Formulación del problema de investigación

Ben Blau

Effect

While the performer is out of the room, three gentlemen silently decide which one of them is going to hold an object in one of their two closed fists in front of him. The other two subjects also hold their two closed empty fists in front of themselves. The performer is fetched and returns to identify not only who is holding the object but which hand it is in – without asking a single question.

Verity

This is Ben’s pet routine that I’ve been trying to get him to publish since before “Prevaricator” was first published.

The combination of the “Prevaricator” ploy combined with Ben’s ground breaking “tell” work when playing

“Which Hand?” makes this among the strongest, legitimate, find the object routines I’ve ever seen. He’s finally allowing it to be revealed here for the first time in complete form.

As a professor of sound engineering at School Craft Community College alongside running his own recording studio, Ben primarily performs in social settings only. In these settings he knows how to command a room. This routine has been constructed primarily for the social environment instead of within a full formal show. It is my opinion that this is when “Prevaricator” plays most powerfully.

Ben begins by choosing three subjects. He displays a quarter and hands it off to one of the three subjects. He explains that he is going to leave the room. When he does the three are instructed to decide among themselves, which will hold the coin in one of their firsts. All three subjects are instructed to hold both closed fists in front of their body and call Ben back into the room.

Without asking any questions, Ben examines each subject one at a time placing focus on each giving him a chance to utilize the “Silent Prevaricator Ploy” .

If he observes two of the subjects ‘pointing’ towards the odd person out, it becomes obvious who has the coin. If these pointers don’t exhibit themselves, he has various “which hand?” techniques (“The Thumb Tell,”

“Equilibrium Tell” etc.) to fall back on in observing each person individually to determine which one holds the coin.

If the “Silent Prevaricator Ploy” does succeed, he proceeds into the various “Which Hand” techniques on one person heightening the success rate of the entire game.

If he is ever unsure about which hand of the six the coin is in, he may always get the possibilities down to two or three of those six hands. In these cases he either takes a guess of one, or if he’s wrong continues to eliminate hands that he is sure are empty.

What follows is a series of actions Ben took while I observed him performing these techniques with three people at my home.

Ben left the room and three of my friends Brian, Missy, and George were very careful to communicate with each other through hand gestures who would take the coin. Missy refused to pick up the coin and George seemed to insist that Brian take it. Brian is one of those people who is fairly difficult to read. I know; I practiced the “Which Hand” game with him on and off consistently for our entire ten (plus) year friendship! Until Ben shared with me some of his personal techniques, Brian tended to stump me the majority of the time. Each person assumed their positions, seated on the one side of the three-piece corner couch with their hands held closed in front of their bodies. Missy and Brian had their usual smugly-stunted expressions when put on the spot to participate in games like these. It had been about a year and a half since I last was able to spend time with Ben. We used to session and exchange ideas regularly until life got in the way. I was sat at the opposite end as I called Ben back into the room. I was eager to watch him work.

The first thing Ben did was to casually look at each person’s closed fist. Afterwards he told me he was looking for the thumb tell. He still ran through the other tells for reinforcement. He asked George to, “Keep your hands in front of you, but would you mind standing and moving over to here?” Ben was gesturing to a spot on the floor about three feet in front of the couch around the other side of my coffee table. It seemed as though George had barely gotten readjusted when Ben asked the same of Missy and Brian.

As each person moved he watched carefully to see if he could spot any of the three people exhibiting the

“Equilibrium Tell” as they moved. Having one person move followed by the other two together, makes watching for this tell easy enough. Watching three people at once is almost overwhelming.

Once everyone settled into their new spots Ben spoke to the three asking each, “While I want you to keep your arms out in front of you, I’d like you to each relax and try not to think about where the coin is. Whoever has that coin is going to give him or herself away. It may be in the face, it may be a sudden intake of breath, I’m not sure what it will be until it happens.” He stepped in front of George, locked eye contact and said, “Look at me.”

Pausing for a moment, until moving to the next person and doing the same. I smiled from the couch as he was obviouslybeginning to employ the “Silent Prevaricator Ploy” paying attention to the other two persons’ level of interest when directly engaging the third with, “Look at me.”

In this case, while George and Missy both looked at Brian eagerly while he answered, Brian also intently focused on George as he gave his answer giving a possible false reading. It didn’t matter as it seemed from Ben’s

perspective that it could be in one of two places: George or Brian. Brian’s left thumb was tucked under slightly (see “Thumb Tell”) and the entire hand was a bit more tense and white than it’s opposite. Both of George’s thumbs were tucked under.

“Open this hand…” Ben suddenly taps the back of George’s left hand whose fingers begin to open as it turns palm up, “…it should be empty.” Without missing a beat, he continued onto Missy’s right hand, “this should also be empty.” He was right. “Brian, your right hand is empty, open it. Missy you don’t have the coin at all, you may sit back down with Patrick.”

Ben was down to two people and two hands. The first fist was obviously a guess hoping he’d hit it out right.

He didn’t find it in the first try so he quickly readjusted the game flawlessly to finding empty hands. As soon as George began to open his hand before starting to turn it over (see “Open Re-adjustment”), Ben knew it couldn’t be in that hand and adjusted his script appropriately. I could tell Ben wasn’t completely sure whether Brian had it or George had it, though he had been confident it was in one of these two gentleman’s hands due to the

“Silent Prevaricator Ploy.” Brian seemed to be the more likely target due to the “Thumb Tell.” This was the final moment.

Ben looked at Brian and George. Then finally looked back at Missy and me on the couch and smiled. “I got it!” he said. Taking Brian’s final outstretched hand between his he suddenly switched his attention to George proclaiming, “Open your hand.” It seemed as though it hadn’t even fully opened that Ben was saying, “That’s the final empty hand…. it’s here.” Ben raised Brian’s fist a little before letting go to have it opened retrieving his coin.

My friends were very impressed.