Phedon Bilek - Proteus Supplement

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Copyright © 2017 by Phedon BILEK All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or recording, without permission of the author. Design by Phillip Smith at Sushi Design Printed by Steve Haresign, Haresign Press First Printing: 2017

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DEBICATION To our brains Thank you for always being there

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P RO T £ U S

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD PREFACE

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MINDPEEK

15

INTRODUCTION

15

TO SUM ITUP

17

THE BAREBONES

54

THE SCRIPT

66

REVEALING

69

THE READING

78

LUCAVOLPE'STAKE

85

PETER TURNER'S TAKE

87

FINALPOINTS

95

HEADS I WIN TAILSYOU LOSE

103

INTRODUCTION

103

THE EFFECT

105

THE WORKINGS

112

ALTERNATEHANDLING

123

FINALCOMMENTS

124

SHUTTLE PASS

126

BOBO SWITCH

128

EQUIVOQUE

130

CLOSING

133

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank a number of people, including Mike Vance,for taking the time to proofread this; Vagelis "Titanas" Haralambous , my multitalented friend, for always being there despite the distance and time; Jorge Betancourt for the beautiful illustrations and being so nice; Flora, my lovely wife, for supporting me in whatever I unde rtake; Richard Osterlind, for getting me into this side of magic and most of all, for his humility and kindness; and finally Luca Volpe and Peter Turner for their time, advice and contribution.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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F0REWOR0 TITAN AS

I met Phedon in 2007. Immediately it was a love at first sight. Bearing in mind that back then Phedon was a hardcore coin magician and although his card magic was about average (being still purely a coin guy then), I instantly noticed that he had the ability to get the best reactions from lay people even with just a double lift. Two years later I got a job as a consultant for "The next Uri Geller" show, aka "Phenomenon", and asked from Phedon to get a part in the casting. All the production crew just loved him and Phedon was probably the biggest highlight of the whole show. I am now proud to believe that getting him to cross to the mentalism side was -at least partially- my doing. Nowadays Mr. Bilek focuses mainly on mentalism and although his effects are mostly prop-less, having all those sleights and boldness in his arsenal puts him in a position to be able to accomplish things that other mentalists simply can't do. Titanas, April 2017

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PREFACE I've always been a minimalist. I started as a coin magician, and it took me five years to buy my first gaff. It was a shell. Then I thought, "Hey, why not be totally crazy? " I then bought a copper/silver. I admit it's far-fetched. But it paid off. Yes, from the start I wanted to be hardcore. Pure sleight-of-hand. Not to have any excuses or being caught off-guard. I was going to gigs with nothing. I was borrowing coins and relied solely on gafffree routines, body loading and pickpocketing to add some variety ... I don't pretend this is the way to go. But that's how I viewed things back then . And a leopard rarely changes its spots. In my mentalism today I have kept the same philosophy. I want to

be totally free. A couple of slips of paper or some borrowed business cards, and we're good to go. Hence the importance of skills like mnemonics, cold reading, muscle reading . I cannot count the times I've been seen as a living god for having memorized a deck of cards or a list of objects (!). To me this is worth all the props in the world . You can perform naked. And no, I never needed to. Lately, though , I was thinking of something in particular: drawing

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duplications. But I wanted something specific. I wanted a PROP-LESS Drawing DIVINATIONI'd rather say, as nothing was to be drawn or written. Ideally, in a perfect world, it would go like: "Draw something IN YOUR MIND. Yes? Ready? Oh, nice CAR!"with no long and tiring

processes or complicated math, as most reliable prop-less routines or techniques require . I wanted the pros of prop -less, but without the cons. How cool would that be ... ? Take a moment and think about it . Well... I sat down on my balcony on a nice Athenian afternoon , with a piece of paper and a pencil. My lovely wife kept the children busy inside , she brought me a cup of coffee, and two hours later I had this. It would be too much of a cliche to say I screamed EUREKA,but I felt like it . I immediately tried it on Flora . Knowing everything I do (I also do a wonderful two-person act with her, and the audience forgets I am the mentalist), she froze, mou th open, when I asked her what kind of TREEshe had in mind. The first words that came out were: "But... I wrote nothing down ... How ... ? Did you suggest it somehow ?!" I then tried it on Alexandra, my daughter. She went for a FLOWER... And while they were still scratching their heads I grabbed the phone and started calling. Everybody. If I haven't called you then I don't know you . I was a kid in a candy store . Needless to say I performed it countless time s in the next days .

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forgot about the usual stuff like peeks, billets, mnemonics. I was doing this. ONLYthis. With a 100% success rate. 100%, really. I was killing, leaving a trail of agonized corpses behind me. Lay AND fellow magicians. I think Titanas and Luca will both agree . Remember what I told you a couple of lines earlier? About what would happen in a perfect world? Well, you can take my word for it, soon you will be there . In less than a minute ... no!, in 30 seconds

you'll KNOW what drawing they have in mind. With no tiring, boring error-prone processes or the need for them-should you so decide-to write anything down . ''.Aprop-les s mind reading little miracle you can even perform on drunk people!" said Luca Volpe when he saw the method and how surefire it was . Thank you so much for buying this book, in which I have included another little routine of mine that served me well over time. Let me presume, throughout this little journey with you, that you are a beginner . Do not be offended if I spend time explaining certain things you already mastered, like a switch or the workings of basic mnemonics. I just want to make sure nobody feels left out and everyone enjoys these routines fully. Learn them, adapt them to your style, use them , amaze, love your audience, respect your craft and, above all, believe!

Phedon, ATHENS, March 2017

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MINBPEEK INTRODUCTION Allow me to express my own, personal point of view on the new trend: PROP-LESSmentalism. Personally I love it, as I believe it is the ultimate form of mind reading . I, for one, use billets extensively and believe they're the foundation of mind reading. But whenever we say things like: "They forget they wrote anything down," or whatever technique we use to make them feel that writing down their thoughts was not really necessary but -it-helps-you-focus-onyour -thoughts blah , blah, blah, they never really forget they wrote something down. Although it is unconscious, sometimes they sense that somehow the information MIGHT have leaked. There is no other way out of this. And that lessens the impact of the effect. On the other hand when you reveal something they never told anyone or never wrote down, 1 S

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something they freely thought of and safely locked into the safety of their mind, they're deprived of emergency exits, especially when they feel they had a multitude of choices. Furthermore, being ready to perform anytime, anywhere, is priceless. But it usually comes with its share of limitations. Way too often the rate of success is far from 100%, or to be reliable the effect would have to rely on heavy, confusing processes that many audiences find tiring or even impossible to follow when it comes to math-based routines or principles. Having your victim -pardon me, subject-multiply-by-this and divide-by-that before adding-everything-up-and-reduce-to-onedigit can be likened to torture in certain, not to say most, cases. Don't misunderstand me, I love these routines and appreciate the ingenuity behind the concepts. I know most of them and have performed them countless times. But the fact is: the Recipient doesn't give a might like them as a magician, but ... is it really about me?

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IT UP

If a Prop-less effect Can be accurate almost 100% of the time Is done with minimal, invisible and FAST procedure

Does NOT require highly intelligent/sober can even work on children

audiences, and

Does not EVERconfuse the Participant Is EASY to do

Leaves the Participant truly believing they were NEVER restricted AND LEAVESTHEM THINKINGTHEY WITNESSED REAL MIND READING... Then I can say I have a little miracle. Enough said. Let's start ...

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If you are reading this, odds are we have never met , never spoken, never interacted in any way.Odds are that I never had the opportunity to perform this for you. I wish I could have. However, before we get into the bare bones I would like you to experience MindPeek as a Recipient. Don't get me wrong, the power of thi s effect comes mostly from the revelation, and a skilled performer will know exactly in what ways to reveal the information he guessed depending on whom he/she's perform ing for, the type of information he got, etc. And the little game I'm about to propose to you just cannot match a human-to-human interact ion. But hey, half a loaf is better than none, and I invite you NOT to cheat. I know I'm asking much maybe, as we ma gicians/menta lists love to bend the rules . But play it , just so you get in-the mood ...

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Imagine you're in school... You're about ten to twelve years old, and you're waiting for the end of this boring class... You're holding a pencil and find yourself making a drawing; a simple drawing that takes five to ten seconds to do, nothing too complicated; something like a SMILEY FACE,a MOUNTAIN or even a BICYCLE.Don't think of these, of course, and please NO GEOMETRICALSHAPES like circles or triangles. Do something anybody would easily recognize ... Do you have a drawing in mind ... ?

Good. I want you to picture the object depicted in your doodle in front of you. In real size. I also want you to think of it AS A WORD. If you had chosen a smiley face I'd want you to think of a real face and the word SMILEY. Are you ready? Perfect. I sometimes start with the picture but let's start with the letters. In your mind please review the letters in the word one-byone ... Good... Again ... Alright, turn the page ...

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I can feel an

A among the letters you . Just saw... Correct ?.

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Perfect ... I see a

T As well! Correct?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Doing great so far aren't we?

Oh ... Is that an

R ? •

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Wow ... Now however I'm not sure but ... Is that an

s ? •

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Oh! Er ... Maybe that's an

s ! Is that correct?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Oh! Er... OK... Picture the object in real size ... Can you HOLDit in your hands?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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2 S

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OK ... Wait ... Er ... I sense that ... Wait! Is it ALIVE?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Mmm ... Very fuzzy ...

Wait!

Can you ... TOUCH it?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Oh! Really I'm completely off! Please forget the letters. I sense ... Wait... Is it ALIVE?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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OK... Let me see ... When you touch it, is its surface

HARD?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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I thought so ... Er ... Do you OWN

one of those?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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I felt so ... Tell me ...

If we compare to you: is it SMALLER?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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I thought so ... OK... Do you HAVE ONE

at home?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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Tell me. . . I feel. . . life? Is it ALIVE ?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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I was thinking so ... Tell

me ... Comparedto you, is it rather LARGER,BIGGER?

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Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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I knew it. Er ... Wait! Can you TOUCH it ?

Yes?

No?

Turn to

Turn to

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P RO T EU S

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I wish you could tell me if it worked. I'm confident it did the first time. This is to be done QN£E on a person or group . After the first time we tend to look for more complicated drawings and the process becomes apparent due to repetit ion. Moreover, let me be precise that what you just lived CANNOTpretend to emulate the REALeffect, and the way it is FELTby your audience. Playing this little interactive game like this feels like following an algorithm . And actually that's what it is. YOUR PERFORMANCE will make it alive and turn it into a mind-reading experience , leaving your audience speechless as the probing is invisible and seen as the Performer's attempt to get into the subject's mind. OK, now we've had fun let's get YOUto do this ...

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THE BARE BONES

A (S)

T RS

This is the basic anagram. When designing this I wanted something SIMPLE,yet offering a large array of outcomes. Actually I wanted to cover EVERYTHING. When using indexes with drawing-duplication effects Mentalists usually use less than ten basic drawings, including the House, the Car, the Flower, the Tree, the Sun, the Stickman, the Heart , etc. So admit to it: SEVENTEENouts; that's not bad for A(S)TRS. And I must say you very rarely even get to T or R! Let us move on ...

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S

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No

Yes

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House / Sun / Fish

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Car / Ball / Plane / Glass

R

No

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Boat / Cat/ Table/ Stickman

S

No

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Heart

Yes

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Flower / Tree / Pen(cil) / Moon

No

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Star

If you're familiar with anagrams then no explanation is necessary . For those who are not, you just have to start with the first letter . You're "asking" if there is an A in their word . I say "ask" as I personally never ask, but tell them. I am confident there is an A, even if I'm mistaken. But that 's for later. Let's concentrate on the mechanics of the anagram. So, you're asking if there is an A If they say NO, you move HORIZONTALLY. In this case you hit the S. So you get them to tell you whether there is an S in their word or not.

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Whatever they say, the anagram redirects you to the path to take and the probes to use . to the next letter, T. You find If there is an A you move VERTICALLY out if there is a Tin their word. If NO, you move HORIZONTALLY. If yes again, you go down to R and so on. As you can see for yourself, on the graph we have all the outcomes

in no particular logical order, as their position in the anagram is dictated solely by the letters in the word. You have also noticed that the final outcomes are gathered in groups , and your job will be to determine WHICH DRAWINGwithin that group is the one in your subject's mind . I'll tell you what I do, but first let's review the groups (drawings in order of likeliness to be chosen): House / Sun / Fish Tree / Flower / Pen-pencil / Moon Car / Ball / Plane / Glass Boat / Stickman / Cat / Table Heart Star

You first have to remember these groups . Here you can apply basic Mnemonics to help you at the beginning, as believe me, very soon

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they will be automatically interconnected. You will hear BOATand you'll think CAT STICKMANand TABLE.But for a start I propose you try picturing: a HOUSE under the SUN with a POND near it (fish) a TREEwhose branches are PENCILSwith the MOON over it and FLOWERSstemming from its bark a CAR whose wheels are soccer BALLS racing with a giant FLYINGchampagne GLASS a BOAT with a STICKMAN skipping on the deck and a TABLEwith a CATon top

I personally do not use Mnemonics in this particular case, but these are associations that might help you. Feel free to use your own, just remember - if you're not into mnemonics-to form FUNNY, ILLOGICAL,VIVIDimages. I know there's nothing funny or illogical or even vivid in the image of a house with the sun and a pond, but it will get the job done in this case as it's simplistic. If not, picture a fish with sunglasses getting sunlight from the window of a house! Once you have learned the drawings in each group it's easy to know the outs you have when you hit the "NO." For example, the participant has a drawing in mind. You ask for the A, and you hit a YES.You then ask for the T, and they say "NO." You know now they are thinking of one of the following: CAR, BALL, S 7

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PLANE,GLASS. And it's easy to know as you just have to think of any element of the group to realize there is no T. Let me explain: Say you hit a "NO" on the R; think of a CAR. There is an R, so it's NOT the category we want . Think of BOAT.No R. That's it. Review your mental image and you'll remember the Boat with our skinny friend skipping and a cat on the table! Let's go again. You hit a "NO" on A. You move to S and hit a "YES." There is an S. Think of Tree. Nope. House? Yup. That's it . House/ Sun/Fish. You hit a "NO" on the above? No S... Tree? You bet. The Tree with the Pencils, the Flower and the Moon.

PLEASE DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT First play with this, and learn to find the relevant category automatically . You'll be surprised how easy this is. When you're done, move on ...

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BACK!

I assume you now understand the diagram fully, and are able to quickly find the group that contains thei r drawing. The good news is you're almost done! Everybody thinks differently. And everybody will take different paths to reach the same result. If you played with the images and the Mnemonics I used I'm confident you came up with images that were very different than the ones I proposed. So, what I want you to understand is that now that you have their group you will need to PROBEin order to find their drawing. Now, that's where we all differ. If you're an experienced performer I have no worries that you will quickly find your way into zeroing in on their thought. It's easier than you think. I say that as I hear some of you say, "OK, I'm down to four possibilities! Now what?" Relax. Below I'm giving you my own thoughts on this. You're free to use them as they are/modify them/completely change them. It's of no importance. I'm doing this for the sake of completeness, as I'm pretty sure most of you have or will think of other ways, maybe much better, at reaching your goal: finding their drawing. Let's review the groups:

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/ SUN / FISH

There is an object (let's refer to each drawing as OBJECTS,as we've asked the Participants to visualize their drawings in REAL SIZE, remember?) that cannot be TOUCHED:the Sun . And when we're down to the House and the Fish, one is ALIVE and one is not . So by probing that way it would go: "Think of this object. Imagine you're touching it . Can you TOUCH it? Yes, so imagine you are ... I sense life ... Is it ALIVE? NO? (Now we know they're thinking of the HOUSE. But being Mentalists we don't like NOs, so we can go

on saying, in classical Kenton Knepper style:) BUT your object can relate to LIFE, right?"just in the name of perfectionism ... Of course if they CANNOTtouch it your job is done: Sun.

TREE I FLOWER/ PENCIL/ MOON

PEN OR

Here we notice that two are ALIVE and two are NOT. Within the subcategories now: one of the two alive is SMALL compared to us (Flower), and one is usually BIGGER(Tree).And concerning the two not alive one can be TOUCHED(Pen/Pencil) and one cannot (Moon). It would go like: "Ok.I sense ... life ... Is it ALIVE? Yes. I thought so ... As you understand it could be anything, as most things people think

of are alive. One question only (here you imply you just asked ONE

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question): Is it SMALLER than you (dropping your hand to knee level)? Yes.Of course it could be anything ... Usually people think of cats, go figure ... "

Of course you already know they have a Flower in mind. If they took the other route then it would be between the Moon and the Pencil. "Imagine you're touching it ... Can you? No? Er... you understand you chose something complicated. WHAT CANNOT BE TOUCHED... ?" The Moon. Unless youre reading Neil Armstrong's or Buzz Aldrin's mind. They touched the moon. Don't perform for Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin.

.,,Yes-+ Is it ;, ALIVE?-+ No Can you Yes Yes;, TOUCH it? :: No ------+

Mil•

.. ft

A

• • T

-+No-+

S

,,,

Compared "'ll

.,,

No"

Yes

Is it

--a.,,

.,, Yes -+

to you, 1s 1t

Yes

BIGGER?

-+ No -+

No

Can you .,, Yes -+ TOUCH it? -+ No -+

ALIVE?~ OUTS: 7

Fish, house, sun, tree, flower, pen / pencil, moon

"

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CAR I BALL / PLANE I GLASS Here it goes differently, but still very logically. Two objects can be HELD in our hands and two cannot . Among the two th at can one has a COLD,HARD surface (Glass), one does not (Ball).Although I once happened to have a person think of a bowling ball . Quite hard indeed. But that never happens really; that spectator is ... special anyway. (No Nikos Joker, that's NOT you.) Let's move on to the two that cannot be held. One is usuall y OWNEDby the spectator (Car), one is not (Plane). Again, it depends on your subject. A young per son might not own a car. You might then ask wheth er they're USING one often or not, or the last time they did. Same thing if you perform for a Saudi Sheikh. The guy WILLown a plane .

~Yes-+ ,If

T +

...,..No-+

Can you HOLD it in your h and?

Yes

+ R

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Yes

...No

Is its surfac e -+No-+@ HARD?

,If

you ...Do OWN one?

-+Yes-+~ " No -+

OUTS: 4 Glass , ball , car, plane

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BOAT I STICKMAN I TAB LE

I CAT

Same thing here. Two are ALIVE and two are not. Between the two that are alive one would be about the same size as the Participant (Stickman, or rather Man in real size), one would be much SMALLER (Cat).Among the two other objects one can be found at HOME (Table), one cannot (Boat), depending on whom you're performing for, that is.

Compared

,,, to you is is

R

,,, ...No

Yes

-+ No -+ ls it ALIVE?

Yes

!

s

,;t

Yes....,.~

-+ No -+-

SMALLER?

Do you have ...one at HOME?

-+Yes-+ ..._ No

.

'

iriJ'

-+A,

OUTS:4

Cat, stickman, table, boat

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HEART / STAR No need to talk about the Heart or the Star . They're alone in their categories. NOTE: Being in Greece I perform this for people whose native language is not English. The Stickman is one of the highly likely

outcomes, but some subjects simply think of it as "a man" . That's why, in my particular case -and in yours should you perform for foreigners if you're English-speaking- I keep in mind tha t the Stickman will either be in the Boat group - the way it should be- OR in the Car group -should they have thought of it as "a man"- . It's very easy to remember, as both the Boat and the Car need a person to drive/ skip them. For example: when hitting the NO on T I first state "It's definitely NOT a living thing!" If it's negative I proceed normally . If they react and tell me it is alive then I know they 're thinking of "a Man".

s

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,,,Yes"'. .,. No

OUTS: 2

Heart , star

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Voila. We just covered all there is to know as far as the workings of this effect are concerned. By now you should know each category, its respective elements, and you should be able to determine which drawing they have in mind. But this was only the "mechanical" part, or the "algorithmical" part as I would call it , of this routine. Let's move on and explore what makes it look like the real thing ...

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THE SCRIPT There is one thing I know so far writing this down: The seasoned performers reading this know they'll be 100% in their success rate, after having seen the outcomes. But some of you are wondering: ls it THAT sure-fire? Will they choose one of the seventeen outcomes? Well... that depends on YOU. Let me put it this way: It IS surefire and reliable, as long as you channel the subject into thinking SIMPLY. The good news is that even magicians and mentalists alike

DON'T remember having been restricted at the beginning . Nobody does. Even with no restriction, odds are they would think of one of the outcomes. But you would happen to have a spectator choosing a Horse for instance , in the event they're good at drawing stuff. But with the restrictions you use they cannot think of this. Below is the patter I gave you at the beginning , before you played the little interactive game. Please read it again: Imagine you're in school... You're about ten to twelve years old, and you're waiting for the end of this boring class .. . You're holding a pencil and find yourself making a drawing ; a simple

doodle that taJces five to ten seconds to do, nothing too complicated ; something like a SMILEY FACE,a MOUNTAIN or even a BICYCLE. Don't think of these, of course, and please NO GEOMETRICAL SHAPES like circles or triangles. Do something anybody would easily recognize ... Do you have a drawing in mind ... ?

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PROTEUS

PHEDON

BILEK

Let's quickly analyze this. I'm asking you to be 10-12 years old; to make a simple drawing that takes 5 to 10 seconds to do, something anybody would recognize, like a smiley face or even a bicycle. Note here the importance of the elements of what I call the EXCLUSION list. I start mentioning the SMILEYFACEand end with the BICYCLE (Let's not mention the geometrical shapes, as these are openly discarded). And there is a reason for this: They automatically. though unconsciously. detect the level of difficulty in those drawings and they are setting limits! As a result, their drawing will be no easier to make than a Smiley, and no more complicated than a Bicycle, as we finish by stating