THE AM ESTATE AT '

RIV.ER R1OCE. W.VA.

Tel. 304-947-7730
P.O. Box 155
Great Cacapon, WV 25422

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g'echYl. i qu.e C£upl'eme
for the !fe.sse1"tlc t

XVI
Tel. 304-947·7730
P.O. Box 155
Great Cacapon, WV 25422

4/15/94

Copyright by AME
1994

Man, the puny mortal, is gifted by the

creator with a fourth dimension that
reaches far into space without
limits. It is his mind. That
abstract God-like concept that no
one can see, touch or weigh. Yet, to
a chosen few, the Magi, is given the
power to see the unseen! And
comprehend the many mysteries of
the tesseract.

I consider the Tesseract effect as one of the greatest of

tests that a Mentalist can present. I do it in my shows. The
original concept of the test as it stands is so strong that your
audience receeds into profound silence. They have never seen the
effect before so they are completely mystified. You need do no
more after you collect the cards and missread them.

Sophisticated spectators who have seen Mentalists several

times know that if they write something down, the Mentalist will
read what they wrote. They confess that they do not know how the
Mentalist read what they wrote but they do know that he read it
somehow. With the principle of the Tesseract, the members of the
audience write nothing! Therein lies one of the many mysteries
of the Tesseract.

There is a weak point in the presentation but the audience is

never aware of it and never has a chance to reach it. One
wise guy in the audience may think that the cards you passed out
all have the same message that reads, "Please say YES when I ask
you if I called out all the words correctly." Another wise guy may

1
want to see the cards. Some will assume that the persons picked
to callout the three choices are stooges. So far that has never
happened. The audience is usually stunned. But it could happen.

Subconsciously no one in the audience wants to see the

prediction cards. They are afraid that if they see the cards they
will discover that you possess the terrible power of prophesy!

* * *
The effect is that you show the audience three business cards
and you say that, "I have written three predictions on these cards
of strange things that are about to happen. I am going to pass
out the cards into the audience so that some of you can see my
predictions ahead of time." You then distribute the cards widely,
one to the right of the audience. One in the middle and the last
to the far left. "At first the messages on the cards will not
make any sense but they will shortly." You say. You instruct the
persons receiving the cards that they can show the card to their
friends closeby but not to let the cards out of their hands.

Actually the three cards that are passed out into the
audience all read alike. A word that will be forced later in the
show from a book is written on all three cards. Let1s say the
word to be forced is "What." Since the cards are held by members
of the audience who are widely apart, one person holding a card
does not know what the other two persons are holding. They each
assume that the other cards are different. While the other
spectators not holding cards assume that the three predction
cards read differently. They did hear you say that you had
written some predictions. And that the three prediction cards
are different will be shown shortly by your masterly
presentation.

Next members of the audience, who are not holding cards are
asked to callout a three digit number, a city and to choose a
word from a book.

The three prediction cards are collected and the Mentalist

misreads what he had written on the cards prior to the show. He
simply calls out the name of the city the number and the word.
NOTE that the word is called out last. That avoids any premature
outburst of glee from the three persons that were holding the
prediction cards. These are then asked , "Was I correct?" to
which all three reply, "Yes!". The audience is led to believe
that the predictions are all correct. As I said above, the
effect is so strong that a profound silence ensues.

As artists we want to close up all the gaps and give the

audience a miracle, at least in their imagination. In this new
presentation six cards are seen by the audience. So we want to
leave all six cards apparently used in the test on the table
for anyone to examine or take home as souvenirs.

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 Here is my new presentation of the Tesseract:

Before the show I prepare a stack of five business cards as

shown in Fig. 1. And clip the cards with a paper clip so they
remain in the proper order. Or you can prepare the stack of cards
in your hands for the stack is quite simple.

The order of the five cards is:

1. Three blank cards on top.

2. The fourth card from the

top is out jogged about 1/4 inch at the
right edge as shown and has the force
word "what," written on it and it
faces up.

3. The bottom card is blank

and it is out-jogged down about one bottom
inch. For the test the paper clip if
any is removed and the cards are held Fig. 1
in place by the thumb

THE PRESENTATION:

As you stand before the audience, you are holding the stack
of five cards in your left hand (if you are righthanded.) While on
the tips of your right hand you are holding the three
prediction cards that predict the choice of a word and all three
cards read alike.

1. You make your speech about the prediction cards and then
pass them out into the audience.

2. One member of the audience

is asked to callout a three digit
number. Say he calls out 149. "I
am going to write that down to keep
every body honest." You say as you
write the number 149 fast on the top
card and also on the fifth card as
shown in Fig. 2. and pullout the
top card (card number one) and give
to someone in the audience to hold
saying "You are my witness." Fig. 2

As soon as the number 149 is written on the bottom card, the

bottom card is squared with the rest of the cards but the fourth
card, the lword 1 card is left sticking out as shown in Fig. 3.

3. Watch your angles. Keep the

3
palmed cards close to the ~OQY: fiut
even if some one sees the cards no
one has any idea what you are doing.
You are now holding only four cards.
The two top cards are blank, see
Fig. 3. The cards are not squared
closely in the illustrations for Fig. 3
clarity.

4. Next you ask someone to call

out a city. Say that St. Louis is
called. You write St. Louis only
once on the blank top card (what was
card number 2.). This is shown in
Fig. 4. Pull off the top card with
the name St. Louis and give it to
your witness. Fig. 4
5. You are now holding only
three cards. The top card only is
blank. See Fig. 5

THE WORD FORCE: I recommend an

easy force like using a book with
all pages alike. If you own The
Damned Thing, use the book to force
number 86 and then tell another
person to open a dictionary to page Fig. 5
86 and note the first word.
The force of the page number and the word is done fast.
Just have someone stick a card into the book. Open the book and
tell the person to callout the page number on the bottom of the
left hand page. The use of the dictionary impresses the audience.
They will later say, besides other things, that you did something
amazing with a dictionary.

6. Force the word fast and

pretend that you are writing the
force word BUT what you write is the
name of the city again on the blank Pullout this card~
top card as shown in Fig 6. PULL
OUT THE PROTRUDING SECOND CARD
which has the force word 'what'
already written on it and give it
to your witness. VOILA! The goose
is cooked! The witness is holding
three cards with the three different
predictions! Fig. 6

While you are holding only two cards. The top card reads St.
Louis while the second card reads 149 (not shown).

4
 7. Collect the three all alike cards from the audience and
place them on top of the two cards you are holding. This is quite
easy and hardly noticed since you are moving about in the
audience.

8. Take out the bottom card and ask, "What was the number
chosen?" Your witness says "149!" "149 it is!" You say and
show the card around and then toss the card on the table. Repeat
with the other two cards taking cards from the bottom of the
stack. At the end you will be holding two cards that contain the
same word "what" written on them. While the audience is in
shock, place the two cards writing-side down on the table without
fanfare and continue with the rest of the show. After the
show pick up the two 'word' cards and pocket them or throw them
into your briefcase. But even if the audience was to see the
two 'word' cards, they will be at a loss as to the solution.

The three cards your witness is holding can also be left on

the table. If the audience picks up these cards after the show
they will find nothing amiss and will have your business card.
* * * End of Miracle.

The reader may vary the presentation as he wishes. You may

want to force a number instead of a word. My experience has been
that it is better to force a word. Some spectators will choose
a long word to make you sweat. While giving the audience a
choice of any number between 100 and 1000 sounds dramatic and the
three digit number is easy to copy twice in the pretence of
writing it once.

You may want to use a small clipboard to hold the cards.

But again experience teaches that you have a greater control of
the cards by holding them in your hand.

Since the number is the only one that is written twice, I do

not recommend a double writer. Keep it simple. The least number
of gimmicks you use the better.

THe Table Bilett Switch exposed by walter

Gibson in Popular Mechanics
(circa 1926)

5
Tel. 304-947·mO
P.O. Box 155
Great Cacapon, WV 25422

est in ~ircle$
THE TEST: A sheet of newspaper
is saddled over a two-way display
easel, Fig. 7. Both the back and
front of the easel is flashed to the
audience and shown to contain no
markings. One spectator is told to
draw a small black circle on the
part of the newspaper showing. A
second person is told to draw a
small red circle on the back of the
newspaper sheet not showing. The Fig. 7
Mentalist predicts
I the words
circled.

Solution: The newspaper

sheet is gaffed. Note that only
the bottom half of the newspaper
sheet is showing after it is
mounted on the easel. The top
half that is on the other side
of the easel and not showing is
gimmicked by first drawing a
a small circle with a red ink
marker and then sliting the
column with a sharp knife above
and below the circle as shown in
Fig. 8. A piece of column, Fig.
9, is then inserted into the
Fig. 8 , li'~
iIiIliiI!
~.,
slits to cover the red circle. Fig. 9 ~~
g1!&
NOTE that the gimmicking is hard to see so that the easel can
be shown to the audience front and back for a flash moment.
The easel need not have legs. A two sided display board can
be just placed on a table.
The easel with the newspaper sheet must be prepared before

6
the show. After the piec~ of column is inserted over the red
circle, a small piece of double sided scotch tape is fixed to the
back of the piece of news column, Fig. 9, just behind the word
"Airlines." And the scoth tape is fixed to the easel, so that
when the newspaper sheet is lifted from the easel the short piece
of news column will stay behind exposimg the red circle.

You will also need a black ink marker that marks, plus a red
ink markergone dry that does not mark. Plus a small paper pad
with the top three sheets blank and the fourth sheet containing a
small red circle. You must remember one of the words circled in
red on the newspaper sheet.

THE PRESENTATION: You will do a test with a newspaper, you

say. Call one person forward and then draw a small black circle
on the top sheet of your paper pad making sure that the audience
sees you drawing the black circle. Give the black ink marker to
the person and tell the person to please draw a circle of about
the same size anywhere on the visible part of the newspaper
sheet. But first you say, I will write some thing by way of a
prediction. You write "One word circled in red will be 'where' on
the second sheet of your paper pad. Tear the sheet off and fold it
in half and place it aside under an ash tray, for example.

After the black cicle is drawn, tell the person to choose

any word in the circle. This word is called out to the audience.
Say it is 'whatever.'

Have another person come forward as you write your second

prediction· on the third sheet of your paper pad which reads, "The
black circle will contain the word "Whatever." Tear off this
sheet, fold it and place it together with the first one under the
ash tray.
Watch your angles for now the red circle is exposed on the
top sheet of' your pad. Hold the sheet close to your chest. And
then pretend to draw a small circle on your pad with the gone-dry
red ink marker and show the circle that is alredy there to the
person. Give him the gone-dry red ink marker and tell him to draw
a small circle about that size on the other side of the easel but
with out moving the easel. In other words he has to reach over
the top of the easel and make his circle sight unseen.

Take back your marker and lift the sheet of newspaper from
the easel by pulling it upwards. That leaves the short piece of
column behind attached to the easel and the red force circle can
now be seen. Show your predictions triumphantly.

With a bit of thought you can present this effect as a test

in mindreading. You simply write the messages after the VIPS have
read the circled words while standing across the floor from him ••