Imaginary Ball

THE IMAGINARY BALL MATT MELLO

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Effect: The performer drops an imagined ball and a spectator catches it with their eyes closed.

Introduction: This effect has gone through a few different transformations since the first idea came into my mind. In the beginning, I wanted it to be like a psychic game of catch, using an invisible ball that we would throw back and forth across the stage with the spectator’s eyes closed. However, it quickly became apparent that to get that ‘perfect catch’ moment, I would probably have to involve stooges in some way, which I never do if I can avoid it—and it usually can be avoided. So I decided to make the effect slightly smaller, where I would be in closer proximity to the participant, and see if I could create a way for them to know the exact moment to catch; without using a stooge and I also didn’t want to use invisible thread. What you have here is my bold and simple solution, which is always the best!

Presentation and Method: Nearly every show that I do starts with a quick group exercise of some kind. It’s important to engage everyone from the outset. In this routine, I have everyone in the audience look at their palm and visualize they’re holding an imaginary ball, making it any color they want. “If you imagined red, could you please stand with your hand out, and keep looking at the red ball that you see.” Feel free to say any color that you’d like, but I stick with red because it’s in my favor psychologically that many people will think of it. When a good number of people are standing, you’re going to go out and look at a few of them before making your selection. Whenever choosing someone at ‘random’, you should at least have them do something, and then choose based on your observations. Here you will be choosing a specific type of person—not a stooge— but I’ll explain in more detail at the end.

Passing by a few spectators, I finally choose someone who will work. “I think you will be perfect. And your name is?” “Jessie.” She answers, and I ask for a round of applause as we make our way up to the stage. I seat her in a chair facing the audience, with a small table in front of her. I ask Jessie to place her invisible ball on the empty table, and then tie a legitimate blindfold over her eyes. I ask, “Can you hold your hand out for me? Perfect. In a second, I’m going to drop your red ball, and when I say ‘now’, I’d like you to close your hand and catch it. Ready?” I wait a second, and then grab her ‘ball’ off the table and make a releasing motion with my thumb and first finger, saying, “Now.” And she closes her hand. This part of the routine could technically be skipped, but I think it’s important for a couple of reasons. Regardless of the fact that you’re giving vocal instructions, it still looks interesting, and it gives both the audience and the spectator a conditioning of what’s to happen and what to look for. It also creates a nice build-up, and makes doing it again in perfect silence that much more powerful. “Excellent! You can drop that ball onto the floor. And now this time, I’m not going to say when I’m dropping the ball, you’ll just have to sense it intuitively. It’s important that you don’t just close your hand…really wait until you feel it. It will almost be like a small vibration in your palm, but you will feel it. Here we go….” To any magicians in the crowd, this will seem like suggestion, but that isn’t how this works. Standing off to the left of the spectator, I grab a second ‘ball’ off the table. In absolute silence, and with my first finger and thumb pinched together above Jessie’s outstretched hand for a few moments, I suddenly open my fingers. Not a second later, she shuts her hand and catches it perfectly! This may not read like the most powerful effect, but it’s incredibly strong, and I find it to be a perfect opener, kicking things off with something interesting and seemingly propless. So how does it work this way every time? It’s almost silly, but I promise that you’ll love it and use it regularly if you try it out. The method works on the fact that you have an extremely tiny

piece of rubber band pinched between your fingers, colored black with a sharpie marker. Figures 1, 2, and 3, show just how small. It’s important to cut it as tiny as you can, while still being able to feel it when you drop it into your own hand.

(Figure 1)

(Figure 2)

Some of you may choose to keep the rubber band its fleshy color, but the black definitely aids in hiding its fall through the air, and since Jessie can’t see her hand through the blindfold anyway, I focus all of my attention on hiding the piece from the audience.

(Figure 3) It’s this little gimmick that actually gets dropped into the spectator’s palm, and she closes her hand when she feels it hit. But because the gimmick is so small, and the audience is at least ten feet away, they can’t see a thing! This may seem like an instant stooge moment, but it isn’t. When you actually drop the piece of rubber into their hand, it really does feel strange, like a vibration rather than something hitting it. Try it yourself to feel the sensation it creates. The spectator will react to that feeling, and you get the ideal effect every time. I then congratulate the spectator and tell her, “Drop that ball on the floor, as well”, like she did with the first imagined one. This gets rid of the rubber piece in her hand, leaving everything clean.

Additional Thoughts and Ideas: --As I mentioned earlier, your choice of spectator will be somewhat important. The main objective is to choose a spectator wearing a dark colored shirt, or better yet, a shirt that has a lot of different designs printed on it. This will help to aid in hiding the falling gimmick, but even on light colored shirts it’s extremely difficult to see at a distance; just something to be conscious of.

--Some of you may be wondering how I keep track of the tiny gimmick during the routine, and the answer is that I keep a bunch of them in a small plastic baggie, and when I show up to the venue, I just put one or two of them onto the table I know I’ll be using. During the performance, I simply pick up the gimmick, and then drop it into their hand. It doesn’t get any easier. --There’s a possibility that during the drop, the small piece of rubber may stick to your finger or thumb. It’s essential to not just open your fingers during the drop, because if it sticks, it might go flying off somewhere and miss their hand. It’s better to give the rubber piece a slight roll in your fingers and allow it to slip out. This will ensure that it drops straight down into their hand. And I realize this seems like a stupid thing to mention, but you also need to remember to open your fingers when it falls out. When rolling the gimmick out, you’ll sometimes be so focused on making sure the piece falls straight into their hand that you’ll forget to open your fingers after to show that you’ve dropped something. If the audience doesn’t see your fingers open before the spectator’s hand shuts, the effect is ruined. I hope this doesn’t put you off from performing it. As long as you practice dropping into your own hand or with a friend, you’ll understand the rolling and dropping procedure, and will be able to do it straight down without any issues. --Even if you ask the spectator to describe what they felt, it will only confirm everything that you said was going to happen. Being honest, the spectator will say that, “It felt like a small ball hit my hand.” or “It felt like something hit me in the palm.” No matter how they describe it, even if describing the vibrating feeling, it only strengthens and validates your effect. --If you perform in a night club, bar scenario, or anywhere that the lighting is dim enough, you can perform this effect close up, right in front of people at their table or standing. Always test it in the venue beforehand on yourself. I wouldn’t color the gimmick black here, but leave it its flesh color so it blends with their palm color. On stage this doesn’t matter, as I’ve explained, but others looking on close-up could possibly see a black dot appear on the spectator’s hand. --Sometimes rather than just having the audience members imagine a ball, I’ll have them pair up, and one will try to catch the ball while the other drops it. You can do it a few times, then have people stand that did well with the experiment and pick one of them to do it on stage. --This is an effect that could be repeated if you wish, but I personally only perform it as described. If you’re dropping ball after ball, and then having them constantly drop them onto the

floor, it becomes obvious that you’re probably just dropping something small into their hand. Having that one perfect moment with the silent catch is much more deceiving. You could also use two people on stage and have them catch the balls at the same time, but it’s much harder to aim over both their hands and synchronize both drops being perfect. I would suggest just performing it as it’s laid out, but I figure some of you may be thinking of doing it multiple times, and thought I should explain why I don’t. Your choice. --I perform an effect where I appear to throw a thought into a spectators mind. I pick at the center of my forehead, and pull away my first finger and thumb together, as if pinching my invisible thought between my fingers. Of course, I have the gimmick between my fingers, and when I throw this at the spectator’s face—don’t worry, their eyes are closed—they will react. I try to aim for their forehead, so that it feels like a quick pulse, but any contact and reaction is fine. I then have them name the first letter or number that popped into their head and nail write it on an index card. Or you could do this same thing after dropping the ‘ball’ into their hand. --You could also use this as a method for Banachek’s Psychokinetic Touches routine, or as a way to repeat it after performing his original effect. You would just have them hold their hand out palm down, you drop the gimmick a couple inches above their skin, it bounces off their hand, and they confirm that they felt it. To everyone in the audience, the motion you make with your hand when you drop the piece looks like an invisible tap. --And finally, this can be used for a variety of forces. You could start dealing invisible cards over their hand, calling them aloud, and drop the gimmick when you name the card you want to force. Or start naming imaginary coins and drop it on the force coin, or colored balls, etc. To end clean, pick up the gimmick while pretending to grab the invisible item, asking if they want to change.

Credits: Derren Brown’s Lift routine was instrumental in the creation of this effect. Even though they use completely different methods, both have that beautiful, eerie quality to them, where no physical

methods can be seen, yet the spectator somehow knows the very moment to act. I loved the silent visual that Lift produced, and developed this out of a wish to do something similar, but not outright the same. I absolutely love the outcome. Jerome Finley has a routine that’s as close to what I had originally imagined this effect to be. In his routine, rather than throwing a ball back and forth like we’re playing catch, he throws energy across the stage, and the spectator is able to sense when it reaches them. It’s a very strong, impromptu stage routine. Credit also goes to Banachek’s Psychokinetic Touches, for the idea of having a spectator feel something that should only be in their imagination. Lior Manor’s Invisible Touch uses the idea of an invisible item to cause the spectator to feel the moment of the touch; but not the same invisible item is used.

The Imaginary Ball Addendum To add to the methodology that you just read, when the spectator holds their hand out, position it so that it's on a 45 degree angle. This way when you drop the ball, they feel the quick pulse when it hits, and then it bounces right out! Now you don't have to go through the procedure of them dropping it on the floor, and the spectator will feel absolutely nothing but the vibration/tap. You can now fluidly repeat the effect if you wish.

I am also tipping a way to use it close-up in any lighting environment, but I would only use it for two people. You have one person participate, while another records it on their phone, watching everything through their phone screen. The gimmick can't be seen on the recording, and the person involved has their eyes closed, so you can now do this anywhere. Technically you could have a group of people all take their phones out and record, but I think that might get a little ridiculous. But you can always say that it’s something they are going to want to show to all of their friends, etc.... Have fun using them! Matt Mello