Magic that would fit a poem?

[BenDali]

Hi Magical Hive Mind
May I borrow your brain please?
I'm a semi-retired stage hypnotist/mentalist doing a bit of comedy poetry on the local comedy, poetry, cabaret and open mic circuits currently and looking to move into performance poetry as a career.
I've tasked myself with writing a rhyming poem embedding some magic into it and am trying to think of simple verbal routines I can poify. They have to be verbal, devoid of props (or minimal) simple quickly for an audience to grasp and have no audience involvement while I reel off the script.
As a warm-up, I'll start by suggesting thinking of a number 1-10 and predicting >10% go for 7, then do the Elephant in Denmark routine and probably end the piece on the head grow illusion.
I could do with another 2-4 additions. I'm happy to learn routines or buy new props for anything that would fit my schtick but talking-only would be ideal.
Any thoughts on what might fit, please? Thank you!

 

[David R.(7)]

Interesting idea, but I am not sure if it will hit the mark. People will be seeing you as a poet first and foremost, trying to shoehorn psychological forces into that might break the emersion of the poem.

Things that might work which you haven't considered. Hypnotic set pieces / suggestibility tests as long as they fit the theme of the poem.

Dynamite mentalism style hurling the headlines.

Longer form psychological forces where think early Derren brown

 

[willtupper]

"There was a number from one to ten,
"Please think of it, and I'll tell you then,
"Most of you just went for seven."

"Now let me try something else,
"Make no mistake, I'll need some help
"Think of a new number from 1 to 10
"Multiply it by 9, and then
"If the number has two digits, add them together
"So now you'll have a single number
"And what will you do with that? You may wonder

"I'm not talking no jive,
"Now just subtract 5
"And your new number's the answer we're looking for
"But just to be sure, we better
"Turn that number into a letter
"It will be fun! It's an 'A' if it's one
"And 'B' if it's two
"And 'C' if it's three
"The entire process is easy, you see
"Do you have your letter? You better
"Now, look up in your mind
"A country in Europe would be fine
"That starts with that letter
"Like, 'E' could be 'England'
"And I know you're not dumb
"Because 'B' could be 'Belgum'
"Surely you can see,
"Now think about the name of that country
"And we better take it's... second letter
"And think of an animal that starts with it- the bigger, the better!

"I thank you. For you've played along
"Your math was right. This is no lark
"There's just one small problem
"There's no elephants in your country... Denmark!"

The poem's not great (just freewriting off the top of my head), but the structure might do it?

You could end with something like...

"You walked with me, and with numbers, were led
"To doing some math with your good brain, and head
"I tell the truth - I swear, there's no lies
"But the size of my head will be the end
"And surprise! It's now bigger than ever before
"I thank you for your time. That's all I've got, and no more."

You bow. Crowd goes wild.

 

[Haileonh]

T. Page Wright invented a book test using poems that he'd written that were then printed in a poetry magazine. They were later republished together by Thayer and became a book test. I believe the name of the book was "Reflections." Pretty cool. The book comes up for sale from time to time and is quite a gem.