talkmagic.co.uk

Hi, I've been asked to host a local festive night that we have every year, and of course I've said yes.
One of the many things I'll have to do is talk to a local radio station. No doubt they are going to ask me to show them something, and I'm struggling to think of that certain something.
It'll need to be, not only brilliant but something that doesn't need to be seen, so the listeners can enjoy it too.

Any ideas? Please help

Jez

Maybe some kind of mentalism routine? Possibly some hypnosis or a memory feat of some kind. I couldn't imagine anything physical like card magic translating at all to radio.

I'd be thoroughly interested in hearing it though, just to see what you come up with. Good luck!

Yeah thanks. It's been puzzling me for a while now.
I'm definitely think mentalism, maybe something the listeners can do at home. Just don't know what?!

If you had the time, I would recommend learning Tomo's Naked Book Test. Not only is it totally impromptu but it can easily be done over the phone. Imagine the effect it would have if someone called in, you asked them to grab a nearby book, locate a word, and you then read their mind over the phone

Most kinds of mind reading could be done on the radio as long as whoever it is that you're mind-mongering reacts in a very verbal manner. Anything that can be done from a distance can be repliacted with a bit of work over the phone, it all depends on how much time you've got to prepare.

I know that there are plenty of recordings of radio interviews that Derren Brown has done floating around on the internet where he performs various mentalism bits and pieces and I'm sure that there are recordings of other magicians doing similar. It might be worth having a session on Google to hear what others have done in the same situation.

don't quote me but I'm sure that in devills picture book derren does a routine that involves an ID, and when i mean invisible I mean not actualy there.
after the spec eliminates cards and gets down to his choosen card, he reveals it, its an amasing piece of subtraction mentalism and works just as well on radio as in the flesh so to speak though obviosly not so strong.

I'm sure someone more learned in mentalism will point you in the right direction for this effect if I'm wrong about the source.

How about a headline prediction if you can get a sealed prediction to the radio station a week or so before hand.

Thanks guys, lots of great ideas.

I will take a look at Tomo's book test, sounds very good. Also I believe the invisible card trick from Devils Picture Book is 'Two Verbal Card Force' also in Pure Effect. That could also work out quite well.
Unfortunately it won't be in a studio, it'll be out on the street, but I could still send the station something/a prediction, to bring with them?

I was maybe thinking of something that all the listeners could do? But I think doing something with the reporters that is much stronger will be more impressive.

Elsewhere TonyB wrote:After learning Max Maven's Contimental, I modified it to do star signs. It works very well. It doesn't look like fishing if you put any effort into presentation. I normally do this as a heckle-stopper. If someone reacts sceptically to an effect in my mentalist show I ask them to focus on their starsign and I tell them what it is. It stops them dead.
Progressive anagrams are a very clever technique.
I have seen a number of effects published where you can tell someones star sign, but none work as well for me as progressive anagrams.

Radio magic thread at
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic12945.php

One of Marc Paul's books describes a birth sign divination which can be done over the phone and is also suitable for radio with a listener or presenter. Reviews are at http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic1971.php - it's in that book!

I'm on the radio a week on Thursday, I will probably do a mind reading routine of some sort. There is not really much else you can do over the radio.

The Derren Brown forces both in Pure Effect & on Devil's Picture Book rely quite heavily on your participant being in front of you so would not be great for over the phone work. You could try it with a presenter for all the audience knows you could be holding up a piece of paper with 'please choose the 3 of diamonds' on.

There's quite a good over the phone mentalism trick using cards in Blaine's book. Probably originally by someone else but it springs to mind that it's in there.

Russ

Read the article in the latest Magicseen Magazine

Tony Hyams wrote:I'm on the radio a week on Thursday, I will probably do a mind reading routine of some sort. There is not really much else you can do over the radio.

I question this statement. After all, who'd be interested in a radio broadcast of a cricket match, or football game?

Radio relies upon descriptions to create pictures. Why not get the host to describe what is going on? Or you, the performer, paint the verbal picture and get the host to confirm it.

Just a couple of examples I can come up with right now:

The Gozinta Boxes - baffling in real life (although I must admit that I realised how they worked, aged about 12, when I saw Paul Daniels do the trick) and utterly mind-bending if properly described on the radio.

Pulse stop. The host taps out the performer's pulse. It slowly comes to a complete stop.

Since posting on the thread Mandrake linked to, Andrew Gerard brought out a nice DVD set that has some really good ideas. I still recommend the Banachek CD too.

Part-Timer wrote:

Tony Hyams wrote:Pulse stop. The host taps out the performer's pulse. It slowly comes to a complete stop.

I can't think of anything more dramatic actually. The performer taps out the pulse on the mic & eventually you get complete silence. Silence on the radio is usually a bad thing but you could make it incredible radio.

Russ

Thanks, Russ. That was what I thought - a little bit like the Paul Daniels Halloween broadcast that seemed to end with the screen going blank.

Part-Timer wrote:Thanks, Russ. That was what I thought - a little bit like the Paul Daniels Halloween broadcast that seemed to end with the screen going blank.

I remember that, genius. It followed up with some gruesome animations as if it was filling time after the spike coffin trick had gone wrong.

Russ