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Hey In kaleidoscopes - I like your little routine. A bit of "tweaking" (as we say here in the UK) so it fits in more with my character and I think I may very well throw that into the next wedding I work. Cheers mate!

Interesting posts!

In kaleidoscopes, very much like you take on this idear. Similare, in effect to a DB routine.

To get back to the original post, I think pure effect has an effect that could be 'dressed up' with some real cold read, think the effect is remenicence.

Ta

that effect sounds really good! I don't know if i'd be confident enough to pull off a face up classic force... with the wrong colored back... and have them pocket the card without seeing the back-- and without revealing the face to their partner!! seems like too many variables to control for me---

---sounds like a fun challenge!!

good point Dave,

probably a much more effective way of performing that piece of the routine would be that they sandwhich their card face up in their hands.

Thanks for pointing that out!

anytime, kirk
it sounds like a really good routine though-- i was thinking about it earlier today. I think taking advantage of that "special" connection that two people in a relationship WANT to believe they have (whether they do or not) can make really STRONG magic.

I'm currently working on a book about performing readings with a Go, or Weiqi board. The cold-reading is in reverse, that is, the spectator's do the cold-reading on themselves. There is no gimmick, I've been doing private readings for a while now, with total success. Unlike tarot or palmistry, reading the stones requires no spiritual belief in the subject and so avoids most ethical concerns some people have with other types of reading.

somthing i've used:

4 postcards (or more if you want), each of different styles of art
the spec picks one
you give a character reading based on that piece of art
when you turn it over, it has a message on a post-it note saying "i knew you'd pick me"...

all you need is a post-it note finger palmed...

and if they happen to pick the postcard you would of chosen, then basically kinda cold-read yourself...kinda lightweight but it does let you practise...

for example, if they picked a Pollock painting (i love illiteration), then you could say that though to most people they seem to be disorganised and chaotic, underneath it all that person is quite organised and has varied interests..

but could do with maybe giving themselves more time to explore their interests and be slightly more selfish with their time...

You may want to look at some of the work of Kenton Knepper. Without commenting on his effects (different topic!) he has found ways to incorporate cold reading techniques into many of his effects.

In any "take a card" trick, for example, you could briefly "read" what that particular selection says about the person who selected it. This technique, if done well, can heighten interest and attention, depending on your victim. It can also go over like a lead balloon on the wrong spec. Card tricks under the guise of mind reading tricks may provide you with many opportunities.

I've heard very good things about Ian Rowlands book, the full facts of cold reading. I haven't read it though.

Ian Rowland's book is perhaps the very best text book regarding the mechanics and techniques of cold reading. I emphasize that it is a text book. It will not necessarily provide you with much practical performing advice - that isn't what the book is about. I would highly recommend this book - it is the most complete treatise of its kind I have ever seen!

Shufton wrote:Ian Rowland's book is perhaps the very best text book regarding the mechanics and techniques of cold reading. I emphasize that it is a text book. It will not necessarily provide you with much practical performing advice - that isn't what the book is about. I would highly recommend this book - it is the most complete treatise of its kind I have ever seen!

Indeed. I think it's fair to say that Full Facts is a wide-ranging and very potent arsenal of techniques for use once you're a competent cold reader in your own right.

if I had more than 2 thumbs Id give em all up to rowlands full facts

im not crash hot on all things mentalist but it would seem to me that any kind of card trick where you force a card could be changed into a bit of a cold reading experiment with comparitive ease....ive done loads of tricks where ive forced a card and read it in someones eyes or pulse etc....also in dave forrests dvd the trickery there is a trick called grass box which has loads of mentalist cold reading possibilities (and its ludicrously simple but hes a sly one)