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As you can read, I stumble with the word “left” almost like I forgot the
name of that hand. That 2-3 second moment will create in the
participant’s mind, the need of telling you “left”, and that idea will help
you to put his rationalein another place

Subtle and effective.

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