The Spa Lover's Guide to Europe. Marc Lemezma

chances of any magician your audience might meet in the future. If you follow the rules, which are explained in detail on page 98 and briefly outlined below, you will no doubt give a strong performance that will leave a powerful and lasting impression on your audience.

      Rule 1

      • Practice makes perfect, so make sure you have rehearsed thoroughly.

      Rule 2

      • Never repeat a trick to the same audience.

      Rule 3

      • Never reveal your methods to anyone except other magicians.

      So let’s get down to business: your first mind magic experience.

      FIRST STEPS INTO THE UNKNOWN

       ‘Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.’

      ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY (1900–44)

      It is said that if you were to ask a hundred people what their greatest fear is, most would not say the dark, pain, or even death. Most would tell you it is speaking in public. Being the focus of an audience’s attention means that any mistake you make is exposed to everyone. On the other hand, any success is equally revealed, and your skill will be known to all.

      This first chapter looks at three straightforward tricks to get you started with mind magic. They need not be performed as a show, but perhaps instead as an aside at any gathering. None requires great skill, so this will allow you to concentrate on your patter and thus build your confidence. From then on your performances will be plain sailing.

      Nevertheless, do not be misled into believing that the simplicity of these introductory tricks means they will have a limited impact upon your audience. Indeed, each one on its own is a minor miracle.

      ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ PREDICTABLE BEHAVIOUR ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

      Perhaps one of the most useful weapons in the mind-magician’s arsenal is a technique known as ‘forcing’. Quite simply, although your spectator believes he or she has had a completely free and unrestricted choice from a number of random items, you have, in fact, severely limited his options.

      For example, if I were to ask you to think of any odd number from 50 to 99, I have already limited your choice by half. Later, when I say, ‘You had a free choice of a number between 50 and 99. Is that correct?’ You cannot deny it is the truth. Yet it seems to any onlooker that you had twice as many choices as you had in reality.

      Later in the book, you will see a more complex example of forcing, but for now let’s start with an experiment using a very simple force involving a playing card to create the impression of amazing precognition.

      You will need

      • An ordinary deck of cards prepared beforehand for the occasion.

      • A group of friends.

      • A short note tailored to suit your chosen friend and the situation you will be in.

      • A smattering of magic.

      THE TRICK

      You and a group of friends are sitting around the open fire in an old English country pub. It is late in the evening and everyone is feeling very relaxed. One of your group returns from the bar with a tray of drinks and hands them out. Your friend Michael reaches for his pint of beer. You turn to Michael and place your hand firmly on his shoulder.

      ‘You know, Michael, you are a true friend. And what I like best about you is your dependability, no, your predictability. You are always there for us, Michael. Let’s face it, you come to this pub almost every Friday evening without fail, and you never need to be asked what you want to drink – always a pint of beer. Tomorrow you will go to the football, Sunday you will spend with your girlfriend, and Monday it’s back to work, 8.30 sharp.’

      Then, from a pocket, you take a small envelope that has ‘To Michael’ written across the front. You ask him not to open it yet while you remove a deck of playing cards from their case and begin to shuffle them. You lay the cards on the table in front of Michael and ask him to cut them anywhere he chooses.

      You now instruct him to open the envelope and read the note inside, aloud.

      ‘Dear Michael,’ he begins, ‘I have already explained this evening how much I value your friendship and your dependability. You will be aware that I sometimes see things others do not, so it will not surprise you that I am more aware of your predictability than you are.

      ‘I have already foreseen where you will be tonight, what you will choose to drink and your plans for the next few days. Not particularly mystifying, I would agree, but I have also predicted which card you would cut to.

      ‘Michael, you have cut to the king of clubs – a truly confident and dependable card if ever I saw one.’

      Michael laughs a touch dismissively and takes a mouthful of his drink and turns over the card he cut to. The entire gathering is covered in beer as Michael splutters in amazement. It is the king of clubs.

      BEHIND THE SCENES

      You forced Michael to choose the king of clubs using a very straightforward technique called the ‘cross-cut force’. This works as follows.

      Place your force card, which could be the king of clubs or whichever card you feel is appropriate for your audience, at the very top of the deck. Make sure the back of the force card is uppermost.

      When the deck was cut, you directed your friend to place the cards he had removed on the table next to the pile of cards that remained. You then asked him to place those remaining cards (cards that were originally the bottom portion of the deck) on top of and at right angles to the cards he had originally cut off, as in the diagram overleaf.

      To make the force work you needed to create a little misdirection. More specifically, you needed to make your audience forget which order the piles of cards were originally in and how they had been subsequently laid out. But once you had messed with their memory a little, you simply lifted off the upper portion of the deck and asked Michael to ‘pick up the card you cut to’. In fact, this was a complete lie, as you were holding the card he had cut to in your hand. What you actually had him do was turn over the card that was originally on top of the deck – the force card.

       The force card is placed at the top of the deck.

      THE PERFORMANCE

      To perform this trick with consummate ease, you will need something not so easy to find – the right moment. It would be all too simple to call up your friends right now and say, ‘Hey, I’ve just learnt this great new trick. You’ve got to get over here and see it.’ With mind magic, timing is everything, so judge your time wisely. Everyone needs to be relaxed and have no suspicion of any contrivance on your part. If you do go to the same place each week, you need not perform the trick as soon as you have learnt