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Psychic Pselections
Psychic
Pselections
John Riggs
Mentalism routines you’re gonna love
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Psychic Pselections
Copyright 2004 by John Riggs. All rights reserved.
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Psychic Pselections
Introduction
When I was five years old or so, I remember
watching the great Mystery Entertainers on
television -- magicians, mindreaders, psychics,
wizards, People Who Did Extraordinary Things --
MAGICKAL people. I was, in a word, enthralled.
I knew that I had found my path. I wanted to make
others feel what I was feeling: delight, wonderment,
awe. A feeling that the world was a magical,
miraculous place.
I've been a mystery entertainer for most of my
life. I've practiced, struggled to perfect my skills, learned to do things with
my hands, my mind, my body, my bodily FUNCTIONS even, that are
almost miraculous. I've shared these abilities with the world, professionally,
since around 1978 or so.
I'm going to be 44 this year. If I could travel back in time, and talk to
that wee lad sitting in front of that television, watching
The Magical Land of
Alakazam,
watching Dunninger and Kreskin read the minds of incredulous
audiences, that little boy already planning to set the world on fire with his
own magic, What would I tell him?
Would I say to him,
“Look kid -- by the time you grow up the world
won't need magicians. They'll abandon magic for reason, for prepackaged
answers to life's riddles and dry, bottom-line rationality. You won't inspire
wonder. You won't change lives. You'll be a momentary diversion at a
cocktail party.
“And the problem is, you're sensitive; you CARE about what people
think. You're not arrogant or self-centered enough to say ‘screw
'em.’ People will say mean things, snide things; they'll blow you off, they
will treat your magic, your wonderful magic that took you years to perfect,
like a mildly-amusing joke. Oh, you'll make money; your peers will
recognize you, but you will fail utterly at your primary goal. And this failure
will haunt you.
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Psychic Pselections
“Furthermore, you will live to see your beloved craft, whose secrets
you swore to protect with your life, sold on the internet to anyone with a
search engine and a credit card. Worse, self-styled guardians of public
morality, missionary-magicians, members of Skeptic cults, failed
entertainers, will expose the closely-guarded secrets of the mentalists on
public television at the drop of a dime.”
Would I go on to say to that child, who dreams of inspiring the world
to believe in magic,
“Go on and follow through with your Plan B. Get your
PhD, get a job teaching at a college. You'll have a career, respect, a saucy
co-ed now and again to play with, and you can even have your beloved
magic as a hobby when you retire. That's the safe way. Believe me, kid, it
will hurt a whole lot less if you do that.”
If I could travel back in time, in a miraculous machine or even in
spirit, would I whisper all this to that child, that young boy sitting in rapt
attention, eyes aglow as he dreams of following in the footsteps of the Great
Mystery Entertainers?
Would I?
WOULD I?
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Psychic Pselections
Millennial Prediction
This is another variation on a number addition/
prediction effect that has a long history in mentalism
literature. Originally a lightning-calculation effect
by Will Dexter and Frederick Lowe, many variations
of the original concept have appeared in print.
Probably the person with the most variations to his
credit is Larry Becker, the incredibly prolific creator
whose
Sum Total
and all of its variations are well-
known to most mentalists. David Harkey has a
couple of workings with the instructions of his
Pocket Cache,
and Richard
Osterlind has contributed a few of his own, most notably
Sum Total Radio.
I’ve toyed with the premise off and on for years, explaining one handling in
Psychic Soirees.
Here’s another one that I’ve been using for a while, that packs a very
solid punch and incorporates a handling that is so clean, fair and above-
board that it meets all of my requirements for a stainless methodology.
What the Audience sees:
“I need someone to come up and act as scorekeeper – you sir, you’re
perfect! Just come on up and don’t step on anyone.”
The performer hands the audience helper a red marker and then holds
up a 2’ x 4’ piece of posterboard. Near one corner of the board, we see a
large bulldog clip, holding a folded, bright-pink index card. Calling
attention to this card, the performer says,
“On that card are some thoughts
that I recorded earlier. These thoughts may have some significance on
what’s about to follow, maybe not. We’ll see. But for now, we need to
construct a target number – a six-digit target number. One in a hundred
thousand.”
To the audience helper:
“You’re in charge of the marker, okay? Good,
take this marker and I’ll hold this board. You’re in charge, point to anyone
in the audience.”
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