I know many people who don’t care for an effect like that which is to follow in the wake of these lament but nevertheless there are a few who will make use of it in their spare time.

When Mr Cole showed it to me I thought it rather cute and different in several ways from the usual run of such stunts. I find it nice to do when I have the back of an envelope that is without notes and upon which the lenient victim can make his notations as well as calculations.

The person in question is asked to first write down his age, and this is then doubled or in other words multiplied by two. To the result of this calculation is added the figure five and the resulting sum is multiplied by fifty. If the subject is not yet asleep he subtracts three hundred and sixty-five. Now he is told to dig deeply, ascertain the amount of change which he has in his pocket and add this to the result and this final number is given the performer to do with as he wishes.

Practically without emotion (depending entirely upon his ability with figures) the performer reveals not only the age of the person waiting patiently for the finish, but also the exact amount of change in his pocket.

Example:

This last total or result is given to the performer and either on paper or in his mind he adds the figure 115. In this case he reaches the total of 2843. And without further recourse to mathematics, he knows that the first two figures (28) is the age, and the last two figures (43) represent the change.

The main angle which prompted me to include this as a Jinx within a Jinx was the ‘change’ business and ‘age’ kink. Personal angles will always attract more than an impersonal number regardless of how far the performer may go in order to attract attention.