Al Mann - Brain Busters '83

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(201) 431-2429

POST OFFICE BOX'.... • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 07728

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(201) 431-2 429 POST OFFICE BOX 144 •

FREEHO LD, NEW JERSEY 07728

(card s) Copy right (1982 ) by Al Mann Excl usive s

from the host EFFECT. The Men talis t borro ws a deck of cards for a thoro ugh out given is deck and also a groc ery pape r bag. The fle it some shuf and deck the mixi ng. A perso n is then told to take pred ictio n a s make rmer perfo more and then to choo se any card . The are place d card n chose the and n as to the card chose n. The pred ictio all the drop to told next is n on the table in full sigh t. The perso makes rmer perfo the and n shake is card s into the pape r bag. The bag He then hold s the a secon d pred ictio n and plac es it on the table .takes out a card . The and bag bag high and stick s his hand into the matc h the preto shown cards two pred ictio ns are then read and the dicti ons. and calls Perfo rmer next stick s his hand s into the bag again shows them and time a at cards out cards and bring s out one or two the audie nce into cards out pass to be the card s calle d. He will also and then calls them out corre ctly! METHOD. AS can be seen by the effe ct, the cles Men talis t has a free hand at doing seve ral mira ed. mick ungim with the card s in the bag. The bag is The reve latio n of the two pred ictio ns can be left to the end of the pres enta tion for a clima x. the host Befo re the show , the Men talis t asks pape r (or host ess) for a deck of cards and a groc ery by 10i 5 say , bag. The bag shou ld be of avera ge size inch es or a bit larg er. t Whil e exam ining the deck of card s, the Men talis ld shou s card stea ls abou t 10 card s. If poss ible the tebb ins be in some easi ly reme mber ed orde r like the Si-S r pape a with syste m. Eigh t of the card s are clipp ed poare cards clip as shown in Fig. 1. The othe r two eigh t card s Fig. 1 ckete d (for use in a late r effe ct). The then and h mout are place d insid e the bag close to the the bag is neat ly folde d and place d in the pock et or on the table to be used . of card s. THE PRESENTATION. Open ly ask the host for his deck wed. borro been also has bag Then infor m the audie nce that a pape r one some have and ns perso Have the card s shuf fled by one or more ict pred ally actu You n. ictio choo se a card as you write out a pred clip r pape the ( ed. clipp are the firs t card of the 8 cards that end with a pair used is of cour se prep ared by bend ing up the long disti ngui sh and s ertip fing of plye rs just enoug h to tell with the the table on r the back s of the cards ). Plac e the pred ictio n pape f. tn/tm /fn

BRA INBUS TERS NOTHING HIDDEN

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AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE cont. ••

without showing the message and then ask for the chosen card and show it to the audience and then place it on the table next to your prediction. Next tell the person to drop the deck of cards into the bag being careful not to flash the cards. You have opened the bag holding the clipped cards with your hand close to the mouth of the bag unknown to the audience and hold the bag high as the cards are dropped in. You release the clipped cards at the same time. Now you say, "As you can see the cards have been well mixed and Now I am going to shake the bag for good measure. You must agree that the order of the cards is not known by anyone. Would you believe that I can now stick my hand into the bag and identify the cards one by one just by the touch of my fingertips'? Or is it ESP?II IIJust to prove that I am going to predict the card ahead of time. 1I Here you write the name of the card that is on the table!. Rlace the prediction paper face down over the other one on the table. Next reach into the bag. (Here it may be well to remove your coat and roll up your sleeve before sticking your hand into the bag.) Feel for the bent top of the paper clip. That will tell you that the cards are face down and that the top card is the first card that you predicted on the first slip of paper. So take that card out and show it to the audience but do not reveal the predictions yet. Just place the card over the other one. "For good measure, I am going to try to identify some more cards." You reach into the bag again and get two more cards and call out the names and then bring them into view. (that will surely get some gasps out of the audiencel) Next you can take out two more cards and have someone hold them face down and then call their names. "Someone callout a colorl Quickly!" One lady calls out red. "I will try to find a red card." So you stick your hand into the bag again and say, IIYesl I feel a red card. I believe it is the two of diamonds." It is of course so you show ito Next go for a black card. You now have only one card left of the eight. It has the paper clip on it. IISomeone call odd or Evenl" So no matter what they call out, reach in and remove the paper clip palming it and bring out the last card after you call the name out. For the climax, reveal the predictionsl Just pick out the two papers and pass them out to two persons and have them readl Empty the bag and return the cards. It is quite evident that the Mentalist has all the leeway in the presentaion. For the prediction, a spectator may be allowed to stick his hand into the bag and get the card. The prediction may be done with two persons, making three predictions. The strong point to be made is that the card is chosen while the pack is in the hands of the audience.

BRAINBUSTERS '8)'

:3 AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

'5lil4A- elltclt.c~efA,e"-t EFFECT AND CHALLENGE. Using the performer's deck of cards, it is given out for thorough mixing and examination. The spectator places his hands under the table and hands the performer any four cards. The performer calls out the names of the four cards while the cards are still held under the table. THE CHALLENGE. Using the host's cards, the Mentalist repeats the test which proves to be more bizzare than the first test. Four (or two) cards are passed under the table from the shuffled deck of cards which the Mentalist has not touched to another spectator! The Mentalist reaches under the table and by touching the cards held by the second spectator, he calls out the names of the four cards which are then brought out and shown to be the cards called! Both of the above effects appear miraculous and will totally dumbfound your audience so they should be presented in a serious vein. METHOD. For the presentation, you must have a paper and pencil on the table infront of you. There are several methods as follows. Method 1. Steal one card from the deck. You are using your own deck of cards so the stealing is a minor problem. The stolen card is placed on your chair under your leg. When you receive the four cards under the table, the stolen card is added to it, placing it on the bottom of the four. You must instruct the spectator to please deal the cards in your hand face-down. The cards are then divined one by one using the one-ahead system. With your hands under the table, you pretend to feel the cards with your fingertips, for vibrations, you sayl then bring your writing hand out and write out the name of the stolen card on the paper. You state that you will write out the names for verification later. So next bring out. the top card of the five and glimpse the card as you place it on the table face-down. Next reach under the table and pretend to identify the second card. Bring out your hand and write out the name of the card on the table. Proceed in the same fashion BUT on the fourth card bring out the bottom card, the stolen card and hide the other card under your leg. If you sweep off the three cards on the table over the one in your hand and then show them all will appear normal! Method 2. A more dramatic presentation can be done by simply stealing four cards from your own deck. You must of course know the four cards. Switch them for the four cards given to you and then you can just callout the four cards before bringing them out! METHOD ). Doing it impromptu with your own deckl When the four cards are given you under the table, tear off the index corner from one card and finger palm it in your writing hand. Then bring out your hand and write out the name of the index now in your palm. Next pass the torn card to the bottom and do the one-ahead system! When you bring out the last card, cover the torn corner with your thumb and fan the other three cards over it!

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BRAINBUSTERS '8) BLIND ENCHANTMENT

contI .,

Some of the wise ones in your audience will begin to offer a solution to your effects, BUT you stop them cold by saying, "Blind people can read with their fingertips by the Braille system. I have been acused of doing that but to prove to you that I am not resorting to that I will repeat the test with the host's own deck of cards." Now you will conpletely silence everyone with what follows. Have a lady sit on your right and a gentleman on your left. Have the cards shuffled several times. You say, "Please note that I will not handle the deck." You have two cards in your pocket that belong to the Host. These are the two cards stolen during the first effect with the paper bag. You have of course memorized the two cards. After the cards are well mixed tell the person to place his hands under the table and to give the lady any two cards from the deck face-down. Caution them not to flash the cards to anyone. Tell the lady to keep her hands under the table with the cards face down. They must not see the cards. You then say that you must touch the cards. So reach over and gently clip the two cards with your left hand and place the stolen two cards aligned over the two the lady is holding. Then you pull fast on the two cards held by the lady and at the same time push the two stolen cards into her hand, saying, "OH! Please do not let go of the cards. Hold on to them ... · You have just exchanged the two cards! Ask the gentleman to give you the deck under the table. Add the two cards to it and bring it out saying; "I can tell by the weight that there are 8 pips missing. The two of hearts and the 6 of clubs!" The same test can be done with four cards and with more than one person receiveing cards under the table, but the test as stated above is devastating as it is. WITH FOUR CARDS. Say that the lady is given four cards under the table face-down and unknown to anyone. You have two known cards palmed under the table. Reach over and gently touch the four cards and give them a slight tug. This will get the lady used to you pulling on the cards. Bring your hand over the table and say that you know one of the cards. So write down the name of one of the stolen cards. Reach for the cards under the table again and take with your left thumb and fingers the two center cards held by the lady and insert the known cards under the top card of the four. Then pullout the two center cards and push in the two known cards! The lady is still holding on to the cards so she suspects little. You now know the identity of the two center cards held by the lady. Place the new stolen cards on your lap and sight their identity while concentrating on the second card. So write down the second card of the first two known cards and also write out the last two

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AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

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BLIND ENCHANTMENT

cont. ••

cards that you have just stolen and sighted saying."I think that the other two cards are these but I am not sure. Let me check again." So you reach for the lady's cards under the table and repeat the maneuver but first tell the lady to transfer the top card to the bottomo Feel the card and then say, "Please transfer another card to the bottom." After this the two unknown cards are the two center cards of the four held by the lady. So exchange the two center cards for the two known cards you are holding In the same fashion as before. Next ask the lady to compare her cards with the notes you wrote. You still have two stolen cards that belong to the host so return them to the deck in your first opportunity or do another test with them however the test you just did should suffice for the day. NOTE. During the above test, you must ask the lady to help you as the test is most difficult. She must hold the cards squared at all times and she must keep them out of sight until the test is finished. IMPROMPTU WITH FOUR CARDS! Let's say that you have been challenged with a strange deck of cards and that you have not had a chance to steal a single card. Have the deck shuffled saying that you will not touch it. Have them pass four cards to the lady under the table. Here you can tell them to look at the cards before the test if they wish. Say that you must touch the cards gently and pass your hand over the lady's hand and cards. Then write out the name of anycard but keep it secret. Tell them that you already have an impression of one of the cards Next reach for the cards again under the table and steal one. Just take one of the middle cards out. The lady will not know the difference. After you glimpse this card stick it back into the lady's hand second from the bottom. She is now holding four cards. You know the identity of only the third card from the topo So write out the name of the known card and scratch out the first name you wrote. Later you can tell them that you made one mistake and had to scratch it out. You now proceed one-ahead. Bring out the top card and glimpse it and write it down as the second card, etc. You must of course feel the cards before you write down a name. When you get to the third card leave it in her hands and take out the fourth card. The third card is brought out last. Give them your notes to read. If you wish to do the test without bringing the single cards up, then you just keep stealing cards one at a time, glimpsing them and replacing them. :Do the two center cards first and then tell the lady to pass cards from top to bottom and then reveal the new two center cards in the same fashion. Any way you do it, it is a killer effect! 0

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AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

en 1SdtCe :

Here is another 'under-the-table' brainbuster where the method is elementary. In EFFECT. A person is handed a straight deck of cards in its case. He is instructed to take out the cards and examine them and shuffle them at will. Then he is to place his hands under the table and cut the deck several times and then choose any four cards, letting no one see the faces or the backs, and to place the cards into the card box and close the box. He is then to Fig. 2 hold the box under the table. Performer then touches the box lightly for 'vibs' and then using another deck of cards takes out a card and places it into an envelope which he gives to a second person to hold. Person holding the card case is then told to take out one card and give it to the performer under the table. Performer takes the card and places it into a second envelope which he may also give to a third person. This is continued until all the four cards are out of the box. When the cards are compared they are two sets of duplicates. The performer has divined all the four cards:

METHOD. This is an almost automatic way of getting one-ahead an your audience. Get a piece of double-stick Scotch Tape. Every Mentalist should have a roll of this tape handy. Place a tiny piece of tape on the center of the back face of the card case. Then attach one of the playing cards to it back-side showing. You of course must know the identity of this card. The back of the case will appear natural as the design of the card appears to belong there. But, like the magician's thumb tip, the back of the case is hardly never seen by your audience, especially if you are working at a table. The case is always placed on the table front-side up as shown in Fig. 2 and th~ attached card on the back side is out of sight alwaysl The case can be trusted to the hands of the VIP without danger of exposure. You will also need twa letter envelopes and another deck of cards. (Prediction slips of paper can be used instead of a second deck, although people like the idea of two decks. It all depends on your presentation.) PRESENTATION. After the deck is shuffled (it is your deck) and four cards have been chosen under the table, have the person place the cards into the case sight-unseen. While he holds the deck under the table, you touch the case for the dramatics and then take out the second deck and remove the duplicate of the attached card and place it into an envelope and give it to a person on your right. Next ask the person with the card case to take one card out and hand it to you sight unseen. You glimpse the card as you place

7 BRAINBUSTERS EN BOlTE

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AN AL MANN EX.CLUSlVE

• •• cont.

it into a second envelope which you hand to a person on your left telling him to not open the envelope yet. This proceedure is repeated with the next two cards. With the fourth card, you claim that you can not get any 'vibs,' so you ask the person to shake the case a bit. Still no 'vibs.' So then you take the case and shake it yourself and while doing it, open the case, take the card out and replace it with the card that is attached to the outside of the case. Then give the case back to the person and tell him to take the card out. (the other card can be attached to the outside of the case or just palmed into your pocket). You need not touch the last card! You must now remove the last card from the second deck and stick it into the envelope and then tell the audience to compare cards. You need not worry as to the order of the cards. It is not important since the cards are placed into the envelopes one at a time in no particular order. The act of placing the cards into the card case will create talk and make the test seem miraculous. CARD CASES. More fabulous Brainbusters can be presented with specially gimmicked card boxes. I refer you to the following. For our purpose, the best tricked or gimmicked case can be found in Al Baker's "Pet Secrets." This case is also treated in "The Third Ecstasy.". This gimmicked case will add three known cards to the top of the deck. (see also The Pall Bearers Review, vol.4 #12) The Miller Card Case, in More Card Manipulations by Hugard describes a case that can add about eight cards to the deck. Peter Warlock in Patterns for Psychics, describes the construction of a case with a flap for use with the Brainwave deck. William Larsen in The Sphinx Vol. 2), #) describes an effect with the finer card boxes that telescope. A DIFF"ERENT MlRACLEl The late Joseph Dunninger created a sensation with this type of effect. Working at the table or platform the magician has some one shuffle and cut a deck of cards and then keep one. He is told to remember the card and may also show it around. The card is then returned to the deck and the deck is again shuffled and cut by anyone. The deck is then passed to a person on the opposite side of the room or table. This person is told to please study the cards and that one card will stand out to him. This card you say, "Will attract you and will look different from the rest." After a moment the spectator succeeds in picking out the correct cardl The solution is simple. The Magician uses two decks. One deck has the large giant-size pips while the other deck has the normal pips. The large-pip deck is switched secretly for the other while the spectator is showing his card around I The large-pip card is returned to the normal pip deck. The rest is obvious.

8 BRAINBUSTERS '8)

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AN AL MANN E)CCLUSIVE

St!4te~

tJoteu

A Ootw (pronounced you-two) may very well be a creature from the planet Vulcan, BUT it isn't. The letters OOTW stand for Out-Of-ThisWorld. So after the next-door neighbor's kid comes over and floors everyone with his masterful presentation of OOTW come back and study The Sealed Ootw. Paul Curry's effect is a classic in card magic and will ever remain so. But for a time the effect was so popular that everybody and his third cousin new the working of it. In the 1940's tens of thousands of these rons. sold world wide for $1. The effect was known in every bar room, card room and drawing room in the world or so it seemed. ~verytime you baffled someone silly with OOTW, he could come back a week later and tell you how you did it. He had been so impressed with the effect that he told all his buddies at the office plus all his relatives and someone told him how it was done. That is exactly what happened to me in the backwoods of Mexico. Fortunately Magicians have the ability to getting ahead of the layman. I recall the story of the Magician who walked into a bar room in Portland Maine and baffled everyone by doing OOTW with a shuffled deck. Many of the patrons new the original OOTW but they were completely mystified when they saw the effect done with a shuffled deck! I believe Harry Lorayne is credited with having invented the OOTW with a shuffled deck. A stroke of genius, no less! Here I offer you "The Sealed Ootw.," EFFECT. From a shuffled deck, two spectators separate the cards sight-unseen and place them into four envelopes. When the spectators open the-envelopes it is seen that each envelope contains cards of only one color. Two envelopes contain all the red cards and the other two envelopes contain all the black cardsl The envelopes are carefully marked before the test with the words "Red" and "Black!" in large letters. Besides, the envelopes are initialed or signed by two personsl Each person gets one red and one black envelope I Envelopes are ungimmickedl TO PREPARE. Take two letter envelopes and marked them "RED" with large letters with a red ink markero Take two other letter envelopes and mark them "BLACK" in large letters with a black ink marker. That is all you will need besides a deck of cards, anyone's deck of cards I The effect is best done at a tableo A lady sits to the left across the table and a gentleman to your right across the table. Let's call them Mary and John.

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BRIANBUSTERS

AN AL MANN EX.CLUSIVE

'8)

THE SEALED OOTW

•• cont. •.

THE PRESENTATION. The original set-up is as shown in Fig. ). The four envelopes are address-side up with the words showing in front of you. So proceed as follows.

John

Mary Fig. )

1. "Let me show you a test with cards that atAcK deck you will think is truly amazing. If it works. R.o Sometimes it fails. It is done with four envelopes. Please note that the envelopes are marked "Red" and "Black." Magician "Please sign your names on the envelopes. Each of you get two envelopes." Let John sign the two envelopes on your right and Mary M John ary signs the other two.

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2. Let John keep the "Red" envelope while you take back the Black one and place it to your right. Mary keeps the "Black" envelope and you take back the Red one and place it to your left. The envelopes are still address-side up with the words showing.

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Fig. 4

Magician ). Pick up the deck and say. "The test is very simple. It is a guessing game. As you know playing cards come in two colors. Red and Black. All you have to do is to John Mary guess what color each card is by looking at its back. For example (take a red card from the deck) say that you have guessed this card is red. (turn the card over) Red Black It is red so you put it into the "Red" enFig. 5 velope." (take a black card from the deck) "But if you think the card is black (show the card), place it into the "Black" envelope." You have given the red card to John to insert into the "Red" envelope which he Magician holds and the Black card you have inserted into the "Black" envelope. The envelopes are again left address-side up with the words showing. This is very important as you are programing their minds to think Red and Black. However John's "Black" envelope after handling it, you have left it in front of you. Repeat the same thing with Mary and at the end place her "Red" envelope on top of John's "Black" envelope as shown in Fig. 4

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