PAOLO CAVALLI

CON-FEDERACY

Five Experiments For Performers Who 
Are Not Afraid Of Using Confederates 
 
 
©2000 by Paolo Cavalli (Spanish Edition)
©2006 by Paolo Cavalli (Updated English Edition)

 
 
Shuffled ACAN Con

Three people are invited to join the Mentalist on the stage. The first participant is asked
to thoroughly shuffle a deck of playing cards. The second participant is asked to name
any card (let’s say he calls out the 4 of Spades). The third participant is asked for any
number from 1 to 52 and, another important decision, if the cards have to be dealt one
by one from the TOP (backs up) or the BOTTOM (faces up) of the deck. Let’s say he
calls out the number 8 and that he decides to go for the TOP of the deck; the first
participant who has mixed the cards will be made now the official card dealer, and, one
by one he will deal 8 cards from the TOP of the deck. When the eight card is turned
face-up, everyone can see it is indeed the 4 of Spades.

The secret method of the Con-Federacy

You call up first spectator with something like “May I ask that gentleman with glasses
and with the brown jacket… Yes, you… to come on stage and help me for the next
experiment… And please, let’s give him a nice round of applause!”

Now, here you may want ask him for his name when you cal him up from his seat,
because this is a subtle implication that you REALLY don’t know him. And as a matter
of fact, you had to describe him “physically” to let him know that you wanted to talk
with him. However, some Mentalists prefer NOT to ask names of people (if not with the
old ruse – “Tell your name to everybody so that all will know who you are!”) and, in
any case, this first chosen person is REALLY someone you don’t know (and you could
bet a big amount of money against someone trying to prove the opposite ☺ ).

Then you call up the second spectator (actually, your first, secret confederate) in the
same stylish way used for the first helper and, when he is up on the stage with you, as if
you were having a second thought, you state that “we need a third helper, here!” and you
tell him to call out another helper for you, following the skeleton-structure of this
following patter – “Now, I have no strict rules for you choosing at my place another
person to join us on stage… However I require one thing from you… Do not call up a
friend or someone you know and with whom you came here tonight. I want to have three
complete strangers on stage, three people who don’t know each other. That’s my only
condition… Other than that, you can point to a man, to a lady, to some blonde person, to
some brunette… The choice is all yours!”
As you can suspect by now, the second spectator (your first, secret confederate) will call
out your second, secret confederate as third participant to join you on stage.

NOTE: Don’t forget to ask to your audience for a big round of applause for each one of
your three helpers, otherwise the thing could seem odd!

First helper (the sheep surrounded by the wolves!) is now given a BRAND NEW deck,
and he is told to remove the cellophane wrappings. Then he is told to dump the deck out
of its case (which you nonchalantly put in your pocket) and to give the cards a good,
thorough shuffle.

When he has finished you ask the other the second helper, and finally the third helper, if
they want to shuffle the deck too.

Whether you want your two secret confederates to say YES or NOT, it’s something out
of your personal preference.

I, personally, do as follows. I ask first to the third helper (the one who will choose a
number) if he wants to shuffle the cards too; he will say YES. Only then I ask to the
second helper (the one who will choose a playing card) if he want to shuffle the deck to
or if he trust the other two persons have done a scrupulous job…

He now takes the deck from my offering hands (It’s a non-verbal thing. He does not say
a word) and just spread some cards here and there, rapidly running part of the deck from
hand to hand. Then he SUDDENLY looks back at me, close the deck and NODS his
head while saying something like – “No… I just saw it’s pretty shuffled. It’s ok to me!”
He now begins the action of giving the deck back to me (a natural action to do!) but I
STOP HIM and tell him that since the deck has been shuffled, I don’t want to touch it
for the time being, and to give the deck to the first helper (the only genuine participant).

What the second helper has secretly done, while spreading the cards in order to convince
himself that – “Yeah…They seem really well-shuffled!”, is to check the identity of the
8th card from the top. This is the card that, in a few moments, he will name!

The third helper (the one who will name the number) and you have arranged the thing so
that he will name the number 8 and will choose the cards must be dealt from the TOP of
the deck. So he has not to make complex numerical calculations or having to learn some
code in order to be communicated the position of a card from you or from the other
secret confederate.
All is now set! The first helper (the only genuine participant) has the deck in his hands,
waiting for some instructions from you. The other two persons also are waiting for your
instructions.

To the second helper (the one who will name the identity of a playing card) –

“Sir, you seemed doubtful that those two other gentlemen did a good job at shuffling the
cards… and indeed you wanted to check for yourself. Now, I have to tell you one
thing… Even if the cards were not shuffled, for what I’m going to ask you, it would
have made NO DIFFERENCE at all! … But, as you saw for yourself, the cards were in
actual fact well shuffled!… Now, LOOK AT ME!… And tell me the name of any card
you want!”

To the third helper (the one who will name the number) –

“And you Sir, you have shuffled the cards yourself… And another person already
shuffled them when you got them in your hands… Now… LOOK AT ME!… And call
out a number from 1 to 52! --------------- And now, I let you decide on one final thing…
You want the cards to be dealt from TOP or from BOTTOM of the deck? Quick!
Answer NOW!”

To the first helper (the only genuine participant) –

“And you Sir, you have shuffled the deck and you are holding THAT deck now…
WITHOUT ME HAVING TOUCHED THAT DECK YOU HOLD AFTER IT HAS
BEEN SHUFFLED! … Correct? … Now, you are going to become our official card
dealer… And while your task is easy, nonetheless is a task that comes with a great
responsibility… You must go slowly, for all to see what is going to happen… if it is
going to happen… The gentleman here has freely named a playing card – The 4 of
Spades – and the other gentleman there has freely named a number between 1 and 52 –
The number 8 – and he has decided that the cards, should be dealt from the TOP of the
deck… So, while keeping the deck face-down, I want you to start dealing cards, one by
one, slowly… and count aloud each card you deal. Ready?… Go!”

This is pretty everything as far as the secret working and the task of your two secret
confederates is concerned. The rest, that is the other 50% of the cake, is really to be
good at acting the whole thing out, without overacting, and “milking” the effect for all
its worth.
Tossed Hypnotic Command Con

You ask for someone to come up on stage and act as a “judge”. He will have to check
that all the procedures are fair. When he is on the stage with you, you ask him to turn his
back to the whole audience and you give him a deck of playing cards to check out. You
warn him (and everybody MUST hear that, so do speak aloud!) that he will find the deck
a little “weird” but he must not laugh, he must not speak, he must not give away
anything. You offer the deck for him to check and then you give him two or three
rubber-bands, telling him to wrap them around the deck.

Then, you give him a marker an a piece of cardboard and ask him to write (but to keep
what he writes hidden to the audience for the time being) what cards he saw in the
deck…

You take the rubber-banded deck form him and you openly toss it to someone in the first
rows, telling him to just open the deck somewhere and peek at one card only… Then to
randomly pass the deck to someone else who will also peek at a card in the same, exact
way. This is repeated twice more and then, you ask your “judge” to go down and to
retrieve the deck from the fourth person. The “judge” has to come up again to join you
and, for the time being, he must keep the deck out of your hands.

You ask now the four people who did peek at one card to stand up and you start to write
something on another piece of cardboard. Then you show to your whole audience what
you just wrote, at the same time reading it aloud for the people who may not be able to
read it clearly from the last rows…

“From a deck made out of a single card, repeated 52 times, I will have four random
people, people I don’t know, hallucinating four playing cards. If they have followed my
silent hypnotic suggestions, those four people “believe” they have seen –

- Queen of Hearts
- Ace of Clubs
- 8 of Spades
- 5 of Hearts

When instead this is not possible and in moment I will show you why.”
Now you address your attention to the four people standing-up – “If one or more of you
have seen the cards I wrote and named… please SIT DOWN!”
They all sit down!

Now you ask to the judge to give you the piece of cardboard on which he has written
something, and you show it to the audience.

It reads – “The deck is made up of jokers only” –

And for the grand finale, you ask the “judge” to openly unwrap the deck and to give it
back to you. You, without a second of pause, immediately go in front of the stage,
toward your audience while throwing cards here and there, like if they were confetti…
and then you just toss what remains of the deck into the hands of someone.

You quickly regain the center of the stage and loudly state – “As you saw, I really
messed with the minds of some of you but it was easy because… as they say… the Joker
can assume the identity of any other card!”

And to the astonished “judge”… – “Thank you, Sir! You have been a GREAT “judge”
and now you can go back to your place accompanied by a big round of applause!”

The secret method of the Con-Federacy

In a nutshell, all goes as it is portrayed in the effect description, except for one thing.

The astonished “judge” is your secret confederate and is the one that has ample time to
innocently pocket one deck and to switch it for another deck.

The main deck in play is a deck made out of four repeated playing cards (in this
demonstration, they were: QH, AC, 8S, 5H) and the portion of the effect performed with
this deck is a classic Tossed-Out Deck with 4 random people. Just place a Joker as
bottom card of this deck, and you are set to go.

This deck is in play from the beginning so the “judge” (your secret confederate) will
only see those four cards, cyclically repeated, at the very start of the experiment. He will
only have to fake of having seen all Jokers.
Then, when you show (and read aloud) what YOU just wrote on a big piece of
cardboard, your secret confederate switch the TOD for another rubber-banded deck
made up of 52 Jokers.

NOTE: At the time of this english writing (year 2006) I perform a similar but better
effect without any need for secret confederates. The deck I use is gaffed to the hilt but
allows you to show it as if it were made of 52 alike cards (like, for example, all 4 of
Diamonds) and also as if it were made of other 52 alike cards (like, for example, all 5 of
clubs). So that the “judge” will really see the deck as if made of ONE card repeated 52
times and then as if it were made of ANOTHER card repeated 52 times. And, of course,
in the middle, between those two shocking revelations, you perform a TOD with three
people. I mention this thing because if many people are interested in this deck, I will
have it professionally made by some card-maker, otherwise the price would be too high
to have just a few decks made.
Newspaper Tear & Choose Con

The Mentalist invites three people come up on the stage to join him...Those people are
given a different newspaper each one (or a different magazine, if you so prefer) and are
told to check that what they have in their own hands are indeed what the Mentalist
purported those things to be… regular newspapers. Then the Mentalist invites each one
of his three participants to quickly choose, randomly or otherwise, a single page in the
newspaper they hold, tear that page up, and drop the newspapers at their feet.

He also points out that in that big, opaque envelope attached to a thread hanging from
the ceiling there is something that may become interesting a little later.

Now, the Mentalist, instruct each one of them to fold the page they hold in their hands in
half and then to tear the page, letting fall down the half they don’t want and keeping in
their hands the half they want to keep.

They are asked to repeat this operation again and again, until they have in their hands
only a little rectangular piece.

The Mentalist now, without touching any of the pieces left, gestures to one of the
helpers to go and detach from the thread that big, sealed envelope. He tells to another
helper to collect the three left rectangular pieces and to further shuffle them in his hands.
Finally he tells to the third helper to select one of those three pieces from the hands of
the second person… but he must select it, without thinking too much, he must follows
only his whim.

At this moment the three helpers have reunited, one of them holding in full view the
envelope he took off the thread. The mentalist tells to the second helper that he can drop
the two unselected pieces of newspaper (if he has not done so already) and then focus
his attention on the helper who has chosen the random piece. He tells him that he can
look at both sides of the little piece to see if there is some legible writing on both, and
then he must choose one of the two sides and choose any long word he sees on that side,
seven or more letters, the better, and to underline that word with a pen. But the Mentalist
also cautions the helper not to call that word out loud for the time being.

“Gentleman with the envelope!” – the Mentalist emphatically says – “Please, tear open
the envelope, take out the folded paper that you find inside, and read what’s on it, aloud,
for all to hear!”
The helper will read –

“Date XXXX

Yesterday I was driving home when a single word in the english language popped out
into my mind. It had no sense whatsoever with what I was thinking just one moment
before or one moment after, and was a single, disconnected word, no sentence, just a
word that suddenly popped into my mind from nowhere and then faded to nowhere. But,
before it left my mind, I stopped the car and wrote it down, just out of sheer curiosity.
Now, if that word has something to do with the show I will hold tomorrow evening at
XXXX it is something that will be easily verified. That word was LOUDSPEAKER.
If this has some sense, we will see it how it develops on the evening of XXXX where I
will ask for three people to help me with some newspapers and some free-will decisions
on their part.

Sincerely,
XXXX”

The helpers, even before the end of the prediction letter, should have started to murmur
or to scream… It is at this point that the Mentalist grabs the prediction letter from the
helper’s hands, repeating out loud the word LOUDSPEAKER, suddenly points to the
holder of the newspaper’s piece and tells him – “Sir! Would you call out, for all to hear,
which word you freely decided to underline on that random piece of newspaper,
please?” – The helper calls out the word LOUDSPEAKER.
The secret method of the Con-Federacy

I love this one! It’s so sneaky and so bold! I’m really fond of it!

See for yourself if you can spot the secret method on the prediction letter…

“Date XXXX

Yesterday I was driving home when a single word in the english language popped out
into my mind. It had no sense whatsoever with what I was thinking just one moment
before or one moment after, and was a single, disconnected word, no sentence, just a
word that suddenly popped into my mind from nowhere and then faded to nowhere. But,
before it left my mind, I stopped the car and wrote it down, just out of sheer curiosity.
Now, if that word has something to do with the show I will hold tomorrow evening at
XXXX it is something that will be easily verified. That word was
If this has some sense, we will see it how it develops on the evening of XXXX where I
will ask for three people to help me with some newspapers and some free-will decisions
on their part.

Sincerely,
XXXX”

Well, whether you spotted it or not, here it goes.!…

The letter is written by leaving a strategically placed BLANK SPACE on it. The person
who will detach the envelope from the thread and who will read your prediction is your
secret confederate. He will simply cover the BLANK SPACE in a natural way, with his
right thumb, while reading the prediction letter AND he will simply miscall the word
that in reality he will have just seen.

Remember! You have told to one of the other two helpers NOT TO CALL OUT THE
WORD but because the three helpers (thus your secret confederate too) were all close to
each other during the selection and underlining procedures… it was easy as drinking a
glass of water for your secret confederate to throw a quick glance at the selected word.

All the rest – as someone once WISELY said – is showmanship!

NOTE: No!… You don’t have to tell me that you could get rid of the secret confederate
and perform this piece as a one-man experiment. But, maybe, I have to tell you that… if
you did not think about that possibility on your own.

In truth, I can tell you that I performed this piece as a one-man effect quite a few times. I
had to make some minor but NECESSARY modifications to some part of the secret
method (which I do not intend to discuss here, because it’s out of scope for a book
dealing with how to use the confederates) but then it always worked like a charm!

Oh!… And just to tease you a little bit, at the time of this second writing (year 2006)
I’ve come up with another secret method that allows you all of the conditions stipulated
above (no forcing pieces, no adding pieces, no multiple outcomes, no nail-writing or
other forms of secret writing, NO CONFEDERATES) and yet you can have your
prediction letter read by anyone because the right word will be printed on your
prediction letter.

No switch! No fuss! No explanation in this book! … Maybe in a following book…

I told you it was just a tease! But if it was useful to brain-start your creative juices, then
it was not an empty tease!
The Three Chairs Affair Con

The Mentalist (yes, that should be you!) invite a person to join him on stage and then ask
her to point to any other person she does not know. The pointed at person is also invited
to join the Mentalist on stage and then is his turn to point at any other person that he
does not know. This third person is also invited to join the Mentalist on stage.

The situation at this moment is that the Mentalist and three people are on stage (in our
example, this time, the three helpers on stage are one woman and two men). The
Mentalist now tells to the first person that came up (the woman, in our example) to look
at three empty chairs that are in full view in the middle of the scene and to freely decide
to go and sit on one. “Since you were the first person to come up and because you are a
lady” – the Mentalist states – “the first choice is yours! You are free to choose any chair
you want and then go and sit on your chosen chair.”

The woman goes and sits on one of the three empty chairs.

“And you, Sir… You were the second to come up and join us… So pick one of the two
left chairs, according to your whim!”

The man goes and sits on one of the two left chairs.

“And you, Sir, I’m afraid that you have no choice than to sit in the only empty chair left
for you… but I also have something else for you… Those are three black, thick, opaque
envelopes, I’m sure you agree… Now, mix those three envelopes while you take them
with you and you go to sit down on that left chair!”

When the helper with the envelopes seems satisfied with the shuffle, the Mentalist tells
him to pass the envelopes to the other man who is instructed to further mix the
envelopes and, finally, to pass them to the lady so that she will have her chance to mix
them too.

“Now, my dear lady, stand up for a moment if you will, and randomly give one envelope
to each of these two gentlemen, keeping the last envelope for yourself!………… You
did it splendidly!… Perfect! Now, you can regain your chair and sit down!”

“If all it’s gone as I have predicted, you are in for a little surprise… and I want to hear
you and your audience giving me a big round of applause!”
“Now, each of you tear open your envelope, remove its content, and hold it up high so
that everyone can what we got…”

The three helpers do as they are told to do.

“Terrific!… You see, the first gentleman here on the left is holding up a picture of a
running shoe, the gentleman in the center is holding up a picture of a guitar, and the
lady on the right is holding up a picture of a pair of scissors!… But why I don’t hear the
applause for me?… Maybe some of you did not understand what has happened, uh?…”

“Ok, just to reiterate what has happened up to this point… Those three people have
chosen where to sit, freely, with no intervention from me, and all of them shuffled three
envelopes, which then were randomly distributed, by one of them… I did not touch a
thing and I did not even try to influence their free choices… And yet that’s EXACTLY
THE OUTCOME I HAVE PREDICTED!………..”

“Aaaahhh!… You people never trust my words but I also knew that you would not trust
me that easily so, please, helpers, when I clap my hands I want you to stand-up and go
behind the chair you were seated on!”

The Mentalist claps his hands.

“And now, when I clap my hands again, all of you will turn the chairs upside-down,
while keeping high in one of your hands the pictures you got… Trying to go in sync
would be nice!…”

The Mentalist claps his hands and the three helpers do the action requested by him.
Glued on the underside of each chair-seat there is one single picture. Each picture under
each chair-seat matches the picture that the person who was seated in that chair just few
moments ago is holding in her hand.

“… Much better now!… Now, you can applaud me and my three amazing helpers!”
The secret method of the Con-Federacy

Ok, first helper you call up to join you (in our example, a woman) is you secret
confederate. You, of course, will call her up in that “indirect and vague” way we already
discussed before (“…that woman with that green blouse and that wonderful, shining
pendant… Yes, you… May I ask you to come up and join me up here?…”) and when
she is up with you, you will ask her to point at some random person which she will do.
The person pointed at by your secret confederate is really a random choice since you
don’t need other secret confederates for this experiment. When the second helper is up,
you will ask him/her to point at another random person. That third person will come up
and the “fair selection” phase is concluded.

Now, if you follow the effect description, you will see how it does not matter where the
three people will seat, so if you want to let your secret confederate be the second one to
chose a chair, or be the last one to go and sit, the effect will still work.

Anyway, it seems VISUALLY logical to me that the envelopes are given to shuffle from
left to right (audience view) and thus I prefer my secret confederate to be the first to
choose “any chair”. She therefore will go and sit on the right chair (audience view).

This way she will be the last one to shuffle the envelopes and because of that it will be
natural that I tell her to distribute the envelopes to the other two people and keep one for
herself. It would be weird if I told her to pass the envelope to the left helper and then
telling to that helper to distribute the envelopes. It would be an unneeded step, even if I
were performing an effect without the use of secret confederates.

Because the envelopes are marked, and because she knows by heart which picture is
under which chair (from left to right, audience view), it’s easy as a piece of cake for her
to give the “random” matching envelopes to the other two helpers while keeping the one
matching her chair for herself. That’s all there is to it. But, once more, YOU must
transform this hidden con into a MINDBLOWING routine.

NOTE: I use clipart images printed on plastic laminated cards. As per description of the
effect, the images I use are a RUNNING SHOE, a GUITAR, a pair of SCISSORS.

RUNNING SHOE GUITAR SCISSORS

A Great Opener Con

Music… Lights… You enter on stage and immediately pick up a large piece of white
cardboard that was ready for you along all of your other tools.

Now you warn all of your audience that you will do some warm-up exercise with them
and maybe you will also test them a little to discover how many among them have some
hidden psychic powers waiting to be developed…

“I start with numbers and I’m going to give you a little help… So, even if some of you
have their lucky or favorite numbers, please, listen to my words...concentrate on what I
will send to you or it would not possibly work. This is not something you already know
inside yourself. That would not count as psychic transmission… This is something you
must try to receive from me!”

“Let’s start with something not too big… I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 50
and, as an added help, I want to tell you that is a number composed of two odd digits…
like 11… but the two digits are different… like 15… Now, I close my eyes and I’m
going to send my thoughts floating over all of you as a whole…”

“I was projecting out 37! Anyone who got it, please raise their hand!”

A great number of people will raise their hands.

“Now, the other people… don’t be discouraged, this is just warm-up time… As a matter
of fact, I will try now with something different, some less abstract than numbers…
something more concrete… I will try to transmit a specific kind of fruits. So, all of you,
STOP thinking about numbers and clear your minds, please!… Fruits are great to
send as “thought-images” because they stimulate multi-sensory modalities into your
brain… They not only have a visual component, but usually people can remember how
they feel in their hands, how they smell, how they taste… But, once again, I don’t want
to deal with a too common fruits, like, for example, an APPLE… This would be too
easy… I only tell you that I’m going to send you a sweet, juicy fruit… Ready?… I close
my eyes and begin to send!…

After a few seconds, you open your eyes and state – “Hmmm… I’m not going to ask
you what fruit you received. In fact I stopped my sending because I did pick-up very
confusing “vibrations” bouncing back to me… And therefore I know that if I were to ask
you which fruits you received, I’d get raspberries, oranges, coconut, cherries, grapes,
strawberries… So, let’s re-start in a simpler way, as I told you multi-sensory
information is good but can overload or side-track your “psychic brain”… We will only
go with the visual aspect this time, and let’s see how you all score on that!… I’m going
to close my eyes again, but this time I will only send the visual image of the fruit, I will
visualize the colors of the fruit… So, please, make your minds BLANK and ready to
receive my sending…”

You close your eyes and, after a few seconds, you open them and exclaim – “Yes! I feel
this time was really better! Anyone who got the color GREEN and the color RED, raise
their hand!”

A great number of people will raise their hands.

“Congratulations! You made it! I told you it was a sweet, juicy fruit and now you got its
colors… Green and red…”

While you are talking, you turn around the piece of white cardboard to show on its other
side a big picture of a WATERMELON.

“A sweet, juicy WATERMELON!… Give a big round of applause to yourselves, you

deserve it!”

When the applause fades out, you add – “I must comment of something… Even though I
clearly told you to STOP thinking about numbers, while I was sending you the colors of
the watermelon I kept getting some bouncing-back “vibrations” coming from
somewhere in the back… there were some people in the back that were still thinking
numbers… I know it’s true because I “sensed” you doing that… So, please stand up and
stay right where you are!”

From the last three back rows, five people stand-up and you continue – “Now, because
you were thinking random numbers… and because I was transmitting the image of a
fruit, I was not quite getting the numbers you were thinking… but you were interfering
with my thought process a little… So, just to put a happy end to the thing, if that is
agreeable to you… please, all of you standing-up close your eyes and think about the
numbers you were thinking a few moments ago… Focus only on those numbers… Now,
let be clear right from the start… IF I GET ALL OF YOUR NUMBERS RIGHT, YOU
WILL SEAT DOWN AND APPLAUD!… Do we have a deal?”

You close your eyes from a few dramatic seconds and then – “The number you are
thinking are 17, 39, 12, 27, 19!”
Suddenly all of the five people sit down and with an amazed look on their faces, they
start to applaud you. And the rest of the audience, even more amazed than them, will
follow their lead and will start applauding too.

The secret method of the Con-Federacy

This is actually one great way to open your show and, more than that, it’s based on the
well-known statistical choices of numbers and colors.

What I’ve done here it’s to twist the RED and GREEN colors thing so that it seem that
I’m actually projecting a fruit (and not a common one like an APPLE) and that people
has indeed received the correct fruit, or at least, the colors of the fruit.

Of course, all of this is just a very different dressing for the statistical Red, Green, Blue
choices, but as they say, in Mentalism, if you change the premise, you change how the
effect is perceived. It's simple as that.

So much for the legitimate part... but what about the secret confederates?

Well, in this opening routine, the secret confederates were those five people that were
thinking those five different numbers… and that at the end of the warm-up with the
audience were mind-probed and made to sit down.