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What would you do if you spent about 30 seconds to a minute doing a verbal forse, but it didn't work out. Here's mine.

Performer:Tell me. What was the card you pictured?

Spectator:Ace of Spades (wrong card)

Performer: I see. Do you know why I made you picture that card?

Spectator: No.

Performer: No reason whatsoever. Now. Lets find that Ace of Spades.
(Proceed to perform an effect with the ace of spades).

That is what I would do. Does anyone else have a little escape route for when thing go wrong .

Very simple, have an ID in your pocket.
If the force go wrong just pull it out and turn it into an ID routine.

Or even better, if you have a the "any card any number out of 52" deck, that can also do the trick, and that way you can also tell another person (or the same) that you made him think of the number as well

Or, you could just make it seem as if it was a really fair way of getting them to think of a card. If you're doing a force, make it seem casual. That allows for the leeway.

My personal preference - even though I rarely use it - would be something like Heirloom.

Here's a thought... RE-READ WHAT BANACHECK SAYS ABOUT USING THESE METHODS... his encouragement of designing your approach in ways to where if it doesn't work, you are the only one that knows and as far as the audience is concerned, you're just moving right along.

When you use the methods properly you will not have the problems you are discussing. Secondly, in "real" mentalism having a miss is not a big deal, it actually adds to your sense of credibility... only magicians get it right every time when it comes to how the public percieves things.

I know that someone who is skilled at verbal forces will not have too many misses, but you will always find thouse people in the crowd that insist on messing you up. Also, I was thinking about using a swami gimmick in a way to bail myself out in one of these situations. That way, the force effect is still there, and it doesn't look like I've waisted two minutes talking about a big screen.

Both the Swami and PW techniques can be used but that's not the point Steve drives at when he talks about the proper way of using this technique (which you can see cleverly demonstrated in disc 3 of his PSI SERIES DVD collection).

Something Steve and I talked about some time ago was how some of the common items will change or be different depending upon what part of the country/world you may be in. In the deeper southern parts of the U.S. for an example, the most common flower named is Magnolia not the Rose and the more typical fruit you'll hear about will be Orange or Peach.

Though there are ways that can help add to the force, such as the line Steve uses, "Name the first long stemmed flower that comes to mind..." but in my book that's a bit too leading -- too obvious.

This is not an exact science per ce and one must learn to be aware and make adjustments. It takes time as well as on-going practice.

Hmm, I can see what everyone is saying here and it's all very valuable advice, but I think this issue can be so overly-worried about.

I'm all up for get outs, and obviously they are more appropriate or needed in different situations, but as Derren Brown mentions in 'Absolute Magic', audiences are becoming wise to this sort of thing. In my opinion it's far more rewarding when using something like a verbal force which could quite easily go wrong just to make it as direct as possible, so they know exactly what you intend to do, and if it does fail the just laugh it off.

This does have it's disadvantages and obviously won't suit everyone's style and all situations, but I think that if you are confident enough and rehearsed enough to be able to do it sucessfully most of the time then when it does work, the effect is far greater.

Good point Jack. I think succeeding more often is far more important to the psychological performer than the 'traditional' mentalist. If, for example, a large majority of your material depends upon suggestive techniques, and direct ones at that, then to get the best results you really do need your audiences to believe in what you can do.

yes, that's really understated but very important.

Cardza wrote:Good point Jack. I think succeeding more often is far more important to the psychological performer than the 'traditional' mentalist. If, for example, a large majority of your material depends upon suggestive techniques, and direct ones at that, then to get the best results you really do need your audiences to believe in what you can do.

You add to your sense of advantage however, by "priming the pump" as it were... you do material prior to moving into the more "iffy" modes of technique that you know will work or else you have a higher sense of control over. This should "feel" similar to the other so that when people backtrack events they misremember things, which adds to your reputation whether you're selling the psychic image of that of some sort of expert in language, etc.

Exactly! I think you said you do that with billets Craig, which is a brilliant idea.

Yes, thats a good idea too.

I'm doing magic square stuff at the min too and playing round with ideas surrounding that, anyone else done anything like that? What do you think?