STOP ! Stop everything !
We have got everything we need : peek wallets, electronic pads, center tears, bill switches and various notepads… Every year, we are proposed at least one “new” tool to get information for the spectator and every year, it is the same thing : « think about a word », « think about the rst name of a relative », « draw me something »… And each year, we secretly hope that a new tool will come up, allowing us (so surprisingly) to guess a word. A rst name. A drawing. etc. etc. Could we please give concrete meaning to what we are doing ?! By saying « give concrete meaning », I do not (only) mean « let’s motivate our actions during our shows », but rather « let’s bring contrast, depth to it » ! When I was doing “just” magic (card tricks, coin tricks, ropes, rings, stage illusions – yes, I allow you to laugh to this, my dear reader who knows me a bit, imagining me doing stage illusions… – , etc…), I was always wondering how to really connect with my spectators, so not to receive « That’s well done ! » or « Wow, I didn’t see the trickery ! ». Then I remembered a few things. When a magician produces a dove, he is giving birth to something… literally! When a magician cuts his partner in half, he dees death (sometimes, he even dees glitter… and you need courage for that)! When David Coppereld vanishes the Statue of Liberty, it is the American symbol of freedom that he vanishes. When he walked through the Great Wall of China, he was breaking the rules (I think he would have loved to walk through the Wall of Berlin…). When he does that trick “that his grandpa showed him ” (even if we all know that his grandpa is not Alain Choquette…), he connects with us through OUR memories of our grandparents! When Harry Houdini escapes from his chains, it is a deep symbol for the people !
And we, mentalists, have the possibility to access the thoughts of our spectators, to discover their dearest wishes… and what do we do about that ? We discover words waaaaaay longer coming from books without story… So yes, I say this loudly ! We have the power to make our shows memorable, to get something else than “Wow, did you see that? He guessed the drawing I’ve just made ! ”. Yes, I am also aware of the fact that, in professional settings, it is sometimes delicate to approach some deep thoughts which would not look like “think of a word, now write it down here, in the center and in capital letters so that I can see it from the window of my wallet…”. But can we not approach that subject anyways?
Whatever happens, you will still nd the information… As you create that state of astonishment, why would you not leave your spectator in a state of well-being as well? We will of course not talk about asking a spectator to think about a deceased relative (although it would be possible with delicacy, cf. Derren Brown, but that is not within everyone’s reach). Instead, we will sometimes tickle some personal development matters, what I call “optimistic altruism”. Do not worry: we will just tickle it… The thing is to pay attention to others, and to let an imperishable memory and a positive feeling… for your spectator, as for yourself! I let you decide what situation will t better for this or that idea, but from my personal experience, most of the time, it will happen during an informal setting or at the end of a professional performance, when nearly everyone has gone and there are but a few people left who want to spend some time with the artist… or in a show in theater, where everything is allowed. Some readers fond of hypnosis will nd some slight mechanisms of conversational hypnosis, but hypnosis is not the matter of this booklet. We have here an array of things we can ask to write, guess, etc. and much more! And sometimes, it can even become a solution to a technical constraint (tearing up for a center tear, putting
something away in your peek wallet, etc.), isn’t life wonderful ? This list is far from exhaustive. I wish, with all my heart, that you nd ideas too, and that you push further the ones I am offering to you… The thing to wonder about to develop your creativity is very simple: what questions would you like to hear from a person with interest in you ? By the way, I would like you to think about what you would answer, YOURSELF, to these following questions…
:: WHEN WAS THAT :: I saw on Facebook (inexhaustible source for inspiration…) a picture that I immediately published on my own facebook page that said « When was the last time you did something for the rst time ? ». I had many answers… and I loved the concept! We could imagine asking the question to the spectator, asking him to describe that in two or three words max… which leads to beautiful moments of cold reading. Depending on the words describing the activity, one could get access to different information: approximation of the age at which he did this action, if he was alone, if it was with family or friends, if it procured pleasure, adrenaline, self-condence, etc.
:: WHAT WAS IT :: An object you have not had in your hands for 6 months? I nd that question totally off-base and absurd… and at the same time, it opens perspectives for laughter… Think as well about stuff that you might say in addition to the object itself : “An object you often hold at work. ” (Play it the Sherlock Holmes way during the revelation! etc.)
:: WHAT SCARES :: I believe we all have a fear somehow “ridiculous”, a pseudophobia (don’t ask about a phobia immediately, that wires things well anchored in the spectators heads, like phobia of heights, arachnophobia, etc.), some irrational fear which could be assimilated to a tic or an OCD! As far as I am concerned, I hate to walk on the right-side of someone. I swear to you, it kind of freaks me out, I feel really uneasy… Still, I know it is stupid! LITTLE PLUS (or a little reminder of a classic idea) : use a center tear ! The motivation to make someone write can t in some kind of ritual… While tearing up, you say “Do you know that this fear is irrational, right ? That it is of no use, that it is totally unjustied ? ” You go on by asking them to imagine that the fear is not necessarily going to disappear, but that it might ease… little by little… up to the moment when… (insert the fear) seems so ridiculous to them that they will certainly get over it.
:: DRAW ME :: For a certain time, I used to write on my business card “ draw me a something…”, give it to the spectator, who smiled, and I told him : “Yes, it is my tribute to The Little Prince , by Saint-Exupéry , but I admit that if I had written ‘draw me a sheep’, the telepathy feat would have been totally absurd… Instead, your drawing will be like the sheep of the Little Prince : unique, and I will keep it preciously. Draw me something that makes sense for you… and that will make for me as well ! ”
LITTLE PLUS : Since you said you would « keep it preciously » you... just gave a good reason to put it in your (peek) wallet !
:: HOW DO YOU / HOW DO THEY :: Ask your spectator how he would dene himself in one word… and how he thinks his friends would dene him in one word… Beautiful perspective for cold reading !
:: YOU WOULD HAVE WANTED :: Ask your spectator what he really would have wanted to be if he had had another job than his actual one. Again, nice perspectives for cold reading ! Did he want to be an artist ? Chemist ? Volunteer for humanitarian aid ? One word will help you reveal a lot of things ! But don’t reveal the job of his dream roughly… The English language supplies enough synonyms, subtleties… (And it works for all the examples I have already given to you!) Little positive note for the end: “Nothing is written, if you have the will for it, if you have the motivation, nothing prevents you from making your dream come true ”. Who knows : maybe
you might have given him the little help he needed to make a dream come true !
:: REMEMBER :: Ask your spectator to remember a happy memory, something that touched him, and to describe it in one or two words. Open all your senses for a nice cold reading act : if he wrote “ camping holidays ”, you feel him “surrounded by family or at least by some people he considers so, like dear friends. ”; if he is younger, you will feel “a festive side to that memory, a happy note… ”, and you will also know that “he is not in a usual location… or at least not where he would spend 90% of his time ”, etc. My advice, for this kind of divination : link the peeked words to your own experience. Connect yourself to your spectator ! You have done 99% of the path by peeking at the word(s)...
SHORT ESSAY ON THE SYMBOLIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICATIONS OF METHODS OF PEEKING This thought seems improbable to you? Well… Each thing we do has an impact in the eyes of the person in front of you… Imagine that you give your business card to someone, and that he tears it up right under your nose… as he says “it’s okay, I’ve remembered your name and your rst name ”… Or imagine that you give a list with the names of the victims of Marc Dutroux (a famous Belgian pedophile and child murderer; don’t ask me why, it’s just an example – a bad one, but still, it is an example) to your neighbor and then he folds it meticulously to put it in his wallet… (if he does that, move out !) WALLET/CARD HOLDER
That is a personal object. Very personal. In there, you put secrets people trust you with, things you want to preserve for a particular meeting, a phone number, a business card, a memory / souvenir, etc. NOTEPAD
A pad is especially there for you to write ideas that come to you, things not to forget. It is something very informal, with generally no signicant importance. If it is an electronic pad, very often, it will be made of leather, so potentially belonging to a businessman… Does he write his appointments ? His stock options ? Asking yourself those questions will help you nd themes, presentation ideas. ENVELOPE (WITH A WINDOW, TRANSPARENT, BOTTOMLESS)
The envelopes have a personal nature (we get our mail through envelope), but also an ofcial character. In a scene in my comedy
& mind reading show in which I played the part of a herr doktor, the two envelopes were there to support the “ laboratory testing conditions ” of the experiment. CENTER TEAR
The action of tearing implies to make something disappear. A bad memory ? A phobia? A secret that the person prefers to keep for herself and not to share to anyone? There is not only a bad side to it, as it can be playful: the person draws something, you tear it and ask her if she is good at puzzles (the brilliant Bruce Bernstein published this idea a long time before I independently came up with, I claim no paternity with this plot). A center tear can also simply be a ritual : the person writes something and, without saying anything, you tear up the paper, give it to her and ask her to close her eyes by holding her hand, etc. Sometimes, silence is more evocative and mysterious than long speeches. BILLET SWITCH, ACIDUS NOVUS AND OTHER KINDS OF PEEKS
The person writes down some information to show everyone around but you. No destruction, no conservation, just the possibility to let multiple people into the secret. Did you know that in some political spheres (especially at the White House, so they say), when a message has to be shared to only one person, the information is written on a sheet of paper which is folded in half so that no one else but that person can see. When we know that we, mentalists, can access information in cards folded in quarters or hidden in wallets…
