Mentalosity

For weeks, no, months I have been working on Vernon’s “3 Ball Transposition”. The more I work on this effect the more I have to keep postponing it from “Magic Friday”. The progress continues but it’s going to be a while yet before I am satisfied with my ability in the handling and presentation.


I looked over the effects on my “working on” list and everything was either not yet performable or just didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. I noticed there was only one mental/psychic effect highlighted in blue in my repertoire spreadsheet. (Blue = successfully performed and ready at will, Green = work in progress, Red = would like to add to repertoire). I thought it would be worthwhile to add another mental effect. But what? There’s only one place to turn in times like this. Tarbell. About 26 years ago my Dad gave me all seven books in the Tarbell course as a present. Did I mention I've got the world's greatest Dad? These books are an absolute goldmine.



In Tarbell #5 I found a brilliant center tear bit credited to none other than Dai Vernon. The word genius is carelessly thrown around these days but in my humble view, Dai Vernon meets all criteria needed for that category of intellect.

Anyway, as much as I loved the routine, I wanted something bigger. Something that involved multiple participants. I certainly didn’t want to tear up and burn 3 pieces of paper one at a time. As I was rolling things over in my mind I thought of a nice “Epic Board” performance I saw a while back. I like the “one ahead” effect but didn’t want to mess around with a board. So after a bit of thought I worked up a handling using envelopes instead of a board. The next day it was off to Office Depot for envelopes, glue sticks, notepads etc.


The result was an Epic Prediction type effect. Instead of writing the predictions on an Epic Board, I wrote them one at a time on a pad and placed each of them in a numbered envelope. The three prediction envelopes in turn went into a larger manila envelope. Instead of using a selected card as one of the predictions I used that Vernon center tear business from Tarbell #5. An added bonus to this handling is that a spectator can remove and open the prediction envelopes. Something that cannot be done with an "Epic Board".



The audiences were all blown away by the 10 to 15 minute routine. I call this effect "Epic Three Envelope Prediction". Although I've never heard of anyone doing an "Epic" type routine in this way, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it. The most enjoyable part of performing this routine was "writing" the name of the departed spirit on a piece of paper while reading the flames of the center tear. When the performance was over some said it was the best thing I’ve performed for them so far. A very successful day!

However, a couple of people didn’t realize what had happened. Once they were hit on the head by a neighbor and told the predictions were written on the display (by a 4th student) AFTER the predictions were sealed in the envelope, they too were mightily impressed. There was a valuable lesson here for me. That night when I got home the mailman had kindly delivered this month’s MUM. (The magazine of The Society of American Magicians).

In it, columnist Charles Reynolds expounds on several crucial elements every successful magician knows. One of these elements is the importance of never letting the audience lose track of the effect…

“We cannot expect an audience to react to a magical effect
If it is not clear in their minds what the effect is, or if the
action leading up to that effect (the “moment of magic”)
is confusing and unclear.”

Wow! This was precisely the information I needed to be reminded of! The older I get the more convinced I am that there are no coincidences. There are instead growth opportunities all around us. The hard part is remaining aware and open to them when they present themselves.