hey I am about to perform my very first mentalism act in front of 50/80 people... Iv been working on it for 2 month now
here it is
-open with 68/37 force(a spectator who has''responded well'' is selected)
-book test
-cookie cutter
-universal impression( a card and an object)
-emotional intelligence
- close with ultimate Add a number by Jermay.

I am thinking about putting in Derren Brown's lying game (in SWTWC)

any thought or recommendation?

Ps: what would you say would be the maximum number of spectator to perform emotional intelligence infront of?

thank you!

I wouldn't open with a 37/68 force. That's very risky and it's not the type of thing you want to be thinking about before your show. If I were you, I'd just use a swami gimmick and a business card, like it is written in 13 Steps. That would be WAY more certain, and more stunning because there would be no qualifications of what type of number they could think of.

Bank Night is a good opener as well.

oh sorry I forgot to mention... I will present the 68 force as a ''little experiment to see if the public is a good receiver''
and do the force on the whole public, and then selct a spsec that got it it right... its not really presented as an effect but more as an introduction experiment...
thanks for the swami idea!

Your opening effect will not only set the tone for your show but also establish what kind of magician you are. I'm assuming that most of the audience has never seen you perform before, they have no idea. If you fail first up, this is the first impression they have of you. 68/37 force would work really well as an aside, in between effects, maybe in choosing someone for another effect explaining that you feel they are a good sender. If it works, milk it. If it doesn't work, no one will remember. You can actually make it a funny moment. But at the end of the show, people will remember how you started with a bang.
If you feel you really need to do it, I'd say have the swami in you pocket ready to go...for that guy who says 91.
As for Emotional Intelligence, it'll work for any sized audience. You may just want to make your cards' font bigger and more readable and you might want to make your predictions bigger aswell. In fact, the bigger the audience, the safer your Stage 2 is.

Rev.

Not only is that a bad force to start off with, but it is also a little fishy to the more logical members of your audience. They'll think something like "okay, so he's eliminating numbers that we can choose... so how many are really left?". A very bad thought to put into your audience's minds.

wow thank you guys for the advices...
I think im going to rework my opening effect:P and use a swami
do you guys have a favorite one for this situation?

If you want, throw out a frisbee or something, then have three people selected (have them throw it twice more or something), and then ask one of them to guess the number you wrote down. Tell them its between 1 and 100, and take one of their numbers, and make them the closest person using the swami gimmick. Then bring that person up for the book test. At least, that's how I'd do it. But then again, I wouldn't do that at the beginning of my act.

If you're going to do the 37/68 force, follow it up with the swami.

have them pick a number, with the 37/68 force, then step it up a bit, using the swami.

"Now that I've got a good read on the audience, going to make it more difficult, pick ANY number from 1-100"

Possible handling of the opener (needs careful scripting).

1. "Write" (not really) your transmitted number.
2. Run the force
3. Point at desired spectator and say "I'm getting the feeling that somone there is thinking of 37, is that correct?"

If selected spec says yes: "That's good, I've got myself well tuned to this audience. How many of the rest of you thought 37? Great. I DID write 37 on my card here, but I changed my mind. What 2-digit number do you think I changed it to, Miss?"
SWAMI it now and reveal the card has 37 crossed out and spec's choice underneath.

If spec says no to 37: "Is there anyone sitting near you that was thinking 37? Just raise your hand for me. Great, it's good to see I am picking up thoughts, etc. BUT... 37 is not the number I have written down. What number were you thinking [chosen spec]?
Swami and reveal.

Either way here you've turned your opener into a double reveal and shown that you can both send AND receive thoughts. This is just a brief idea as I said, but tightening the scripting can produce a miracle opening with the bonus of building rapport with every spec who chose the force number.

Hey, I have a question. Where/how did you learn how to do the lying game?? Any DVD's? or is it a mixture of a few moves? Thanks a lot

If I were to ever do a cold reading act (like john edward or sylvia brown) i'd incorporate E.I. in there, regardless of the number of people. I found its better to do in front of atleast 2 spectators. That way you have an excuse to have them say their thought. (although it'd work with only 1 spectator, more the merrier imo!)

I hope you never do a cold reading act like John Edwards or Sylvia Brown. I'm assuming you don't mean that you'll take people's money and give them stock, rehearsed scripts under the pretense of communicating with dead relatives or telling their future with full knowledge that you're lying.

For everyone on this forum, do not aspire to be like these people. You don't have to tell your audience "I'm using trickery, none of this is real", but you most certainly SHOULD NOT tell them "This is real, none of this is trickery".

Sorry for derailing a bit, just wanted to add this piece to the conversation. Cold reading can be a powerful thing when done under the right contexts.

-JT

Using psychological forces in the opening part is an excellent way to :

1. Creating rapport with the audience
2.Give the impression that anyone could be choosen
3. Set the tone for mental demonstrations.



Mentalism is more fun ( for me ) than magic because is not 100% surefire.

Personally i would use.

1. Color force
2. and after that that 2 numbers.

If you think about it, it's very easy to do on your own without instructions. After seeing it I made up my own patter for (basically) the same game. Not sure if my method is the one he uses, but if you're interested PM me and I'd be more than willing to help if you can't come up with something on your own after thinking about it.

(p.s. Sorry for bumping an old topic, been gone for a while!)