Would a post on social media from a week earlier be a good way to reveal the cards that they picked?

Would a post on social media from a week earlier be a good way to reveal the cards that they picked?

  • Yes. Wow. what an idea!

    Votes: 6 85.7%
  • No. I wouldn't

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Total voters
    7
Feb 20, 2017
5
1
24
This may be a good way to reveal something especially to the young people of the world. If you post something to a public then that is making a statement right?
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
As long as you can build drama and theater around the reveal, it could be cool. It could also fall flat. That's on you.
 

DominusDolorum

Elite Member
Jul 15, 2013
893
1,114
31
Canada
I like the idea! I remember when Shawn Farquhar went on the Ellen Degeneres Show and had her select a card to then later be revealed by Shawn's daughter holding the card in a photograph in his wallet. The effect is pretty much the same if you reveal it through a picture on FB or Instagram. Another idea is to have the first letters of every word spell out the name of the selected card.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
If you just walk up to someone and say, "Pick a card" and they pick a card, and then you go, "Check out my Facebook post from 1 week ago" - you'll get some people who react strongly to that, but most people are going to go, "Uh. Ok."

In general the power of a routine comes from the performer. Having a reveal in an unusual place is only the set up. You are responsible for making that pay off.

The real question becomes, "Why is this post on the internet?" You need to make it all make sense.
 

CMT

Jan 12, 2017
7
2
35
Snohomish, WA
Build suspense around it and ask questions to the spectator. "Wouldnt it be amazing if we looked at my old posts here and found your card?" build something around it before the reveal.
 
If I were performing this I would use the plot of Facebook has become so integrated into our lives that they say it knows us better than we know ourselves due to data mining. I would then tell an example of how Target was able to know how a father's daughter was pregnant before he even knew and the story behind that. After that shocking story, you would be primed to reveal that Facebook is able to predict exact outcomes and I would reveal my post that claimed that Facebook automatically corrected a week ago in saying "Facebook suggests I will meet a random person on the street and they will pick the 3 of clubs."

That is just a quick example of how I would handle that situation. The key thing to remember when performing is that people don't care for magic, people care for people. Have your presentation connect with them in a way that they can relate to and it will be all the more entertaining for them. Good luck!
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
korvoatano - stop spamming every thread.

TylerScott - That's definitely a starting point. I'm nit-picky so my mind would be hung up on the fact that you're saying Facebook predicts things, but then it's your own post. That's not Facebook, that's you.

The more I think about it, the trickier it seems to pull this off. The problem with predictions is that it's difficult to convince the audience and/or volunteer that it's a real prediction, particularly when it involves the volunteer making any kind of choice. No matter what magicians think, laymen understand the idea of cheating to make them make certain choices. So the obvious method to any prediction is that the magician made them choose those things. So you have to come up with a way to present that (Both the wording of the prediction as well as the presentation of the reveal) so as not to make that the most obvious thing that's going on.
 
Dec 24, 2014
24
23
26
Italy
www.instagram.com
No matter what magicians think, laymen understand the idea of cheating to make them make certain choices. So the obvious method to any prediction is that the magician made them choose those things.
totally agree. Some time ago I thought about creating a reveal like this one but I've never found a good way to make the whole idea meaningful. The fact that you're revealing something with your fb/insta profile itself is not fair. I think it would be much more powerful on someone else's profile or, even better, basing your revelation on a celebrity profile. Don't know how, these are just random thoughts I had.
 
korvoatano - stop spamming every thread.

TylerScott - That's definitely a starting point. I'm nit-picky so my mind would be hung up on the fact that you're saying Facebook predicts things, but then it's your own post. That's not Facebook, that's you.

The more I think about it, the trickier it seems to pull this off. The problem with predictions is that it's difficult to convince the audience and/or volunteer that it's a real prediction, particularly when it involves the volunteer making any kind of choice. No matter what magicians think, laymen understand the idea of cheating to make them make certain choices. So the obvious method to any prediction is that the magician made them choose those things. So you have to come up with a way to present that (Both the wording of the prediction as well as the presentation of the reveal) so as not to make that the most obvious thing that's going on.
I was referring to when you try to post something on Facebook and they autofill it with suggestions based on other information such as friends, likes, etc. So the idea was that I would say that I was trying to make a prediction post but Facebook corrected it for me with it's autofill prediction.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
I think for this to play very well, it would have to be presented as something kind of cryptic. Like, nothing so plain as, "I will meet a woman who will select the 3 of clubs." Maybe something like, "Woke up this morning with a weird phrase repeating in my head. Think it'll be important later, so I'm posting it now. The phrase was, "The girls in the stripes will go clubbin', clubbin', clubbin'." There was some weird dance music in there, too. Strange!"

Then you can do some card routines, forcing the 3 of clubs all the way through, and then wrap it up with saying, "Man. This feels like fate .. wait a minute .. you don't follow me on Facebook do you? I made this post, look, it's dated a week ago .. Ah! Clubbin'! Three times! Three of clubs! Man, so glad I figured that out it was messing with my head."

I dunno, something like that.
 
This may be a good way to reveal something especially to the young people of the world. If you post something to a public then that is making a statement right?

'Yes. Wow. what an idea!'

Hard to get quite that excited about it when it's already been done (2 years ago no less)...


I'm sure this isn't the only time it's been done either, this is just the video that popped into my head when I read your post.

Rev
 
Nov 12, 2016
77
58
Just an idea, this wouldn't be practical to do all the time but it would be nice if you were maybe making a tv appearance or doing a big gig. The idea I had was to go about your everyday life on social media such as instagram posting pictures that relate to what you normally post but every time you take a picture for your instagram, discretely place the "thought of card" somewhere where it can be seen but is not noticeable. Your instagram followers won't notice this and it will just look normal like your posting pictures, but when it comes to the big reveal and the spectator has picked a card you can say, look through these pictures that I have posted on my instagram throughout the past 2 weeks, now look closer (point out the card in all of the pics)
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Visibility is a thing here. If it's on a phone, most people in an audience won't be able to see it.

Though building on that - make a series of photos, in each one the "reveal" gets bigger and bigger. Starting out with it like, tiny and tucked away, and slowly ending up with it on a banner that takes up the whole frame behind you. That way you can say, "Look at these photos" as you scroll through, "Notice a trend yet?" and then it gets bigger and more noticeable until the giant reveal.

The problem with it being the same size in every picture is that you don't want the person looking at the picture(s) to feel stupid because they can't see what you're trying to be clever about. So if it gets bigger and more obvious, that is prevented. But that doesn't stop the thing where you probably controlled the outcome yourself.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
A really fun ending to a cruise ship show that I saw a while back was to have a handful of people select cards in the audience. The magician then showed a video of various people on the boat revealing the selected cards in fun ways. For instance, the boarding staff at the port revealed a card at the port, one of the tour guides at a stop revealed a card, the cruise director revealed the card and the captain revealed a card. Each person revealed a card in a way that was unique to that cruise, and that group of people. This was much more than, "Look! I knew what your card was before you picked it." it turned into a video time capsule with the feel of a conspiracy. The audience watched and went, "Oh I remember that! That was a ton of fun! This trip has been great!"

Think about how you can make a deeper connection with the card reveal.
 
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