talkmagic.co.uk

Right, this is a bit long-winded - context-setting-wise - but it's not like any of us have anything better to do, right? So, here we go.

It’s a few days ago. I’m with a friend who lives in another town, and she’s introducing me to the people she knows there. After a while - when she sees I’m chatting to someone who (apparently) is very interested in psychology - she calls across, ‘Hey, [Sex], do some of your mind reading for him.’ By an extraordinary chance - the odds against which, you’ll understand, are incalculable - I happen to have a pack of cards in my pocket.

I do a demonstration of using suggestion to make him pick a particular couple of cards, then one of reading non-verbal cues to discover another one he’s randomly chosen in an openly fair manner. I am, of course, cheating in the most shameful fashion. What I like to do when I’ve done a trick or two (but I’m wearing a mentalism hat, rather than simply sitting there going, ‘Gosh: my nostrils appears to be full of coins,’ or something), is to address what must be the suspicion of any reasonable person: i.e. that they are tricks, not psychology.

As is obvious from my ranting about the Masked Magician the other day, I’m very old school about keeping secrets - I don’t tell the smallest one, to anyone. There’s one exception to my rule, though:
If you lay out four (face down) cards, there’s a purely psychological force for ‘Card 2’ that I use (I can’t remember where I read the original idea for this, before I began adding to it - possibly in Angelo Stegano’s highly patchy ‘Something for Nothing’). After doing it, I’ll often explain to the spec exactly how it works. (Whether it’s worked that time or not is almost irrelevant.) I do this because:
1) It’s highly specific. Explaining this ‘trick’ explains only this trick - there’s no giving away of things that could ruin other stuff for people.
2) As it’s entirely psychological, the solid implication is that everything else I’ve done is too (though I won’t be drawn on detailed explanations for those things, naturally).
3) It’s not very impressive. In fact, I suspect I’m the only person who ever does it: the explanation of it is actually far more interesting and engaging than the effect itself. The way I give this explanation also allows me to (a) imply everything is psychological, (b) the presentation and the method are psychologically intertwined in a usually invisible, yet vital, way (this is great for pre-empting/over-turning any suggestions of, ‘No. I’ll just think of one - that should be enough,’ when you ask someone to pick a card, etc., (c) mess with people’s heads in a few other nice ways.

Still here?

Goodo.

There are also times when I’ll use the Dai Vernon Force to psychologically ‘push’ them to choose ‘Card 3’ (not as part of a larger trick: simply, ‘You picked Card 3. Look - I knew you would’).

OK, then. I sit the chap down, write the name of Card 2 on the back of his cigarette packet, and proceed to psychologically force that card. He picks it. Card 2. It’s then that I realise that sheer, addled-brained stupidity has meant I’ve actually placed Card 2 at the Card 3 position - as though I’d been going to do a Dai Vernon. Tutting to myself inwardly (but not that bothered - as I say, I’m doing this in the first place only as a convincer for everything else I’m doing), I reach forward and change the positions of Cards 2 and 3 - so it’ll be clearer for him when I come to give the explanation. Then, my mouth opening to begin giving that explanation, I display the name of the card written on his cigarette pack and flip over (what’s now) Card 2.

At this point he literally gasps, ‘My God! How did you do that?’

I need to make it clear that I didn’t swap the positions of the cards under misdirection, or ‘on the off beat’, or anything at all. Calmly and deliberately, I moved them around on the table in front of him, while he watched me do it. ‘How did I do that?’ he’s asking, and I’m thinking, ‘Well, you picked a position, and I moved the card I’d written down to that position. Slowly. Letting you see me do it. As sleights go, this one would count as “bold”.’

I didn’t go on to explain the psychological forcing (to the wrong card) I’d done. The fellow was stunned and disorientated by my abilities as it was - it’d be awful to deny him that special moment. However, I’m now wondering whether the sheer purity of this trick should take me in a new direction. Should I forget about practising all those forces and controls and sleights? Should I instead go up to people, ask them to think of a card, and then say, ‘What is it?’ When they tell me, I’ll simply go through a pack, find it, and show it to them - being careful to catch them when the astonished bewilderment buckles their knees.

Was there a question in there? lol