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Do you use a random method of choosing volunteers, or do you select members of the audience to participate yourself?

And if you select members of the audience to participate yourself, what do you look for in a good volunteer?

I personally throw out an object to select people, so the audience know there is absolutely no chance for stooges

L

What kind of object? Hopefully not something heavy?

I think usually (and please let's not get into a huge thread about sexism ) females seem better as they follow instructions without challenging too much, they just let the magician do their thing a bit more than males who (sometimes) might want to catch out the magician. That's how it seems to me anyway.

I think throwing frisbees or monkeys out to select people is a good idea for mentalist/mind-reading, as people do suspect the use of stooges. I think for conjuring, though, it doesn't really matter. It's probably unnecessary unless you are doing some sort of prediction trick, like the one that French guy did on Pen and Teller: Fool Us (which was amazing!).

Throw a staple gun.

cc100 wrote:I think throwing frisbees or monkeys out to select people is a good idea for mentalist/mind-reading.

Just to clarify, I think cc is talking about toys, not live primates...although I could be mistaken.

In his book Maximum Entertainment, Ken Weber states that you should never ask for volunteers. Instead you choose who ever you believe will be a good volunteer, and say ask if they want to join you on stage.

But if you need to eliminate the slightest doubt about using stooges, this will probably not work that well.

Nick

Haha, yes. Although you might like to keep a live one close at hand to throw at any hecklers.

I use a bowling ball, a foam one obviously

You only make that mistake once...

I'm still undecided on what the best way to go with this is, each has it's good and bad points. Randomly choosing your audience members does have the advantage ensuring that there arent any stooges but the down side of it is that you really have no control over who you get come up. I'll always remember once, having my pink hippo caught by a guy who wasn't quite all there. He was a lovely guy but really wasn't the best person to be reading out a list of long words from a dictionary.

At least if you pick your audience members from a show of hands, you can usually work out who's going to be best for what you want. I've got a routine that really works best with three very different people, by choosing who I want I can usaually get the right mix of a personalities. Also by choosing who you want to come up, you can avoid the local drunk.

Perhaps each works better with different audiences and routines.

If you can see your audience (some situations have lighting that forces us to look out in darkness), I think it's good to pick someone who is smiling. When busking, it's usually good to scan people's feet and faces. If their feet are pointed toward you (I suppose there are other signs if they are seated), they maintain eye contact without breaking it, and they smile back when you smile, you have yourself a good volunteer.

It depends on what the task is.

If I need someone to remember something the last thing I want is someone who can barely recall their own name. If that is less important I will lean towards balled up paper as this also serves other purposes...

Look at person, ask their name, gesturing with your right hand. Bring your right hand up toward you in a 'come here' movement, look away from the person, say "A big round of applause as Sarah joins me on stage".

It works.

I think it's an Andy Nyman bit.

I agree with Dye, very politely tell them to come and help you.
Dye's suggestion does indeed come from Nyman, you can hear his excellent thinking on this subject on his International Magic Lecture or Get Nyman (on disc 3 iirc) DVDs.

could you throw out an object, then ask for people to raise their hand if they'd like to help and the closest one joins you on stage?

I don't think I've ever picked someone out myself, it's always been random. Thankfully it very rarely goes wrong, although like Becky says, anyone could come up. What do you do then? You can't exactly send them back, it seems a little discriminatory, as well as creating dead time.

I would suggest using something lightweight to throw out, (A ball of paper or something), I'm ashamed to say I knocked someone's pint over throwing a dictionary once, not a mistake you make again . I think it was Max Maven who came up with the line of apologizing and making a joke about hitting someone in the head before you throw it, just to be on the safe side.