talkmagic.co.uk

I'm currently working on an entire mentalism show (45 to 85 minutes) which will deal with skepticism and explain principles of skeptical thinking. I'll try doing it in a funny as way as possible, by telling about Project Alpha (if you don't know about it, you should. It's great material for mentalists), and proclaiming we're going to make a repeat of the project right here, right now, with the audience as participants.

Then I send them a thought (think of a shape inside of a shape). A third receive it. I send them another thought (think of a item from outside), another third receive it. We go on until I have 5-10 people which I then ask to the stage, then I start testing their psychic abilities. Every test is built so that one person is eliminated.
I keep thinning them down until there's only one left - the big psychic! Then I then cause him to read people's mind succesfully, give him his telepath mock award and show that I've predicted everything that would happen throughout the show in a note hidden in a balloon. Finito.

I am still looking for good effects to do on the group of people that comes on stage, which will eliminate one or two people without making them feel bad about 'losing', and make the winners look 'psychic'. Do you know any such effects?

Thanks in advance!

Is the idea that each test is rigged? I assume not, from the balloon prediction finish. So why not just do some psychic tests? Test them with ESP cards, drawing duplications, guessing which hand the coin is in, which cup has a container of water under it, etc. The person with the worst hit rate is out.

Put some psychological forces in there, and it could begin to look like the last few people really do have some powers. You might want to consider saving some of these for the final stages. Try using a colour as the first test. It's got a good hit rate, but you will still get rid of a large chunk of people. I suppose it depends if you want to show that pretty much everyone has these powers to a certain degree, or if you really want to make the last few people special.

Be prepared to have a couple of tests more or less than planned, in case everyone hits, or more than one person misses really badly.

Some of the tests won't be rigged (especially those at the beginning, which are performed on the entire audience), but I want the last few effects to be more spectacular. In other words, I don't want the successes of the winners to be attributed to blind chance.

An example of this would be putting a paper in an envelope, telling the contestants there is a phone number inside, and asking them to guess it. Using sw*** I then reveal that one got it exactly right, and two more got close (or something). After that, I explain it's possible I just directed them towards that number in some unconscious way, so it's not proof of super-natural powers.

Another test I'm thinking about is the pendulum test (ideomotor effect), especially to test the first people who come on stage.

I'll probably use the color test too at the beginning, as you say, and also prepare a few more tests just to be on the safe side. Thanks for the good advice!

The thing about good psychological forces is that they don't look random. I think performers tend to forget how strong some of them are, especially two digit numerical forces and the circle/triangle one. I once freaked out a work colleague just doing those two bits (from my Psycrets membership card, in fact). He's a very intelligent chap, but I could tell it got to him.

I think a bigger issue for your show would be that pretty much everyone would be getting them right; your premise requires that most people in the audience fail in the later stages.

Check out Bob Cassidy's work on pendulums. It contains a water divining trick that can let either the performer, or a spectator, find a hidden cannister of water using divining rods or a pendulum.

Also consider The Third Choice from 13 Steps to Mentalism. Ask the spectators which envelope contains the circle.

The problem with these routines is that it is quite hard to have more than one person get them right, and you will eliminate more people than you want. You could reduce the number of options, and rather than having a choice of five envelopes, or six cannisters, you only have three. You can then get (probably) more than a third of people through to the next round.

A similar idea is colour spot cards. Have five or six cards with a coloured spot in the middle (red, blue, green, yellow, orange and violet, for example). Ask them to find the orange spot. Allow hits for red or yellow. You could adapt The Third Choice (but obviously you will need to think about exactly how this will work, if you want to show the red and yellow spots too). However, Kenton Knepper's Secret Scent-sations might help you here. You could even get them to find the violet-coloured spot...

Another thing to consider is writing down the initials of a friend (three letters), and ask them to guess what they are. Same method as your serial number idea, but you can have more people getting at least one letter right. Tell them your friend doesn't have any weird names, so no Q, X, Y or Z. You can give partial hits for letters that look similar, such as N for M, I and J, etc. You might even be able to do this ungimmicked, but there is always a chance of too many people being eliminated immediately.

Thanks for the good ideas. I'll look into finding Cassidy's books and pendulum ideas.

As for the fact that only one person can succeed, I solved it by choosing six volunteers, then dividing them into two groups of three people and doing a different test for each group. The final two can compete with each other

I think (and hope) this is going to be a very interesting show.