ENVELOPE #3: RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT #4: RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT #5: LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT BAIRN If the choice prior to this one was LEFT (in either case) the clip to release will be down the left (#3 or #5 - as #1 contains the cheque) so you MOVE YOUR FINGERS TO THE LEFT. If the very first choice was LEFT then it is the bottom of the two side clips, so you MOVE YOUR FINGERS DOWN (to the bottom centre position #5). However I don't like to take any chances so I write the initials of the choices on the back of the envelopes right over each of the clips. So where you'll find clip #2 in the right envelope I have RRL written. This just means at the all important moment of truth, I can double check my work. BONUS! You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook '11
ORDERAN AGENDER BAIRN are four chairs in a row, on each is a large plain white C4-size envelope. On a nearby easel stands a large prediction. There's a man dressed as Susan Boyle in the front row, but you proceed. A lady is randomly selected using a ball and given the choice of anyone of the four 'chairs. Once she chooses a chair the chair is brought forward. "Your choice of chair tells me a lot about how you make decisions. I have black envelopes here, please point to the one you'd like:' She points and is handed the envelope after an opportunity to change her mind. "You could have chosen any chair, and any envelope. You stay in this chair .. :'You pick up the envelope on her chair and remove a large piece of card from inside, which boldly bears the number one (for example). "Show everyone which envelope you have chosen ... " The black envelope is printed with the number one on too, a perfect match! The audience think the effect is over, but much to their disappointment, you proceed. Three men are invited to come select any of the remaining chairs for themselves and take a seat. During this time the order of the chairs is mixed. The three remaining envelopes are handed to someone seated near the front for mixing. Maybe the Susan-Boyle-alike. Once you get them back you fan them, take them behind your back and walk along the row of those seated on stage, asking them each to take an envelope. Now all four people on stage have a random envelope and have sat in a random chair. In this example let's suppose the only woman is sat in the second chair from the left
BA\RN as the audience see it. You walk behind the row and take the large white envelope from behind the first man. From inside you take out a large piece of card which has a large number two printed on it. Dropping the large envelope to the floor in front of the man, you place the card right behind him on his chair. You then ask him to turn his black envelope around and show everyone which envelope he has taken. It bears a large number two*. This is repeated across the row, the lady (in second chair) has a number one as mentioned before, and the next two men have number four, then three. They all match! Picking up one of the large white envelopes you say, "Now perhaps I have lots of number cards inside of each of these envelopes? That is what I'd be thinking too. Just to make sure I went ahead and printed the numbers on the backs of these too!" They are too shown to match the order. "Now please would each of you open your black envelopes and take out the folded card you have in there:' Pointing to the first man, you ask him to read out what his card says, "I am a man:' To the second man you ask that he do the same, "I am also a man:' The third and final man you ask to read his out/Tonight I have come dressed as a man!" The woman is asked to open her freely chosen envelope to read out, "Being the only woman I will choose to sit in the second chair from the audience's left, which will be chair number two!" A perfect match again! . • You continue, "I wanted to make sure you understood that I knew where you would each sit. Please reach behind you and take the large white number card:'The men turn theirs to reveal a 'Male' symbol** printed on blue card. And our only woman turns hers to reveal a huge pink female symbol. * Is it just my own 6-year-old mind who finds that phrase funny? ** I prefer to use the bathroom signs of a lady and a man, rather than the phallic symbols as they are more universally recognised 100
BAIRN it's important that you chose this order .. :'you open your prediction to show a printed number sequence of 2143! Before you leave, you're asked to put the chairs back. You only went in for a side-table and a fiat-pack bookshelf. THE TRUTH This is a routine where you get a lot of mileage from not very much at all. It plays very strongly and leaves the audience with no doubt that you absolutely knew what would happen in advance of each decision. I've purposefully constructed this routine so that everything that is predicted is shown to be so at least twice. This leaves no-one any room forthinking'maybe there is another way he could have shown this' it la multiple outs. I want the audience to absolutely understand it was impossible for anything else to have worked. This is something we often overlook in mentalism. From talking with guests after shows we know they are trying work us out, and one of the questions they often have is 'what if they hadn't chosen that, done this or said that?: So to that end I want to make our predictions absolutely concrete so that there is no doubt that without our amazing skills, none of it would have worked at all. Another problem of most chair predictions (including all of my previous ones) that I wanted to overcome, and have done somewhat here, is that there are multiple phases of choice, selections and 'process' and the audience is waiting, waiting and waiting some more before a single revelation is made. In 'Order and Agender' there is a revelation pretty early in the routine. This revelation also acts as a scene setter for everything else that is about to come. I think it's increasingly important for modern audiences that we 'get on with it; that we get to a point, some point, any point - quicker. The long processes of classic mentalism will not, for the most part, cut it in the modern world of performing. At least not in theatre, corporate or cruise ship work that I'm familiar with anyway. We need to make it more punchy than ever. So to that end, we should get to a nice revelation, a moment of'wow' as quickly as possible.
BA\RN Let's walk through each stage of this bit by bit. The lady is chosen at random for real. This is important as the whole thing is relYing on her choice in the main, so the audience must know she is a randomly generated participant making her own choices without your guidance. Each of the chairs has a large white envelope on it. On the backs of these envelopes are the numbers one through four. We'll come to the contents of the envelopes later, but for the start they are placed on a chair each in the order 4321 * When the lady points to the chair she would like, you pick up the envelope on the chair, take a look at the number on the back of it (for example it's the number one) and move the chair forward toward the audience and place it in position to match your prediction. In this example with her choosing chair number one, you pick it up and pop it down just left of centre stage (from audience perspective). Next, we'll be having her choose a black envelope. She will have a choice of four envelopes. We are going to do the opposite of what I used to do in my chair test 'Chairman OfThe Board' a number of years ago. What you have, unknown to everyone, is four sets of four envelopes. One set in each of your jacket pockets. In this case she has chosen chair number one. So I reach inside of my inside left jacket pocket and, without showing the numbers on the front, remove four identical envelopes. They are identical in EVERY sense. They are plain black on the flap-side (the side you are showing them) and they all have the number one printed on the address side (you keep this hidden) and they all contain the message'Being the only woman, I will choose chair number one: She is given a free choice of any of the four envelopes you are holding. Since they are all secretly identical she can choose any and you have no work to do. As soon as she chooses her envelope, you drop the remaining three on to your table. Now you have a women sitting in a freely chosen chair, holding a black envelope that matches the number of the white envelope on her chair. "You have chosen any chair and any envelope. Let's see which envelope you have * I have done this where I begin by having the large envelopes mixed by audience members and then I fairly deal them on to the chairs in the order shuffled into. If the order they randomly mix them into happens to be my 2143 order I can play up the fact that I'm dealing them fairly. Similarly if it is my order in reverse (3412) I can deal them in the other direction across the stage. . . This does add another randomness to the whole process that I like, but in turn adds more process to the proceedings, and mentalism can do without adding more process to its reputation, can't it? .' .' 102.
BAIRN point you are going to open the large white envelope that has been on her ir the whole time and remove a card with the number one printed on it. UrllAlf'vel what the audience does not know, is that the white envelopes each contain pieces of card. Inside of envelope #1 are two cards. On the 'front' of both of them is bold number one. However the difference between the two cards is on the back. the back of the card closest to the address side of the envelope is the MALE symbol. 'On the card under it, closest to the flap side, is the FEMALE symbol. (Closest to me is Male because I am male. That's a really easy way I remember it) There is no heat on this at all, and the audience have no idea that this gender prediction All we need do at this point is remove the female card from the envelope, keeping the back of it hidden and thus just revealing the number one. Now ask her to turn around the black envelope she so fairly chose and it will be a match. Drop the (apparently) empty white envelope on to the floor in front of her, and stand the card against the back of the chair, right behind her. All of this action justifies you placing the three remaining black envelopes on your table, perfectly. After all, you need the use of both of your hands. This is important and we'll get to why in a moment. Ask a man to stand and select a chair. You repeat the process of picking up the large white envelope, looking at the number and placing the chair in the correct position to match your prediction order (2143). Go back to your table and pick up three envelopes. On your table you have had four additional envelopes from the start. In number one are the words 'I am a man:' in numbertwo:'1 am a man:in numberthree"l am also a man:'and in numberfour"l have come dressed as a man:' In this example, the lady took envelope number one, so from this 'Man Stack' of envelopes pick up envelopes two, three and four. Hand these to someone near the front to mix. Choose two more men to come choose a seat, repeat the bold process of placing the chair in the correct place and having them sit down.
BA\RN Retrieve the three envelopes from the mixer. As you take them have a qUick look at their order. You need to have them in order 243. It's highly likely they will come to you in that order. If they do not, get them into order 243 under the guise of a casual additional mix on your part. With the three black envelopes now in the order 243 in your hand, fan them out the same way you did to offer the lady the envelopes and the take them behind your back. As they move out of sight of the audience you square them into a pile. Now behind your back is a pile of black envelopes in the correct order. Stand in front of the first man and, your back to him and face to the audience, hand him the top envelope, saying, "Please just take an envelope:' The deception here is that the audience believe he is selecting an envelope, when really you just hand it to him. I used to say, "Please just take an envelope. It doesn't matter which one:: However one time in performance the person thought that since it did not matter which envelope, he could grab one of the others that I was not offering to him. Since then, I keep it to just, "Please take an envelope': You move along the row of chairs, back to the on-stage volunteers, handing the men the correct envelope. At this point its important to re-cap in order for the men to feel that everything is fair. "This lady had the fairest choice of aIL:' the double meaning here is to the audience the woman had a choice of anyone offour envelopes. That is indeed the fairest choice. To the on-stage folks, she had a genuine choice, where as the others were handed an envelope. Don't stop there though. Add the following to complete the illusion: "Then the remaining envelopes were mixed up randomly by this person here in the front row, and then the guys took an envelope each:' "Random chairs, random envelopes and yet..:' Now it is time to reveal the men's black and white envelopes. As before, it's important that you reveal the contents of the large white envelope before they turn their black envelope around. The reason for this is because the audience will focus on the thing they see last (the Recency Effect), and we do not want them thinking too much about the white envelopes. 104
BAIRN stand behind the first man. Open the white envelope, remove the card closest to label side (with the male symbol on the back) and then have him turn his black ~n\I""lJUO:; around. Drop the white envelope on the floor in front of him on the floor and There goes your second revelation. NoW look at the audience as if you 'know what they're thinking' and say the bold phrase, "Maybe I have many cards in these envelopes, each with different numbers on them .. :'this is pure verbal misdirection. You are leading the audience into something they probably never even considered. However, now that you've mentioned it they will start nodding, agreeing in their minds 'yes, I was wondering that: "I would be thinking that too, so I printed the numbers on the backs of the envelopes themselves!" Pick the white envelopes up and turn them over to show the corresponding number. This is simply a case of placing the two (one male, one female) number cards inside of an envelope and printing that same number on the outside of it. So to set up this phase you take two cards. On both print the number one. On the back of one print the male symbol, on the back of the other print the female symbol. Place them both inside of a white envelope and print the number one on the address side. Do this exact same process with the other three numbers too. Now everything is done. You go on to have them all open their black envelopes and read the contents. They will match their gender perfectly. Then take each of the large white number cards (the ones from the large white envelopes) and turn them around to show again you predicted the gender. Then finally show your prediction to match the order 2143. Although it is a very simple routine to perform, with no sleights or calculations along the way, typing it out to describe the workings makes it appear significantly more complex than it really is. So your pre-set before the show is: 4x black envelopes with the number 1 on the outside. Containing the phrase "Being the only woman, I will choose envelope number 1" in your left inside jacket pocket. 4x black envelopes with the number 2 on the outside. Containing the phrase "Being
· ' · . · . BA\RN the only woman, I will choose envelope number 2" in your outside left jacket pocket. 4x black envelopes with the number 3 on the outside. Containing the phrase "Being the only woman, I will choose envelope number 3" in your outside right jacket pocket. 4x black envelopes with the number 4 on the outside. Containing the phrase "Being the only woman, I will choose envelope number 4" in your inside right jacket pocket. 4x black envelopes each printed with the numbers 1-4. In envelope #1 "I am a man': In envelope £2 "I am a man': #3 "I am also a man" and #4 "I have come dressed as a man. These are placed on your table. A large white envelope with the number 1 printed boldly on the outside. Inside of which are 2 cards. On one is the female symbol on one side, with the number 1 boldly printed on the other side. On the other is a male symbol with the number 1 on the other side. A large white envelope with the number 2 printed boldly on the outside. Inside of which are 2 cards. On one is the female symbol on one side, with the number 2 boldly printed on the other side. On the other is a male symbol with the number 2 on the other side. A large white envelope with the number 3 printed boldly on the outside. Inside of which are 2 cards. On one is the female symbol on one side, with the number 3 boldly printed on the other side. On the other is a male symbol with the number 3 on the other side. A large white envelope with the number 4 printed boldly on the outside. Inside of which are 2 cards. On one is the female symbol on one side, with the number 4 boldly printed on the other side. On the other is a male symbol with the number 4 on the other side. A larger envelope containing your prediction, 2143. I love this routine because from a small folder you can carry in your hand luggage, you arrive at a venue, borrow some chairs and you have a large routine that lasts a good while with multiple, increasingly impossible revelations. Oh and some built in comedy too. 106
BONUS! BAIRN You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
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BAIRN GAZINETEST OF THE STARS I feel like I've been doing this and teaching it to fellow performers for years. Yet ;ci,meh'DW it's not in this book yet. So I'm here at the keyboard again to fix that. is, I came up with it by accident. Well through necessity really. I was standing on stage in one of my early public performances, which happened to be in a castle mid-performance of my planned magazine test and it all went ... tits up. A technical term for that 'oh shit' moment. THE PLAN WAS: After a routine with a lady, send her back to her seat and use the Dunninger ploy to ask her what star sign she was born under. I liked the idea of using the Dunninger Ploy at the end of a routine with someone you already have a rapport and trust with. Rather than a scared person who's about to be put on public display. It does work a lot smoother, for me at least. Invite another volunteer up. Open a woman's magazine to the star signs page. I'd then planned to secretly use my nail-writer to make a cross next to the star sign of the previous volunteer. The next step was to hand this volunteer a pencil which I'd super-glued the end of so it no longer writes, have her take pencil and magazine behind her back and make a small 'x: The pencil didn't work, so the only'x'visible was my nail written one. The fact that she'd apparently written it behind her back explained away the nasty nail writer work. Then reveal the star sign she'd placed her 'x' nearest was in fact that of the previous volunteer. Amazing!
BA\RN WHAT HAPPENED: My nail writer snapped. I went for my back up and it had fallen apart in my pocket. I was a PPID - a Prepared Professional In Distress. However, the way I got out of it actually created the method that I went on to Use for every subsequent performance of this routine. What's even better is, as you can imagine, it's totally impromptu. Get a woman's magazine and a pen, that's all you need. HOW I DO IT NOW: Let's assume you know the star sign of the lady from the previous routine. I use the Dunninger ploy of asking her for it as-if out of curiosity at the end of the previous routine, under the applause from the audience while guiding her down the treads. Have another person join you on stage. I talk to her about how the research shows that, shockingly up to 70% of the readership of women's magazines are ... ? The audience try and call out 'men' as you're fitting them up for that ... but you reply with "women': This gets a small laugh. "Which means that the remaining 30% are men, animals and other unidentified species:' "Do you put much faith in the stars? Star signs, for example?" Whatever her response, just ignore it. ;) "In a moment I want you to pop this magazine behind your back, and use this pen to draw a little cross on the page, randomly" It is during this moment of describing what she is to do that you actually draw a cross right in the middle of the box that describes the star sign of the previous volunteer. Really boldly. Right there. 110
BAIRN hand her the pen. No switch. And place the magazine in her hand behind her I that's what I was wondering live on stage in that Castle that night. The answer was actually simplicity itself. the magazine back so that all the star signs are on one side. So when you pass it her back, just turn the magazine over so she draws her cross, she is doing it on the other page (the page opposite to the star signs). When you take it back off her you bring it back around and pull all of the attention to the page with the star signs on it. Now, here's a subtle bit of language I use. Even though I've placed the cross right in centre of the box for the appropriate star sign, I ask her, "It's close to a few of them, which one would you say it's closest to?" She is going to call out the right one, but to the audience it sounds like it might have been on the border between two or more of them. Now all that is left to do is reveal them. BONUS! You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook '\'\'\
.. .. .. .. * 112
BAIRN THEOAND CASSIDY WALK INTO A BAR IN OSTIN I am exceptionally flattered that I've been asked to include this piece, by Mr Bob Cassidy himself. I wasn't going to, but Dr Bob can be a convincing fella. As with almost everything I've written about (unless specifically stated) this is a real worker for me, and I use it every cabaret and dinner party show I do. Which as I write this is maybe 25 or so a year. I didn't realise the power of this until a very knowledgeable mentalist came to see one of my very few public cabaret performances and said he enjoyed the ending where'l used the pre-show: I laughed. I didn't use any pre-show. At the beginning of the show I perform Bob Cassidy's Name/Place routine. But only to a point. I only reveal the first piece of info. Basically the way I perform it, two people think of two separate pieces of information. One of a Celebrity, the other of an International Location. "a country, a continent, a town or city anywhere in the world" ... are the words I say. They write them down and a 'judge' is asked to go collect both cards, along with the pens, "because you look like thieves". "To make the test double safe I don't want to know which one thought I am expected to pick up, so we're going to eliminate one of them. Mix the cards so you don't know ,\,\'.'J
BA\RN which is which, and you cant favour one over the other. Then hand me the one you'd like me to destroy:: He does. Now these days in most of the venues I work you can't use naked flames, so I tear up the card - while doing an instant access centre tear. I use one taught by Richard Busch in his book Peek Performances. Now ask the Judge to hold the other card tight. And reveal the thought you jUst peeked. This is a very brief, crude summery of a masterpiece of modern mentalism. If you're not familiar with it, check it out from Cassidy directly. I promise his materials will be among the best you'll ever experience. Now at this point take back the card in their hand (who's info you don't know), and pocket it. Perform the rest of your act. Then at the end of the show direct attention to a large glass preserve jar that has been standing proudly all night long. Ask someone to go fetch it from the table and bring it centre stage. Mention that they can see there is a card folded and suspended inside of the jar, and they've probably been wondering what it was all night long? Have the volunteer remove the lid of the jar, "'because I don't want to touch anything': Hanging from the lid of the jar is a bulldog clip, inside of which is the folded card. You pinch the bulldog clip open and allow the card to fall down, inside of the jar. Now take the lid off the volunteer and have her reach inside the jar herself and hold on to the card for now. You now approach the lady whose card was eliminated at the start, whose thought is not yet known to anyone. Hand her a pad, "You were thinking of any place on the planet, would you please not change your mind but write big and clear what it was you were thinking of: To the lady on stage you ask, "would you unfold the card, and read out what I wrote before the show ... apologies for my handwriting by the way"you grin. "Seattle:' "Madame, where were you thinking of?" 114
BAIRN She shows everyone the pad, where she has written SEATTLE big and bold! Stop and think about this for a moment. This is insane! What's nice is there is no pre-show, no double or secret writing from you at all, and in fact it (almost) works itself. The bulldog clip in the jar is an Ostin Clip. Which means it has a piece of card, identical to that which you will hand to the volunteers later, set in it with an elastic band around it in such a way that when the clip is opened, the card will shoot up inside of the clip - the vanishing piece of card trick, how neat! Hang this, with the card visible, in a large preserve or other type of clear jar. You'll remember that at the beginning of the show, right at the end of that first Name/ Place routine you pocket the card the Judge was holding? Well that card has the place written on it, in this example Seattle. Point to a volunteer (anyone apart from the lady who's place you are predicting, for reasons I'll explain in a while), and have her collect the jar, I say, "Be careful as the lid is loose:'which is true. I've taken the spring catch off mine for ease. As she brings it over all the focus is on her, so pop your hands in your pocket and retrieve the card you pocketed earlier (with Seattle on it, written by the lady at the start). Now have the volunteer who is holding the jar remove the lid. Now in this position, she is always away from any tables because her hands are now full. One hand holds the jar, the other the lid. And since they are both glass you can bet she's being careful as all heck. My problem with the Ostin Clip was always 'what if the volunteer reaches down and opens it?' and also, why on earth am I opening it? Usually this clever divide is worn round the neck of a volunteer or somewhere else that is equally open to being screwed with. This is not the case with the jar. Their hands are full! So you reach across with your hand that is holding (not palming, don't make this look like a flourish please) and open the clip, at the same time as opening your hand, allowing the held-out card to drop into the jar. Dropping the card into the jar is important because this continues the illusion that you never touched the card, as it was always in the jar and you never put your hands in the jar.
BA\RN Now all that is left to do is snatch the lid from the volunteer (also taking that naughty Ostin Clip along with it) and having her reach inside the jar to remove the card. When she opens it and reads the 'prediction; we'll be using a very clever idea of Annemann's - she will be unknowingly reading the card and writing that the volunteer wrote. It's for this reason you never use the same woman who wrote the card to read it, because she will surely recognise her own writing. So there you have it. A totally free choice predicted without any secret writing, no '.' .' assistants or expensive electronics . • ,' .' Thanks again to Bob Cassidy for encouraging me to include this, and of course for his ~ " " '-,' " '" '.'., ',',' .. ~ " ',',' ',',' ','" .' .. . ','" ','" ','" incredible Name/Place routine. BONUS! 116 You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
BAIRN
BAIRN CLOSEUP AND CASUAL Here are some of my pet close up routines. With close up I like to keep the methods extremely simple so that I can keep the fun, humourus presentation flowing. So you will find that I often rely on the very easiest methods to achieve very direct direct effects.
SUCKING A SOFTY context is everything. BAIRN So, you're in a bar. The guys are talking to a nearby table of girls. Of course it isn't long before the ladies join you. After all, you're fascinating, aren't you? When asked what you do, your mind flickers between brushing it off or showing them something special. Your mind races for at least the blink of an eye lid and you decide to do the gentlemanly thing ... and impress the pants off the chicks! You talk about psychological studies commissioned by soft drinks companies. They've got to spend all of our money on something, haven't they? "One of the less boring studies showed that it's possible to predictably influence which drink more people will buy, but that this choice can be altered by the colour of the drinking straws offered to the customers. Right now this might seem like a trivial thing, but imagine the impact that could have on the drinks industry. They're banking millions of pounds on this:' Mentioning 'millions of pounds' you remove your wallet and place it on the table. "I don't have millions, but I do have something in here I want to show you in a minute. Rather than all my money, let me wager my reputation on this, okay?" "Imagine if you will, that I am holding five straws. One red, one blue, one green, one purple and one is ... orange. Think about which one is on the counter in an imaginary bar. But don't tell anyone, okay? So with this in mind, imagine that colour on the bar, you walk up to the bar and look at their range of soft drinks. Let's imagine you can choose from Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta Orange or Sprite - which one do you feel inclined to go with?"
BAlRN They name Fanta Orange, for example. They could name anyone. You comment on how interesting this choice is as you remove a bunch of 5 coloured straws from your pocket. "50 you've chosen to drink Fanta Orange and it felt fair. The only influencing factor was the colour of the straw you imagined, which actually, I forgot to ask. Which colour was it?" "Blue:' "Blue! Of course it was blue. If the straws on the bar are blue people do tend to buy more Fanta Orange:' You open your wallet and show that there is one piece of folded paper. On it is a small print out from a computer which appears to be a cutting from a scientific report, it reads 'yet when bartenders place blue straws at the point of sale it appears that there is almost irrefutable proof that sales of Fanta Orange see dramatic increases: THE TRUTH This is a lot of fun to perform. The method has a little bit of set up, however it reads like more trouble than it really is. You'll need four of each coloured straw. Plus some kind of card-to-wallet or wallet with a secret loading function. You have four sets of coloured straws, each one contains one of each of the colours. Each 'set' will predict a different soft drink. You print off your predictions on small pieces of paper, roll them up into tight tubes and then push them into the bottoms of the straws. Place each set in a pocket upside down, so that the protruding predictions are upmost - this stops them from falling out into your pocket - and you ending up looking like Paris Hilton on University Challenge. Once the drink is named, you remove that set of straws from the relevant pocket. As you remove them your hand conceals the prediction slips. 12.2.
BAIRN name the colour of the straw and you place all of the others away, leaving yourself with that one straw in your hand. pull the prediction free from the straw and simply load it into the wallet. An alternative to this is to reduce the number of straws required by 75%, so only 5 straws, one of each colour are required. Of course this comes with a compromise, that is you will have to force which drink is selected. This can easily be done with Equivoque or magician's choice. The end effect is still very strong since the choice of straw colour is still completely fair and without process. (Of course you'd be advised to simulate a process with this selection so that the first Equivocal one doesn't stand out as odd or convoluted). BONUS! You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
B 12.4
BAIRN SNOrrY NOSED The lights pulsing purple and orange to the beat of David Guetta and the young lady opposite you sucks hard on the straw into her strawberry Mojito. The stool she sits on makes the Sft-3 brunette, Jerry, look deceptively tall. Perception is a skill she has mastered through the career climbing of now being a high-level public relations manager. "You know what really annoys me about you, Jerry?" She chokes on her straw. Nice. "You're one of those little bitches who everyone hates at school. (A beat) Because you're just good at everything" Her eyes bug out, then her head tilts. A smirk grows across her face as she finds herself confused whether to be offended or feel complimented. Instead, she leans in, curious. "I bet you were great at maths, and science, definitely English too. In fact if I got you to draw something right now you'd probably hum and har over it, but eventually once you got past your false modesty you'd draw something that at least looked like what it was supposed to be, right?" Her head tilts in the opposite direction. A sure sign that she is considering what you're saying. "But you have one down-fall. You're predictable:' The scene is set. "Here, at the place I was just working they had some blank card in the meeting room and being the blatant thief I am, I picked a bunch of them up. Take one of the pieces of card and draw something on it. Go on, be imaginative:' You take out a bunch of blank business cards and spread them all over the table for her to pick one to use for your little game. As she turns her back you gather the remaining cards into a little pile and give them a
cut somewhere near the middle. Once her drawing is complete and she confirms that she feels that she was original in her thinking, the card with her drawing on is placed into the middle of the pile of cards and the cards are placed on to the table. "It's funny how you think you were super original when really, just by me saying 'you're super predictable' actually made you even more predictable. Because most people in this situation would think of a simple shape like a house or a tree. But..:' You flip over the top card of the pile on the table " ... not this time. I'll draw on this card what it was I kind-of always knew you'd draw. Then we'll see how predictable you were and whether I got it right, okay?" You pick of the card you just took and flipped from the top of the pile, hold it in your hand and draw something, without showing it to Jerry. She's all the more curious now. After some dramatic pauses forthought and going back to add details (oh the tension!) you place your card face down on the table. "Are you ready? Maybe you need another drink?" Being the no bUlishit kind of girl she is, she demands that you 'get on with it: Reaching forward slowly you pick up the pile of cards, turn them over and fan through them until you find her drawing. You smirk. "Ha .. :' You slam her card face up on the table. " ... so predictable!" She springs into action to turn over your card to find that despite being beautiful and otherwise quite perfect, her flaw really has been found. Notes: The important thing about this effect is that in both of the methods that we'll go into, once the volunteer's card has been returned to the packet the cards are never shuffled or cut. In the past I, along with other much more prolific thinkers in mentalism have published ideas that involve cutting the cards once it is returned. For me this is a huge mistake because it does not allow for our participant to keep track of where her card is. It could then, for all they know be on the top of the pile. 12.6
BAIRN this routine (and both methods I use) the card is returned and then the pile of cards down on the table immediately. Which allows them to see in their mind exactly their card is. What's more, during the revelation you thumb through the cards remove her image from that very same place. completes what I like to call The Circle Of Deceit. THE TRUTH This is my preferred method of the two, and the one I have used most for that same First of all let me just say that I am a huge fan of re-framing what would otherwise be a mind reading effect as a prediction. I refer to it as the Post Prediction because you make your prediction after the person has made their decision. By this I mean in this situation you could have the person make their drawing and then you read their mind as to what they drew. That is totally fine. However, I have found that by changing the presentation around so that I apparently predicted what they were going to draw, I have reduced the number of people saying 'well you must , have somehow looked at what I wrote' down to almost zero. This is for all routines and methods, not just this one. In fact I am almost certain that because of the conditions of this effect I have never had anyone mention that I could have somehow taken a peek at what they drew. So to perform this as described you will need to gimmick one card. The bottom card of the pile in fact. On one side of this card you will stick some of that super reflective wrapping paper used for gifts and special occasions. Well, at least that is how I started off and then in an art shop in Chester I found some actual mirror paper that allows for an even more impressive reflection. Place this 'Mirror Card' on the very bottom of the stack of cards, mirror side up-most. This means you can openly flash the bottom of the stack because that side is exactly the way it should be, opaque, white and boring as hell. With this card in place, you are ready to go. You offer your Jerry anyone of the cards and she takes one. I've never had anyone take the bottom card. As she is making her drawing it's a simple case of taking the spread of
; .... .... j. '.' . ,' ~ , ' " BA\RN cards and cutting the mirror card to the top. While you do this ensure you tilt the pile toward yourself so as not to expose the reflective surface. I do this by holding the cards in right hand Biddle position. That is between your right thumb and middle fingers, with the bottom card facing outward, square on to the volunteer. When she is done, have her place her card face down on the table to 'ensure none of the ink ran through' or something (or in my case, no reason at alii just ask her to do it). Whilst you talk, swing cut the top half of the right hand's packet into your Jeft hand, remembering to keep it elevated to conceal the mirror card. Now move the remaining (lower) half of the right hand's packet to the table to pick of their card by adding it to the bottom of the pile in this hand. Bring the entire right hand packet, now with the drawing on the face of it, up to show the volunteer again and say something like "You think this is super original, do you?" to which they will shrug their shoulders in hope. Now in a continuous motion place this packet on top of those cards in your left hand. Right on top of the mirror card. As you do so you will naturally look at where you are placing the cards and see a reflection of the drawing in the mirror as you place the two halves together. Immediately and clearly place the entire packet on to the table. As far as method goes, you are pretty much done here. However it's important that when you take a card from the pile to write your 'prediction' on, you flip over the top card openly to subtly say 'this is blank' - because believe it or not some people have asked me to see that card to make sure it's not theirs. This is unequivocal proof that some people have seen far to many ambitious card routines. Now you can get on with picking up the card and duplicating what you just peeked . To display her drawing, it's really nice to turn the whole pile of cards over and just spread them. Not only does this display her image clearly, and still in the centre of the pile of cards, but it does so whilst hiding your reflective card in plain sight (since the reverse of it is white like the others . BONUS! 12.8 You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
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BAIRN NOOKEY "Pleasure, Mr Customs Officer:' you say hoping to make it past border control in Philadelphia. It's September, it's busy. He'll just want to get on to the next person, right? "Please follow me ... " he asserts, leading the way behind a blue felt screen. It's your first time in the USA and your first time trying to get through borders and immigration by lying. You're coming into the country to perform at a corporate dinner the following evening but you didn't sort your visa. Now you're about to be probed by an ex-military man who's taking a strange shine to you. Your case lands with a thud on to the 'operating table' and the zipper, un-zipped. "Is there anything in this case that you're going to deny knowing about once I look through it?" Possibly the strangest question and most intimidating one, you've ever heard. The uniform-wearing authority seeking skinhead rifles through your case asking "What's this?" and holding up random items of clothing, pads of paper and your laptop before finding a deck of cards. "What's this?" "A deck of cards" "Why do you have it?" Uh oh. Deportation and Watchlist here you come. Instead of lying, You decide that a lie based in truth is somewhat better. You're going to down play your profession. "I'm an amateur magician, learning card tricks and things:' He looks at you, stares you in the face with a sly smirk. "You any good? Tell you what, show me a trick and if it's good I'll let you go:' You're being held hostage and your only escape route is a pack of cards. Excellent. '\~'\
BA\RN "Please, mix the cards, give them a shuffle until you're happy to let them go:' Yes, you're using embedded commands because right now the stakes are high and, well why the hell not? He is happy and hands the cards to you. "Okay, Sir is it okay to ask your name?"you ask ever-so nervously. "Sure, I'm Tom:' Another point for the persuasive process. Some rapport. You got him to step outside of his job and become Tom. "I'd like you to take these cards behind your back, just so that we cannot see them and everything is fair:' More commands for his subconscious right there as you demonstrate by turning over approximately a third of the deck and turn it face up on top of the pack. "Turn some over then remember this card right here" You hand him the deck, he is now following your instructions. Look at that, you're in control. But don't push it my friend. You turn your back and ask him to take a look at the card that he has cut face up on to the deck. Then to turn all the face up cards back down again. This buries his card into some unknown location in the deck. You ask if you are "Safe to turn around?" and Tom agrees that you are indeed. All seems very fair indeed, yet with a quick glance through the deck you are able to name his card in one go. Tom's face drops and you immediately compliment him on how skilful and observant he was, after all without his amazing abilities and strong mind you'd never have been able to do this. THE TRUTH I have a couple of ways of achieving this. The one I actually used in this situation I cleverly call ... 132
BAIRN This method I have performed and really enjoyed. The one we'll discuss in a moment only just came to me and I much prefer it. This method is totally impromptu, with any deck of cards. The 2nd method is not. What is quite nice about this routine is, well first of all let me tell you that the story is absolutely true. Every word of that happened for real and this very routine bought me my free passage into the USA. That coupled with some suggestions and hidden verbal commands. And the fact he didn't find any weed in my luggage. Secondly, what is really fascinating about this is that although it does use a key card, it would seem impossible that this be the case. The effect is inspired by something Paul Curry (of Out OfThis World fame) wrote about and I thought would make for a very impressive mentalism demonstration. The modus operandi is simplicity itself. However the staging and spectator management is something you will need to work on. As you demonstrate what you'd like Tom to do, you cut about one third of the deck and turn it over on top of the rest of the face-down cards. You instruct him that he is to remember the card that is now face up, the card that he freely cut to, and then turn all of the face up cards back down again. As you instruct him to turn the face up cards face down again you openly spread to the last face up card before turning them all face down, it is this last face up card that will be your Key. Make eye contact with Tom and ask him if he understands. As his response leaves his lips he will have the least amount of attention on you, so in this moment flip the top card (the card you memorised before as your Key) and then hand him the deck behind his back. Now you are in a situation where Tom believes that he is holding a deck of cards, all face down behind his back. The truth of the scenario is that all of the cards are face down, apart from the top card, your key card. Tom takes a bunch of cards and turns them over on top of the deck. Now after he looks at the card he cut to (whilst your back is turned) you ask him to go through and turn all of his cards face down again he is placing his card directly above your key card. The rest, as they say ... is 'drama:
BA\RN METHOD TWO The problem I have with the previous method is that it requires a lot of spectator management so that they will not get a glimpse of the fact that the top card of the deck is face up. It also requires that you look through the cards in order to reveal the thought of card. In this version you do not need either of those things. Instead, you require a 'double gimmick'That's no ordinary gimmick there son, it's double-good. Grab hold of a double backed card that matches the declvyou're using on both sides. Tale this double backer and shorten it. I personally just use a corner short but I know many others prefer to cut a slither off one of the short ends of the cards. To begin, have the short-double-backer (SOB) on top of the deck, with all the cards facing down. Now have the participant cut some cards and place them face up on the other cards. Now they note the face up card before spreading through the cards and turning all of the face up cards back down again. Now what is happening is something I've not come across before, that is a 'Floating Key Card~ Since your short card is also a double backer, the participant will turn all of the cards above it face down when they spread through. This places their selection directly above the SOB. Now you can locate their card by simply cutting to the card above the short card. This method seems so classic that I would not be surprised if someone has come up with it before somewhere, however I hope you enjoy my handling here. BONUS! 134 You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
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BAIRN ArrRAcnON The taxi ride home is raucous and mad. Someone suggests going back to your place to keep the party going. You think through the important things like 'did I let the dog out' and 'have the bodies started reeking' before agreeing. The taxi spins in the road and makes a beeline for your place. The four of you spill out on the pavement. After a few more hours of madness and drinking your way through a third of your drinks cabinet the mood is subdued. Everyone is sitting around, the X-Box is playing with itself in the background and the sun is starting to come up. "It's a mystical time of day:' A philosophical sound emits from your mouth. Yes. You're surprised too. No one moves, just their eyes. And one or two eyebrows. '~ust when the sun of a new day raises its head over the horizon, that is when strange opportunities are at their most probable. Take this deck of cards for example. It's not a full deck, there is one card missing. So as I deal down through this packet, Toni you call out stop at any time that feels like the perfect time. We're talking about opportunity here:' You deal cards one at a time on to the table. SlOWly. Precisely. "Stop" she calls in an almost belch-like manor. Mmmm the smell of a beer/garlic cocktail. She's a real lady. "Which card? The one still on the deck, or the one on the table? Which one is it? One of them is right, the other is not" She points to the table. At which time you pick up the tabled pile and openly and clearly pick up that very card and place it in front of her. "Keep the suspense. This is your opportunity:' You bring attention to the only other thing that is on the table, besides the red stained
" . BA\RN wine glasses, An envelope. Which you turn over to show has a plastic panel window in it, through which the back of a card can be seen. "I said we were playing with a deck of only 51. The 52nd card has been sat here, waiting for you" At which point you tip out the card. Now both cards are sat overlapping each other on the table. You tilt your head. "Turn over the one from the envelope"They do, it's the eight of clubs. "Now turn over your opportunity card" Mouths drop open and a euphoric bliss descends as its the eight of spades. The perfect matching partner. What's really nice is that at this pOint you can hand the deck outfor shuffling, inspection and then proceed with any other effect you like. Oh and there is no palming or secret loading of the envelope. Phew! · · · · · THE TRUTH I really love this routine because it misleads the audience on almost every level. First of all, you are not playing with a deck of 51 cards. It is in reality a complete deck of 52. Naughty eh? 138
BAIRN We'll come back to the arrangement of the deck, but first we are going to deal with the envelope. This envelope was brought to my attention by my friend from New Zealand, Paul Romhany. The envelope I use is a DL size envelope, which is more than double the length of a playing card. The window should be at one end of the envelope, which is standard in window DL envelopes, but something that is harder to find (and in fact I make my own) is where the DL envelope opens along the short side, not the long side. More tricky still is to find window DLs that have the opening flap at the opposite end to the window. Its a simple case of making your own with some craft paper, a knife and some glue. By simple I mean ... 1 have the scars. Ask to see them when we see each other. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the card that we see inside of the envelope never actually leaves the envelope at all. The envelope is glued closed just inside (see the dotted line in the illustration). This means that when you tip the envelope up the card goes out of sight but is held inside of the envelope by the glue that seals it inside. In terms of construction of this, I use a cotton bud (or Q-tip) and a glue stick. Just grab a bunch of the glue from your favourite glue stick pop it on the cotton bud and use the cotton bud to reach inside of the envelope around half an inch, to apply the glue. The reason for placing it a little way inside of the envelope is that when it comes to apparently opening the envelope to tip the card out you are able to tuck the flap of the envelope inside and you can even pop the envelope open with your fingers the way you normally would. Place the envelope, with the flap tucked in on to the table, window side down to start. Mainly for dramatic reasons but also so that you don't give the game away as to where you're headed just yet. You could of course cloak the whole thing in tension as you say 'there is one card in this envelope, and no matter how hard you try, you will be drawn to it; look them square in the face and do your trademark 'Spooky Eyes'. The deck of cards. It is a full deck and it is stacked. The stack is extremely simple. You're going to stack them in pairs. So the ace of clubs then the ace of spades. The order of the pairs does not matter at all, you could then go on to the seven of diamonds then the seven of hearts. The only thing that matters for the success of this effect is that the pairs match in colour and value. Hearts with diamonds and clubs paired with spades.
'. BA\RN You're set. Lets do this. Remove the prepared deck from its case and talk about synchronicity, opportunity, the apocalypse, mass genocide ... or whatever makes you feel good inside. Ask the participant you've selected for this experiment to call stop at any time as you deal them one at a time to the table. As you're doing this all you're really doing is counting the cards. When STOP is called you will know whether the card just dealt was an odd or an even number. If it was an even number then it's mate is directly below it on the dealt pile. If it is an odd number then the mate of this card is on top of the pile still in your hand. Both situations are almost identical in handling and go totally unappreciated by those who are watching. Let's deal with the even number first. Say you dealt 28 cards before they said stop. Since that is an even number you know that the card dealt to and it's matching card (in value and colour) are on the table. You don't know what the cards are though. Which is fine. You table the cards you are still holding and pick up the dealt pile. Now you're ready to proceed. If stop is called on an odd number, then you simply pick of the dealt card and place it back on top the pile that is still in your hand. No matter which outcome you found yourself at, we are in the same situation. The top card of the deck you now hold in your hand is the card stopped at, and the card immediately below it is its matching mate. You're now going to perform something that I read in a Mick Ayres book and thought 'that will never work' but believe me I do it and it works far too well to pass it up. Just do it. You're going to deal a double to the table, as one card. Whaaaaat? Yes. The way I do this is open and sneaky. I get a break below the top two cards and say, "Look, fair as I can. Your card goes on the table right here:'With these words falling out of my mouth I pick up the worst double lift you've ever seen, by pinching the two cards by the inner left corner and outer right corner between my thumb and middle finder (Biddle grip) and carefully placing it on the table. Since you are apparently doing this as a way of proving the test conditions of the experiment/game, it flies by as being a justified way to handle 'this' card. 140
BAIRN Now the double card, which is a matching pair, is on the table. So that not too much attention is placed on this card you immediately pick up the envelop and hold it up, turning it so you are showing everyone the card through the window inside. This is the perfect way to direct attention away from that tabled double because now you're holding the 'prediction' which is where all of the heat is. Of course magicians among the audience are expecting you to load a card or at least have one palmed. Which you don't. Unlucky for them eh? Now open the flap of the envelope before popping your fingers inside, then tip up the envelope. Now the card inside slides out of view of the window in the envelope, and simultaneously you use the flap of the envelope itself to nudge the top mate of the double card that sits on the table. It's this combination of a card vanishing, whilst moving and the separation of the double that makes this a very deceptive moment. Now you are able to reveal the incredible coincidence, and then since the whole deck is now in place, give it a quick shuffle and you can continue with any amount of further amazing card conundrum. CREDITS This was inspired by Paul Romhany and his clever envelope, and Mick Ayres' routine that uses a double card. BONUS! You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook
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BAIRN TELL THE TRUTH, KIDDA. The deck of cards sits oh so innocently on the table. No one has a clue what they're about to experience. Well that was certainly the case when I introduced this little bad-boy routine whilst dining out with some friends a few years ago. "John, your hands look clean, give the deck a cut, take the card you cut to and remember it. I'll turn my back, just in case:' John took the card from the place he cut to. "Have you done that? Now just put it back and put the part of the deck you cut off back on top, so your card is buried once again in the middle. Then tell me when that's done so I can turn back around?" The instructions are simple and fair. John tells me that he has carried out his task and I can turn back to face the table. "Excellent. I'd like you to take the cards, give them a few cuts, some shallow, some deep, all to your satisfaction so that I cannot estimate approximately which section of the deck your card is hidden in:' As he was doing this, I look around the table, engaging everyone once again with my intense eye contact, and a little rye smile, "I am not going to find your card. Instead you're going to tell me what it is. But not in the usual, conscious way': Now our friends change state. From one of coherence, to a look of, "You what?!': "Take the cards John, and I want you to look at each of the cards, just by turning each in turn so that only you can see it. Call out the name of each card you see, BUT when you come to your card I want you to name another card. You're going to lie right to my face. Actually, not to my face at all. You're going to lie to me, right behind my back. I won't be facing you. I'm going to turn around. So please, call out the cards as you see them before placing each one face down on
BA\RN the table. When you get to your card call out something different. I'll try and detect your deceit. Okay?" John sits up straight, readying himself for the challenge. He calls out a card, and another, and continues. Then he says "Six of clubs:'you say, "No it's not is it? That's a lie. That's your card. I won't turn around. I know that's not the six of clubs, in reality it's the nine of diamonds, is that right?" He slams the rest of the deck on the table, defeated. THE TRUTH What I really love about this demonstration is that it catches most of my peer performers totally unaware and leaves them just as clueless as the uninitiated public. I got to wondering why that is and I suppose it's probably because they are looking for a method, when there isn't one. There are two. The two problems we have for ourselves are knowing when the wrong card is being called and being able to stop the procedure at that exact moment, and then still without turning around being able to name the true identity of that card. You'll be using a marked deck. That's the first thing. You'll then take this marked deck and stack it in your favourite stack, but with one important difference, you'll stack it in reversed order. I like the Osterlind Breakthrough Card System, so instead of having the cards follow on from one another from the top of the face down deck toward the bottom - I stack the order from the face of the face up deck toward to top. In performance, the deck is on the table. You have your friend cut the deck and using the markings of the cards you can identify which card he has cut to. Excellent. However, in addition to that you can use the fact that the deck is stacked to calculate which card is directly above their card. This is all you need to know. For example, if I spy the card that is cut to, to be the 9 of diamonds, I know that the card immediately above it (since the deck is stacked in reverse) is the nine of clubs. In the case of Si-Stebbins, you'd peek the 9 of diamonds and know the card above it is 144
BAIRN the queen of clubs. As soon as you have read the markings on the back of the card that our friendly volunteer has cut to you turn your back. At this point have him pick up the card and remember it before replacing it and re-assembling the deck. You can have him cut the deck as much as he likes at this point, it doesn't effect anything at all. Again with your back turned, John calls out the cards on at a time. All truthfully. All we need to do is listen out for the card that we calculated is above the selection (the next one in our stack), wait until the next card is dealt and at that time we can state that whatever he just called out was in fact not honest. It is important at this point to resist the temptation to turn around and see his reaction or claim our glory. Staying turned away we can then go on to name the real identity of the card, which is the one we read the markings of earlier. BONUS! You can see performance clips, receive updates on this and the other routines plus additional, previously unreleased material by visiting: www.mentalunderground.com/bairnbook