I am doing a little turn in a holiday themed variety show, and I have been thinking of different effects I could do.

My main effect is going to be a drawing duplication...the drawing they do matches a prediction...I lock the prediction in a box. From a theatricality side of things, I have two possible pesentations.

I ask them to draw a picture of a present they may want for christmas.

a) Have the box shut the whole time, lock it in view, and say that my prediction is in there...not saying it is a drawing, and then if they draw a picture bigger of something that would be bigger than the box, I jokingly say well, the real thing wouldn't fit, so I made a drawing earlier...open the box...ta-da.

b) draw the picture in front of them, and lock it in the box, and then have them draw it.

I think the fact that I have a clear idea for A it would be the way to go, but I don't like the fact they never see the prediction before the drawing is shown.

Any suggestions or ideas?

If you want a way to be able to draw something, place it in a box and then have people in the audience draw what you draw, feel free to PM me.

Max.

Firstly - Max is back?

Secondly - I personally prefer option A. I don't think it matters that they don't see the prediction beforehand.

I hang around here from time to time now,
the mentalism forum is dead... what can I do

Max.

Alright, so I decided on having it closed from the beginning...

Now, I need a good matching trick to fit with a drawing dupe.

I was thinking either a book test, or a mental epic.

Any ideas or suggestions as to what would pair wel with a drawing dupe?

Have a look at what you are trying to communicate to your audience. With the DD, are you influencing them to draw a certain object or are you foreseeing the future and predicting what they will draw or did you draw what you wanted for christmas and by some bizarre and extreme coincidence, they match.
Figure out what you are saying with your DD, then the choice will come a bit easier.

Personally, I don't think a mentalism show needs to be "holiday themed" (sounds very cheesey).

Having said that, you can do something like predicting/divining someone's "Christmas list"... presenting a "Living/Dead" test as a "Naughty/Nice" test... try Osterlind's Drawing Duplication System with holiday-themed drawings (easy to do if you know his system)... a pseudo-psychometry routine in which the objects are put in Christmas stockings instead of bags (actually makes the routine easier of you know how it works)... do a book test with "A Christmas Carol"...

Cheesey ideas, yes... but you asked.

C'mon, guys. Use your heads. Be creative. I could have charged big consulting bucks for that post.

Alright, so I won't wear the santa suit I had planned...although where am I going to hide the inflatable Rudolph?

I appreciate the response, and you're right it is not going to be sacchrine christmas mentalism...that would be annoying.

I just changed the presentation a tad to have a more festive holiday tone.

Nothing wrong with that. Actually, given the right situation, there's nothing wrong with the cheesey stuff, either. In fact, I'll probably use all of those ideas in my Christmas work next year (just not in the same show).

Right now, I perform the same mentalism show for the Christmas season as I do for the rest of the year. However, I change the presentation of one routine to include holiday-themed content -- actually, it's the set-up patter for the routine that is holiday-themed, not the routine itself. One routine out of a set of five -- and the patter is designed so that it will work for businesses that hold "year-end" parties rather than "Christmas parties" for reasons of political correctness and/or multicultural sensitivity.