The 3 Invisible Keys of Wonder

Coffee Break Mental Magic # 113th December 2013

Paul Voodini www.readerofminds.co.uk

THE GEMSTONE MIND-READER

Gemstones are incredibly popular among those who move in 'new age' circles or

those who may have a slightly 'hippie' outlook on life. Some believe that certain

gemstones contain mystical qualities and are able to assist with everything from

curing headaches, aiding relaxation, and instilling confidence to offering spiritual

enlightenment and strengthening chakras. A quick search on the internet will provide

oceans of information on the subject (should you feel so inclined), and while doing

such a search you will discover to your joy that gemstones are not expensive to buy.

This routine buys into the belief that gemstones have mystical qualities. To

perform the following routine you will need a normal pack of cards and just one

gemstone. I refer to the gemstone in this routine as 'Black Onyx'. Black Onyx is the

genuine name of a genuine gemstone, but when using gemstones in my routines I find

that any black stone will do. No-one has ever questioned my stone or said, Excuse

me, that's Black Jasper not Black Onyx! Likewise please feel free to change the

stone to any gemstone that you feel suits your performance persona best. It doesn't

have to be black. Gemstones come in all the colours of the rainbow, and between you

and me, the actual stone used has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the

routine. But you knew that already.

The following script will outline how the routine works. This routine is perfect for

close-up and parlour.

Ladies and gentlemen, for centuries men and women have been fascinated by

gemstones. I have in my hand here a piece of Black Onyx, but gemstones come in all

shapes, sizes, and colours. If you wished to be lucky in love, for instance, perhaps

you would carry with you a piece of Pink Quartz. If strength and fortitude were

required, perhaps Citrine or Agate would be more appropriate. Or if you have the

sudden desire to make contact with your spirit guide, then Amethyst may be the stone

you would use. However tonight I am using this small piece of Black Onyx, and the

reason for this is simple; Black Onyx is a gemstone that deals with, among other

issues, memories and secrets. These are two areas that we will be looking at in a little

while, memories and secrets, and I am hoping that my little friend here, this small

piece of Black Onyx, will assist me in the demonstration we are about to embark

upon.

But first ladies and gentlemen, I am going to need a volunteer...

A volunteer is selected and joins the performer in front of the audience.

I have here a pack of cards. I want you to take them and give them a good shuffle.

Don't worry if you're not an expert card player! Just mix them up in any way that

makes sense to you, just so you know I can't have put them in a weird memorised

order or anything silly like that.

The volunteer takes the cards and mixes them well. The performer takes the cards

back and places them on a table.

What I want you to do is simply cut the cards in half.

The volunteer complies.

Now secretly take and look at the top card on the left hand pile.

The volunteer complies.

Then when you've memorised the card, I want you to place it on top of the right

hand pile, and then place the left hand pile on top, effectively burying your card

somewhere in the middle of the deck.

The volunteer complies.

And then finally cut the cards in half again, and the complete the cut.

The volunteer complies.

Fantastic. Now your card is literally lost within the deck, and neither of us could

know its exact or even approximate location. But the important thing is that you

know what card you chose. You've remembered it, and you're keeping it a secret.

Now, my secret weapon, this piece of Black Onyx, is going to hopefully help me to

locate your card! Shall we give it a go? I can't promise we'll be met with 100%

success, but we can try our best!

The performer takes the cards and spreads them face up in a ribbon spread on top

of the table. This is done face up so the identities of each card is clearly on display.

The performer then hands the piece of Black Onyx to the volunteer and asks her to

hold it tightly.

While you're holding the stone, I want you to think of your card. Don't say

anything out loud obviously, but just be thinking of your card as you hold the stone.

If you work best with pictures, perhaps see your card in your mind's eye, or if you

prefer to use words, just keep repeating the name of your card over and over. And

silly as it sounds, try and project those thoughts into that piece of Black Onyx that

you're holding in your hand. Of course you could try and cheat and think about the

wrong card, just to try and catch me out! But I don't think that would be very nice,

and besides, the Black Onyx has an uncanny knack of being able to differentiate

between the truth and lies!

The volunteer holds the stone and thinks of her card for a few moments. The

performer than asks her to relax and he takes the Black Onyx from her. He holds the

stone in his hand in silent contemplation, all the while looking at the cards. Then he

slowly moves his hand with the stone above the cards, perhaps stopping for a moment

or two over particular cards. He makes his mind up and places the stone on one

single card.

I'm not sure, but I think your card is in this vicinity. I may have put the stone

down on the wrong card, but it's definitely in this area. I'm going to narrow things

down a little bit.

The performer removes all the cards from the table except the card with the stone

on it and one card either side. He moves these final remaining three cards into the

centre of the table and picks up the stone again. Holding the stone by his fingertips,

he hovers the stone above each card in turn. Finally he pushes the original card onto

which he had earlier placed the stone to one side. No! he says. It's not that one!

He now addresses the final two cards, still holding the stone. It's...it's this one! he

exclaims picking up one of the cards. Yes! exclaims the volunteer. Yes it is!

Thank you, and let me tell you, that only worked because you were so good at

imagining your card and broadcasting those thoughts into the piece of Black Onyx.

So thank you for that. As a small reminder of what we accomplished here today, I'd

like to give you this gemstone. Take it away with you and I'm sure it will bring you

good luck and happiness.

EXPLANATION.

This routine utilises the key card principle. The performer peaks the bottom card

once the volunteer has shuffled them and before he places them on the table for the

volunteer to cut. Therefore he knows that if the volunteer has followed his

instructions, the chosen card will be next to the key card. The placing of the stone

onto the wrong card at first, and selecting three cards to focus on before making the

correct choice is all theatre and drama of course. The same effect could be achieved

by using marked cards or a stacked deck (minus perhaps the shuffling with regard to

the stacked deck).

Leaving the volunteer with the gemstone afterwards is, I think, a nice touch.

MY CHILDHOOD MEMORY

Memories can induce very strong emotions, and those emotions can turn a regular

magic trick into quite a profound experience for the volunteer and the audience. I

enjoy adding memories and personal experiences into my routines as I feel it adds

another level, and takes us beyond the realm of simply being 'very clever'. There are

certain memories that as humans we all share, or at least we all share similar

memories. This is one of the cornerstones of cold reading. But don't worry, this

routine has nothing to do with cold reading. It is a very powerful routine that can be

played as light or as heavy as required, and yet the mechanics are simplicity itself.

This routine is ideal for close-up or parlour, but could be transposed onto the stage.

The performer stands before his audience and speaks:

Ladies and gentlemen, I remember as a child, as I'm sure we all can, being told by

my parents to keep my bedroom tidy. It was a constant complaint from my parents

that my bedroom was always a mess! And I had every good intention of keeping my

room tidy, I really did. But it was just as though my toys and my playthings had a life

of their own and despite my best intentions the floor of my room was always littered

with toy soldiers, half a train set, a never-to-be-completed Airfix model, books and

comics. Being a child of a certain generation, at Christmas and on birthdays I was

always given a pack of playing cards. It was kind of what we played games with

before the onset of the computer! But the trouble was, being a somewhat untidy

person, playing cards would always go missing. Therefore, despite having many

boxes of playing cards, I never had a full set. Every packet would contain 51, 50, 49,

or less, cards. Mysteriously cards would disappear to be found months later

underneath my bed, behind heaters, in a wardrobe, or once even in the fridge in the

kitchen! This fact made playing games with my cards interesting to say the least, and

before every game we would have the ritual of counting the cards, discovering that

several were missing, and then trying to find replacements from other decks. By the

time I had put together a full 52 card deck, my mind had usually wandered and the

cards were dropped, here the performer may like to actually drop a deck of cards

onto the ground, allowing them to spill everywhere, where I stood as I suddenly

decided that my racing car set or that old Spider-Man comic were what I really

wanted to play with.

When I used to lay in bed at night, I would often look across my room and see

toys laying on the floor. During holidays in particular I would see the toys and plan in

my mind which of them I was going to play with the following day. And I would

notice things that I never noticed during the day. Perhaps I would spot the missing

rifle for my toy soldier, laying beneath a chair, the key to a wind-up train, missing for

three weeks, was just there, next to my wardrobe. And there, in the far corner of the

room, was a single playing card, propped up against the wall. Every night I would see

it, and every night I would say to myself 'tomorrow I'll pick up that card and put it

back into the box with the other cards'. But I never did. Every night for years as I lay

in bed, there it would still be, just sitting there, waiting to be rescued. But I never did

rescue it. What happened to it ultimately, I have no idea. Perhaps my mother or father

picked it up one day and placed it back inside its box with the other cards. Or,

perhaps more likely, they picked it up and in a fit of desperation at the messiness of

my room, simply tossed it into the bin!

What I'd like to do, if possible, is conduct a little experiment in time travel. I need

a volunteer, and once selected this volunteer is hopefully going to peek into my

childhood bedroom, and we'll see if he or she can locate the playing card that I've

been talking about. It sounds crazy, I know! But I'd like to give it a try.

A volunteer is selected and joins the performer before the audience

The performer addresses the volunteer:

In a moment I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and imagine that you can see

my childhood bedroom. The more that you're able to buy into this, to go along with it

and give it your best shot, the better chance we have of success. Okay? So don't

worry, just use the power of your imagination and let's see if we can make a little

miracle happen here, okay?

The volunteer nods in agreement.

Very well, we'll begin. Please close your eyes and just allow yourself to relax for

a moment. Then, in your imagination, I want you to imagine that my childhood

bedroom starts to come into focus. Notice the wardrobes on the left, the window on

the far side looking out onto the garden, the small bed in the middle of the room, the

bedside table and lamp. And, of course, everywhere there are toys, playthings,

discarded. Just take a moment to look around the room. You're doing brilliantly. Now

what I'd like you to do is notice in the far left corner of the room, propped up against

the wall, is a single playing card. I don't want you to say anything at all yet, but just

see the playing card, notice which playing card it is, its value, suit etc., and remember

it. When you've done that, just nod your head to let me know.

After a few moments the volunteer nods her head.

Wonderful. Now in a moment I'm going to ask you to open up your eyes, so just

take a last look around my bedroom, not a pretty sight, I know! I do apologise for the

mess. If the 10 year old me had known you'd be visiting, I'm sure he would have

tidied up! And that's right, just open up your eyes now and welcome back! How are

you? Okay?

The volunteer says that she is fine.

You looked like you were really buying into that. Did you see much detail?

The volunteer says that yes, she saw a lot of detail. The performer then asks the

volunteer if she saw the playing card. The volunteer states that she did. The

performer then asks her to name the card she saw in a nice, loud, clear voice. The

volunteer states that she saw the 8 of Hearts.

The performer continues:

The 8 of Hearts? That's fascinating. You see, before I came here tonight, I took

out this pack of cards, the performer takes a pack of cards out from his pocket, and

I placed one card the wrong way around. This is an old ritual I've sort of fallen into. A

way, I suppose, of bringing myself good luck before a performance. I remember that

old playing card laying on my bedroom floor, and I select the same card in a new

pack and turn it the wrong way around. You may or may not know that having a

playing card the wrong way around in a deck used to be seen as a good luck omen.

That's the kind of knowledge that only magicians tend to know about these days! But,

that's another story for another time. For now, I wonder if the playing card you saw in

your imagination is the same card that I turned the wrong way around in this pack

hours ago. Wouldn't it be amazing if it was?

The performer spreads the cards between his hands. He comes to a card placed the

wrong way around and takes it out. He hands the card to the spectator and asks her

to look at it. It is indeed the 8 of Hearts as correctly predicted by the volunteer.

EXPLANATION

This routine utilises an invisible deck. Other ways of achieving a similar effect

would be to use a swami or nail writer and for the performer to have written down

beforehand the name of the card.

In the above explanation, the volunteer chooses the 8 of Hearts. Clearly this was

used simply for demonstration purposes, and it really doesn't matter which card the

volunteer chooses.

You can take the 'visualisation' of the bedroom as deep as you want. In a light

entertainment setting, where everything needs to be happy and fluffy, just a simple

close your eyes and imagine will suffice. However if you wanted to take things a

little deeper, you could expand the visualisation process and when the volunteer

opens up her eyes again, ask her to recount all that she saw, how did she feel, etc.

With a little effort the visualisation of the bedroom came become as impressive as

your final card reveal.

I find this following part of the script most useful. It brings a little humour into

proceedings and encourages the volunteer to perhaps laugh or at least smile, and to

begin to open her eyes of her own accord:

Wonderful. Now in a moment I'm going to ask you to open up your eyes, so just

take a last look around my bedroom, not a pretty sight, I know! I do apologise for the

mess. If the 10 year old me had known you'd be visiting, I'm sure he would have

tidied up! And that's right, just open up your eyes now and welcome back! How are

you? Okay?

With a little encouragement, everyone will be able to visualise a card. Some people

will really buy into it and will believe that they really saw your childhood bedroom,

others will just close their eyes, play along, and name the first card that pops into

their head. If you ever get someone who is a pain in the backside and is steadfastly

refusing to say that they can see anything, simply dismiss them and choose another

volunteer.

Very occasionally you might get an audience member who calls out to say that the

card seen by the volunteer was also the card seen by them as they 'played along' with

the visualisation. If this happens, incorporate them, comment on how amazing it is

that they saw the same card too, but remember that the volunteer stood next to you is

the star of the show so don't allow the audience member to steal your volunteer's

thunder.

THE GOOD FAIRY BYZANTIUM

This routine is perhaps best suited for a parlour presentation. It utilises a haunted

key. The script will, I believe, explain all.

The performer is standing before his audience.

We have all, I imagine, heard fairy tales concerning Cinderella, Little Red Riding

Hood, and Snow White. But did you know that between them, during their respective

careers, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson collected literally

hundreds of fairy tales and diligently recorded them all. The ones that we tend to

know about in the 21st Century are, rightly or wrongly, the ones that Disney and the

like have picked up on and have produced films about. But besides these 'superstars'

of the fairy tale world, the Snow Whites and the Cinderellas, there are hundreds of

stories which are now beginning to fall into obscurity. Fairy tales they might be, but

some of them are spooky, some of them are gory, and some of them are just

downright nasty. So it is with this now all-but forgotten fairy tale called 'The Good

Fairy Byzantium'.

There was once an evil witch and in that way that evil witches do, in a fit of

jealousy she kidnapped a beautiful princess and locked her away in a deep, dark

dungeon. Not content with merely locking up this fair maiden, the evil witch decided

that she wanted to torment her poor victim. She did this in a most ingenuous manner;

within the cellar she placed ten thousand keys similar to this one. The performer

produces and shows an old looking key. Every night the witch would appear in the

cellar in a dramatic puff of smoke and a flash of lightning. She would then allow the

princess to choose just one key. If the key she chose opened the door, she could walk

free. Now there was only one key among the thousands that was correct, only one key

that could open the dungeon door, so the odds were stacked very heavily against the

poor princess. And each night the witch would appear, each night the princess would

choose a key, and each night the key would not work, the door would remain locked,

and as the princess cried, so the evil witch would laugh in triumph.

The performer holds the key out before him on the palm of his hand. He looks at it

for a moment, then resumes the story.

One night, the princess was in the process of crying herself to sleep, when her

sorrow and sadness reached such a crescendo that it attracted the attention of a good

fairy called Byzantium. The fairy, a most beautiful and wise creature, appeared in the

dungeon and asked the princess what was wrong. When the princess explained, the

fairy promised to help. When next the evil witch appeared, said the fairy Byzantium,

the princess was to recite a magic spell and then all of the keys, every single one of

them, would turn into the correct key. So no matter which key was chosen, it would

unlock the dungeon door.

The good fairy Byzantium left, and the next evening the evil witch appeared as

she always did. Relaxing in a chair, the witch allowed the princess to chose a key. Not

believing that the princess had any hope of choosing the correct key, she relaxed and

allowed her attentions to wander a little.

The princess picked up a key, approached the door, and placed it in the lock. As

she did, she recited the magic spell spoken to her by the fairy:

Byzantium, Byzantium,

The key to the door

Byzantium, Byzantium,

Imprison me no more.

And as she spoke those words, the key slowly turned in the lock and the door

opened.

The performer looks down at his palm and slowly, mysteriously, the key begins to

turn in his hand.

As quick as flash, the princess ran through the door, and before the witch could

do anything about it, she locked the door behind her. The witch was trapped! And try

as she might, she could not escape. She grabbed at handfuls of keys, desperately

trying to unlock the door. But none of the keys would fit the lock, none of the keys

would do. For what the witch didn't know was that the only way to make a key turn

in the lock was to recite the fairy's spell:

Byzantium, Byzantium,

The key to the door

Byzantium, Byzantium,

Imprison me no more.

The performer again looks to his palm as the key once more turns of its own

volition upon his upturned hand. Ah, says the performer, smiling, the magic is

still real!

The Good Fairy Byzantium is not a real fairy tale (if words such as 'real' actually

apply to fairy tales). It is copyright Paul Voodini, a creation of my own warped

imagination. And if any Smart Alec ever asks why the witch couldn't simply escape

from the dungeon in a puff of smoke, in a similar manner to how she arrived, simply

tell them that the good fairy had used her own magic to ensure that nobody could

escape using dark magic, only good magic could do that job. Or alternatively give

them a cold stare and tell them to get a life. Your choice.

Ah, says the performer,

smiling, the magic is still

real!

All routines copyright 2013 Paul Voodini

www.readerofminds.co.uk

The 3 Invisible Keys of WonderTHE GEMSTONE MIND-READEREXPLANATION.MY CHILDHOOD MEMORYEXPLANATIONTHE GOOD FAIRY BYZANTIUM