On Second Thought...
published his Shakespearian version,
Happy Halloween! As mentalists,
having access to tools like natural-looking
forces is an exceptional way to create the
illusion of having mental superpowers
beyond the reach of most mortals. Here
is a fantastic look at a classic force mas-
querading as a game of death and chance
that will perfectly enhance your spooky
shows and séances.
Let’s take a look at the PATEO force.
PATEO is an acronym that stands for “pick
any two; eliminate one.” The method was
created by Roy Baker and first described
in his book Baker’s Bonanza in 1968
under the title Name Your Card. The basic
handling of the PATEO force is a game
played between two individuals — the
magician and a single spectator — who
will each take turns choosing cards and
eliminating them until only one card
remains. Traditionally, you start with
an odd number of cards, place them on
the table yourself or have them spread
on the table by your participant, and
then the magician chooses two and the
spectator chooses one to eliminate. Next,
the spectator selects two cards and the
magician chooses one to eliminate, with
each player switching roles each turn.
This continues until only two cards
remain, so the spectator has no choice
of cards this round and the magician
chooses which of the final cards to
eliminate, before revealing the remaining
card that is miraculously the perfect
match for the prediction or is the story
you were weaving.
Perhaps the most popular effect
utilizing this force today is Soul Survivor
by Robert Neale, published in Magic and
Meaning as well as in Life, Death, and
Other Card Tricks. Neale’s later version,
simply called Survivor, had a plot and
final line inspired by Albert Camus’s 1948
novel The Plague. Barry Fernelius recently
54 MUM / October 2018
much more miraculous the ending feels
The Last Word, in the latest Pete McCabe
book, Scripting Magic 2. In this delightful
version, all of the characters who die are
tragic characters we see come to untimely
ends in Shakespeare’s plays, and each
character’s card comes with a fantastic
final line pre-written by the Bard himself.
Many years ago, I purchased the cards for
Barry’s version, but I promised him that
I wouldn’t perform it in major magical
venues before he had a chance to more
widely publicize it himself. I have waited
for so long, and now it is available for
everyone. It is one of the great updates
that you should look into after learning
the classic versions above.
PATEO is a fantastic tool, but it is not
without its pitfalls. The first problem
is that most of the situations in which I
find myself performing formal close-up
have me situated at a table between two
participants, not one. PATEO is too long
a process to include only one spectator
and exclude the other. Additionally, the
game of picking and eliminating always
seems less random when the focus is just
on the magician and a single spectator.
The second issue that I’ve encountered
with this method is the ending. In the
classic handling explained above, the
magician is responsible for the final elim-
ination that reveals the final prediction.
It is very difficult for even the greatest
“actor playing the part of a magician”
to play this moment of theater as if it is
completely random and fair. Finally, if the
spectator happens to select your force
card as one of their two choices two or
three times in a row, it quickly becomes
apparent that there is one card you as the
magician or mentalist are simply refusing
to eliminate.
I would like to suggest a few of the suc-
cessful handling changes that I’ve enjoyed
over the last decade or so as solutions to
these three issues in my personal perfor-
mances. Try these changes and see how
when the process leading up to it is more
fun and (ostensibly) more fair.
First, I ask for two spectators seated
on either side of me, and I pull out an
odd number of cards. Five, seven, or
nine cards tend to work best for me, but
I don’t mention that number aloud to the
audience. Of course, I have my predic-
tion card marked to ensure that while I
can identify it in any lighting situation,
others will not notice it. This is most
often accomplished by a pencil dot in
two of the opposing corners or a filled in
bit of pattern on the back of the card in a
matching ink. In each round of my version,
I will have the participants mix the cards
face down on the table. I’ve found that
this lowers the risk of them recognizing
a pattern of which card I never choose
to eliminate, but I have to keep a careful
watch of my mark. In my small packet
of cards, I start with the force card face
down on the bottom of my otherwise face
up pile of cards. Next, I show each face-up
card one at a time and flip them face down
individually as I move them to the bottom
of the stack. This standard move used in
many packet effects makes it appear as
if the audience has seen the full face of
every card without actually showing the
face of the final card, which remains face
down throughout this process, now at the
“top” of the pile. This method for a false
count was most widely popularized by
Paul Harris in his effect Las Vegas Leaper
and can be found in great detail in the
amazing Art of Astonishment series.
I explain to the audience, “We will be
playing a game; a dangerous game of life
and death. But no danger will befall anyone
in the audience. Instead, we will rule over
the fictional (or historical, depending on
the context of my story) people repre-
sented on these cards. In each round of our
game, one of us will be the hands of Chance,
and one of us will take on the role of Death.
We’ll take turns. Here, you start.” The cards
are handed to the spectator on
my right. I tell her, “Mix up these
cards face down, then spread them
face down around the table.” To
the spectator on my left, I say,
“And if you will move them around
some more so that neither you,
nor I, nor anyone in this room
could possibly know which card is
which.”
After he has done so, I address
the participant on my left again.
“You will start as the mischievous
hands of Chance. Please point to
any two cards who are attacked
by zombies (catch the plague, will
be taken in for questioning, are beset by
tragedy, will be set upon by evil spirits,
are abducted by aliens, etc.).” The par-
ticipant will now point to two face down
cards at random. I then tell the other par-
ticipant, the one on my right, that she is
playing Death this round, and she “will
decide which of these two poor souls dies”
by pointing to the card of her choice. She
chooses one, and I reveal the sad or silly
end of that character.
To the participant on my right again:
“Please mix the cards around on the table
face-down, like a wash in poker. The char-
acters are going about their day, socializ-
ing, interacting, spreading lies, or running
into Patient Zero.”
In this second round, I now say to the
participant on my right, “It is your turn to
play the role of Chance! Point to any two
face-down cards.” She points to two; I turn
to the participant on my left and ask him
to play Death and decide which of the two
cards will die!
If either participant happens to choose
my force card during their turn as Chance,
I say, “And I’ll play Death this round. Um…
This one dies.” Without looking, I swirl my
hand above the cards on the table before
pointing to the unmarked card, appearing
to choose one of the two as if by random.
Then I reveal the fate of that poor card.
During any round in which I play Death, I
take on the role of chance in the next round
and let one of the participants or even the
audience play Death to reset the cycle.
If they never happen to point to my
marked card, I go through every round
until the last two letting them play both
rolls. When this happens, it really fools
magicians and seems unbelievably
fair! The key is to make the game seem
haphazard, like you are just picking at
random who plays Chance and who plays
Death. This should be effervescent and
playful. For added effect, you can still let
the audience play Death at some point by
getting them to cheer for one or the other
of the two cards picked by the participant
playing Chance.
In the final round, only two cards
remain. Traditionally, the magician
would decide which card to eliminate in
the final moment before the reveal, but
this ending has never seemed fair to me.
I found the best solution to this in the
work of mentalist, psychic entertainer,
and engineer Bill Fienning, who performs
this effect for his audiences with a creepy
story highlighted with the lovely visuals
of the Old English Tarot deck and a carved
stone skull. Utilizing language inspired by
Max Maven’s writings in Verbal Control,
Bill uses a bit of equivoque to make the
final selection. The stone skull is the key
to his killer ending. Bringing out a prop
will break the pattern and can, if you
require it, change the rules of the game to
your advantage.
Let me explain, using my take on Bill’s
idea. From inside a decorated wooden
tarot box, I produce a finely carved and
polished tiger’s eye skull about one-third
the size of my fist. While removing it
from the box so that the eye sockets face
the audience, I say to the participant,
“And now, it is time for the final choice.
Two cards remain. Where does this skull
belong? Where does it feel right?” For the
sake of the illustration, we’ll pretend that
the rounds are concluding with the par-
ticipant on my right. I then hand her the
skull to place on one of the two remaining
cards.
Option A: She places it on my marked
card.
“Yes, it does feel right there.” I now
pick up the other card and say, “The final
one to die is…” I tell the ending line asso-
ciated with that character in my story.
I then continue, “And so it was that they
were all lost. All died. Except one: one who
remains. Who could it be?” I motion for
the participant on my left to lift the skull
and look at the final card: “Death is all that
remains.” (Death, or an angel, or the T-rex
from Jurassic Park, or the bubonic plague,
ad infinitum.)
Option B: She places it on the
unmarked card.
“Yes, it does feel right there.” (I use
the same line either way to make sure
that this moment will always progress
smoothly.) I pick up the skull with my
right hand and set it aside as my left
hand picks up the card the skull was on.
“The final one to die is…” I tell the ending
line associated with that character in my
story. I then continue, “And so it was that
they were all lost. All died. Except one: one
who remains. Who could it be?” I motion for
the participant on my left to lift the final
card: “Death is all that remains.” (Death, a
zombie, a UFO, a secret society, etc.)
After a quick applause cue, the skull
and all the cards go back into the box. I
love this forcing method, and perform-
ing it in this playful style with multiple
outs and lots of audience participation
provides plenty of opportunity for cre-
ativity.
Please let me know about the plots
and characters that you come up with!
I’m excited to hear about your creative
journey.
Magician, mentalist, and anthropologist
Paul Draper can be reached at Paul@men-
talmysteries.com.
October 2018 / MUM 55