talkmagic.co.uk

yeah, if you say "write down someone's name...", then immediately reveal it...well, thats no fun for anyone is it...

play the game! give it a context, and put the pad away half way through and continue talking...

oooh hows that for a nice memento, just got my blue parapad out ready for friday, and found a page where scott grossberg and his lovely wife came to london and we did some drawings and stuff together...

i may well frame that...have happy memories of that day

The Devil's Tailor wrote:Alright, thanks for that, but OK, so they can't EXAMINE it, but what if they idly flick through it? Will they find anything glaringly obvious? I found that to be a problem with the Tommy Pad, but I did not have this problem when I used to use a Butterfly Pad.

I found the exact opposite of this problem with the Tommy Pad. I bought the DVD for a friend who is into this sort of thing. It was a birthday present and I even made up an actual pad for them, just to get them started. I performed a very straight-forward effect with the pad first, without explaining how it worked. Then handed them their gift.

I explained that it was an i*p p*d. They looked at it and started laughing. They could not see the gimmick. It was quite ridiculous. I had done a very rough and ready job so it was not as subtle as it could have been.

And don't forget that there is a very quick and easy way to leave your Tommy Pad with your participant after the effect, leaving nothing for them to find.

I don't want to deflect interest from the Paralabs pad, which I am sure is fantastic. Nor do I want to make you feel bad about how you handle such devices. Instead I'm trying to emphasise how essentially innocent all of these devices are - and hope that this encourages you.

It's a bit like peek/switching wallets. If they are seen as a prop by your audience then you're done for. But they should not be. And while some will stand a little examination, that thought shouldn't even cross your punters' minds.

T.

Mr_Grue wrote:And if after all that they still want to examine the pad, then you pull out the clean one. Part of that indifference involves putting it away once you're done with it - this isn't about the pad, so it doesn't need to stay out; selling that it's not about the pad actually helps you along the way to switching it out.

I'm now thinking I could carry this off. I'm too skint to buy the pad at the moment but as soon as I get some good news, it's top of my list.

Thinking back... whenever I've had someone want to examine the pad or clipboard, it was never during the drawing phase. So, having a second pad in the pocket (or toppit, maybe) would solve the problem.

Thanks everyone.