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I am requesting a bit of help with my presentation.

I have learned a couple of forces that I am practicing. Since I am still practicing, they don't always work and I have made myself an ID as an out.

My problem is that my primary audience is a college class, and the primary patter is that by reading their body language and signals, I can figure out their card. This is opposed to saying I had mystical mindreading powers. (Read a bit of Derren Brown in that).

Frequently, however, I have not gotten it right and had to rely on the I-deck, to the astonishment and much disbelief of my audience. The problem is, I haven't figured out a sufficient patter to whip out the deck as an out that fits with the above patter, technique over powers that still makes them wonder.

So, as over 4600 heads are better than 1 (although I am pretty sure I'll only hear from about 20 of you at most), what do you guys think?

-James Physit

Erm...off the top of my head:

Here's the thing. I've known you for quite a while and by now I have an idea of your character. An interesting fact that not many people know is that people with the same type of character tend to choose the same type of card - so before we even started I made a guess - just a guess - of roughly what card you would choose. Then, to confirm that I couldn't change that later, I turned over that card inside a pack. One face-down card among 51 others...

What type of a force are you doing? I can't think of any that wouldn't work 100% except Classic Force and if your effect is relying on the force I would recommend using something a bit more reliable.



Kati

Are these psychological forces? If so, those are my forte.

There are many ways to do this. I don't know if I can mention them here in public. Send me a PM and give me more details. And I will help you with what you need.

I use two forces, one that is nearly 100% reliable (and doesn't even need a deck of cards), and one which is a Derren Brown style 10 second spiel that has been 50% accurate. (I can't really say more, if you are interested, I can discuss a bit more over PM)

In trying to force the 3-D, I have had (out of 8 tries) 4 pick the 3-D, 1 pick the 4-D, and 3 so far out of the ball park it wasn't even funny. (interesting correlation, though too early to be definitive, is that my far off failures where physics grad students, while my hits were among typical undergrads...)

Now that I see your suggested patter, katrielalex, it makes a whole lot of sense all of a sudden, and I think I have what I need. Much appreciation for your assitance.

If any one else has ideas, the more the merrier.

-James Physit

Use a sven deck to force. You can show them all different, which is an advantage.

In the case where you are only 50% accurate, when you get it wrong say somthing like "well you are one of the few people that doesn't work on! therefore that makes you an exelent victim, err I mean choice, to help me with this next little experiment!" it might get a giggle too!

then move on to the IDeck routine

leighton wrote:In the case where you are only 50% accurate, when you get it wrong say somthing like "well you are one of the few people that doesn't work on! therefore that makes you an exelent victim, err I mean choice, to help me with this next little experiment!" it might get a giggle too!

True...however, seems to me that the problem with that is that you are acknowledging that you have made a mistake, whereas you want to imply that of course you didn't mean to get it right, you meant to show the card face-up in the pack!

Kati

I am trying to lean a bit more towards not showing that I have made a mistake. But that said, I could find opportunity to use what you have said, leighton.

I have gotten quite a bit through this and PM, and I should be able to get what I need.

Thanks for the help.

-James Physit

personaly, i would use a koran deck ( which is the basis of the Mind power/ smoke...ECT)

you can find a variatioon in Paramiracles. This will highten your chances of 100 sucess, and you usualy only need to go fishing twice.

red/black, high/low.

Ah, the Koran deck is fantastic. Especially when the audience member gets a hit. It totally throws them off the scent for the next card divination that I do and adds a touch of realism to the procedings.

If you don't use it ... try it.

Giz.

If a move is bothering you( and in the case of forces it shouldn't with so many to choose from) SCRAP it. Find another. With any move or handling IF you know it can';t be learnt because it doesn't suit you or because of perhaps some physical thing preventing you carrying it out. DON'T DO IT. Use it for your own amusement in your private place but do not foist it on the public.
You say it goes wrong because you are STILL learning the forces. Naughty.Learn them thoroughly IN PRIVATE. practice them on a TRUSTED friend, not on your public.
If the ID is getting such great reactions, sod the forces just use that. You know it makes sense.
Allen Tipton

I understand what you are saying, Mr. Tipton. The ID is an awesome effect, and I have plenty based on it.

My primary issue, which I should have elaborated on initially, is that the two forces I am practicing are psycological in nature, and in fact don't even require a deck to be present. As such, at least for one of them, once I try it out on my trusted friend, he knows whats what and it does no good to try again on him.

That's why I have the I-deck. It allows me to practice, and what I have learned in this thread allows me to do so without the audience realizing.

All that said, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I should have alot more practice before using these. The reason I have not scraped these forces, however, is that they remove any sence of sleight of hand.

I will be doing demonstrations of mentalist feats for a class in pseudoscience the fall of this year. The point of these is to show how powerful the effects can be and how easily is can be to claim paranormal powers. All that is revealed is that I do not have powers, so the removal of any hint of sleights give the demos more power towards their intended purpose.

Outside of this class, I will most likely stick to what works. I am putting in alot of work developing the appropiate patter and demostration, sticking to the tenets of misdirection, to wow and amaze. For the class however, the best effects (those students remember ten years later) have always been those that have no sense of gaffs or sleight.

I do thank you, Mr. Tipton, for stating the obvious. I will now, most certainly, scrap these in favor of those I know will work for my bits on the general public.

-James Physit

JamesPhysit wrote:My problem is that my primary audience is a college class, and the primary patter is that by reading their body language and signals, I can figure out their card. This is opposed to saying I had mystical mindreading powers. (Read a bit of Derren Brown in that).

There were people doing this before Derren Brown, you know .

Do you know much about body language and all of that? If not, you should, though judging by your last post I guess you do. I also think that you should look in to some of Kenton Knepper's work. His book Miraculous Ploys has some ideas on this in the introduction, from some of his other works.

Good luck!

I always try to do a psycological force, as its obviously one of the strongest effects possible.

The way I get out of it is phrase my patter like this (For forcing the 5 of hearts for example) :

{All the psychological force spiel} ...and make that image bright and vibrant in your mind, have you got the image of the card in your mind?

Them : Yes

You : Ok, so I want you to say it over and over in your head again, so just say it over and over, so five of hearts, five of hearts, five of hearts, fire of hearts (Said as if it is an example)

If you see them reacting to this, look up, do a faint smile and say "Sorry... What was your card?" and they will say five of hearts and be acting all amazed. If you want you can go into your ID too, for extra proof you knew their card before.

If you don't see them reacting, just simply ask them what their card was and launch into ID