Colin Mcleod - No Sh_t

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lntroduction Bookless Test Addition

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Mgmories,..

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Hot and Clean Q&A

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Billet Ballet

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Matter of Timing

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It's Time.,.

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Sottery

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Thank \flous I want to express a massive thank you to both Marc Paul and Kevin McMahon, two very good friends of mine who kindly proof read this rnanuscript at the drop of a hat, to make sure it was ready in time for MindVentlon. I'm VERY grate{ul for their help, as I can assure you there were a mountain of errors in here before they took the time to study it! Noi only are they two of the greatest performers in their respective fields, their knowledge of the English language is also far superior to mine. (And thanks to Nic for helping me proof read the Thank Yous')

@All copyright owned in its entirety by Colin Mcleod, October 2010.

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lntroduction What an incredible year 2010 has turned out to be! I got to the end of 2009 and was lucky enough to perform to a sell-out audience at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, a truly prestigious venue which presents some of the worlds most renowned performers. I

remember leaving the venue that night wondering

il

2010 would be anywhere near as

good...

This year has quite simply been phenomenal! From becoming an owner of the Motivational Speaking company l've been working for, for the past four years, to being invited back to lecture at Tabula Mentis in March (which turned out to mean I was the first person to lecture there twice, as well as being the youngest!). Then on top of this, I was lucky enough to be invited to perform at the first ever Edinburgh lnternational Magic Festival in July, which led to some incredible five star reviews and to being one of the closing acts in the final night gala show in the fabulous 650 seat Lyceum theatre ... it was truly awesome! ln August this year I flew down to London to film my first DVD project with Alakazam, performing and explaining some of my prized routines. lt was a wonderful experience and I'm truly grateful to Peter Nardi and Russ Stevens (and Chris and Mark!)... And now, on top of all this, l'm now just two weeks away (at this time of writing) from getting on a plane to fly out to the most prestigious Mentalism convention in the world.

My first time in Vegas, my first time at MindVention and lirst time meeting some of the people I've considered to be my idols since I was just 'a wee boy.' lt's surreal and exciting all at once! I'm sure we all have certain experiences in our mentalism careers that stand out as being things which have influenced the sort of performer we become, or at the very least, the direction on which we focus. For me there are four. Four moments which stand out and when you read what they are, I'm sure you'll understand why being invited to THIS MindVention is such a privilege for me.

The first was watching Bob Cassidy on his DVD, or video at the time, 'Mental Miracles' performing his 'Name and Place' routine. lt was the moment he was able to reveal that second piece of information, at that specilic moment. lt was totally inexplicable and I knew I had to learn exactly what was going on, The next was reading Banachek's 'Psychological Subtleties'... enough said!

I then had the pleasure of spending the 2003

Edinburgh Festival with Luke Jermay; watching him astound the audiences day after day. I was 16 at the time and he proved to me, there and then, that regardless of your age you can absolutely astonish people with Mentalism. I still remember everything he performed in his shows in great detail and even

back then, he was a master of our art. He went totally against the grain proving you didn't have to be older to convince people you were able to do these sorts of things, as well as performing some totally unique effects. I suppose that's what really gave me the confidence to start going out and performing shows packed full of my own material in my own performance style,

The final moment was watching Docc Hilford perform. His commanding and confident performing style really taught me how to be engaging and, I hope, interesting performer. He has the ability to take something which is quite simple and turn it into an astonishing performance piece purely using his personality, To now be performing and lecturing with these individuals ... it's a true honour.

l'm aware my friend Paul Stockman is also lecturing and I do feel a bit bad not referring to him, but maybe if he'd gotten his finger out and released his DVD a little earlier, I would have mentioned him here too!Although technically I've just done that .., crafty ;-) ,

So to be ending 2010 on such a massive high with my Mentalism career, l've got to start asking myself ... will 2011 be anywhere near as good?...

Booktress Test Addition This routine is one of the first things I ever created when I was 13 years old. Since then I have given this routine an incredible amount of thought to make it a real world worker. lt has long been one of the opening routines I use in my shows, simply because of how direct and simple it actually is. For me it brings together many of the elements I love in Mentalism. lt was also one of my earliest routines dealing with the concept of 'Dual Reality.'

I lronestly believe 'Dual Reality' to be one of the most devious ploys available in mentalism. We are only just scratching the surface of what is capable with this concept and I'm truly excited to see what, not only I come up with, but also what everyone else creates witlt this tecfrnique.

This following routine was taught by me in my lectures for many years now as well as appearing on my debut set of DVD's through Alakazam where I perform and teach the workings of the routine. During the period of filming the DVDs I'd started working on a newer presentation for this effect. At the time of filming this presentation wasn't perfect enough to be discussed, although a few variations were. However now, three months after filming the DVDs and after countless performances, I believe I have cracked the perfect presentation and staging for this routine.

lf anything, since creating this variation of the routine, it has made me want to perform it even more. lt now falls into the area of 'Macro effect,' and as the opener to my show it ticks every box I can think required to be fulfilled by an opening routine.

It involves everyone, it is direct, it is clean, it is impossible and ultimately, it is now entertaining to everyone watching.

The nrethod isn't really different from the original routine, however the structure of the reveals is, as well as an additional phase which is where the extra strength is added to the routine.

lf anything, I have taken the strongest elements of both versions discussed on the DVD and turned it into a truly astonishing routine ... even if I do say so myself!

Effect: An audience member is chosen at random by throwing out a ball of paper. They join you on stage and are asked to imagine they are opening a book and thinking of any word they can see. They remember the word they are thinking of, they are allowed to change their mind if they so desire, then close the book and imagine putting it back on the shelf. "You're now thinking of a word. I'm not going to read your mind. I want to see how many people here can!All I want you to do is tellthem how many letters are in the word you are thinking of! ... So can everyone now think of any four lettered word please!

Before I ask what word he is thinking of, I want to show all of you the word I was trying to make him think of..."

I now open a coloured envelope which has been on display the entire time and show a large piece of paper with a printed word inside. The word is'Love.'When I show this to the audience, they begin gasping as this is the word they were thinking of.

At this point, I am still holding the prediction straight out in front of myself and I now request that the person tells everyone what word they are thinking of.

It's at this point the audience discovers that the word in the envelope was the exact word the chosen person is thinking of.

Set Up: As you will see, the method and structure of the routine are similar to the original, however as you have hopefully already noticed, the strength of this routine comes from the fact that not only the person on stage was thinking of the word sealed in the envelope ... so did most of the audience!

For this routine, you will require the exact same props as the original. A'Sanada Gimmick' which has a piece of card stuck to the back of it with the words 'Cat,' 'Love' and 'House'

written on it. You will also need three multiple outs. The three I use are (i) to have the word 'Cat'printed

on the inside of the ball of paper. (ii) The word 'Love' is printed and sealed inside the envelope which is on display lrom the very beginning of the show and finally (iii) the word 'House' has been printed and folded into a pocket handkerchief shape and is kept sticking out of the breast jacket pocket. All three outs are now all incredibly accessible as well as being logically impressive to the climax of the routine.

As they are multiple outs, there is no one 'out' which is stronger than the rest. The audience will only ever see one version of this routine and to them, that should feel like the only possible outcome. This means that regardless of the word you are eventually required to use, you should appear confidenl and pleased with this choice.

Method: Begin by having all of your outs suitably placed about the stage and/or your person.

I keep the Sanada gimmick in my left trouser pocket allowing me to load it into my left hand in a finger palmed position when required.

a ball of paper, which has the word 'Cat'written on it. Someone in the audience catches it at random and this person joins you on stage. The ball is taken from them and placed on the table beside the envelope, which has the word 'Love'written inside it. I throw out

They are positioned on my right facing the back of the room as I ask them to... "lmagine you are walking into a bookshop and you can see two rows of books, a row on your left and a row on your right. You walk up to either side and you take any book off of any shelf,"

This script is important as during it you are using this time to casually flash your hands as being apparently empty a few times as you mime opening the doors to the book shop, pointing at the two rows of books and walking up to the book shelf and lifting out one book.

Everyone in the audience will now know there is nothing written on your hands. During this entire process, the Sanada gimmick has been in place in the left hand and will have been completely invisible, You now begin to condition the spectator to stare at your hands as they apparently make up pieces of information. "l want yotJ to look here and imagine you can see the title of the book, what is the book called?" The title of the book is created purely by them and their imagination. The fact the audience sees them having to think about this to create it begins to condition the audience at large to believe that every time they look at my hands and think of a piece of information, they are making it up themselves.

The process is repeated by having them look down and imagine a page number, You mime turning the pages a number of times to suggest again they have a tree choice of where to stop and to show again that your hands are still empty. You will notice the position of my hands is such that the Sanada gimmick is hidden underneath the right hand on the first two occasions.

On the third time of having them look down, I drop the Sanada gimmick into place and ask them to "look down and think of any word you can see, feel free to change your mind as many times as you like, but remember one word right now!"

I now ask them to imagine shutting the book and putting it back on the shelf. As I ask them

to imagine shutting the book, I am now loading the Sanada gimmick back into the left hand finger palm.

"So you're now thinking of a random word from a page of your choice from any book in the

world. Before you tell everyone what word you're thinking of, I want to see how many people here can read your mind and work out what word you are thinking of. The only clue I want you to give them though is this, to tell them how many letters are in yoLtr word." A few things are happening here all at once. By them saying how many letters are in their word, you are going to know which word they are thinking of without them having to outright say their word. lf they say "three" it's the word 'Cat,' "tot)r" is 'Love' and "five" is 'House.'

What this also does though is set up for

a logical psychological word force on the

audience.

Statistically, if you ask someone to think of a three letter word, they will think of 'Cat' or 'Dog.'A four letter word tends to be 'Love' and five letters is normally the word 'House.'

Therefore most of the audience will be thinking of the word the person on stage is apparently randomly thinking of too,

This adds to the dual reality effect the person on stage experiences. Not only will their word be shown to be predicted, the effect for them and most of the audience, now becomes the fact that they all thought of the same word. But let's not jump ahead. There is a structure for revealing the information for maximum impact.

Asking the audience to think of a word also acts as time misdirection for revealing the prediction. As you now know the number of letters in their word, you are now able to remove the desired multiple 'out' before anything is said. Once you have the audience thinking of, for example, a three letter word, you now remove the prediction and show it to the audience stating... "The word I was trying to make him think of was this word here. Did many of you pick up on this word too?" Naturally, there will be a big reaction as most of the audience will also now be thinking of this word. At this point though, the person on stage with you still has not seen the printed prediction yet, so the climax lo the routine now comes from asking them what word they are thinking of. When they name their word and it matches your prediction, there will be one final reaction to the full process.

The beauty of this handling is that you are showing your prediction to the audience before they have named their word out loud. The fact they named the number of letters in their word earlier means nothing to the audience at large and the person on stage will naturally forget this moment as it was justified by having the entire audience think about what word they were potentially thinking of.

ln my opinion, this is the absolute perfect way of performing this routine. You not only predict a freely chosen word, you seemingly predict it before the person thinking the word even names it, Furthermore, most of the audience also think of the same word as your prediction!! ln the original, after the word was thought of; it had to be named allowed and then the prediction was shown. Now, the structure has been massively improved theatrically and methodologically.

Looking back now, I feel slightly silly for not thinking of this handling sooner, it makes perfect sense to perform the routine in this way. Now that I have discovered it though, I truly believe that it lifts the full routine to the next level.

Memories... There are some effects in mentalism which are just instant classics. Routines so well designed that they become widely recognised as truly groundbreaking pieces of work; something which for years to come we can guarantee will be used by every performer at sometime within their own performances. One of these routines is without a doubt the astonishing 'Name and Place' routine created by Bob Cassidy. l'll never forget that day sitting at 14 years old having just bought 'Mental Miracles' and watching him perform this routine. I honestly don't think I can describe just how much this routine impressed me. I had absolutely no idea how it could be achieved. "Okay," I thought to myself, "l think I get how he knew what one person was thinking, but TWO?!" Thinking back right now, it was the first mentalism effect I had ever seen which made me realise that this is what I had to learn to do. After learning what he was actually doing, I also realised my theories were totally rediculous. His routine though was and is absolutely perfect. Once I learned how to perform it, I started doing it everywhere!

That was 10 years ago. ln that time, I have tweaked it ever so slightly with little nuances and touches which have allowed it to suit my performance style, Over this time, the method I use has changed slightly as has the routine. Bob Cassidy has very graciously given me permission to teach my method for the routine here in detail. I would highly recommend everyone learns the original routine as you will gain so much more insight from knowing both ...you may even find a mixture of both suits you better? So with that hopefully suitable build up, let us look at'Memories...'

Effect: You offer to perform 'mind reading' under test conditions. Everyone in the room is asked to think of a memory a time when they were happy and relaxed. They are to think of their memory in as much detail as they possibly can. Where they were, who they were with,

what they were doing, when it was, along with anything else which makes this memory so unique. I now choose one man at random and one woman.

"Often when you see psychics do this, they will be quite vague, I don't want to be like that, so imagine if I could really read your mind, lwant you to write down allthe key points about your memory you would want me to get right to prove I am really reading yoLtr mind"

Each person is given a piece of card and a pen and allowed to write about their memory. As they are doing this, I begin telling other people in the room facts about their memories. You can be incredibly accurate here and I will explore the scope of this later on.

Once both the man and woman have finished filling in the information, both cards are passed to a third member ol the audience who is sat somewhere near the front, I make it absolutely clear to the audience that at no point will I touch the 'test' piece of card which is still being held on to. "ln a moment you will hand one of the pieces of card to me. Whichever one you hand me we will tear it up and it will be out the game. We will only use the one which is left!"

One of the pieces of card will be handed to you and you tear it up handing the pieces to someone else in the front row. "l know you mixed them up, but do you have any idea which one you are still holding, whether it's the'Male'or'Female'piece of card? ... na? ... okay, don't unfold it, but if you have a look at the front of it, you will see that it either says the word 'Male'or the word 'Female'there ... what does it say?"

They look at the front of the card and announce it is the 'Male's'. "Great, then it's your random thought which has been chosen. I want you to look at me and think about your memory. Okay, I can see you smiling here, there are other people around about you and this is something which happened recently. Just focus in on the main person you are with. This is a man, yes? And he's wearing a light coloured top. He has shortish browny hair and you can see him walking towards you. ln your mind, just imagine calling on him, not just his first name, his first name AND surname..."

You now write down the name you believe he is thinking of in a large notepad and you hand this face-down to the person still holding the 'test' piece ol card. You open up the 'test'piece of card and announce to everyone the name being thought of. You now have the third person, the person who was looking after the billet and the person who is now holding onto the pad, to join you on stage, They are asked to look at what you have written down first. They will naturally be shocked and will almost instantly turn around the pad to show you got the name spot on! "l always feel bad leaving one person out. I've just proved I can do this under test

conditions, can I still try to get your exact thought though?"

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This is directed at the female member whose thought wasn't revealed. Of course she will agree. You are now able to reveal her exact thought in perfect detail. Where she was, what she was doing, who she was with.., EVERYTHING!

Set Up: Like I said in the introduction to this routine, the method really isn't a million miles away from the original, what I hope I have done is added some slight 'bits and pieces'which have made it more specific to my exact needs. All you will need for this routine are two billets, a note pad, a couple of pens and a larger marker with which to write on the pad with. There is a slight set up with the billets. They both have a rectangle drawn inside them which is where you will be directing the spectator to write their specific thought in a few moments.

Inside of billets: Draw a rectangle

The second piece of set up for the billets is to pre folded them ready to perform, in my case, Richard Osterlind's'Perfected Centre Tear'which can be found both in his book and on his 'Mind Mysteries' DVD - Volume 1. Although any centre tear will do. Once they have been folded, on the outside of your billet, you will write 'Male' on one of them and 'Female'on the other one. One point I would like to make is that I never'centre tear' my own business card. I feel that it shows you devaluing your business card and ultimately yourself. I tend to use promotional cards I've collected over a period of time from being on the road.

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Folded Billet Outside: Has'Male'and "Female'wriften on them

Both billets are nested one on top of the other and are kept in the same pocket as the pens which will be handed to both people. I use the clickable Sharpie as it saves any fumbling around, it stops the ink smudging when the billet is folded and it ensures everything is written big, bold and clear. The only other requirement is the pad and marker. I tend to keep the marker in the breast pocket on the outside of my jacket.

Method: The presentation is always exactly as described. I tend to begin this by talking about the genuine ability to read minds and people comparing what I do to being psychic. I explain that I honestly believe I am more accurate than the psychics I have seen and I can prove it under test conditions. A man and woman are picked at random. With a big audience I will make sure they are chosen in a random manner throwing something out, however in more intimate crowds I will simply pick two people from different sides of the room that I think will react really well. I ask them to stand.,.

lwant you to remember as much detail as possible, where you were, what you were doing, who you were with, how you felt,

"So yoLt are both thinking of a memory right now correct?

anything that happened ... basically everything you can! Both happy with that? Good! I know that's a lot to remember so here..."

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Give each a billet and a pen. IMPORTANT The male gets the billet with female on the front and the female gets the billet with male on the front. ...inside that box, can you write down the full name of the main person who was in your memory with you! Now around that box, write down everything else!AIlthat other information, write down as much as possible to help you remember it!" The reason they have the opposite billet to their gender will become apparent very soon.

Whilst they are filling in their billets I begin performing Q&A on the remainder of the audience. There are two ways that I do this; I either use cold reading or hot reading. Concerning the cold reading, I say things like... "Who here is thinking of a recent foreign holiday? lh seeing you on a sandy beach wearing flowery like shorts ... who is that? fPause until someone reacts and continue] And you're not there alone are you? Who is that you are with..."

or "l'm seeing someone here in a garden and there's a party going on, but it's not your party, it's someone younger than you like a child, and they are running towards you. There's also a barbeque and it is sunny but it's a little windy too ... who is thinking that? Brilliant and who is the child you are with?"

or "l'm also seeing someone in a massive crowd of people allsinging, oh wait, this is a concert! There's lots of cheering, it's hot, and you're with your friends ... who is thinking of that? And what band is it you're watching?"

lf no one reacts, there is a wonderful ploy l've seen a number of mentalists use, although in my case, I originally watched Derren Brown use it. When you throw out something to the audience and no one reacts to it, simply act as if someone has acknowledged what you said and smile in someone's general direction and then move on to someone else. lt will appear to everyone you got a hit as they never know exactly who you were referring to.

With regards to the 'Hot Reading' portion here, I will be explaining my exact technique for this in detail at the end of this effect ... hopefully something to look forward to! Once you have finished reading a few other people in the audience, I tend to only let this last as long as the two people standing take to fill in their billets properly, I instruct them both to fold it back up (suggesting they lold it back the way it was) and then they are both l3

to walk down and hand them to the person I elect in the front row. I make it clear so they understand I have never touched them! This third person who receives the billets is then asked to put them both behind their back and mix them up so they have absolutely no idea which one is which. I then explain that in a moment they will be handing one to me and the one which they hand me, we will tear u;r and put it out of the game.

They hand me one and I perform 'The Perfected Centre Tear' allowing me to peek the name which is on that billet. At this point I only know the name, not who was thinking of it, or which billet it was on, only the name. Two points regarding the centre tear. I only ever look at the billet to peek the information when looking down instructing the person to "cup your hand out in front." I am seemingly looking down to see when to drop the pieces of the billet, in fact I am using this natural opportunity to look at the desired information. I immediately look away again and drop all the pieces of the billet into their hand.

The other subtlety I use is to ask them to "keep tearing up the pieces." This allows me to later say that it was THEM who tore up the card. This helps the full process to be misremembered. I now move my attention back to the person in the front holding on to

the'test'billet. I now

ask them if they have any idea which one they are still holding, obviously they are going to sav "no" but it allows me to draw their attention to the front of the piece of card which will either state the word "Male" or "Female" on it. As it is them who is calling it out, it seems very open and fair as I've still gone nowhere near it.

This is the reason that both billets have been misnamed. This wonderful convincer ensures that everyone is apparently on track with the entire process. ln reality, you are using this to furlher the deception. Obviously if they say "Male" then you have just peeked the name the man is thinking of. lf they say "Female" then you have just peeked the name the woman is thinking of. Let's imagine that they have said they are holding the piece of card with 'Male'written on it. I will now ask the man to stand and I'll make it clear he was picked at random. I will now go on and explain the emotions and scene he is thinking of.

This is done quite simply because I told everyone at the start to think of a happy and relaxing memory, so I can now tell him this is something happy and relaxing ... easy! I will also take shots regarding the memory. lf I get two "r'ro's" I will then move on to revealing the exact name he is thinking of. When I know the first name and the surname I willtend to

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to walk down and hand them to the person I elect in the front row. I make it clear so they understand I have never touched them! This third person who receives the billets is then asked to put them both behind their back and mix them up so they have absolutely no idea which one is which. I then explain that in a moment they will be handing one to me and the one which they hand me, we will tear up and put it out of the game.

They hand me one and I perform 'The Perfected Centre Tear' allowing me to peek the name which is on that billet. At this point I only know the name, not who was thinking of it, or which billet it was on, only the name. Two points regarding the centre tear. I only ever look at the billet to peek the information when looking down instructing the person to "cup your hand out in front." I am seemingly looking down to see when to drop the pieces of the billet, in fact I am using this natural opportunity to look at the desired information. I immediately look away again and drop all the pieces of the billet into their hand.

The other subtlety I use is to ask them to "keep tearing up the pieces." This allows me to later say that it was THEM who tore up the card. This helps the full process to be misremembered. I now move my attention back to the person in the front holding on to

the'test'billet. I now

ask them if they have any idea which one they are still holding, obviously they are going to say "no" but it allows me to draw their attention to the front of the piece of card which will either state the word "Male" or "Female" on it. As it is them who is calling it out, it seems very open and fair as l've still gone nowhere near it.

This is the reason that both billets have been misnamed. This wonderful convincer ensures that everyone is apparently on track with the entire process. ln reality, you are using this to further the deception. Obviously if they say "Male" then you have just peeked the name the man is thinking of. lf they say "Female" then you have just peeked the name the woman is thinking of. Let's imagine that they have said they are holding the piece of card with 'Male'written on it. I will now ask the man to stand and I'll make it clear he was picked at random. I will now go on and explain the emotions and scene he is thinking of.

This is done quite simply because I told everyone at the start to think of a happy and relaxing memory, so I can now tell him this is something happy and relaxing ... easy! I will also take shots regarding the memory. lf I get trvo "no's" I will then move on to revealing the exact name he is thinking of. When I know the first name and the surname I willtend to

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reveal the first name verbally and then write the second name down on the pad' Othenryise, with just the first name written, this is what will be written on the pad'

Once I have written this name on the pad, I keep it face down and hand it to the person holding the billet, an exchange, so they know I can't swap what l've written, but also so I can see what exactly they were thinking of ! Let's imagine the name I peeked while doing the centre tear was "Tim Harrison." I would have used the name 'Tim'during the reveal and written 'Harrison'on the pad. When I take the billet from the person in the front row I will open the billet and now miscall the name which is actually written there and say "Tim Harrison." new name and the facts of the memory. The way of doing this is quite simple, but you must make sure you properly remember the name. lt's the crucial part. Anything else is a bonus!

I now need to have a few moments to memorise the

To give myself time to memorise the information I simply ask them, the person whose thought has just been written on the pad, to "tell everyone what this memory is about". They will be telling everyone about the memory as l'm apparently reading it on the billet' What l'm reading is the other person's memory. This looks exactly as it should though. Once I'm happy l've got at the information I simply tear up the billet and hand the pieces to the same person who is holding the original pieces from the first torn billel. This way, if they try to put it back together later, they will find everything is as it should be!

t now ask them to clearly call out the surname, again to make sure

everyone knows exactly what it is and how it is spelt. I ask the person holding the pad to join me on stage and I allow them to look at it first. This obviously means they are going to react first which sets the audience up to also become ready to react. The pad is now turned around and everyone can see I got the name spot on. "l'!! be honest, t always feet realty bad teaving one person oLJt, so [refer to female] I'm not

going to read your mind ... they are! [referring to the third party who is now on stage]..."

Spectator as Mind Reader OPtion: There are a number of ways to make the spectator appear to be the mind reader however one of the most straightforward ways is as follows.

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I know the name being thought of at this point as well as the rest of the memory, I take the pad back and I write a list of live names on the pad. The name being thought of is written in position number two.

I now hand the pad back to the spectator and ask them to "look over the list of different names l've written there." I ask them to "imagine they are numbered lrom 1 ,2,3,4,5 ." all the way from the top to the bottom." This implies that there are more than five names on there, however they understand I am telling them exactly what to do' I now use Equivoque to force the name at position number two. lt's really easy to do, even while standing at the other side of the stage as I know exactly where on the pad the 'number two name' is positioned ... it makes for some very easy pen reading / positioning reading.

The easiest Equivoque I can offer here is to tell lhem "We need to eliminate down until there is only one name teft on there, so be honest do you prefer the odds or evens?" lf they say 'evens' I say: "You prefer the evens? Then score out ALL the ODDS" lf they say 'odds' I say: "You prefer to eliminate the odds? Then score out ALL the ODDS"

You are now only left with the name at position two and the name at position four. So continue by saying... "Put the pen beside any of the names which is \eft."

lf they put the pen at position there."

lwo

"Circle that name and score out every other name on

lf they put the pen at position lour: "Now change your mind and move it, put a circle on the

name you're on now and score out every other name on there'"

The reason I like this is that later it seems like they circled a name at random and they scored out LOTS of others. lf they put the pen beside number four and I said "score out that name too and circle the one that's left", this is telling the audience that there weren't many names there. So by having them change their mind, only they will ever know there were only two names left at that point and to them you can't know what they are thinking of as you're standing at the other side of the stage apparently looking away. ln reality, you only need to turn around to see which name they put the pen beside' Once we're left with the number two name, the force name, I ask them to remember it, tear off that page without letting anyone see which one they're left with and to wriite the name they are thinking of much bigger on the next page in the pad.

16

I now ask the female, in this case, to say aloud the FIFIST NAME of the person she is thinking of. The spectator turns around the pad to show they got it spot on. I guarantee the person on stage will be amazed they've picked the right name ... so imagine how the audience will react! I like doing this here because it's clear to the audience I'm somehow making this process happen, but it adds a different layer to the presentation hopefully making me seem even more skillful.

As far as I can see, this really is the only flaw in the 'Spectator as Mind Reader'premise, however if you can be seen to guide them through this process, then I feel it is totally justifiable and doesnt take any credibility away from you as you are obviously facilitating this entire process.

Conclusion: The conclusion to the routine is the easiest part and remember you now get to end totally clean! I finish by asking the second person to stand, in this case the female. I continue to reveal their friend's surname. More than this, I also start revealing very specific things about their memory. lt is the perfect example of direct, test conditions mind reading. I would also like to add that it's sometinres worth holding off with this information until later

in the show. That little bit of time misdirection will help further the misremembering of exactly what happened allowing the ending to become even stronger and more impressive.

Final Thoughts: I think the reason I enjoy performing the routine so much is that I'm playing it as test conditions and getting to show how accurate I can be even wliile being scrutinised by tlre audience. Making it'test conditions'and apparently open and honest is what allows me to get ahead of them.

I'm also very proud of the simple but effective addition of writing 'Male'and 'Female'onto the biilets. Equalty this could be added to the original by writing 'Name'and 'Place,'which is how I started performing this. The other thing I like is that at the end, there is one person holding all ttre pieces of the billets so if they wanted to check everything was above board ... they can! t7

Again I want to mention how much this single routine has affected my mentalism career. I genuinely believe it to be the cleanest and most direct routine I have ever seen and what's even better is that it is so incredibly straight forward! The only issue I can imagine you thinking about now is "whal if someone spots the 'Male' and 'Female' written on the billets" ... honestly! lt hasn't happened! I can't see why it would. I give the billets out and have them open them straight away, then closed straight away and then handed to someone else, There is no time lor them to examine the billets. Remember they are standing up and all attention is on them. They have been given very specific instructions about how I want the billets filled in. Furthermore, this is written on the outside of the billet in a slightly camouflaged area. lt is written bold and clear with a Sharpie, but unless you were directed towards it, it would go unnoticed.

ln discussing this routine with my good friend Marc Paul, we found that we've

both stumbled across this similar handling for the routine. Marc has very kindly allowed me to give you his structure for revealing the second piece of information.

Marc performs this routine towards the end of his show and states that, due to time constraints, he's only going to have time to reveal one piece of information, This justifies tearing up one of the billets. After revealing the first piece of information, he closes his shows, receives his applause and walks off stage. As the audience are still applauding, he walks back on and as an encore piece, quickly reveals the other piece of information. This is well worth considering as obviously, stepping on the applause and doing something even more impressive will only encourage the audience to react even more positively. Furthermore, it's an incredibly strong way to end your show.

l8

Hot and Clean Q&A The following technique is something which I have been using lor a number of years to pedorm what I consider to be a very clean Q&A. This technique can either be used live, or pre-show.

Essentially it will allow you to have anyone in the room stand up whereupon you can tell them incredibly accurate things about themselves and they will confirm you never spoke to them before the show. This came out of the idea of having someone else do my Q&A pre-show work for me. Then as I started to travel more and more, I didn't always have someone with me, so it got me thinking ... what if I flip this on its head!

What if instead of someone else getting the information for me, it is someone else giving the information to me .., confused? Let me explain. Before the show, I would walk up to someone (for some reason I'm a massive fan of catching people at corporate events as they leave the room to nip to the toilet ... always worked well for me; weird, but true!) and I would ask them how their night was and I would then say... "Later on in the show I'm going to need the help of lots of different people to guess things about them! Don't worry, I promise I won't use you if you can help me with this. Basically, I want you to think about someone you are here with tonight, got someone in mind? Great,

then all I want you to do is to write down their name, and a few facts about them that I couldn't possibly know, names of wife, kids, address, phone nltmber, if there are a few funny stories, write them down too!"

What am I doing here? I'm gefiing the information from a third party! lt's the exact same technique I previously used directly on the person I would use during the show, but now the person I'm reading truly has no clue how I found out the information about them! What also makes this great is that the person you are asking is more relieved to give you information as you have told them, by helping you; they will then not be used for this part of the show. They are now going to go out of their way to give you 'good stutf'to use in the show, especially when you ask for funny stories too! This is something that the person would never have given you directly! This isn't designed to embarrass them at all. lt is designed to make this process as entertaining as possible! You also want to make sure that this person doesn't just go back and blurt this out, so you want to say: 19

"...obviously don't go back and tell anyone about this because I might not have time to use him and also it will spoilthe surprise! But now that you are thinking about them lwilt either pick it up mentally from you or him! He'll thittk f'm reading his mind, you know I'llactually be reading yours!"

It's pretty bold and n'lakes sense as well as ensuring that he doesn't just go back and tell everyone! lt also later makes sense to him that you will be reading his mind and you can explain that's why you asked hirn to write it down now, so he is ready to be thinking about it later. I often throw in that if they want to just read over it a few times to get it clear in their mind then get rid of it by burning it outside, or flushing it away, then they know that no one else will ever see it. Obviously, not essential, but it's nice to give them the option to destroy the evidence themselves!

I did say that l've also used this real time, during Banachek's Q&A. When I perform his routine I only hand out about ten or twenty billets depending on the size of the room. The people who get one are instructed to stand and fill it in.

lf you're not familiar with Banachek's routine, it is essentially in two parts which

helps

disguise the method. Part one is all about getting the audience to write down some facts before having someone else choose one at random and focus on it. The point of this first part is clearly that you allow them to think of someone else's thought. The second part is the very clean Q&A portion. So this is what the full process becomes about, thinking of other people's thoughts! When those ten or twenty people get their billet and stand up and it says on it at the top ... '1'hink of someone you are herc with tonight and write down their name, date of birth and twa interesting facts about them" that is exactly what they do, because that's what you're saying the whole process is about.

this allows you to do, during part two of the routine (the actual Q&A portion) is to have them state they haven't met you before or told you any information about themselves \A/hat

or written anything down, etc.., lt makes it seem very clean!

This is also the exact same principle as the pre-show use of this technique. You can have tl^re people confirm you haven't met them before. You can then go on and reveal all the fercts about them! What you will find is that other people are better at giving you interesting pfleces of information than the individual is! I put it down to modesty!

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The only other subtlety I can give while performing Q&A, especially pre-show, is that before you start, you explain to the entire audience that because psychics are often vague and you want to be specific, you want everyone in the room to bring out a piece of paper or a receipt from their pocket or purse and to actually write down the things they would want you to know about them if you could really read their minds! lf they don't have a piece of paper, they can type it into their phone. Give them all a minute to do this. This ensures later on that not only have you proven beyond any reasonable doubt you can really do it, if anyone later says "oh yeah he asked me to write this down on a piece of paper before the show" everyone is thinking "well yeah, he asked us all to write these things down!" lt cleans itsell up nicely!

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Billet Ballet... An endeavour justifying a billet's use, and a Quest: to making them psychologically invisible.

The use of billets obviously dates back to before Annemann. My personal view is that if they were good enough for Annemann, then they are certainly good enough for me.

We have clearly come a long way since the times of Annemann, especially with the techniques we use to execute our peeks, however even with these immense advances in technique, there are stillvery few people using them in the realworld. I have been working with billets now in my professional work for roughly ten years, so l'd like to offer my views and touches in case they're of interest to someone else out there and also to encourage you to further consider their usefulness.

The basic idea in mentalism is to have someone think of a thought and then you reveal There are of course many ways to do this.

it.

Firstly, we have cold reading systems. These are ways of genuinely being able to tell people specific things about their life. The only problem (problem isn't the right word as they do serye their purpose when giving a reading / analysis) is that the information revealed isn't always necessarily the specific piece of information being thought of at that exact moment in time.

The other path to consider would be that of having someone think of a specific thought and like in the example above, you can give a cold reading to read various parts of the spectators mind. Then, when dealing with the specific piece of information, you write it down on a pad first and then have them name it loud. You would then simply have to nail write this information in. Okay, that may sound poor, however look at it again. You are beginning by using the cold reading to tell the person things which only exist inside their head. You have therefore proven yourself. Now it is time for that spectator to prove they aren't just agreeing with you

to help make you look good. So when you have them think of a specific thought, it seems like you are performing under test conditions and you are writing it down first to make it all tav.

The problem with this though is that it is a little bit suspicious doing this repeatedly, however, for a convincing little piece to add into the middle of a genuine Q&A routine, throwing out a ball of paper to choose a genuinely random person, it would fit the bill perfectly.

That leads us back to where we started. Billet work. Billets quite simply allow for some of the most extraordinary experiences that your spectator will ever experience. However, it is important you consider how it is framed. You don't want them to feel like this is some cheap trick. lt must be built up and approached with the frame of mind that what you are about to attempt is real and all part of a process.

When I first started using billets, my worry was that the audience, spectator, client, etc,, must be thinking I'd somehow seen what they'd written, however after doing this a number of times with a well practiced peek method, people forgot about the piece of paper and purely renrembered the experience. So when first practicing this technique, I give the advice l've heard people give to other people learning the Classic Force with cards. Use it witl'lin routines where it doesn't matter. Something, where if you miss, you go on and do something else. Well, almost. With billet peeking, I suggest you use it within routines where even if you knew the information, you still couldn't have achieved the outcome. Two routines I will recommend for this are Richard Osterlind's Watch Routine, and Docc Hilford's E'Voque. Here you will build up the confidence of using your learnt peek in front of real people, and it will not change the outcome of the routine.

The next important point I feel with billets is that if you are going to use them, is to make sure that it wasnt your original intention to use them, lf anything, this is an after thought to assist the person in concentrating. tf I had to read aloud to you a list of objects right now, chances are you would remember the first few, and the final few. The middle portion becomes blurred. That is exactly what happens with any effect you do.

The lead in will be remembered, as will the outcome, however the middle portion will become blurred. It is therefore important to have the spectator think of the thought in their mind, and really try to separate it from everything else they could possibly be thinking of. I usually have some fun with this and say "so don't now think about your rate of breathing, or how tight yaur shoes feel around your feet, only concentrate on your thought."

What does this do? You are using suggestive language to force the spectator to think about their breathing and their shoes around their feet, etc..,. Give them a few seconds, then say "Here, to make it easy for you, why don't you write it down."

2-)

The writing it down is not only an afterthought, it has been done to help the person concentrate more easily. I then follow this straight up by saying: "The mind processes millions of different thoughts every second, from managing tiny movements of the body, to thinking about what you want to eat tonight. Things which you aren't even aware of consciously. By writing it down you separate it from all of these

insignificant things because you can think about it and visualise it now."

This is said to everyone else watching as the spectator is writing down their thought, and helps them to understand how the mind works and why you are having them write it down. Another important point I've found from studying human behavior, is that...

Justification

= Acceptance.

,..and when you accept something, you no longer think about it.

An example of this is at traffic lights. When the lights are at red, you don't go. This has been justilied to you because it allows traffic to flow more easily and you accept it. So now when you see a red light you don't even think about it, you just accept it for what it is and stop.

It's the same with writing things down, You probably took notes at school to help you remember things. I know many people say this within their presentations using billets and while I think that works for some people, I'm lar more comfortable using my script above. lt evokes interest and further diverts the attention from the billet.

When using billets, the main thing to remember is that they aren't important. ln fact I recommend you forget about them, because then so will your spectators. lt's like a magician who learns a technique and then executes it without thinking about it. That is how I feel billet moves should flow. They should happen without any thought being paid to them. Richard Osterlind has written and spoken a lot about the processes of really believing in the magic. lf you can believe you are doing it for real, then so will your spectators. I feel this works two fold with billet work.

ln magic, the mental process is to believe what you are doing is real, the mental process when handling a billet is that the billet isn't important. This is an attitude which will come over time with the confidence in handling billets in front of real people, and I've already recommended ways of doing this.

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The second mental process after dealing with the billet is that the mind reading is only beginning after you've got the billet out of the way and this leads to the end of the effect. Your mental process here should be that you are really in the person's head, and I use a fair amount of cold reading while revealing the written down thought.

So as mentioned, they will remember the start of the effect, where they think of the thought, and the end where you reveal it. The middle section of them writing it down will fade.

The most effective way of having people forget the middle section with the billet is to down play it and to have it in play for as little time as possible. lf you can imagine the full routine with the billet is made up of peaks and troughs. The presentation will be the starting portion where the interest is high, but beginning to dip and this is when you invest time having them think of the thought, separating it from everything else. The trough is then when the billet comes into play. The final peak is when you reveal the thought. Now lhat I have hopefully convinced you that the writing it down is justified, we move to the more difficult part which is the performer justifying handling the billet,

I have gone through a number of justifications over the years and I would like to discuss each in detail, because I feel each really becomes fully accepted with the handing and scripting I'll provide. I would like to point out that after having the spectator write something down, I have them fold it back up and then sit it like a little tent on the table "so it stays closed." I

then have them put the lid back on my pen, and as they are doing so, I pick up the billet.

My reasons for this are, it not only gets the spectator's guard down concerning the billet, it also misdirects their attention from the billet. By having them sit it on the table and not hand it straight to you, it makes it appear slightly fairer because it suggests that you are not immediately interested in the billet. They are also letting their guard down because you are having them sit it on the table, you are in no way suggesting you want to see it, touch it, or go near it...which you really do. lt also means they are no longer physically in control of it and so can't just say "No I don't want to give it to you."

lf you were to, at this point, just to pick it up, they may think that you were going to do something; however by having them put the lid back on the pen, it completely diverts their attention and gives you a beat where their focus will be off this billet.

25

This must be done in a natural manner because if you make it look suspicious, it will just draw more attention to the billet itself. Your mental process should still be that the billet is incredibly unimportant, Handle it the way you would a scrap of paper, barely paying it any attention.

So in all the following explanations, remember that the billet begins by having the spectator place the billet down on a table or chair.

The Centre Tear... "We better tear this up so you that neither l, nor anyone else will see this later."

This line suggests that now they have written their thought and can concentrate on it, the billet is no longer needed. I also say that l, nor anyone else, will see it later. This suggests no one will be looking at it now. When tearing it, I also apparently struggle a little bit. This suggests that tearing it is difficult, and I never wanted to ask the spectator to tear it because they may have been embarrassed if they couldn't do it. It also justifies the moment I look down to get the peek...l am struggling with the pieces after all, or as I go to put them into someone else's cupped hands, or a glass... "That way if anyone does want to check these pieces later because they don't believe you, then it serues them right to have to put them back together to check."

This implies that a secondary reason for them writing it down is in case someone thinks they are lying and so that person can check. You are also setting a tone whereby the person who has written down the thought would be offended should anyone not believe that's what they were thinking and by saying that this person should have to put them together, it feels like a form of punishment, but further helps cover the tear. "Tearing it up like this basically simulates how I see it in your mind. Alltiny sections of information and it's my task to piece them together in the right order to see the full picture."

I would use this as I ditched the pieces onto the table, or into the spectator's hand. This sets up the mind reading which is about to take place. For completeness, since writing this original work on billets, I've started using the subtlety of having someone else carry on tearing the billet, this way I can later have them confirm that it was THEM who tore up the paper and are still holding this pieces in their hands.

26

I begin by tearing up the billet and then I gesture to someone and ask "Would you mind tearing this up for me? Good, just hold your hands out like a little cup in front of you" as I apparently look down to see where their cupped hands are, what l'm doing is using this moment to also peek the information in the billet. lt's perfectly natural and completely justified. It also means that later everyone will remember it was the other spectator who tore up this billet and they are still holding on to it.

Something else I would also like to mention is that when performing the centre tear, you should NOT use your own business card. To been seen to be tearing up your business card shows you don't value your card and as a result I feel it is suggesting to others that you don't really value what you do. I highly recommend you either get blank business card stock, or you start collecting those promotional bits of cards people typically bin and use them.

Billet Peeks in General... l've found that the best reasons for picking up a billet are to either show you can't see through it, to put it somewhere new or to pass it somewhere or to someone. The other reason, which I first saw performed by Banachek, is to write something else on it.

Beginning with the latter, let's assume that you're using a Busch's Billet, Bellon Half Peek, Acidus Novus (thank you Mr. Longmann ;-) ) style peek where you can only see half the billet and it is folded into quarters. After having a person's thought written down and placed on to the table, you pick the billet up and gesture to the front where you ask the spectator to write down their star sign. As you point to the front of the billet, which is where the spectator thinks you are looking, you are actually peeking their information.

You have fully justified touching the billet because you are giving the spectator further instructions. This also misdirects their attention from the fact you are even touching the billet as they are now thinking about something else. Once they have written the star sign on the outside quarter, you get them to fold it in half again straight away and then place it away in their pocket.

just written a short autobiography on your life in that little book. The best autobiography of your life though is in your mind, that's what l'm going to try to read now." "You've

This is great because the way it is later remembered is that they have written all of this down and you never touched it and were able to reveal things you couldn't have known.

2',7

The star sign is revealed simply by using an anagram, however when it is again mixed in with cold reading, it is the perfect cover for the full mind reading process. What really makes this perfect is the fact you do reveal the star sign, which you couldn't have known because you never touched the billet. So if you knew that without touching it, surely you knew the first piece of information without touching it too! Another method would be to pass the billet from one person to another. This could either be done to keep it safe by having the second spectator hold on to it, or to have them read the thought so they are thinking about something they never knew they'd be thinking of. This would make sense if you are presenting the routine by asking someone to think of something totally random. The best way to do this would be to have them think of someone else's thought, This is the perfect reason for the information being written down. Or finally, a mixture of both. Pass it to someone else so that you can try to read it from the first person and if you can't pick it up from them, then you can always try to get the thought from the second spectator. Another favorite method is to pick up the billet to put it somewhere else, somewhere 'more secure.'When using this close up, there are normally empty glasses around, so in the one swift'moment', I will pick up the billet at the same time as the glass, I aim the billet behind the glass, and put both in my line of sight, so that as I ask the people at the table, "that isn't reflective is it?" it looks like I am looking at the glass, really I am peeking the information. I then turn my head away as I crumple up the billet and put the glass over the top of it. lt seems like l'm trying to be as fair as possible, while again misdirecting them from looking at the billet while I peek the information. While watching the Allen Zingg'Billet Course' he had a presentation for a routine involving a pendulum, I noticed something wonderful he used, however have no idea if it was intentional or not. lt was an idea I think dates back to Guy Bavli's clipboards, where the pens are attached to the clipboards and he asks for the pen back, not the actual clipboard. After the spectator has written down their thought and folded it up, you ask them to put it under the pen's clip to hold it shut. Once it is clipped, talk for a moment about how you will try to 'receive'their thought. Then ask "May I have that back?". Hold your hand back out expecting it back right away. Doing both, asking and holding out your hand, won't give them a chance to refuse as it is more a demand stated in a polite tone. To the spectator it sounds like you want both things back and when you see them starting

to hand them both, look away as you say something else. Then look back and notice that the billet is still clipped to the pen. Unclip the billet to give back to them, getting the peek 28

as you unclip it, then continue by looking away and saying "hold on to this because I dan't even want to touch it." lt all happens naturally and only lasts about five or six seconds in total, so it very quickly becomes forgotten about as its apparently a mistake on the spectators part which you have rectified,

The ultimate way of having the billet forgotten about is to have a strong presentation. lf you can have someone feel like you have been inside their head by not only revealing the thought, but also other things there's no way you could have known, it will only lurther show the billet is worthless. After every peek or tear, I will immediately hand it to the spectator saying "Will you hold on to this because I don't even want to touch it!"

Said apologetically, this line further suggests that you don't want to touch it incase they think you do somehow accidentally see it. My final thought on billet work is to genuinely intend on not using them. Set out by trying to get the thought for real. There are only so many things people can think ol anyway and you can help limit their choice by guiding them to think of certain things. lf you clearly aren't hitting it exactly, you can then go on and deliver, as I do, the reasoning of separating the thought. Whilst using the billet will hopefully now be invisible, think of all the times you

might actually hit the thought...

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A Matter of Timing... This is a routine of mine which has long been one of my strongest opening pieces, especially in impromptu situations. lt first appeared in my lecture notes lor 'Tabula Mentis' in London in March 2010. Since writing those notes, I have added to the presentation of the effect which I personally feel makes it even more impressive to the audience, as well as streamlining the method.

I feel this is the one routine in those notes people probably overlooked as it really

is

incredibly simple but it plays so wonderfully big! So before we move forward and look at how I perform this routine now, let us understand the original routine.

The routine involved borrowing a watch from someone in the audience and I would spin the hands on the watch while they looked at it and called stop a number of times. The times stopped on are remembered by different people in the audience. After seven or eight times have been stopped on, one of those people is chosen at random and their time matched the time which had been printed on a piece of paper which has been on view the entire time. This is truly a routine that packs so small and plays huge in front of a real audience. The basic method involves spinning the watch and forcing the times which are stopped on by spinning the hands to predetermined times and then not really spinning the hands anymore. The blocking on stage is such that the spectator still believes they are watching you spin the crown, in reality, the hands never move,

All times stopped on match an index in your pocket loaded full of different outcomes. lt then becomes a simple matter of either removing the correct billet from your pocket, or palming it and removing it from an Ostin Clip making it appear that this billet was on display the entire time.

Since then,

I have modified the handling, making it more

direct and hopefully slightly

stronger.

this routine to appear the same way and play just as strong, however I wanted to add a more impressive revelation and at the same time, I wanted to eliminate the requirement for carrying an index. I wanted

I

wanted to have the prediction on display from the beginning of the routine but not properly revealed until the end.

30

Effect: "For this demonstration l'm going to require some help... "at which point a piece of paper is removed from the performers pocket and unfolded to reveal the word help as shown below...

rl I "...bttt really, I need the help of someone wearing a watch, would you mind helping me with this..."

The spectator joins you on stage and you explain that in a moment, they will choose someone in the audience, they will stand and the person who is on stage with you will start spinning the hands of their watch. Whenever the person standing calls stop, the exact time will be called out and remembered by the member of the audience standing.

As a practice you spin the hands of the watch and the person on stage calls stop, the time they've stopped on is remembered by someone of their choosing in the audience. This person stands and is instructed to remember that time ... let's say it was 7:34. The watch is now given back to them and they choose someone else to stand. They now begin spinning the hands of the watch until the person in the audience calls stop and they now tellthem the time which is on the watch. This is repeated until five or six people are standing tlrinking of different times. You recap what has happened, explaining that they could all be thinking of any random time right now. You now ask the person on stage with you; whose watch you borrowed for the routine, to turn their back to the audience and then eliminate audience members untilonly one is left standing. 3l

This remaining person announces their time and you reveal that this is the exact time you were hoping would be chosen. Obviously no one in the audience seems very impressed, until you now reveal that the prediction with this time on it, which has been staring them in the face all along...

Set Up: The only thing you will require to perform this routine is the above prediction and a stooge in your audience who has been trained to stop the watch on specific times, Not really! Just the prediction and spectator in your audience wearing an analogue watch. lt really is as simple as that! So technically if you have this printed out on a sheet of 44 paper folded and kept in your wallet, you have a ten minute stage performance piece ready to perform at any time.

Method: The method for this routine has been designed to be as direct and as simple as possible. This routine is purely about the presentation and the impact it has using an entire audience and a spectator on stage making all the choices. ln its simplest form, the method for this routine is a force and then another force all hidden with loads of incredibly free choices. To begin with, you will notice that the prediction when turned upside down reads "Pick 7'.34." This of course is shown in the beginning to say the word HELP!! This is then cast aside as apparently a very weak gag however in the conclusion of the effect it's going to be shown to be an incredibly strong prediction.

As l've already mentioned, the only other thing you will require for this routine is the spectator wearing an analogue watch. They join you on stage and you run them through what it is they are required to do with their watch.

32

This 'run through' phase is when you are setting up for the climax of the routine. When you take their watch from them and spin the hands, allow them to see the hands spinning until it gets to exactly 7:34, then simply move your thumb over the face of the watch and mime continuing to turn the crown.

Whenever they say stop, show them the face and explain they are to name the EXACT time the watch has been set to. Explain this is crucial to make sure everything is fair and random. Have them announce the time the watch has been set to after explaining "as you can see, it's right before 7:35,"lhis obviously is forcing them to say 7:34.

They choose someone random in the audience to stand and they are requested to remember this time. The person standing is the only person you need to remember, they are the person you will be forcing later.

The watch is now handed over to the owner on stage as they now choose someone else

to stand and this person standing is allowed to call stop any time. Once they've called stop, they are given their time to remember from the watch.

This is repeated until five people are standing. As the process is ongoing, encourage the person in stage to choose a variety of people including male and female "try to make everyone you choose as different as possible." This makes it easier to force the correct person in the final phase. Let's assume that there are five people standing, two are men and three are female and they are all spread across the audience as shown below...

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Spectator

c

6

c

o @

You are now going to use Equivoque to make sure the desired person remains standing. There are a number of ways to do this; you truly have a number of options to make this run smoothly. First of all, have the spectator on stage turn their back so they are not sure exactly who they are picking. Chances are, if they could look at the five people standing, they will be more inclined to choose a specific person or a specific time, but because you want this all done at random, you have them turn away.

The simplest way of forcing the correct person is to number the people in the audience 1 to 5. Make sure the person with the force time is person number '2.'Also ensure that person number '4'is the opposite sex to person '2.' "We need ta eliminate down so that we are Ieft with just one person, what do you prefer,

odd or even?"

lf they say 'even'say: "You prefer the even? Okay, can the odd numbered people sit down please." lf they say 'add'say: "You want to eliminate the odd? Okay, can the odd numbered people sit down please." Regardless, you will now be left with number 2 and 4 still standing. One of them will be male and one a female. So you now simply need to state... "We're naw down to the last twa peaple, ane to go, so right now say either male or female, which ane feels right?"

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Let's imagine the person thinking of the force time is male. lf the person chooses "Male," say: "You think male feels more right? Then that's you! (turn ta the female and say) so you can sit down!"

lf the person chooses "Female," say: "Female, then you can sit down as well! So you've just eliminated everyone except one person..."

This person still standing is asked to announce their time and you explain that this is the exact time you wanted! Once you've ensured everyone has heard the time 7:34 clearly being named as the selected time, you congratulate both the person on stage who has been helping and the person in the audience remembering the time 7:34 as you allow both to take a seat. You look at the audience and state "YoLt're clearly not very impressed, but that was the exact time I wanted them to choose"... ...Keep totally silent, pick up the prediction and slowly revolve it 180 degrees...

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It's Time... I mentioned in my book'Contributions' I have a passion for'Time Machine'watches. I also mentioned that as well as the routine I taught in there, I have a lew others I use. What l'm about to reveal is by far my absolute favourite routine / subtlety for use with the watch.

l've called this 'lt's Time...' because it is the climax to the routine, as you will see, as well as me feeling it's the right time to release this presentation.

I love the 'Time Machine' watch. The concept is total genius. The challenge with it is

it

could potentially be seen as playing quite small! What I wanted to do was make it play to a stage audience of any size as well as having a more unexpected conclusion to the routine.

The routine and method won't take long to explain, however you will need to take the time to decide how you want to use / perform this routine.

Effect: The performer shows a chart of numbers which woman, men and children tend to think of, To then put this to the test, the performer removes his watch and sets it to a time. He then holds the watch by the strap at the fingertips and a man and woman are chosen at random to select a random hour and number ol minutes. The watch is turned around and shown to be very close! Remarkable in itself, but the climax comes at the end of the routine when those numbers from the chart at the beginning are shown lo reveal so much more!

Set Up: The requirements are nothing more than a Time Machine watch and the chart with the following numbers. Anyone with the ability to flip this book 180 degrees will already be beginning to see where l'm going with this.,.

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Method: As I mentioned in the introduction to this routine, there really isn't a lot which needs to be said about the workings as they are incredibly straight forward. What I would like to offer though are many subtleties which I've found help to fully enhance the routine. As far as being able to work the Time Machine watch, that is something which you will have to master yourself as every design of watch is slightly different. To begin the routine, show the chart explaining which numbers people tend to think of. The

bigger you draw or print this, the bigger this will obviously play. What you will notice is that when turned upside down, the prediction will clearly read '10 too high.'This is going to become the big finish to the entire piece. So before we go any further, let's take the routine right back to the start. I begin the routine by explaining that in a recent study, it has been found that most woman think of tlre nunrber 4914, rnen think of 007 and kids think of either 0 or 1, With this in mind, you offer to demonstrate this principle in action.

Remove your watch and apparently set it to the desired time. ln reality you are simply getting the watch into the ready position to change the time. 37

You now have a man "name any hour from 1 lo 12." Once he has named the hour, I allow the watch to begin spinning to near to the chosen hour. You will get plenty of time to do

this as you're about to turn to the female and ask her to think of the minutes. "l want you to think of the number of minutes you think I've set this to. I'll be honest and tell you that it's sitting on an exact number, so it could either be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 45, 55 or even on the hour ... which do you think it is?"

There are two reasons for this. First of all, as previously mentioned it will give you ample time to allow the hour hand to get to the right position. The other reason is that it makes the final climax seem more accurate rather than having to get into a debate about how accurate the minute hand was. As you will know by now, the final prediction reads'10 Too High'which allows you to set the minutes hand to the multiple of 5 which is 10 less than the actual number of minutes named by the female spectator. This again aids with the matter of 'killing time,'you don't need to wait as long to allow the watch to get the named number as you'll be setting it ten minutes earlier. Once you've got the time set, which as we now know is set ten minutes earlier, you want to reveal the time. The strongest way I've found of doing this is to choose one person in the audience to confirm the time. They don't come up on stage, You go to them, in the audience and you hold the watch in front of their face while they are still seated. Why?... They are reading out the time clearly enough for everyone to hear and while they are doing that, everyone else around them (normally the people at either side of them and the three people directly behind them) are also checking to see what time the watch is set at. This means that while the audience at large are hearing the time you've set your watch to, this is confirmed by the reaction of all the people around them.

The reaction will be fairly strong as it really isn't too lar ottl I look a little disappointed and mildly pleased all at once. You are now aiming towards the climax of the routine... "You were 10 too high ... just 10 too high!"

As I'm saying this, I am putting my watch back on and moving over to the prediction. I pick it up and look at the audience as I slowly revolve the prediction upside down showing that it clearly reads.,. "10 Too High." ... I can assure you the reaction will be incredible. J6

The beauty is that this routine doesn't just need to be done using a time machine watch. It's really relevant to any routine involving numbers. lt just so happens I love using the Time Machine watch and feel it offers a clear prediction which, as I've mentioned previously, many people can confirm all at the same time. What this prediction does mean though is that you have a logical reason to perform a routine with numbers as you are apparently testing the theory to find out if it is accurate. The routine also allows for the watch prediction to play big as the prediction now becomes visible to everyone watching.

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tottery This routine is probably one of my absolute favourites that I have ever created. lt's so sinrple and clean that I can't help but grin every time I perform it... I grin even more every time I teaclr it! This is the only routine which will still be available in writing since the release of my DVD that is still the same handling as on the DVD. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being that this will now be the only book I sell and I still want to have it in print as there are a few minor points which were missed frorn the explanation on the DVD which I want to include in here for completeness, This routine originally appeared in print in my lecture notes for my 'Tabula Mentis' lecture in London witlr Banachek and Mark Elsdon in March 2010. The original routine was developed in 20A7 afler finding out about Anthony Owen's routine 'Natural Lottery.' lt got me thinking what the perfect and cleanest version of this routine would be.

The routine, as I wanted it to look to the audience, was to hand out a Lottery ticket and have six people stand up and think of a number. Their numbers were then the exact numbers printed on my Lottery ticket. I wanted to make it as clean as this and totally hands off. That's roughly when everything started to click into place.

This routine was probably one of my previously most guarded routines. Once you spend the t'l on your lottery ticket, there is really nothing else you will ever have to prepare again.

Anyone who is familiar with my work will know that I am interested in methods which are purely psychological and as close to sure fire as possible. I feel that in certain situations, these methods can greatly improve the strength of any effect.

Let's take the classic 37 torce as an example. lt's a wonderful idea; however, it doesn't make sense. Why would you ask someone to think of a number between '1 and 50? ln my opinion, it just wouldn't happen. You'd either outright ask someone to think of any number or, at the very least, you would ask them to think of a two digit number.

I just so happened to be thinking about both the Lottery routine and the psychological force when I realised... You would ask someone to think of a number between 1 and 50 when it comes to playing the Lottery. Millions of people play the lottery every single week so this makes perlect sense. Not only does it make sense, it also allows for a very direct effect.

While the effect itself is incredibly simple, I want you to understand all the subtleties to ensure you achieve maximum impact with it and fully understand all the outs, You begin by removing a lottery ticket from your wallet and you give this to someone in the front row and ask they hold it up high so everyone can see it lor a lew moments, just to ensure everyone knows you don't change it, after all, you don't need to! You now ask six people to stand, three men and three women. The men will be forced the odd numbers and the woman will be forced the even numbers, I begin by stating...

"This is my lottery ticket, the same numbers I play every week. You're each going to think of a number and the number you choose will be the numbers written on that ticket." I begin with the ladies,,.

"Ladies, lwant you each to think of a two digit number between 1 and 50. Now to make sure none of you think of the same number as the men, can you make sure that with the number you choose, both digits are EVEN and not the same even digit. So 26 and 28

would work, but 44 wouldn't."

The reason I say these numbers is very specific. I have now eliminated them from the process. Also what this does though is that it means that most people will move away from choosing a number in the twenties as l've mentioned a few of them, but then brought their

attention to the lorties by mentioning 44.

24,46 or 48. The reason I have changed the numbers slightly from my original ticket (which you will see later) is that I find that in this situation, most peopte will be thinking of

I

believe by saying "26 and 28 will be fine" I am getting them thinking of numbers which end in a 6 and 8, therefore, more likely to think of the 46 or 48. You'll notice I've used this ploy with the odd numbers later too,

The only other number they can really think of is 42, but it doesn't come up very often, however I will explain how we can cover this later. With the men, it is the complete opposite... "With you guys, slightly different, I want you each to think of a number, make both digits

odd, but not the same odd digit. Like 15 and 17 would work, but 33 wouldn't."

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Again I've eliminated these numbers too; however, I find most men will think of 19, 35 or 37. With the men, there are slightly more numbers which could be thought of- 13, 31, 39, however they are rare! What this now means is that statistically, most if not all six people will be thinking of one of the psychologicalforce numbers printed upon the ticket... 19 24 35 37 46 48

I ask the person holding the ticket to now stand and face everyone. I tell the six people that six numbers are about to be named, but there is one person I am not sure about so ask them to keep a straight face and give nothing away when they are read out. This I

obviously means that as the numbers are read, no one reacts to any one specific number. This is the classic 'Tossed Out Deck'thinking ... thank you Mr. Hoy!

What I have also done here is said there is a person I wasn't sure about. This means if one person doesn't sit down later, I will have an out where I can name their number, if everyone sits down, no one will remember me saying it.

After all the numbers have been called out, I use Wayne Dobson's INCREDIBLE technique to make it seem like everyone was thinking of a different number. lnstead of asking everyone to sit down at the same time, you single everyone out and ask individually "lf I got your thought ... sit down NOW."

42

When they sit down, it will look like you've named their exact number. No one, including you, will ever know exactly what number they were thinking of, however by breaking the reveals up by asking each person individually, you first of all improve the impressiveness of the routine but also you make it appear to the audience that each person was thinking of a different one of the six numbers each.

At this point in 95% of shows, everyone will be sitting down, however if anyone is still standing, that's okay, you have options.

1- Accept you missed on their number and ask what it was, Then, either do nothing, adding a sense of realism to what you've just done, or have 4 multiple outs which all state something like "The person I wasn't sure about will be thinking of the number...." You only need four of these for the numbers 13, 31 , 39 and 42.

2- lf it's a female still standing, you know they are thinkingof 42, so you can just name it confidently after having them concentrate on it. lf it's a man, you can pump for the number stating... "Think of the two digits in your number ... is that a 3 and then it's 31.

a

1?" lf they react and say "YES!"

lf they say NO, then you know it's 39 and you can recover by saying "lt's not you're thinking of 39."

a 1, it's a g,

lf, when you ask, "ls that a 3 and a l"they hesitate and say "yes," then you know it's 13 they are thinking of. Simply say you are seeing the numbers the wrong way around, "You're thinking of 13 aren't yoLt!" One other idea I have added to the routine is that as the numbers are being read out by the person who has been holding the ticket, I write them all bigger on to a note pad. Later when I am using Wayne Dobson's ploy, I score off the numbers one at a time as each person sits down,

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This is done to further the illusion that I am correctly naming each person's number one at a time to the audience at large. As I score it off, I also say 'that's me got one right!", this means that to the other people still standing thinking of the numbers, they believe I am just scoring them off randomly to keep count of how many I've got right. For completeness, I feel the need to mention that I first created and started performing this routine back in 2007 and stopped for a while after Derren Brown performed his Lottery

routine on TV in the UK. I feel that enough time has passed now to be able to confidently perform this routine again without the audience feeling there is any crossover. You'll notice below that my numbers have changed slightly over time; however I do believe the numbers I use now are more accurate.

One of my earlier lottery tickets, dated 25th October 2008 ... you'll notice the slight dffirence in numbers, the reasons for which have been explained previously.

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