Resultados descriptivo

How this step plays out is solely based off of how the previous step plays out.

If you guessed perfectly during the last phase then you have bought yourself a slight amount of leeway during this phase. If you never utilised the

telephone rouse or getting the group to guess rouse during the first phase you are open to using that rouse during this phase. Any principle that you didn’t utilise above you are free to use for this digit. This phase of the routine should not be too difficult. I am going to outline several principles that you can utilise to work out this digit.

Option #1 – Dekel’s Digit

When reading Dekel’s Digit, I was instantly inspired by the simple nature of the effect. It fits perfectly into the ‘observational mentalism’ category. I have made several changes to Dekel’s Digit to make it easy enough to work.

There are several things required for this effect to work. The first is that the participant needs to be wearing a short sleeve (like a t-shirt) for this to work (for reasons you will understand in a moment).

The participant also needs to be standing. Ask your participant to step forward from the rest of the group, place their hand behind their back (just like they would if they were holding up a number of fingers behind their back for everyone else to see).

Address the participant,

I am going to ask you to share the next digit with everyone here in the fairest sense possible. I want you to imagine that your hand is a light bulb, in a moment I am going to count from 1-9 when I count through the numbers when I reach your number I want you to do this with a hand. This just ensures that if I cannot read you, I can get someone else to think of the number and then guess it from their mind. When I snap my fingers close your eyes.

Snap your fingers.

Address the group,

Performer: “I need you to keep a poker face, keep your eyes on XX’s hand – this will mean that you all know the number. Keep looking at the hand right till I get to the end of the numbers. If you look away after you have seen the number it will make it apparent to me what the number is”.

This is where you will apply another principle, you are going to apply a principle that is ‘gypsy peek-esque’ look away from the participant ensure that

you can see the participant’s forearm – This is going to be the key to knowing the digit. Whilst seeming looking away, start to count.

Essentially you are looking for the flex in the participants forearm it is totally apparent when they open and close their hand as the forearm will reflect them opening and closing their hand.

If you count slow enough this will give you everything that you need in order to know the number. Never reveal this digit, keep it in your head for later, with this type of method I would always recommend putting a time delay in-between the principle and the method.

While this works perfectly, I would personally never use this for more than one digit.

If you are adamant on revealing this digit, then never read the participant.

Pretend to read the participant first, then fail and pick someone from the group to read. This ensures that your logic has come full circle, and there is a valid reason for the group knowing the number.

If you wish to read Dekel’s Digit (there are a great amount of other subtleties and ideas) it is available from www.wonderwizards.com

Option #2 – Finger Slinger

This is a very easy principle to utilise and just takes a little bit of practice to get smooth at; it is something that is very reliable and works with almost everyone. In this type of routine it will work particularly well, as you have already set up the fact that you are working together (they are transmitting information and you are receiving it) – If they do not pay attention to this phase or do not listen to what you are saying they fail as well as you.

Ask the participant to hold up their hands as depicted below.

Label the participant’s fingers 1–10 (or one to nine then zero) from your left to right.

Address the participant:

Performer: “In which position does the lowest digit of your pin code fall?”

(This is consistent with asking about the position of the highest digit).

Let them respond.

Performer: “I want you to focus on that lowest digit for me. Focus on which finger falls at that number and just imagine transmitting that finger to me.

Imagine travelling down inside your mind to that finger and guiding me there.

Before we attempt this, are you coming into this as a sceptic or a believer?”

Let them respond. The answer to the question is going to be really important in gauging how they are going to act in a few moments.

Press your fingers up against the participant’s.

***Note to reader - I personally perform it as depicted in the photo above. In the original Al Baker piece, this is how he pressed the finger as fingers. (Al Baker traditionally did this with one hand).

***End of note

When your finger is touching the participants, wiggle your little finger against the participant’s little finger, then your ring finger, middle and so on, working your way across all of their fingers. The lightest touch is necessary; if you push or wiggle with pressure, this will not work.

You are feeling for a difference in the pressure of one finger. If the participant is a believer, they will generally push back against the finger that they are thinking of or the finger will “stiffen” to give you an indication of which finger they are thinking of. I have found that if the participant is particularly responsive, then they will give away the finger straight away with a little coaxing and language like this:

Performer: “You will notice yourself giving this away. That finger will stand out from the rest. It will feel different and start to make itself known. You are starting to feel it happen now as the sensation gets stronger and

stronger.”

You will find this is the most commonly occurring scenario, the finger

“stiffening.”

This will also be very obvious if the participant has taken your instructions too literally. If this is the case, instead of saying the digit out loud, write this digit and the first one that they said aloud on a card and place it face down.

The reason I never reveal the second digit is that I want a time delay between the process and the reveal and also it can benefit you not revealing it now if the participant has literally guided you to it (which some do if they take your instructions literally) in this scenario they will be the only person that knows they have guided you and the people watching will never be any wiser.

***Note to reader, by keeping it in your head or writing down the number when it comes to you revealing the entire number you will get a big reaction from the participant when they see the entire number.

This is great because if you revealed it at this point and they had guided you, you would get a diminished reaction.

Another thing that may be useful is that if the participant has come into this in a sceptical sense, they will loosen their finger while the rest will be stiffened.

I feel I am not describing this particularly well, so in short - You are essentially feeling for a difference in one finger; it should be very

apparent. It will take a little bit of practice to get this to be reliable, but once you have it, there are so many uses for this technique.

Practice makes perfect.

A good way to practice this is to have them write down a number, get them to fold the billet into quarters and to switch out the billet. Have the

participant place the dummy billet into their pocket. You now have a safety net, if you feel that you are not getting any tell then swiftly move into peeking at the billet and BOOM you can reveal the number.

Just to reiterate, slowly wiggle each one of their fingers until you feel one that is different from the rest! It’s that simple.

***End of note

Option #3 – cups/ counting

You can also utilise the cups principle here, ask the participant to imagine the number written out as a word. Then ask them to think of the exact amount of letters in the word, if they instantly know the amount of letters it is likely that the number is the number one or the number two. If they have to think for a few seconds, the likeliness is that the number is the number three.

This is not something that is 100% but it gives you a good gauge as to what the number is, utilising a hanging statement at this point will whittle down the number.

Performer: “This number is a one…” (Pause for a second if they don’t respond say, “No it’s a two”).

You could also use the wash principle to reduce the digits down from 2 to 1.

Counting -

There is also a technique in which you get the participant to count in a manner that will lead you to the required digits. Address the participant, Close your eyes for me, imagine a pin pad at an a.t.m. when you have that in mind imagine your finger on the button that says the number one. When I snap my fingers, I want you to imagine pressing each button in turn like one…

two… three and so on and so forth. When you reach your number and have imagined pressing that button open your eyes.

***Note to reader

When you say the numbers, one… two… you touch the participant’s shoulder each time you say a number and set a pace in your participant’s mind.

When you snap your fingers they will begin to count, in your head count along with them. When they open their eyes you should be on the exact number that they are thinking of or between two.

Utilise one of the reductive processes for example the wash principle to reduce the participant down to one number.

***End of note

Getting this digit shouldn’t be difficult with all of the options open to you.