Are These Really That Powerful?

[notsoltd]

Mathematics based tricks...are they really that powerful?

For instance this one:

The spec writes down any random six digit number. You make a prediction. They write down another six digit number below the first. You write down a six digit number below that. They write down another six digit number below that. You write down one last six digit number below that.

They add up all of these SIX DIGIT NUMBERS, and the number that you predicted is the number they add up to be!

I personally think it sounds cool, but I am not sure how well these play with the audience.

 

[joshrobarts]

Banachek has a great one in his book Psychological subtleties that i use all the time, especially over the phone.. depends upon presentation and how its structure but yes they can work

 

[TheatreHead]

I love the kind of stuff spambots say nowadays.

 

[Luis Vega]

I used to do the trick where you have 6 cards with random numbers and then ask somebody to think of one...then by looking at the cards you guess which number is...I ALWAYS got great reactions!!! but that was until I lost my wallet...now I don´t have it anymore...

 

[D ICE R]

It would be too powerful and inturn to complext for the audience to follow along with. You could do the same effect with a 3-4 digit number and not loose any of the effect. As it has been echoed in many of your posts with the right presentation this effect would be a killer. However with none it is a simple math trick.

 

[Toby]

They are definitely powerful. It's all about presentation. I use one math trick, that everybody is requesting to do again, or for someone else. Here is the presentation for that trick that I use http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?22579-Presentational-Ideas-2

 

[TeeDee]

As with most effects, I think mathematical magic is most powerful when you elevate the trick by making it about something other than the method.

For example, in a Derren Brown kind of way, you could make it about their personality, saying certain people choose certain numbers, then drawing attention to how they're dressed, or asking questions about their job etc., and apparently using that information to predict the numbers.

Or, you could make it about psychological control, maybe using slightly unusual language patterns which could hint that you're suggesting certain numbers to them.

Personally, I like the concept that people naturally look for patterns and meaning in the world around them, which leads to superstition and belief in astrology and suchlike. So, if I read them a string of apparently random numbers, they will unconsciously form a pattern out of them, and any numbers that they subsequently choose will fit into that pattern even if they aren't aware of it consciously. This can be introduced, and apparently proved, by a line like, "If I say to you, two, four, six..., you can't help yourself, I know your mind just carried on the sequence, and the number 'eight' just popped into your mind. I'm going to try something like that, but at a more complex level." If your doing this after a series of card effects, you could go one step further and say, "You've seen a few different cards with different values over the last few minutes, and, although you won't be consciously aware of it, your mind has already made a pattern out of them which you'll instinctively want to continue. Let's see if it's worked..."

 

[notsoltd]

I'm not sure how I could apply that to the routine I am looking at. Here is what it would look like:

Have a dry erase board and tell them to write out any six digit number. Say they write down 492781

Then you say I'm going to make a prediction and I want you to write down another number. So now it would look like this:
492781
539802

Next, I write down a number. Here is where we would be at
492781
539802
460197

Then they would write another number, say:
492781
539802
460197
739017

And then I write one last number:
492781
539802
460197
739017
260982

Once all this is done, they use a calculator and add them up. They then look at my prediction to see that I had written down 2,492,779 which is the same number they calculated

 

[Craig Browning]

If you're a atheist, of course you would say that. But, you gotta think about it. Satan chose to be evil. People chose to be sinful.

WTF?

Last I checked this wasn't a church... find a different street corner, please!


I use tons of math based material in some of my work. What I have found however, is that a lot of people fear it because they slept through math class.

 

[mehar]

urgghhhHHHHHH ARGHA;LDKFJADS;LJKG!!

I hate math tricks!!!

With that said, the good ones can be VERY hard hitting! I only do one, and I hate the face that people find it so entertaining, cause I do nothing... then again, the magician's job is to entertain for OTHERS not himself.

Basically I get them to do EVERYTHING. I give them a deck, tell them to make four cuts so that there are 4 piles of cards. I then get them to deal of 3 cards from the top, put them on the bottom of the packet, then deal 3 cards from the top, in any order, on to the three piles. So one card on top of each packet. Then they put that down and do it for the other three. I explain that 52 is not divisible by 3 or 6, the number of cards that they were dealing. Then I get them to flip over the top card from each packet and they are all aces.

Again, hard hitter, but its a fal;skfja;lkdf math trick... which I hate. Cause people like it just as much as they'll like my 2 and half minute ACR which has a trillion sleights.

All about the goddamn audience... gotta entertain the audience....

 

[notsoltd]

LOL dude I love that ace trick you are talking about. My grandpa usually isn't SUPER impressed with my tricks, I mean they amaze him but I don't get crazy reactions outa him.

I did a 4 for 4 switch for him to choose the four aces (all the time I was telling him that when he goes to casinos he REALLY should start playing real cards instead of video poker). He was impressed, and I casually shuffled them back into the pack, and then said, you probably aren't convinced that YOU are that good at poker because I was holding the cards and could have done something wacko. He agree'd and then I had him do the trick you talked about.

Before he flipped the cards over, I said YOU did everything, and I didn't touch the cards at all. I said Pawpaw, I'm telling you, I think you are good at poker....I think you might feel the same way when you flip over the top cards on each packet.

He straight up looked at me, smiled, and said thats bull ****!

He flipped over the cards and said no ****ing way.... and just starred at the cards absolutely stunned.

 

[Justin.Morris]

I hate math tricks too. Unless it is disguised well. But most people will wonder how you did that, and they may be surprised, however, If you are working with numbers and putting your own control in there (by adding numbers), then people will assume you used math, even though they won't know what you did exactly.

It would be good if you removed yourself from the equation. A bunch of specs list off numbers and you get a random number that you predicted. That is magical.

Not my thing.

 

[mehar]

That's awesome R.K. I think I'll try something cool like that with my grandpa too!

Justin I hear what you're saying, I don't like tricks where the magician is writing **** down... getting other people to remember numbers etc. I like my magic to be simple and straight forward. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a magic trick at a show and I've just been confused from what the performers saying because he's saying 60 numbers a second. Very annoying!!