Chair Routine

THE DAVID BERGLAS CHAIR ROUTINE AKA THE CALLENDAR CHAIRS AN ANALYSIS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL PERFORMER To get “The Creative Juices Flowing” Copyright Ian Broadmore 2005 The Chair Routine has long been one of my favourite routines and was popularised by David Berglas in recent years. Many notables have had a version of it including Gary Kurtz, Max Maven, and Michael Weber. It has gained some popularity of late with routines by James Bliss, Paolo Cavoli, Marc Spelman, and Luke Jermay to name a few. I am fortunate in that I have a lot of David Berglas work on video which means I can re-play it and analyse it in detail to peel away the layers and share the methodology and thinking behind it as an aid for the professional performer to understanding the thinking and stagecraft behind it, and develop his own ideas. I am not attempting to expose another’s work here but to show how a gifted, confident performer can develop his own routine with a little thought and creativity. It is on the shoulders of Giants that I stand. I will now give a review of the performance AS AUDIENCE SEES IT followed by an explanation of presentation as it is.

THE the

EFFECT: The stage is full lit with seven chairs numbered 1-7 running left to right as you face the stage. The chairs are various colours and of the simple moulded plastic stacking variety. David Berglas is centre stage as he invites members of the audience to participate in an experiment. As this is being said a number of people are being shown to stage right by an assistant. David asks for the first gentleman to step forward and comments that he has a number of chairs numbered 1-7 and asks the gentleman to select a number. But then he says; “I am going to confuse you a little bit” and rattles off the numbers in a seemingly haphazard fashion “23576113246” “give me a number”. He chooses 3. David says “Why do they always say 3 to start with”, he then gets chair 3 and places it to the left of the stage (as you are facing it) and says “Now would you like to come and sit here”. David then says “May I have the next gentleman please”, to which he comes forward. “We have some numbers on the

chairs over there as you saw; now I am going to confuse you a little bit”. To which he again rattles off numbers

in a seemingly haphazard fashion; “124-567-675-212 & 5.” The guest chooses 6 to which Berglas remarks “You sure?” guest replies; “positive, Yes”, “Do you want to change your mind?”, “No”. He then gets chair six and places it to the right and next to chair three and asks the guest “Come & sit down”. David then says; “Can I have the lady up please”, she comes up and he says; “Hello, I have got some numbers

there, 1-2-4-5 and 7. I am going to make it very easy 12-4-5 & 7 give me a number”. She chooses 7 to which he says: “Did you make your mind up before you came forward?”

He then gets chair 7 and places it approximately two chair places away from the last chair (6) and says;

“Would you like to come and sit here”. “Could we have another gentleman please? Hello you can see the numbers there, there’s 12 & 54 and 45 and 52 give me a number”. He says 4.

He gets the chair and places it one chair width apart to the right of the last chair (7) and says “There we go,

come and sit here, can we have the next please”. (So the order so far; 3-6-*-*-7-*-4)

gentleman

“There are not many numbers left we have 5, 2 & 1, 125, 215 or 512 give me a number” he chooses 5, David repeats “5?” The guest says yes. “I will give you a choice where you want to sit; do you want to sit that side of the lady (7) or this side of the lady?” He says this as he is collecting the chair and gestures with his left hand; he is standing behind the chairs as he does so. The guest says the left side, to which David says “That’s your choice then” and places the chair next to chair 6 so the order now runs (3-6-5) then a gap then chair 7, then another gap and chair 4, two chairs remain on stage back 1 & 2 A male guest steps forward and David says “1-2-2-1. I

will do nothing else I will turn my back on you what number would you like 2 or 1”. The guest replies 2 please. David says;”2”, guest replies “yes” David says “sure?” Guest says; “can I change my mind? David says; “In every show there’s one (to laughter), what number do you want?” Guest says 1. David says; “Do you want to change your mind again?” guest says; “No thanks”. David says; “You want one” ,guest; “yes please” David “That’s the number you said, You’ve started with 2 and now you want 1” guest; “yes please” David; “Are you sure?” guest “definitely”

As this exchange is going on, David extracts fun out of it by walking away and turning back as he questions the guest’s choice. David then walks to get chair number 1 as he does so he again says; “So you want 1”. David then says; “Now I have bad news because I want to sit down to”. As he says this he places chair number 1 to the right of chair 4. (3-6-5-7-4-1) This leaves one remaining chair, chair 2 on stage. The camera pulls out as he narate and says; “This is where

they left one chair for me and obviously I had no choice so I sat down on it”. This chair is then placed to the right of chair 1 as he says this. He then says ”I couldn’t have possibly known in which order they would have come up, nor which chair they would choose” He then sits on chair 2. Then he stands up and says; “Now

remember I gave this gentleman a choice he could have sat on the other side”. (As he does this he stands in front

of the guests and chair number 5, the gentleman that had the choice and gestures with his left hand) He then says;

“I want to show you that they have helped me to form what I call my chair calendar”.

“Ladies & gentleman without moving your chairs will you please stand up and go behind them” to which the guests do. He then says ; ”Let me show you why they’ve formed my chair calendar”. “A year has three hundred and sixty five days (pointing to chairs 365), There are seven days in the week (pointing to chair 7), four weeks in a month (pointing to chair 4) and of course there are twelve months in a year (pointing to chairs 1 & 2). Applause follows.

He says to the applause; “So I must have known right”. After the applause stops he says;” On top of which of

course I did not know who was going to come up first and this gentleman decided to be first (pointing to the first guest) he pushed the others out of the way (laughter) he did not, but he was the first to come up. And I said give me a number and he said three and people always seem to say three and I knew that as it was more than likely he would say three, he was my first guest and I knew that”.

(he asks the spectator to turn the chair round) “Turn the chair around please”. (The guest does so, on the back of the chair it says “First guest”). David says as the chair is turned around; “The first guest will choose three”. He gestures to the next chair and says; “This gentleman was my second guest who chose number six, turn the chair around” (he does so) David says;” Second guest”. He point to the next guest and says; “This gentleman chose five, turn your chair around please” (he does so) “He was my third guest, now this lady (pointing to lady behind chair 7) was the only lady

left there and I must have known that she would have come up tonight, one lady and only one lady because there we

have a special present for you alright” (he turns around

her chair and presents her with a flower which is attached to the back of the chair to applause from the audience). He then points to the chairs and says; “ That’s one, two,

three four and of course this must have been my fifth guest” (as he turns the chair round to reveal fifth guest) “and this was my sixth guest” (as he turns around chair).

He then says; “And do you remember what I said, I had no choice this had to be my chair” (pointing to last chair on stage). “And I did know that because that’s exactly what I said MY CHAIR” (as he says this he picks the chair up and turns it around showing it is labelled MY CHAIR). The routine ends with applause.

METHODOLOGY & EXPLANATION The routine relies on several very important points; Firstly it is essential chair three is selected first as the whole number sequence and final reveal depend upon it being the first choice, first guest. Everything else is built around it as the routine progresses. Psychologically most people will select number three if presented with a choice of random numbers from one to seven. However to ensure 100% accuracy this spectator is usually pre-stooged to help and chose number three. I know from someone that worked on the TV series that David met the Guests before the transmission with a clipboard and asked various questions so he may have been stooged here or actually at the performance by the assistant. Secondly, the routine works because the audience do not actually know what he is going to do with the chairs or spectators; therefore there expectation is of “something” happening but they don’t know what. Due to their not knowing he is in the position to perform the effect “jazz” style. By that I mean that depending on the selections various outcomes or predictions are possible unknown to the audience but ultimately meeting their expectations of something happening. Thirdly what is not mentioned is that there are seven chairs, seven spectators, but only six spectators are used!. It is also important that TWO woman come up. The rest are men as will be explained later. Fourthly there is a deliberate miscall that relies upon time misdirection to fool the audience literally in front of them! Finally two of the choices are not as innocent as they seem. Now let’s dissect what actually happens.

The first guest (stooged either pre-show or by assistant) chooses chair 3 which is placed to left of stage. The second guest chooses chair 6 which David places next to it (so far so good). But what happens if the next guest chooses chair four or another number? IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE DAVID PLACES THE CHAIRS WHERE HE WANTS THEM. I will try to explain the actual trickery first and then the possible variations on the theme. The third guest, the lady is next; note he specifically asks for a lady at this point as the sex selection is important to the outcome. She chooses chair 7 which he places two chair widths apart from chair 6. This is important because he must have two chair widths for the equivoque that follows. Now chair 7 contains the rose which as it happens is the chair he wants the lady to select. If she selects another number again it does not matter as remember HE PLACES THE CHAIRS and the audience do not know what is going to happen or what is behind the chairs. He then asks for a gentleman who chooses chair 4 which he places one chair width to the right of chair 7. So to clarify: the chairs are as follows; 3, 6, space, space, 7, space, 4. I hope your with me so far! The next guest is a gentleman who chooses chair 5, he gives him a choice but this is where the equivoque comes in. He says as he gestures behind the chairs; “do you

want to sit THAT side of the lady or THIS side of the lady”, note he does not say to the left or right of the

lady but “that side or this side”. His gesture performed behind the chairs is very obscure. The guest sits in the position that is required for the outcome of the effect. But note David leaves TWO places between chair 6 & 7. The reason being IF the Gentleman wants to place his chair to the RIGHT of the lady he would say “No I mean to this side or that side” and gesture to the two empty places so the chair ultimately ends up in the correct position for the final reveal. The final guest has two choices on stage chair one & two. Again he uses a form of equivoque choice here and he still PLACES THE CHAIR himself. The gentleman concerned changes his mind leaving David with the “My Chair”. However if the guest had gone for this chair it would have gone like this: “So you want that chair now?” “Yes”. “Are you sure” “yes I am”, “so you don’t want to change your mind?”, “No” “ so that’s definitely your chair then” “yes”. So at the end of the routine when the chairs are turned round he would say “You had a choice of chair sir and you insisted that was you chair didn’t you, “yes I did” “ but

I knew you would chose it of course because it was your chair, turn the chair around sir what does it say ?”.

“My chair” Likewise a similar ploy would be used if the chair was chosen earlier by another guest. So we are now in a position of all the chairs on stage as follows: 3, 6, 5, space, 7, space, 4, space, 1 and 2.

He asks them to stand behind the chairs and says; “These are my calendar chairs” …etc. During the routine and to emphasis the supposedly free selections made he says “Now

remember I gave the gentleman a choice he could have sat on the other side” (he didn’t he said that side of the

lady or this side of the lady this reinforces a supposed free choice of to the left or right, note he never say to the left of the lady or the right of the lady. He then says as the guests are standing behind the chairs and after revealing the 365 days etc; “So I must have known right” (Well actually no because he placed the chairs where he wanted them for the desired outcome). After the applause stops he says; “On top of which of

course I did no know who was coming up first and this gentleman decided to be first and he was the first to come up”.

(He did because he was placed first by the assistant when the guests were brought down on stage and pre-stooged to choose 3. ESSENTIAL 3 is the first chair for both outcomes the calendar prediction and the set up for the guest prediction). He then proceeds to turn the chairs around so the first guest, chair 3, is revealed as first guest (correct he was), the second guest chair 6 is revealed as second guest (correct he was) and the third guest chair 5 is revealed as guest three (he was not this is a miscall chair 5 was in fact the FOURTH guest who had the supposed free choice but David placed him where needed for both outcomes. Due to the time delay from when the effect began and the fact that he says this was my first guest chair 3 etc the audience do not recall that he was actually the fourth, very clever. We then come to the lady, chair 7, guest three. Note he specifically asks for a lady because everything has gone well so far and he wants to use the rose. Now for the reason one lady is left on stage at the end of the routine without mention. If, by any chance the first lady called does not choose the rose but another chair it does not matter in terms of the calendar prediction but it does for the guest reveal. If a man had chosen chair 7 at the end of the routine he would have turned the chair around and said; “And of course I knew

beforehand one lady would have been left without a chair and I have a flower for you” So that solves the Rose and

remaining spectator.

As the video does not show what happened to the remaining lady no mention is made of her. Again to reinforce this in the spectator’s mindset he uses a clever ploy. At this point he points to the chairs that are turned around that reveal first guest, second guest, third guest, rose and says;” That’s one, two,

three, four and of course this must have been my fifth guest (as he turns chair around), and this was my sixth guest” as chair turned around. In fact chair four was the

FOURTH GUEST but again due to the time misdirection this is not noticed and by calling out one, two three, four it merely reinforces to the audience this must by five! He then says;” And do you remember what I said, I had no

choice, this had to be my chair, and I did know that because that’s exactly what I said my chair”. This has been covered with the “my chair” ploy.

As you can see the routine relies on several variables the choice of the first and last chair, the mixture of male/female guests and good old psychological word play. It plays out into what I think is a very clever routine which would fool most audiences unless you have the benefit of backtracking with a video Its very difficult to fathom out. Remember of course the audience HAVE NO IDEA what the outcome is going to be which gives you a lot of rope for difficult outcomes. For example you could do the whole routine and just have the “My chair” as a finish or a rose for the lady, or just the number sequence. On the tape he uses the calendar outcome for patter, but knowing David I am sure he has other number outcomes such as 364 days in leap year, plus 1 is 365 etc, I think you get the point. In this worst case scenario he may just do a number reveal or even prediction hidden off stage. Anyway I hope you found this analysis of a Great performer and thinker interesting and I hope I have stimulated your mental juices. Please note The DAVID BERGLAS chair routine is HIS ROUTINE don’t copy it verbatim, get ideas, create and develop your own. This may not be reproduced in any form with out my express permission, nor may it be posted on the internet, or discussed with other magicians or individuals without prior consent. Take care! Ian Broadmore Copyright 2005.