Crossword by Michael Murray

Crossword by Michael Murray

Dedicated to Paul Vigil who promped me to put pen to paper and write this up earlier than I had ever intended. I’m unsure which i’m more happy with, this effect or the very apt title that i’ve given it...

Effect - This effect allows you to seemingly forcast which random word your spectator will think of without the need for any peeks, impressions or pre-show.

The Set-Up - Don’t worry, this is very minimal. You need only fold one of your business cards into quarters, roll up your sleeves and then tuck the folded billet next to your left elbow. In this position the billet will be hidden from almost any angle and as a result this can be set-up well in advance of the performance. I also like to draw a few lines and dashes on the inside of this business card for the benefit of any eagle eyed spectators in your company.

Note: I’ve even performed this in casual dress using an elastic band to hold the billet in place at the opening of the sleeve in my T-Shirt.

The Work - With the set up complete your ready to perform the effect. As a side note I’m a big fan of giving the audience plausible methods for my effects. So as I introduce the two blank business cards I openly state that dispite not being able to be able to read minds that I am able to do something which appears very close.

Acknowledging the interest of my spectators I propose a demonstration of this ability. I state that in studying the human thought process I have discovered certain trends in the ways that people think. That certain words and phrases are able to trigger identical responses in the minds of like minded people.

It is claimed that this works in very much the same way that nostalgic music conjures up thoughts of long lost pleasant memories of the past but only on a more focused level.

I state that the spectator is to play a word association game in their mind. The way this works is very simple. You state that you are going to suggest a word to the spectator and that they are to change that word in their mind and they are to think of something closley related to that word. So for example if you were to suggest the word circle, they could think of sun, wheel, roundabout or indeed anything that may be remotly conected to that word.

Once the spectator understands the way the game works I offer them the word “Oval” this could be any word however I have a fondness for this word and it appears that there is a limit to the possible connections that could be made to it increasing belivbility. Once the spectator has made an association in their mind I ask them to repeat the process with the new word that they are thinking of. Then just for good measure I ask them to repeat this process once more.

Now that the spectator has settled on a word I state that dispite all of the possible associations that could have been made to the original word that i’m fairly sure that I know the journey that the spectator has taken to end up with the word they are now thinking of.or at least that I have narrowed it down to one of two words.

I state that to be certain of which word they are thinking of I need only know the amount of letters in that word and so I ask them to count the letters silently to themselves. If you watch the spectator carfully you can sometimes see their head bob up and down as they count each letter in their mind (It’s a fun thing to see). If you manage to do this you can state that you believe that they are thinking of an (X) letter word where X represents the amount of times the spectator nodded their head.

If you are correct you have your first hit. If not don’t worry simply state that they didn’t go for the obvious one and that they are a little more tricky than you first anticipated, you then proceed to directly ask them how many letters are in the word. As soon as they reply you will openly and confidently state that you believe that you now know the word!

Note: If there is no noticable head bobbing I generaly take a stab at it claiming that it could be between two words, one is a seven letter word and the other is a five. If they aknowledge either then you have a hit, if not then simply ask them as above. Note that at this point no matter whether you nailed the number of letters or not you have not failed in the eyes of the audience since you openly stated that you would need to know the number of letters in the word to be able to identify the thought of word.

You now know the number of letters and so you take one of your business cards and write down any word that has the same number of letters as directed by the spectator. Try to give an educated guess by following the word association game in your mind. (Who knows one day you may be lucky!!!). This card is then folded and placed into your left pants pocket so that it protrudes sleightly.

You now hand another business card to this spectator asking them to commit the word they are thinking of to paper. Caution them that no one else is to see this word other than the person to their left (For verification purposes). Once this has been done you ask them to fold the business card into quarters. As this is being done you turn away but hold out your left had in a non verbal gesture to receieve the card. Once the spectator has placed the card on your hand you openly ask if there is anyway you could see whats written upon the card? The spectator will respond with a no.

At this point you are now going to switch the billet for the dummy billet which is tucked against your left elbow. This is a simple switch that I developed from an Albert Goshman sponge ball steal which is as old as the hills. With the spectators billet resting on your left palm you openly push it to the fingertips. You then cleanly show the right hand empty and then proceed to use the right hand to pull up the left sleeve a little further and at the same time you will steal the dummy billet into finger palm position.

You with then casualy perform a false transfer of the left hands genuine billet into the right hand switching it for the dummy billet. As soon as this as been done you will then use your apparently empty left hand to pull up the right sleeve and at the same time you will push the dummy billet to the fingertips of the right hand. This is all performed casually and under the guise of pulling up the sleeves a little.

Your finaly position is as follows - You have the dummy billet held at the right hand fingertips and the left hand secretly holds the spectators folded billet. I generaly comment at this point that even if I could see through the card It would help as I had already commited my thoughts.

As this is said I openly hold the dummy billet at arms length in my right hand and reach down to my left pants pocket with my left hand. The left hand then perfoms the put an take move (credit to be located) which is generaly associated with card magic. In essence your going to use your left thumb to push the billet which sits in the left pants pocket futher into the pocket (out of sight) and at the same time insert the spectators finger palmed billet into this pocket so that it protrudes a little more that the previous one did.

It should appear as though you have simply pulled the pocketed business card a little further into view. I then state that since two people are aware of the spectators word this card is no longer needed, and with that I proceed to tear up the billet which is held at the right hand finger tips.

Since this has a few lines and dashes which were previously drawn all looks fair an dabove board. I now ask another spectator to take a look at the word which I wrote down, gesturing for a third spectator to remove the folded card from my pocket and instruct them to peek at the word that I wrote down. Note: This all seems logical since there are also two people thinking of the first spectators word. This card is then taken back and destroyed.

Note: It is important that you destroy this card as you dont want the spectator to accidently expose any of the handwriting on this card to the original spectator.

Optional Extra: If you draw a line upon the business cards for your spectator to write their word you can perform a center tear/peek as your destroying this billet so that you now also know the thought of word. I now state that there is one witness to the spectators word and one witness to the word which I wrote down.

I now state that together we are about to witness something very close to read mind reading. I ask that after the cont of three everyone is to call out the word they have in their mind. 1...2...........3 (BAM) everyone calls out the same word!!! Incidently this looks great for the folks who just walk in at the end of the effect too ;)

Credits to be inserted along with images, no spell check has been done but I hope this makes a little sense, plus i’ve had a few whiskeys too! As far as i’ve been informed the idea of two people calling out the same word is originaly credited to Anneman. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Best Wishes Always Michael