Danny Proctor
This effect is one I perform all the time. It is perfect because it takes up almost no space and makes you look like a real Mind Reader or suggestionist. This whole performance came from my mind and my favorite book that Kenton put out called “Twists and Trances” which is available on his website. In Kenton’s book there is a section that shows different ways to apparently make the audience think that the person on stage is hypnotized when they are not. One of the pieces Kenton teaches deals with changing the flavor of a candy while someone is eating it. From that idea and brilliant book the following routine was born.
The Effect
“Who wants candy?”
This being said, you raise your hand as if in reply, so the audience will follow your motion (visual education - Kenton). It is important to see which people in the audience actually want candy and you can avoid anyone who doesn’t. There are possible health problems with candy for some people and you may run into others who dislike the use of sugar, so it’s best to see who wants to eat candy from the start. Just note who is willing to have some candy, but don’t call anyone up to help yet. This should look like a nearly rhetorical and offhanded remark, but it serves a secret purpose for you.
“Do you remember when you were five years old, going to the store and passing the candy aisle?
I mean, at that age candy reigned supreme. Think back to that age when candy was what life was all about. The grape or the lemon ones that made your mouth water (pause for a second to let the
mouths of the audience water) and the sour kind that made your mouth pucker...the chocolate candies too with colors on them, saving your favorite colors until the end, even though they all
tasted the same...”
Look at an audience member, gesture towards them and say
“Red, right.”
This is said in casual manner, but most likely red was one of the colors a person saved when they saved colored candies. It’s a little addition to the effect. You don’t worry about whether this comment hits or not. If it does hit though it gets a great laugh and sometimes the reactions are crazy like a big hit of Mind Reading. If not, your comment seems a casual aside.
“This all got me thinking about how interesting it is that our tastes get more refined...(looking at someone) I mean sir, you wouldn’t sit down and eat a whole bowl of candy often now would
you?”
Laughing, continue saying
“I remember sneaking into my grandmother’s purse and taking candies quite a bit...its funny how grandparents always have caramels or hard candy with them isn’t it?”
Go into the audience and look at three people whom you noted previously liked candy. I generally work with two women and one man. As you walk through the audience say
“Does anyone here have a sweet tooth?”
Bring the three people to the stage with a round of applause. A bowl of candy is off to one side of the stage. Grab three candies and toss them to the table, center stage.
While you look away the man is to grab the candies and pass them to the other two women. Once each has a candy they all place their candy into their mouths, and hide the wrappers in their pocket or purse. This way you have no clue who has which candy.
“Taste that candy now and notice the flavors filing your mouth. I want the audience to play along with me and try to pick up on what the people here are tasting.”
The three participants on stage stand in a row with the man in the center. You can reveal the flavors however you want for the two women. I usually write the two flavors on a large sign or board and stand behind the women. I hold the sign over their heads and ask them to name what they are tasting. The audience hears their answers and freaks out when they realize what I wrote is what the participants are tasting.
“Now you sir obviously have the raspberry because the other two had the grape and mint candies, so I want to try something a little different with you.”
I’m sure you will see Kenton’s Wonder Words at work here. You start to write the word
“GARLIC” so that the man cannot see it, still having him face the audience. You lift up the sign behind him so the audience can see, but the man still cannot as you say
“As you are chewing, now, notice the flavor of the raspberry start to change and morph into something else...and when you do notice something, some change, be sure to let us know!”
The participant then says GARLIC or “It tastes really nasty!” Give the man a glass of water and send him back to his seat to thunderous applause, along with the other two helpers. This appears to be telepathic influence or telepathic hypnosis, the sort of Kentonism thing, in which a written thought is felt by a participant. That’s the basic look and performance. Now for the rest of the secrets.
Method
Again, this is strictly based on a trick from “Twists and Trances” by Kenton. The two methods that are used are simply a so-called “Gypsy Peek” and a flavor changing candy. The original effect was that a candy changed flavor based on your hypnotic influence. Kenton has greatly influenced my thinking as I am sure you will see in this routine. The effect gets incredible audience reactions because people become involved as you talk about the days when candy was so important that it was what many of us related to most. This generates great rapport right away.
More rapport occurs as the audience raises their hands. Then too the mention of the lemon and sour candy get people in the audience to swallow because their mouth is watering. Kenton says that it is best if you imagine eating this sour candy as you speak about it yourself, and pause to allow the audience to react to this suggestion as you do too.
After that I occasionally talk about the trap I’m caught in because I hate lemon but love the banana flavor and candy companies make lemon and banana the same color so I just never get to taste banana anymore. It’s not worth the horrible surprise of getting a lemon taste when I wanted something sweet. You might add your own personal experience here instead.
There are three candies used for the effect. The bowl is filled with a large variety of candies and colored wrappers. The three candies I know I will use for the effect are placed on top of the rest of the candy in the bowl together, so I can grab these easily when needed. Grab these from the bowl like it’s nothing important, as if you’re just grabbing candies carelessly.
There is a special candy used in this effect, as suggested by Kenton. This is a novelty candy that you can get at joke and novelty shops. Kenton worked in a novelty and magic shop in his teens and he was around this sort of thing a great deal. When he got bored of being in the shop, he’d figure out how to turn the jokes into real stuff for his act. This candy is sold as “Fish Candy”
“Soap Candy” “Garlic Candy” and the like. At first this candy tastes normal enough, but slowly it turns nasty tasting. It may be difficult for a person to discern precisely what the nasty taste is when it happens, but when you hold up the GARLIC sign and the person starts to frown and say that the candy tastes horrible, that’s really all you need to sell the effect strongly.
These days you can find candy that changes flavors that does not come from novelty shops. They change from grape to cherry flavor, or cherry to lemon, and so forth. These can work too.
The women get the good tasting candy and the man gets the piece that changes taste. I incorporate a blindfolded type equivoque to make this happen so that the candy selection appears entirely random. It must appear random for the rest of the Mind Reading to be convincing.
After putting the three candies on the table, tell the man helping to grab one of the candies. You have him do this as you are looking away. In truth you do a Gypsy Peek. If you do not know what that is, essentially you place your thumb over one of your eyes letting your fingers rest over your other eye while it stays open and you can peek over to the side.
Kenton approaches this a little differently and has some fine touches to this peek. Kenton first closes both eyes, then places his thumb on his left eye, followed by his other fingers against his right eye. The fingers hold the eyelids down. Kenton says that in this way when he tries to open his right eye his fingers hold most of the eyelid down but his right eye can still see. It doesn’t take much of the eyelid opening to see what you need. You’ll probably feel like you can see too much and that it is obvious that your eye is open, but it isn’t. You look down and to one side with the right eye and you can see the table and candy clearly. Kenton also turns to the side somewhat, as if he is turning his back or turning away. This isn’t a complete turn, but audiences figure that Kenton can’t see so how would he know he isn’t turned away entirely?
Practice this, because it really is convincing. I have also done this blindfolded using a classic downward peek or Kenton’s Duct Tape Blindfold as I stared at the floor from far away, to be sure I could not see anything. That’s what the audience thinks, anyway. If you have Kenton’s Duct Tape Blindfold method, you know what I mean.
Now for the equivoque part. Equivoque is like a classic force in that it is more convincing and easier to get by with doing when people think you can’t see anything. When you secretly see the man grab the candy that changes flavor, tell him to take it for himself. Then invite one of the women to do the same as you peek her candy. At this point you know what the last candy is so you can legitimately close your eyes as the last woman takes her candy. If the man grabs a normal candy first just remember which one it is saying
“OK, do you have it? Great pass it to (Lady One).”
Then see which candy he grabs next. If the second candy is the other normal candy, then note the flavor again and tell him to pass it to Lady Two and the last candy is his. You get the point. Basic Magician’s Choice or Equivoque with only three items. It is very deceptive in this case as you do not appear to need to force anything at all, and your eyes are closed too, so everyone assumes you are allowing for free and very random choices of candy. The bowl with many different colors of candies and wrappers visible in it also serve as visual education that the possibilities of different kinds of candy and combinations are incalculable.
I always make sure that the man eats the changing candy and the women eat the normal ones, as in my experience the women will usually spit out the candy if it tastes nasty. Because many women seem to chew the candy right away, they get the less than pleasant taste too quickly and then spit the candy out, ruining the finale. Giving the man the changing candy has solved this issue for me.
You can let the participants grab whichever candy they want randomly instead. Have the candies placed on the table as you do the peek and do the reveals without the flavor change if a participant happens to spit their candy out early.
Some additional points are to never use the candies that change to “fish” taste! They are so bad it’s wrong to put someone through a truly horrible taste, so don’t do it. Garlic is bad enough. The candies that change flavor from something like orange to raspberry are my favorites now to use.
Also try out for yourself every different changing candy that you are considering using in the effect. Some changing candies change quickly. Others take a fair amount of time and the person on stage has to get to the center or chew it for it to change. Trying these out yourself a few times will tell you precisely how to handle the timing and taste of each candy.
Now that you know the main secrets go back and read again the routine to realize the finer points in the performance.
I would like to thank Kenton for all his work in the magic and mentalism because I am sure, as I am sure you are, that he has changed these fields for the better and brought these arts to new heights.
I have found this version to be a fun yet impressive routine and I wish you all the best in performing my variation. It plays very large and colorfully with nothing but small props. I am happy to say that Kenton himself is quite fond of it.
Kenton Comments
Danny, I am proud to name true “Students” as such when they realize both nuance and practicality in performance. You are a Student indeed.
This is a fine routine and a marvelous realization of Kentonism, in my view.
Many should be thrilled to go out and perform this immediately, though I suggest as you do that they take the time and experience the changing tastes of the candies so that they may accurately describe the experience to participants as well as know the correct timing in real performance.
Well done.
DieFecta
Danny Proctor
I tend to perform this as a close-up piece although I’m sure it could be adjusted for the stage. You are going to be able to practice three different techniques in this one effect. The first method is sound reading, the second is psychological elimination, and the last is pure presentation. Don’t let these worry you. Each is accomplished very easily in this situation and they are even more sure when you add in Kenton’s additions (which we’ll detail at the end of this description).
You start by drawing a die and leaving the face empty. A participant is to imagine a number on a die and when you are facing the other way they are to write on the face of the drawing of the die the number in their mind. Once they do so, you point to a prediction. It is a die sitting on a paper base. The participant names the number they chose. Let’s say that they name a five. You ask them to grab the die and they go wild because the die that has been in plain view the entire time is a die that has every face as a five!
I love this effect because it’s quick and easy to perform with very little preparation. The payoff is huge. The idea came to me when I was beginning to practice sound reading. I drew a three dimensional die, showing three faces. The front face is empty and I would listen to how many dots a person drew as their number on the black face area. Later I realized that the other two faces of the three dimensional die that had been left empty could be filled in instead. That cuts out the likelihood of a participant choosing these two of the six numbers, leaving their real choices to only four. It seems obvious when you know, but it is not so to a participant.
Here is how it looks when I drew the die impromptu on a lined pad of paper.
After many performances it dawned on me that with some simple scripting the choices can usually be brought from four numbers down to two numbers. When asking the participant to visualize a number on the face of the die say
“I want you to look at the face of the die and think of any number between one and six.
Okay, between one and six.”
When you say the numbers “one and six” say them a little louder, but not too much. That usually keeps the participant away from choosing the numbers one and six. The other two faces drawn on the three dimensional die show to the participant of course. When you draw the three dimensional box, put two dots on a downward angle as the right side die face. On the top face draw three dots facing at an upper angle from corner to corner. This eliminates the numbers two and three as choices. Notice how surely yet indirectly all of this influence occurs.
What remains is the four and five as number choices now. When you are facing away and have the participant draw their number on the die, you practice sound reading. Most of the time they draw five dots. It is easy to hear whether they draw four or five dots by sound reading.
When a participant draws five dots, mention the prediction you have in plain sight and tell them to grab the die. Each side of the die has FIVE spots on it. You can easily get dice with fives on every side from a magic or novelty shop. An all five die comes in the cheap sets of loaded dice.
When the participant draws four spots (and you hear that) you still bring attention to the prediction except now your prediction is the cardboard placemat under the die on the table. Grab the trick die and lift it off to show the cardboard has an exact drawing with the number they drew.
Additional Points
If you hear the participant draw a single dot or six dots, then just reveal it “telepathically.” In the event that your participant writes totally in silence you can do one of two things. First flat out ask for the number and take the small risk that it is something other than a four or five (which in my experience doesn’t usually happen).
You could do a center tear and get the number secretly and then reveal it in any way that you
You could do a center tear and get the number secretly and then reveal it in any way that you