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Hi guys, I have a booking where they want some kind of prediction on each table (even though I won't get round every table). This will be in the form of an envelope with DO NOT OPEN written on them & the logo of each company.

I'm thinking one or two can have a pre-prepared 'Intercessored' card inside.

A few tables could have a word from a book test (usually forced & can be different words/pages for each table)

I'm thinking of having a couple of them containing a psychological prediction which I don't have to use if I don't hit. (wild animal from the jungle / Vegetable etc) This is the way I perform the Invisble Deck with a card normally in my top jacket pocket incase I don't hit

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on other predictions I could use for the envelopes. Hard hitting but simple would be great, I'm experienced in mentalism but have never done multiple predictions & obviously want to vary them from table to table.

I'm

Russ

I've used the noughts and crosses prediction in Mark Wilson's book before, that one works very well.

Card prediction maybe?

I think you can make excellent use of the prediction if you know you're not going to make it around each table. Something that seems impossible to predict but just very unlikely. I dunno.. just something that springs to mind..

billet indexes

you could do the same effect for each table, but knowing that other tables will continue looking - so you just force a different symbol/drawing on each table...

taking it further, why not force a different letter of the alphabet on each table and have it in the envelope - every table lifts up their selected card and it spells out a message?

carbon envelope with a stylus swami too...

or the multiple out envelope from Annemann PMM could help

See I'm guessing here that the envelopes will be on the table before the guests get there and left after if the table is not got to so can't have imp, multiple outs or indexs. I'm thinking, I'll get back to ya

All really good ideas, many thanks & keep them coming.

I'll look into the noughts & crosses effect tonight, Mark Wilson is in my collection. The envelopes will be on the tables before the guests arrive so predictions need to be in their already. I love the idea of predictions which, if they don't hit then you don't use. No one will ever know, but if they do hit, then they hit like a train.

I will have a table plan to work with so keeping track shouldn't be a problem. I'm thinking of using the Wizard's Manual on the table whose paying for me, safe in the knowledge that I will definatly make it to that table.

Russ

You absolutely can use indexes, Reverend Tristan - so long as there is actually something in the envelope to start with.

Animal/Shape forces are a great start.

Do you know how many chairs/people are at each table? I can think of one or two things, but I'd need to know numbers to be sure they could work.

have you looked at Pit Boss by Thom Peterson, its a Cabaret effect however it can be adapted to close-up very easily, its on the Sucker Punch DVD.

Chris Tennant

I saw a brilliant idea once but can't remember where. The whole idea was that the prediction was loaded into the envelope when you perform at the table but each envelope started out with a piece of paper inside it which read 'I just know you wouldn't be able to resist opening the envelope'.

That way you're covered when it comes to the inevitable person who's going to open the envelope before you get there. I guess you could also just switch the envelope instead of loading it when you performed.

Hi Demitri, numbers are somewhere around 200 give or take 20 or so. Each table will be between 8 & 12 people made up of a bunch of companies which the company that is hosting the dinner works with.

Lady Of Mystery, I have thought about if someone has opened the envelope before I get there but just reckoned that if the envelope has been tampered with I just won't use the prediction. I like the idea of having the 'I knew you would open it' inside but think that having a prediction I can go for off the cuff which is correct without me going near the thing would hit harder.

Russ

Just a quick note to those interested that it all went very well. Although I knew that I wouldn't get round everyone (it wasn't my intention & never is) I did manage to perform some great 'off the cuff' predictions. I also had some of them imagine a vegetable & stand to lift their chair revealing the thought of vegetable picture stuck under the chair.

Routined like this;
Approach & introduce myself.
Had them imagine & name a vegetable.
ID with 7 Hearts in my top pocket for a direct hit.
Booktest or Album prediction etc.
Thank them for their time & reveal the vegetable.

Thanks to all who gave input. Greatly appreciated.

Russ

russpie wrote:Hi guys, I have a booking where they want some kind of prediction on each table (even though I won't get round every table). This will be in the form of an envelope with DO NOT OPEN written on them & the logo of each company.

I'm thinking one or two can have a pre-prepared 'Intercessored' card inside.

A few tables could have a word from a book test (usually forced & can be different words/pages for each table)

I'm thinking of having a couple of them containing a psychological prediction which I don't have to use if I don't hit. (wild animal from the jungle / Vegetable etc) This is the way I perform the Invisble Deck with a card normally in my top jacket pocket incase I don't hit

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on other predictions I could use for the envelopes. Hard hitting but simple would be great, I'm experienced in mentalism but have never done multiple predictions & obviously want to vary them from table to table.

I'm

Russ

Keep things simple...

SWAMI
PATEO
E VOQUE

I can't recall the proper term used to describe this, but it is a technique in which both, the font used and the letter combination printed on the card lend to you multiple "right" or "near right" hits. The one I've used for years is known as HASTERIX from Lewis Jones' book PERSON TO PERSON. I do this as part of my remote audition (through the mail, over the phone and via radio) and it blows people away.

You can likewise exploit the KISMET principle within your envelopes and thus, have three "right" answers. Ted Lesley covers this idea in both, PARAMIRACLES and a special treatise sold by Hades Publications by the title KISMET. It's a very awesome, simple arrangement that works quite well.

DO NOT make the classic mistakes of...

a.) being 100% on mark at each table... have close calls or even complete misses here and there in that it will give your stunt a bit of "realism" when it comes to perception and feel. This is quite a valuable piece of psychology when it comes to psychic styled stunts.

b.) mix up the predictions so that something different is revealed with each group. If you don't they will instantly see it as a "trick" and try to figure out how you manipulated them. To be effective at the psychological level, a variety of "right answers" will prove best.

If they are giving you stage time, you may look into a follow-up bit of business with these prediction cards... have random numbers, etc. on the back side of the cards and as your encore bit on stage, have audience members stand (after pointing out said details on the cards)... ultimately, you arrange them so as to give one last big prediction via these cards... I have a few ideas as to how that could be done but...

Just a few points to contemplate...

Cheers for that. I'm by no means new to mentalism & have mentalism routines I use regularly at all my bookings it was just that the client wanted predictions on ALL of the 26 tables so peeks etc were out of the question & as you say, I wanted to mixed up the predictions so no one could watch again on another table & see the 'working'.

Russ

russpie wrote:Cheers for that. I'm by no means new to mentalism & have mentalism routines I use regularly at all my bookings it was just that the client wanted predictions on ALL of the 26 tables so peeks etc were out of the question & as you say, I wanted to mixed up the predictions so no one could watch again on another table & see the 'working'.

Russ

One of my favored bits of business when it comes to circumstances in which I'm doing "the same thing" with several different small groups at the same event, is to employ a different method at each table whilst delivering the same end result... but then I'm always mixing methods

Long ago I learned a Q&A routine penned by the great Robert Nelson in which colored bits of paper were used for the billets; a means by which the performer removed the idea (assumption) that he was somehow switching the billets in order to gain insight as to what was composed and likewise, a technique that still to this day, drives "magicians" up the bloody wall simply because it's "impossible"... the information you share deals with the actual question on the slip held into the air and handed straight back to the patron for verification... no funny business!

I bring this up in that I've used the colored paper in another way; as a code that tells me what the question printed on the slip deals with (I'm referring of course, to a Q&A system when you have controlled the theme on the answers based on the questions you ask patrons to respond to... typically for an AN based Q&A)... this brings us to your situation...

Why couldn't you employ colored envelopes so that you know which method to use at each table?

You could even use a marking system on the envelopes so they all look the same but the point centers on you knowing how to approach each table/presentation differently; using PATEO at one table (for example) and when you move to the table next to it that has a blue envelope you employ a swami for a "fill in the blank here" type technique (See the following in Corinda pg 21 #14 "The Week Ahead Prediction"; Pg 95 #10 "The Switch & the Force"; and my personal favorite, page 98 #12a "The Carbon Prediction Envelope")

Seems to me that employing 4 or 5 techniques that you code to your self via the envelope (so you know what approach to take) will give you the protection along side the psychological sense of obfuscating (blurring) things (i.e. when they get together and compare notes post event -- everyone saw things differently e.g. no reverse engineering)j... it's just a wise way of working things for someone that's performance savvy and secure in their work.

Just a thought.