One of the methods that I still think is a great method for live stream magic shows are progressive anagrams, or tricks that use “fishing“. I’ve written a lot about progressive anagrams in the past, so today I’m going to talk about using “fishing” techniques over streaming video.
When you are “fishing” you are asking a series of questions to determine what a person is thinking of. This isn’t always a linear thing where you ask question A, then question B, etc. The answer to the question or statement will lead you to the next question. Sometimes these are general statements, like “I’m sensing water…” that would cover a range of things like a boat, a fish, or a cup. With something like a progressive anagram you are naming specific letters.
This is a technique used in a lot of book tests. You’d use statements like “your word is a long word…” which narrows down the list. Tomorrow I’m going to write about a specific trick that uses this technique that is perfectly suited for streaming shows!
Tag: mentalism
Force Dice…
Many years ago I made up some force dice for a couple of magic lectures. These dice force two numbers on command. I’ve had a few of unsold sets kicking around my office for a few years. About a week ago I was jamming with some magicians over Skype and we were talking about forcing items online. I remembered these dice and how they’d make a great way to for an object in a virtual show.
Here’s a video that I made that explains how to use them in a virtual show:
The cool thing about these dice and gimmick is that you can let the person change their mind after the first roll and reroll. That makes it seem super fair, however it doesn’t change how the force works.
The leftover batch of dice sold out immediately after listing them for sale. The demand was there and I made a second batch and those also immediately sold out. I may make another batch of the dice and gimmicks in the future. If you’re interested in a set of the force dice, contact me and I’ll put you on the list.
Progressive Anagram Routine…
Recently, I’ve been writing a bit about progressive anagrams and their use in virtual shows over the internet. I’ve come up with a bit of a routine, here’s what my idea looks like:
You put display a coin envelope in your left hand and hold your empty right hand palm up.
“Imagine I have some coins here…nothing crazy, just a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and a silver dollar. I want you to look at the coins and since you can’t actually grab one through the screen, pretend to take one.”
You can now lower your right hand.
“Look at it, on the back you’ll notice I wrote the name of the coin on the back. If it’s a quarter, I wrote quarter. On the half dollar I wrote half dollar. Look at the word I wrote, visualize it in your head”
Now we’re going to get into the progressive anagram. How it works is: If you say a letter you move down to the next letter. If that say no, you move to the right. If you get all “yes” answers you end up on the fifty cent piece.
E – Half Dollar
I – A (No: Penny Yes: Quarter)
C – A (No: Dime Yes: Silver Dollar )
F- Nickel
Fifty Cent Piece
You’ll notice in the script I didn’t give fifty cent piece as an option, but I’m trying to foresee someone not listening to me. I have the list above written out where the camera can’t see it. You now know the word, in this example they are thinking of the nickel and they don’t know you know it. Direct attention to the envelope.
“I’ve got a coin in this envelope”
Rip the top off the envelope. Oh, I forgot to mention you have an index of coins in thumb tips out of the camera’s view. For the quarter or larger coins you have folding coins in the thumb tips so that they fit. Once you know the coin, you put on the correct thumb tip. As you rip the top off, you load the thumb tip inside.
“I’m guessing you’re thinking of the nickel!”
They confirm this and then you dump the nickel out of the thumb tip that’s inside the envelope onto your palm and display it. You can now steal the thumb tip as your rip up the envelope to show there are no other coins and then get rid of the thumb tip as you throw way the envelope pieces.
There you go, an easy routine using a progressive anagram and with slight adjustments you could do it in a show with a live audience.
Taking It Further…
In yesterday’s blog post about progressive anagrams, I mentioned a good way to use them for internet shows without any memory work. That doesn’t solve the problem of people not knowing how to spell words. The easy way is to use simple, common words, and not things like astrological signs like, “Sagittarius” which took me 4 tries to correctly spell it before I did a web search to figure it out just now.
The next problem and what I think is the biggest weakness is when you get the letters wrong. There are some instances where you will get no letters wrong, but you can’t count on that. There are also some where you’ll only get one wrong and immediately know the word, which is the problem. It feels like you are doing exactly what you are doing, figuring out the word by the letters.
To remove the idea that you’re just guess based on the letters, you need a prediction. Something physical to show that you knew it all along. This could be a written prediction, or whatever. A simple solution (depending on your words) would be a nail writer. Another easy way would be an index of the words, or multiple out set up.
What the prediction does is makes it harder to backtrack the method. If people talk after the show it ends up being, “If he was just guessing, then how did the prediction match what I was thinking of?” Taking it a step further makes it a more solid trick!
Progressive Anagrams…
Soon after I got seriously into magic I picked up a copy of the book Thabbatical by Phil Goldstein (Max Maven). It’s got several progressive anagram tricks in the book. If you don’t know what a progressive anagram is, it’s a way of figuring out a word that someone is thinking of by asking them if certain letters are in the word. Everytime you get a “NO”, you move to a new list. In a good list, by the time you get to the second “NO” you know the word.
The huge problem with using a progressive anagram is the person needs to be able to spell the word correctly in their head. Sure you can have them take the word off of a list, but I think that takes ways what makes this type of trick work, and that’s that you don’t need any props.
The other challenge is that you need to memorize a flow chart of letters and words. It’s not super hard, but it does take work and you need to keep in practice. However, right now with use all stuck at home and doing magic over the internet, you can easily do progressive anagrams without memorizing anything! The way to do it is to simply print it out and put it someone outside your camera’s field of view. No memory work, it’s plug and play!
Live Comments…
The other day I posted about a virtual gig I did. I was an act in a cabaret show and my bit was prerecorded, so I didn’t perform live. Honestly that was sort of a mistake. We should have found a way to do it live from different locations, and not prerecorded.
All of these things like Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Zoom, etc all have chat functions. When my prerecorded segment was on the show, I didn’t know if I wanted to watch because I was scared of what people would say in the comments. I forced my self to watch it and read the comments as my segment was playing. I decided what I could learn from negative comments would have HUGE value. I got positive comments, so my ego was unscathed.
One thing about doing a virtual gig is that you can use the comments to your advantage. You can use them for people to pick a card, name a number, say their favorite movie, etc. Now you can add some interactive elements to the show.
The takeaway is you should embrace the comments feature and use them to your advantage!
An Idea…
For about nine months I’ve had an idea for a trick kicking around in my head. I keep thinking about it, and that’s a good sign, I just haven’t sat down and put a lot of directed energy into it. The week I’ve started to take action on making this idea a reality. Unfortunately this … Continue reading “An Idea…”
For about nine months I’ve had an idea for a trick kicking around in my head. I keep thinking about it, and that’s a good sign, I just haven’t sat down and put a lot of directed energy into it. The week I’ve started to take action on making this idea a reality. Unfortunately this week and next week are very busy, so not a lot of progress will happen.
Here’s the idea for the trick:
Someone from the audience thinks of something and whispers it into a mason jar and closes the lid. They hand you the jar, you open the lid, listen to the inside and tell them what they are thinking.
Then you write something (unseen) on a giant pad of paper and whisper it into the jar, and they tell the audience what you were thinking. You confirm this by turning around the paper.
There are many variations of this that can happen. Two people from the audience could whisper into the jar and hear each others “whispers”.
The hurdle I’m hitting right now is what information do I want them to whisper? Obviously I’ll need to force the info, so it could be a book, it could be a birthday, or whatever. The one thing I know is that it’s not going to be done with playing cards.
Adding a Bonus Trick
It’s the little things that when people notice, I think it elevates your show. Before Darren Brown’s show, I noticed some posters in the theater that seemed out of place. Well, they played a role in the show, but their role wasn’t really IN THE SHOW, but after the show. They reinforced something that happened. … Continue reading “Adding a Bonus Trick”
It’s the little things that when people notice, I think it elevates your show. Before Darren Brown’s show, I noticed some posters in the theater that seemed out of place. Well, they played a role in the show, but their role wasn’t really IN THE SHOW, but after the show. They reinforced something that happened.
There was a very cool moment for some of the people that attended the show as we were leaving the theater. When walking down the stairs from the balcony to leave the theater, people noticed the posters and started commenting on how they were a part of the show. It was almost like the people got a “bonus trick” on the way out of the show.
I’m a huge fan of things that tell your audience that it’s not a bunch of tricks you threw together. That your put thought into your show. The easy way to do that is through call backs, when you reference things that happened earlier in the show later in the show. In magic, you can do more that just reference, they can have a role in what happens later in the show. Darren Brown’s show has this happen in the body of the show, but using it for something that people notice while they are leaving the theater is GENIUS!
Frame It Right…
The last couple of nights I’ve performed at corporate holiday parties. At both of them I did some roving magic. One of my staples of what I do is a trick where I guess a color someone it thinking of. Over two nights, I have very different results from the trick. The first night’s event … Continue reading “Frame It Right…”
The last couple of nights I’ve performed at corporate holiday parties. At both of them I did some roving magic. One of my staples of what I do is a trick where I guess a color someone it thinking of. Over two nights, I have very different results from the trick.
The first night’s event had very loud music, so I really couldn’t do the normal talking that accompanies the trick. That night the trick really fell flat. It was getting a response, but not what it normally gets. The flashier stuff that night played much better, and I stopped doing the color trick about halfway through the gig.
The second night’s event wasn’t nearly as loud, and my normal talk up to the trick was able to be heard. This night the trick played really well. The difference was that I was able to use the premise of the trick to connect with people, versus just telling them what they were thinking.
The trick is solid, but the conditions just weren’t right for it the first night.
Drawing Duplication…
One trick I’ve always liked is the drawing duplication trick. Basically the trick is that someone draws a picture that you don’t see, then you draw a picture and they match. The main problem with a drawing duplication is that if the audience thinks you see the picture, then you’re done. The problem with the … Continue reading “Drawing Duplication…”
One trick I’ve always liked is the drawing duplication trick. Basically the trick is that someone draws a picture that you don’t see, then you draw a picture and they match. The main problem with a drawing duplication is that if the audience thinks you see the picture, then you’re done. The problem with the method is that you have to see the picture.
I was driving the other day and came up with an idea for doing a drawing duplication. This version would not require me to see the drawing. In fact the drawing would be a prediction, so whether or not I see the drawing doesn’t really matter. I think the trick is stronger if I never see the drawing.
Basically what I’m doing is using a method for the classic magic plot “object in impossible location” to load a prediction. I made quick version last night and showed it to another performer and they liked it. It’s still got a little ways to go, and I’ll write more about it once I do it a couple of times.