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In short, I am TERRIBLE with names.
Sometimes I meet a person once and I know their name for life, but far too often I can get someone's name 2 or 3 times and still struggle to remember it.

Is anyone else in a similar boat? If so, how do you manage to ask a spectator their name one time and remember it until at least the end of the show?

You need to find an anchor.
What ever the name, relate it to someone famous or someone you know.

If you have it connected to something familier you are more likely to recall it.

Alec

Derren has a nice little section in Tricks of the Mind about this.

Can't remember the detail but it is, as Alec said, based on anchoring.

Yup - as already mentioned, TOTM is your best current resource for this, and also covers an impressive array of easily-mastered memory techniques, which are well worth the asking price (especially if you can get one for a few quid off eBay )

Very highly-recommended book, and a fascinating read

Or if you are looking to improve your memory in general AND learn what's mentioned in Derren's book, buy How To Develop a Superpower Memory by Harry Lorayne. It's like the chapter in Derren's book but much better taught and a lot longer.

However, if you are just after names, take a look at TOTM as it is a very good book in it's own right.

Any "improve your memory" book will have a section on names, because putting names to faces is something that seems to worry everybody. They all offer essentially the same strategy: whatever there is about a person's face that immediately makes an impression on you, link this to some imagery that recalls the name. Whatever feature you think is noticeable the first time is likely to be the same feature that stands out on any subsequent meeting, and will then recall the imagery, which then recalls the name.

Deciding what feature stands out and then deciding how to link an image to it is also a way to ensure you spend a few moments actually concentrating on the name and face in the first place. Paying attention is the first step to remembering anything.

However, none of this is any good to me. I'm severely face-blind, and -- barring something like a foot-long scar -- all faces look essentially the same to me.

Face-blind people develop alternative strategies. If I have to remember somebody for a few hours or a day, I concentrate on their clothes and hair, including any glasses, jewellery, or facial hair. Clothes are far more distinctive than faces. Of course, this won't help if you have to remember the person for longer, because people have the annoying habit of changing their clothes! It's also not very useful in a formal situation where all the men are wearing more or less identical suits.

If your main problem is remembering a spectator's name for the duration of a show, I would recommend paying attention to clothes and hair as much as their face. Anything about them that's individual and catches your attention will be good enough to link a name to for a few hours.

I have no short term memory. If somebody gives me a name it is a waste of time I will never remember. Same with directions. I have to go to the place 100 times before I will remember how to get there. However ask me something that happened 30 years ago and I can give you the details.

My solution start the trick now, and finish it 30 years from now. I will ask a spectator thier name to be polite. In truth I will forget it before they finish telling me. I just don't need it. I tell people my brain topped off in the 70's and there is no room for anything else.

There are times I can remember a name for a short amount of time. So for the duration of the effect I may or may not have a problem in that regard. Ten minutes later however I'm done.

It could also be because I'm simply not listening. I'm sure non of this has helped you in anyway. What were we talking about?

Funnily enough, there's a long section in Naked mentalism 3 on memory techniques. The best technique depends on whether you're trying to remember sequential or random access data.

Hello. James May's TV programme " man lab" last week covered this very thing about names. Some bloke ( can't remember his name ) had to memorise loads of names at a function and then repeat the names as they entered a room to sit down for the meal coming from the bar. There where various ways to do this like rhyming there names with something or the size of the person etc. It'll probably be on the bbc Iplayer if you want to watch it.

The two best resources for this are anything by Harry Lorayne (particularly How to Develope a Super Power Memory) and anything by world memory champion Dominic O'Brien (particularly his audio course Quantum Memory). The techniques are powerful and easy to apply.

I saw hypnotist Barry Sinclair ask all his volunteers (thirty or more) their names as they came onto the stage. For the rest of the show he addressed each one by name. Impressive.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.
I've tried some of the techniques mentioned and not others. I'll have a look at some of the resources mentioned (TOTM is already on my list) and try some of the suggestions that don't need a book in the mean time.

Both kinds are an issue really. I want to be able to retain a name for a short while, but I also want to stop drawing a blank when I meet someone for the second (third, fourth... eek) time and try to remember their name.

I can usualy remember helpers names. I try and get an anchor, as others have said.
A good example, at the last Karnival, i had a lady come up and help. i asked her the name, and she said Hillary.

I forgot it straight away, because i commited the sin of not looking at her when she answered.

however, i asked her again later on... and when she said hillary, i looked at her chest and thought "Hills.... how can i forget"
not that her chest was particually hilly.. it just gave me that ade memoir.

If you watch Paul Daniels, he will often make a small joke about some peoples name. This was his way of remembering.

I remember one he did for a lady called Pat..." dont ever wear a tee shirt with your name across the front"..

Remember their name once, when they tell you it. Then if it suits your style refer to them as my love, or my friend, ect. Most of the time in day to day conversation, you dont refer to people by their name .

Thanks Dale.
I doubt I'll be using their name over and over, but it'd be nice to be able to switch back to addressing them after addressing the whole audience without having to resort to "you with the card/cup/ball" or other non-name ways of doing it.

thats the moment i tend to forget the name. I either resort to asking the name again, ( and thus using another Daniels trick by saying.." good memory" straight afterwards.)
Or....if you say something along the lines of.. " Stay there I'll be back in a moment" to your spectator just before you adress the audience.. you can them say " Im back.... now you still have that cup there? .. good. now what i want you to do is...." Like i say, it all depends on your style.
Mine is very casual, and conversational, and this kind of thing flows.

I saw a lecture with Paul Gordon a few weeks ago in which he mentioned a good book for learning mnemonics and memory systems... and I've forgotten what it was called...


-Stacy