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A question which I've looked through the web to see has it been adressed but failed to find anything

What do you do as an out if your peek fails after a CT,bill sw***h,don't get a good impression or maybe you even forgot what you read under the circumstances and my personal most hated....CRYPTIC BLOODY HANDWRITING!!

Most of the time this is avoided by proper instruction justified with patter.''Write it this for because <insert reason>''.But every now and then the writing is Chinese or you may not get the impression you want etc.

What would your out be?Is cold reading the only real out?Or would you have them rewrite for whatever dodgy reason you give?

Carry a Thu*b or poc*et writer for emergencies.
"read it out loud so everyone can hear, .... you wont believe this.... wow look what I wrote"

Good suggestion although I don't really use pocket writing or swami gimmicks.I guess if you were to get them to write a number you'd be able to give it to them with the corresponding cards being upside down in an ID.That's worst case scenario though

I had this happen before. Booked by a university, performing on stage in front of 150 people...and I failed to get a peek in the climax of my routine...

I also put carbon paper on upside down in one of my effects so that didn't work...

One routine didn;t work for two people and I had to get a third up onstage...

Moral of the story? Sh*t happens!!!!

I just soldiered on and actually, surprisingly, got gigs out of it!

The worst thing about stage is that if you c0ck up, you can't just move to the next table...if you still have another 30 minutes to go, you still have another 30 minutes to go!

I still love it more than anything though.....

ummmm I dont see what the problem is here.... If i forget it,I just take another look.

what you have to do,is have an in built reason in the routine to do this.

that reason could just be something as simple as postponing the reveal until later.

If you do the ct.. you have the bit.

if you do a b.s... you still have the bit.

if the impressions not clear.. remember you are doing mentalism,not magic.. take a punt, and give a description of what you can see. chances are, thats going to be enough.

daleshrimpton wrote:if the impressions not clear.. remember you are doing mentalism,not magic.. take a punt, and give a description of what you can see. chances are, thats going to be enough.

You obviously haven't performed in front of a couple hundred students...in that case, getting it wrong certainly isn't enough! Especially if you are way off!

The thing that always gets you by is personality. If you are unable to get a peek, take a punt, get it wrong, and make a joke of it. Get people laughing and enjoying themselves, even if you failed.

The point is, if they are laughing and enjoying you, then what you just failed to do doesn't matter.

I failed, I made a joke, saying about their personality type, people laughed hysterically, I got through the show and still got booked for further stuff! Even though I failed!

Just be fun - that's all you need to do

T.B.H I avoid impression devices, because of the potential issues with material falure, and assistants being light handed.
peek devices are usualy much better.

daleshrimpton wrote:T.B.H I avoid impression devices, because of the potential issues with material falure, and assistants being light handed.
peek devices are usualy much better.

Not if you can't read the writing

Good posts.

Dale.You mention to say what you can see.I remember at one gig I peeked ''Helly the mess''.I just wanted to say the name and use ''the mess'' as cold reading as to the type of person she was.

I thought that because it said mess you'd think that she's the life of the party type person or maybe clumsy etc.Turned out I was wrong with my cold reading and that she was a very organised tidy person as a matter of fact.I said Helly and she said no but close.To salvage some credibility I said ''Did you say something like Helly the mess''(which I cringed while saying cause to me it seems obvious I saw it somehow) .Blew her away litterally jaws dropped.It turned out to be ''Messy the mess''.Ironicly messy the mess of handwriting I had to bloody well read.

Beardy I agree.Sometimes being wrong in mentalism will give you more credibility so I listen to what you say.Although trying to talk your way out whilst having absolutly no knowledge will make you look like a chancer at the best of times unless you've established yourself a bit before hand.

Frankly I'm embarrassed for this to happen to me infront of a family member let alone the scornful public.Most performances run smooth as a baby's bottom but every so often you get the doctor's handwriting despite meticulous instructions.

If this was to happen to me in front of a couple of hundred students I think it would put me off an awful lot.I suppose any man can fall,it's all about recovery.The fact you got away with it and got laughs and subsequent gigs afterward,well that's an escape act in itself!!

Flood wrote:If this was to happen to me in front of a couple of hundred students I think it would put me off an awful lot.I suppose any man can fall,it's all about recovery.The fact you got away with it and got laughs and subsequent gigs afterward,well that's an escape act in itself!!

Indeed! And one of the bookings was for somebody with a lot of power, who has put me onto somebody now for a gig in a couple of weeks. If that goes well, they have contacts to send me throughout the UK. I'm very excited!

So although it was one of my worst gigs, it has turned into potentially one of my best!

And then we all woke up.

So yesterday I forgot to take off the impression receiving paper after a performance. When did I realize that ?? When I came to read the impression for the 2nd dude. I'm like what the heck is that !!!!!

I made my assumption on the number and was WAAAAAAAAAY off. It still looked like I'm trying to psychologically read him though. I just continued with something else...

I would just admit to struggling to read that person. 'are you going through tough times at the moment? Big changes? Hmm something is troubling you my friend, I just can't read you at all at the moment. Would you like to take your seat and I'll try and come back to you later'

You then have the rest of your show to try and grab another peak, if not, just forget about that spec altogether. You will have convinced the audience of your powers by this point.

Alternatively If you still can't find the info (by whatever dastardly means) invite them back on stage at the end of the show and go down the 'troubled mind route' infirm them that the waters are a bit murky but you can see clarity in the future and it will be worth waiting for. Future prophecy, as you will all know, is a win/win situation for Mentalists.

Alec

Depends on your character. But, if you are pretending you can really read minds, then failing once in a while is a GREAT thing to do. Makes the hits seem stronger.

Dye Vernon wrote:Depends on your character. But, if you are pretending you can really read minds, then failing once in a while is a GREAT thing to do. Makes the hits seem stronger.

I agree, failing every now and again is good for your show, it shows that maybe you are the real deal! I mean if your perfect and always get things right well wheres the fun in that.....

Kieran