This is a routine of more or less standard items, which, when combined, offer an interesting experiment that can find a spot on almost any club or home program. The impression upon the audience, when numbers are merely thought of, is very good as I have proven to my satisfaction. The patter is based upon “the magic of numbers” (lots of material can be found on that subject) plus the fact that some scientists have been investigating the possibility of photographing thought waves, notably among them being Nicola Tesla.
The performer starts by showing a chart containing 16 squares of various colors. He asks someone to THINK OF A NUMBER between 1 – 16. That number is counted to on the chart and the color noted.
Next the performer shuffles a deck of cards and has a second spectator THINK OF A NUMBER between 1 – 52. That number is openly counted to and the card noted. Lastly three more spectators are asked to THINK OF A NUMBER between 100 – 1000. These are jotted down upon and pad and totaled.
A frame, about 8 x 10, is shown to consist of (1) the frame itself, (2) a pane of glass, (3) a plain white sheet of cardboard insert, and (4) a back, with clamps, to hold everything in place as one unit. The separate parts are taken apart for showing and reassembled. The back of the plain cardboard insert is initialed by a spectator. Each of the three active spectators is now approached in turn and the performer holds the frame above their heads as they name their color, card, and total. Stepping back to the front the magician-scientist shows the result of their heavy thinking.
On the cardboard, under the glass, is seen a vivid splash of the correct color (technicolor thot pictures ? Ed.) chosen, a reproduction of the card selected, and a scrawled concept of the total arrived at.
PRESENTATION
The color chart is on the table, COLORED SIDE DOWN. After the preliminary word or two a spectator is asked to stand and think of a number between 1 – 16 which he then names. The performer says that he has a chart of sixteen colors and that any one may be selected for the test. He picks up the chart flatwise, and can note at a glance (by the white inked numbers) which side should be uppermost when, a few seconds later, and while stepping closer to the audience, he turns the board with the chart side towards the spectators. This is very important ! Do NOT show the face of the board until you can turn it up, with one motion, so that the correct edge is at the top. If it faces the audience and then is turned edgewise a time or two, a great many people will notice the indecision and your hesitancy.
The number counted to and the color called out, the chart is returned to the table WITH THE COLOR SIDE UP. The pack of cards is picked up and removed from the case. The deck is given one or two dovetail shuffles, keeping the five bottom and reversed cards in place, while the performer asks a second person to stand and think of a number between 1 – 52 which he then names. The performer can almost instantly subtract 3 from that number as he starts to deal cards from the deck one at a time. If the called number were 18, he would subtract 3 and keep 15 in mind. He deals until the fifteenth one is dropped. Without hesitation he looks up and asks the spectator if 18 is the number. He gestures directly at the person with the left hand holding the deck as he asks this, and the move serves to hide the turning over of the deck. Upon being assured that he is correct, the performer continues to deal, in this case 16 – 17 – and holds the 18th card up. The misdirection has come before the end and not at it.
Taking the pad from his pocket the performer tells about three people who will assist in the next preliminary by thinking of numbers between 100 – 1000. To each of the three the pad is handed for him or her to jot down the numbers, a three figure number. Because of the pad’s previous preparation it is handed the first person without fear. Taking it back from the third person the performer walks with the pad to someone a little bit away, tears off the top sheet and hands it to him for adding. BUT, he has turned the pad over and the spectator gets a sheet containing the “force” set of addition figures while the pad is pocketed.
Returning to the table the performer picks up and shows the frame. Holding it with the glass side towards the audience the back is removed first, and then the cardboard insert that is dropped with its painted side down on the table. The glass and frame are shown and now held down with the back side slanting towards the audience. The cardboard insert is picked up from the table and dropped onto the glass. Thus the audience has, apparently seen both sides of it, first through the glass in the frame, and now the back of it.
The frame now is layed on the table in order to clamp in the backing, but it is placed directly over the color chart there. The back is clamped into place with the exception of the part which allows of the back of the insert being initialed. The frame is picked up, AND THE COLOR CHART WITH IT, AGAINST THE FRONT OF THE GLASS. Holding the frame so that the front is seen while he approaches the audience the performer has some prominent member initial the back of the insert and close the backing.
Then he returns to the table, again holding the frame so that the front appears perfectly blank. The cellophane covered fake makes a perfect illusion.
He lays the frame on the table for a split second, shifts it a bit and picks up the chart with color side to the audience. He states that a color was selected by a thought of number, and lays the chart aside. He continues that a card was selected also by a thought of number. Lastly three thought of numbers have been totaled. He impresses that each test was increasingly harder, 1 – 16, 1 – 52, 100 – 1000, and that all numbers were thought of freely.
The performer now picks up the frame and goes to the first spectator. This time, however, the front of the frame is kept downward at the first and then upward when it is held for a moment over the first person’s head. This action is repeated with the other two and at the front once more the frame is turned to show the photographed thoughts. The frame is handed complete to the man who initialed it and he may dissemble the parts and keep the cardboard as a souvenir and pseudo-scientific curiosity. There is nothing wrong to be found with the frame.
For credits on this, the frame idea was first used, to my knowledge, by Chicago Magic Co, and the move of turning the cardboard over during the action of taking frame apart and putting back together again was very old before the advent of the cardboard masking. The cellophane and combining with the chart is my own idea. The color force was originated by Stanley Collins many years ago and also used with beads on a counting frame with slight variation of the arrangement. The card force idea is lost in a maze of such things. The pad force arrangement of figures is an original concept of Dave Allison’s who gave permission for its use.
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