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Extremely new in fact.

I bought Between the Lines even though I'd read advice saying that you had to be pretty experienced to pull it off. OK I've only done it twice but it worked really well both times.

I did, however, realise that the husband and wife I performed it on, separately, could probably talk afterwards and fairly easily work out the process at work.

Is this true of a lot of mentalism or only this one in which the end result is so specific, i.e. a ready-made printed piece of prose? Is it best not to perform this to separate people in the same environment who would then talk together afterwards?

Just ponderings...

never perform the same trick twice.

Assuming you're talking about dual reality, this is one of the main issues I have with any sort of effect that employs that concept.

I often have blazing rows with the mentalist Iain Dunford about this, but I think the general concensus is that instant stooging / dual reality is best employed intelligently, and in situations where it is unlikely to be a major talking-point with the spectator in question after the performance - for instance in larger venues or with larger crowds, where perhaps the husband and wife you mention might talk afterwards, but the hundred orher people who were watching will leave with a sense of wonderment.

I think the best use of dual reality is probably with people you'll never meet again, so we're talking paying audiences. Paul Brook is probably the best person to talk to about this. His "The Gift" is a detailed, very clever treatise on dual reality.

See I'm out of my depth already: I regrettably don't know what dual reality is but have just peeped into another magic forum where someone said that "Between the Lines" was dual reality and another said it wasn't.

That clears that up then!

Thanks for your comments anyway which are genuinely helpful. I certainly have more to investigate as anything else like this effect would really appeal to me and at least I could mix things up a bit more.

TimEden wrote:See I'm out of my depth already: I regrettably don't know what dual reality is but have just peeped into another magic forum where someone said that "Between the Lines" was dual reality and another said it wasn't.

Without revealing any specific techniques, dual reality is how mentalists describe saying or doing something that leads one party to believe something and another party to believe something else. Usually party A will be the volunteer and party B will be the audience.

As an innocuous "for instance", if I asked you to close your eyes and said "In a moment I shall do THIS!" while flicking your ear, you would assume I was referring to the ear flick, but as I said it I might also be gesturing to something else, which, with their eyes open, is what the rest of the audience would assume I was referring to.

the effect in question does not employ any dual reality techniques. it is an effect based on leading spectators to a selection of a number of likely psychologically forced choices.

it is an exceptionally hard sell of an effect, and frankly unless you perform solely for incredibly dim, unaware audiences then unless you have the showmanship skills of a Derren Brown you are never always going to disguise the method on this one without heavily doping the crowd.

Definitely not one for beginners.

Between the lines doesnt relly on Dual Reality as such. Mainly because it's a one on one effect.
If anything, you could say that its based on single reality.

Ah! I see what I've done here. I slightly mis-read Tim's first post. I assumed dual reality because he said he did a trick to a husband and wife and was worried they might talk to each other and work it out, so I assumed he did one trick to them both at the same time, but reading again he performed it to the husband in the abscence of the wife, and vice versa.

I got the wrong end of the stick. D'oh!

Yes, Kate, sorry if I didn't make myself clear: I did the effect on the two of them separately and achieved different "hits", and so whilst they were individually impressed I kind of didn't want them talking about the effect later. Thanks for the stuff on dual reality anyway - sounds fascinating!

And CutToTheAce - OI! - what do you mean by calling my in-laws "incredibly dim"?! Truth be told when I read through the effect I thought the same as you and was all for not even bothering with it but then I said to my wife "I know - I could always try it on your mum!". She's not incredibly dim. Just dim.

Anyway her husband is a very bright former languages teacher - extremely well-read and with a massive general knowledge. He lapped it up too although I got lucky with chosen numbers, card (via Derren's Ace of Spades deflection) and shape, so other misses weren't so noticeable.

Maybe it's not so much intelligence as how impressionable and open to suggestion you are (sorry if I'm stating the bleeding obvious here).

I certainly wouldn't do it to an audience; as Dale says it's really a one-to-one effect but my original question was just about whether you should do it to different "ones" at the same event or not.

Tim, you can do it in front of an audience, as it's the reaction of your volunteer that matters.

I would say that its ok to do it to a few people at a function. but do it sparingly, and dont do it for couples.

as a matter of fact, having people talking about the hits, ( they always forget the misses) is one of this effects strengths.In true Chinese whispers style, your reputation will be improved by the gossip.

and there are enough 100% hits to keep things on track.

I should add that Michael will always be pleased to help with his baby. He can be contacted at Magicbox, or on here.

His user name is "Celebrity."

I wouldnt worry about it, do it then leave if they talk afterwards and you are never going to meet them again, it dont matter you can go home walking like a god.

Not only do they forget the misses afterwards but if, as per the instructions, you don't even mention them when recapping it seems they even forget them during the read-through.

Maybe, like I said, it's my mum-in-law being dim but I got her to pick two numbers and, when I realised they didn't match anything, just didn't include them in the recap. She at no point said "but what about the numbers I picked?" because there was enough going on to wow/distract her anyway.

Hi there, just thought i'd share a few insights into the routine,

Remember with this effect your testing the spectators intuition so no matter what the outcome you are never wrong.

I personaly feel that this effect is best performed as you explain to the spectator how you first began learning how to "pick up impressions" and tune in to the audience's way of thinking. Thus strenghtening all the effects done prior and subsequent to BTL

Psychologicaly this effect works for that very reason, if people dont complicate the matter and trust their first impressions the effect works best!

If they understand a little of what is going on behind the scenes then that's fine, it only prooves to highlight the importance of trusting your your initial thoughts!

I'm always happy to perform it for one person in a group and if someone else claims to have picked up the same ideas/impressions then I congratualte them on their intuitiveness?

If you get someone (As I have) who does not manage to pick up on anything then I will ask their firend or partner and will always get a favorable response from them to which you can remark how some people have a better sense of awareness than others!

I hope this makes some sense and am happy to help out in any way I can to those who have purchased the effect. pm me for my personla e-mail address and I'll be happy to discuss the workings in depth!

Kind Regards Michael