Well
Geminites, Just when you thought
the world of the Gemini board
was safe the Lemming returns!
A new book is rapidly approaching
its escape date from L&L and
Mark asked if I could get you
a sneak preview from its pages.
So, here's one of the sillier
items that's given me a lot of
fun, hopefully it will give you
a giggle or two as well. The new
book Son of Simon Says has over
40 full routined items in my normal
Lovellesque manner along with
some more thoughts chapters to
go alongside those in Simon Says.
Think it's a pretty good book
but then I would! Anyways here's
the sneak preview chapter for
you ...
WAITING
FOR GOD
HISTORY
This is one of those items that
started off as a, "Hmmm, that
might be an amusing thing to play
with," idea. I played around with
it and finally ended up with what
I thought would be a neat quick
joke. Actually it turned out to
play really strongly indeed and
is now one of my favorite off-beat
items for when the time is right!
It has a sort of reverse homage
to all the derivations of the
telephone trick that have ever
existed but here, instead of you
calling someone to name the card,
they call you!
EFFECT
No less a omnipotent being than
God (or a deity of your choice)
takes time off from his/her universal
problems to give you a call on
your cell phone to help you out
of a sticky situation and save
the day!
PRE
WORK
You'll need a cell phone for this
effect but since everybody over
the age of a fetus seems to have
one as we enter a new millennium
that should almost be a given
that you do! If you have one like
mine you can program in all the
numbers you use most often with
the persons name. When they call
the screen lights up with their
name and number like a caller
ID thing. This whole piece came
from the fact that very few people
have my cell phone number and
I refer to them as 'The Secret
Seven'. Michael Chaut, for reasons
best known to his demented psyche,
insisted on being entered as 'Agent
002' and so, when he calls, his
name doesn't come up but, instead,
the phone reads, 'Agent 002'!
This festered in my brain for
a while and the base of the effect
was born. If I could enter anything
for a name then ... er ... I could
enter anything, if you see what
I mean! So get a friend who's
going to be around when you are
going to do this piece and re-program
their name as, 'God' or whatever
deity you wish. If they can do
a good impression of a celebrity
you might want to program that
in if you a very religious person
and consider using an omnipotent
being a bit tacky for a card trick!
Tell your friend the name of a
card (I nearly always use the
Four of Clubs) and a position
(I use between 10 and 15). That's
the pre work, now into the routine!
METHOD/ROUTINE
The cards are in hand and the
cell phone is off to one side.
I use this in informal situations
so it's quite normal for stuff
to be around a table in a coffee
house for example.
"OK,
Chaps," I say, "It's time for
another miraclette with ye olde
pasteboards; I could use washboards
but they're a bit clumsy ... what
the hell am I talking about?"
I now force the four of clubs
upon the spectator.
FORCETHINKS
I use a Fan Force here and for
a detailed description of how
I do this check out my previous
book Simon Says. If you aren't
keen on the Fan Force you could
also use The World's Easiest Riffle
Force from the same book. It really
doesn't matter which force you
use, however, so long as they
end up with the Four of Clubs.
I
now take back the card and shuffle
it back into the deck. And I do
mean, really shuffle it back into
the deck! As I do this I say,
"I'm going to pop your card back
in amongst the others and mix
them up simply to find your card
again. There are those who would
say that this is somewhat futile,
why didn't I just let you keep
it when you took it and cut out
all this hard work. Well, trust
me folks, doing this stopped me
having to look for a real job
when I ran out of college courses!"
I
now hand the deck to them and
ask them to shuffle them up saying,
as I do so, "Let's see how you
shuffle the cards. Ah, the hands
of a God! You played a lot of
Poker in your youth didn't you?"
I
take back the deck and say, "Your
card is lost and alone. It's up
to me to find it before it breaks
down completely and needs therapy!"
I run through the cards face up
and cull their card (see The Bucket
Cull in this tome) to 12th (or
whatever the number I've told
my pal is) from the top.
MUCHEASIERTHINKS
That is work but it makes the
effect very clean. You could,
of course, just control their
card to the top and over hand
shuffle the requisite number of
cards on top of it without letting
them shuffle. I much prefer, and
highly recommend, using the cull
after they shuffle because the
effect becomes much stronger magically.
I
place the deck on the table face
down and say, "To find the card!
Is it this one?" I show the top
card and replace it when they
say, "No." I say, "Sometimes I
luck out! Is it this one?" I turn
over the deck to show the bottom
card and replace the deck face
down when I get a negative answer.
"Ah, well, I'll have to go for
blind luck then!" I cut the deck
(well into the middle so I don't
accidentally cut their card) and
say, "Is that it?" I replace the
cut and say, "Well I let you shuffle,
what do you expect, miracles?
God only knows where that card
is now!"
As
I go into that line my friend,
whose been watching from a distance,
dials my cell phone. The timing
is so cool if my phone starts
to ring just as I finish saying
the last line.
I
say to my spectator, "Could you
check the caller ID and see who
is calling?" They check and see
'God' on the screen. I say, "Well
you'd better take it, he's pretty
important you know!" They answer
the call and hear a voice saying,
"This is God. Could you tell Simon
that your card is the four of
clubs and it's twelve cards down
in the deck!" Trust me, the look
on their face is awesome when
they find that card in place!
GODTHINKS
Sometimes I just have my fake
deity tell them how far down in
the deck the card is so that the
reveal of the actual card is moved
to the end of the effect. Both
ways play very strongly indeed.
They know, I hope, that it's not
really God on the phone but it's
a real mystery. The deity phoned
you. How could they, whoever it
was, know which card was selected
and how far down in the deck it
was especially after they'd shuffled
the deck themselves? The result
is a very satisfying mix of sleight
of hand and absolute BS to produce
a very weird revelation!
I
finish the whole thing by just
saying, "I knew all those months
as an alter boy would pay off
sometime!"
AFTERTHINKS
By taking a simple location and
adding a body to the skeleton
we create a very cool and memorable
moment. Who's not going to tell
their friends about Gods phone
call? I love the expression that
if you know one hundred ways to
find a card and one way to reveal
it then, effectively, you only
know one trick. If you know one
way to find a card and a hundred
ways to reveal it then, to the
spectator, you know a hundred
tricks. That's well worth pondering
if you are spending hours learning
the invisible work (sleights)
and very little time on the visible
work (effect). The visible work
is paramount and the invisible
work should be a given, in my
opinion, if your magic is going
to elate an audience!
Son
of Simon Says will be released
in August 2000 by L&L Publishing.
The cost will be $45.00
