This effect makes use of the instant stooging method in a very obscure fashion, the whole audience are stooges and not one of them knows it!
Effect
A subject is invite up onto the stage handed a white board and a newspaper is asked to stand facing the audience, they are to draw any image that comes to mind and wrap it in the paper to ensure no possibility of anyone seeing it.
The performer faces away the entire time while this takes place, when the subject has completed the drawing and wrapped it up he claims he will try to reproduce the image.
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The performer seats the subject looks at him and after a few moments’ draws an image on a large white board, the drawing is removed from the newspaper and is verified to match!!!
No peeks, no preshow no impression devices and the performer draws the image before touching the
subjects!
Method
This method occurred to me a long time ago and I never really got to make an effect fit it, until now. This effect I thought was a little too good to put into a book but after better judgment I gave in. There is one variable most performers take for granted and that is audience reaction.
Think of this, if a subject was standing behind a white board, a drawing was drawn on the white board and
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the subject was asked to name anything in the world out loud, how would the subject know what he had said matched what was on the board without looking?
Answer: The reaction from the audience! I then added a few nuances, came up with an effect and here is my presentation.
You will need a regular small double sided white board and two sheets of newspaper.
Draw with a permanent marker on one side of the white board the image of a car (or any image you can draw) but draw it so it looks like someone else’s drawing.
Place the white board drawing side down on top of the newspaper then place these items together on a table you are ready to begin.
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You will see how the paper is used as a mask, hiding a cheeky utility switch swapping a random drawn image to the one you had drawn before the show.
Performance
Invite up a member of the audience (via any means you see fit) state,
‘I am about to attempt something that may not work, I really hope it does as it will be a lovely visual treat for you the
audience’.
Address the subject.
‘I would like you to think of any image in the world please make it something I could never know and not something
simple like the image of a house or a stickman.
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Hand them the board (with the paper under it) ask them to keep the drawing towards their chest and when they are done to fold the paper around it so there is no way anyone can see what you have drawn.
Demonstrate how to wrap it around, (retaining the paper on the back of the white board it folds around the front (so the white board is sandwiched in the middle of the paper.
See pictures for demonstration of fold:
As you can see the paper is under the white board, all ready to be folded.
(See Picture Two for sandwiched board)
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This is a little bold but really sells the fair fact, turn facing the audience (back to the subject), ask the subject to tell you when he has folded the paper round hiding the image from sight.
Ask the participant to verify you can’t see through the paper and there is no tell tale signs that give away what the image is (he will say no).
Ask him to place the board and paper on the table and ask him to take a seat stating,
‘There is no way on earth I could have known what you were going to draw and you up until a few moments ago didn’t
either correct’?
‘Yeah’
‘You verified that it is well sealed in opaque paper and that there is no way I could just guess that image’
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He responds
‘Correct’
‘I would like you to sit and just mentally repeat your image over and over again in your mind, imagine shouting the image to me’
Seat the subject at the back of the stage (well behind the white board at the front of the stage) ensuring he can’t see what you drew.
Walk over to the front of the stage and pick up your white board, draw something and then scrub it off (while shaking you head) claim it is a difficult one to get).
Ask the subject to make the image larger in their mind, state to the audience they must say nothing out loud
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and on the white board draw a car (or the image you drew in permanent marker on the little board).
Address the audience,
‘I think this is the image I would like you all to remember, this is the image I think (subjects name) settled on, when I show you what (subjects name) drew if the images match I would like a massive round of applause to let (say the subjects
name) know that I got it correct.
Does everyone have this image in their minds now’?
Wipe the image off of the board and address the subject,
‘I drew an image on that white board, in front of an audience full off people and I never came anywhere near your drawing,
hopefully the two images will match’.
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Pick up the newspaper with the board inside and walk to the front of the stage, (make sure your image is facing the audience) state,
‘If this image matches the one that I drew just a moment ago please let (subjects name) know with a loud round of
applause’.
Hold the image above your head open the front flap of the paper revealing the image (the one you drew long before the show) to the audience; ensure the back of the image is still covered by paper as the seated subject is behind you (the paper prevents him seeing his image).
This is the bit where the entire thing is sewn up in the subjects mind;
Close the paper (sandwiching the board again) and bring the sandwiched board back to waist height, when you turn around toward the subject, remove the board
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his drawing side up and place your drawing face down back on top of the paper.
Hold the whole lot in your left hand (don’t state
anything about the drawing just let him see it casually) and shake his hand (your body and the back of the paper will hide these actions.
The subject has seen his image has no need to question anyone in the audience; the audience has no need to question the subject as they are the stooges in this effect and have all seen the image.
Ask for a round of applause for him as he takes a seat, this effect is all about presentation the method is so simple it will go undetected and the cheekiness of facing the audience while he draws it, using the
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audience as stooges without them knowing (which I believe has not been in print before) is devious.
Notes
I would recommend marking the side of the paper with a little sticky dot; this ensures you know which way round to open the paper when you get to the front of the stage.
The last thing we want is the audience seeing the random drawn image.
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“It only takes one tree to make a thousand matches; it only takes one match to burn a thousand trees”
Kelly Jones
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Just 2 DD
Apparently just with 2 business cards and a pen, create a very direct demonstration of mindreading in a close-up scenario