Peter Turner Psychological Playing Card Forces
Peter Turner Psychological Playing Card Forces
Peter Turner Psychological Playing Card Forces
Welcome
Firstly thank you for purchasing this document, please refrain from
sharing this. Enjoy it and be selfish - You know you want to.
Introduction
I’m sat in the Ring ‘O’ Bells public house in Queensbury age 12, it
was the night I passed my 3000 meter swimming badge.
I had been performing card tricks on the locals and had a deck of
EMU playing cards sat on the table when I was approached by one of
the locals and asked if I wanted to see a trick. Of course I jumped
at the opportunity – Watching magic effects at the time was almost
impossible. My nan/ aunty didn’t drive so wasn’t able to take me to
shows and the only effects I had ever seen were the ones I had seen
on VHS which I had borrowed from the magic stall I worked at. The
chance to see an effect in person for me was as exciting as
Christmas coming!
He picked up the deck of cards went through them and laid one card
facedown. He explained that he was going to get me to guess the card
on the table – Yeah right I thought.
He asked me the colour of the card, the suit and finally the value -
no equivoque or procedure just as fair as fair gets. He was grinning
from ear to ear and asked me to turn it over, I did and you guessed
it – It was the card I had named!
You all know the feeling, that feeling of wonder, awe and shock that
reminds you why you got into magic in the first place.
Let’s take the ‘Classic force’ – for those reading that don’t know
the classic force, it is essentially a way of spreading the deck and
ensuring that whatever card you want the spectator to choose from
the spread they will. Whilst there is an amount of psychology
involved in the classic force, in a nut shell it is essentially
pacing the spread and pushing the card you want subtly into the
participant’s hands without them suspecting a thing.
The honest answer is no, but with practice you can be close – All of
these forces are carefully crafted in order to enable you to be as
close to being sure fire as possible. I have also provided outs so
that you never need to worry about these forces failing.
I also feel this is where the fun is, trying and seeing how close
you get. If at first you don't succeed all you have to do is try
again.
I often find with these type of routines the best out is the age old
line - "I think from that, I can see exactly how you think".
Then you move into something that you know is 100% sure fire. When
these do hit, you have inexplicable miracles that I guarantee people
will talk about.
This is the age old question, I have answered this question in the
past and I will briefly outline what I have expressed before – Don’t
worry I will keep it brief as I know you will want to get into the
content.
It all depends on the way you frame what it is you are performing,
in one of my earlier releases I released ‘Getting to know you’ A
tarot-esque effect using playing cards (cartomancy) not one person
would ever assume that was a trick because of its esoteric nature.
Read a few of the effects explained in here, I guarantee that your
audience will never assume what they experience is a trick.
After we have forced the suit this means that we are then only left
dealing with 1-13 which is when you think about it not really a huge
range.
Equivoque
This is the simplest way to force the suit, yet the least
imaginative - Great if you want to be sure fire.
There are many different scripts for the equivoque of the suit of
the playing card. This is the way that I do it and is in my opinion
the simplest and most logical.
For the point of an example let me outline how to force the heart.
Participant: “Red”
Do not ask the last question if the person you are working with has
been difficult before this point. It is quite a bold question, most
people won’t change their mind so I don’t mind asking questions like
this, this is a key question we will come back to time and time
again. Chan Canasta (if you haven't seen his performances go check
them out on youtube as you would be mad not to it’s a lesson in
things like this).
You can slightly change the question - This is also something I use
frequently as it ensures no one will change their mind.
Performer: "Are you sure that is your decision, you can change your
mind if you don't think it was your own, feel free".
Performer: “We have hearts and diamonds take one of them from me”.
This is quite a bold question but I have never had anyone say no.
Performer: "I asked you to choose a colour you said red, I asked you
to choose a suit and you said heart and I even offered you the
opportunity to change your mind. I don’t think this could be any
fairer. Had you chose black you would have been on a completely
different colour and therefore the outcome would have been entirely
different.
Performer: “You were asked to take one away and you decided to take
the diamond are you sure that’s the one you want to take away?”
Again this is quite a bold question but I have never had anyone say
no.
Performer: “Well that obviously leaves us with the heart, had the
series of events been different the outcome would have been
different, you were asked to choose a colour and you said red, you
were then asked to choose a suit you decided you wanted to keep the
heart. Had you chose black, which you could have done you would have
been somewhere entirely different”.
If you have each of these scripts rehearsed smoothly and you move at
a nice pace then no one is ever going to notice a bump with the
questions that you are asking.
Check out David Berglas' work on Equivoque, Mark Elsdon and Joshua
Quinn also have a series of interesting ideas using equivoque.
The two most psychologically chosen suits are heart and club, by
killing one of them suits it practically forces the other.
If you want to force a red card all you have to do is place a black
card on the face of the deck and casually flash it. As mentioned
above heart and club are the most frequently chosen, so if you place
a club on the bottom of the deck it will force a red card (a heart
more frequently) and if you place a heart on the bottom of the deck
it will have the reverse effect and will force a black (a club
mostly).
This has an added effect if you say while casually flashing the card
“I am going to try put a playing card in your mind”.
If you don’t want to use a deck of cards when performing and just
want to go for the reveal on a piece of paper/ billet you can always
verbalise a suit to kill it.
Here is an example.
Obviously to force a black card you would replace the word club in
the above script for heart.
Before you aim to force a suit (this is more tailored for the bolder
suit variations) casually drop in –
Performer: “I will even let you change your mind at any point”.
When it comes to them calling a suit out loud now. If they call the
wrong one out you can give yourself a second/ third chance by simply
saying,
This means in theory you can at this point if you are not feeling as
bold or you are practicing move into equivoque.
To get the participant to blurt the suit out all you have to do is
look at them and say “All I want you to do is think what’s the suit?”
Accent the “whats the suit?” so it sounds like you want them to tell
you and they will blurt it out.
There are two approaches for this: one is the simple and effective
approach and the other is the bold approach. I will let you decide
which one you think I prefer.
Variation #1
This variation is something you will have to just try to see the
effectiveness of it. It is essentially a verbal subtlety that
ensures you know the order in which the participant changes their
mind. It is a clever take on “restricting without seeming
restrictive.”
The participant gets slightly less from this than the audience, but
it flies straight under the radar so I never worry.
Performer: “To make sure you know the four suits, can you say them
out loud for me?”
As you say the word “suits,” snap once close to your body, snap a
second time a few inches from the first time and then snap a third
and fourth time, each time a little farther than the last time you
snapped.
Because you used a specific word in your scripting, the word “cycle,”
the participant won’t change the order of the suits they committed
to when they named them out loud (in this example I used CHaSeD
order). This means they will constantly go around CHaSeD order
(don’t worry, there is a video link in a moment).
For example, let’s say you want to force a Club and the participant
has said the suits out loud in CHaSeD order. Address the
participant:
Performer: “Visualise the first suit in your mind and get ready for
me to snap my fingers.”
This will let the participant know to think of the Club and that
when you snap they are to start stepping through the cycle they
chose.
Now all you have to do is snap count along in your head. Snap
(Heart), snap (Spade), snap (Diamond).
Go around as many times as you like. Slow down on the last few,
ensuring you stop on Club.
When you do stop them on the Club and address the participant:
Performer: “Be 100% honest, you didn’t know you would be thinking of
a playing card?”
Participant: “No.”
Performer: “Therefore there is no way I could have known the order
in which
you would have decided to change your mind?”
Participant: “No.”
Look at how sneaky the questioning is: it will lead the audience to
believe that the participant could have changed their mind in any
order, when in fact they really couldn’t. If you are bold you could
make the participant promise that they will not change the suit and
then almost pressure them to admit they could have changed to any
suit in any order.
Before anyone takes the word “pressure” out of context, I don’t mean
instant stooge or control/manipulate; I mean use of clever questions
like the questions above.
At this point you can openly produce (in a non-magical sense) the
card you forced.
Additional idea
Stand the participant away from the group so they are facing the
group of witnesses.
After the participant has called out the four suits and you have
explained they are going to cycle through them when you snap, face
the participant for a few seconds (ensuring the witnesses cannot see
your mouth).
When you snap the first time, mouth the word “Club,” then snap again
and mouth the word “Heart,” then snap and mouth “Spade,” snap and
say “Diamond” and then finally snap and say “Club.” NOTE: You would
be mouthing them in the order that they specified out loud.
Continue to snap and they will follow the order with no problems
whatsoever. This will ensure that they will stop on the exact suit
you would like. This is a very simple touch, but when you take this
principle and you stretch it, there are many wonderful applications.
Variation #2
Natural selection
If you ask a women to pick a suit the likeliness is she will go for
the heart, a man will go for a club. This plays a massive favour in
making your choices seem so much fairer, I have realised that it is
nicer to ask someone to pick a suit and then jazz to get them to
change should it not be the suit you want them to choose (which I
will also outline below).
Let me give you an example of a context where this would play a big
part. Let’s say that someone has thought of a playing card then
removed that card from the deck and placed it face down on the table.
You know the card is the seven of clubs (I will detail this kind of
routine later) – I would then naturally point to a male to perform
the psychological force on knowing they would more than likely go
for a black suit. If the card that came out of the deck was red, I
would choose a women knowing that she would go for a red.
You could take this a step further let’s say a diamond comes out of
the deck and you have turned to a women to go for the suit. You know
the likeliness is she will go for a heart, instead of asking her to
call a suit out loud ask her to think of one.
When she says she is look at her for a second and then say:
Performer: “Stay with whatever colour you are on and change to the
other suit from within that colour”.
Performer: “So do you want to stay with the suit you are on now, or
do you want to go back to YOUR (emphasise the word your) first
instinctive choice. It is essential that you leave knowing each and
every decision you make is yours and no one elses”.
This will almost always get them to go back to their original choice.
You can use the same logic for the blacks also.
When they do get close act excited and like you didn’t expect it.
It seems more genuine and impressive for them to be close and not
bang on the first time.
It is also the same with the values, if you hit the suit bang on but
you are one out on the number I would never worry about it for the
reasons described above.
Al Baker – The finger knows and tells
This is not easy and requires a lot of practice but I think it works
so beautifully to work out what suit a participant is thinking about.
I would first ask them to think of a suit, ignore the value -
You have to ask the participant to hold their palm face up, you then
touch their index finger (with your index finger) and say, “this is
club”, touch their middle finger “heart”, ring finger “spade” and
finally touch their Pinky “Diamond”. I want you to think of the suit
of the card you are thinking of and which finger it relates to.
Then say,
This is where you will touch their fingers again with your index
finger, touch each finger in turn lightly and feel for the finger
that stands out as being different. Whilst tapping the tip of each
upturned finger gently repeat “Making that one finger stand out”.
Some people will force their finger up; some people will make their
finger stiffer, some people softer.
Once you think you have determined what suit you think the
participant is thinking of go through the deck and then take out the
value you want to force (with the suit that matches the
participants). Then you use the psychological force to force the
value.
Multiple outs
Let’s use the number Seven as a good example, place the club, heart
and spade into your pocket (Let’s pretend it is a breast pocket) the
face of the club would be closest to your chest, followed by the
heart, and then the spade. This ensures that when you pull the cards
out the back is facing the participant (giving you a ta-da moment)
leave the diamond inside the deck.
When you are in performance mode, run through the deck and find the
seven of diamonds and pull it out of the deck (back toward the
participant). Place the card into your pocket at the back of your
little stack.
It really doesn’t matter what suit the participant goes for now, you
just pull the relevant card out of your pocket.
Think of this from the participant’s perspective, they have seen one
card go in and seen one card come out. This is by far the easiest
option and reduces the force down to 1-13 not one in 52.
Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card (pause) but then changed to
a red”.
That script is all you need in order to hit the colour 100% of the
time.
Look at it again.
Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card” (pause) – There is a very
important reason for the pause, if the participant reacts it is a
hit. You never counter with the rest of the sentence.
If the participant doesn’t react then you counter with, - “but then
you changed to a red” on paper this might seem obvious but in the
real world this plays perfectly. The timing here is super important,
you need to learn to pace this in such a way that it flows
unnoticeably. This will give you two hits not one making it more
impressive from the participants point of view.
This is not the only place that you can use this principle, any
outcome that has a 50/50 outcome you can apply it.
I would then use a guess for the suit or the wash principle.
The Wash Principle
“Imagine drawing the number in the air; imagine seeing all the
different lines and the way the number is constructed.
This is where you pick one of the odd numbers and start to draw the
lines in the air. (We will pretend we chosen 5.)
Start to draw the number largely in the air remember to draw it from
their perspective so you are in essence drawing it backwards.
Even if you didn’t hit, you corrected yourself and therefore have
NEVER missed. The theatrics are beautiful here also as it really is
just two minds working in unison.
You can see how this would be useful if you are torn between two
cards when you are performing a psychological card force. I would
use this in comparison with several of the forces in this book just
to test for a sure outcome.
If you are using a deck of cards you can create a simple multiple
out to ensure the suit hits perfectly.
All you have to do is get the colour of the card using the above
principle (lets for example say the card is red) – Cull the most
likely seven to the top (the heart) and the diamond to the face.
Place the cards face down and perform your psychological card force.
It’s now a case of asking them to turn over the top card or you
casually turning the entire deck over.
This is the perfect way to round this up when you get down to the
colour. It is so fair and so clean that it makes the process seem
impossible from everyone’s perspective. I honestly think it is too
good!
The Values
The values are not going to be written up in order; each value will
be present and accounted for. Some of the values are easier to force
than others and therefore I will outline them first and then the
other values after.
Piggybacking
Here are a few ways to do that – And make it seem like they could
have chosen a picture card too. It needs to seem they could have
chosen any card from 1-52.
As mentioned earlier, the black card will kill the black suits and
the 3 will kill the number three – You can however use one of the
other methods described for the suit so that you don’t have to worry
about using a deck.
Clear your mind and think of a number from one to ten stick with it.
Have you got one?”
Participant: “Yes”.
Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you’d like change it to a picture card”.
[Watch carefully for the participants eyes - If they move then the
likeliness is that the participant is changing.]
It really doesn’t matter though as you could if you wanted just ask
if the participant is happy
Performer: “If you are happy, just say I am happy and we will go
from there”.
This is one process not two and makes forcing the number seven a lot
easier.
When you ask them to name a suit out loud now as you pointed to 3
earlier and said “obviously don’t go for that” - without you having
to say they will automatically assume that the club is also too
obvious and therefore avoid it also.
Let me explain why this will work most of the time, you have killed
off the number three, two is close to three as is four. You have now
restricted their choice from 1-10 right down to 4-10.
To ensure you get them to seven it’s relatively easy if they are a
couple out either way. Before you go to force the number seven all
you need to add is this line.
If they went for 8 it is obviously one away from where we want them
to be. So just smoothly add –
Then you can be bold and let them choose, use Michael Murray’s
Tombola, use equivoque or my personal favourite is to get the other
people to vote and count the votes. If there are more for the 7
stick with it and use the mass vote if there are more for the number
9 simply say to the participant –
Performer: “Look at what everyone else has gone for, the number 9
which would suggest that, the number 9 is the more popular choice,
so it boils down to you. Do you want to go with everyone else’s
choice or do you want to go with the 7 and go against what everyone
else would choose.
The reason I am asking is I want this to be as random and fair as
possible”.
You can see here just how many opportunities I am opening for myself
to get back to that number, it is almost in essence like the trick
that can’t be explained.
I never worry about anything I just roll with it, I have learnt in
one way or another they will always end up where I want them to be.
Remember one thing though, ham up the process of everything else I.E
– The selection of the participant, get everyone to vote on someone
and then change their minds and then ask ask if it is fair and if
the group want to change. This gets them used to voting and making
selections and therefore when you want to have a slightly lengthier
process when it comes to the selection of a value or a suit it stays
congruent.
Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you want change it to a picture card”.
You can stop them ever going for a picture card very easily and at
the same time make it seem like they had the choice to if they are
wanting to.
Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you want change it to a picture card. In-
fact (jump in before they have the opportunity to change), just go
up by one from where you are now”.
This will obviously force an eight (if they were thinking of seven).
Performer: “Now even you didn’t know that you would have been
thinking of this value, so there is no way I could of”.
You can use this for the rest of the values surround the number
seven.
I would never personally use this for more or less than three.
I will outline other methods to force these cards also, so that you
are not just restricted to piggybacking in this way.
You can also use the number 7 to get someone to jump in the opposite
direction (just like you did with the three). By placing the seven
on the face of the deck you can use that card as the focus.
They won’t go for nine now as you have mentioned it and they will
jump back to a three or a four. Simply using the “but then you
principle” you will know exactly out of the two which one they went
for.
For those who missed it, here is a simple script to deduce which.
Performer: “With you I know you changed your mind, you went for an
even number (Pause) then changed it for an odd one”.
This is another way to force the number 3 or the number 4; you can
from here piggyback and take the participant from this number 3 in
either direction.
Then get to the point in the effect where you know what number they
are thinking of and proclaim:
Without any fishing the performer can name the thought-of playing
card, or if desired, have it as the only card in a completely
examinable wallet.
The performer also says very little and only talks when he is
instructing the participant.
The performer then asks the participant to take that letter and to
think of a country that starts with that letter.
Breakdown
(I think) about how to take things that are not considered useful
within a specific art and, with a little bit of work and refinement,
make them incredible and totally practical.
The original concept goes back to the “stop force” or “timing force”
using playing cards. Don’t worry, this effect isn’t done using any
cards at all, but to understand how it works you need to understand
the timing force.
To start with I will explain how the stop force is done with playing
cards (after all, this is a great way to practice the pacing).
At first this will seem bold, but I promise once you have the timing
down, it is so easy and will work 99% of the time.
Take a deck of playing cards and place a force playing card in the
sixth position. When you are sitting with a participant, start to
deal down at a moderate pace.
When you have dealt two cards, look at the subject and say:
(Say it in a tone that suggests that they should have known they
were saying stop. Their brain will freak out at this point and they
will say stop on the sixth card.
Get the pacing down, and once you have, you can force any number.
The card they stop at will always be four cards after you have said,
“Yeah, say stop.”
That is, if you want to force the tenth card, then use the stop line
after the sixth card and then they will stop on the tenth.)
Once you have gotten used to the pacing and you’re comfortable, you
are ready to practice the Increment Force. Here is the
scripting/difference between the Timing Force and the Increment
Force.
“If I ask you to think of moving your arm, I don't want you to do it,
just think of it. Stay as inanimate as possible; don't blink, nod or
say anything out loud.”
(This may sound like overkill, but it's essential and it ensures
things go the way we want.)
Performer: “I am going to touch the air like this (tap a full stop
in the air). Every single time I touch the air like this (touch a
different spot in the air), I want you to imagine letters of the
alphabet going up in increments.”
Touch the air while simultaneously saying, “A,” touch the air again
and simultaneously say, “B,” and repeat for C.
Whilst doing this, remember the pace of dealing down the cards as
the same pace is going to apply theoretically; it is like you are
dealing invisible playing cards into the air (without making a
dealing motion).
This will force them to verbalise a Yes or nod their head. When they
do you want to remind them:
Start to touch the air (implying the same pace as you would deal a
playing card onto the table).
This will force the letter “F” (or somewhere in that very near
vicinity)—I rarely miss on this. Continue to touch the air but
increase the pace after a few letters, and when you have estimated
you have counted all the letters, wipe the air clean. The number of
touches really doesn’t matter as the participant stops counting
after they have Stopped on a particular letter.
(This will subtly suggest that you went through the entire alphabet
and the subject had the free choice to stop anywhere. More
importantly, this is beautifully theatrical.) Address the
participant:
Participant: “Yes.”
I would like to remind you that you are not just limited to forcing
the letters in the region of the letter “F.” Here is an example of
how you could force the letter “I.”
Continue to touch the air until you point to the letter “E” and then
apply the line, “Yeah, think stop.” This would force the letter “I.”
The reason this works is it forces the participant to just stop a
few letters after the letter “E.”
If you wanted to force another letter for whatever reason, it’s easy
as long as you remember this line: “A few before.” What do I mean by
that?
The force for the value of a playing card would be done in the exact
same manner. I always force the Six of Clubs. I just apply the
forcing line after the number 2.
As you can see this force relies on the old timing force. If you
move the number up by one (when you say, you think stop wherever you
want) then they will stop one number later. In the example depicted
above you can see that I forced the number 6 after asking them to
think stop after I had called the number 3, if I had said for them
to think stop after the number 4 they would have stopped on seven.
For obvious reasons I would not ask them to think stop on seven as I
prefer the outlined method. I generally do this to force the number
5, 6 or 8.
Again stopping them on any of these numbers I can use these numbers
to piggyback 3 in any direction from these numbers.
The number 3 / 4
Forcing these numbers are as easy as forcing the number 7 – You are
just going to work in reverse, placing a seven on the face of the
deck (or verbalising a seven).
This is a lovely little force created by Lloyd that will allow you
to force the eight/ nine of clubs.
Performer: “As a kid I used to go outside and look at the clouds and
be able to see all sorts of amazing imagery. Did you ever do that?”
The hardest cards in the deck to force are the aces, I will cover
them last. The preference is to never have to force the aces and
therefore they could in theory be eliminated.
Let’s take a look at the picture cards, let’s start with the easiest
picture card to force – The Jack of Spades.
This is what you will use if you want to piggy back to get them to
go for a queen or a king later.
Performer: “Playing cards have been used for many things over the
years, they were used in cartomancy or tarot as it is more popularly
known, they were used for things that were a lot more esoteric than
just playing card games.
So excluding the aces think of what you would consider the most
mysterious card in the deck”.
Wait till the participant has committed to a playing card, then say,
Performer: “For me the three of diamonds would be the most
mysterious as it represents the magic number, the number of all
things strange. What do you consider the most mysterious card in the
deck”.
You can of course test the water, and force them towards a picture,
should you think you have missed. This is as simple as saying,
Then all you have to do is reign them into thinking of the picture
and you are almost home free.
To force the queen there are a few ways to do it, if you are working
with a female participant if you ask her to name a card out loud the
chances are she will go for this card. You can up the probability by
asking her what her favourite card is.
The number 2 / 5
These are relatively easy numbers to force. The trick with forcing
these cards is to focus on them being more difficult to guess (from
the participant's point of view) this makes them easy to force.
I have noticed that when I say to someone "I want you to think of a
card inside the deck but make it one you don't think I could just
guess and feel free to change your mind, so if you went for 8 for
example you would see it largely and clearly in the front of your
mind" - This forces the number two or the number five. It sounds so
simple, yet it is one of the most natural forces - This one is right
up there for me with the jack of spades and 7 of hearts force.
You have to use the questioning outlined, to gather which of the two
they have gone for.
You can also use this to force the number ten, if you know they have
gone for a low number (because you have used questioning) you can
then get them to jump to a higher number adding - "Again making it
one you don't think that I could easily guess" this will force them
to go for a 9 or a 10.
Participant: “Yes”.
Performer: “If you don’t think this is a fair choice feel free to
change your mind, let the sceptic in you come out. Think of one you
don’t think I would ever be able to guess”.
By reading this you should see why it forces the person to think of
that playing card! Simple but sweet and effective.
Pay attention to the pause, you are pausing there so they start to
think of their favourite card and then you add or your least
favourite as they have already started to think of their favourite
they are not going to change their mind.
I have never seen this sort of force done with the pause but there
is something really beautiful that you have just done.
You have now enabled yourself when the participant tells you that
they are thinking of a card you can now say –
Performer: “There is no way I could know what card you are thinking
of, it could be your favourite, your least favourite or one you just
selected at random”.
As you can see this is a simple but elegant way to not make it seem
obvious from the audience’s perspective as the last card is the only
thing they will remember.
Aces
These are the hardest cards to force and also the least impressive I
would recommend staying away from forcing these cards. But I am
going to outline how you can force them should you ever need to.
The first way is to simply pressure someone to name the first card
that comes to mind. If the person is not familiar with playing cards
the likeliness is they will go for the ace of spades.
Performer: “I don’t know what game you were playing and I certainly
don’t know what card you have dealt yourself, as I said all the
cards mean something different”.
Missing
If you are not particularly bothered about what playing card you are
forcing, here is a lovely force that is impossible to backtrack when
performed smoothly.
Performer: “As you know I am not a magician and don’t really know
any tricks, but I would like to try an experiment. In the 1920s they
used to test for psychic ability by transmitting playing cards
mentally.
If the receiver got close they would count it as a hit and that
would be enough proof to declare that the person was the real deal.
Ribbon spread the cards on the table the wider you spread them the
better.
Look up and down the deck and then give you a yes! This will tell
you within about 7 cards the participant’s card.
This means that you know the area the card has come from, notice a
card from that area and remember it that will be your key card. Cut
to that card.
Pick up the deck and cut to that card, that way you have the region
of the card they are thinking of.
Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card (pause) but then changed to
a red”.
Don’t move any of the cards just yet, just remember later to get rid
of the non-chosen coloured card from the stack surrounding your key
card.
Performer: “Knowing you, you probably thought the picture cards were
too obvious (pause) and therefore
[Keep your eyes on the participant’s reaction they will tell you!
They will nod or say yes that they did think that if they are
thinking of a number. If they are thinking of a picture they will
sort of bow their head. The way they react dictates the way you are
going to end your sentence.]
If they nod or give you the green light mid-sentence (to tell you
that they are not thinking of a picture) finish the sentence with,
If they bow their head and look like your assumption was wrong, then
quickly counter with:
Performer: “But you know that I know they would be too obvious so
you tried to double bluff me and went with a picture card”.
If there is only one picture in your little stack you know exactly
which card they are thinking of. If not this will eliminate the
picture card/ cards that are in your hand, either way you will know
if it’s a number or a picture and the colour of the card they are
thinking about.
The questions above dictate what cards are left in your hand there
should only be 2-3. Using clever questioning you should be able to
get exactly what the card is.
If you place your card in a stack then you don’t need to readjust
the order of the deck, you can just clock your key and then you
already know the cards around the stack.
Which means everything can be done mentally and you don’t need to
even touch the deck (other than to pull the deck out at the end to
reveal the card).
Another simple yet elegant force is a jump force, I use this all the
time and is my favourite card reveal/ psi force.
If you watch you will notice they will often verbalise when they
have done - telling you if they were first thinking of red or black.
Lucky lucky
Before you move into this type of routine during for example a pin
divination – address the participant.
Performer: “I want you to take into account what you think you know
about people and I want you think of a playing card I couldn’t just
guess. The ace of spades or Queen of hearts might be too obvious.
Tell me when you have a card in mind”.
You have placed a card on the table, six of clubs is perfect for
this.
Practice
Once you have failed at this type of thing you realise that it is
not the end of the world, I feel without a safety net you will try
harder to make it hit.
Premise
This is the most important part of this booklet; it’s what you do
with these forces that make them special here are a few premises and
ways to perform using these forces.
Everyone has their own performing style and preference on how they
would like this type of thing to be perceived.
Think for a few minutes about what you would do with these forces,
think about how you would use these forces in context. I have
outlined a few ways I like to perform these routines I hope you love
them.
Twin telepathy
The main thing to remember here is to not use the same force on both
of the participants which is tempting as it seem the most logical
route.
With the first participant I would use the increment force and stop
them on the heart (if the second participant is female) club (if
male) so the first participant would be thinking of the six of
hearts (or clubs) I would then force the seven on the second
participant and use piggybacking to get them to go down by one.
In this type of routine it doesn’t matter if one goes for the heart
and one goes for the diamond. Or one goes for spade and one goes for
club. Just use the techniques outlined above to ensure that the
second participant goes for a suit of the same colour.
If you wanted to ensure that the first participant goes for the same
card as the second you could always use a marked deck, ribbon spread
it facedown and then ask the first participant to slide a card out
facedown and keep it face down.
Read the marking and then just force the relevant playing card on
the second participant.
Bold
In this context you can always use the age old one ahead should the
first card not hit and try to hit the second one.
For the people that don’t know what the one ahead is, let’s say I
have placed the four of clubs down and the participant has gone for
the six of spades I would then pretend to the participant that
everything has gone perfectly and then without turning the card over
I would then go through the deck pulling the six of spades out and
then aim to force the four of clubs again.
This will give me a second chance should I have failed the first
force.
Another way out of this situation is when they name the card out
loud, if it is the wrong card don’t worry simply go through the deck
and cull their card to the top and apply a simple top change. If you
are not mechanically that great then place theirs on the top of the
deck and ask them if they want to look at it.
Burnt Memories
We will be using this in the context of asking them if they want to
look at the card or not, not in the context it is described here.
But you should fully understand how it would work in context after
reading this.
Fold the billet and then place it into a match box. Add two matches
to the box.
Place the small matchbox into your pocket and you are set.
Save this piece until it feels right, (for example at the end of a
reading or performance) turn to one of the females and address her.
If I could write down just one thing that would prove undoubtedly
that all of this is very much real, could you think of what that one
thing would be?
Hold the participant’s hand for a few seconds while just looking at
her - right into her eyes.
Performer: “You know they say that the eyes are the window to the
soul”.
Remove the matchbox, slide out the drawer and unfold the billet
ensuring that the writing on the inside is hidden.
I told him that it was Christmas soon and Santa was going to be
visiting and he looked at me and said you do know Santa is not real
right?
I smiled and replied yeah of course I know but inside I was torn. He
had stripped away the only thing that made me feel a sense of wonder.
I left and went home and I was destroyed.
You may be wondering why I told you that story. The reason being
that it leads to this moment, where you get to make a choice.
You can take the box, slide out the piece of card and open it,
potentially risking it being wrong and if it is wrong you ruin this
moment for yourself.
Or,
You can give me the box back, just knowing that what I have written
is correct completely and there is no need to look at it because you
just know it is right and you will ultimately have a beautiful story
to tell of this exact moment for the rest of your life.
If they give you the box back, take out a match and strike it on the
side of the box and then burn the billet.
Think about the power this piece has psychologically. People might
open the box and read the content, they will feel bad that they did
and that is a massive lesson in itself.
For the people that don't open it, think of how powerful that is! It
is the stuff legends are made of and the box will become an amazing
part of their life and a story that they will tell whenever they get
the opportunity. Truly something that will last a lifetime.
Additional idea
I have the participant shuffle the deck of cards, mix them to their
hearts content name a card and a number and then deal down to that
number placing the card at that number face down away from the rest
of the deck.
I collect the rest of the cards up and proceed to tell the story
from above.
Performer: “You can turn the card over and risk me potentially being
wrong and ruin this moment for yourself or you can believe with all
of your heart that, this card is the right card. Pick it up and
place it back inside the deck without looking and you will always
have a beautiful story to tell of this exact moment.
Note** If they do decide to look at the card, tell them to slide the
card towards their chest and keep the outcome private no matter what
it is, so the mystery is left alive for everyone else.
Then take the card from them placing it inside the deck.
I have come to find that based on luck the card can be there and I
promise you, you will never get a reaction like it if it hits. If it
does not, because you have asked them to leave the mystery alive for
everyone else, everyone will always wonder if it was the right card.
Rarely people tend to turn over the card and the finish is one that
is super powerful.
That to me was a complete testament to how strong this piece was for
lay people and performers.
The Journey
I was sat in Blackpool 2013 (might have been 2012) and after just
holding court in the Ruskin, a young chap called Daniel approached
me and very boldly proclaimed that he didn’t believe the legends
that he had heard that surround me.
I had the year previous been doing these sort of effects over skype
and internet communications and had a complete admiration for such
things and it was refreshing to be able to hold court and showcase
them to my peers.
Back to the young chap, after making such a bold statement I told
him that I think he is missing the point. Mentalism is not about
fooling people with nothing – or fooling people with something, it
is about creating a moment that will last a lifetime.
He didn’t understand the point I was making and I told him I would
share with him what I meant but it would cost him 51 playing cards.
He handed me his deck of cards and I shuffled them and without
looking selected a card from the center of deck and placed it inside
the card box.
I was careful not to flash any of the other playing cards and
pocketed them.
I instructed Daniel to not open the box and to change his mind
through as many playing cards as he would like.
When he was watching other people perform take a few seconds to
change the card he had in his mind, when he went to the toilet
change his mind, when he stood at the bar waiting for a drink change
his mind, on the walk home to his hotel change his mind, before he
went to bed place the card box on the bed side table and change his
mind and when he woke up first thing in the morning change his mind
one more time and then slowly as he possibly could open the box.
I told him that whatever card he was thinking of would be inside the
box.
As soon as Daniel left a few friends of mine were sat at the table
and looked at me in disbelief also. How are you going to do that?
They asked.
I could end the story here and never tell you what I told my friends
after Daniel left that night and it would always be just a story.
One more moment where someone has a tale to tell that is so
impossible it couldn’t be true.
“It is not about it hitting, it’s about the fact that when everyone
else is performing tonight Daniel will be thinking about the card in
the box, when he goes to the toilet he will think about the card in
the box, when he walks home it will be in his thoughts, the last
thought he has when he goes to sleep is that playing card and then
the first thing on his mind when he wakes up and the few seconds
when he is slowly opening up the box is real magic. His brain doing
acrobatics saying “No way, no way, no way”.
The journey that got him to where he is going, the hit on the end is
merely just the end of the journey not nearly as important as how
they got there and what they felt in between. That is the real magic.
Anyway... I might just be the luckiest son of a bitch and the card
lands. Who knows? With that I slowly sipped a few more whiskies and
chatted the night away. I will leave you to decide if it was just
luck or something more, it sure meant I didn’t have to share the
secret (if there was one) to anyone then...
But that is a tale for another time. I really hope you understand
the value of this story.
Conclusion
As you can see there is a lot of fun to be had with using playing
cards in this context it really makes it seem so impossible. Also if
you are using the ‘reading the participant’s mind ploy’ it really
makes you seem like you would have a godly ability to play cards.
If you guys have any psychological forces that you would love to
share or would love adding in the revised version of this document
email me –
Peterturnermind@hotmail.co.uk