Magic Unriddle.

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This is one of those risky effects that only the brave are going to try, Those of you with the guts to try this out are going to blow people away. It’s a stage effect that relies on a little preshow

work. If you’re not into preshow or taking risks then this isn’t for you. If on the other hand you think that strong mentalism relies on risks,

preparation and skillful presentation then you’ll love this…

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Two participants are asked on stage. The first is asked to think of something personal, something the other could not possibly guess. The second

participant is then instructed to look into the eyes of the first and begins to get mental images that appear to relate to the thought. As the second participant talks she suddenly gets a flash of

insight and names the very thought of the first participant. Clean and simple.

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As I’ve already said, this method relies on preshow work.

before you do this and you’ll see the kind of images you’ll need.)

Leave the final cards blank as you’ll need these later.

I’m not going to go into much detail on the basics of preshow work – if you haven’t done it before do some research – there are plenty of good books on the subject and to be frank if you are

inexperienced with preshow then this effect isn’t for you. You will need to find yourself the two participants that are going to be involved later. The single most important factor in this is that THEY DO NOT KNOW EACH OTHER.

Before the show find yourself the first participant and discuss how you would like to involve them in the show later. Once you have been through the small talk and reassured yourself that your

participant is suitable, you will need to gather your information. For this effect I have found that birthdates, Street names or computer passwords are perfect. Assuming you are experienced in preshow information gathering then this will be easy as pie. I’ve always preferred the use of impression devices – but use whatever you are used to. It is imperative (and obvious) that the participant

should have no idea that you know his information. Explain that you want him to make his choice now so as he can have time to truly visualize and feel comfortable with this thought. Perhaps add that by him choosing his private thought now he will avoid any possible mental blocks or stage fright later. Either way, get the relevant birthday, street name or password- and please, REMEMBER what the

participant looks like!! Then leave.

For the sake of explanation we will assume that you asked the participant to think of his birth date and have secretly obtained this information – let’s say the 3rd of July.

Find yourself somewhere secluded to do some dirty work…

Now here’s the tricky part. Do you remember those visual games- the ones in which you have to piece together the information in a picture to get a phrase or familiar saying? I’m sure you do. Well, whatever the information is that you have gathered (in our case the 3rd of July) you are going to

create one of these pictures!

This is not as difficult as you would imagine, but it does take a little practice. The image you can see here, is a simple demonstration of how the 3rd of July would be illustrated in this fashion. You will notice that there is more information on this image than is strictly

needed to hint at the 3rd of July - Obviously the VITAL information is held in the word “JEWEL”, “LIE” and the clock pointing to 3. The additional sunshine image and the word “holiday” are however just as important to the method. All will become clear once we reach the presentation…

Once you have made your image card (and I will give a few more pointers later.) Place it amongst the other image cards you have created (simply throw

style.) Keep the force card at the bottom of the deck (or somewhere that you’ll not loose it!) Now it’s time to find your next participant.

Choosing the next participant takes a little more effort. You are essentially looking for someone with a good visual memory, someone also of a decent level of intelligence. I personally find that

middle aged women make the best participants for this effect. This again is up to you as you will have to exercise a level of judgment as to whether your participant is up to the task. This will come with practice and experience.

Once you have approached the 2nd participant explain how you feel they would be good for a task later in the show, use flattery such as “I can tell you have an innate psychic ability.” or “you seem unusually perceptive.” Once they are on your side bring out the cards, explain that they are cards used by

psychics to help focus psychic abilities, much like the tarot. Using whatever card force suits you (and I wont patronize you with how to force a card, if you’re planning to do this effect you should

already know a good card force!) ask the

participant to choose a card and to be completely certain that you have no idea which card they have chosen (of course you do it’s your force card!) Make it very clear that it is VITAL that they remember the image of the card in every detail, tell them to “meditate on the card, to focus and let the images and words sink in so they are a

vivid, living part of your mind. Allow your psychic energy to become linked to this card.”

Explain how later, when they come on stage that they will use this image to help them focus their psychic abilities, that they are going to have to combine the elements of the image as you instruct

to help solve a psychic puzzle they will be presented with.

IT IS VITAL THAT YOU GIVE THE PARTICIPANT TIME TO TRULY REMEMBER THE IMAGE – UTTERLY VITAL!!!

Once you are finished you are all ready to perform a top notch miracle.

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With all the hard work done, on stage you are set to really amaze. At a suitable moment in the

performance bring the two participants on (this effect is perfect for Television performances by the way.) Explain how you would like to try an experiment into mind reading, only this time you would like to act as the catalyst rather than the mind reader yourself. A good bit of psychological misdirection is to flip a coin at the beginning of the performance, as if to choose who plays which role, whatever the outcome manipulate the situation so that participant 1 is the sender and the second the receiver – this simply acts to create an image of spontaneity to the audience and make the who proceedings a whole lot harder to reverse engineer. Now it is a simple matter to have the 1st

participant think of his or her predetermined thought; Depending on your own philosophy on

preshow you can give as little or as much away as you feel comfortable with as to what happened off stage, I personally opt for giving as little away as I can, a little double speak does wonders…

for me to find out, but whatever that thought is, be it something such as a personal date, maybe a password for your PC or whatever it is, I would like you to lock that in your mind and focus on that and nothing else.”

Direct the 2nd participant to stare directly into the eyes of the 1st and continue… “I could tell when I first saw you that you are the kind of person

that is very intuitive, now we all have ways of increasing our psychic abilities and I am aware that you have learnt a little about this. What I would like you to do is to simply stare into X’s (participant 1) eyes and to let your intuition take hold. You have a powerful mind and a strong visual sense, let that play, the image will come into your mind, play with it, but focus – almost as if you are playing some kind of mental game, just be playful, it’s like a riddle”

Pause for a second and let the tension build as the participants stare into each others eyes. Then

continue…

To participant 2: “Now you can feel yourself sinking into an unusual state, a little sleepy perhaps, but don’t let that bother you, just let the image come clearly into your mind, as it does, slowly, very slowly, name what you see… play with connections, but don’t be shy just work it out, like a puzzle – what do these images mean? just talk me through what you are seeing…”

At this point the second participant will start to talk, you must keep a firm hold on what is said, at first ask simple questions that are clearly (to the participant) related to her image, as you feel more comfortable that no preshow work shall be revealed let the participant talk more and more…

The following is a transcript from one of my performances:

Performer: “now what do you see?” Participant 2: “I see the sun”

Performer: “that’s very good, and what else?” Participant 2: “A clock, it’s pointing to 3…” Performer: “That’s good what words do you see?” Participant 2: “I’m getting Lie, and Jewel”

Performer: “Let your mind play, mess with the words, can you find a connection”

Participant 2: “I’m seeing holiday and…”

Performer: “So it’s a holiday, the sun is shining, so summer yes?”

Participant 2: “yes”

Performer: “So the words Jewel and lie, and the summer, and this mysterious number 3… what do you think this can mean?”

Participant 2: “I suppose it’s the summer, maybe something like august, AH NO! it’s July isn’t it Jewel, Lie… (laughs) so maybe the 3rd of July?” Performer: “That’s great” (turns to the first

participant who is grinning wildly, “is she close?” Participant 1 “Oh my god, that’s it, my mothers

birthday, how the hell did she do that? My God!!”

This is exactly as the effect played, as you can see very little guidance is required, just a good deal of participant control. Often you will have less specific results, but on the whole it is

always VERY clear that if not a complete “hit” that the second participant was clearly “picking up” elements of the thought.

From here on you can dismiss and thank the participants as you please.

Final thoughts.

You will really wow people with this, the only

“loose end” after the effect is participant 2, whom if chosen correctly and treated with respect (and a good deal of flattery) will be none the wiser. It may take you time to get used to developing the force card images with ease and speed, but as with everything in our art all you need is to PRACTICE!! The real key is to add elements to the image that whilst not vital to the riddle, will give the impression of related “hits.”

Enjoy this little gem and I hope you get as much joy and many powerful performances from this as I have. Good luck!!

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