Over the last few weeks, I’ve given you plenty to think about—and shown you how to perform an extremely powerful routine with just a little bit of ‘homework’ done beforehand.
If you just know their names, you can perform one of the most powerful effects in magic.
If you haven’t seen that yet, go here:
https://innercircle.jasoncoppage.com/one-of-the-most-powerful-concepts-in-card-magic/
But, like it or not, there are going to be times when…
…you perform for someone without knowing their name!
In these kinds of situations, you might THINK it’s as simple as just asking for their name.
And while, sure, you can make that work—it takes a high level of skill with the memorized deck and the ability to think through this kind of thing ‘on the spot.’
Which is a lot of pressure to put on yourself, I’d say—if you’re not ready.
In those cases, I’d suggest THIS admittedly simple, yet elegant, solution…
Create a ‘’portfolio” of lists like the one we made last week…but this time, for T.V families.
I’m talking about the ‘classics’—the Simpsons, Flintstones, Kardashians, etc.
Then, while we’re performing, we ask the audience to name ‘famous families from T.V. – real or cartoon’
Now, the important thing is not to ask any ONE person to name a family. We don’t want to be restricted to one option.
However, if we get our audience to ‘spitball’ names, it won’t be long until someone names one of the families we’re prepared for.
When this happens, we can act like THIS is the one we heard.
“The Simpsons? You think so? I mean, maybe, sure, we can try…”
It’s a clever way to ‘force’ an outcome while making it feel free.
Of course, what we’ve done previously is prepare ‘outs’ for each of these families.
For example, with The Simpsons, we have a list of ‘outs’ that we can use at any time, as long as SOMEONE names ‘The Simpsons’ (which is very likely. And in the worst case scenario, you can present it like it was your ‘favorite’ T.V show or something.)
Heck, this choice is so common, you could probably get away with JUST using The Simpsons.
I’m going to assume most of you are familiar with who the Simpsons are. But just to grease these wheels as much as I can, here are the names of the family members:
- Father: Homer Simpson
- Mother: Marge Simpson
- Daughter: Lisa Simpson
- Son: Bart Simpson
- Daughter: Maggie Simpson
Here’s the list:
- 1st card/52nd
Same as usual. (see last week)
- 2nd/51st
Same as usual.
- 3rd/50th
Same as usual.
- 4th/49th
“Bart or Lisa?”
Whichever they choose, it’s 4 letters. Hence why the question should be more of a throwaway.
- 5th/48th
Same as above, but show the next card/card on face of deck after dealing.
OR: Spell ‘Homer’ for 5.
- 6th/47th
Same as above but double lift/glide.
OR: Spell ‘Homer’ and show the next card
- 7th/46th
Spell ‘Homer’ and double lift/glide.
- 8th/45th
Spell ‘Simpsons’ for 8.
- 9th/44th
Same as above, but show the next card on deck/on face of deck.
- 10th/43rd
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
OR: Spell ‘Homer’ and then ‘Marge’ for 10 cards.
- 11th/42nd
Spell ‘Homer’ and then ‘Marge’ and then show the next card/card on face of deck.
- 12th/41st
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
- 13th/40th
Spell ‘Homer and Marge’ (the difference is that you spell the ‘and’ too) for 13 cards.
- 14th/39th
Same as above, show the next card/card on face of deck.
- 15th/38th
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
- 16th/37th
Spell ‘Homer (and) Marge Simpson’ for 17 cards. The ‘and’ is only spoken, not spelled. Deal each card into a new pile. Then double lift the top card of the new pile to show the 16th card.
- 17th/36th
Spell ‘Homer (and) Marge Simpson’ for 17 cards. The ‘and’ is only spoken, not spelled.
- 18th/35th
Same as above, but show the next card on the deck/on the face of the deck.
- 19th/34th
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
- 20th/33rd
Spell ‘Homer and Marge Simpson’ for 20 cards. This time, the ‘and’ IS spelled.
- 21st/32nd
Same as above, but show the next card on deck/card on face of deck.
- 22nd/31st
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
- 23rd/30th
Spell ‘Homer Simpson (and) Marge Simpson’ for 24 cards. Again, the ‘and’ is not spelled.
Deal these cards into a new pile. Double lift the top card of the new pile to show the 23rd card.
- 24th/29th
Spell ‘Homer Simpson (and) Marge Simpson’ for 24 cards. Again, the ‘and’ is not spelled.
- 25th/28th
Same as above, but show the card on deck/on the face of the deck.
- 26th/27th
Same as above, but double lift/glide.
See?
We can bang these out in minutes.
Your job is to get familiar with a few ‘set’ ones that you can use in situations where you weren’t able to catch anyone’s name.
Heck, you can use your OWN name if you need to (play around with combiniing first name, first and last, first and last with middle initial, full name, nicknames, etc.)
NOTE: Of course, this doesn’t have the same ‘built in’ power, since it’s not using THEIR name. However, it’s a whole lot better than nothing.
There you have it—my system.
Let’s briefly talk about the presentation.
I think I mentioned, early on, that the decision-making process is conducted as a ‘duo’ between the couple (one chooses color, another suit, etc.)
This gives me justification to start feeding them lines later like:
“Just like it took both of you to name the card, it’ll take both of you to find it. Here’s what I mean by that…”
Of course, this will apply better in some situations than others.
But, I think, combined with everything else we’ve covered over the last few weeks…
…you’re pretty ‘set’ to amaze!
Let me know what this does for you, and in the meantime, I’ll be back with more next week. 🙂
Benji