talkmagic.co.uk

Comments now closed.

Audience management is KEY.

do not give them any reason to want to examine the dice...they are just 6 ordinary dice at the end of the day - so why should they feel the need to examine them?

do not draw too much attention to the dice, or the fact it is a 'dice trick' - it is not a dice trick. it is a mentalism trick.

Be confident.
Be bold.
Read their mind, not 'work out' what the die land on.

do it, if you're comfortable and happy you have the routine down.

If it does all go to Pot (which im sure it wont) then have an 'out' or a 'back up trick' Perhaps say somthing like "and thats how people cheat in casinos...but what if i gave you a completly free choice...*force a card on them, read their mind, go home*"

I think this sounds like a brilliant effect, If I had any musical talent, I would steal it from you.

A few points

Don't put the cloth over the dice yourself, otherwise people will say you peeked.

Have one of the spectators write down the song and either have it revealed at the end, or what I think would be better, is to blindfold yourself (it can be fake, and it doesn't need to be examined) have the volunteer write the song title on a whiteboard and have the whole audience think of the song.

Also if you do have it written up on a whiteboard then a friend in the audience can tip you of if something goes wrong.

The dice force sounds fine to me but if you're really concerned and if you have the time you could buy this. It might have something you'll prefer.
let us know how it goes I * love this idea.

I love the sound of the routine. The dice force is a really nice on. The way to sell this is all in the presentation, treat the dice as a nothing, they're just a means to determine a random number. Once the number's been added up, just push the dice to one side and don't give them any more attention. If you treat them as unimportant then so will your audience.

Like everyone else, I LOVE the idea of the musical reveal - really love it... makes me wish I could play a note!!

I, personally, would steer away from the dice force. That's my own personal preference to performing propless - yes the dice can be justified but they will attract heat.

I'd much rather have a spec on stage who will be sending the song to me and use a force such as that used in My Word. You would ask another (seated) audience member to select a random number from 1-100. You can explain that you don't want the spec on stage to choose a song as he may just go for his favourite etc. so this way it's genuinely random.

i also agree that the reveal sounds amazing, but i think that some specs may think that there are weighted dice in play. I think people are quite aware that these exist, more than gimmicked cards etc. Maybe a different force would be better, not to leave anyone with any possible explanation.

Comments now closed.

Laurence wrote:Hmm, I would love it to be as clean and as random-looking as possible. That is what I aimed for it to be. However, I had to settle for the next best thing because I'm not sure how exactly to do a propless force. Would looking at "My Word" help in this instance? To be fair, dice are synonymous with 'chance' and 'randomness'. They are not suggestive of trickery like cards, so I think it would be quite justified. But of course the cleaner the better.

The force used in My Word is, imho, gorgeous. I use it for a variety of different effects, book tests included (My Word is a book test effect in 13 Steps).

The dice do work well, they can be justified and, as you say, they're synonymous with randomness.
Not using the dice is just my personal preference.

Laurence wrote: And I love the idea of leaving them with no possible explanation

After performing a book test using the force from My Word, an audience member approached me later on, a grin on her face and told me she knew how I'd done the effect. She explained that I had memorised a certain page in all 3 books and somehow put that page number in the minds of the audience so that they would pick that one when asked!!

I loved that explanation because it still credited me with doing the impossible!!

I regularly use open-mic spots, there's plenty around that are happy to have something non-musical on and I think this effect would play really strongly to an audience that largely consists of musicians. I may well stooge the host of the night I do regularly for this effect

Comments now closed.

How about this for a slight change... Instead of the dice force, have members of the audience write down a song of their choice on a piece of paper and fold in half. Collect the folded slips up in a bag and have your volunteer chose a song from the bag.

A simple force bag could do the job...

There's a nice dice-based range force in a remote viewing test in The Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy, if you've the time to get it. You'll have to make the dice up yourself, but blank ones are available on line. You'd be able to demonstrate, with a little bit of work, that the dice will produce different songs with different numbers before your participants make their choice.

And I'd go for dismissing the "psych force" numbers as a reason to use the dice; i.e. "If I asked you to think of a two-digit number, say, you might be quite likely to go for 35 or 37. You'd actually be surprised at how few choices of number people actually come out with, so to avoid that and make your selection as random as possible..."

And yes, play down the dice.

There's another ploy in AM that could be fun to try out, too, should you acquire a copy. It would just involve a list of songs for them to choose from and a bit of pretty surefire psychology, so in that sense is super clean. In AM he does it with film titles, but the principle can easily be applied to song titles instead.

Lady of Mystery wrote:How about this for a slight change... Instead of the dice force, have members of the audience write down a song of their choice on a piece of paper and fold in half. Collect the folded slips up in a bag and have your volunteer chose a song from the bag.

A simple force bag could do the job...

or just fill a clear bag full with only one song.

It sounds like a nice idea for a routine. As has been said something other than the dice could be used. Add a number pads or mental logs could be an option for very long lists. But I hope it works out well for you. Do let us all know how it goes.

Lady of Mystery wrote:How about this for a slight change... Instead of the dice force, have members of the audience write down a song of their choice on a piece of paper and fold in half. Collect the folded slips up in a bag and have your volunteer chose a song from the bag.

A simple force bag could do the job...

That is the way I would go. And you certainly don't have to have 100 songs.

I'd stay away from the dice for two reasons. First is if you get an idiot like me the trick is ruined. Math and I don't get along, I'm dyslexic and if I'm nervous like being on a stage it makes it worse. I'd mess up the addition and there is more than one of me out there.

Two, there is no need for the dice. They seriously don't fit into the routine.

HOWEVER, if this is the force you are most comfortable with then go with it. Like everyone above me said as long as you treat the dice as dice nobody will notice. It won't even enter thier heads. This is one of those things that magicians have a paranoia about but lay people won't suspect, (unless performed badly).

Why do I not think the dice fits? Think about it there is no reason for them to be there except to create a random number, why can't somebody just yell out a number? And you have also created a list of songs, why? if you are reading their minds why did they need one from a list you made.

Using Lady of Mystery's method you don't even have a list. Members of the audience are picking songs. Much stronger effect and no numbers!

so go out there and get yer ch#!@e B$G ready! Yeah I don't like the fill in the blanks either, I just do it out of spite.

I think the change bag ideas are by far the best, my only concern about the idea of having x amount of people writing song choices would be that of time restraints. The OP only has a few minutes in which to do his effect.
A pre-populated clear two-way bag would speed things up though, allowing you to show a few random examples and then forcing the one that's used.

Mr_Grue wrote:And I'd go for dismissing the "psych force" numbers as a reason to use the dice; i.e. "If I asked you to think of a two-digit number, say, you might be quite likely to go for 35 or 37. You'd actually be surprised at how few choices of number people actually come out with, so to avoid that and make your selection as random as possible..."

Good idea and as the audience is going to be pretty large it could be turned into a little bonus effect.

Mr_Grue wrote:There's another ploy in AM that could be fun to try out, too, should you acquire a copy. It would just involve a list of songs for them to choose from and a bit of pretty surefire psychology, so in that sense is super clean. In AM he does it with film titles, but the principle can easily be applied to song titles instead.

Are we thinking A Day at the Movies? It works well with movies because of the relative ease in which people can identify movie scenes in their mind and how the mentalist can describe them. Using that for songs? The most sure-fire way would be lyrics and the subject of the song which kinda detracts from the reveal being quite literally about the tune. I'm not convinced it would work as well using descriptions of instruments used and tempo etc. It probably could be done but it's hurting my head to think about it in all honesty, so I'm going to stop!