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although i love mind magic, I have a few close up effects that i do at family parties

One of them is a version of prohibition, I use a pop bottle and a penny,

While im showing the bottle and the penny, I let the kids/spectator hold the scewcap and if the moons in allignment let them screw the lid on,

Once the tricks over, 3/5 times they have said, " the coin was in the lid" How can i reinforce the fact that i let them hold it?

I try not to talk too much during the effect, saying outright " you held the lid" Almost turns the process into a puzzle/guessing game.

Hey there, yeh the best thing to do i find is to almost in a Hypnotic way reinforce it whilst your doing it.........
for example I would say

"YOUVE go that bottle/lid/coin/etc in YOUR hand" -me

spec says "yes"c

"Can YOU place that lid that YOUR holding on top of the bottle"-me

spec says "yes"c

"Are YOU happy that YOUVE held the lid the wholes time"-me

spec says "yes"c

"ok could you just place it on there for me, Ill stand back so you know Im not touchin or influencing you or using magnets etc in any way"-me

spec says "yes"c



...........................

And then continue with your routine and at the end reinforce it again before they comment by saying

"and remeber you held it the whole time...I didnt come near you/touch you at all? (they will say no) are you sure I was stood far back so In no way I could have quickly slipped that coin in the top without you seeing? (they will laugh and say no)then walk out lol dont give them time to ask, just let them think about it in their heads

.................................

Hope that helps my friend, please PM if after you have tried it and tell me how it goes..........

I think i see

Il certianly change the presentation to point out there holding cap rather than just relying on them to remember.

Just over stress it..but be subtle

Magic Chris wrote:Just over stress it..but be subtle

I think that this should be overstressed.

This is really a question about presentation. It's not something that you can ever get instantly.

Here's a good rule. Perform the effect 100 times, to real live people, strangers preferably, and learn from your mistakes. Hopefully every time you get caught out or slip up slightly, an idea of how to subtly improve the presentation may come to you. Eventually, as your routine improves, these types of questions will never get asked.

If you don't think you made any mistakes, look for things to improve. It is possible to make massive changes to the strength of an effect just by changing something as little as the stress on a single word.

This is impossible to do by practising in front of a mirror, or to diplomatic friends.

On the other hand there'll always be people (especially children) who'll just guess.
"I know how you did that" they'll shout, and come up with something random. Needless to say they are rarely close and I'm sure they do it just to flatter their self-esteem.

Incidentally, I always find screams of "it was up your sleeve!" quite flattering.

Regards,

Mark

EDIT: Oh aye, just thought I'd add this. Imagine how long it took Mr Daniels to get this right. Also, have a listen to what he says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkPaXm13BOY

I like to do a recap of the conditions before I do the trick. Mainly because it makes it more dramatic, plus you can add a few things here and there. Such as with cards, if you forced a card...later on you can say things like, "that envelope was in your pocket the entire time, and you just simply thought of a card."

With your effect, you could simply state "As fair as possible, you examined the bottle, the props, You placed the lid on, I never even touched the lid. Nor did I come within 20 feet of the props...
Another subtelty may be to introduce the bottle and make the coin seem like an after thought. Say something like..."You know what, I think I'll do this with a coin. Has anyone got a coin on them." Then proceed to say that the bottle was sealed the entire time, and that you examined the bottle and assured everyone that it is in fact an ordinary bottle. Getting them to agree to that, basically includes everything including the cap...You might even change it to use a signed coin. There are ways.

Yep... or, you could just do the effect without loading it via the lid Presumably you are using the same "principle" as prohibition, so why not just give them the bottle to inspect, take it back, give them the lid to inspect and do the dirty work while they're distracted? Personally I've never liked "lid loads"!

How about handing out fifty quid notes to everyone? Now if that doesn't make them remember, nothing will!!