talkmagic.co.uk

Does anyone have any ideas for a big fun prediction that can be used at a show? Just something that I can introduce in the beginning and then reveal later at the end or something? Something fun that would leave them intrigued through the show.

A number. In Tarbell book 1, he teaches how to make randomly called out numbers add up to a predetermined sum. You can have an envelope with the predicted number inside. Write the date on the envelope and have people sign it before the show- don't push it on them, leave it on the table and have them come up (if they want to) to sign and inspect it.

The idea of the signing and date comes from Penn and Teller's show.

A really cool idea would be to have an audience member brought on stage and a prediction written on their skin, or make them wear a T-shirt. They are asked to stay seated and make sure nobody messes with them throughout the show.

Then, they are living proof at the end—when they reveal the prediction which has been on THEM the whole time—that the prediction was made BEFORE the effects started.

The feature bonuses are that there's:
1. audience participation
2. a nice BIG prediction
3. magician-proof anti-tampering for a convincer

I've only had the pleasure of performing this once, but it was one of the strongest reactions I've ever had. I was invited to a party thrown by a friend of mine. She happens to be a book lover, so I pulled this together. It is absolutely nothing new, borrowed from a number of different ideas.

I mailed her an envelope which had a smaller envelope sealed inside, along with instructions not to open it until I asked her to do so at the party. The night of the party, I brought along a book that I was currently reading, which I thought she would enjoy.

After a bit of discussion and talk about the premise of the book, I had her look at a page in the book, and try to commit the scene to memory - focusing specifically on a few key elements that were highly visual. The book was then handed off to another person at the party (I did not touch the book after giving it to her). Slowly I started to recreate the scene she was thinking of. I then revealed the elements she was thinking of. In this case, she was thinking of the items that were lying on a desk in the scene described on the page she looked at.

I then asked the person holding the book to "verify the information" for the rest of the group. After looking around and flipping back and forth for a while, he let everyone know that the page was missing. My friend took the book and found the page torn out. I then asked her to retrieve the envelope. She did so, and opened it - finding the very same page she had torn out.

Not exactly a prediction in the traditional sense - but it was quite the hit.

Banachek's Add a Number routine is also quite good - it's along the lines of the routine sleightlycrazy mentioned. Seige's idea has great potential as well.

Richard Osterlind's Original TCB Routine (currently found on his No Camera Tricks DVD set - amazing set, btw) is an incredibly strong prediction routine. Aside from being an ultra-powerful prediction, it's an incredible audience participation piece, with 7 different spectators taking part.

Hope those help.

Demitri, have I seen Criss Angel perform this? I swear I have, it was very good.

Demitri wrote:I've only had the pleasure of performing this once, but it was one of the strongest reactions I've ever had. I was invited to a party thrown by a friend of mine. She happens to be a book lover, so I pulled this together. It is absolutely nothing new, borrowed from a number of different ideas.

I mailed her an envelope which had a smaller envelope sealed inside, along with instructions not to open it until I asked her to do so at the party. The night of the party, I brought along a book that I was currently reading, which I thought she would enjoy.

After a bit of discussion and talk about the premise of the book, I had her look at a page in the book, and try to commit the scene to memory - focusing specifically on a few key elements that were highly visual. The book was then handed off to another person at the party (I did not touch the book after giving it to her). Slowly I started to recreate the scene she was thinking of. I then revealed the elements she was thinking of. In this case, she was thinking of the items that were lying on a desk in the scene described on the page she looked at.

I then asked the person holding the book to "verify the information" for the rest of the group. After looking around and flipping back and forth for a while, he let everyone know that the page was missing. My friend took the book and found the page torn out. I then asked her to retrieve the envelope. She did so, and opened it - finding the very same page she had torn out.

Not exactly a prediction in the traditional sense - but it was quite the hit.

Demitri, was that using the wizards manual by Doc Hilford?

Fantastic effect and done properly it can get amazing reactions.

Now what is something I should predict? It was originally gonna be a card I forced or something, but I am doing a trick along the lines of 'Bottled Up' where my rocky raccoon flies through the air as a deck of cards is tossed up and catches the one with the missing corner in his mouth. I think this might be the closer, so to reveal the prediction afterward as a card might be a little redundant.