talkmagic.co.uk

Hiya,

Ok, so i have the Thought Transmitter by John Cornelius. I Really do like it, and I'm using it alot at the moment.

My only problem is the presentation.

I find myself doing the following:

think of a memory, something from your childhood, a happy memory. now from that i want you to imagine one part of it, and object, place or sound etc. A beach-ball, a bus, Grandad, birds singing etc. and write it on the note, close the wallet and band it round.

Once i have the information (depending on what it is) i play around, and i write out my own memory with the matching word.

I don't feel this is strong enough for such a wonderful device.

I was wondering if anyone else has this (Or indeed anything similar) and what presentation you use?

I hope you can help.

Regards,

JH

I think that sounds like a perfectly good presentation. I do much the same, with pictures not written words (although I don't use the Thought Transmitter).

The trick is to get your information at the least likely moment - I leave it very late, having already made a few suggestions.

T.

magicj wrote:Hiya,

Ok, so i have the Thought Transmitter by John Cornelius. I Really do like it, and I'm using it alot at the moment.

My only problem is the presentation.

I find myself doing the following:

think of a memory, something from your childhood, a happy memory. now from that i want you to imagine one part of it, and object, place or sound etc. A beach-ball, a bus, Grandad, birds singing etc. and write it on the note, close the wallet and band it round.

Once i have the information (depending on what it is) i play around, and i write out my own memory with the matching word.

I don't feel this is strong enough for such a wonderful device.

I was wondering if anyone else has this (Or indeed anything similar) and what presentation you use?

I hope you can help.

Regards,

JH

If you don't have them already, check out Strong Magic and Psychological Subtleties by Darwin Ortiz and Banachek, respectively. Both will help you develop your own strong presentations and are definitely worth the money.

Banachek's Brain Game and Luke Jermay's burst bubble revelation are both very powerful reveals. Personally, I use a combination of both when I reveal words.

Ted wrote:I think that sounds like a perfectly good presentation. I do much the same, with pictures not written words (although I don't use the Thought Transmitter).

The trick is to get your information at the least likely moment - I leave it very late, having already made a few suggestions.

T.

Thanks very much!

so do you get a couple of suggestions 'Wrong' before hand? Is that what you mean by 'having already made a few suggestions'

sleightlycrazy wrote:

magicj wrote:Hiya,

Ok, so i have the Thought Transmitter by John Cornelius. I Really do like it, and I'm using it alot at the moment.

My only problem is the presentation.

I find myself doing the following:

think of a memory, something from your childhood, a happy memory. now from that i want you to imagine one part of it, and object, place or sound etc. A beach-ball, a bus, Grandad, birds singing etc. and write it on the note, close the wallet and band it round.

Once i have the information (depending on what it is) i play around, and i write out my own memory with the matching word.

I don't feel this is strong enough for such a wonderful device.

I was wondering if anyone else has this (Or indeed anything similar) and what presentation you use?

I hope you can help.

Regards,

JH

If you don't have them already, check out Strong Magic and Psychological Subtleties by Darwin Ortiz and Banachek, respectively. Both will help you develop your own strong presentations and are definitely worth the money.

Banachek's Brain Game and Luke Jermay's burst bubble revelation are both very powerful reveals. Personally, I use a combination of both when I reveal words.

Fantastic! Thank you very much for these suggestions, I'm looking them up as you think...

"Apart from the obvious stuff like money, credit cards and train tickets..we keep some others even more important than that in our wallets...

and thats our memories...

photos of loved ones, receipts from that first date, little notes popped in there secretly only to be discovered later...

so i want you to imagine opening an old, old, wallet - and inside it you can see a photograph...and in that scene, that snapshot of time - there is one person's face that means so much to you...

write their name down in secret please, and lets keep it in my wallet for now..."

place your hands over the wallet *as you get your peek*, and ask that person to place their hands over yours and focus again on that imaginary photo...

i'll leave the rest to you, but i think its important to have a motive to introduce the wallet...

EDIT - reveal the first letter of the name, and ask them to relax even more, releasing your hands and pocketing the wallet...then continue, get them to take about the emotive side of things...

reveal the sex (phnar) of the person next...more of the memory, and then the full name...not a fan of the slow letter by letter reveal personally...

make eye contact and reveal the full name...

whats wrong with just asking them to draw, or write something? Ive used this device, and others pretty much since they first came on the market.
getting them to write a word, or a 4 figure number, or a simple drawing, is enough.

Drawing the routine out with "personal memories" is ok for some, but not all, so dont feel that you have too. quick, punchy divination is often just as strong .

nothing wrong with short/punchy...

but then there's too much focus on the wallet...and why put it in a wallet of all things? why not just ask them to hold it in their hands or put it in an envelope?

so for me, there has to be some kind of reason to it all, otherwise it comes across as too gimmicky/magicky....

IAIN wrote:nothing wrong with short/punchy...

but then there's too much focus on the wallet...and why put it in a wallet of all things? why not just ask them to hold it in their hands or put it in an envelope?

so for me, there has to be some kind of reason to it all, otherwise it comes across as too gimmicky/magicky....

You know I like to keep it short and punchy (a bit like me, really )

Iain, you must remember when I performed a drawing duplication for that Indian restaurant manager a few months ago? The wallet in question (SAW) was definitely not the focus, I hope you'll agree. In fact, you may also remember that you thought I'd gained the info much earlier than I really did. The focus was the conversation I had with the guy, which was about his childhood experience.

In fact I'd screwed the wallet thing up and had to do something rather bold, which was why the actual info gathering was so late. Thank heavens for table clothes...

Which brings me to the question about what suggestions to make...

I'd never try to get it wrong, but you can take a leaf or two out of the rather dodgy book used by readers to warm up and maybe get a few hits. If you fail it's not a problem because you know you'll end up doing an accurate drawing.

Actually, I completely failed once. The guy drew his image in completely the wrong place, despite me being very ****ing clear about where it should go. In his (and my) defence, he was not a very good English-speaker so any linguistic subtle points were demonstrably lost.

My advice, whether you use a pad, wallet or whatever, is to be completely natural as you gather the info and then appear to start the process of reading minds (or whatever you're pretending to do). This bit should appear significant, although you've done nothing useful yet. Get your info after it appears it seems clear that you already have it.

i certainly remember the curry and the presentation...

and i have to say mate, it wasnt short and punchy - it was a lovely conversation, with the guy's eyes lighting up telling us, no...sharing with us an intimate thought from the past...and he relived that moment, and it was moving for him...

it wasnt a "draw a picture..", *thanks, pop it in here*, "ok, you drew a tree..." way at all...

and yes, thats why i thought you got the info earlier, but something went a bit skew-whiff...

IAIN wrote:it wasnt short and punchy

Actually, that's a completely fair point and I fully agree. It was a magical moment, I felt. And quite a long one.

When I don't screw it up (:)) the routine is much quicker and I *swear* no-one has ever noticed the wallet - because it's the old business card gambit so the wallet makes sense in that context.

It might be worth mentioning that you can use the info gained to get one-ahead, so you'd lose some of the speed but bury the memory of the wallet if you really worried about it (which I don't).

Ted wrote:because it's the old business card gambit so the wallet makes sense in that context.

exactly my point...a logical context!

there's no need to worry about anything if you have a context...

edit - and if you just want a short and punchy presentation, just use a single piece of paper and a quick bit of billet work...job done...no extras needed, just a pair of hands, a bit of paper and a quill..

Thanks so much for sharing those ideas with me.

I really really like the idea of the wallet thing.

I'm going to try a few of these out and let you know which works best.

Im certainly going to try and leave it as late as possible to gather the info, i've been getting it as quick as i can.

On the odd occasion I use the wallet, (I do like it, I just don't carry stuff around) I use it as a 'communication device' yes a television, I draw a rudimentry television on the pad complete with antena and power cord I hand the whole thing to the spectator and ask him/her to draw a picture in the tv. Now I can tell them what is on the TV. Lame yes, does it work? absolutly. I sold dozens of them using that routine. It is a great device the problems I've come across is using it in a darkened room you have to watch your angles a little. I like them to draw in the center of the pad, usually not a problem but every now and again...however the tv idea fixes that without an issue.

IAIN wrote:nothing wrong with short/punchy...

but then there's too much focus on the wallet...and why put it in a wallet of all things? why not just ask them to hold it in their hands or put it in an envelope?

so for me, there has to be some kind of reason to it all, otherwise it comes across as too gimmicky/magicky....

Dont worry, i have a number of strong in built logic points in the routine.

Docc Hilford has a wonderful scam he employs in his living and dead test, which is on volume 1 of Monster Mentalism. Hilford is very keen on playing with people's memories of his magic, and there's a wonderful subtlety he uses to do this, along with a very powerful moment of revelation. Worth checking out.

I'd like to second the importance of delaying when you get the information. When I do my billet switch bit, which is ultra-simple, I tend to make some guesses, usually starting out with a disappearing negative "it's not something you can touch, is it?" and so on...

If you get some intermediate hits, then you try and make the most of the connection by having her try and read your mind. In fishing out the second (?) billet to write your word down, you get your peek.

If you don't get the hits, then you try and set up the connection by... having her try and read your mind.

On a side note, with the billet switch I end up with two billets under an upturned glass. One has the spec's word written on it, the other has my word on it. The cleanliness of the finish was something that I really enjoyed to the point that I'd almost insist on the billets being checked at the end. It took me a long time to realise that the goal was for the participant not to suspect the billets in the first place; leave them to be discovered, but do do leave them!

So I guess I'm seconding (or thirding or fourthing) the importance of ensuring that mentalism isn't a trick with a prop wallet, or a billet, or a notepad. The best way a magician can make you not look at something he doesn't want you to look at is to look intently at something else. Mentalism ought to provide a fantastic smorgasbord of things to look at other than the kibble we carry round with us in our pockets.