Prediction on my Birthday

[Adrian Tugui]

Hello guys and girls,

On September the 13th I will celebrate my 18th birthday ( hint hint ) and I thought about doing a quick mental miracle for my guests and what's better than predicting what presents I will get? To achieve this I will be using a one ahead method by having someone secretly tell me what he got me and then shamelessly lie about it in front of everyone else. I have come up with some little psychological subtleties that will help convince everyone that I indeed write what I say I write and not something else.
Why am I telling you this you ask? For two reasons:
1] To know if you think this is a good idea and..
2] To take the opportunity of asking this great community of magicians and mentalists for advice on alternative methods that don't involve me divulging one of mentalism's strongest principles to someone else. I'm not asking for methods ( someone explaining to me what I should do ), but for guidance to a book or a DVD or something that can give me a strong alternative to what I said above. I'm also fascinated by predictions in general above all other types of mentalism, so that would be a good opportunity for me to expand my knowledge on the subject.

Thank you in advance !

 

[KonTW]

I like the idea.
This would be a good opener for performing other tricks on the party.
A neat idea would be to tell them, after you did this "present prediction", that you can
do the same thing, but to make it more impossible, you use a deck of cards; so you perform Insane by Andy Nyman, which
is available here at Theory11. I highly recommend this effect!

- Konrad

 

[Craig Browning]

Ady, you probably know what I'm going to say and that starts with "Are you going to do all mentalism and hold to it or are you going to do magic tricks?"

This has to be at the front of things in order to help me help you. For an example, you could present this entirely as a magic effect vs. mentalism. . . you simply show a fare sized cardboard box with Happy Birthday Wrapping and a large ? mark. . . It's obviously an empty box but you are going to put a bunch of wishes into it because you know one particular friend/relative is going to get you this one particular thing. . . with a poof of smoke the magic is done! You open the mystery present, revealing an actual present. . . the very present the person you name in the routine, actually bought you. They go and check the box they put that present in and it's empty! You made the gift teleport from point A to B. . .

Doing this as a 3-Way "prediction" (one ahead) wouldn't play as well in my opinion and for that matter, I just can't see the concept playing out as anything other than a piece of Mental Magic because it's too "contrived" . . . so here's another thought. . .

You show a pile of photo pages -- images of the many things you hoped you would get for your birthday from the various people that know you. You ask that people not react if they happen to see the thing they actually got for you. . . ultimately you invite a friend (the one you know the gift from) and you ask them to focus on the actual thing they got you. . . what they know would be your favorite thing of all. . . suddenly, the pages of photos turns into a pile of cash. . . but then you brush away the money to reveal the actual present, already out of the box.

I'll not go into all the methodology but both will require you doing some secret back room dirty work in order to steal out the right gift.

Obviously I'm going to tell you to stay far far far away for playing cards UNLESS you want to do magic and even then, go with heavy moderation. . .

When It Comes to Mentalism I'll give you the only means by which I can see this working and not looking like a trick. The problem is, I doubt you are at the skill level or should I say, "confidence" level when it comes to the method used, for making it work; the action being that 3 people hide their presents and you don't get them unless you can find them using your trusty Pendulum. . . or whatever you choose to incorporate; we're talking about the standard "Treasure Hunt" routine using Muscle Reading/Dowsing skill. If you were willing to locate just one gift this way, it would look like real Mentalism and not a trick. It would also look like you are willing to loose in a very big way, if you are not able to locate the target item.

I can assure you, anyone can do this and with amazingly little practice. But, you have to have balls of steel and more confidence than the typical big dollar lawyer that you will be successful.

The only other means by which to make this "Mentalism" and not Mental Magic would be to have a fair sized envelope suspended and in full sight of everyone attending and then, once all the prezies are opened, you open that envelope and hand it to a particular individual for them to read it out loud . . . the letter apologizes in that you know that ___ got you the ___ and so on; you name each person and the gift they gave and your obvious fore-thoughts prove to be 100% on the money. Again, this is a very simple, yet involved situation and yet, the methods are outlined in Corinda.

Think it over and decide if you want to create an impossibility that leans more towards the feel of a Magician's Trick or something that's spookier, hinting at the arcane.

 

[Adrian Tugui]

So people are actually right when they talk about re-reading Corinda. The envelope effect you presented would be perfect, but I don't remember reading it in 13 steps, unless it's the old gipsy witch effect.

 

[Craig Browning]

So people are actually right when they talk about re-reading Corinda. The envelope effect you presented would be perfect, but I don't remember reading it in 13 steps, unless it's the old gipsy witch effect.

Go back and STUDY Corinda, don't just rush through it. Consider this a challenge from me to you; the method for the above "Prediction" is in 13 Steps and if I recall correctly, envelopes a few short paragraphs. I'm not going to reveal anything other than the fact that two methods are involved, possibly a third but we'll not deal with that just yet (use of a stooge). I will say that you will find hints of this in at least one of the five FREE PDFs I put out last year but you may need to expand your thinking a bit in order to see what's afoot.

There's an old axiom I love to point people to when it comes to learning Magic/Mentalism or anything you are actually drawn to study; when you read a book read it thrice! First, as you would any compilation the first time thru; Then a second time as if you were an orator, presenting the materials to a congregation -- out loud and with command. Finally, read it as the possessed student seeking to find the golden threads and ivory kernels of wisdom within its layers . . . if you ever saw the books in my library you will see that they are heavily marked with highlighters and notes in the margins; the signature of the perpetual student and how your own books should find themselves after the year or two of deliberate venture . . . and yes, it's why one might want to buy two of each book; one for study and one for posterity. ;-)

 

[AlfaMagic]

Sounds like a Great Idea!

Happy Birthday Man !