Wednesday, August 27, 2008

smoking!

In the next few weeks, i will be publishing these ideas, and others in an ebook entitled,
" Smoking ".
You will see that the effects have been tweekwd , and changed.
So.. Watch this space for details!

D

Friday, June 06, 2008

a penny for your thoughts

It seems that everyone has gone mental these days, and why not.
Some of the most effective magic being produced is that which deals with the mind.
To this end, I would like to share with you this. The first of my pipe dreams…

A penny for your thoughts

Effect…

The performer predicts a date, which a spectator imagines he, or she travels back to.

Routine..
At the start of the effect, the magician shows an envelope, and reveals that it contains a photograph.( or a drawing if your clever at art)
A spectator is invited up on stage, given the envelope to hold, and asked to imagine that they are in a time machine. There is a lever in front of them. You ask them to pull the lever back, and go through time.

When they want to stop, they push the lever forward.

You ask them to step out of the time machine, and walk down the imaginary cobbled street.

Half way down the street, they look down. And see a coin. They pick the coin up, and place it in their pocket.
They climb back into the time machine and journey back to the present day.
Now the spectator is asked to remove the imaginary coin, and examine it. It has on it, a date. The spectator is now asked to say out loud the date he imagines that is on the coin.
The picture of the coin is removed, and shown briefly to the audience..

“On the top of the coin, you see here, it says Dieu et mon droit.. Do you know what that means? That means My God, My Right. Its the royal motto.
The performer now turns it towards the spectator, and the performer continues to describe the picture to the audience.
“Underneath that, sits Britannia, on a rock, holding a shield, and a trident.”
The picture is now handed to the spectator.
“And bellow that, at the bottom is the coins date. Can you read out in a loud and clear voice the date at the bottom?”
They read this out, and surprise! It is indeed the date mentioned by the time traveller.

The how…
This effect pretty much works it’s self. There are a couple of secrets involved, none of which are rocket science.( you will be glad to hear)
Firstly, you need the photo of the coin .As I say, a rough drawing will suffice, In a way the effect on your spectator will be stronger, but the photo will add something for the rest of the audience.

The card is the same size as a standard file card.5” X 3”.( 130mmX 75mm aprox)
Hold it lengthways. The drawing should fill the top 3” of the card. This leaves you a good gap at the bottom of the card. And its within this space that you will write the date given, with your nail, or thumb writer. You simply write this information through a hole in the back of the envelope.

But hang on, I hear you ask, isn’t the spectator holding the envelope?
Yes he is, I say. But not for long.

When you invite him up, you hand him the envelope. As he starts to mime the operation of the time machine lever, you say “It’s a bit stiff, better use both hands” and you then take the envelope back off him.
When the dirty work has been done, you open the envelope, and ask the spectator to remove the picture, but not to look at it just yet. You dispose of the envelope, then take back the picture.
Put your fingers over the writing at the bottom, and talk about the motto on the top. Turn the card back, and describe Britannia to the spectator, then, show him your writing and ask him to read out the date on the bottom, as described in the routine.

Just don’t give him the picture as a souvenir.

And that’s all there is to it.
As an afterthought if you own one of the many gimmicked watches out there, you could also predict a time, that was say.. Showing on the village clock tower.
This could be a powerful routine in the right hands.
Have fun playing…..

Dale

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

RAINBOW BILLETS

Imagine your sitting in a pub and someone comes up to you and says “go on then show us a trick”.
It’s a situation I am sure we have all found ourselves in many, many times.
Here is a little offering that should help you out…

Rainbow Billets.

the effect.....

You are seen to write something on a small piece of blank paper, which is folded, and placed in a wine glass, or on the table .This prediction remains in full view at all times.
You then tear from a book, pieces of paper, around the same size as your prediction, and instruct the spectator to write “ red” on one of them, “ yellow” on the second” green” on the 3rd, and finally “Blue” on the last. >These are then turned face down on the table, and the spectator is asked to mix them up. Then they lay the billets out in a row in front of them. You then say that you want to get rid of 2 of the colours. Ask them to choose any two pieces of paper. This they do and the rejected pieces are removed from play.
You then say that a further one piece has to be disposed of. This is done, and the 3rd piece is rejected.
The piece is turned over to reveal the chosen colour. You then open your prediction to show that it matches exactly.

The method .....

Ok. I know what your thinking…”MAGICIANS CHOICE”, and I admit your almost right. But in this case, it’s a bit more than that. Your statements remain the same, 99% of the time.

Firstly the paper used. This should be a pad about 4cms wide, and 15 cms long (that’s 11/2” by6” in old money) and the pad should be scored at one end, so when you tear it out, it tares in a neat straight line.
You tear one sheet out, and then tear this sheet into the 4 billets. Now, look at those billets. 2 pieces have 3 straight edges, and 2 only have 2.
You write red, and Blue on the two end pieces, and yellow and green on the bits torn from the centre.
This way you can keep track of 2 of the bits.


The prediction.

This is written on a billet, roughly the same size as the others, but it’s not important.
What is important is that it’s folded into quarters, first one way, and then the other.
When you ask the spectator to write the colours on the 4 billets, you state that you’re going to write a prediction. And you write the word “blue” on your prediction, but, and this is important, you write the word on one end of the folded billet only. (The left 2 quarters)
Now, whist they are still writing their billets, you casually turn over your prediction, and write the word ” red “ on the other side, directly on top of where the word blue is. This billet is now folded in half, to hide one prediction, and then in half again, hiding the other.


The force.


You ask for two billets to be chosen. If they chose the red and the blue, you ditch the other two. If they don’t choose the red or the blue, you say that leaves these two”.
If they chose a force colour, and one of the others you say," that leaves these two". You still have a force colour on the table.

You then ask them to touch one of the billets, if both are the force, ask them if they want to keep it, or throw it away.

If its 50-50, you throw away the non force one.

Now. Turn their billet over. (Remember you don’t know if it’s red or blue yet)

If its red and red happens to be folded inside the billet, you pick the prediction up, and open it right up to show the word red, covering the word blue, on the other side, with your thumb.

If it’s blue, then you pick up the prediction, and rest it on one hand, as you open it, using this to cover your turning it over.
And there you have it.


The end....

Thursday, October 19, 2006

FEELING FRUITY?

Feeling fruity?

In this little experiment, the mentalist, whilst at home, offers a little demonstration of his powers to his assembled family.

One person, (the medium) is instructed to go out of the room. Way away, so they can’t hear or see what’s happening.

The mentalist then offers one of the remaining crowd, a choice of 3 items from a fruit bowl. Let’s say they chose an orange, a banana, and a pear.

The spectator is asked to imagine that they are picking up one of the pieces of fruit, and then take a bite.

So the rest of the people in the room can join in, you ask them to pick up the imagined fruit, and pretend to eat it.

The fruit is now mixed up with the others. The medium is now summoned back into the room, goes over to the fruit, and picks up the chosen piece, taking a bite on it for good measure.


The how is reasonably simple. The person that goes out of the room is in the know. You use a very simple code. Firstly the fruit offered, can indeed be any fruit. When they chose the fruit, you put it mentally in alphabetical order, so Banana, orange, & pear in this case.
If the spectator chose the banana, you put all the fruit in your right hand, when offering the “medium” his choice.
If the spectator chose the Orange, all the fruit goes into the left hand, when offering the choice, and if they chose the pear, you give the fruit to the spectator to offer to the medium. It’s as simple as that.

You can do this with other things. Cans of drinks, packets of crisps, nuts ect.
Anything that’s edible, and around at a party.




(Based on an idea hidden in New Jinx magazine.)

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Tony's Tips and Picks

Heres a link to a great product blog...

0ne of five

This is only a theory, but here goes.


A spectator is given a pack of cards. They are invited to shuffle it, and then spread the cards on the table face down.
The mentalist requests that they push any 5 cards out of the spread, and then to discard the rest of the pack.

The performer now picks up the 5 cards, and shows the spectator the cards, one at a time with the words, what I want you to do is think of one of these cards.

The spectator thinks of one of the 5 cards, and the performer names it.

Now, as I stated at the beginning, this is only a theory.

But, the secret to this is as follows.
When you show the cards, you show the first one and say “ think” the second card you say “ of”, the third card you say “ one” the fourth card you say “ of “ and finally the fifth card, you say “ these”.

Since the spectator has not been told what to do when shown cards one, and two, it’s a reasonable bet they will only chose card 3, 4, or 5.
But looking at the words used, for those last 3 cards, one, of and these, its probable that the card that falls on the word one, will be more likely to be chosen.
Particularly if as you show that card, you place more inflection on the word, one.

You may use marked cards if you wish, as a fall back.
This way, you can go on a fishing trip if you need to.
Red card? High or low?.. ECT.

Think about it though, if 5 cards are picked, there has to be more of one colour than another, so by making sure that say, the 2 black cards are at both ends of the run, you know 100% that if you say black card, its going to be the black card in the last 3.

And if they say no, its red, you will only have 2 to choose from.
So it wont take that much fishing to get the result you want..

Have a play, and let me know how it goes..
Dale

Monday, October 02, 2006

my favorite peek

My favourite peek.

I’ve recently got into the habit of peeking at cards, even though I don’t have too.
It’s a good habit to have, because it always give you the ultimate out. I.E, naming a chosen card. Now there are many different peeks at our disposal, but the one I find most useful, is the following.
Maybe it’s new, maybe its not, but I tell you dear readers, its well worth learning.

Have the deck shuffled. Holding it face down in the left hand, you rifle the corner of the deck, in time honoured fashion, and have them say stop.

Now, you cut the deck with the right hand, and tip it up towards the spectator, asking them to remember the card at the face. You turn your head away from them as you say this, as you don’t want to see it. In fact you don’t have to see it. Well, not yet anyways.

Once they remember the card, you place the two halves back together, performing the Kelly bottom placement movement as you do so.

The chosen card is now on the bottom of the pack. Now, you start to give the deck a shuffle. It can be over hand, or riffle. Its up to you, just as long as you keep the chosen, and as yet unknown card at the bottom of the deck.
Now as an afterthought you look into the spectators face and say..” You give the cards a shuffle; you can cut it, or shuffle it to your hearts content”. During this you have raised the cards up into your eye line, and gestured with the pack, gaining a brief flash of their card whilst doing so.
As soon as you have seen their card, the deck is bought back down out of the eye line, and you illustrate the way they could shuffle/ cut the cards, burying their chosen card somewhere in the deck. Thus you are now as clean as a whistle and ready to reveal their card in as mysterious a way as you wish.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

JAMMING 2 Missing. In .Action

Missing In Action.

In this effect, a spectator merely thinks of a playing card, and it vanishes from a freely shuffled deck.

In the right hands, it’s an instantly repeatable, no set up, clean as a whistle miracle!


And it uses a well known gaff, in an unexpected way.

So let’s go straight to the how.

In order to perform M.I.A you will need to buy a marked deck of cards. This deck has to have bold clear markings that can be spotted within a split second. I use the Fournier 505 deck, but with practice, either a Boris Wild, or Ted lesely marked deck will do.
The bolder the makings, the better. Remember, Lays will not be thinking of marks, because as you will see in the following presentation notes, as far as they are aware, there is no reason to use them.

You can perform this with a full deck if you like, or as suggested, you can get the spectator to cut off a portion.

Have them shuffle the cards, and then cut off a portion of the pack.

Then have them count the cards they have cut, face up. Let’s say they have cut off 28 cards.

Now have them remember one of the cards in their packet.

Get them to turn the packet face down, and shuffle the cards.

This is just in case they are thinking of the face card.

Up to now, they have handled the cards.

You now take the cards back,. And tell them that their thought of card has now vanished from the packet.

You then ask them, to name the thought of card.


the secret...


Now, your real work begins. Look at the back of the card on the top of the deck, if this happens to be the named card, give the cards a single cut, saying …..

“Now, I’m going to make things hard for myself. Some magicians would some how get your card to the top of the deck”,( turn over the top card) “and sneak it off whilst you wasn’t looking, but not me. Your card is going to go from the middle of the deck.”



whilst reading this, you may be wondering why the cards have to be cut if the chosen one is on top. Well, if you do this, the whole effect can be done quicker.

You see, if the first card was a double, it would have to be laid down perfectly square, and it would have to stay like that. If on the other hand, several single cards have been put down, it’s less likely that the spectator will notice if the pair separates slightly.

so you can deal them down faster


From now on, it’s a simple matter of looking at the top card. If it’s not the named card, you deal it singly onto the table face up,
Continue this, until you see the chosen card, and do a double lift, dealing it, and the next card in line down as one.


And that’s all there is to it. The packet has one less card in it, than before, and the thought of card has gone.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Jamming number one. the unwritten word

A newspaper Challenge, for the 21st century.Imagine this. you give a spectator some money, and ask them to go to any local news agent, and buy any newspaper they want. Preferably a broadsheet, with words, and few pictures.
This they do.
The news paper could even be in another language.
You then instruct them to remove any page from the paper, and to pick a side.
This is laid out on a table.
Ask them to look over the page, and pick out a word to their liking. Make it something of say, 5 letters or more.Then, ask them to cover their word with their hand.

You take a pen, and draw a square around their hand, to hone your thoughts in.
Then, they remove their hand from the paper, and you point out that , there are many words within the area, theirs being only one of them.

Now, you tear out the square of news print, and then tear up the resulting square into small pieces.
You then divine the chosen word.

Potentially, you point out, A word in thousands.

The how is very simple, and it’s based on one thing we all do.
If you are asked to put your hand over something, you almost always will place that thing dead centre of your hand. So, you know that if you ask someone to place their hand on the word, it will be odds on, that their word will be in the middle of the square, which you draw around their hand.
If this is so, then you have only to do a centre tear, in order to recieve the information you need.

There will be more than one word on your billet. But fear not, since you have limited the choice of letters to five or more, you will only have to go on a short fishing trip to gain the upper hand.

It strikes me that the method used here, with the placing of the hand has applications in other effects too, as an out.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Introduction

Lets have some fun. Welcome one and all, to what I hope will be a cyber Jamming session like no other.

If you have ever had any idea for an effect , but have had trouble in finding somewhere to share it, look no further.

Many of you will know that it’s been said that I have an encyclopaedia for a brain.

If this is true, then I invite you all to browse though it’s pages, some well thumbed, a few slightly grubby.

Now…Let the inventing begin…..


Dale