talkmagic.co.uk

First off, as mentioned before if the audience is not aware its a force then they won't know one is involved, if it looks fishy then you are not doing it correctly. So you need to practice.

Secondly the size of the effect has nothing to do with the impact of the effect. The only thing that has impact on the effect is the way it is performed.

If you are performing on a large stage with a large audience then you need the larger prop so people can see it. If you really want to go mentalism go prop free. Why do you need to overprove everything? The minute you have somebody guarding something, (as Lady of Mystery said) you are basically telling the audience that the 'guard' is in on it.

It comes down to this, a lousy performance is a lousy performance. A good performance makes a wonderful show the props don't have a lot to do with it.

The props should fit the performer not the other way around.

Thank you all for posting guys.

Having considered everything I think it will be more impressive, if not easier, to simply force the outcome. The secret writing would have been a hassel.



Tom
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Awww...I got here late...
I'll say it anyway. Why not big and grand, but with no force? Billet key's, knives, pencils etc. That would be fun!

How big can a billet with a billet knife/pencil be? Tiny I would have thought.

I also cannot afford a prediction chest, unless you know one for just a few hundred

Theres size and size .
I thought you meant the size of the effect on specs., not the physical size of the billet...

there are methods that cost about 30 quid. Less if you shop around.

but..

Back to your force , or not to force conundrum.

why not do both?

your multi prediction ending, could consist of several utterly free choices, from the first half of the show.. which you write up during the interval, in adition to a couple forced results which occur in the second half.
this way, you can pre load prior to the end of the show.

He's good...

I wanted to finish with a prediction with a word from a book/newspaper or similar, and it seems weird to have people do a confabulation routine or something THEN finish with a force... because a force will ALWAYS look less fair and less impressive than a switch.

Tom
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will it?

Yes. Lets assume I asked you to select a word from a newspaper at random, presuming I use good showmanship and a clever switch, this will always look a lot more fair and clean.

A force however allows me to use a nice big reveal instead of using a small billet.

why would a force appear to be less fair, surely it all depends on what and how you're forcing doesn't it?

If, the force looks anything other than a free choice, then it isn't a force. It's a malicious attempt at ruining magic for everyone, even penguins...
Mini (but dramatic)rant over with, a force should appear no different than a switch.

As Obi-Wan once said, "Use the Force..."

True, but effect wise it does look different.

If a spectator is asked to say a word it looks perfectly fair, if however he is asked to say "stop" as the mentalist riffles slowly through a sv****i deck then it looks LESS fair; still fair if presented well... but not perfect.


Tom
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themagicwand wrote:As Obi-Wan once said, "Use the Force..."

I love you xD