My staple gun roulette routine,

I have seen a few routines with four guns here is my take, opinions wanted?

All the audience members are shown a table with five staple guns on, they asked to think of a number from one to five and not say anything out loud or change their minds and this number should be the loaded gun. A paper ball is thrown out and a random member of the audience is invited onto the stage.

They are handed a small box and told to look after it throughout the duration of the stunt, the random is taken to a table with Five staple guns on, it is explained that only one of them is loaded and they are then mixed up into a random order.

The subject labels the guns with a sticky label, one to five and then mixes them into a new random order, for example the order is now 3-1-5-4-2, this is wrote on a board. The subject is told to think of their number and try mentally direct the performer NOT to pick that number (they never wrote anything down, they are a totally random member of the audience and no preshow).

The performer picks up a gun holds it to his eye and asks the subject to pull the trigger...*click* it is safe, the performer repeats this stunt leaving one gun.

He takes the final gun and shoots it into a block of wood to show it is in fact the loaded gun!

Just as an added kicker the performer asks the subject to open the locked box, remove the contents and inside the box is a little bag, the performer asks them to remove the contents of the bag there is a little handkerchief that has the numbers 3-1-5-4-2 inscribed on it, the order that the subject re arranged the guns into!!!

What you think?

I have been thinking on this and I really like it. Few things to consider. 1. a staple gun generally has a pretty stiff action on it. It is intended to be fired with resistance of the surface being stapled. Therefore putting it up to your eye might be problematic. Remember magicians have stronger hands than the average laity because they play with their....cards more often. Someone with weaker hands might have trouble depressing the lever and keeping the gun stable at the same time. Thus, even if your method is 100% solid, no way of making a mistake, you could still risk eye damage with a laymen accidentally slamming your eye with the gun. You might consider a staple in the forehead. It might be more comic than frightening but people would still know a staple in the forehead would suck really bad. And accidental bumps by the spectator will live you a bruise on the forehead, not permanent eye damage.

Second, The number reveal at the end seems a bit anticlimactic after surviving the threat of stapling your noggin/eye. I do think it would be great as a part of a confabulation finale to your show. In addition to the numbers revealed you could reveal a few other flabbergasting things that happened during the show.

Just my thoughts....I really love the concept!

The idea for the prediction at the end is because I am doing a show based on probability, I wanted to show it was not only possible to predict what gun someone was thinking of but predict the order they put them into.

I think you are right about the subject pulling the trigger (i want it in the eye), so I might as well pull the trigger.

It leads up to the final of the show which is six random people guessing the lottery live and I wanted to show you can predict/manipulate chance.

the stunt for me is like a dangerous chair test without chairs thats the feel I am going for.

P.s thanks for the subject advise

I understand a bit more know. Yes with the right presentation the numbers at the end would work quite nice. I also think that handling the staple guns yourself will solve a lot of problem and I don't think it will detract from the performance. To elaborate on my thoughts, Not that I am recommending but just "thinking out loud", If I were to add the number reveal to the end of that roulette routine I would add it to a confabulation. This is how I would go about it.

Character-Sleazy salesman that can talk you into anything. Power-Hypnosis, NPL.

Throughout the routine ask a few "free association" questions to get to know the audience. To one volunteer I say "what is the first animal to come to mind" They say "Cat."
To another I ask, " Think of any city in the world" They say "Brussles."
Then, when I reach that roulette routine I ask the volunteer to order the staple guns.
Then after the Roulette routine I act like it's the end of the show. Than as an impromptu encore I mention how even the choices that seemed the most fair, the least laden with suggestions, were indeed the result cultural, and psychological suggestions. Then I open the box and reveal the "prediction."

Anyways, not the way you should present it given what you have said but an interesting exercise for me none the less.

This is what I am opening with, the rest of the act gets bigger and bigger towards the finish I am going to say it was influenced and explain with a clever use of patter and positioning just how I made them select not only the gun I wanted them to select but the order too, after all it was the only way to ensure my safety.

The method is a cheeky method which I know for a fact cannot just be guessed

There are no outs in this stunt!

I might lock the box and get them to sit down with it till later on, that sounds very nice and add it to a reveal of a few things later in the show this gives me time to mess around with some more variables

keep it coming i like thinking out loud every little helps

My fave has got to be risk by alakazam magic

Just remember that even a 100% safe method still leaves open human error. You can have a sudden brain fart and pick up the wrong stapler, or even without realising - fixate on the loaded stapler and shoot yourself even though you knew it was dangerous.

Just be careful

if you dont yet have a method for it!
you could always look into marc spellmanns dvd set!
you could combind his staplbe gun routine and his chair test!
i do just that in my live show and i do it with nail guns!
its my closer! and an epic one at that!

oh and it wouldnt do much damage if you are pointing the staple gun at the temple of your head i have a friend that dose it for a living lol!
but there is much risk if you point it at you eye go figure!