Misplaced Memories - John Charles Robinson & Kenton Knep

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Misplaced Memories - John Charles Robinson & Kenton Knep

Postby Mr_Grue » May 29th, '11, 11:34



The Effect

From the site:

A participant reads a list of words out loud. They put this list away in their own pocket. You never touch it. The performer claims this is a memory test. The participant is asked to name the words they can from the list without looking at the list again. The participant writes down what they can recall.

The performer then has the participant ERASE one of the words they remembered on the second list.

"Now that the word is gone from your memory, so to speak, it would have to no longer exist. That means that word you once remembered is no longer on the original list either. Check the list you first read and put in your pocket. That word is gone."

IT IS.


And all without gimmicks, or sleights of hand or word.


Cost $20 from Wonder Wizards.

Difficulty 1?


Review

I'm a sucker for psychological principles; anything that takes a reasonably surefire bit of psychology and hangs an effect on it is very satisfying, and can be a genuine confidence builder for the budding magi. Anyone familiar with Ben Highway's excellent Psycolor Deck Change will know what I mean. From the brief write-up of Misplaced Memories I had a pretty good idea of what the method was, and bought the pdf mainly to see what Messrs Robinson and Knepper had done with it.

Robinson has developed a perfect companion to the somewhat traditional OOTW amnesia effect in which a participant is unable to remember an item from a written list. With Misplaced Memories, the opposite takes place, as the participant recalls a specific word that did not appear on the list.

Because of the workings of the effect, you are doing what you appear to do, which is to influence a person to say a specific word (or in some cases one of a number of words). If you are mental you could then have it verified that the additional word was not on the original list, before revealing that you knew this word ahead of time. If you are more wizardly in your leaning, you can, as above, seek to magically remove an item from the original list of words. Knepper even suggests using this technique to prompt the apport of a physical object.

The principle is easy to understand, and probably would benefit from the appendices of the Naked Mentalism books. Various handlings are discussed, along with some useful wonder wordage.

I do have some reservations, however.

I am not convinced that Robinson and Knepper have roadtested all of the presentations given. At one point Knepper suggests having a box of items inventorised by someone, have the list read by a second person who then is asked to list the items themselves from memory. They introduce the "induced" item, it is recognised as not having been on the original inventory. The box is checked a second time, and the stranger item turns out to be in the box after all. Here no example list is given, and on paper the effect reads as busy and confusing. That's not to say that the effect is unworkable, but I've no confidence that the effect has yet been worked.

Knepper also suggests using this technique to force a playing card, but again this failed to convince on paper. Perhaps I'm wrong about that though, having not attempted it myself.

Also, this effect feels like a step along the way to something more. I don't think it pretends to be more than that, but I certainly don't see this working as an effect in its own right. I could imagine a handling that would be routined before something along the lines of Colin McLeod's Quite Wordy where a similar effect is repeated with less business (or more control!). It's no accident that the manuscript details the OTL effect.

These aren't terrible weaknesses in the effect, and it can't be overstated how important it could prove to a routine as a whole if, for instance, you are dealing with influence-based effects and open that routine with an effect that is genuinely based on influence.

One caveat I would place on the manuscript as a whole, though, is that you need to take care in devising specific effects. Just as in other realms of influence you need the works to be noticeable enough to have an effect, but not so noticeable that it becomes consciously apparent to the participant or audience. I think the manuscript would have benefitted from more detail on this front, because it's this aspect of the method that will properly unleash what is an interesting and practical principle on the world of mentalism.

Overall

9 for the meat of it, 7 for the manuscript.

Simon Scott

If the spectator doesn't engage in the effect,
then the only thing left is the method.


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