Pantheon

The Fourth Release in the 100th Monkey Series

By Chris Philpott

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Copyright 2013, 2017. All rights reserved.

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 Pantheon
Contents

Introduction 7
The Most Important Stuff to Know Before You Perform 9
How to Deal with Spectators with Bad Vision 12
Secret Vision Test 14
Pantheon: Stage Handling 16
Pantheon: Close up Handling 18
The Ascent of the 100th Monkey 25

Chapter One: Mental Epic 32

Chapter Two: Drawing Duplications 51

The Monet Monkey 52
The Michelangelo Monkey 63
The Matisse Monkey 66

Chapter 2 ½ 75
The Mondrian Monkey 76
The Multiple Mondrian Monkey 83

Chapter Three: The Monkey Forcing Poster 89

The Celebrity Baby Gag 90
Planet of the Monkeys 96

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False Instructions with Forcing Posters 109

Chapter Four: Rashomonkey 111

Monkeys Ahoy 112
Monkeys B-Hoy 116

Chapter Five: The Chair Test 118

Monkey Chair Utilities 119
The Monkey Sits 122

Chapter Six: Memory Erasure 138

I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall 140
M(on) K(ey) Ultra 159
The Puppeteer 164
The Anxious Monkey 168

Chapter 6 ½ 172
Get Monkey and Make Money 173

Chapter Seven: Monkey with a Book 180

False Instructions with Book Tests 181
Spectator Reveals with Book Tests 184

Chapter Eight: Monkeys Take on the Classics 191

Monk Night 192
The Monkey Peeks 195

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False Instructions with Psy Forces 203
The Laughing Monkey 206
Sneak Peek - Monkey Headline Prediction 209
The End 218
Thanks 219

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 Introduction

Thanks for buying Pantheon, the fourth DVD release in the

100th Monkey series! This release applies the 100th Monkey
principle to classic mentalist effects.

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Register by email to get more cards, more handlings and a
bonus effect!

Anyone who registered for updates for the original 100th Monkey
will tell you that they included a ton of cool stuff such as new
handlings, new cards (including some with shorter Speechless
words suitable for children), performance footage, and new
effects (including a terrific one by Joshua Quinn that Gerard
Senehi performed on national television).
This time when you register, you get several new effects: The
Headline Prediction, Q and A, a Poster that forces a song, and
Attraction (in which three spectators are asked to think of
someone they Like, Love and Lust after – then you tell them
their thoughts in uncanny detail!). Also there is a performance of
an effect from the Book Test chapter where one spectator
reveals another’s thought-of-word, performed by Michael Rangel.
To register for updates and the bonus effect email me at
chris@magicaonline.com. Please put the word ANNEMANN in
the subject heading.
And if you have an idea or comment on any of the effects in this
release, please drop me a line at that address!

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The Most Important Stuff to Know Before You Perform
These Effects:

If you’re not familiar with the original 100th Monkey, Babel or

Narcissus, you should really read this next bit carefully.

100th Monkey cards say one thing close up and something else far
away. This is due to an optical effect and so it is subject to
optical laws, the most important being that the illusion changes
with different light levels.

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So here’s how you deal with that: check the light levels in your
performance space before you perform!

If you look at the jpegs for this effect, you’ll notice that almost
every card comes in four variations: dim, mid, bright and normal
(to switch in at the end of an effect if you like). Use the dim
version in dim light (eg. an average lamp-lit room at night), the
mid version in mid-level light (like a room with nice ambient
daylight) and the “brt” version in bright light (like outdoors in
sunshine.)

It just takes a moment to check which cards to use: look at a card

close up, then put down the card, walk away six or ten feet (the
larger the card and brighter the light, the longer this distance) and
check it again. Once you see the faraway word clearly, walk
toward the card until you reach the point where it begins to
morph into the close up word. Be aware of this gray area
between close up and faraway words – you want to keep people
out of this space (at least while they’re looking at the cards).

And this gray, transition area will not be exactly the same for all
people (people with extremely good vision will find it easier to
see the close up word and people with poor vision will find it
easier to see the faraway word) – it’s best to build in an extra few
feet to this gray area if you have it.

If you’re not sure what the lighting is going to be like until you
get to a locale, bring a few sets of cards. When David and
Leeman performed Speechless on America’s Got Talent, we printed
up three versions (dim, mid and bright) and took five minutes
during rehearsal to choose the one that looked best to all
participants.

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Hybrid images are also affected by poor vision. Which brings us
to….

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 How to Deal with Spectators with Bad Vision

I was watching Eugene Burger’s brilliant Penguin lecture again

last week and was thinking about a phrase he repeated several
times: “Every miracle has its price.”

On some level we all know this – we know not all tricks can be
done surrounded, or without special clothes, or expensive
apparatus, or a ton of practice, or… The 100th Monkey principle
has its price as well and one we’re not really used to as magicians:
it is affected by light and vision.

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As I’ve written above, first and foremost, check the light before
you perform. If it works for you, it will work for the vast
majority of your audience (unless you have bad vision).

If you will be performing this in dim rooms, printing a dim card

larger than 4X6 helps – the larger the card, the easier it is to see
the close up word and consequently, the spectator’s vision
becomes much less of an issue.

Before you do the effect, say “this effect involves reading –

how’s your vision?” If they express reservations, don’t do the
effect. If you are doing this on a stage, say, “This effect involves
reading, I need a volunteer with good vision.” This simple step
will stop the majority of your problems.

Selecting who to do this on is also a factor – generally younger

people are better than older.

If after this, you still get someone with bad vision, there are
several ways to deal with it. With some effects like Speechless or
the Memory Erasure effects, if you get someone who can read
the words perfectly I say, “You’re resistant to hypnosis – perfect!
You’ll be my control.” Then invite someone else up on stage –
have the two of them stand side-by-side and they will see
completely different things! It actually makes the effect even
more amazing.

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 Secret Vision Test

Finally, you can do a secret vision test (this can be done even
before the show begins). Basically it involves having a person
read some words – depending what they say, you know if the
effect will work on them or not.

I came up with two good excuses to get people to read

something without arousing suspicion. The first is to give their
consent. Say, “What I’m about to do is a little unusual and
sometimes freaks people out. So if you would, could you please
read this consent?” (This is actually a nice way of building
anticipation for what they’re about to see.) The majority of
people will read, “I consent to this experiment.” Every once in a
while, someone will say, “I consent to this enterprise.” If they
say this (or have trouble reading anything), you know they have
bad vision. At this stage you can go into a different effect. As
Eugene also says in his lecture, the magician has one big
advantage over his audience and that’s he knows what is
supposed to happen next and they don’t.

There is another variation of this card: “I accept” or “I agree!” If

they say “I accept” they have bad vision.

The other vision test is great to do when you have a small group
and want to test everyone at once. You say, “I want to do
something a little more serious now. If this is going to work, we
have to work together, so would everyone please read this on the
count of three…” (Once again, this is a nice way to build up the
effect, whether it is for one of the serious effects on the DVD or,
conversely, one of the one of the effects that ends with a joke in
which case it makes the joke more of a surprise.) The majority of

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people will read, “I am a serious person.” But every once in a
while, someone in the group will say, “I am a strange person.”

I think this could be a very cool moment – everyone speaking in

unison except for one person who says something different.
(You could even have them read the card silently, switch the card
for a normal dupe, then have them say it – now you’re clean
when they start freaking out and want to look at the card).

I’d jump in here and say, “This is fantastic! Because while I was
holding up a card that reads ‘I am a serious person,’ I was
thinking, ‘I am a strange person’ – and you picked up on my
thoughts! This is very rare! A sign of clairvoyance or second
sight. Let’s do another test!”

Now you have a choice of which way to go. You could continue
with the effects from Pantheon, but present them in a way that
the “strange” spectator “may see things that are not visible to the
others – so please, don’t say a word.” Alternately, you could go
into a classic, spectator’s intuition effect, like Out of This World
(or my own version, French Postcards). You’ve identified
someone with special powers, now you prove it. Or you can do
the spectator intuition effect, then go back into a Pantheon
effect.

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 Pantheon: Stage Handling

Many of these effects are pretty much strictly for stage, like the
chair test. Many can be done either close up or on stage, like the
memory erasure effects. For the most part, stage handling is
fairly easy – just check your light before the performance and
keep some separation between the audience and anyone on stage.
You can print the cards larger for a larger venue, but you have to
be aware that the larger you print them, the further back your
first row has to be.

Alternatively, you could project the image. Credit for this goes to
Mike Kempner, (“Insight” on the Magic Café), who posted this
handling:

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“Regarding the shot at 1:20 [of the 100th Monkey trailer] when
the woman is unable to read the word "conscience", that is
awesome because we (the spectators on the other side of the
camera) can clearly read the word "conscience" at the same time.
My question is, if I am performing this on stage, and I have a
video camera person take video so that I can project the word
onto a large screen for my audience, will my audience also be
able to read the word "conscience" exactly at the same time that
my spectator on stage is not able to read the word "conscience"?
Basically, are we able to replicate the 1:20 shot in our stage
performances, if we also have a video camera with the effect?
Thanks!
Regards, Mike”

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 Pantheon: Close Up Handling

For those effects that work close up (such as Michaelangelo

Monkey, Memory Erasure, etc), the handling is usually as follows:
in a close up situation, at some point in your presentation you ask
to borrow someone’s cell phone and you take a picture or video
of them holding one of the postcards. Later, when they look at
the picture, the words on the card have magically changed.
Anyone else can either be gathered close together, in which case
the effect will work on them too, or back five or six feet, in
which case they will witness the effect.

To see this in action for yourself, take out your phone, put it in
photo mode and aim at one of the postcards. If you are in the

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appropriate light for the card, when you look at the postcard
directly, you will see one word, but when you look at your display
screen, you will see another. It’s kind of freaky!

This is a good way to get used to how this all works. Take the
card and camera into brighter light and see how it affects things –
this should make the close up word easier to see. Then take it
into a dim spot – this favors the faraway word.

When in a good light for the card, try this: move the phone in
slowly on the card: there is a point where you get too close and
the image changes – in most effects, you don’t want this! Now
move the camera in quickly and out again: notice how you keep
seeing the faraway word! This is because the camera doesn’t
have enough time to focus so the image is slightly blurry. If you
move the camera in quickly and leave it close, after a few seconds
(more in dim light, less in bright light) the camera will find the
focus and the word will transform before your eyes. Again it
looks cool, but I wouldn’t really use it as an effect.

As I mentioned above: there is more latitude with light levels in

Narcissus than in previous 100th Monkey releases because you
control how you frame the picture. This allows you to use dim
light level cards even in bright sunlight as long as you frame a
little wider.

To see how this works, take a few photos of the cards at

different distances roughly comparable to the three I took below
(I used two cards – one with larger printing – so you can see how
that affects things too).

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Now click on the pictures one-by-one and zoom in on the image.
You should notice that with a reasonably high resolution phone,
that the first image looks great in a photo, but when you zoom in
tight on the words, they will transform (something you may or
may not like – many magicians have told me this is very magical,
but me, I recommend against it).

The second framing works great for most phones – the close up
word will not be visible even if you zoom in.

But remember, as the words get larger and the phones get bigger,
you will have to pull back a bit more. For very large screen, high
resolution phones, the third framing is best. It will stand up to
zooming without the image changing.

You have a fair bit of latitude with this: just get in the ballpark.
Remember when you zoom in on the image, you don’t have to
zoom in all the way if you don’t want to.

Play around with it for awhile and you’ll get an intuitive

understanding of how it works.

Take either a medium-close up (chest up) of your volunteer or an

“over the shoulder” shot: part of your volunteer’s shoulder and
side of their head is visible in the frame – this ensures two things:
1) it is indeed footage of them looking at the very card you
showed them before so no switch took place and 2) the card is
not too large in the frame. If you go too close (especially with a
large screen phone) your volunteer can make a still from the
footage and zoom in on it and might see the “other” word (I’ve
had some magicians tell me this is magical in itself, but I

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wouldn’t recommend it). If you stay with a slightly wider shot,
the resolution on the card will not be good enough to do this.

Another consideration is whether to take a still picture of a video.

A still picture has the advantage of creating a picture which can
be read at leisure. But I think a video image is better for a
number of reasons. First, you can have the volunteer read what
they see on the card – it will not jive with what they see when
they look at the video – this dispels any possibility that you
switched the card. Second, most cameras shoot video at lower
resolution than they take still pictures, which aids the illusion.
And iphone 5 for example shoots pictures in 3264 x 2448 pixels
but records video at 1920 x1080 pixels. This is almost 4 times the
resolution! (7,990,272 versus 2,073,600 pixels).

And it’s always fun to see someone reading something on the

video but it’s not what’s written on the card! In fact, it makes for
such good footage, I’ve had several people ask if they could post
it on-line. I’ve always said yes. If I were a professional
performer I would have added, “and could you tag me when you
do.” And get them to add your name right there and then –
that’s some pretty good advertising for you!

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 The Ascent of the 100th Monkey

The rest of this introduction is pretty similar to the one on the

original 100th Monkey release, Babel and Narcissus so skip
away…

So what is the 100th Monkey?

The 100th Monkey is actually three things: a scientific theory, a

mentalist effect that explores this theory, and my name for the
method I used to achieve the effect, a method which can be used
for many other effects.

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First, the theory – I first heard about The 100th Monkey Effect
on Quirks and Quarks, CBC radio’s great science program, about
30 years ago. It was one of the strangest scientific theories I’d
ever heard – it haunted me. It is the controversial theory that
when enough monkeys (or people) think the same thought, then
somehow that thought can spread to others as if the thought is
“in the air.” (There are details on the original study in the
original 100th Monkey release). It seems most scientists today do
not believe it is correct. Then there is the effect (also on the
original release) and third there’s the principle (explained in a bit).

Is this principle “new?” Well, if you take a Book of Ecclesiastes

position on newness (as in, there’s none of it under the sun, all is
vanity, etc) then no. If you take a Hollywood definition of
newness (as in “there’s a new romantic comedy out this
weekend!”) then yes, absolutely – and then some! The method
has proven to be very versatile.

The 100th Monkey Principle

A lot of classic mentalist methods will be brought into play in the

following pages but if there is one key new idea it would be this:
the audience in their seats will see one thing written on the card
and the volunteer on stage with you will see something else. This
is possible without switches or flaps – in fact this works even
when everyone is looking at the cards at the same time!

It works because of a combination of two principles: hybrid

images and “typoglycemia”.
Hybrid images are two superimposed images: one with low
spatial frequencies and one with high. They were developed by

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Aude Oliva of MIT and Philippe G. Schyns of University of
Glasgow over a long time beginning in 1994. I first learned about
them from Michael Berkowitz, who did a great presentation on
them at an Elders meeting here in Los Angeles in late 2012. The
best known version is the Marilyn Monroe/Albert Einstein
version (Google it so I don’t have to pay royalties). The basic
idea is that if you are close to the image, it looks like Einstein – if
you’re far away (or in low light, or squint), it looks like Marilyn.

Cool, in an optical illusion/puzzle kind of way.

I was playing around with this for quite a while and found it
frustrating – it was virtually impossible to make the illusion any
more convincing or useful. But then I hit on combining it with a
perceptual quirk waggishly named “typoglycemia”. You may be
familiar with this principle from this internet meme:

I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was

rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig
to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but
the wrod as a wlohe.

(Incidentally, the idea does not come from researchers at

Cambridge – it probably came from Graham Rawlinson of
Nottingham University, but I got that from the internet too so
who the heck knows).

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This is cool in a puzzle/quirky-science-factoid kind of way. But
something amazing happens when you combine it with Hybrid
Images – suddenly the illusion becomes much more convincing!
Here is a card used in the next effect (read this, then put down
the book and view it from a distance…)

Now that’s cool! And cool in a wtf?!/I’m-starting-to-see-how-

this-could-be-useful-to-magicians-and-mentalists kind of way!

Realizing how well these two principles played with each other
was the eureka moment – and of course that instant of
inspiration was followed by many hours of perspiration,
experimenting with different degrees of high and low pass filters,
contrast, transparency, backgrounds, letter combinations, fonts,

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styles, size of cards, lighting situations, etc. Basically, the cards
work best with words that have the same number of letters and
the same first and last letter, but there is some latitude: letters of
similar shape (B, R, P, F, E) morph pretty well, so if I thought
the effect justified a little fudging, I went for it.

You see on forums and Youtube comment-sections that a lot of

people think the 100th Monkey method is just hybrid images with
words – many people underestimate the contribution that
typoglycemia makes to the effectiveness of the illusion. My
friend Greg Arce asked if I could morph “Christmas” into
“Halloween” (they have the same number of letters). But the C
and H at the start are so dissimilar in shape that the illusion is
weak and unusable for a magic trick. Somehow our eye is just
not nearly as discriminating with the middle letters.

The final element that turned out to be really important was the
background, which worked best when it had a nice mix of thin
lines and blotches, regularity and irregularity, some color but not
much. You wouldn’t believe how much time I spend searching
for and/or creating backgrounds that work! After years of doing
it, I still can’t quite predict which backgrounds will work and
which won’t.

But once I put these elements together – the hybrid images, the
typoglycemia and the right backgrounds, suddenly the illusion
was convincing. Not perfect (trust me, I know it’s not perfect!)
but convincing enough to work on prime time television.

I’m gratified by how many people consider this a new method.

Here, for example, is the opening line of Francis Menotti’s
review in Magic: “To the jaded of us who say ‘it’s all been done’
or ‘there are no new effects or methods,’ tell that to Chris

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Philpott.” (My wife pointed out that this could be read two ways
and perhaps it was a plea to make me stop!)

But of course, nothing is entirely new.

It’s difficult to establish the exact timeline of antecedents to this

effect since a lot of the material was unpublished (at least for a
while). Max Maven steered me toward some work by Michael
Weber which he thought had some similarities (they involved
hidden words). Michael is also credited for one of the first photo
changing effects, a Triumph routine published in his 1991 lecture
notes. Tom Stone published a routine with hybrid images in the
Moonshine Monologues ebook back in 2009 but was playing
around with them for a while before that. Alexandre published
Hypnocard around the same time. Kenton Knepper explored
some similar ideas in Signs of Influence a while after that. Jon
Thompson wrote a book called Creating Hybrid Image Illusions in
GIMP in 2011. Atlas Brookings has a very nice routine he shared
with me that uses hybrid images as a convincer. Probably the
closest antecedent to The 100th Monkey was some unpublished
work done by Patrick Redford.

I didn’t know about any of this material when I learned about the
hybrid images from Michael Berkowitz – I’m glad I didn’t! I
probably wouldn’t have put in the months of experimentation
needed to get this illusion where it is. Since then, I’ve been in
communication with all these creators – Michael Weber, Tom
Stone, Alexandre, Jon Thompson, Atlas Brookings and Patrick
Redford have all been very complimentary about my work
moving these techniques forward – I owe them all a big thanks,
not just for their contributions to magic but for being such
decent guys.

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The 100th Monkey illusion is very convincing under most
circumstances, but it can be lessened by certain performance
conditions. If your cards are really big and your main audience is
seated really close, the closest ones might get a sense of the
“close up” word. But if you pre-print two sizes of the artwork –
one large and one small – you’ll be good for most venues.

On the other hand, if the lighting is too dim, your on-stage

volunteer might get a sense of the “far-away” word. For some of
the presentations in this book, that’s not a problem but for
others it is. If you can’t adjust the lighting beforehand, you can
correct for too-dim lighting in several ways: 1) holding the cards
so the volunteers only see them when the cards are facing the
audience and picking up the stage lights (a good idea anyway), 2)
using larger or smaller cards, 3) holding the cards closer to your
volunteer, 4) (in really dim conditions) using a small flashlight to
shine on the cards as you show them to the volunteer and 5)
using more “light-appropriate” cards. If you’re performing
outdoors, ask your volunteer to remove their sunglasses.

As I mentioned before, in the files you’ll find three light levels of

cards: “mid,” “bright,” and “dim. For most cards, there is also a
forth card: “norm” – this is ungimmicked so the same image
appears close up and far away (useful for switching in later).

The “mid” cards are good for most lighting situations – the
bright and dim cards work better in those lighting conditions.

The illusion works best with some kind of background to

obscure the noise of the “other” image. Finding the right
background to maximize the illusion and fit the feel of the effect
takes a good chunk of my time.

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 Chapter One: Mental Epic

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 Monkey Mental Epic

Mental Epic, created in 1944 by Hen Fetsch, based on Peter

Warlock's "The Taped Slate", is a heck of an effect often used as
a closer in mentalist sets. Three covered predictions written on
the top row of a slate or whiteboard are found to match those
later called out by audience members and written in a row below.

While it is similar to other three-choice one-ahead routines,

Mental Epic has certain distinct features that are both its
strengths and weaknesses. One is the open calling of the things
being predicted (or mind-read, depending on presentation) –
certainly the use of envelopes and billets to keep the information
secret in an effect like Annemann’s Fourth Dimensional
Telepathy seems more mysterious. But magicians and mentalists
have turned that “weakness” into a strength: in Mental Epic you
don’t just reveal three spectators’ private thoughts – you read the
entire audience’s thoughts (“We’re going to come up with a

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______ together!”) Three (or more) audience members help
select the details working together to create a little narrative (like
the creation of a movie, a perfect date or dream vacation). There
is a communal energy and excitement in the selection process
and a unity in the result that is lacking in the majority of
mentalist effects.

Then there’s that slate: a chalk board or white board divided into
six areas with some kind of cover for the top three. On the plus
side, it is easy to understand and it keeps the effect very clear.
On the negative side, it is unlike anything ever seen by sentient
being outside of a magic show and so no matter how clean the
handling, it tends to arouse suspicion and lessen the impact of
the magic. Of course some only-in-a-magic-show props are
worth using because they have a cool, intriguing look and a clear
function, like the linking rings or that big plexiglass box
Copperfield levitates in. The Mental Epic slate has clarity but
utterly lacks any visual intrigue – if it could exist anywhere in the
real world, it would likely be in an Office Depot discontinued bin
– you have no idea what it was originally meant for, but hey, it’s
only a dollar!

My take on Mental Epic does away with the slate and replaces it
with cards clearly labeled with the prediction. The cards can be
used one of two ways: the predictions can be written on the back
of the cards, or the predictions can be written on white boards,
then covered with the labeled cards.

The materials are far less suspicious than the classic Mental Epic
board. And the handling is as clean as it could possibly be: once
you write your prediction on the clearly labeled card, you place it
on a table and never have to touch it again! A spectator goes to the
table and turns over the cards showing your predictions.

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The Method:

This picks up on my One Monkey Ahead originally published in

The Book of Monkeys . In that effect I used “Self-Switching
Envelopes”: each one of the words written on the envelopes,
morphs into the next word in the cycle when viewed close up.
You perform the first part of the routine with the entire audience
at their seats and only bring someone up at the end to open the
envelopes and they switch the envelopes for you!

With this, rather than envelopes (which always seem to take an

inordinate time to open), there is a 100th Monkey word printed
on card stock. For the Dream Date plot, the three cards are
labeled Date (who you’d go on a date with), Food (what you’d
eat) and Bill (the total cost of the dinner). The words Date, Food
and Bill each morph into the next one in the cycle. So when you
hold up the card labeled Date, you actually are writing the Bill,
the cost of the date, a number you force via Toxic or other
method (more on that later), then you put it on the table. When
a spectator comes up and goes to the table, the card that said
Date from a distance will now say Bill close up. Similarly, Food
becomes Date and Bill becomes Food.

I should mention that while usually I try to get words with the
same first letter, the letters D, B and F (as well as E and R) are
similar enough in shape that they work.

While this routine solves some the biggest problems I’ve had
with Mental Epic, it does have a trade off: Mental Epic is
infinitely malleable in terms of what three categories you ask
people to name. In reality, there are not an infinite number of
routines being performed and in my experience most performers
do small variations on a few key plots: Movie, Dream Vacation,

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Dream Date, Murder Mystery… So the trick for me was trying
to find good morphable words to work with these plots. I’m
happy with the words I came up with – if there’s a plot or set of
words you’d like to use, let me know and I might be able to make
up the cards and send them out in an update (so be sure to
register!)

The Options:

A big part of the fun of a Mental Epic routine is the little story
you create out of the possibilities chosen by the audience. It’s
always a fun and engaging exercise and I’ve seen it lead to some
genuinely hilarious moments. So here are the options you can do
with the Monkey Mental Epic. Most of these end with a price so
you can force the number using Toxic or other number force
(more on this later – I know I said that before but I mean it this
time.)

The labels on the card are vague enough that they can be
completely reframed to suit a wide variety of presentations.
Don’t want to do a dream vacation? What about a nightmare
vacation? What about a nightmare date? Don’t want to do any
old movie? Depending on your personality, the venue and any
holidays coming up, why not make a romantic comedy, a horror
movie, an action movie, a Christmas movie or an (ahem) naughty
movie?

36
 Dream Vacation 1:
Place (the destination you’d like to visit)
Relax (what activity you’d like to do there to relax.)
Price (cost of the vacation).

Dream Vacation 2:
Place (the destination you’d like to visit)
Photo (give someone a card so they can draw the perfect photo
they’d like to get – which introduces a drawing dupe to the effect
– I’d reveal this one last).
Price (cost of the vacation).

Dream Vacation 3:
Place (the destination you’d like to visit)
Plane (what airline, real or imagined, you’d take to get there.)
Price (cost of the vacation).

Dream Vacation 4 (this one has four choices):

Place (the destination you’d like to visit)
Plane (What airline, real or imagined, you’d take to get there.)
Photo (The perfect photo you’d like to get – drawing dupe).
Price (cost of the vacation).

37
 Dream Date 1:
Date (who you would love a date with).
Food (what or where you’d eat).
Bill (cost of date).

Dream Date 2 (with four choices):

Date (who you would love a date with).
Food (what or where you’d eat).
Band: (what band do you go see after dinner?)
Bill (cost of date).

Let’s Make a Movie (1)!

Title
Leads (Lead actors)
Total (Total budget)

Let’s Make a Movie (2 – this has four choices)!

Title
Leads (Lead actors)
Theme
Total (Total budget)

Let’s Make a Movie (3 – Remake)!

Remake (Do a remake of any movie or TV show).
Badguy (The old hero will face a new badguy: who?)
Budget (How much does it cost?)

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 Let’s Make a Movie (4 – a superhero movie!)
Person (who is our lead character – make up a name)
Powers (what are his powers?)
Badguy (who is the bad guy?)
Budget (how much does it cost?)

Clue-style Murder Mystery (with this you can stay to the

characters, locations and weapons in the game Clue, or you
can go wild):
Killer (Who did it?)
Where? (Murder site).
Weapon (I’d use a svenpad of a list of weapons to force one).

Clue-style Murder Mystery 2

Victim
Where?
Weapon
Killer

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Mental Epic is one of the most fun of all mentalist effects (as I
type that, I realize it doesn’t sound like the biggest compliment in
the world, but still it deserves to be said), so I tried to make the
backgrounds for the cards a little more fun than my usual
backgrounds, which are largely meant to look pleasant but
unobtrusive.

If anyone thinks of more word sets that might work, let me know
– I can make up more sets and include them in the updates.

A Note on Handling:

While the cards are self-switching in terms of their label, they do

not, of course, actually switch their positions, so there is a
discrepancy which could be noticed. There are a number of ways
to obscure that discrepancy to the point of invisibility. I’ll
describe the simplest in the following “Script and Handling”
section – it works for those stage conditions where the audience
is not able to clearly read the labels on the card once you’ve
tossed them on a table (so the higher your table, the more often
this situation arises). I’ll get into dealing with other situations
right after that.

40
Script and Stage Handling:

The close up handling is at the end of this effect – the scripting is

about the same, so I only include it here.

“Who wants to make a movie? Well, tonight we’re all going to

work together to make a movie and my job is to predict the
movie that you will come up with even before you know it
yourself!”

Many pros recommend starting a routine with a question: “Who

wants to make a movie?” “Have you ever played Clue?” “Who
could use a vacation right now?” I’m not always on board with
that strategy – it really depends on the mood you’re trying to
create with an effect. But for a routine like Mental Epic, where
you want everyone pitching in and an overall fun, communal
energy, it’s a perfect way to start.

I’m not going to go through every bit of scripting for every

routine – suffice it to say that you ask them some questions
about a particular topic and construct a movie, vacation, date or
murder mystery as an audience and you knew what they would
say all along!

Let’s discuss the handling with the writing on small white boards
(which are available at most office supply and even dollar stores).
You’ll have one for each prediction and one for the answers
from the audience. You’ll also need the 100th monkey words
printed on card stock sized to cover most of the white board.

41
There are two options here: just the gimmicked word on one side
and blank on the other side; or the gimmicked words on one side
and the ungimmicked (norm) version of the close up word on
the other (this offers a nice little convincer later but is not
necessary).

You’ll also need dry erase markers and tape or museum putty to
attach the cards to the white board.

You place your predictions on a table away from you and hang
onto the white board where you write the answers chosen by
your audience.

Let’s say you’re doing movie prediction number 1 (Title, Leads,

Total). First choose someone in the audience and ask them to
think of a title for the movie. You pick up the first white board.
After thinking for a moment, you write the total budget you will
be forcing later. You pick up the first piece of card stock: on the
gimmicked side, it will appear to say Total to you, but when you
show it to your audience, it says Title.

(If you choose to print the norm word on the back – in this case
Total – be careful you don’t show the back here. Just show the
front, close it like a book over the card, stick it on, then show the
front of the card.)

Once you show the audience that the card covering the
whiteboard is clearly labeled “Leads” put it aside on a table
across the stage from you. Mention you will not touch it again.

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Next, you ask the person who thought of the title to tell
everyone what it is. Let’s say it’s “War of the Hamsters”. You
write down the title on the white board you will be using for their
answers and set it aside (but not on the same table where you put
the predictions).

You say you need some leads for the movie and ask one or two
people to think of a male and female lead actor. You pick up the
second slate, write down “War of the Hamsters” on it then pick
up the second piece of card stock, the one that reads “Leads” to
the audience but Title to you. Cover your writing, show the
white board is clearly labeled then set it aside on the table with
the first prediction.

Ask for the leads they thought of, let’s say Denzel Washington
and Betty White. Write the names on the answer white board
and set it aside.

Pick up the last white board – you say you will now try to predict
the total budget for this movie. You actually write down Denzel
Washington and Betty White. Cover it with the last piece of card
stock – the audience will see Total but you will see Leads…

As I’ve mentioned, there’s a discrepancy between the order you

lay down the slates and the order the spectator sees when he will
pick them up. So instead of just laying them neatly on each
other, as you place the last one down, scoop it under the others
(or at least one other). That little flourish, combined with the
audience’s certainty that the spectator knows what he’s doing
when he reads the back of the cards, covers the discrepancy well.

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You now have to force the number you wrote down on the first
card. This bring us to….

FORcING NUMBErS!!!!

There are a lot of number forces but for this routine two of the
best would be the Toxic force and Add-a-Number pads.

At any one time there are several Add-a-no pads on the market –
they all do the same basic thing: they switch a group of numbers
freely written by several spectators for one you’ve pre-written –
then the new numbers are tallied by a spectator (or two, to
ensure the first one doesn’t make a mistake) and lo and behold
the total is your force number!

Toxic is popular right now. I’ve seen two versions out there, the
true toxic and a short-cut version which allows you to avoid
accessing the iphone’s scientific calculator but at a cost: you can
only do multiplication (not addition or other functions) and the
numbers don’t tally as you proceed. For this effect, I’d do the
full Toxic version because addition is just so much better. For
example, if you want to put together a budget you can ask people
to suggest various items in a budget: How much for the lead
actor, how much for the lead actor’s trailer, how much for the
director, DOP, CGI, craft services, Hamster Wrangler, Betty
White’s body double…. Throw in a few call-backs to the choices
made by your spectators and get a lot of people involved and this
will be a lot of fun.

Toxic can be used on your own or a borrowed phone or

calculator. Let’s say you want to do it on a borrowed iphone.
Borrow it – you can have them open the calculator app or open

44
it youself (by just swiping up from the locked home screen then
hitting the calculator icon). Turn the phone sideways so it's in
scientific calculator mode. Enter the number you want to force
into the calculator, let’s say it’s 22,481,063. Hit + then hit 0 then
hit X (multiply), then hit ( (left parenthesis), then c (clear entry).
The mnemonic for this order is the word Toxic: the force
number then + 0 X ( c.

Now turn the phone to its normal orientation and the scientific
calculator part will go away. You can hand the phone to someone
and go straight into the routine, or turn the phone off or exit out
of the calculator as long as you don't close the calculator app,
then pass it to someone and have them open it.

Ask the first person to think of how much we have to pay

Denzel and type in that number and hit plus. You can watch the
numbers being entered – you probably don’t want to announce
every number (because then others can follow along) but if a
particular entry is inordinately high ($2 million for craft
services??) or low ($65 dollars for Denzel???), you can get a laugh
out of it. Have the spectator hand the phone to the next person
in the row and give them another line item to add to the budget
– say, Betty White’s fee. If it’s lower than Denzel’s make a
comment about sexism being alive and well in Hollywood – if it’s
higher, you can say you’re making up for those sexist pay
practices. Stuff like that.

Repeat this process as long as it seems entertaining (or until you

get a number that is in the ball park of the number you have
chosen to force – whichever comes first). If someone adds a
number that is even bigger than the number you chose, don’t say
it out loud. Or, just before the last number, ask someone to hit
the minus sign, then ask someone to enter “the amount we’ll

45
save by shooting in Canada”. At the end of all this, have
someone hit equals – your force number will come up. Have
someone read it out and you write it on the ungimmicked card.

Ask this final spectator to join you on stage. Pick up the white
board with the answers on it and stand with the spectator behind
the table with your predictions on it. She is asked to pick up the
boards and put them “in any order” facing her.

You point out the title on your slate (War of the Hamsters). Ask
your spectator to put the card marked “Title” on the face of her
stack.

Now a little audience management is in order: the situation you

want to avoid is the spectator peeling off the card and showing it
to the audience – this is not an especially natural thing to do, but
you should be attentive to its possibility. To head this off at the
pass, hold out your hand as she begins to take off the card to
receive it from her – “Take off the card and read the answer to
yourself.” She will be focused on the answer and the audience
will be focused on her reaction. You take the card and keep the
gimmicked side away from the audience.

If you’ve printed on just one side of the card, the audience will
just see a blank card. If you’ve printed the ungimmicked word
Title on the other side, they will see that word – this is the little
convincer I mentioned earlier.

Now ask your spectator to show what title you wrote down.
“The War of the Hamsters!” Hold out your hand to take the
slate from her and set it back on the table.

46
Repeat this handling for the second and third cards.

Here’s one last cool way to force a number: “We are going to
make a movie! Does someone here have a dollar? Thanks! This
is our budget! In a way. Fold it up in quarters please and one
more fold and put it in this envelope. Seal it and we’ll get back
to that!”

What you’re actually doing here is a bill switch before putting the
bill into a pay envelope labeled Budget. Ask someone to hold it.
Now when you get to the budget, you refer to the dollar bill in
the Budget envelope – “No, that’s not our budget but it will give
us our budget: the serial number on the bill – would you open it
up and read it please?” I’m not going to go into bill switches
here, apart from saying there are sleight of hand methods and
tricky envelope methods – heck, use a Himber wallet if you like.
Or a change bag! Or a change duck!! (Which hasn’t been
invented, but it will be, oh yes, it will).

Alternate Handling: printing the predictions on the back of

labeled cards instead of whiteboards:

You use two sets of cards for this version, one gimmicked and
one ungimmicked. They are printed on card stock, the words
printed large on one side and the other side left blank for you to
write on with sharpie. The gimmicked cards are for you to write
your predictions on – they will switch themselves. The
ungimmicked cards are for you to write their choices once they
announce them. You place your predictions on a table away
from you and hang onto the ungimmicked cards which you will

47
use to verify the predictions, holding them side-by-side as a
spectator turns over your predictions.

Once again, let’s say you’re doing movie prediction number 1

(Title, Leads, Total). First choose someone in the audience and
ask them to think of a title for the movie. You pick up the first
gimmicked card – on the back you will see Total, but your
audience will see Title. After thinking for a moment, you write
the total budget you will be forcing later. Put it aside on a table
across the stage from you.

Next, you ask the person who thought of the title to tell
everyone what it is. “War of the Hamsters”. You write down
the title on the ungimmicked title card and set it aside (but not on
the same table where you put the predictions). Next you say you
need some leads for the movie and ask one or two people to
think of a male and female lead actor. You pick up the
gimmicked card that reads Leads to the audience but Title to you
– you write the title the audience just gave you: “War of the
Hamsters”. Then set it aside on the table with the first
prediction.

Ask for the leads they thought of, let’s say Denzel Washington
and Betty White. Write the names on an ungimmicked card and
set it aside.

Pick up the last gimmicked card – the audience will see Total but
you will see Leads – you say you will now try to predict the total
budget for this movie. You actually write down Denzel
Washington and Betty White…

48
As I’ve mentioned, there’s a discrepancy between the order you
lay down the cards and the order the spectator sees when he will
pick them up. So instead of just laying them neatly on each
other, as you place the last one down, scoop it under the others
(or at least one other). That little flourish, combined with the
audience’s certainty that the spectator knows what he’s doing
when he reads the back of the cards, covers the discrepancy well.

Force the number as discussed above.

Ask this final spectator to join you on stage. Pick up your three
ungimmicked cards and stand with the spectator behind the table
with your predictions on it. She is asked not to lift up the cards
yet, but to slide them out in front of her so she can read all the
backs. Using the word “slide” is important: it makes sense to the
audience since ensures no one gets a peek of your predictions
until the right moment, but is also crucial to the method since
you don’t want the audience to see a card go in the wrong place.

You show the first ungimmicked card (Title: War of the

Hamsters) to remind everyone of your first prediction. Now a
little audience management is in order: the situation you want to
avoid is the spectator turning the card over to read herself that
the card back is clearly visible to the audience. To begin with
you instruct them to tilt up the card marked Title “to show the
audience” and as you do, you mime how to do it – the moment
should be about them being your assistant here, and showing the
audience first. Once she does, in a gesture that’s at once pointing
to the card and taking it – you grip an edge of the card and raise
it high so everyone in the audience can see it as you announce,
“The War of the Hamsters!” If she lets go, great! If not, turn to
her and say quietly, Thank you. As you at once pull the card
from her hand and place your ungimmicked card behind it,

49
roughly stacking them. Now you can turn over the two cards to
show her your prediction – the back of the ungimmicked card
will now show Title both close up and far away. You can toss
the cards aside together now.

Repeat this handling for the second and third cards.

Close Up Handling:

This effect works great in close up situations. Let’s say you’re

with a table of patrons at a bar and instead of white boards,
you’re writing your predictions on 4 by 6 inch index cards. Once
you’ve written it down, you walk away to a “safe” place more
than six feet away, let’s say the bar. Once you’re there, you
remove another piece of card stock (say 3 by 5), which says Title
on it from a distance (but Total close up) and tape it over your
prediction. You toss it on the bar (perhaps on a plate or tray)
then walk back to the table saying you won’t touch it again.
Repeat this blocking for the final two predictions. Then have
someone walk over and get your predictions and bring them back
(or if they are on a plate, you can do it yourself). With everyone
gathered close, the cards covering the predictions will have all
switched themselves and you’re golden!

50
Chapter Two: Drawing Duplications

51
 The Monet Monkey

A good drawing duplication is one of the finest of all mentalist

effects. There are a lot of ways to do the effect out there already
and on top of those, many classic mentalist techniques can be
adapted to do a DD routine. Some methods are better than
others – ideally you want it to have 1) very clean handling, and 2)
a handling that’s not exactly the same as a bunch of other
handlings in your show (“Again with that pad?!!”). I think this
version achieves these objectives very well (unless of course you
decide to put a whole bunch of 100th Monkey effects in your
show in which case you’re violating #2: “Again with those
cards?!”).
But first, an aside…

52
I am getting old. Not “old” old, just “kind of” old: I have more
grey hairs than black in my beard. I drink wine more often than
beer. And my daughters are old enough that I’m catching boys
eyeing them and I’m thinking of buying a shotgun.

But I remember what it was like to be young. I remember what

it felt like to carry a comb in my pocket. I remember the goofy
feeling that gripped me when I saw a pretty girl. And I
remember the way the pretty girl’s dad glared when he caught me
eyeing her and how his thumb twitched like he was imagining
leafing through a shotgun catalogue.

But most of all, I remember the mind-searing frustration

whenever I got to the “Method” section of a magic trick when
the author referred me to another magic book instead of just
explaining how it was done.

Well now that I’m old, I get to play the same dirty trick on you
young people! Hahahaha!

To my mind, the biggest single way to transform a Drawing

Duplication from a standard baffler into something that seems
like real mind reading are the subtleties rather than the method.
Since I don’t have any great contributions to make in this
department, I feel I can do nothing more than refer you to other
sources where you’ll find a treasure trove of great ideas. The two
that have been most important to me are Richard Osterlind’s
ODDS (Osterlind Design Duplication System), and Banachek’s
chapter on Subtle Drawing in Psychological Subtleties 3. Sorry for
being an old jerk, but I take comfort in knowing that anyone who
checks these out will become a better mentalist for it.

53
Now on to my first version. This is the effect from the
audience’s point of view:

Effect:
The Performer invites a volunteer up on stage and confirms that
they have never met and have had no contact before this
moment. The performer hands the person a stack of large cards
– each card has a picture frame of a different color around a
blank space and below that the phrase: “Draw a Picture.”

With the Performer’s back turned, the volunteer takes any card
and puts the others in a neat, face-down stack. The performer
then says, “Follow the instructions at the top of the page – just
draw a picture, keep it fairly simple and keep it hidden from me.”

The volunteer begins to draw. A moment later the performer,

still with his back turned, also begins to draw. When the
completed pictures are shown at the end, both volunteer and
performer have drawn the same object, they have uncanny
similarities and the performer has even picked up on the color of
the paper the volunteer drew on!

Method:
This uses the 100th Monkey Principle and dual reality (you were
expecting maybe loops and a thumb tip?).

It introduces an idea I call False Instructions, that will be a

recurring theme in this work.

54
While the cards all say “Draw a Picture” from a distance, to the
person on stage they all say something different: “Draw a
Penguin” or Draw a Pickaxe, Reptile, Bicycle, etc. Not all the
words begin with P but where they don’t, they begin with a letter
with similar contours: R, B, D, E or F. This is a little cluster of
letters that are similar enough that you can violate the usual
monkey rule that the two morph words have to start (and
preferably end) with the same letter. But when using effects that
use this letter cluster, it’s always best to show a couple examples
where the two morph words actually do start with the same letter
first (for example Penguin and Pickaxe). When your wider
audience sees you show what is from their point of view the
same thing twice (“Draw a Picture”) they will be much less likely
to scrutinize the third, fourth and fifth cards closely.

All the words have 7 letters and are words that people tend to
draw the same way. Draw them the first way that pops into your
head and you and your volunteer’s picture will likely have many
similarities, similarities that you emphasize when you are
wrapping the trick up.

I’ve included 10 choices (Pancake, Pickaxe, Penguin, Peacock,

Reptile, Bicycle, Balloon, Dolphin, Frisbee and Feather). You
can use all 10 or fewer. There’s a temptation to think that the
more cards you use, the better the effect will be for your on-stage
volunteer, but we know from watching Max Maven that this is
not the case and strength of the effect has little to do with the
length of the odds.

Let’s say you decide on 5 cards (I have provided 5 different

colored picture frames). I like to mount the artworks on foam
core – it’s solid enough to write on, easy to cut, cheap (available
at most dollar stores), light and fairly thin (8 cards will stack to

55
just over 1.5 inches). Your next decision is the size. Obviously,
it depends on your usual venue, but bear in mind that this is one
of the most visual mentalist effects so don’t waste the moment –
give ‘em the eye candy, baby! Go big or go home!

Once you’ve got the cards made up, tape a sheet of paper for
drawing on in the middle (you can just print the whole card up
each time, but taping white paper in the middle saves a bit of
money if you use those overpriced color printer cartridges.)

56
You also have to mark the back of these cards so you can tell
which is which – use any method you like, but I’ve included
artworks for the back (Monet Back 1-10). If you want to offer
the spectator a choice of five cards, then use backs 1-5:

57
58
59
There is a lot of information on these cards, but the only thing
you have to worry about is the black dot along the top edge of
the picture. In #1 it is in the upper left corner, in #2 it is ¼ of
the way in from the left. #3: it’s in the middle. #4: ¼ from the
right and #5: it’s in the upper right corner. Cards 6-10 repeat
this left to right pattern but with a red blob with a bit of yellow:

That’s #6.
Note: I wouldn’t stack the cards in this order or the
preponderance of Ps will perhaps become apparent to perceptive
participants. But if you put the Ps here and there amid a passel
of words beginning with other letters, it’ll be unlikely any person
of reasonable intelligence will pick up on its overuse.

60
In performance, invite a volunteer on stage, and pick up your
cards, (let’s say five of them). “Your job up here is simple, ‘Draw
a picture’”. As you say this you show the face card to the
audience, but not the spectator, and spread the cards out so the
phrase “Draw a Picture” is visible on each card to the audience.
We’ve got five cards with these pretty colored frames on them.”
At this point, show the faces to the spectator and say, “You can
choose anyone these cards, one that speaks to you, before
drawing your picture. Let’s say you want to choose this card with
the blue frame, and draw a Peacock.” At this point you actually
are pointing to the word “Peacock” on the card. Your goal is to
make the instructions explicit to the spectator while making it
seem like Peacock is just an example pulled out of the air to your
audience. “If you’re up to the challenge. So please take the cards,
choose any one that speaks to you while I turn my back, and you
have the one you want, say, ‘I’ve got it.’”

“Got it.”

“Okay please hand me the others face down. And don’t let me
see which card you chose.” Take the cards and then give your
volunteer a marker – this is a good point to read the marking,
then turn away for the rest of the routine.

At this point you can reinforce the instructions if you like:

“Follow the instructions on the page – just draw a picture, keep it
fairly simple.” The phrasing makes it clear to the volunteer that
they are to draw whatever the word says, while to the audience it
seems like you’re just saying “draw a picture” in two different
ways – the repetition seems normal since you’re giving someone
instructions.

61
If you listen, you might be able to get a clue as to how your
volunteer is drawing the picture – listen for long, bold strokes, a
gentle touch, rapid back and forth scribbles or big loops. Write
the object on the bottom along with the color of the frame to
finish.

When you’re both finished your drawings, ask to see your

volunteer’s picture first, then draw attention to any detail you
two have in common and gloss over the differences. A phrase
like, “Is that a… penguin?” plays in this dual reality framework
quite well – to the volunteer it’s playful teasing about her skills as
an artist: of course, it’s a penguin – the card says “Draw a
penguin!” What else would it be? But to the audience it suggests
they could have chosen anything at all and you’re verifying what
it is. You then show your own drawing and again emphasize the
hits.

62
 The Michelangelo Monkey

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor
to discover it.”
- Michelangelo

This is a close up drawing duplication.

Effect:
The performer gives the spectator a printed card with a frame on
it and the words “I will draw a picture!” He asks to borrow the
spectator’s cell phone and takes a photo of him holding the card.

63
Then you show him a note pad with dozens of different easily
drawable objects. He chooses one and draws it. You stand back
to back with him and draw at the same time. When you show
the drawings – he has drawn a penguin and so have you and they
match perfectly!

Then as a kicker, you say, “They say an artist doesn’t create a

drawing – he reveals what was always meant to be. It was
destined you’d draw this picture and if you want proof, look at
the picture on your phone.”

He looks at the picture on his phone and the words under the
blank frame read, “I will draw a penguin!”

This can be done with two, three or even four spectators at the
same time – each will draw a different picture and yet each
drawing will be predicted – even in the same photo!

Method:
This effect uses cards very similar to those in Monet Monkey but
in reverse: close up they say: “I Will Draw a Picture!” and from a
distance (or on a cell phone) they read “I Will Draw a Penguin,”
(or Pancake, Pickaxe, Peacock, Reptile, Bicycle, Balloon,
Dolphin, Frisbee and Feather).

It also develops an idea I came up with in “No Art” on the

Narcissus DVD. The spectator’s choice of object to draw is
forced using a svenpad (or other forcing device). If you want to
do this on more than one person, it is a simple matter to offer a
choice of svenpad to one person, then slip it into your pocket,
then, on second thought, ask if someone else wants to draw and

64
object as well, switching it for a pad that looks identical, but
forces another object.

There is one other subtlety: you have a stack of pre-printed index

cards – on top, you have the gimmicked cards. On the bottom
of the stack, you have some ungimmicked cards facing the
opposite way so that by simply turning over the stack you can
switch them (because close up the cards look identical, no one
notices the switch, plus there is no real significance to the cards
yet – they all appear to be identical – so there is no heat on
them). You hand these out then take a picture of the spectator
holding them (it’s also effective to do a short video where you
actually have them read the card because the difference between
what they say and what they see when they look at the photo
later is very powerful.) Then you take out the svenpad and show
them the non-force words. As you hand them the svenpad, you
take back the postcards and place them on top of the stack – you
begin your instructions of what they are to do (which follow) and
put the stack of postcards aside, turning them over in the
process. Complete the force of the words on the svenpad, then
take back the pad, pick up the stack of postcards and hand them
the ungimmicked cards from the other side – close up they will
look identical and not arouse any suspicion. Now they do their
drawing on this ungimmicked card.

This added element will allow them to keep their drawing at the
end and they will never be able to reconcile the difference
between the card and their photo.

These are strong takeaways for the audience member, so it’s not
a bad idea to print your contact information on the cards.

65
 The Matisse Monkey

Here’s a drawing dupe that requires a little extra something

which you may or may not have – but if you do, it’s super clean.
I’ll give details in a moment.

Effect:
The performer gives a spectator a pad with a paper that says,
“Draw any thing” and a selection of markers. He gets his own
pad and markers and the two stand back to back. He asks the
spectator to think of what he will be drawing and on the count of
three, begin drawing. The spectator begins drawing and only a
moment later, the performer begins to draw – their images match
perfectly! I should add the person really does get a free choice of
what to draw and the effect is as amazing for him as the rest of
the audience – or nearly so…

66
Method:
Okay, here’s the extra little something: you need a Pro-Mystic
Color Match (regular or pocket version). If you own it already,
well lucky you! You now have a killer effect quite different than
the way this gimmick is usually used. If you’re not familiar with
this wonderful utility device, it simply allows you to know which
of several colored markers a spectator secretly selects.

This is where the Monkeys come in – the words “Draw any

thing” appear to the on-stage spectator to read, “Draw any fruit.”
This is another use for False Instructions.

This, in combination with the Color Match pens, get you 90% of
the way there. Careful listening (or watching if you’re facing the
spectator) or a question, will generally narrow down the options
from here.

Also asking them to choose something to draw that will be

instantly recognizable to the audience will tend to get them to
avoid the more obscure choices or face embarrassment. 99% of
people looking at an amateur drawing of a tangelo will think it’s
an orange – if you miss on this, it’s on them, not you. On the
other hand, if you want to claim you drew a tangelo, who’s going
to argue with you?

67
Several color choices are no-brainers:
Blue: Blueberry.
Orange: orange.
Black: blackberry.

Several narrow the choice down to a few options:

Yellow: probably banana, maybe lemon.
Purple: probably grapes, maybe plums.
Green: probably lime, maybe grapes, pear or apple.

In each of these cases, you can probably deduce which is their

choice by the sound of their pen strokes (or the movement of
their arms if they are facing you.)

Yellow: Bananas will have a long back and forth

movement/sound – lemons will not.

Purple: Grapes will sound like a bunch of small circles, plums

will not.

Green: a big circle suggests apple. Lots of little circles: grapes.

Otherwise: lime or pear – in this case, fish a bit: “This is
something you eat (a hit). The flavor – is it sour?”

Red: Probably apple. But possibly cherries, strawberries,

raspberries or (if your volunteer is a wise-ass) tomato.

68
Since this is the hardest to pin point you may want to use Red as
an example as you’re giving your instructions: “Just choose the
most appropriate color…” you say as you pull out the red
marker… “and draw nice and large.”

A bit of sound reading can help: a big circle is an apple, many

circles are cherries. For strawberries, one is likely to add a bit of
green on top – for raspberries, one is likely to avoid it. Once in a
while, if you have a real smart ass on your hands, they might say
tomato. Hopefully, you will be able to recognize a real smart ass
when you see one. Be aware and have fun with this one, because
if you nail it, it’s beautiful.

If they use several colors, you can usually deduce the choice:

Red, Green and black: watermelon.

Green and brown: kiwi.

Brown, green (and maybe yellow): pineapple.

Red, green (and maybe orange) mango.

Orange, black, green: papaya.

Orange and green: cantaloupe.

69
Be aware that it’s also possible that they will use black to outline
their drawing – if black is their first color, don’t jump to
conclusions – wait to see if a second color shows up.
And remember, your audience has no idea they are drawing a
fruit – if worse comes to worst and you draw a lemon instead of
a banana, you have still managed to narrow down all reality to an
oblong yellow fruit. That’s pretty damned good!

Addendum:

Do you know about the Google n-gram viewer? It’s pretty cool
– Google fed millions and millions of books into a computer and
then had it count all the words and measure how common each
word was for every year from 1800 to 2000. So, for example,
here is the relative popularity of the two most famous magic
words, Abracadabra and Hocus Pocus:

I bet an interesting article could be written on why the phony

Latin, street-conjurer-invented Hocus Pocus (possibly based on
the blessing from the Mass, Hoc est corpus meum "This is my
body") which ruled the 19th century, was usurped by
Abracadabra, an ancient word which was actually believed to be

70
truly magical (possibly deriving from an Aramaic phrase meaning
"I create as I speak.").

But I digress…

Soon after the n-gram viewer came out I tried entering in

psychological forces to see if they matched what mentalists had
observed where the most popular choices. For example,
vegetables: mentalists know that when asked to choose a
vegetable, most people will say carrots. Here’s what the n-gram
viewer says is most common:

Carrots!
And mentalists will tell you that when asked to choose a flower,
most people will say rose. N-gram survey says…

71
It’s rose by a mile!
So it occurred to me that we mentalists could use the n-gram
viewer to try out possible psychological subtleties to get an idea
how they might play. I posted about it on my old blog and I
emailed Banachek (the zen pooh-bah master of psychological
subtleties) and he thought it was cool and asked to post about it
on the PEA forum, but I believe that’s probably the only time it’s
been mentioned.
But here’s a great use for it! For example:

Green fruit: apple, then limes, grapes, pears

72
Purple fruit: grapes way out in front, then plums

Red fruit: apple, tomato, cherry, raspberry, strawberry

Yellow fruit: bananas, lemons

73
Of course there’s no substitute for hundreds of thousands of
performances while keeping rigorous records – but since no
one’s going to do that, this is the next best thing!

74
Chapter 2 ½

75
 The Mondrian Monkey

I’ve saved this Drawing Dupe for last because it introduces an

idea that I believe is a hugely valuable utility tool for the
mentalist: a forcing poster. I’ll be exploring it further in the next
chapter.

Effect:
The performer invites an audience member on stage. The
performer displays a poster with a list of about 40 words on it –
there are a wide variety of things that can be drawn or visualized
on it. The volunteer thinks of one and draws it (or even just
visualizes it) in his mind. Without asking a single question, the
performer draws his mental impressions – he is correct!

Method:
This is impossible-looking: a purely mental selection from a long
list of words on a poster openly displayed to the audience
throughout the routine. This just seems more fair to me than

76
showing a list on a piece of paper to one person (where the
audience has to trust that the page doesn’t say “Think of a rag
doll and I’ll give you $100 after the show”.) The magician’s
drawing is done in view of the audience (but not the volunteer)
to preclude switches and to engage the audience who can “play
along” and try to guess what the person is thinking of based on
comparing the drawing to the word list (it also reinforces that
there’s no way the unfinished drawing could apply to most of the
words). On top of that, there’s no funny process and nothing
has to be written down.

There are several ingredients baked into this little cupcake, iced
with the 100th Monkey principle to further hide the workings
from the audience at large.

First, there is a method originally created independently by Max

Maven and Finn Jon (they’ve both kindly given me permission to
include the principle here). The idea is to give the spectator
options that for some reason he can’t take: for example, in Max’s
version, the final choice offered to the spectator was between
song titles, several of the titles sounded legit but were in fact
made up, forcing the spectator toward the one song they
legitimately would know.

The variation in this effect is to offer them a choice of words and

ask them to choose one “you can draw.” But most of the words
on the list can’t be drawn, words like Charity or Power.

The second idea is to sprinkle a variety of “visual synonyms”,

that is, words that would all be drawn the same way. In this case
words like Dog, Retriever, Puppy, etc.

77
The third idea is to hide the first two ideas with the 100th Monkey
principle, so to the wider audience Charity becomes Cleaver,
Power becomes Pizza, Retriever becomes Racehorse, etc.

The fourth idea is rushing the on-stage spectator so he doesn’t

have time to notice the limitations of his choice. Bring him on-
stage, face him toward the audience. Explain you have a poster
covered with words, and direct him to look quickly at the poster,
(as you might with a Bagshaw deck). Tell him to pick an object
“you can draw”.

That’s the final idea: a hint of dual reality in the direction “you
can draw”: to the spectator the “you” is a general you that could
be replaced by “one”. To the audience it suggests a specific
“you” – something this person feels comfortable drawing. Me I
wouldn’t dare draw a racehorse in public.

Note that most of the dogs on this list have floppy ears, so the
odds are in your favor if you draw a floppy-eared dog.

Poster Handling:

The files for the poster are among the jpegs on this disk. You
have to have them printed yourself at your local print shop or on
the internet (this place will print a 2 foot by 3 foot poster for $15
including shipping: https://www.overnightprints.com/posters).
You can get them laminated or mounted or laminated and
mounted, or dipped in melancholy and wrapped in despair if you
like. The posters can be unfurled on stage like a scroll, or
brought on stage by a sexy but not objectified assistant. Often
venues will have a wall or easel you can stick a poster on
temporarily.

78
But however you bring them out, you bring them out after the
spectator is on-stage, otherwise they will see the options on the
poster change before their very eyes! Which is kind of an effect
really, just not the one we want.

Anniversary Waltz Handling:

Here’s a presentation from Greg Arce that he applied to another

methodology and I thought it would work great in with this
method (used with permission):

This is a good trick for a wedding, someone’s anniversary or any

situation that would benefit from some good old fashioned
romance. You invite a couple up on stage and have them face
the audience. You talk about how couples that were meant to be
together often think the same way, though add their own twist
on things. In some sense they see the world with the same eyes.
You hand each of them a large drawing pad and sharpie.

Bring out the poster behind their backs and show it to the
audience. Explain it is covered with words and that, without
looking at the poster – yet – they are to turn back to back, and
on the count of three, to each look at the poster quickly, choose
something you can draw and immediately begin drawing it. Do
you understand? Great. One, two, three. As they begin
drawing, you put away the poster.

In the end, they show their pictures and they have each drawn a
dog. You can explain it’s wonderful since a dog is a symbol of
loyalty and fidelity (that’s where we get the common dog name
Fido). Point out the similarities in their dogs, if they are pointing

79
the same way, point that out and if they are pointing opposite
directions, hold them so they are facing each other.

Here are the words on the poster, near and far:

Bravery – Bluejay
Reality – Racquet
Trust – Trout
Calm – Cage
Wisdom – Wizard
Power – Panda, Pants, Parka, Phone, Piano, Pizza, Plane, Plums,
Truth – Table
Charity – Cashews, Cleaver
Deceit – Dagger
Talent – Teapot
Compassion – Candelabra
Hope – Harp
Sale – Ship, Soap
Weakness – Waitress
Thirst – Teepee, Tulips
Success – Seesaw, Shorts
Envy – Eggs, Eyes
Belief – Banana
Clarity – Cabbage, Chicken
Newness – Necktie
Beauty – Bongos

80
Failure – Factory
Honesty – Hamster, Hatchet
Fact – Farm, Fire, Fork
Ability – Admiral
Growth – Goalie, Grapes
Delay – Darts
Ambition – Aardvark, Airplane
Doubt – Diary
Sanity – Stairs
Mastery – Machete, Mailbox
Patience – Pancakes, Platypus
Respect – Raccoon, Rowboat
Humor – House, Human
Optimism – Overcoat
Sincerity – Sandpiper, Shoelaces
Wonder – Walrus
Action – Avocado
Culture – Compass
Being – Bacon, Broom
Elegance – Eggplant, Earmuffs
Goodness – Gargoyle
Situation – Shipwreck, Shoreline
Honor – Heart
Need – Newt
Moment – Mayfly, Monkey, Musket
Opinion – Octopus

81
Skill – Skull
Warmth – Wreath
Solace – Square

Dog – Dam, Dad

Doggy – Dryer
Hound – Hanky, Heron, Hills, House
Puppy – Panda, Pants, Parka, Pasta, Peach, Phone, Piano, Pizza,
Plane, Plums
Retriever – Racehorse, Raincoats, Rectangle, Reindeers,
Repairman, Riverboat
Sheepdog – Sailboat, Salesman
Foxhound – Fireball
Beagle – Bottle
Pug – Pig
Dachshund – Dandelion, Dishtowel, Dragonfly
Husky – Hippo, Human
Bulldog – Buffalo, Burglar
Poodle – Paddle, Pagoda, Pirate, Possum, Pencil
Pitbull – Peacock, Pelican
Mutt – Mule

82
 The Multiple Mondrian Monkey

This is similar to the last effect, but with a slightly different set of
ingredients. In this case, the poster does not contain words that
can’t be drawn. Instead it uses the “visual synonyms” principle
four times, which narrows the possible choices down to four: a
dog (retriever, sheepdog, Hound, etc…), a car (Subaru, Lexus,
Automobile, etc), a forest (woods, rainforest, trees, etc) or a bird
(robin, sparrow, crow, etc).

83
In each of these cases, you have to do a little fishing to find out
which object is being drawn or thought of. I know some people
don’t like the fishing, but done well it seems to me to mimic the
kind of groping through the dark passages of the mind we
mentalists are supposed to be doing. There are a couple obvious
methods of attack – and I think they make sense because you’re
having trouble with aspects of the picture that are not actually in
the picture: movement, substance, relative position and scale.

Your fishing might go like this…

“I’m getting a shape – but there are certain aspects of your object
that can’t be conveyed by a drawing and that’s what I’m having
trouble with. One is movement – I sense this is an object that
moves, right?”

If there’s a no, or any hesitation, it’s likely a forest. You can

obscure the miss this way, “I mean it moves in the sense that
there’s some give, some sway not that it moves around from
place to place.”

If there’s a yes, you can definitively eliminate forest by saying,

“So this is something that can move around.” If they backtrack
on the yes, good! Say, “Now I’m really confused. Don’t explain
it, draw a little more and I’ll try to figure this out.” Now draw a
forest and it’ll fry people.

Assuming you eliminate forest, say, “This is something organic,

yes?” A no or hesitation suggests car. You can obscure the miss
this way: “I don’t mean it’s alive, because I don’t think it is, just
made of many materials which come from organic sources:
wood, rubber, plastic...” Of course many plastics are made with

84
oil products which, since they come from long-dead organisms
are indeed organic.

If you get a yes, you can definitely eliminate car with this
observation: “This is something alive.” If they backtrack and say
no, again say you’re confused and proceed to draw a car.

If you’re still in the game, it’s either a dog or a bird. Say,

“Another issue I’m having is relative position: though you’re
looking down on your picture, I have a vision of you looking up
at this object. Does that make sense?”

A yes suggests a bird. A no or hesitation suggests dog. You can

obscure the miss by saying “Maybe not literally looking up, but
figuratively looking up – this is a thing with admirable qualities,
something you like.” Most people will say yes to that if they’ve
picked a dog.

Another way of getting at this is scale – a forest is much larger

than the drawing, a car larger, a dog usually a bit larger and a bird
usually smaller. This is not definitive but can be used if there’s
any doubt in your mind.

Finally, if there’s any doubt, you can always draw one object,
cross it out, and draw another.

85
Doing this as a Prediction:

You can do this as a pure prediction or as a drawing dupe

followed by a prediction kicker (which can be presented either as
“I had a feeling last night…” or “I influenced you…). Four outs
is a nice manageable number for multiple outs: say hiding a
photo of a dog, bird, forest and car in four places like under his
chair, under your chair, under the table and under your close up
pad. If you’ve got Angelo Carbone’s The Gift, you can see how
to use it here. If you are good with making multiple out
envelopes you can do that.

Poodle – Pencil
Subaru -- Saddle
Canary - Cactus
Jungle - Jacket
Sheepdog – Sailboat
Honda - House
Sparrow - Snorkel
Trees - Tulip
Dog – Dog
Toyota - Teapot
Crow – Cage

Woodland - Waitress
Foxhound – Fireball
Camaro - Carrot

86
Pigeon - Person
Orchard - Octopus
Beagle – Bottle
Acura - Acorn
Falcon - Fedora
Timberland – Tambourine
Pug – Pig
Sedan – Skull

Robin - Razor
Woods - Woods
Hound – House
Nissan – Nickel
Starling - Sailboat
Forest - Ferret
Puppy – Phone
Car - Car
Parrot - Pirate
Backwoods -Ballerina

Husky – Hippo
Lexus - Lemon
Bluejay - Bicycle
Rainforest - Ringmaster
Bulldog – Buffalo
Hyundai - Hammock

87
Bird - Bird
Trees - Trout
Doggy – Dryer
Chrysler - Chainsaw
Hawk - Hand

88
 Chapter 3: The Monkey Forcing Poster

I think the 100th Monkey forcing posters are a very clean,

powerful new utility device with a wide range of applications. In
each effect in this chapter, (as with the drawing dupes in Chapter
2 ½,) the process is minimal: a spectator looks at a list of 30 or
40 options and thinks of one – and you know which one he is
thinking of!

89
 The Celebrity Baby Gag

You know the routine. A celebrity is selected and then you

reveal you knew which celebrity would be chosen by removing
from an envelope a picture of that celebrity – as a baby!
Hahahaha! But then you reveal that you turn over the picture and
there is the name or picture of the celebrity – you knew it all
along! Hot damn!

There can be a lot more to it than that (check out how Harrison
Greenbaum turns it into comedy gold), but basically that’s it.
Methods vary, from tricky envelopes to tricky stuff happening
before the show, but I was content to sit on the sidelines of this
one, not really getting involved.

Until I hit upon the forcing posters – then everything changed! I

realized, I can force a celebrity without preshow in the fairest
possible manner!

90
In this effect, you show a poster with the names of 40 celebrities.
You have someone think of one of these names and
miraculously, they always think of the same name: Tom Cruise!

Like the other uses of forcing posters, this is staged by bringing

up a person from the audience, facing him toward the audience
and bringing out the poster behind his back.

Max Maven tells me he has never been able to track down the
name of the originator of the baby gag and I figure if he hasn’t,
no one has. Let me know if I’m wrong.

Poster Handling:
(This section is exactly the same as the one in Mondrian Monkey,
but I thought I’d reprint it here cuz, you know, this is the chapter
on Monkey posters.)

The files for the poster are among the jpegs on this disk. You
have to have them printed yourself at your local print shop or on
the internet (this place will print a 2 foot by 3 foot poster for $15
including shipping: https://www.overnightprints.com/posters).
You can get them laminated or mounted or laminated and
mounted, or dipped in melancholy and wrapped in despair if you
like. The posters can be unfurled on stage like a scroll, or
brought on stage by a sexy but not objectified assistant. Often
venues will have a wall or easel you can stick a poster on
temporarily.

But however you bring them out, you bring them out after the
spectator is on-stage, otherwise they will see the options on the

91
poster change before their very eyes! Which is kind of an effect
really, just not the one we want.

Presentation:

I’m not going to go through the whole Baby gag routine, you
probably know it but if you don’t you can do a quick search on
youtube and there are a number of routines for sale at your
favorite magic retailer. Here is the text for the introduction of
the poster:

“Here is a list of people who are famous in a variety of different

fields: movies, politics, sports, science, literature, business, music
from a variety of different genres. There will be people on this
list you don’t know – that’s cool. Just find someone you do
know, maybe someone you can picture in their head or if not,
you could tell us a bit about their work. Okay? I want you to do
this very quickly, so no one can see where you’re looking at on
the poster. Okay. Turn around and look! Quickly. Got one?”

This set up prepares the spectator for what he will see: a whole
bunch of names he doesn’t recognize. Now the last thing people
want is to look stupid on stage, so they are highly unlikely to say,
“Hey I don’t know any of those people!” If they were tempted
to bluff, your phrase “you could tell us a bit about their work”
probably scares that temptation out of them. All this along with
you barking “Quickly. Got one?” will likely induce a state of
existential panic, so when he sees an old familiar name like Tom
Cruise, he will grab it and hold on like a drowning man clutching
for a life buoy.

92
There are forty names on the poster, in four columns of ten
names each. The name Tom Cruise appears four times, once in
each column. Only one of these appearances of the name is
apparent to the wider audience since these are 100th Monkeyed
into indifferent names.

The poster is set up like this:

Faraway --------------- Close up

Peter Higgs – Peter Hogan

Taylor Swift – Thomas Stein
Yann Martel – Yves Mondre
Tad Chaney – Tom Cruise
Alan Mulally – Alan Masters
Emma Stone – Elsa Slims
George Lucas – George Lester
James Conlon – James Canter
Kip Thorne – Ken Thames
Tom Hanks – Tim Hawks
Markus Zusak – Markus Zemly

Lionel Messi – Lucius Massy

Barack Obama – Burton Odell
Sam Smith – Sal Stone
Kamal Haasan – Keith Holmes
Jeff Bezos – Jeff Brook

93
Miley Cyrus - Misty Clark
Derek Jeter – Daryl Jones
Sean Connery – Seth Collins
Bob Dylan – Ben Danes
Tim Caster - Tom Cruise
Tana French – Toni France

The Weeknd – Tom Wesley

Tom Cruise - Tom Cruise
Ben Affleck – Bob Amberly
Brad Mehldau – Bran Maloney
Johnny Depp – Jarrod Dyne
Katy Perry – Kori Pacer
Zadie Smith – Zelda Stott
Tony Robbins – Tony Rosburg
James Franco – Janet Falcon
Errol Morris – Ethan Master
Jack White – John Waley

Brad Pitt – Bill Phan

Neil Gaiman – Norm Gerson
Young Jeezy – Yosef Jorah
Jim Carrey – Jon Caplan
Emma Watson – Ezra Wilson
Will Smith – Wilt Scott
Tim Conrad - Tom Cruise

94
George Takei – George Tyler
Lady Gaga – Liza Good
Garth Brooks – Gavin Breams
Simone Biles – Sloane Biggs

There is a second version which forces Miley Cyrus instead of

Tom Cruise.

Miley Cyrus
Misty Clark
Maddy Cross
Meryl Combs

95
 Planet of the Monkeys

96
Effect:
A spectator is shown a poster with cities from all over the globe
and thinks of any one. The performer goes to a large map and
zeroes in on a continent then a small space which he circles. The
spectator reveals the place he was thinking of, and sure enough,
it is in the circle.

Method:

From a distance, the poster appears to show places from all over
the globe. Close up, it is a repetition of the same few cities all
quite close to each other which are all included in the circle you
draw on the map.

Alternately, you can stab the map with a knife or ice pick or spin
a globe and stab it. To do this with a globe, you have the spot on
the globe between these cities pre-punched – you also have the
spot on the bar around the globe marked at that latitude so that if
you place your ice pick on that latitude and let it drag gently on
the surface of the spinning globe, as the globe slows the ice pick
will eventually find the hole and jam the spin in exactly the right
spot. (Don’t go out and get a globe though until you find out it
has the cities the poster forces and most normal sized globes will
not).

People make fun of Americans for being largely ignorant of

world geography, but as an American-Canadian, I can tell you
Canadians aren’t much better. I suspect the majority of the
world’s population is pretty bad about geography beyond their
immediate surroundings. Anyways, it hardly matters – only the
one person on stage will ever have a chance to figure this out,

97
and because you rush him in choosing a location, he won’t have a
chance.

The trickiest part of this whole thing is finding a map that

corresponds to the force words on the poster. This is tricky
because none of the map makers seem to agree on which cities to
include. So I picked one of the most popular maps in the world:
The Rand McNally Signature Map of the World, 50 x 32-Inch
Map – May 1, 2015. I bought one on Amazon for $4.89 and the
quality is great. I picked a small area in Europe at the
intersection of three countries: Germany, Holland and Belgium.
This area has a cluster of fairly well known cities you might not
know are quite close together. Drawing a small oval here you
can easily circle these eight cities: Hamburg, Amsterdam,
Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Bonn, Frankfurt, Brussels. Not only
are these cities in three different countries, but the names
Cologne and Essen aren’t especially Germanic sounding. As a
bonus, five of the eight names fit into the B, P, E, F, R cluster of
letters and they all happen to be of different lengths (4, 5, 6, 8
and 9 letters long) and this allows for a lot of possibilities in
morphing to other words. The circle you draw takes up less than
1% of the total map and I’m sure few people will realize that
eight places on the list of places are within a tiny circle’s width of
each other.
.
Obviously, test the dry erase marker you want to use on a remote
part of the map, preferably with a country colored the same as
the marker.

For a little more drama you could use an ice pick instead of
circling on a cork board. Probably the simplest way to do that is
to tape the map to a large piece of foam core or cork, stab it in a
multitude of places that look like your previous performances,

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then make a neat hole perfectly between your target cities. You
might try putting a thin metal washer between the map and the
foam core to guide your stab and make sure you don’t damage
the map around this central stab point.

As an alternative to the Rand McNally map, I found a fairly high-

res world map that seems to be public domain – I photoshopped
a couple cities I didn’t need and added others to make it conform
to the eight force cities on the poster. Because I’m not sure it’s
public domain, I’m not going to put it on this DVD but I will put
it in the dropbox available for everyone who registers
(chris@magicaonline.com – Annemann in subject heading).
There it will remain unless somebody sends me a cease-and-
desist letter.

You can print up the poster with the names of cities from around
the globe at your local print shop or many places on-line like this
one which will print a 2 foot by 3 foot poster for $15 including
shipping: https://www.overnightprints.com/posters Or if you
want to go full-on bad boy, you can print one on a 4 foot by six
foot piece of vinyl for $45 plus shipping here and other places:
https://www.vistaprint.com/signs-
posters/banners?xnav=SignsandPosters%3aCategoryPage_LeftN
av_Banners&rd=1 .

Your poster and map can be on opposite sides since you never
use them at the same time.

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The four columns of the map, viewed close up:

Hamburg
Amsterdam
Bremen
Cologne
Essen
Bonn
Frankfurt
Brussels
Hamburg
Amsterdam
Bremen

Cologne
Essen
Bonn
Frankfurt
Brussels
Hamburg
Amsterdam
Bremen
Cologne
Essen
Bonn

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Frankfurt
Brussels
Hamburg
Bremen
Cologne
Essen
Bonn
Frankfurt
Brussels
Hamburg
Amsterdam

Bremen
Cologne
Essen
Frankfurt
Brussels
Hamburg
Amsterdam
Bremen
Cologne
Essen
Bonn

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The columns with their faraway morphs:

Hamburg - Houston
Amsterdam - Ashkhabad
Bremen - Bremen
Cologne - Calgary
Essen - Delhi
Bonn - Perm
Frankfurt - Baltimore
Brussels - Florence
Hamburg - Hamburg
Amsterdam - Reykjavik
Bremen - Bogotá

Cologne - Chengdu
Essen - Essen
Bonn - Rome
Frankfurt - Barcelona
Brussels - Freetown
Hamburg - Nairobi
Amsterdam - Amsterdam
Bremen - Ramadi
Cologne - Caracas
Essen - Paris
Bonn - Baku

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Frankfurt - Edinburgh
Brussels - Brussels
Hamburg - Halifax
Bremen - Prague
Cologne - Chicago
Essen - Dakar
Bonn - Bonn
Frankfurt - Pyongyang
Brussels - Brisbane
Hamburg - Managua
Amsterdam - Ahmedabad

Bremen - Dublin
Cologne - Okinawa
Essen - Rabat
Frankfurt - Frankfurt
Brussels - Dongguan
Hamburg - Nicosia
Amsterdam - Adamstown
Bremen - Riyadh
Cologne - Cologne
Essen - Bursa
Bonn - Riga

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List of where these places are –

Ahmedabad, India
Delhi, India
Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan
Adamstown, (many places including Pitcairn Islands)
Reykjavik, Iceland
Bursa, Turkey
Calgary, Canada
Halifax, Canada
Caracas, Venzuela
Chengdu, China
Dongguan, China
Chicago, USA
Baltimore, USA
Houston, USA
Okinawa, Japan
Nicosia, Northern Cyprus
Managua, Nicaragua
Nairobi, Kenya
Brisbane, Australia
Barcelona, Spain
Edinburgh, Scotland
Florence, Italy
Ramadi, Iraq
Perm, Russia

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Bogotá, Columbia
Prague, Czech Republic
Baltimore, USA
Paris, France
Riga, Latvia
Bogotá, Columbia
Pyongyang, Korea
Rome, Italy
Rabat, Morocco
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Dublin, Ireland
Dakar, Senegal
Baku, Azerbaijan

Finding a list of such far-flung places from every continent to

morph with a list of places so close together was not the easiest
thing in the world but I’m pretty happy with the results.

Script:

This script is a bit on the talky side because it seems like a fun
way to present it. Of course, you don’t have to go mentioning so
many place names as you tour around the globe – you can just
use your intuition and feel around wordlessly…

Or you can talk your head off as below!

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“If I asked you to think of a place, you might think of New York,
or Tokyo, places which loom large in the imagination. So large
we forget how big this world is.”

How shows a large map of the world.

“Let me show you New York – it’s that tiny little dot there. And
Tokyo that tiny little dot right here. I made a discovery doing
this – there are a lot of other places. Places we’ve probably never
been, maybe never heard of, in many cases don’t want to visit,
but – they are there, they are interesting and tonight we turn our
attention to the many possibilities. May I have someone up here
– ideally, someone who’s dreamed of traveling to far-off places
but hasn’t had a chance to do so yet. Also someone with good
vision because you’re going to have to read some pretty small
print.”

The person comes up on stage.

“We haven’t met before or set anything up, correct? Face

forward please. In a moment I’m going to ask you to think of a
place, but not a place that might loom large in your imagination.
I’m going to bring out a list of dozens of places in dozens of
countries on every continent all over the globe. Some you will
know – they are well known centers of commerce and tourism
while others are places that are barely blips in your imagination.”

Like cities in countries like Turkmenistan and Iceland (points to

Ashkhabad and Reykjavik, #2 and 10 in the first column) China,
Kenya and Venezuela (Chengdu, Nairobi and Caracas, #1, #6

106
and #9 in second column), Morocco, Cyprus and Latvia (Rabat,
Nicosia and Riga, #3, #6 and #11 in fourth row). All places I’m
sure you’ll go to someday. But today, you will just be thinking of
one. You’ll notice I only mentioned countries, not the cities – I
don’t want to influence you. And to keep this as free from
influence as possible, in a moment I want you to turn around and
quickly choose a place. It may be a place you know or don’t
know. You don’t even have to know what country it’s in (to
audience) because be honest, how many of you knew that Riga
was in Latvia? And it’s the capital! Okay, now I’ve spoiled it by
mentioning a city – don’t choose Riga, okay? But you can
choose any of the other cities – do it now, quickly, any city. Got
it? Face forward please. Will you remember it? Good. Let me
ask you just one question: are you a carry-on or checked luggage
kind of person? That’s all I need to know…”

The performer puts aside the word list, takes out a dry-erase
marker and then asks the spectator to turn and watch as he looks
over the map.

“Okay, first we can cross off New York and Tokyo, since they
weren’t on the list. But Okinaya and Kobe were. But you didn’t
think of them! Not Korea. Not Thailand. Not Singapore.
Maybe China. Chegdu, Beijing or Dongguan, home to 45 million
people – all crowded into that little dot right there! You didn’t
think of it. Maybe down here in Australia? Perhaps Sydney or
Brisbane, the bane of brisses. No, you didn’t think of that.”

You may have noticed I’ve added some cities and countries to
this search that weren’t on the list: Kobe, Beijing, Sydney,
Thailand, Singapore – why not? It’s not like people have had a
chance to memorize the list and who would be so bold to lie

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about it? The final impression should be that there were many
choices in each major country.

Btw, I’m charting a course over the map from the east, heading
south and west, then north and circling back east, then doubling
back for the kill…

“Let’s move over her to India, Ahmedabad, Bangalore or maybe

Delhi. No you didn’t think of Delhi. Home to 37 million people
all smushed into a little dot but you didn’t think of them, did
you?”

“Maybe somewhere in Africa? Dakar, Pretoria, Nairobi,

Freetown… Maybe – let me get back to those. On to South
America! Caracas, Brasilia, Rio, Bogotá… Not feeling it.
Managua or Acapulco? Houston or Baltimore? Wait – not
Baltimore. All the places on the globe and you chose Baltimore?
No. Good. How about Canada: Calgary, Montreal, Halifax. Or
Europe – Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Florence or Prague? Or Riga?
After I asked you not to, did you pick Riga? Or Perm in the
frozen north of Russia…? No, no, no – I was close before, I was
close before. I don’t think I mentioned it but I was close – I
think it was…”

The performer searches then draws a circle on the map.

“There. What city where you thinking of?”

He tells you – and you nailed it!!!

108
 False Instructions with Forcing Posters

I first introduced the idea of false instructions, a simple but very

potent idea, in the Monet and Matisse Monkey drawing dupes.
This broadens the idea so it can be used with Forcing Posters.

On top of any poster which lists options from which the

spectator can choose, you can add a printed banner which
reads…

“These are just suggestions. Choose any thing!”

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But the person on stage reads:

“These are your alternatives. Choose any item!!”

Of course, the less said about this the better since it is pure dual
reality. If you do mention it, don’t be specific – gesture to it and
say something like, “This is the only rule.”

There are variations for the other forcing posters:

“These are just suggestions. Choose any city!

“These are your alternatives – Choose any one!!

“These are just suggestions. Choose any celebrity.

“These are your alternatives. Choose any onefamous.

“These are just suggestions. Choose any song!

“These are your alternatives. Choose any one!!

There are some more false instructions in the Book Test section
later.

110
Chapter Four: Rashomonkey

111
 Monkeys Ahoy!

If you like your mentalism clean, fast and powerful, this might be
to your liking.

Effect:
The performer shows three cards: one reads Spices, one reads
Sports and one reads Shapes. He drops the cards on a table and
mixes them up. He invites three people up on stage and has each
one take his card, peek at it, then discard it into the gaping jaws
of an alligator (or whatever receptacle is handy). Each volunteer
is to think of two examples of whatever is written on the card.
The performer says “I am getting the impression of six words:
two spices, two sports and two shapes – I will now say them out
loud and if you hear your choices, please sit down on the backs
of these three giant tortoises” (or whatever sitting device is
handy).

112
The performer says the six words – the volunteers all sit. They
are then carried off triumphantly on the backs of the tortoises (or
whatever locomotive device is handy).

Method:
I was trying to think of other ways to use the words from “One
Monkey Ahead” (from my Babel DVD) when I realized I could
do something quite similar to Luke Jermay’s great rethinking of
Hoy and Banachek, “Touching on Hoy.” (Luke has given his
blessing to me publishing it.) It uses a method dubbed “The
Rashomon Principle” by Max Maven. The reference is to the
great 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa – I’d explain why but it
would really be much better if you saw the film – I promise you
won’t regret it.

From a distance, the cards you hand the spectators say Spices,
Sports and Shapes. Viewed close up, they all say Shapes. So
each spectator picks two shapes, which, thanks to the miracle of
psychological forces, will almost always be a circle and triangle.
Now you use the Hoy Rashomon principle – you say any two
spices and any two sports (and these can be different for each
performance) – just make sure you say circle and triangle for the
shapes. Everyone will sit and each person will think only they
responded to the shapes.

It’s important not to give them too much time to think

about their shapes otherwise they’ll give you shapes like
parallelogram. It’s also important not to clutter the shapes
instructions by saying them at the same time as the other
instructions. For maximum effectiveness, you should not say too
much about what they are to do with the cards before they see
them, and once they do peek at their card, you should give the
circle triangle force immediately. “If your card says shapes,

113
please think of two simple geometric shapes, like a square. The
first two shapes that pop into your head please. Except not
square since I mentioned that. Please don’t change your mind.
If you got the card that says spices…”

And so continue. You can give some details on the instructions

for how to choose spices and sports – it makes sense since you
kind of fussed over the shapes instructions, you can use them to
reinforce the idea that no one is to change their minds, and it
also helps erase the memory of the first, quite restricted
instructions by giving more expansive ones. With spices you
could say something like, “If you saw the word spice, you may
think of either an herb or spice, preferably not something too
exotic like fenugreek. Cumin is fine. But not now that I said it.
Just please the first two you think of, lock them into your mind
and don’t change them.

Similarly, your introduction to sports could go along these lines:

“You can think of popular sports like baseball or football or
more obscure sports like luge or polo. It does not have to be a
sport you’ve played but I do want it to be a sport you have some
passing acquaintance with. With racing sports it is quite alright
to pick a distance – the 100 Meter is quite different from the
marathon, just be aware that I may not get the distance exactly
right. I know some people say poker is a sport, but for our
purposes tonight it is not. Ping pong is borderline. Okay tonight
I will accept ping pong as a sport. But not now that I mentioned
it. But whatever you first thought of, please lock it in your mind
and don’t change it. Thank you.”

With so many mentalist effects it’s necessary to think of clever,

natural ways to justify the process but with this, as with Jermay’s
original, the process is cut to a minimum so I think you can add

114
some of this “faux” process with conditions on the sports and
spices.

One other touch which will appeal to some but not others is this:
tell your volunteers that if they’d like they can show their cards to
the audience (but not the others on stage). Alternatively you can
just show larger cards to each of them and the audience at the
same time – each volunteer sees Shapes while the audience sees
three different words. To make it super fair, you can hand the
cards to someone to mix up, then take the cards and stand
behind them as they face the audience. Now you hold up the
cards one-by-one and ask the volunteers one-by-one to turn and
see the card. “This is a double blind experiment. I do not know
what each person is thinking of and they only know what they
are thinking of. Only the audience knows who is thinking of
what and even you have no way of knowing, for example, which
two sports this person is thinking of. And nothing will ever be
written down or whispered and nothing has been agreed to
beforehand.”

Of course this reinforces the fairness of the experiment to all

parties – until the volunteers get back to the audience and their
partners ask, “Did you really think of oregano and clove?” and
the volunteer says, “Huh?” But as with post-show chatter after
The 100th Monkey, this doesn’t really expose anything and will
likely only confuse the matter further and lead to people
believing you have all kinds of powers you don’t in fact possess
(unless you do possess them, in which case, I’m so very sorry.
Please don’t take vengeance upon me).

One interesting handling possibility is to show the cards to the

audience from the stage, then invite someone up onto the stage
to mix the cards and then take them and hand them out to

115
people in three different parts of the audience (being careful that
even he doesn’t know which is which). Now each person
believes they’ve received the Shapes card as do the people seated
around them who may catch a peek of the card. This handling is
fast, clean and very fair – the one big proviso is that in most
settings, the light is much better on stage than in the audience so
you have to be careful that you have enough light to perform the
effect. If you’re in a space that has good light in the audience,
you might want to go this way.

Monkeys B-Hoy

This is like Monkey Ahoy (see what I did there?) but with
another popular psy force – the flower force.

You show three cards that have these words printed on them:
Person, Flower and Recipe. They are mixed up and handed out
to three spectators. The person who has the card labeled Person
has to think of a person, the one who has the card labeled flower
thinks of a flower and the person who has the card labeled
Recipe has to think of any dish of food. The performer mind
reads all of them.

Method:

All three morph to Flower close up and this uses the well-known
psychological force: ask someone to think of flower and most
people will think of rose. The only problem with this force for
me is that it is so obvious that if given a moment, many people
will choose another, less obvious choice.

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So this is how I would frame it: when you come to the reveal,
say, “I sense that several people have changed their minds at least
once. Is that right? So when I saw what I think you are thinking
of, even if you thought of this for a moment and changed your
mind from this at the last minute, if you thought of this at all,
please just sit down. Cool? One of you got the Person card: I
think you thought of… and don’t sit down until I finish with
everyone… but I think the person is J.R.R. Tolkien, the flower is
a rose and the recipe is Linguine with Clam sauce. If these
thoughts popped into your head, would you please sit down.

I think going straight from the namby-pamby, unimpressive “if

this popped into your head for even a moment” to a very
specific, unlikely name like Tolkien, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, or
Lillian Gish, balances out nicely between the obvious and the so
impossible it’s ridiculous and subverts the fact that this is really
an instruction for those who thought of flower (which is
everyone).

117
 Chapter Five: The Chair Test

118
 Monkey Chair Utilities

Chair tests are cool. Maybe not Ryan Gosling driving a getaway
car cool – more like fez and bowtie cool, which, by magic’s usual
standards is pretty good!

Chair tests (apparently created by Danish mentalist Aage Darling

in the 1940s) seemed like a good candidate for the monkey
treatment, but as it turned out, this routine was a bear to figure
out. I just couldn’t find the words to make it work. I returned to
the problem a number of times over a number of months.
Meanwhile, my friend Allen Gittelson told me he’d also been
wrestling with a 100th Monkey chair test (inspired chiefly by

119
Michael Weber’s “Landing Pad”) but he hadn’t been able to
crack it. We talked about it over the phone several times and it
was after one of these calls that the right phrasing came to me.

There are two monkey-specific methods in this that I’m going to

outline before I share my full routine – many of you might find
one or both useful additions to your chair test. These are easy to
mix and match with other methods.

The Monkey Gimmicks

The first is a card that is printed on an envelope. You offer each

spectator a choice of envelope and the envelopes themselves
force the chair. From a distance, the words seem to read “SIT
IN ANY CHAIR”. But close up, they each say a different thing:
‘SIT IN 1ST CHAIR” “SIT IN 2ND” “3RD” “or 4TH” chair.
The best morph of these cards is ANY and 4TH so have that one
on the face and show the others a little more quickly.

The second is a technique which when combined with a nail-

writer, forces the envelope itself in a very clean way. Using a
nail-writer is one of the best ways to cleanly force items for a
chair test, but the one problem with this is to do this
convincingly, you need to show the items marked beforehand
then switch them out. This makes that switch unnecessary.

On top of each envelope it reads from a distance, “Envelope 1”

on the first, “Envelope 2” on the second, then “Envelope 3” and
“Envelope 4.” This can be very clearly shown to the audience
and no one will doubt they are marked. But close up, they all
read the same thing: “Freechoice”, which, as you state in the
beginning, is the theme of the piece so will not arouse any

120
suspicion from the people on stage. When you are performing,
you show the faces of the envelopes to the audience but not the
people on stage. When you ask them to choose envelope 1, 2, 3, or
4, you face them toward yourself so neither audience nor on-
stage spectators can see their faces. When someone calls for a
letter, you nail-write it in the upper corner of the envelope you
want them to have then hand it to them, facing toward them so
they can see it but the audience can’t. They will see the nail-
written letter clearly, and no other indication that it could have
been otherwise marked.

There are versions where the previous two techniques are

combined on one card.

There is also a tag I use for forcing bags (also handy for other
stuff). These show a # close up but are numbered 1 through 4
from a distance. You use them the same way you would the
envelopes.

Now on to my own chair test routine, which uses the two

methods above and some unusual thinking…

121
 The Monkey Sits

I published a chair test in The Book of Monkeys but returning to

the premise more recently, I decided to look at a number of chair
tests to really clarify in my mind what I thought made a great
chair test. This routine is the result of that work and is quite
different from my original version.

122
The Full Routine
I had several goals with this chair test. The first was to offer the
choices quickly, clearly and with absolutely no restrictions on the
spectators’ choices. I didn’t want any odd and vague handlings
that suggest the performer might just be doing different things
depending on the spectator’s choices.

The Chair Test is one of the most visual of all mentalist effects
and I wanted to really push that element, to create a series of
cool visual tableaux, each a little more spectacular than the last.

Another thing I wanted was good sightlines while not sacrificing

drama. The image and sound of the performer quickly snapping
shut folding chairs to reveal a colored card on the underside of
each which matches those the spectators are holding is one of
the most dramatic moments in the mentalist canon, but the big
problem is that the revelation happens very low on the stage so
many people in the average audience will miss it. The handling
in this tries to replicate the sound and speed of the snapping-shut
revelation but does so much higher. It requires a little more
preparation, but you can always forgo this touch to use an earlier
handling.

I didn’t want to get bogged down with choices – I figured three

was optimum. And I wanted the choices to be a little off-beat
and intriguing. No playing cards.

I wanted to somehow connect the choices – even if it didn’t have

an overarching thematic unity, it should at least have “local logic”
– an idea I think of when watching certain movies like, Howard
Hawks’ The Big Sleep, where if someone asked you to describe the
convoluted story, you’d end up sounding like an idiot (Hawks

123
apparently had to phone the novel’s author Raymond Chandler
to ask who did one of the murders, and Chandler got it wrong,
naming someone who was somewhere else at the time). But you
never feel lost watching the movie because each incident flows so
logically into the next.

Finally, I wanted a finish where the revelations built to a strong

climax and a true kicker instead of just another phase.

This is my solution. It makes me happy.

Effect:
Four chairs are displayed on stage. There is a black balloon tied
to a thin dowel rising several feet above the chair (or it could be a
helium balloon tied by a string to each chair). The performer
invites four spectators up on stage (or the people are selected
randomly). He explains: “This is an experiment in free choice: I
have four envelopes, marked Envelope 1, 2, 3 and 4.” Each is
printed with the words Envelope 1, 2, 3 or 4 above and also has
the words “Sit on any chair” printed across them. “I have four
small cloth bags, each attached by a string to a tag marked 1, 2, 3
or 4 and I have four chairs attached to four balloons, the first,
second third and fourth. Let the choices begin! First, the
envelopes: would you like 1, 2, 3 or 4?”

Each spectator chooses an envelope and is instructed to hold it

in front of him so he can read it. The performer says to the last
person, “Since you didn’t get a choice of envelope, you get first
choice of bags: number 1, 2, 3 or 4?” Once he picks a bag, the
performer has him take a seat, then offers the other three
spectators a bag and a seat.

124
They are then asked to confirm that they had a free choice in all
this. They are asked to open the envelope – each removes a
brightly colored plastic plate or tray and holds it up high: the first
is Red, the second Blue, the third Yellow and the last is Green.
The performer picks up a pin and one-by-one pops the four
balloons attached to the chairs – inside each is another balloon,
each a different color that happens to match the paper the
spectator is holding: red, blue, yellow and green!

The performer silences the crowd then instructs the four

spectators to put the trays on their lap, put the bag on the tray
and carefully open it. They are asked to describe what they find
in it. The first bag is full of flour, the second is full of little multi-
colored beads, the third has a small stuffed pug (in the video I
used feathers) and fourth has confetti. “I want everyone to keep
this in mind – flour, beads, a pug and confetti. Could you please
dump the flour, beads, pug and confetti onto the tray. Is there
anything else in the bag?”

They do and there is: a rolled up piece of paper. One-by-one

they unroll them and read what is written inside each one: “a
woman will choose the bag of flour”, “a man with glasses will
choose the bag of beads”, “a woman in a black dress will choose
the bag with the pug” and “A man named Keith will choose the
bag of confetti.” Each one is a perfect match!

The performer silences the applauding audience again and says,

“But one more thing: remember flour, beads, a pug and
confetti?” He shakes the balloon above the woman who picked
the bag of flour. “There’s something inside. He pops the
balloon – “Flour!” A puff of flour billows out of the balloon and
down onto the floor! He pops the second – “Beads!” Tiny
colored beads fall out of the balloon and bounce over the stage.

125
He pops the third balloon – “A pug!” He pops the balloon
revealing a foil pug balloon! And he pops the last balloon –
“Confetti!” Brightly colored confetti flutters down to the floor.
The performer takes his bow.

Method:

The Balloons:
Helium balloons on a string are prettier, but a thin dowel holding
up air-filled balloons is more convenient and allows you to put
more stuff into the inner balloon for the finale. You can get a
portable helium balloon tank (you can get a small, 5 pound one
for about $20 and it’ll be good for 6 or 7 shows – many larger
and more economical tanks are available). You’ll also need some
black, red, blue, yellow and green balloons. You don’t need a
small stuffed pug and a pug balloon (any old shape will do), but
they’re out there and they’re damned cute. You also need some
flour, little colored beads and confetti, (or similar stuff). I like
the order used here – shaking the one with the flour (to show
there is something inside) ensures the flour cakes itself on the
interior of the balloon to help create a bigger cloudier puff that
will linger in the air during this phase (careful not to pop it over
someone wearing black). The beads makes a nice noisy contrast
(smaller beads are safer on the ground), the pug is a nice comic
contrast then the falling confetti really helps sell the triumphant
finale (glitter confetti is my favorite). Giving the balloons a bit of
quick drop then lift at the moment you pop it sends the contents
a little higher and wider.

Oh, and you’ll probably need a broom.

126
First you need to put the flour, beads and confetti into the
appropriate balloons. A funnel will help with this – don’t fill too
much if you’re using helium.

Then you have to blow up one balloon inside of another. If you

internet search “how to blow up one balloon inside of another”
you’ll get a bunch of video tutorials which will explain this much
more clearly than I can in print. Basically, you’ll shove a colored
balloon inside a black one, blow them both up together, tie off
the inner (colored) balloon, blow up the outer (black) balloon a
bit more, then tie that off (you have to do this an additional time
if you’re going to go with the pug or similar shaped balloon).

When the prep is complete, tie each balloon to a string (or thin
dowel) tied (or taped) to the back of a chair. When you pop
them at the end, just make sure you pop from the top and don’t
shove the pin in far enough to burst the second balloon.

As I mentioned before, it’s not necessary to go to this trouble if

the sight-line issue does not concern you – just put colored cards
under the base of the chair. But the sight-lines are not the only
consideration – the finale creates a very pretty stage picture.

The Envelopes.
The envelopes are forced and they also force the chairs the
spectator sits in. In both cases the force is super clean and fair.
This is a little complicated to explain because there are two
phrases written on each envelope, and they kind of work in
opposite ways: close up the first phrase is identical on each card
and the second is different, but from a distance, the first is

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different and the second identical. This double direction 100th
Monkey (along with a nail-writer) allows you to force the choice
of both envelope and chair. Crazy, I know, but true.

Let’s break this down into two parts (mentioned before). On top
of each envelope it reads from a distance, “Envelope 1” on the
first, “Envelope 2” on the second, then “Envelope 3” and
“Envelope 4.” This can be very clearly shown to the audience
and no one will doubt they are marked. But close up, they all
read the same thing: “Envelope #”, which, as you state in the
beginning, is the theme of the piece so will not arouse any
suspicion from the people on stage. When you are performing,
you show the faces of the envelopes to the audience but not the
people on stage, then you put them face down to show the bags.
When you pick up the envelopes again, you face them toward
yourself so neither audience nor on-stage spectators can see their
faces. When someone calls for a letter, you nail-write it in an
upper corner then hand it to them, facing toward them so they
can see it but the audience can’t. They will see the nail-written
letter clearly, and no other indication that it could have been
otherwise marked.

Now let’s turn to the words below (also mentioned earlier).

From a distance, the words seem to read “SIT IN ANY
CHAIR”. But close up, they each say a different thing: ‘SIT IN
1ST CHAIR” “SIT IN 2ND” “3RD” “or 4TH” chair. The best
morph of these cards is ANY and 4TH so have that one on the
face and show the others a little more quickly.

For the envelopes themselves, I’d suggest 9 X 12 inch (228.6 X

330.2 mm) or larger manila envelopes – you can print the
monkey words on them directly or print them on labels or piece
of paper you gluestick to the envelopes.

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We expect pieces of paper to come out of the envelopes so the
trays are a fun twist and they build up an expectation – why a
tray? – that leads directly into the next phase, the emptying of the
bags onto the tray. You can find colored trays on the internet,
like the ones below which are $12:

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?pro
ductItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C898%2C055&ASS
ORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=150
4453559814

There are other cool options here, like getting four packs of
plastic colored plates or platters from a dollar store (not as large,
but the lower edges makes for easier handling). Or for a bit of
fun, you could have four brightly colored disposable rain
ponchos:

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/371753065012?chn=ps&dispIte
m=1 These are a dollar each. Take them out of the plastic wrap
then put them in the envelope. Now have the spectators each
put on a poncho. Now when you pop the second set of
balloons, you can let the flour, beads and confetti rain down
upon them in a comic deluge.

The Bags.

Just small paper or cloth drawstring bags – they’re often used as

wedding loot bags – 3 inches by 4, or 4 inches by 6 are common
– but any size that’s large enough to hold a rolled up message
that can be read at a distance. The bags create a bit of intrigue –
each attached to a bit of string and a paper tag. In the
performance Steve uses monkey tags that are numbered from a
distance and all read # close up. Here’s another option: the tags
are blank – you will effectively force the bags by writing their
choice of number on the tag with a nail-writer. This is a super
clean and fair force. There is a bit of dual reality here – when

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you count the tags, you hold them up so audience sees one side
and spectators the other: both see a blank side but each assumes
the other group sees the numbers.

Part of me wants to do the production of a live pug from the

balloon. Then there’s the wine bottle from a balloon production
– it could be a cool finish, but it veers way out of mentalism into
magic (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

The Specific Predictions.

Once the audience is seated before the show, you peek out at
them and pick some people who have some kind of distinctive
feature – it could be blonde hair, a beard, glasses, a red and white
striped tie, a Black Sabbath tee shirt – anything! If you are able
to find out anyone’s name before the show, even better – this is
your climax! Be sure to favor people who seem outgoing and
fun – you don’t want to reach out to them later and have them
refuse to come up on stage.

Write your four predictions on four rolls of paper. 3-1/8 width

thermal paper for cash registers is standard, cheap and fits nicely
into the drawstring bags – cut about a 2 to 3 foot length of this
paper and write your predictions with a large tip sharpie across its
length. Then re-roll up the paper and put a small elastic around
it to hold it in a tight little tube.

You have to remember where these four people are sitting:

marking them on a seating chart if the crowd is quite large.
During the show you will select them to help with the effect.

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Choosing spectators.

I’d just point to the four people you want to use but if you really
want to make it look like these four people were randomly
selected, there are ways to do this. With a smaller crowd,
consider a forcing bag: put blank billets in one part of the bag
and billets marked with something like “volunteer” or “Golden
Ticket” – then go out into the audience offering the marked
billets only to the four people you want to select.

For a larger crowd (and a bolder performer) you can do a kind of

“classic force” to select the audience member: have one person
in the crowd raise their hand or shout “Stop” as you pass your
arm over the crowd, making sure that one of your four pre-
selected volunteers is under your arm at the right moment. If
you’d like to do this, it’s not a bad idea to pre-select your four
people from different parts of the audience. Remember, you do
not have to choose them in any particular order. You should try
to select the people who match your most specific prediction
(usually a name) first so you have several chances to hit your
target. The medium specific predictions like “a woman in black”
or “a man with glasses” might apply to several people in the
audience. One prediction, “a woman” should be fairly vague so
that you have a ton of possible hits – it’s good to save this for
last if you can so that you can make the choice seem as fair as
possible at a moment when some might suspect a force.

Remember who and what goes where:

Obviously, you have to match the color of the trays inside the
envelope to the balloons attached to the corresponding chair and
the contents of the bag, with the contents of the inner balloon.
Sounds easy, but worth remembering so you don’t make a

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mistake in your set up. The simplest way to accomplish this is to
use the same set up each time: for example, red and flour in first
chair, blue and beads in the second, yellow and pug in the third
and green and confetti in the fourth.

That leaves the only performance-to-performance variable the

individual descriptions of the spectators which go on the rolled
up paper in the bags. To make it as easy as possible to remember
which envelope and which bag goes with which spectator, you
can mark the envelopes and tags with faint pencil. For example,
for the spectator you want to sit in the first chair (red balloon
and flour) if the person you want to sit here is a woman, write “a
woman will choose the bag of flour”, on the paper, put it in the
bag of flour, and then put a faint W (for woman) on both the
envelope with the red tray and on both sides of the tag of flour.
Similarly, “A man with glasses” could be marked with a G, “a
woman in a black dress” could be BD and “A man named
Keith” could be K. When you come to that person in line, you
can have your nail-writer positioned over the correct envelope or
tag, ready to write whatever he/she says the moment he/she says
it.

Performance:

The Performer invites four people on stage using a force bag, a

classic-force-style selection or just picking them.

As they come up, steal your thumb tip, pick up the bags with the
gimmick as described above, then pick up the envelopes, making
sure not to show their faces to the spectators on stage. (Really, if
it’s an option, you can walk out with everything set to go). It’s
best if they are in a row stage right so when you count off the
chairs as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, it will make sense both from the

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spectator’s point of view (from closest to farthest) and the
audience’s (from left to right).

“This is an experiment in free choice: I have four envelopes,

marked Envelope 1, 2, 3 and 4.” You step forward to show
these to the audience (but not the on-stage spectators), but do it
so clearly and fairly those on-stage can have no suspicions. Lay
them face down on a table and show the bags – this time
primarily to the on-stage spectators: “I have four small cloth
bags, each attached by a string to a tag marked 1, 2, 3 or 4.” Toss
the bags on the table next to the envelopes, palming the
gimmicked tags and slipping them into a pocket (or into a
servante). “I have four chairs attached to four balloons, the first,
second, third and fourth. Let the choices begin! First, the
envelopes: would you like 1, 2, 3, or 4?”

Pick up the envelopes, standing with your side to the audience

facing the row of spectators so no one but you can see the front
of the envelopes. When the first person selects a letter, nail-write
it on the envelope you want him to have and hand it to him, with
the front of the envelope facing him. Mention he is to “hold it
so he can read it” which does a couple things: it keeps him from
showing the audience the face (they might notice a handwritten
letter has appeared), and it gives them ample time to see which
chair they have to choose. Repeat with the other spectators.

The performer says to the last person, “Since you didn’t get a
choice of envelope, you get first choice of bags: number 1, 2, 3
or 4?” Again, nail-write their choice of number on the bag you
want them to choose and hand it to them.

At this point you direct them to their seat. You can simply ask
them to “take a seat” and trust they will follow the instructions

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on the envelope and go to the proper seat. But it wouldn’t hurt
to spell things out a bit with a touch of dual reality here.
Something like this: “Now we turn to the chairs, the first,
second, third and forth. Did you know what bag number you
were going to choose?” If they say no say, “But I bet you know
what you’re going to sit in.” And as you say this, point to the “Sit
in the 1st (or whatever) written on his envelope, but point in a
way that the larger audience can’t see.” “Yes.” “Please take your
seat.” If he says he did know what number he was going to pick,
say, “And I bet you also know which chair you’re going to pick –
please take it now.”

With the other spectators you can use a quicker variation script.
“Take your seat” can morph into “Take a seat” with each
repetition.

At this point, the trickery is done. You just present your tuchus
off and everything will come out fine.

They are then asked to confirm that they had a free choice in all
this. They are asked to open the envelope – each removes a
brightly colored plastic tray and holds it up high: the first is Red,
the second Blue, the third Yellow and the last is Green. The
performer picks up a pin and one-by-one pops the four balloons
attached to the chairs – inside each is another balloon, each a
different color that happens to match the paper the spectator is
holding: red, blue, yellow and green!

The performer silences the crowd – this is classic Dunninger.

From the on-stage spectator’s point of view he hasn’t done an
effect yet since they were directed to that chair and it’s no big
thing the tray and balloons match, but from the audience’s point

135
of view, he’s quieting them to get to the bigger revelation which
is about to come.

He instructs the four spectators to drop the envelopes, put the

trays on their lap, put the bag on the tray and carefully open it.
They are asked to describe what they find in it. The first bag is
full of flour, the second is full of little multi-colored beads, the
third has a small stuffed pug and fourth has confetti. “I want
everyone to keep this in mind – flour, beads, a pug and confetti.
Could you please dump the flour, beads, pug and confetti onto
the tray. Is there anything else in the bag?”

They do and there is: a rolled up piece of paper. One-by-one

they unroll them and read what is written inside each one: “a
woman will choose the bag of flour”, “a man with glasses will
choose the bag of beads”, “a woman in a black dress will choose
the bag with the pug” and “A man named Keith will choose the
bag of confetti.” Each one is a perfect match!

The performer silences the applauding audience again and says,

“But one more thing: remember flour, beads, a pug and
confetti?” He shakes the balloon above the woman who picked
the bag of flour. “There’s something inside. He pops the
balloon – “Flour!” A puff of flour billows out of the balloon and
down onto the flour! He pops the second – “Beads!” Tiny
colored beads fall out of the balloon and bounce over the stage.
He pops the third balloon – “A pug!” He pops the balloon
revealing a foil pug balloon! And he pops the last balloon –
“Confetti!” Brightly colored confetti flutters down to the floor.
The performer takes his bow.

136
Notes:

In my original Chair Test routine in The Book of Monkeys I

used another method for the specific prediction: "The Totally
Isolated Prediction" (in which a prediction is in a balloon) from
the late Barrie Richardson’s Theater Of The Mind. Though
Barrie did give me permission to publish his method in The
Book of Monkeys, I don’t feel right about including it here,
especially since it is no longer integral to the routine. But for
pros who have the use of backstage assistants (and likely know
Barrie’s routine anyway), this might offer some interesting
possibilities.

137
 Chapter Six: Memory Erasure

138
Are memory erasure effects considered classics yet? Probably
not, but they are to me some of the most interesting and original
mentalism of the last decade. So much of mentalism is going
into another’s mind to read what’s there – more recently,
mentalists like Derren Brown tweaked that premise into the plot
where they put that thought there – it’s not much more of a
tweak to suggest that the mentalist giveth and the mentalist can
taketh away: they can erase a memory as well as implant one.
Patrick Redford and Peter Turner have done some great work on
this plot and much of it can be combined with the effects here.

To my mind, memory erasure effects are a smaller and more

logical stretch of the mentalist’s powers than metal bending. Not
only that, they seem more of a piece with the popular culture
zeitgeist: there are popular films and TV show that deal with
stealing memories (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Agents of Shield, etc…) while the popular cultural footprint of
metal bending is pretty much limited to The Matrix.

139
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer

140
remember the word correctly, as her friends and the photo on
her phone prove.

Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up words are
“Down Pillow” and the faraway words are “Don’t Forget”. The
idea here is to match the “Don’t Forget” instruction with a
phrase that might logically arise during a hypnotic induction.

Script:

Invite a spectator on stage, or, in a close up situation, ask one

person to step five or six feet away from the crowd (because
you’ll be doing a mild hypnotic induction and you don’t want the
others to hear it.)

“We’re going to play a little memory game. All you have to do is

remember two words for one minute but you have to do it
without writing them down or saying them out loud. Think you
can do that?”

Assuming the person says yes, you take out the card – they will
see “Down Pillow”. Everyone else will see “Don’t Forget”.

“Remember, don’t write it down and don’t say it out loud –

anyone. Have the words? You can remember them? You can
take out a phone please so we can record this moment so there’s
no doubt about what happened.”

141
You borrow a phone and snap her picture holding the card.
Don’t frame too tight or they could zoom in on the picture and
see it change later – but if you frame a bit wide (waist up works
well) no matter how much they zoom in they’ll always see the
faraway word. (Try some experiments and check out the section
on Close up handling in the introduction.) Alternatively, you can
have someone film the whole scene if you ask them to stay back
“keeping us in a two-shot.”

Now put away the gimmicked card in the same pocket where you
have a normal card to switch in later.

“You and I are going to be playing this game – you will try to
remember the two words and I’ll try to change your memory.
But you have to do what I say. First, stand with your feet
shoulder width apart and breathe in deep and exhale. And
breathe in and exhale. And as you breathe in and out, allow your
eyes to slowly close and feel peaceful and relaxed, so calm and
relaxed. That’s right, allow your eyes to close. Imagine you’re
falling asleep, falling asleep in a big comfortable bed, with your
head resting on a big soft down pillow. Feel your head sink deep
into that soft down pillow, resting peacefully, oh so relaxed. And
as your head rests on that down pillow, your thoughts and cares
drift downward into the pillow – feel your thoughts and care drift
downward into the pillow and the only thing that’s left is the
pillow and you are left peaceful and content. Now you can
slowly wake up, energized and refreshed. Wake up now. Good.
How do you feel?”

They should feel pretty good.

142
“And can you remember the two words I asked you to?”

They remember “Down Pillow”.

143
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone

144
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer
remember the word correctly, as her friends and the photo on
her phone prove.

Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up word is
“Memory” and the faraway word is “Nothing”.

Script:

Invite a spectator on stage, or, in a close up situation, ask one

person to step five or six feet away from the crowd because
you’ll be doing a mild hypnotic induction and you don’t want the
others to hear it.

145
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer
remember the word correctly, as her friends and the photo on
her phone prove.

146
Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up word is
“Unrecoverable” and the faraway word is “Unforgettable”.

Script:

Invite a spectator on stage, or, in a close up situation, ask one

person to step five or six feet away from the crowd because
you’ll be doing a mild hypnotic induction and you don’t want the
others to hear it.

147
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer
remember the word correctly, as her friends and the photo on
her phone prove.

148
Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up word is
“Enchanting” and the faraway word is “Forgotten”.

Script:
Invite a spectator on stage, or, in a close up situation, ask one
person to step five or six feet away from the crowd because
you’ll be doing a mild hypnotic induction and you don’t want the
others to hear it.

149
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer
remember the word correctly as her friends and the photo on her
phone prove.

150
Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up word is
“Replaced” and the faraway word is “Remember”.

Script:
Invite a spectator on stage, or, in a close up situation, ask one
person to step five or six feet away from the crowd because
you’ll be doing a mild hypnotic induction and you don’t want the
others to hear it.

151
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun!

Effect:

The performer shows the spectator some words written on a

card and asks her to remember them. He borrows her phone
and takes a photo of her holding the card. Then he gives a short
hypnotic induction and at the end of it, she can no longer
remember the word correctly, as her friends and the photo on
her phone prove.

152
Method:

I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines but I’ll

start with this one, which is quite nice. The close up word is…

Um…

Okay, I’m starting to freak out.

153
 I Don’t Remember, I Don’t Recall

This is fun! But not as much fun as before. You know, the
problem with recursive meta-jokes like this one is they’re hard to
get out of. So let’s just do it.

Effect:

You know the effect.

154
Method:

Yes, I have a lot of variations on wording for these routines – in

case you skipped through the last effects (and why wouldn’t
you?) I’ll reprint them here:

Memory/Nothing
Unforgettable/Unrecoverable
Enchanting/Forgotten
Remember/Replaced

This effect was performed on Fool Us by Riccardo Berdini.

Penn did a shout out to the 100th Monkey which made me happy.

In each case there’s a chance for some ironic moments in the

presentation, as when Riccardo held up the card that seemed to
say Remember for Alyson Hannigan on Fool Us while saying
“Remember, remember…” Of course she didn’t.

With each of these, the card gives the start and end point, but the
magician must decide what magic gets us from point A to point
B. Hypnosis is a good modus operandi. On Fool Us we used
the power of enchantment provided by music (I’d written a one-
man show on the topic).

155
Check out the first version of this effect (Down Pillow) for a full
hypnotic scripting. Here’s a short version:

Short Script:

“Do you ever play memory games? Well, we’re going to play a
different kind of memory game – you try to remember a word
for one minute, and I’ll try to make you forget. But there are two
rules: 1) you can’t write it down and 2) you can’t say it out loud.
Agreed? But if you like, we can film this on your cell phone.
Here’s the word you have to remember for one minute. (To
others): I ask that you agree to the rules too: don’t write it down
or say it out loud. Even if I say it, you can’t – okay?”

You borrow a phone and either film the scene or snap her
picture holding the card. Don’t frame too tight or they could
zoom in on the picture and see it change later – but if you frame
a bit wide (waist up works well) no matter how much they zoom
in they’ll always see the faraway word. (Try some experiments
and check out the section on Close up handling in the
introduction.) Alternatively, you can have someone film the
whole scene if you ask them to stay back “keeping us in a two-
shot.”

Let’s say you are using the Memory/Nothing card.

“Good. Here’s the card with a word on it. Do your best to lock
it into your memory. Make that memory solid and strong like a
stone. Got it? Please hand me back the card.”

156
You take back the card and put it in a pocket where you can
switch it for an ungimmicked card later.

“Now think of that memory. Imagine it’s a stone – visualize it.”

Hold your index finger and thumb close in front of them as if

holding something about an inch big. Then slowly bring your
finger and thumb together.”

“Now imagine that memory, that stone, getting smaller and

smaller. Imagine it the size of a pebble. Now it’s the size of a
grain of sand. Now it’s nothing, nothing at all.”

Snap your fingers in front of them.

“What were you remembering?”

“Nothing.”

“No, the word I asked you to remember.”

“Nothing.”

“I’m sorry no it wasn’t. Show her the video.”

157
Notes:

Another fun way to begin is with “Are you sure your memories
are safe? Let’s find out…”

158
 M(on) K(ey) Ultra

“Project MKUltra, also called the CIA's mind control program, is

the code name given to a program of experiments on human
subjects, at times illegal, designed and undertaken by the United
States Central Intelligence Agency. Experiments on humans were
intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be
used in interrogations and torture, in order to weaken the
individual to force confessions through mind control.

159
“The operation began in the early 1950s, and officially halted in
1973. The program engaged in many illegal activities, including
the use of unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test
subjects. MKUltra used numerous methodologies to alter brain
functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs
(especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory
deprivation, isolation and verbal abuse, as well as other forms of
psychological torture.

“[In 1953] the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to

renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on
misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. Mulholland's
contributions were part of a larger CIA effort, called MK-
ULTRA, to control people's minds.

“One of the main conspiracy theories about the assignation of

Robert Kennedy relates to a Manchurian candidate hypothesis,
that Sirhan was psychologically programmed by persons
unknown to commit the murder, that he was not aware of his
actions at the time, and that his mind was "wiped" in the
aftermath by the conspirators so he would have no memory of
the event nor of the persons who "programmed" him. This
theory was supported by psychologist and hypnosis expert Dr.
Eduard Simson-Kallas after 35 hours of work with Sirhan in San
Quentin prison in 1969 after his conviction. Sirhan claimed then,
and has continued to claim since, to have no memory of the
assassination or its aftermath.”
(Sources: Wikipedia and Wired).

A question that’s not often addressed in memory loss effects is

“Why are you changing their memories?” Up to this point the
answer is pretty much, “Because I can.” The next effects show
how this ability might have some purpose or meaning behind it.

160
Effect:

The performer shows how easy it is to hypnotize a subject to do

his will and to erase the memory of doing so once it’s happened.

Script:

“One of the greatest tricks we magicians ever pulled off, was to

appear harmless. We do card tricks and pull bunnies out of hats.
Who said murder? Nobody. What? One of the more intriguing
incidents in magic history took place in the early 50s, when the
CIA hired magician John Mulholland to help them especially
with their program known as MKUltra, which specialized in
mind control. The idea is that with a combination of drugs,
deceit and covert hypnotism, one might create the perfect
assassin: one who had no idea he was going to assassinate
someone beforehand and had no memory of doing it
afterwards.”

You get someone up from the audience (this can be done close
up as well). You shake hands, then scoop up his hand close in
front of his face and tap the palm, back of his hand and forehead
three times each, saying…

“You’re not hypnotized, it’s okay, you’re not hypnotized, don’t

even worry about it.”

You release their hand, smile innocently and speak without giving
him a chance to answer.

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“How you feeling? Relaxed? But not too relaxed, right? Good!”

You reach into your pocket and remove a card.

“I like you. I like you so much I’m going give you a free summer
holiday. There are four items on the itinerary: would you please
read it for us?”

“Summer Holiday:
1) Locate tavern
2) Partaay!
3) Partaay all vacation!
4) Return.”

“How’s that sound? Good? Will you agree? Great! Would you
take out your phone for me please so we just get a photo of you
holding the itinerary just in case. Grand jury? I didn’t mention
grand jury. What? Hold up the itinerary so everyone can see.
Say cheese!”

The audience sees the card actually says:

Secret Mission:
1) Locate target.
2) Execute!
3) Execute all witnesses!
4) Escape.

162
Take a picture. Then take the card back.

“Well, wasn’t that fun! It was really good to meet you.”

Shake his hand, then scoop up his hand close in front of his face
and tap the palm, back of his hand and forehead three times
each, saying…

“You’re still not hypnotized, it’s okay, you never were, don’t even
worry about it.”

You release their hand, smile and speak without giving him a
chance to answer.

“How was the vacation? Good? Do you remember your

itinerary?”

He remembers it as best as he can.

“Are you sure? Do you want to take a look at the photo to make
sure?”

The audience sees his reaction as he realizes it says something

very different. (Taking back the camera is a good excuse to free
your hands by putting the card in your pocket – then taking out a
duplicate while the spectator is looking at the photo.

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 The Puppeteer

A story in Hundredth Monkey form.

164
Another exploration of why someone might want to remove a
memory.

Invite someone with a cell phone to come up on stage. Borrow their phone.

We all know that some things in our lives are within our control
and others are not, but what’s up here, in our minds, that’s our
space isn’t it? Someone else couldn’t go in there and change
things, could they?

Let’s play a little game. Please relax and concentrate on my

voice. Don’t do anything, don’t say anything. Breathe in.
Breathe out. Keep breathing slowly, deeply. I’m going to show
you something. A word. Your job is to remember it for one
minute. That’s all. I want everyone to remember it, but no one
to say it out loud, okay? Here is the word.

He holds up a card that says Puppeteer. The performer hands it to the

subject and uses his cell phone to snap a picture of the subject holding the
photo. He takes back the photo and puts in on the table, face down.

Thank you. Now all you have to do is remember that word for
one minute while I tell you a little story. Keep breathing deep
breaths. Ready?

Once there was a very great puppeteer. His puppets were

incredibly life-like in movement and gesture, with a lifelike
twinkle in their eyes. People would ask the puppeteer his secret
and he would answer, ‘the puppets must believe they are alive.”
And they did. The puppets believed these little plays were their
lives and they were in control of their lives.

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(Alternate text: Once there was a very great puppeteer. His
puppets were so incredibly life-like in movement and gesture,
with such a lifelike twinkle in their eyes, that people thought the
puppets were really alive. The illusion was so convincing that
even the puppets began to believe they were alive, these plays
were their lives and they were in control of their lives.)

But one day, one of the puppets did something he had never
done before – he looked up. And he saw the puppeteer. And he
saw the strings and the strings were controlling him. And he
realized he was not alive and he was not in control. It made him
very sad. The stories in the puppet plays seemed pointless to
him now and he would droop and drag his way through,
miserable.

The puppeteer could see this. And he knew the only way to
make the puppet happy again was to take away the puppet’s
memory of seeing the puppeteer. And so he plucked on the
strings, in a certain way, the vibrations traveled down the string
to the puppet and in a moment, the puppet straightened up. He
was happy. The incident was forgotten, all memory of the
puppeteer was forgotten.

The performer picks up the card with the word on it, crumples it and tosses
back on the table.

Can you please tell me the word on the card?

Forgotten.

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Are you sure that’s the word you saw in the beginning on the
card you held in your hand? People please tell him what word
was on the card.

Puppeteer.

It’s true. Please a take look at the photo of you holding the card,
and take a look at the piece of paper.

167
 The Anxious Monkey

Effect:

You bring out a card that has five words printed on it:
Troubled, Scared, Anxious, Dread and Worries. You ask
someone to remember as many of these words as they can
without writing them down or saying them out loud. It doesn’t
matter how many they get right.

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You borrow a phone or have someone in the group film you
taking the card from the subject, holding it up for the camera as
you say this (emphasizing the words that are printed on the
card)…

“We live troubled lives.

We spend our days scared and anxious.
We are full of dread because
The world is filled with worries.
Or is it?
Close your eyes and breathe deep.
If we clear our minds,
We can change our perception and live as we choose to live.
We can live tranquil lives
Spend our days serene and relaxed,
Full of peace because
The world is filled with wonders.

He repeats those last four lines…

We can live tranquil lives

Spend our days serene and relaxed,
Full of peace because
The world is filled with wonders.

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He asks the person to open their eyes and try to remember the
words written on the card: she remembers the words tranquil,
serene, relaxed, peace and wonders. If she has trouble
remembering any of the words, you can prompt her helpfully.
Ask if those were the words she saw on the card, or the words
she just heard you say. “Well, let’s find out.” When the video is
played back she sees that is not at all what she was shown.

Notes:

This effect brings us back to one of my favorite themes – the

magician as modern shaman helping people with their day-to-day
problems (a theme I’ve explored with Unhypnotized, All Tied
Up and several other effects). Method-wise obviously, the five
words on the card morph between negative and positive words:

Troubled/Tranquil

Scared/Serene

Anxious/Relaxed

Dread/Peace

Worries/Wonders

It’s a lovely little effect – take the time to learn the script and you
will have something that can really move people.

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I’ll include an extra card that is simpler: from Panic to Peace. I
think this has many personal and powerful applications and since
it just occurred to me as this release is going out the door, I will
have to leave it to you to develop it.

171
 Chapter 6 ½

172
 Get Monkey and Make Money

Wasn’t that last effect lovely? Let’s linger on that feeling for a
moment…

Okay, moment’s over. Time to commercialize it.

Effect:

A Customer Survey form with a bunch of negative words turns

into a bunch of positive words.

While this is a variation of The Anxious Monkey, it’s not really a

memory effect, hence the separate chapter.

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I’ve made this card reversible so sometimes the positive words
are close up and sometimes they are far away to give flexibility in
presentation.

This can be framed in a variety of ways:

How a small change in how a customer is dealt with can change a

terrible experience to a great one.

How if you’re not really listening to your customers, you can see
problems and think everything is fine. In this version, the
audience sees these terrible comments but the person on stage
thinks they’re great – which leads to some good comedy. (I
scripted this one below).

How you may see only problems but if you come together you
can find the opportunities that lie behind them. This would
work nicely as a close up effect, where several people on a team
see negative words and then you take a picture of them all
holding the card together and they see them become positive in
the picture on the phone.

How your consulting company can magically change negative

feedback into positive feedback in a way that seems like magic –
you wave your hand over their phone and voila!

I’m sure there are many more that you might be able to fit into
the kind of pitch you already do. On the instructional video, Joe
Skilton provides a very different scripting with cards where the
words are switched (close up and far away – included).

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Here’s one example…

Scripting:

“Most businesses say they listen to their consumers, but we know

that’s not always true. Sometimes people in business can be torn
between two ideals: the customer is always right – and the boss is
always right. Put out the best product you can, and be absolutely
loyal to your company, right or wrong. Can I get someone up
here for an experiment in business perception…”

Someone comes up. The Performer faces the person toward the
audience and then addresses them…

“I am going to attempt an experiment – for this to work, please

don’t say anything out loud. But you can film this on your
phones if you like.”

The Performer turns toward the volunteer.

“I am going to hypnotize you into believing you are a middle

manager. Are you a middle manager?”

If yes, “well this should be easy.” If no, “well I’ve got my work
cut out for me.”

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“And not just any middle manager, but a complete toe-the-line,
our product is the best, the boss is always right and please just
get me to five o’clock in one piece middle manager.”

The performer snaps their fingers.

“It is so.”

The Performer takes out a card behind the spectator’s back and
shows it to the audience.

“Imagine this is a customer survey card. It’s um, well…”

The Performer grimaces (again behind the on-stage volunteer’s

back). The card says “Customer Survey”. Under that, are four
words, the first reads: “Disgusting”.

“The top row of this card: what does it say?”

“Customer survey.”

“And what is the first word on the customer survey of your

product say?”

“Delightful.”

“Delightful?”

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“Yes.”

The Performer does a second take. The audience clearly sees

“Disgusting”.

“Are you sure you’re not letting your natural affinity for your
company, your co-workers and your boss color your judgment
slightly? Tell me one more time what it says?”

“Delightful.”

“Okay, the second comment, what does that say?”

It says “Pathetic.”

“Powerful.”

“Wow, they must really like your product! What’s the third word
say?”

It says Dreadful.

“Dazzling!”

“That’s great! You’re probably not going to change a thing with

this product are you?”

177
“Why would I?”

“Exactly! Would you please read the last two comments?”

They say Repulsive and Worthless.

“Ravishing and Wonderful!”

“Well good on you! (To someone who is filming this): May I

borrow your phone to show him what you saw? Thanks!”

The performer tucks the card in a pocket (for switching) and

borrows the phone.

“First let’s remove the trance. (snaps fingers). Now let’s freeze
the video and zoom in. Take a look at the card you were
holding.”

While they take a look at the photo you remove the normal dupe.
If he doesn’t believe it, you ask the others what they saw.

End with some insightful comments about how businesses need

to always listen to their customers and maybe quote a couple of
the hot business books.

178
Here are the words:

Disgusting
Delightful

Pathetic
Powerful

Dreadful
Dazzling

Repulsive
Ravishing

Worthless
Wonderful

179
 Chapter Seven:
Monkey with a Book

180
False Instructions with Book Tests

181
When we last saw false instructions, they were messing with
people’s perception of monkey posters. We rejoin them now,
where they are messing with people’s perception of book tests!

Two of the most popular types of book tests are those where you
ask a spectator to choose any long interesting word on any page
(the UF Grant long word principle) and when you ask them to
choose the first word on any page (the UF Grant first word
principle. Okay, I couldn’t blow that one past you could I?).

Let’s say you offer one or several people a choice of one or

several books. As they come up on stage, you could put a tent
card by the stack of books and it might say:

Choose any word you’d like on any page.

That sounds fair doesn’t it? Except that’s what the people in the
audience read. Your on-stage volunteers see:

Choose any word that’s long on any page.

And you’ve UF Granted them!

Perhaps you want to force the first word on any page. Well a
sign like this would help:

Choose the very first word on any page.

Especially if the rest of the audience perceived the sign as saying:

182
Choose any word you want on any page.

And you’ve UF Granted (or whoevered) them again!

We will rejoin false instructions once again before we must say

goodbye…

183
Spectator Reveal with Book Tests

I love book tests! And I love effects where someone from the
audience does the mind reading! So naturally I would eventually
try to think of ways to make a book test where a spectator reveals
a thought-of word. The 100th Monkey principle allows a word a
volunteer is looking at to visibly morph into another word. But

184
if you combine this idea with the limited range of options
provided by a word-forcing book test, then the results could be
really cool…

First, you need a way to force words. As it happens, I’ve put out
two book tests that do just that: Incandescence: The Love Poem
Book Test and The Tossed Out Book Test (both available only
at my website: www.magicaonline.com ). Now whether you
consider what follows a shameless act of cross-promotion or just
good follow-up customer service probably depends on whether
you already own one of these two effects. But before anyone
gets all caps lock on me, let me just say that you don’t have to
use my book tests to force these words – you can find other ways
of forcing them. But the book tests are very good ways to
achieve this end: both book tests are very well-reviewed (Richard
Osterlind said of TOBT, "Frankly, if this had been mine, I would
not have sold it, but kept it for myself."). Both are still in print
and one of them, Incandescence, costs a mere 45 bucks! And
since it’s all about love poetry, it fits perfectly into a romantic
routine where a man reads his partner’s mind.

If you don’t have these effects, you can always use these
gimmicks with another force method. I like Steve Valentine’s
Booked – and I often use it with my own pre-made pages. This
isn’t hard: just get some book-grade paper and format the page
so it matches the look of a normal book – now you can force any
word you choose to put as the first word on your chosen page.

185
The Wheel of Love (For use with Incandescence)

Effect: A couple is selected (in this example, a straight couple).

The performer talks about the power of love to create a kind of
psychic connection, such as when couples finish each other’s
sentences. He mentions that this connection is strengthened in a
heightened state of romance, something that can be helped with
love poetry. The woman is given a book of love poems – she
selects any poem and reads a few verses, then is asked to think of
a word in the poem.

The performer says, “We’re going to try an experiment with

mind reading, but I’m not going to be reading your mind – your
date will be trying to do it. I know it sounds impossible but I
think you can do it. Don’t worry – I’ll guide you through it and
to do that, I’m going to use this…” The performer pulls a card
from his pocket: it shows an old etching labeled Rotam Amoris.
“This is the wheel of love. It was used as a way to meditate on
your lover in times past. It has selections of Latin love poetry
around the outside. They said that if your lover was away you
could get a vision of him or her by spinning the wheel and
staring into the center. They claimed you could even sense what
your lover was thinking. Shall we try?”

The man spins the card and stares into it. When it stops, the
performer interprets the position and makes some observations
about what kind of word it is likely to be. In the end he picks up
the card and brings it closer to the man’s face asking him to
concentrate on the Latin word at the top of the wheel. Slowly
the word changes into an English word – it turns out to be the
very word his lover was thinking of!

186
Method and Comments:

Is it just me, or is this date-night walk-around gold? Let’s face it

– after this effect, this guy is getting lucky! You don’t think
that’ll be reflected in his tip? Damn right it will! But of course,
this is all about the art. I’ll leave out the scripting on love and
mind-reading that comes with Incandescence and just deal with
the man’s role here. I like to do a fair bit of research on a topic
when I’m using it in a presentation as I think I’ve shown with
The 100th Monkey. But this presentation is almost entirely made
up – it just struck me as a pretty story and I went with it.

The card is an etching of a Wheel of Fortune. Print it up on

some card stock and poke a little dent in the middle so it can
spin. There are two cards, each with three Latin words around
the outside of the wheel that morph into the six force words in
the first phase of Incandescence. When the man spins the card,
take a moment to note where it stops as if that is very significant
– take into account its position in relation to north, the man and
his date. If you have any cold reading skills you can put them to
work here. But while you do this you are also fishing for which
of the force words the woman is thinking of. When you have
that, find where that word is on the wheel and pick up the card
so that this word is uppermost when you hold it toward the man.
Ask him to stare at the word and bring it slowly toward him – it
will change into the word his date is thinking of! If you’re doing
this in a dim restaurant or bar even getting close won’t reveal the
word. In this case you’ll need a small pocket flashlight. Shine
the light on the world and steadily bring it closer to him.

Alternately, you can quickly move the light over the page so he
catches brief flashes of the word. If he goes all debunky on you,

187
give him a not-so-subtle hint like: “You’re not sure you felt the
mental connection?” Then turning to his date ask, “Did you feel
anything?” If she’s all logical too, great! Maybe they’ll come up
with a cure for cancer together. But if she’s touchy-feely and
goes on about love and energy, turn back to the guy with as near
a wink as you dare and ask, “You sure you didn’t feel the
connection with her?” As if to say, “Come on, dude! Look
around you! The white table cloth, the candles, the Sinatra
playing on the loudspeakers and this magic show – it’s all theater!
And you’re the star! And this is your big soliloquy! Don’t blow
it!” Admittedly, it’s a little difficult to convey all this with a
wink, but give it your best shot – I believe in you!

There are also two more cards with words for the final phase of
Incandescence: sensing details from a verse of romantic poetry.

Word Search Reveal for Tossed Out Book Test:

Five volunteers think of five freely-chosen words from five

classic books. The performer attempts to mind-read all five
words at once: he will say five words and asks if the volunteers
hear their word, to please sit down. He says the words – four
people sit. The performer turns to the last person standing and
says, “I knew you’d be trouble. I’m going to try something even
more difficult.”

You show another spectator a grid of letters (like for a word

search puzzle), ask them to glance at it and find the first word
they can see. While the audience can see no obvious words,
instantly the spectator sees a word and says it -- and it turns out
to be the same word the other spectator is thinking of!

188
Method:

Those who know The Tossed Out Book Test will know that
there are different possible outcomes – sometimes everyone sits
when you name the words and sometimes one or two remain
standing. This is designed to be used when one or two people
remain standing. It’s a nice little escalation which fits into the
pattern of failure and then facing an even bigger challenge. The
cards here are filled with unintelligible letters. There are six
different cards – one with each of the “unique” words from
TOBT hidden in the text and one without any hybrid imagery –
you will switch this for the gimmicked cards to hand out as a
souvenir for the volunteer. You print the gimmicked word
search cards and then one or two ungimmicked to switch out at
the end. Put them in five different pockets or in an index in a
pocket, wallet or clipboard. When you know which card you’ll
need,

I don’t usually do this, but there is so much to look at on the

cards and so little of it changes, you can slowly bring the card
closer to the subject and at some point he will suddenly see a
word! And it will be the one thought of by the other spectator!
In this moment and the raucous applause and ripping out of
theater seats that follows, you will have more than enough time
to ditch the index card on the face. If you’re holding the books
you can just thumb it off onto those. Or you can go to put it in
your pocket, insert it half way in, thumb off the gimmicked card,
then as an afterthought pull it out and offer it to your volunteer
as a souvenir.

Normally, with this kind of effect I’d go to a little extra trouble to

have the mind-reading volunteer selected by a process that

189
precludes stooges, but since this is a kicker effect and you really
don’t want to get bogged down in process here, I’d consider just
reselecting a spectator who’s been “pre-screened” by a fair
selection process earlier in the show.

190
 Chapter Eight:
Monkeys Take on the Classics

191
Monk Night

This is a last-minute addition to Pantheon and, as I’m racing

toward my deadline, these instructions will be brief. But I
figured that was better than not including it!

This uses the forcing envelopes I used in the Chair Test: each
appears from a distance to be numbered: Envelope 1, 2, 3, 4 and
5. You nail writer in the number you want to force next to the
number sign. There’s footage of Steve Valentine doing this in his
performance of The Chair Test.

The effect is the classic Bank Night – you invite 5 people on

stage, tell them you have five envelopes and one has a $100 bill
in it. They each get to choose the envelope any envelope they
like and yet, you end up with the money!

I wanted to change the scripting with the effect so it wouldn’t

seem like the members who chose the envelopes were losers. So
I do something similar to what I’ve done in The Chair Test –
each gets a personalized message.

You invite four people up on stage, then the scripting goes

something like this: “They say money doesn’t buy happiness. I
kind of agree with that – I’ve spent money to buy things that
have made me very happy, but other times I’ve bought things
that have only brought me aggravation. My rich friends don’t
seem particularly happier than my friends who are constantly
broke. Money itself is neutral.

192
“That said, I’m going to give you an opportunity to win some
money. If you win it, it may bring joy or aggravation and I hope I
can give you something more: I hope it brings you happiness.
But I hope I can give you something even better.

“Here are five envelopes labeled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. (Show them to

audience only). Each of you will get a chance to choose one of
these envelopes – any one you want. You, sir, which envelope
would you like: 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?”

You offer each of them an envelope, nail-writing the number

they choose on the envelope you want to force them. It’s a good
idea to ask them to hold them with the numbers facing them – it
seems fair to the audience – how could you have switched
numbers when they can clearly see them? But it also ensures they
don’t flash the envelopes to the audience which might reveal the
discrepancy.

When each person has an envelope you instruct them to one-by-

one open their envelopes. The first does not have the money but
he does find a note: “May this card bring the bearer peace, love
and happiness, but only if it’s chosen by a man in a suit with
glasses.” Sure enough, it’s held by a man with a suit in glasses.
Each volunteer in turn has a similar little good fortune card
beginning with the words, “May this card bring the bearer peace,
love and happiness, but only if it’s chosen by…” and then a brief
description of them, perhaps ending with someone’s name on
the last.

This is done the same way it’s done in The Chair Test – you
scope out the audience before the show and spot four people
whom you can easily describe by dress or appearance. Then you
fill out the rest of the cards to match those people, put them in

193
the envelopes and keep track of which is which (a little penciled
letter on the corner of each envelope helps, something like a T
for Tall man, B for Blonde woman, etc. When you select your
audience members, just the people you pre-selected.

In the end, you reveal you have the $100 bill. “I hope this brings
me a little happiness as I hope I’ve brought all of you, a little
happiness. Thank you!”

I should add that there are many other uses for these envelopes –
I hope you find a little happiness in exploring the possibilities.

194
 The Monkey Peeks

Effect:
The mentalist is able to discern a name from a spectator’s past
and also some uncannily specific knowledge about that person.

Method:
I was chatting with Ran Pink one day about various things you
might do with the 100th Monkey principle when I started thinking
about his own great work on the center tear – what happens if you
combined the two ideas?

Well, not much actually. The size for a good center tear paper is
too small to support the 100th Monkey.

195
But, as my father was fond of saying, there’s more than one way
to skin a cat (though he never actually taught me any ways). If a
CT isn’t going to cut it, then what about an AN?

Millard Longman’s “Acidus Novus” is a tasty piece of mentalist

cotton candy and my personal go-to peek method. Millard was
kind enough to let me describe the method which I will do
below.

The idea here is once again exploiting the play of general and
specific knowledge which I’ve used in effects like “The Sixth
Scent”. Once your volunteer is on stage, you show them the
Acidus Novus card. To the seated audience they say “Write a
Person’s Name.” But when viewed close up, they are much
more specific, for example, “Write a Parent’s Name.” You state
out loud that they should write only the first name of this person.
The fact that you can tell them that this person is their parent
when all they did was write down the first name is something
absolutely amazing to your audience (though obviously not the
volunteer so once again you have to play this right).

If you have several volunteers up on stage you can hand them

each a card that appears to say “Write a person’s name” on it
from a distance but something different on each when viewed
close up, such as “Write a Blonde’s Name,” or “Write a
Redhead’s Name.” As with some other effects that exploit the P,
B, F, R, E letter cluster, it’s best to show the best morphs first
(those with the same first letters) before going to the other
letters.

There are other possibilities with this. For example, “Write a

First name” could become “Write a Pet’s name.”

196
I like the idea of using peeks to find the name of someone from
the volunteer’s own life – it makes the effect more meaningful,
personal and powerful. But because you can say something
accurate about them, some of your audience’s minds will jump to
the conclusion that you must have done a little Facebook
reconnaissance. It’s not a bad idea to address this possibility in
your introduction emphasizing that you have never met and/or
asking them to think of someone who “even if I had looked at
your Facebook page, I would never be able to guess from that
this person’s name or anything about them.”

Here’s a list of words that could morph with “Person’s” in the

sentence, “Write a Person’s Name.” Notice that I’ve expanded
the list to include both 7 and 8 letter words by whether the
apostrophe takes up a full letter space or is crammed before the
s.

Please write a Person’s First Name:

Person’s:
Parent’s:
Blonde’s
Friend’s
Redhead’s:
Painter’s:
Brother’s
Painter’s
Rocker’s

197
Also in “Please Write a First Name:” We can morph

First – to
Pet’s
Dog’s

Handling, including Millard Longman’s Acidus Novus

(used with permission):

Use a blank 4 by 6 inch index card.

The cards provided as jpegs are designed to meet this criterion

which makes it work with Acidus Novus: all the required
information is contained in the lower right hand quarter of the
card. The card should be prefolded. First, fold from right to left
– this fold is made slightly off-center so that a step is formed on
the left side.

Then, the card is folded backwards so that the step on the fold
remains on the outside and visible. This fold is also off-center so
that a second step is formed as in the final illustration. This
second step hides the back half of the card. Unfold the card and
place on a small clipboard, printed side out.

This will probably be easier to see on the video. Yet I will

persist…

In performance show the audience the face of the Acidus Novus

card to show it just asks them to write down a person’s first
name (they can see that so you don’t have to say it). Hand the

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spectator the card and a pen. Ask her to fill in someone’s first
name and only that. When she’s finished, have her re-fold the
card. Take the folded card and hand her a small manila pay
envelope to examine. At this moment, you obtain the peek: take
the folded card (folded corner down and to your left) with the
tips of the left hand fingers (assuming the reader is right handed)
and pass it to the tips of your right hand fingers. In the process,
the right thumb is slipped into the rear-fold of the billet, creating
a gap. Using a downward glance enables you to see the exposed
lower right hand corner of the card which contains the required
information.

The move is done at waist level as the right hand holds the
folded card in full sight and the body turns a bit to the left so the
message is in position for reading. A quick glance will reveal the
name. Take the envelope from the spectator and insert the
folded card inside. Have her seal and retain the envelope.

You’ve done the dirty work – you know the name and a bit about
who it is. Now you pretend to be a mind-reader with all the
acting ability you can muster.

I think this is a really strong combination of the power of

personal information allowed by peeks, with some seriously
fooling extra information that will confound anyone who
suspects you might have somehow sneakily found out what was
written down (which I suspect is not all that uncommon). Have
fun with it!

You can find Millard Longman’s extensive treatise on Acidus

Novus here: http://www.mevproshop.com/acidus-novus.html

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If you use the card that asks them to force a painter’s (first)
name, it’s handy to know what some of the possibilities are.

Famous painters with unique first names:

Wassily Kandinsky
James McNeill Whistler
Johannes Verrmeer
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
William Turner
Alberto Durer
Grant Wood
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Gustave Courbet
Francis Bacon
Eugene Delacroix
Andrea Mantegna
Winslow Homer
Edgar Degas
Hans Holbein
Max Ernst
Jasper Johns
Sandro Botticelli
David Hockney
John Constable
Jacques-Louis David

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Arshille Gorky
Hieronymus Bosch
Pieter Breuegel the Elder
Camille Corot
Gerhard Richter
Amedeo Modigliani
Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Franz Hals
Gustave Moreau
Giorgio de Chirico
Fernand Leger
Willem de Kooning
Peter Paul Rubens
Francisco Goya
Jan Van Eyck
Albrecht Durer
Camille Pissarro
Roy Lichtenstein

Famous painters with not quite unique names:

Edvard Munch
Edouard Manet
Edward Hopper
Paul Cezanne
Paul Gauguin

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Paul Klee
Georges Seurat
Georges Braque

Famous painters with one (ish) name:

Rafael
Michaelangelo
Titian
Caravaggio
El Greco
Rembrandt (van Rijn)

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False Instructions with Psy Forces

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When we last saw false instructions, they were messing with
people’s perception of book tests (and before that, monkey
posters and before that, drawing dupes.) We rejoin them now,
where they are messing with psychological forces!

Psy forces are some of the cleanest mentalism imaginable, but

that doesn’t mean they are the most fooling. If you ask someone
to think of a flower and you are right when they pick Rose, that
doesn’t to me seem like a mind-blowing impossibility.

But if you ask them to think of any THING and then you say
“rose” well that’s pretty danged impressive!

Of course, with the 100th Monkey method, you can do just that!

Think of any thing!!

Becomes…
Think of any flower!

Similarly, with the hammer force:

Think of any thing

Becomes…
Think of any tool!

And with the circle-triangle force:

Think of any two simple things.

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Becomes…
Think of any two shapes please.

This is more of a quickie than a fully developed routine – you

invite someone on stage and say something like: “While you’re
up on stage, you’re going to be making some choices and people
might thing I’m influencing your choices with subtle, slightly
hypnotizing intonation of speech. But that’s not what’s going
on here and to prove it, here’s a written instruction. Would you
do as it say, and think of that thing now! Now concentrate…
Concentrate…. Be honest, however briefly, did you think of a
rose?”

If it hits, it’s a miracle. If it fails, you can try it again with one or
both of the other forces.

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The Laughing Monkey

The effect here is quick and strong: you invite someone on stage,
show the audience (but not the spectator) a long word written on
a card. You ask the spectator what he thinks is written there –
and he gets it right!

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This is technically not a variation on a classic, but it does use a
classic mentalist joke, so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I
included it here.

This is a great little precursor to a more involved effect involving

a spectator’s psychic abilities. The method is a little quirky. This
is an idea that pushes the boundaries of dual reality. As I think
of it, in dual reality the on-stage volunteer sees an effect, just
maybe not the same effect as the rest of the audience. My idea
here however is that the on-stage volunteer does not see an
effect and yet he still reacts to the effect as if he did see one –
and yet this is done without instant stooging. How is this
possible, you ask?

With jokes!

You know that popular mentalist gag where the performer says,
“Do you know what’s written on this card?” And the spectator
says, “No.” Then the mentalist turns over the card and it has the
word “No” written on it? It generally gets a laugh or a smile –
some kind of reaction that is similar to one you might get from a
magic effect. So with this, you piggy back an effect onto that
joke – the dual reality here is that audience sees a strong magic
trick and the person on stage gets a joke!

There are several variations. The closest to the original joke is

this one:

The performer invites someone up on stage and tells him, “We

will be testing your psychic abilities.” He shows the audience a
card that reads, “You thought of THE WEATHER.” “Do you
know what is written on this card? Don’t answer out loud. But

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an answer popped into your mind. Was this the first thing that
popped into your mind?”

He laughs and says that’s correct.

What he actually saw is, “You thought of the word “no.”

On another card “Tarantula” morphs to “The word no.”

Here’s another example: you invite someone on stage. You show

a card saying “Immortality” to the audience (but not the
volunteer). You say to the volunteer, “I am thinking of
something. I want you to open your mind and try to imagine
what I am thinking of – don’t say anything just yet. In a moment
I will show you what is written on this card and I want you to tell
me honestly: did this answer pop into your head?” You show
him the word “Immortality” and he laughs and says yes.

In this, the word “Immortality” morphs to “I have no idea” – if

you ask someone what you’re thinking of, of course this answer
will pop into their mind! He will most likely agree and he will
likely smile or laugh (if only from relief at not having to perform
mind reading) and this reaction is well within the “normal”
responses to mind reading effects.

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The Monkey Predicts a Headline

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This is a sneak peek of one of the effects you’ll get if you register
(just in case you think that stuff is filler – banish the thought!)
The cards for this are in the dropbox you’ll have access to by
emailing me at chris@magicaonline.com with the subject line
password Annemann.

This is an especially clean version of one of the most powerful

effects in magic: the prediction of a headline.

The headline prediction takes the standard prediction plot so

popular among magicians and mentalists and brings it to the real
world. This has consequences: if you predicted a playing card
correctly, you’re a heck of a magician – if you predicted a real
world event, hey, then you must have been able to predict others,
right? So you must have known about all kinds of plane crashes,
car bombs and 9/11! And you didn’t warn anybody? What kind of
monster are you?!!!

Maybe I’ll just stick to playing cards…

Ah, where’s the fun in that? Let’s live dangerously! Let’s seize
the bull by the horns and just come out and say something like…

Script:
“This effect involves seeing into the future and predicting, not
something trivial, like what playing card will be selected, but
something with potentially huge ramifications: a newspaper
headline. I don’t do this effect often. Because I can’t. One does
not read the future like a book. You get flashes. These flashes
have only come to me four times – three times I was correct.

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The fourth, well, coincidentally, this was also the only time the
headline involved an accident where there was loss of life.

“I was doing a show in upstate New York in winter and the

event I saw involved freezing rain and a patch of black ice on the
I-90 that caused a 16 car pile up and the death of 5 people. I
couldn’t see the exact place, or the names of the people involved
but with the limited information I had I contacted the state
police who of course thought I was insane.

“I couldn’t sleep for days after that. I wracked my brain for ways
I could do more and yet I was fearful that if I did, I would
somehow be meddling with forces that were better left alone.
Death does not like to be cheated. I didn’t know what to do. I
was a mess.

“And when the fateful day arrived… it was sunny and warm. There
was no freezing rain, no black ice and as far as I can tell, the only
accident on the I-90 that day was a fender bender involving a
shipment of potatoes. Potatoes all over the highway. That
would have been a great headline to predict – that would have
brought the house down! But I wasn’t in on that joke. The joke
was on me.

“I say this to let you know, that this is a serious effect, but not
too serious. Fate has a devilish sense of humor. We will see
what she has in store for us now…”

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Method:
This makes use of self-switching envelopes similar to those I
describe in “One Monkey Ahead”. There are two smaller
envelopes in the larger one. One is labeled “Prediction” and the
other is labeled “Photograph”. The photograph is presented of
evidence of the magician passing a VIP the prediction days
before the show.

At least that’s how it appears. Let’s go over the events in stages:

Scene 1: the day you hand the prediction to the VIP.

Arrange a visit to your VIP’s office and ask for one other person
who is highly trusted within the organization to be there as a
witness.
You show up at the VIP’s office with a folded piece of letter-
sized heavy-stock paper (your prediction), the two letter-sized
envelopes labeled “Prediction” and “Photograph”, a duplicate
envelope labeled “Photograph,” a larger (10” X 13’-ish sized)
envelope, a clipboard and a Polaroid camera. The prediction has
some writing at the top of the page above the first fold, that says
something like, “On this day, the 14th of November, 2014, I, the
Great Soandso, predict that…” and then it just stops at the fold
(to be filled in later). Then you can flash the beginning of the
prediction to your witnesses. Your dupe envelope is in the
clipboard, open and ready…

You show the VIP and the other, trusted member of the
organization the folded prediction and have them sign its back.
Then they put it in the envelope labeled “Prediction” and seal it.
Then you snap a selfie of you handing the envelope to them.
Have the VIP put the prediction envelope in the larger envelope.

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You check out the photo and act like you’re not happy with it.
You say you want to get another. Put the first photo in your
clipboard, right in the envelope, then close the envelope and
downjog it so it protrudes slightly from the clipboard when it is
shut.

Remove the prediction from the larger envelope and once again
stage the picture of handing it to the VIP. Snap the picture,
trying to get it as much like the first one as possible. Hand him
the camera saying something like: “You be the judge this time – I
can be so fussy.”

To facilitate him taking the camera, you take the prediction

envelope and put it on the clipboard. Hand him the second
photo. When he is looking at the photo, turn the clipboard over
and pull the downjogged envelope from it (the label should be
facing down here). Slowly and deliberately place it in the larger
envelope. If you like, you can stop once it’s an inch or two in
and ask the VIP to drop it inside again, but this is not essential.

Shove the second picture in the first envelope labeled

“Photograph” and have your VIP drop it in the larger envelope.
Have him seal the larger envelope and leave it with him.

If you like you can have this whole scene documented by a

videographer for replay at the performance – it’s best if the guy is
hired by you so you can brief him on what to film, but this is not
essential.

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Scene 2: your house on the morning of the performance

Grab a couple local papers and look for some good headline. If
something really bad has happened that day, it’s best to abort the
effect.

You have the envelope that was switched out in scene one.
Open it and remove the half-written prediction with the VIP
signatures on the back. Fill out the remainder of the prediction
on this page, paraphrasing one of the headlines. Take an extra
letter-envelope, one that says “Prediction” close up and
“Photograph” from a distance. Put your prediction in this
envelope and seal it. Tuck this envelope in the folds of the
newspaper.

Scene 3: at the performance venue before the show.

Say hi to the VIP and make sure he brought the envelope with
him and make sure when called for, he and the trusted member
of the organization will come up on stage in a timely fashion with
the prediction. Make a big deal of not going anywhere near it.

Scene 4: Showtime!
On stage, make your introductory remarks, then if you had
videotaped the passing over of the prediction, show the clip now.
Then show your copy of the front page of today’s paper and ask
if anyone in the audience can verify that it is indeed the day’s
paper – someone will. Point out a few headlines, including the
one you have predicted on that prediction that is in the envelope
that you are carefully hiding in the folds of the newspaper.

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Invite the VIP with the prediction and the trusted member of the
organization out on stage. Go over what happened on the day
you gave him the prediction – how you gave him not only the
prediction in an envelope labeled “Prediction” but took a picture
of the event and put it in a second envelope (labeled
“Photograph”). Make a big deal out of not going anywhere near
the prediction since you passed it to him.

Now comes the moment. It’s a big moment so take it.

Have the VIP pull the tab to unseal the large envelope. Make a
big deal out of not going anywhere near it. Ask him to peek
inside and verify that there are still two envelopes in there – he
will. Ask him to remove either one. Ask him which one he has
removed. He will say that he has removed the one labeled
“Photograph” (because both are labeled “Photograph”!) Ask
him to pass it to you. Very carefully open it, pull out the photo,
show it to him to verify that it is indeed the one that was taken
that day, then show it to the audience. Place the photo back in
the envelope.

You now have to switch the envelope you’ve hidden in the

newspaper for the one you’ve just gotten. This shouldn’t be hard
because the heat is now off this envelope. You can even tuck the
envelope and newspaper under your arm to make it seem like it is
discarded. Take a moment to divert everyone’s attention to the
prediction still in the envelope. Say to your VIP, that before this
all began you asked him to choose someone totally trusted by the
organization to be a witness and you would like to hand
everything to them now. Almost as an afterthought grab the
newspaper from under your arm. “Even the photograph”. But
now you grab the envelope that says “Photograph” from a
distance and “Prediction” close up. Make sure the word is facing

215
the audience so everyone sees that it says “Photograph.” Drop it
in the larger envelope.

The larger envelope is passed to the trusted one. He is instructed

to take out both envelopes so the labels are facing him. He is to
once again verify the photograph then pass that to the VIP. He
is to then open the prediction. Ask him to verify that the
signature on the back of the prediction is his and then to pass it
to the VIP to verify his signature. Offer to take the envelope as
he reads it – this way you can ensure he doesn’t flash the
envelope’s face to the audience. Ask the VIP to read your
prediction as the other looks on and verifies it is 100% correct.

Take a deep bow.

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Notes:

Instead of handing you the gimmicked envelopes on stage, you

can ask them to rip it apart to make sure there are no secret
compartments (and also to destroy the evidence).

It’s not a bad idea to have them read the prediction silently
before reading it out loud.

I’m proud of this one.

217
 The End

Thanks for checking out Pantheon – I hope you have fun with it!

Don’t forget, to register for updates and the bonus effect email
me at chris@magicaonline.com (notice there’s an a between
magic and online.) Please put the word ANNEMANN in the
subject heading. And if you have an idea or comment on any of
the effects in this release, please drop me a line at that address!
Thanks!

-Chris Philpott

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 Thanks

This project owes very much to very many, but I wanted to

single out these people in particular... Banachek, Christine
Barger, Riccardo Berdini, Michael Berkowitz, Kathleen Breedyk,
Atlas Brookings, Carl Christman, Paul Draper, The Elders, Allen
Gittelson, Dan Goldberg, Robert J. Gould, Luke Jermay, Finn
Jon, Mike Kempner, Millard Longman, Max Maven, Pete
McCabe, Richard Osterlind, Leeman Parker, Juliana Philpott,
Marya Philpott, Ran Pink, Michael Rangel, Aiden Sinclair, Joe
Skilton, Steve Valentine, Patrick Wolford and the AMA and The
Magic Castle.

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