A modo de epílogo

I set a challenge to myself to create a mentalism act that was based around coinage. I also decided I wanted to frame some of the main experiences around the USA Penny coin. The following is what I came up and I hope you put it to good use. This is a full act intended for stage, which revolves around numbers and money.

“A lot of people hate math and love money,” says the performer, “Tonight, I’m going to demonstrate some math with some money. I guess it will be a love/hate relationship! But these demonstrations go much further than just using mathematical principles. We will explore the esoteric of consensus reality using a few coins. Coins are also known as change and tonight we’re going to learn how to change our perspectives and our lives.”

You can adapt the following from radio to stage, with enough thought. The following was first published in my ebook “Situational Sensations”:

Coin Of Interest Noted

A somewhat interactive effect for live radio broadcasts.

The mentalist gets invited onto a radio show. How to get invited on to a radio show is outside the scope of this particular book.

“Somewhere out there, right now, somebody is listening to this station as they pick up a coin. I am writing the value down right now. If the person who picked up that coin calls in right now, I will reveal not only the value of the coin, but also the date on said coin.”

If nobody calls in by the end of the live broadcast, you simply say, “Oh, let’s not forget the date and value of the coin. The person who picked it up did not call in, perhaps they were busy with other things or got distracted, but it was a brunette woman who picked up a penny dated 1992.”

The above final scripting does a lot of things. You should have done at least two other effects that you knew were going to be successful. The first effect should be one that is successful. The second event should be the effect you are currently reading. The third effect should be totally and completely sure-fire. The scripting and location of the effect during the show are directly related to advice from “Kentonism” by Kenton Knepper, “Ball and Tube” by Docc Hilford, and from Jerome Finley in the book he co-wrote with Devin Knight, titled “Cloud Busting Secrets”.

The basic idea is that you establish yourself and your credentials. If nobody calls in with the value and date of the coin, then you make a “random” guess. Someone just may call in at a later time to confirm what you have guessed. Personally, I simply let my mind rest and concentrate on a screen of white and while trying to really visualize the coin I say whatever comes to mind first, but I also tie in a gender and a hair color to the revelation as an added enhancement. This is so if a brunette woman who was listening finds a penny dated 1992 and calls in, I will have a complete and total miracle on my hands. If a blonde woman calls in and says she found a penny dated 1992, I still have enough of a hit to be considered as impressive. Likewise, if a brunette male then calls in with a penny dated 1992, I will have a different sort of near hit. You see, if I am going to risk being wrong on everything, then I am going to list more things, because there are more chances that my answer can be interpreted as correct or as a near hit. This also proves even more amazing to the witnesses, as I have predicted three out of four things instead of a simple two things when I get a near hit. If I do not get any hits, then I have said the

person was busy or got distracted, and so it is simply not a big deal at all, because I did not make it a big deal. If nobody at all calls in, then I still will get credit from many people, because I did what I said I could do in the other two effects or “experiments”!

There are those who would encourage you to use a stooge in case you do not get the hits you were after. I discourage such a tactic because stooges are traceable. This means that if someone investigates enough, they will find your connection with the stooge, and ruin your chances of performing the effect again. If you use a no stooge method, then you have no connection the person calling in when you are successful. This also means you are self-contained; you do not need to bring your stooge to each place where you are going to perform this effect.

Now, we will talk about what happens if someone does call in with a coin they randomly found on the street. This is accomplished by the use of a nailwriter. A nailwriter is a gimmick that contains a piece of lead that you attach to a fingernail, usually to your thumbnail but not always. This is inspired by Docc Hilford’s work.

You take out a piece of paper, pretend to write on it with a mechanical pencil while scratching the paper with your fingernail, and then ask the person calling to tell everyone the date and value of the coin. You next write the information on the paper with the nailwriter, after you have put away the mechanical pencil. You fold up the paper and hand it to the host of the program. You then say “I want you to hold on to this piece of paper, guard it with your very life, and then at the end of the show, we will see if it

matches the value and date of the found coin. Now, think about this, I would have to plant the same value of coin in many different locations all across this city and hope that one person would call in after finding the coin. As you can see, that would be totally impractical. It would be immensely difficult to pull off. However, by listening to the tonality, timbre, and inflection in the caller’s voice, as well as relying on my own inner intuition, I think I have been able to deduce what the value of the coin was, and to also divine the date on said coin.”

While you have the person who found the coin on the line you can tie in some cold reading to the effect and get even more valuable hits and make even more of a connection with the person who found the coin. It is beyond the scope of this book to teach you cold reading, but I thought I would mention it as you can easily tie into this effect. You can also turn the found coin into a sort of oracle. You do this by saying there are different meanings for different coins that are found. If you find a quarter on the ground, which is usually more rare then finding a penny, then this means you have a higher energy or vibration about you that day, and you can go into deeper details based upon which coin the person has found and also about the significance of the date on the coin. It would prove very valuable for you to learn about numerology so that you can reduce the date down to one number and give a numerological meaning based on the date of the coin. Again, it is outside the scope of this book to teach you all about numerology.

In this routine, you also have a statistical fact in your favor. Most of the people who call in will have found a penny. So, if you do not want to go into the value of the coin, but

want to still get a hit for the value, you simply change the script a little bit to say

“Someone out there right now is finding a coin on the ground. From my vantage point it looks like a penny. Now, that’s not very impressive in and of itself. But, I’m writing the date down right now, and if that person calls in, I have the proof of the date written down on this piece of paper.”

So, now you get one free “hit” out of the deal by predicting what is already in your favor. You even tell everyone that this “hit” is not impressive. Yet, if a person calls in, you play up both the value of the coin and you really, really play up the date of the penny!

C.O.I.N.Q.A.: Adapting “Coin Of Interest Noted” to a Question and Answer Act

“I’m sensing that someone out there has picked up a coin they found today. I’m sensing that it is probably a penny. If any of you have picked up a coin in the last few days, please stand…as often these impressions last a couple of days.”

If a person(s) stand, you then ask them to call out the dates on the coin(s). You nailwrite the dates as they are called out. You then turn over your drawing pad and show that you have correctly predicted the date(s).

If nobody stands, then point to a person in the audience and say, “Actually, this must be a premonition. Be on the lookout for a dropped coin soon in your future!”

PROMETHEUS RISING

The following actually happened to me, and you can use this as a warming-up exercise in manifestation, Q & A Act or otherwise.

“In the book “Prometheus Rising” by Robert Anton Wilson, there is an exercise where you look for coins in two different ways. In one way, you set the frame that mystical synchronicities happen all the time and you’re bound to find coins. In the other way, you set the frame that people drop coins and other valuable things all the time and you just have to start NOTICING such things…things which you don’t normally look for without prompts.

The first time I tried one of these experiments, I found a total of $3.20 in one week. Two of the dollars were found as dollar bills being blown through the wind by the air! I could hardly believe it, but there they were, manifesting themselves for me.”

BIRTHDAY COIN TEST

You have a fishbowl sitting on stage, filled with American Pennies. There are dates from 1965 to 1995. You ask the audience to all take out their loose pennies and see if any of the pennies dates match the year the person was born. If no such occurrence happens, then reach into the fishbowl and pull out a coin. You have a very high probability of picking out a birth date year. If you are still struggling to find a birth date / coin date

match, then you will have to say something like “Isn’t that weird? None of you have a coin that matches your birth date. Just ponder that for a moment, while I take out a coin that matches my own birth date and we’ll go from there.”

BIRTHDAY PARADOX

If you have more than 23 people in a group, the chances are extremely high that two of them will share the same birth month and birth day. I call this “Mix ‘N’ Mingle Birthday Paradox”, because I simply allow the audience to each shout out their birth month and day and I give a numerology reading for each participant. After giving all the

numerology readings, you may find two birthdays that match. Point out this miracle and take credit for the spooky coincidence.

WHICH HAND?

A lot has been written on “Which Hand?” Routines. I refer you to the works of Jerome Finley, Patrick Redford, and Bryn Reynolds. Since you are dealing with coins, a “Which Hand?” effect will play nicely at this point.

ADD A NUMBER COIN JAR MATCH

Bring out another large container of coins and pour the fishbowl coins into it. Allow any audience members that want to make a wish to drop a coin in the larger container. Ask

three participants to each take out a coin and write the last three digits inside a notebook (this is the notebook device described in “A Different Kind” in this manuscript). You will now be able to switch the numbers and get a total. The larger container has a piece of paper inside it that you pull out. Since you know ahead of time the number, you have put this on the piece of paper. This is a slight variation on a coin guessing routine from “Syzygy” magazine.

NUMEROLOGY NUMBERS

Now go back to the other coins in people’s pockets and start giving them readings based on the value, date, and condition. You can use standard numerology methods in this part. Give positive, uplifting life script answers and responses. These should go beyond the mere numerological value and you should treat this as a powerful portion of a Question and Answer Act. End on a “secret reading” a.k.a. a “Sensational Question and Answer” as developed by George B. Anderson in his booklet “Dynamite Mentalism”.