Al5o b! i{arl, SLnvings

Books and Lhc lrte

Annemann Fo. Th€ 9t \ ( t!/9.11 . \jcnüilMatargc Lc.lure Notes (1996)lvlobrle MenLrir\m bookrnudrorapc scr ( l!x:}5) . Thc Uns€en Edrrton ( i997)

To Pa) The tlicc ( | qt) . Consrruculc N{enr{ isrn ( 19.18)MiEc ForYoung Un's (t!).*l . B۟do,psi { 1999)

Befo'c The Curhin R'scs (2000) . Anabm) oia Suc..ssiut(and Vrrlu.r[y Bulte.proo0 MaFi. Shos (2000)\4iracles Fr()n The Hrp(2tNIl . ThcUtrinrale In\isjble Br-arrsavc -The Bcirk (?(XXl)

Psi Ra.lllptcr (Lecrurc Noles) (]{{jr) . Slrdnge Thoughb (Ul)Srlent Panner (:CKl:)

On vrdeo and audi(}

Annenann s Encore i199.1) . Ho\! Tr) Make Llon.! wlrh psipadres itEX)Thc Annemain Upgrades Vn. I ( t99'6) . Slnlings Speäks \bl_ i ( l9C5)

Stnr inssSpcalsVol. l i ( t99,5). \ \AMt Walk Around Menl l t ism ( 199(tStnrin8s Sp€.)lis ASnin (1997) . MenBtisn - A Vi€\lerinr ( 1997)

Thcl\'lasrcrmrndAcr&CaSlrcsrrosCD,sul(l!/97). tjo$ To Creat€ \.ou. Own Mi.rctes 0997)The Dcsen Bmrnstonn Sencs (\rjrlr rhe Sir and One,Ha . 1997), rhree raoc sel

A i A l ' S t l I . \ ^ t u m . l l l \ , t h l u J n f a n , . . a / D " ^ \ r n O n r , / , R , , p h r F l B e n i L ; I u t )MrrkSlri\ingsCoesToDdv.are(1998). cer Morc Oür Oi your Magic( I qlA)

Markeüng YourMendism (l99a) . Kid StuJt , ThcA B C's Äl .Bou1 Childftn {199a)imaginat ion ls Everl , thing( lgt) . A l ConienrionArTheCapitnl Li lc.Sg{19991

The Human Soundüack (2000) . Is Tl1at A penoil In your p&kct, OL.. (200t )Hor\ To Mälie Mone! Pedonnirg For l ligh Schoot Kids Afler D{k (?002) . Defering Murph} (2001)

Ellacrs-

Sr-mbol Mindcd . As In A Miror D,{kl) Ttje Sequcl . Tam! TellChallenge Name A Crrd ' E\ra Sensory fbrccprion . Argnne Image

Tarot-Opnc . Warm Fuzics Up Close . TarorTeLtB.Nic Kir . Arcan€ Synrbot MindedPar Opnc Plus . Se\cn Kets To Baldpare . The Sighr Unseen C.rse . puzTief

kychic Psuds . Happy Mcä1 Miraclc . Seä She[ Drvinarion Kir . OFen & ShurFrogS'c. AWorkOfAß($ithRob'nDcWi(). N{nsk-e.ade * Mask-er.rde I I & tThe Joinfs Jumpin' . Koran Srr-le Force Deck . KoIän Sryle T\\,GWay Forc€ Deck

The Recognitirc Pupper . Chip Shot . Tbeprccogniriv€ phinger pupperThe Ultnate Invisible Brain$.ave . Blisl€nng. Hypno-Voque . ABindingChoice. Squeek Me!

Mindevek'pmenral Il (riirh ire Ma.eli) . onc Dst h.emonrr,lon . Tethmmlor MriaclePsychic Snd)p . Lorlo Luck . A Perfecr Malch . you MaLe The CnlI . hychic tnftueftre

The Sighr Unseen Case Gen€rJtroo II

Markered materhls-

The Home Ps]€hic Pany Kit . Ca€liosrro's Crystal , The Detux€ Set . MeSa L,temor_v D€monsrürün {by Chuck Hickok)BOR - Back Ot The R(!rm for Pslchic Fjterhrncrs (Kit) . Retractäble Tbumb Writer (by creS Enmonds)

The Master Billel lnde\ Kjl . The Human Ciga' . fie pirot pen (by Michet Sibbcmsen)

For morc ilforrraüon on the conrpleE line of maenats for proiessionat mentjtists,childrens and Iamil] enr,eiaiDers. ptease crlt or \{rire:

Mark Strivings8631 N. Lolvell Blvd.

r*'estminster, CO 80031(303) 650-6992 phobe & faxerna;l MarkyApril @aol.corn

Mental MixFirst published 2003 by:

Mark Strivings863 I N. Lowell Blvd.

Westminsrer. CO 8003 1USA

Copyright 02003 by Mark D. Strivings

This book may ot be reproduced, slored in any retieval system or tmnsmitled, in any formor by any meaDs, electron;c. niechanical, photocopying, recording or othewise. withoutwitten permission of Mark D. Striviogs, 8631 N. Lowell Blvd., Weshinster, CO 80031

Commercittl ptoduction rights to all nateridls in this (jre oe expressl\, reserved.

Mefr.al Mk

ThiL ltoo/" tt /a?t//// {pl,acaJe/ lo lla nenauq "/

ß,ria* R, 6l/4,w

Qo//znya, il4e441üt couüatzJ uu,ze ol lu,apaa/iou,

dPnJA/e Wiu,L aa/ ooal tnfnalatat,

o uetuT dea,z " A r^"t114 uared hrsr4.

Mental Mix

- Table ofcontents .

Acknowledgements

ne Top Ten Boolüest

A WorR 0f Art (by Robin Dewitt Er Mark strivings)

Many Tekel

Half And Hatf

Two, fhrce and

Half stacked

Half Roughecl

Half Tekeled

Four-Way Force Deck

Lovefs Voodoo

Lovefs Voodoo II

Synchronicity

Final Mix

1

4

7

73

14

ß

75

76

I 7

20

21

45

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Mentßt Mix

,-.',--^.r:,::1:laln. "^,"-,,^^,:::"::::.",,I*"n"nr*no*ee,therdirecrryo,indirectly involved and who desene'thanks.

Theo Annemann. lbny Corinda,?1. Baker, Eugene Burger, Jeff McBri<ie. l_any Becker, LeeEarle, rhe members of the Six and One Haü, thernemiers of,i" p,iöfr""l, in" "sychic

Enrerrainers Association. Rruce Bernstcin, Docc Hilford, Brian and Jan Fi"... ni"i-a'W.Oo_, Kathy andPatrick Hoicombe, Roben Waller, Wencly n ,.,"tf , O""iJ un,t MrO"i'Si"iig"., 1-"" V*",,,, *,,,Hunter. Richard tsusch, Carl Henon. .fony.Andmzzi. Robin OrWrt unO .nii,ottr".....

...to each oi you. for a diiferent reason and for clillering circumstaaces, I thank !,ou. Withoutall of 1.ou this probably would not have been possible. We all ie"a ,,,fpoi, "n"our^g"n "u,

onainspirarion ar various tirnes in our lives. All oi you t u"" t"",, it "."

ii,i,lg-; ;,;',nu"n .o," to. *".

I thank you.

And to you, dear reade.,I thank you for pulting your trust ;uld time in{o this little effon.I hope you find somethjng wonhwhjle. 'Ih-L. to you-putfi""tlo". i*" *i ... p*.,Ole. Wthoutyou, there would be no reason. Enjoyl

. I I .

Mefttal Mix

The Top Ten BoaktestBy Mark Strivings

Wby in the world would we need rnother booktest? Well the basic answer is very simple.Different t) pes of booktests allow 1br a variety of presentation, nol to nention method. What lveha\ e here uses a tried and true nethod coürbined with a presentatjonal hook. which can be a ton olfLrrr ior the r ighr performer.

Plus this pafticular booktest uses some of the rather unique properties of the DavidLettemran Top Ten I-ists books to special advanrage, both in method and presentation. lf yourperforming st,yle leans to$ards the possible use ol l-etlerrnan style humor, this could be a major$ inncr lor ;ou. Pius i t 's dead easyl

Effect -

The performer produces trvo books, "David Letterman's Book of Top Ten Lists and ZestyLo-Cal Chicken Recipes" atrd "David Letterman's New Book of Top Ten Lists and Wedding DressPattems ior the Husky Bride". One of the books is selected and a page is randomly chosen. Both ofthese are completely free actions, no iorce ol any kind is used. To add to the fun a number lrom onelo ten is also called out. The spectator looks up the chosen page and the ilcm at the number callcdfor in the top ten list ofl thal page.

Meanwhile the pe.forme. looks up the top ten list on that same page in the otlea Top Tenbook. He can proceed to read all or part of the iist. Needless to say, the periormer now hasLetterman's writing stafT working for rin / This can be a .iot unto itself. Finally the perfomter hasthe spectator read the selected item to himself. The perfonner conceotrates and reveals not only theirem at the selected number but also the Top Ten List topic on that page. In fact, the perfonner canreveal the entire Top Ten List if so desiredl It's a fun-filled miraclel

Method -

I claim no originality for the actual method of this little mystery, apart from the use of thektterman books, which allows for some interesting handling ideas, as you'li see shortJy. As I said,this is a tried and true method and is very easy to pull of. I'll give you a couple of different methodand presentation ideas. But first we need to do a bit of constructioo.

You'll oeed to get tlre€ copies total of the ktterrnan Top Ten trooks. Yoü can check onlineat Amazon.com or any otler bookstore you like. Candidly these are getting tough to find new io a

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Mental Mix

booksto^re so your besr bet is probably a used bookslore. This is where I found my copies. There areflr e different r,olumes available. Three of them are in paperback ,nd th" otl,", t*.n o." rn hardback.Personally I use the two hardback tirres risted above. 'r-n. gooa tting au.,rrt "il

or these books is thalthey afe identical in jayout. sizc and design, which al lowslor some-very interesting possibj l i t ies. Iuse t$'o copies of thc 'Zesty Lo-Cal Chr. l ,en Recipc!. and one copl ol: Wedding Dress palems..

You l l need an Exactoe! knife and some contact cemelt to do this job. you.re going [oseparate tbe cover of the book fiom rhe main body. .l-o do this vou need tJopen the book all the$ay (ary book of the three books at this point since you,re going to iio this proceoure ro tr\.o out olthe three books), nteaning both covers shouta be touctring elch Jrfr", o,, U"'oppo"* .r;.;;; ;r;closed position. Now take the Exacto@_kliife and cut carefully where the cover meets the lirst page.You. want to cut the piece of paper that is glued to the inside of the hardback cover non,r push toohard or you'li go all the rvay through rhe spine of thc book. cut down rhe ;nside of both tfic fronrand back cover You then wil l have to uorkthe pages loose from the binding. Do this as careful lyas ) ou can because you re going to need ei lher the co\ er or t lre pxges thenr; lves dcpendlng onwhich book you're cunently destroying_

ln the example above I nrentioned that I use two copies of the .Zesty Lo-Cal ChickenRecipes' and_one copy of .WerJtling Dress patterns,. Remove the guts from'one copy o1 each of thetitles, which leaves n single copy of, st},I_o Cal Chicken Recipi., unrou"h"a. Clarefull), renoveany loose flaps of tom paper or other obstntctions from both pajs that you have sepamted.

- . -You re now going to grue the guts from the 'zesty Lo Cal chicken Recrpes' ioto the coverof the 'Wedding Dress pattems,. To do this, apply contact cement to both the ends o1 the guts fromthe llrst booli and the insidc of the spine of the cover of the secon dbook. l,<:t b.)th .t these parts drycomp.leteb beforc-),ou stick them together, Once lhey are dry, line them up carelully atd stick themtogether. Be careful with thjs procedure because they will stick totally anä rock solid the instartthey touch! Once all is in position press everything solidly into plaJand you,re done!

, You wili stilr ha'e the guts and cover from the other two books reft over. you dol,t needthem, unlessJou feel like makng another gaifed book. It won.t wo.k with the set you,ve.just

constructed, but it is atr option.

Take this new book and combine it with the regular book that is unalte(ed. What you haveare two books with different covers but identical pages tiroughout. Sjnce tbese pafilcular books areidentical in layout and design anyway, this is even Äore a""ltirr" tt * u"uJ. you can toss out thetwo books with complete confidence, as there is virtually nothing to discover unt.ss the two booksare direcrly compared side by side. frrir ir o ,o*"rr, ih", p"rio.ps thi, effec, ,s noa for,)or. Therers no leason on earth for the spectators to ever compare ihe two books side'by side, so don,t let thisstop you. Believe me, this is extremely deceptive and absolutely flies right bi every audience.

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Mefttal Mix

\Vith these t$o books votl have all you need to perform a complete aDd comnercial miraclc_Here is lvhat I do in m) routine. l ' l l give lou so e other ide;ls atter that-

Olfer up the l!vo books and have the spectator select one. It does not mattea which one the!pick. Keep the other one for yourself. Have a page selecled. You can have someone calL out arandom nünber between I 165 (Ihere :ue 165 pages in the books) and have your spectator tum tothat page. Meal\\,hile you a'e apparcntly tuming to the sanre page in ]our book. I tum to a pagethat is actuall,r about 20 pages away from the actual nunrber called. There's no heat and no one cärtell rvhich page you are on any\ray. The reason for this is ro apparently sho$ what top ten lisr is onlha l pape i n rhe book l he ) d id no r se lec t

ll ,vou have a copy of the book you can easily cover the page numbers at the bottom of thepages * iLh lour finge.s. This iurther conceals the deception. Read out the top ten list on thal pageand read a few of the items- This is always good for a feq, laughs. I then ask my spectalor if the liston their page is lhe same or not. Ol course they will say it's diiTerent.

I now ask lbr someone to give a lumber between 1- 10. This will be the item of the list thatyour spectator will conceotrdte on. While this is being done, I casually flip through a few morepages and tum to the same page my spectätor is looking at!Again, there is no heat and all you needis a glimpse any$ ay. wilile looking at that page I indulgc in a bit of acting. I look over the pagevery openly and get the sübject of the list as well as the number item they are thinking of, morc if Ican get it easily and remember it on the fly. I don't lalk as I do this and am apparently reading arandoD list that I happened to come across. I let out a bit of a chuckle and lhen comment, almostunder m) breath that these books, "crack me up." I then close the book-

Now I'm good to go. I can have them concentrate on the item in the list and then reveal thalitem as \i ell as the topic of the list aDd perhaps another couple of items from the list. It's a miracle!

I mention above that I flip to a page a ferv pages away from the actual named page. Sincemuch of the time there is a ce.tain limited range of page numbers that gets called, I will frequentlytum to lhe same page each show (in my case it's either page 64, 'Top Ten Ted Kennedy CampaignSlogans', or page 69, 'Top Ten l-east Popular Mall Shops'). The reason I chose these particularpages is because they can be done al any time of the year (even tie Kennedy list), and because theyare fairly quick aDd easy to understand. This gives me the option of reading äll ten items iII the listand not taking too much time with it. It keeps the preseotation moving along.

Il, on the other hand, the page oaned is close to these trumbers I'll flip to a mndom page outof range ofthe actual named page. The main tiillg is that you want to select a page that is not gojngto be accidentally discovered by yonr spectator in his book. Remembcr, you are mis-calling the

,

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Mental Mix

page and passing it off as bcing the jcuri" ro .r,o* tr,oi pug; ;#; ;;;;#:;1';:,fr :lff ;;lJ*::;:1il::r,5 rrö ::"jJ"1 i:a| you need. Just a tiny bir of spectaror managenent along with this snräll dotge is usually morerhan enough to make this subtlely f ly r ight by

There arc other uaJs lou can go about doing this cffect. The aboye routine is exactlJ,what Iuse and I | $ o r l . l i l e a chamt . B | l t ] o , r c l u have o the r op t i on r .

One is to litererlll. menrorize anbooks. once rhe page nu.5". i.

"o1"0 llllle

top tct lisl l or portions of a list) frcm ore of rhe

f,ä:T'"'1",::*i,ln;ilH:ä'J;'1;:xT:'i:iiffi'::,::xx?l'il,llü,li,Ti1;"','1'."'",r1""::i1,,":':.H'ii}:J;:i?1,::ton a rarge pad and just revear those if vou'd rike. r'vesubject of the list and ,h" a.in *o.d or'

tn" routlne- Write tie main word or tw-o from the mainIarge.

two lronl the selected number itcm. It's casy and plays

,_,^. ̂ .^t_T :1": :t,:,some experimenl_ation on Jour parr you,ll come up with several presenrationalproys tor your set of books. One good tberier 1,ou w'r ger to -;;; ;;;::;;,;iä;r':,iil:T,l#:nilHJli:.Ji:ff:ffi:,,";

regularly which makes what little work you have to do eyen easier.

"^,,, _L, ..:,

:t *ese books togerhcr The presentatjon is lighrhearted and fut aDcl il.s a rocksolld mystery to boot. Have fun!

A Wark Of AnBy Robin DeWitt and-Mark Strivings

Before we dive in here I must tlrelease rhis wonderfui.;;.;;,;;. ir"-

my very dear friend Robin DeWin for his pemissioo roatameeringorrhem*n*_"."iÄ,1äi"lT:*ä:"Tltäy;"ä1,ili.tJ,l'_.:ffi .;{:LT"tnp across rhe Catifornia and Arjzona dese" .;.1"

". _ ji,rJa;;;:;;"._"

r".rr.On this particülar occasion he hrought along a special deck of cards he bad found andwanted to do some brainstormins ivirh rhe ;ung. Hä f,uä u t r".

"oo'""[io ä-n4 uu, oo ,n",r,oa.After much exchangins of ideas imost of w-h.; *;,; ;" i;;:;0,,-0i,",,ä,1 *. .","rioo hit nle.

Mental Mix

I 've done this l i t t le miracle this way ever si ce. I was able to reiease this as a commercial product

for a shofi period of tjnre several years ago. but had lo stop becausc the special decks I had sirnply

ran out. If you're thinking that I'ln no\! pritrting something that Jou'll ne!'er be able to do, -'"ouneed not \\'orr). I ll fill you in shonly on whcrc \'ou caB gei all yoü need to make thjs miracle

happen. It s very cool and. as i t tums out. suapnsiogly easy.

Effert -'Ihe performer inLroduces a deck of art cards. Each cafd depicts a *'ork of alt ralging from

paintings and sculptures to multimedia and e\'ent' aat. F-ach Dajor style and petiod of arl hislory is

represented. I'he cards are mixed and a wo.k of art is selected at random. a conlpletcl) free choice.'l'he spectalor is theo told to concenfate on tbe work of art they randomly selected.

The perfonner thcn talcs :i iarge pad of paper and proceeds to starl drawing. In tbe coutse

of dralving, the perfonner also rcvcals some olhef infonnation about thc work the speclator is

holding such as the date, the rame of the artist and mote Finally the dra*'ing and freely seLected

work of art are comPared and fou dtobeamatch!

Md.hocl -

This is very easy. In fact the deck does about 997o of the lt'ork fot youl There is no force of

any kind and the deck is sholvn openLy at the outsel of the efiect. There is no tough and smooth. no

long and short. The cards a.e completely nomtal. Plus as you will see, you don't have to be a great

artist to do this despite the facl that you're using artistic masterpieces as your targets.

It's a mene tekel deck! lf you're not familiar with this amazing concept in card work' lhen

you are missing something that is both devious and diabolical. It's easily one of the most utlder

utilize.d gaffed detks in the business and you can do absolute miracles with it.

You'll need two matching decks of art cards with the same color and Pattem on the backs-

F equently these come in sets of two decks, but the backs are different colors. You need backs that

are the same color in both decks. These can be obtaited at most art museum gift shops. There is

also a chain store that can be iound in some of the more up_scale malls around the country called

the Museum Stoa€. They also have these maavelous decks. w}Ien I released this commercially the

decks lhat I used were issued by the Smithsonian Institute.Any matching decks that depicl rlorks

of art will work.

Take one deck and remove 26 catds. You can hand pick the 26 images that you like the best.

ln ml deck I use images that are visually distinctive and easy to draw. Since I an1 not an artist I

chose images that had easily distinguishable features. For instance ifthere is a paintiDg that has

!-_

- 5 -

Mental Mix

obvious large circular objects in i! arconceprs or rhe paint;ng. .r,u rnot ,i,.'.lli,il1::'-*l*t it l:"lcl be easv to draw the mairin mina thrt you can *'..0 ,ii,'"".ii"'""*"

yoirr ca'ds and pick the 26 'nost strikiDg irnages- Keep'isible and easy to see as possible-

' from ä shge' and you $änt the images yoll choose to be as

Remove the same 26 cards froand shufre them tho,."rr; "; .;ä'.i"" :ll-.: iilJ ;:"":ä:i,["i:*: :ilÄ.":ä;Lt"'parr up'these cards. Tbal is, pl.ce each,m","f,;ng pri, oi"",a.

"o ,oioräi o,n"..

"ou .f,ouf'no!r' have 52 cards, each image is directry.n"^t ,o'i it -uL.t. ioi",oiäi,i.

"",rrat there arematching pairs of cards preseDt in the

oppositc direcrions. Think ot card ,", j"il l-t:- "i* oair of images so that tiey are racingmarching twin. end fo. "na.o i,i. ru"ügo;;,:rd;:iijä.:I,]:$."lilä1i,,lT,ili"rl;i,ii."onented in opposite directions. Do this wr!t each pair in t lre deck.

This deck can be cut as much .candidry r sussest rh", ill;;;;;il'":ä.T{ *1:ä"T:'1"öi'Äl"":i1ff,ötJ;ä *" ..".face down and ha!,e someone select a ,

:alj awai, eithe.r ab:"" ";;;;;. ;; ; jflj#T:""I;: :[i:., ,#'il::..i'"","#:::;:::l jn

" ,.made and conlplete the cüt, the matchiAll you ruouldiave to a. ir .p"ii'n..'il"t l1d

ivould be o,, ejthe' the toP or the botlom of tbe deck.oth;r information tha, r";.;;;; :1t" "od )

otr wouid be looking directly at the sarne image and

There is only one problem. Which card js the matching duplicate. the top or the bottom? Iuse a verv simple soiution to this that !tr'"ua.tortrJtopc",;;;#;;,;iJ:;ä:t:Jil:',.T"t'r:"'";lTllil:l*:H:::Jffi:,,simply cur the deck at rhat point. I_ookät th-e back of thc new top .".i.1i,i"." i.

" p"ncil dot, it,srne top card of anorher marchjDs Dair. lherefore the mate of the s'ef

""oJ*rä;" on ,n" ,u"" of rl"

l::\."1,il?y.:l* * deck face up as you plac" it ba"k in you. c;.;;;i; i;.**ion is srarirs

If, on the other hand, you look at tle back ol the top card after the cut and you do not see apencil dot, that üreans that the mate of tthe, back or!). r simpr, a."r,i" "", i-r,J"lii,lä!'r:": :1.;.J;H*.:llT""i.rTil:jäi""jr",as I put it away. Once again I have the information I need.

All that is left to do is to pick uDorart rrthereisanypi;*;;#äi".:1iff1il.ä:,j'"ff"::::l"j,r".j1,J1"","?:,li"ä,"that in the course of doilg you. dmwing. simplel

gqlvo, vlw / .j

- 6 -

Mental Mix

There are a couple more poinls to coler. I nentjoned abo\,e that the 1'aces of cach pair ofcards are oriented opposite to cach other. You can do a casual spread of the cards and display thedeck more easil) than i1 the pairs of crrds faced the sane way- I tend to do a some$ hat chopp)'spread of the cards and cut off small packets lo display various cards in the deck. This way thereare no duplicates scen and the deck appcars to be \(,ell mixed and normal (as normal as it can be, aileast). Expc.inrent *ith this arld y{ü'll scc what I mean- It's very eas)_ to do and makes lbr aconvincing display.

A1so, reset is very easy. If the card they selected does not have a pencil dot on the back,sirnply place it back on lop or bottom of the deck and I ou're reset- lf they selerted a card that doeshave a pcncil dot, ,vou will have done a doüble cut of tLe malching card to thc face of the deck.You'il need to placc their selected card dlrove thar filatch;ng card. in olher words, second from thebottom. Now you'ae reset.

So here's rhe entire handling. Casualll' displa) the deck (usiüg the technique describedabove) comnrenting on the various images and styles of art represenled there. Have a card selected-Cut the deck at the point where tbe card was selected and glance at the back of the new top card. Iithere is a pencil dol, simply tum the deck face up as you put it back in your case. Sight theinfomration and the work of art at iiat tilne. If lhere is no pencil dot. double cut tbe top card 10 thcface. Turn the deck face up as vou place it back in your case and sight the infomration.

Take your pad of paper and dmw the general image as best you can (believe me, it \r ill bejust fine) and reveal as much information fron1 the cifd as you !l.ant- Show-the matching imagesand take your well-deserved applause!

Many TekelBy Mark Strivings

Since we'vejüst described an effect using a mene tekel deck I thought I'd give you somework on the subject lhat may (or may not) be of interest.

The classic mene tekel deck consists of 26 marching pairs of playing cards. They arestacked in any order, as long as the individual paiß are together. The deck can be cut as much as theperfonner wanls and the intcgrity of the set up remains intact. You caa do all kinds of marvelousthings r ith this deck.

But there are a couple of inherent problems with this deck. The most immediat€ is lhal youcannot spread the deck face üp and display it. The nratching pairs are extremely obvious. This has

Mental Mix

been handled ofl a lo!1. le!.ei in .A Work Of Art. by the revenjed iaces of the cards, but that simpitrsn't possible with regular playing cards.

According to ,Encyclopedia Of Card Tricks, edited by Jean Hugard, the onginal decksmade use ofthe long and shon principle and the <ieck *orkeä in sinri ia'r fashion to the Svengalidecl i . The matchjng cards rvere con..some advantases and,h.,. o,. "r"o.r):iff":'Jilliij[il:I;i::lr#.#i;;T;"J,,,:-**Pack Of Cards" in the above cired book. There are olro .";n. ; ; ; ; . , , ;-; i l rs ourlrned rhere thatmay be of interest. Check it out.

Hilliard has a brief chapter in .Greater Magic, ald srates there thai the deck was created b],Burling Hull. Hilliard also gives the derails abour ihe long/short t unati,rgiJ. tf.," 0""t. H" ot.ogives some,other jdeas.for handling of the <teck, includin! the basic conä berund .A Work ofArt', elsewh€re in this book. This referenc. i, ut.o .,".y ,,iu.h 'uo.ti;l;-ü;;

"".But as far as I can tell, this rvoe of Mene Tekel Deck using long and shon cards has notbeen available for many years (l've never even seen a deck like this before). so it would have to bespecially made.

The next most immediate solitrion is to rough those pairs together and indeed that has beena srandard solution to tlris problem for decades. Also this deck can i" ."nr"*i", ".,,,y

conslmctedat home. But as-is rrue in so many areas ofmagic, a solution ;";; r;r;;,"; ;"r, *rse orners, andthat is the case here

There are dmes when it is simDly not desirable to use a rough aDd smooth deck. There maybe technicar reasons why the cards all need ro be.ioose'. pr.s, a ro.'.gh ani säootn cect loots titea rough and smooth deck, in that you only see 26 cards.I havc neu"ri."n u'yon. ,rr,o can handle a.ough.and smooth deck in such a way that you would be absolut"ry ".r"ir""ä

,"" "ere

is a fulldeck there. The fact thal you see differeDt c€rds is really more ofa sultiety ttr.an anyning etse. youhave to rely on yoü. specrators assuming rh"t t1"." -uit i" lz ""a-räi.l,iäo ", "ou^" "maglcran can spol a rough and smooth deck a mile away.

, Iflou are familiar with my work, you know that I have several ways 01_working around thisrough and smooth problem. But tiat is not necessary here. what I wanted

'was to be able to have norough and smooth ar all. I wanred to be able to spread th" de.k aoa i^r"i, uip"u. oo..l. f

"f.owanted to have the properties aod advantage, oiu ,n"n" ,"f"t a""t. if,ut *ilic .."rn to be u f*tytall order. Here's my solution.

. The deck I use is gaffed, but ro rough and smoolh o. any odrer altemtions ol the cardsthemselves is used. Ifyou casually sp.ead the deck it will appear t" t"

" ."._a ,rr"rned deck and

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Mental Mix

) ou \r! ould swear you see every cerd (w hich, in lact you can). On it's most basic level, whät nrakesthis \ ersion of the mene tekel deck work is that there dre matching pai.s of cards. but they aren'1side by sidc. This version uses gft)r?r of pairs oI cards to make it work. Tlere is a sl ight amount ofvery casual handling that needs to irappen, but it passcs lvithout nolice when done corectly. Notnecessarily sleight of hand. just handling. kt me first explain ,.)lr this works and then we'll gointo the constnrctioD ol the dcck itself-

I've got a Many Tekel Deck in frort of me and here are Lhe top eight cards in order 8C,6H, 75, 95, 8C, 6H, 7S, 95. Notice that the mate of each of the first four cards is four cards away,i.e., the mate of the 8C is four cards belo*' it. etc. The deck js constructed of sets ol eight cards likelvhat you see here. So basically what makes this $ ork is that the maLe of any card is only four cardsalvay, either above or below it in the deck. Does that maie sclrse?

Here s how to construct the deck. It ma! sound complicated but stick with me. Wheneverything is done, )ou'll have a poteot weapon with which you can work miracles.

You'll need two natching decks of playing cards with the sarne color back- Take 2.1 (not 26)cards from either deck and shulfle them droroughly. Take lhe same 2,1 cards liom the other deckand have thenr available.

Now take the top lour cards from your shuffled pack and the same four duplicate cards.Stack these dupiicates in the same order and drop one packet oD top ofthe other. Repeat thjs sameprocedure for the remailing cards in groups of four cards. You will end up with six groups oI cards.each compaised of two sets of four duplicates stacked in matching order. Stack these six sets olcards on top of each other You end up with 48 cards altogether. That's close enough to a full deck.Now spread the deck in front of you with the faces showing. Wltat you'll notice is that the decklooks remarkably normal. Yes thcre are very obvious duplicales. It helps when you alteady knowthey are there. Do not worr)'about this. There aae enough cards showi[g that lhe dupes ate nevernouceo,

Try this. Spread the cards from hand to hand and watch yourself in a mirror. You can do thisin a fairly slow and unhurried malner Believe me, in ao audience of lay people (or nugicians, forthat matter), the duplicates will never be noticed and the deck will pass as completely norüral.

For those who wart to have a tenplate to follow, here's the exact rDakeup of the deck I havein front of me, from the top down with each individual set of eight cards:

8C, 6H, 75, 95, 8C, 6H,75, 95KS, 9D, 3D, 10H, KS, 9D. 3D, 10H2H, 35, KD, lOC, 2H, 35, KD, IOC

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Mental Mix

55. .lH, JS. eC. -sS, .1H, JS, eL4C,8H. 5D, QH, 4C. 8H, sD, QH2C. 7D, JI], 6C, 2C, 7D, JD, 6C

Notice how each card has a dus,ack. rhis deck ca,r b. ",,, ". .".i,-"-ffi:äTiiTil::.,11ä;""*;;rJ;.*:'.:- ', r *.

. .^. -. . , . , " on:"9 to dolhe abo!,e so you could seejust horv normal the deck can look.-fhe deck isnot qurle ready to use just yet_ We still have a bit ;f wo.t to Oo. C"t ouiu-nrre point Sharpie@ thatis the same colo. as the back of the cards.

Now you need to mark the car(dupricate or Äe serec,.o "",i i.]ä.1] ii;ilin:ii;:^r;',:::.ljl 3:)"?ff:,ilii'",.ä1.,"0c a r d . l u s e l r { o m a r l j n p . r h a t ' n a l c l h i 5 D r o c . . . , , " , , " , , ^ " ^ , . - , _ ^ , ^ " i . " " ' 1 " ' , .and ),ou can adapt it r. *n,,""", r"" ilj'll""l:T::,5::iiililll..

r'il exrrain exacrrv what l do

First thing is to mark rhe cfidsorient rhe cards c-orre",,"*i*r""äii"'J."iJ:';ii:l"J*:,ä:,:;:;I?:Jä:f.jfi:"upright (or upside down). If you look at the top oI the cant 1,o, *;ff *" ,.'o"rn,.,, llgüres that looklike rhe petals of a florver There arc eight li ,f" p"of. *a u'".n,".',p* ifi], i" ,n" *nter spot onlyon the left hand flower. If you do that with every card in the cieck and orient eactr card so that

;::i::."ü:ä:t. * the far end as you rook ut ti," uu"r<. oi tr,.

";, ;;;';i

".* be .one ivay,

Next we'll mark thc deck for the location of the mate of each card. This ts extremely easy.Look ar rhe ve.y cenrer of rhe back of rhe cara. f1".. ls a sm"ti *tr;i" Joi, "nio"r"O

Uy *fro, loof.l]i:;,1tr"ä*

*" *'i'"1'j.S5

t'*ller extend rrom the 1o,"". r'ri io ,r'" upi.r risht. (seeoieach one'or these 1r,;;,. ;;;:;";*tJ":n:lll;*iffiffl#*:: H,*a*,"' ;;;;;-

, , Ger your l irsr group of eigbr cards. This is a set of forrr cardsano rnen tne same lour cards aga;n. each sel in lhe same order For rhisexample we'll use tfie first set of c€rds abov" _ gC, eF{, ZS, 95, 8ö,"""

jl: ll":nj-..I::t-q,h.e cards racing .up, (,"rn".L.iL" "na-rni,ir,,gyouJust put on the card? Make sure that every card is oriented so thaimark is al rhe top of the card as _yo! look a, i,], *. y.". Sfrl+i: rrä'color in rhat small rr hire l iDe on the upper blade. This i., the l ine rhatcxlenos I rom the cenrer circle upwards to r he righr. Color in that smailwhite line aDd tlat card is ready to go.

fie. Alqrcat\ expauled arut rct

even renütet! to scak)

Colar in this whitt lin"

o

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Mental Mk

On the next lbur cards - 6H,73, 95. 8C you're going to color in the lower blade.' l 'his isIhe line that extends from the center circrle downward and to the lett. Do all folrr cards thät u'a]'atdkeep them in order. Finally color the remaining thrcc cards 6H,75, 95 f i l l ;ng in the upper blade.This is exactly the same as yoü did *'itI the first card of tie set, lhe 8C.

ThinkiDg of those cards wh;ch have üe upper blade lllled in as 'up . and those cards rvitlr

the lolver blade l l l led jr as down'. do al1 six sets of cards this same \!ay. The top card is up', thenext four cards are 'down' and lhe final three cards are 'up'. Again. be sure that all of the cards areoriented conecLly with the suall marking at the top of each card facing the righr direction.

You can now stack all six sets together in aoy order you like. As long as the eight cards\\'ithin each set are in order and together, the order of the sets lhemselves is not irnportant. The deckis now dore and ready to use. Here's ho\r' it works.

As you recall, the üate of ench card is just four cards away al any given time. Thosclrarkings thal youjust pul on lhe cards rvill tell you exactly

",t"re tha! male is. Let's lry a smail

experiment. Be sure thal the deck is being held in the'up' position (the small marking on tire outerend of the cards, assurning all cards are orienled the same. a simple glance at thc top card is all youneed). Cut the deck anywhere and complete the cut. Place the card you cul to off lo one side. Notrlook at the center circle of the new top card. You have two possibilities at this poiflt.

L If the colored in blade of that new top card is pointing 'donn'(the darkened blade js

the lower one, extending from the center circle downwards and to the le{t), the mateof the card on the table is the fourth card from the top of the deck. Check jt out.Count down to the fourth card irorn the top wilhout changing the order of the cards.It's the same card as is on the table.

2. If the colored-ilt blade of that new top card is pointing 'rp'(the darkened blade isthe upper one, extending from the center circle upwards and lo the right), the mateof the card on the table is the fourth card from the boftom of the deck. Che.k it out.Count up to the founh card lrom t}lc ,.)ton \r'ithout changiDg tlte order of the cards.It's the same card as is on the table-

If that card you counted lo is not the same as the card you cut to at lhe beginning of thislitde procedure, you have constructed the deck wrong. Go back and try it again.

Now the big question is, what can you do with this special deck? The short answer is, abunch! Obviously any routine where you need to know what card a spectator has picked withoulany force $'hatsoever and without the card being retumed to the pack is a natural. All you would

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Mentat Mix

need to do is have lhe card selected. sight the marking to leam the locatiot ol its duplicate alrd peekthat card. You,ve got yourinfo.mation ana."n pro".äa f.orn ,tr.rl.

,"",,, "liil:l$".:ilj :T::x*x:;:::,1;,:5i:i.1.H:l:1ff "Tä#i."ffiilä: fl;.obr rou . a pp l i c . i üon o f r h i s rechn iquc .

In the above cited .Encvclonedia Of Card Tricks,, there is an excelienl tnck called .,One

InFour" by B.F. Orrin on pug. 2j9 (dou.r Fiition),rhar firsthe Many Tekel Deck tike a glove. Ihighly recoarmend you look it up. when you read it . i l wi l l u"com" l-rn"ai"tery obvious how thjsnew deck makes the effect er.en stronger tho" tf," o.;g;oA- Ii.-*i;;#äi

By the wäy, Mr. Orrin seems Ier idenceä b,. his nam; r;;;;";ö;i"i:;Tä:;f fT:iir_l;,ff#:il"J;j::,.:1i:: i:I ooted all and sundry q rrh lhi5 clcver deck. r,_ .rri rr" """i0

r."T,n",. i l i, l '*".r,

'.*"'l,xl'll,l:',i"*;T:,'::[1i,t' -* '''ith this new deck rhat arc much more difncurr, if nor

l:il :11: ::, "r ":l #;;il' il ü ä";*Täji:':T:Jiä"fi::i:'LT:if,*:ih:',:'';duplrcates to do with as you prease. Irnagine if you were to have tou, .uJa ."r""t"a uy rou,differenr specrators, rhen palm out the fo'ur ,l"p:";. y;;;;;;i"#ä""'"".,r_" selecrions wereeven retumed to the deck_ Have {he seShuffle them intoihe ;;;k;;;;;; ;,"",,.ns

rerumed afrer you have the wallet on the tabte.experimentwithrhem..*_;r;;;il-r",-:.:söl,"rrä::ä::'lJä;11i,'ä::i:;,.,,easl ll lspareyoualr ofrhe dcrairs here, but;u.t .*p"ri-""i, üi""i

ti""li i*"r* ,, .",.

",.0 ,",I'Jäiii#i;;:'it ffi;ff-t 'Jrour spectators the exact same wav. simpry have a

oup". una ."itt'äi. -inäö#lJ:lrf."e the next card on sPec #2 and so on. Then sisht the

I'm sure you,ye thought of other ways these sanc things could be done. Bve.',tljng we dohas a trade off. ln the case of this deck the selection process is-extremel"y-fii"r ano *re deck looksfl'r"""",fii:*::i:'*:::ä:i::::,T"'9.' v"" a''"r "'* *il"i'"ä'älv pi"r u""uu." vouwrth J ust a liftle imaginatioD.

duplicate card' The potential for poweäul materiat is s'trong

One more thing. Obviously thisyou "oua r,se taror ä;;:ää.,1':j:f ä:::ä"ili"J.,1:;r."r"j,i,,;lj:.:iliir#J".**could be made to work with this princiole. f" ._y *"1. "Sr[

,f,lJpni"ipäou,o O" "u"n

_o."deceprive with these other types of cards rhan r ith pla)ing cards p'iely bäause of what is on their

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Mental Mit(

läces- The variet)' of design actually can become part of $hat covers tire method. This is especiallytme \r ' i th tarot cards. Try i t out and come up rl i th custom nliracles of your own.

Can etu:iL1l prodüction drLl ,Jistrihution rights strictl), rcserred.

Half And HalfBy Mark Strivings

What I have for you here is a concept and some very practical applications that you maywish to consider when coming up with ;our own marerial. I cal l i t the .HalIAnd Half 'principle. Icertainl) did not invent i t . l t would appear lhat no one actuall) does know $ho djd. [ t 's been aroundlbr decades. I do knorv that its uses have been very limired, far too limited in my opinion, ) haveused lhis subtle idea to devastatirg effect io a number of my own creations and have found it to addimmeasurably lo certäin types of effects

The rnain use for this idea is with playing cards but therc is no rcason q,hy it can't beappiied to any other types of cards. It works great with tarot cards, postcards, nurnber cards,Lexicon cards and flashcards of all liinds. So even if vou don't use playing cards in your own work,there is no reason to pass this by. Trust me, I have fooled all and sutdry with this simple idea andyou can, loo.

I have never seen this idea applied to anything apart from one basic application. If you areaware of another source that I haven't seen yet, please contact me so I can continue my owoeducation. Apart from my own fairly extensive work with this idea, I krow of no one who uses it inrvalrs other than it's most basic use.

As I said, I know of only one application of this killer idea. and that's what has come to beknown as a 'Half and Half' deck, or the '5G50' deck. This is a deck of 52 playing cards where thetop 26 cards are all identical (for instance the 4C) and tle bottom 26 cards are all X cards (anythingexcept the 4c),thrs making it incredibly easy to force the 4C (in this case). you can casuallyspread the lower half only of tJle deck face up and gi\,e the impression of a fulj, shuffled deck. Thentum the deck face dowtr, spread the ilpper half only and have a card selected. lt's about as cleatr asdnatural looking a force as you're likely to ever find.

This deck can also be given ajog shuffle and a false cut (my personal preference being theRosini false cut in Tarbeli, but any false cut will do). Wlen combined witi the natural look of thedeck. there's no choice büt for your spectators to arrive at the conclusion that the deck is normal. lt

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Mental Mix

looks nomral, i t acts nonnaL and it is haodled in a nomlal fashion. l t must ,e normai. I t 's a beautifulthing.

I remember the f irst t ime I ever saw one of these decks in action. l l was at c magicconvention and was used b! one of the lccture6. The force was so clean and care free that no oDe inthe room had a cllc holr he manäded to tbrce that cärd. Wlen he revealed it, the whole place fellapart laughing because we were all so incredi,h fooled by i!. Needlcss to say {his made a ,ealimp.ession on me and l 've used lhis special deck for a wide variety of purposes ever since.

But it alwal s seemed to me that the.e $ as so much morc you could do with (he underlyingDrinciole.

The basic essence of all that follows this is that half of the deck is completely normal, halfis not. l'm sure that once you read through the follo$,ing, you \r,ill start to come up with ideas ofyour o!l'n to apply this marvelous principle. Here are a few ideas that I have used over the Vears.

Two, mree and Four.Way Force Deck .

Perhaps the most obvious application would be to construct a two-way forcing deck üsingthe exact same modus. ln this case you would require two different sets of 13 cards, for instance the7D and QS. You would also need 26 X cards. Simply stack the two force banks on top of each otlterin a knowo order, then place that stack on top of the X cards. As an exan1ple. reading from the topof the del]k down, you might have 13 7D's, 13 QS's and 26 X cards. The deck handles exactly thesame !\ay as the regular 50-50 deck as ourlioed above. When it comes time for the fotce spread thetop 13 ca.ds and force the 7D, then spread the next 13 cards and force the QS. you could place asimple pencil dot on the back of each cared in the QS force bank so you would know where itbegan and the 7D force bank ends. This would also denote where the X cards start. Simple!

This idea originally appeared in my first book, 'ADnemann For The 90's" but seems to havegone completely unnoticed. ['ve been using it for years in wide variety of applications, and haveeven marketed this idea in a couple of different incamations.

Of course you could also extend this idea to a three or four bank force deck. withappropriate size force banks. Use the pencil dot idea to denote where each force bank ends and thenext one begins.

Büt there can be so much more thaojust these very elemeltary applications of thisDrinciole.

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Mental Mix

Half Stacked -

How many l imes have you used a complete stacked deck to identify or locate ooe ort i . |ocards. using the propert ies of the stack as yoLlr modus? For;nstance, suppose vou use a Si Stebbinsstack. You false shuff lc and cu{, then ha\.e a card selected. Cutt ing the deck at the point \ \ ,here thccard is selectcd brings the ne\t card in the stack to tle top (or face dcpending on how you do it).Giimpsing that card can then give yoü the idenrity of the card your spectalor selected. Simple andeas), r ight?

Here's something to rhinli about. Why do you need the entire deck to be shckcd when olriyone card is going to be selected? How about this? The whole deck is stacked in yoür favoriles!stern. Have the spectator cut the deck. Now take the deck and give it a good jog shuffle (whichretains the upper stock of the dcck. only mixitlg the lower half) ard a false cut. This proccdure onlvdestrols the lo$ er half of thc stack. The eDtire upper half is still good to go.

Just as in the 50 5{l deck. spread just the upper half of the deck and have a c€rd selecred.Cut thc deck at lhe point where the catd is chosen. You're good 10 go!

Using the genuinc portion of rlre.jog shuffle (half of rhe deck is legirimately shulfle{i) a-\parl of the procedure destro\s any notion of there being a stack involved. The mechatics are everybit as easy as using a regular 5O 5) deck arrd the results ale even more convincing than if the deck$ as overly handled to nlaintain the entire stack.

Ot course, your stack is basically destroyed after this whole procedure, but for a .on€ up.perlbrmance lr,hcre you are going to go on änd do othe. effects with the deck, o, sinrply put thed (ck a$a l . l h i s add i t i on i s ha rd ro bea l

Naturally you could start with the upper half of your deck stacked in your favorite systemand handle itjust lhe same as a 50-50 deck. The main advantage to the above description is that thedeck can be cut anywhere by the spectator before tbe shuffle commences. This seems to be veryfair (and it is).

Half Roughed -

You're probabiy familiar with tle rough and smooth deck used for forcing. It consists of 26pairs oi cards roughed togetler. The fac€ card of each roughed pair is ao X card and the back cardis a force card. You simply spread through the deck and have your spectator touch the back of anycard. Separate the rcughed pair that he touched and reveal the force card. Works like a charm.There's only one problem, the deck will only show 26 cards from either side when it is spread. As

- t 5 -

Mental Mix

I ve stated eisewhere in this l i f t le tome, I hare yet to see anyo e in the world who can hi lndle a ful lrough and smooth deck in such a way that you \{ould be convinced that there :]re 52 cards sbowing.

Suppose ) ou ,,! ere to nlake a rough smooth force deck. but only use 13 pairs of roughedcards instead of 26? The top 26 cards of the deck coDsist oi roughcd pairs just l ike the regular roughand snlooth deck-'The boftom 26 cards are al l loose, singie X cards. Obviousll you would haveyour spectator select a card from the top i3 roughed pairs.

The big advantage here is that 39 cards (which is \r'hat shows iD the above configüratjon)looks a wlole /or different than jüst 26. Don't believc me? Try it and see for yourself. Even themost well posted card man $ould be hard presscd to sav for süre whether they say all 52 cards ornot. Having those 26 X cards is a complete throw off and adds a wholc new dimension to howconvincirg the effect can bc.

Half Tekeled -

l l J ou ß.erc Io take whai we've discussed elser|here in this l i t t lc tome with regards to eithera'regular'l]lene tekel deck or my own Maoy Tekel Decl: and apply thc Half and Half principle toit, it would male ejther dcck doubly as effective as ir already is.

L€t's use the exact deck set up that I described elsewhere_ Here's a possibility for a'HalfMany'lekel Deck'( lrom the top down)

EC. 6H, 75, 95, 8C, 6H, 75,95KS, 9D, 3D, 10H, KS, 9D. 3D, 10H2H,35, KD, 10C, 2H,35, KD, 10C

That's 24 cards. Norv all you need are 28 more X cards (so the numbers work out dghttotaling 52 cards). Any cards will work so long as they don't match any of the above stack. placethe 24 cards listed here on top of the 28 X cards you've got and you'rc setl The rest of the workingshould be obvious irom here.

lf you have taken the small bit of trcuble to ma](e up the deckjust described, you can spreadthe deck and immedialely see ho\{' completely normal and above board it looks. All you wouldneed to do is have a card (or cards) selected from the top stock, cut the deck at that point andproceed from there as described earlier in this book.

Are you starting to get ao idea ofhow versatile aod devious this simple principle is? Ofcourse it has its limitations. There are certain types of effects where it.just doesn,t fit at all. But

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Mental Mk

there are t imes when'Halfatd Half can addawholene$ dimension and leveloi deception to$'hatever eifect you're doing. Check it out. You just might l ike i t .

Commefti.tl productio 'nd distriL)ution rights ro all rf the above effectt t)nd trcthod! are strictL\:rcserred b Mark D. Striringt.

Lavet's VoodooBy Mark Strivings

In lhe right hands and with the righr crowd this piece is a lot ol lun. II you are the kind ofperfonner who thinks iast on his (or her) feet and itreracls r|ell with your crowd. this corrld be for!ou .

Effe* -

The performer brings up a marded couple and introduces a 'Lover's Voodoo Doll,. Thisspecial r'oodoo doll is covered \{ith words; attributes, goals and events tha! everyone wants (ordoesn't $ ant, as the case may be) and happen to all of us. Things like ecstasy. find gold, stopsnroking, happitess, impotence, find keys, lose weight, marriage, win at track, flat tire, etc. Alsointroduced are five small pins \Ä'ith dilferenl colored heads on them. A sealed envelope on the tablecompletes tlre set up.

The performer explains that lhis is a love.'s yoodoo doll and each partner is going ro get achaDce to cast a spell on the other. The wife gets to go first. She selects any pin she wants andpushes it into ary word on the doll that pleases her The husband goes ncxt and so on, until all fivepins have been used. There is obvious roorn for much byplay here depending on the couple'srcaction to each other's selectiols and so forth.

L-et's suppose that the pins are stuck into the following words -

Red pin happinessBlack pin - kittensBlue pin - bustedWhite pin - car towedGreen pin - start smoking

. 1 7 -

Mental Mix

The performer than reils thc audience that this couples selections of spells tells a lot aboutthem. Again there is rnuch rooDl for fuD and comedy here. The envelope is opened. Inside a.e t$,oslips of paper The larger of the h{,o is opened and read aloud as foLlows.

'Thank you lbr playing our Lover's Voodoo game. Herc is what each pin aud the word thatwas selected by it mean:

Red pin - This is I hat this person wants most in the kircheo (in this case. happiness)Black pin l his is I hat this person wants most in the garage (kittens)Blue pin This is what this person wants most in the batlroom (busted)White pill This is what this person wants nost in the living room (car towed)Green pin - This is rvhat this person wants Drost in the bedroom (star.t smoking)

Bur the.€'s rnore to it lhanjust that. I had a feeliog about what you wanted most in thebedroom. Open the other slip and read what I saw for you."

The oLher, snaller slip is opened and it says the words 'stan smoking'l

Method -

You can't even begin to ful ly appreciate hot{ 'much fun rhjs can bc from the abovedescription. Through ail of the by play of the routine (which plays out differently every time), therevelation of the final selected word comes out of the blue and makes a great endjng to a ful)routine.

Keep ir mind that üere are no forces of any kind. They spectators can stick the pins intoany word they want (and there are neariy 60 words on the doll). They can use the pins in ary orderthey wish. The envelope is on the table from the very beginning. I'm begjnning to sound tike dealerhype

The solution is very simple.A window double envelope (more on this momentalily) andsecret writing of some sort, pocket writing in my case. You also need the voodoo doll. We'll discussthat in a moment as well.

This is simplicity itself. Since you know what coior pin you're looking for (green in thisexample), whenever that pin is used, simply secret write that word on the smaller slip. ln my case Ipocket wdte the word and fold the slip inro quarters. I palm it out and load it through the window inthe envelope.

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Mental Mix

You could nse a regu{ar rvindorv envelope. ln case you.re not iamiliar with this timehonored device. take a nranila coin envelope (a #5 l/2 works well) and simply cut a window about2 inches square into the solid (not glued) side of the envelope. That way you can load the palmedslip through the window and erüac! i1 froD the envelope as i t i t were always there.

But I actually paeier to use a windolv double envelope. This simple device is my owncreation and was ürst pul into print jn m! book ..Mobilc Mental ism',- Io make this you wil l needl\r,o manila coin en\elopes. Use otre to make the \L,indow enrelope described above. Using a sharppair of scissors. cut the entire back including the f lap off the second envelope which leaves iust asolid sheet of paper. Trin i t do$ n about l /4 of an inch. Tlen sl ide i t into the wirdow erveloDe.1'h;s crcates a panition inside the envelope.

lf you exanrine this simple envelope you rvill find that otle side of tire partitioll is now asolid compartmett r\hile the other side is now a windoq, compartment. Anything placed into thesolid compartment won't fal l out rhrough the window and yet won,t intedere with anything beingloaded into the envelope through the window. Ever].thing is secure ard works like a charm.

The main slip of paper (with all of the pin meanings) is hanclwritren on a 5 l/2 by g l/2 inchpiece of peper and lolded into eighths. You ,1./rt hand \r,rite rhis entire page and make it look asclose to your secret ivriting (pocket writing. boon or nail writing, whatever you,rc goiDg to use) aspossible. This slip is placed into the solid compartnrent ot üe windo\i double envelope. The othersmaller slip is ready to be written on in the pocket. you're good to go.

Do everything as outliDed above. 'l rust me, jt's easv 10 havc a lot of fun playing off ofwhatever woads that you. volunteers decide to stab. This is the main reason for üsing a marriedcouple. There can be so mnch ad lib happening and the couple can play off of each other lf theyhave friends in the audience this can be even more fun. Mrenever the color pin you,re looking foris used simply pocket write the word, fold aüd palm out the slip. No matter when the slip is chosenyou { ill have plenty of time to do this. Even if it is chosen last, there js still the by play of thecouple aDd the words that have been chosen to work wiü.

Once the slip is palmed ou! simply pick up the tabled envelope with your other hand andplace it ditectly over the palmed slip. You can then open the envelope and remove the large slipllrst and then the smaller one. Quietly pocket the envelop€ and you,re completely dore! IJave thesmaller slip on the tablc and have your spectator open thc larget one. It is read aioud. Again, thereis a bunch of room for fun here depending on what words were actually chosen.

Finally have the smaller slip opened and read for a snashing finale!

I love this routine ard have a lot offun with it. I know you will, too_

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Mental Mix

Here's the scoop on the doll . I t is simply cal led 'Voodoo Doll 'and is made b)Accoutrements@. I found it in a ganie store. l've also seen them in novelty stores (iike SpencerGifts). l t stands about 9 inches high and is covered in a red fabric. I t has various rvords pr;nted al lover i t and is a sight to behold al l b) i tself. tr comes 1{ith black and white pins. but you *i l1 needother colors as well. You can get what )ou need at yoLrr Iocal fabric store. Track one of these dollsdown, you' l l be glad you did.

Uher Options -

You don't have to use pocket w.iting to do thjs effect. If you're an aficionado of naii orboon $'riting, use the exact same set up as described aboye. The only difference is that you necd tohave the slip to be written on in the window of the eovelope. Simply hold the envelope in yourhand with the window facing you. With your thumb writer in place, you're good to go. Proceed asabove.

I won't go into the mechanics of pocket rvri t ing lrere. I 've written extensively about i t inother publications, not the ieast of which is my book, "Miracles From The Hip" which is entirelydevoted to pocket u,riting. See my contact ;nformatior elsewhere to get jD touch with me about thist l t le.

You can also do what I do and prepat_e the envelope to disguise the window. See'Synchronicitl elsewhere in this book for the details on rhat. I use the rvords "Lover's Voodoo" inthe windorv and oudine as detai led in 'Synchronicjty' . I t 's a beaütiful thing.

That's it! If your style of perlorming lends itscll to this type of prese.tation, you will bedoilg yourself a favor to track down one of these dolls and work this up. lt can be done close up oron stage, althougb candidly I reserve it stdctly for close and parlor conditions. The iaterplaybelween the spectators and myselfjust seems to work belter that way. Enjoyl

Lovefs Voodoo IIBy Mark Strivings

In case you catr't find the doll but still want to do the effect, you've got three easy options.One, you could make your own doli and write whatever words you want on it. Tow, you couldsimply draw a doll and have the picture covered with words. Or three, you can eliminate the dollaltosether.

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Mentat Mix

With either of tiie first llvo options you could still !se the colored pins (which makes senseu ith the voodoo theDe) and rl'ork thirgs exactl) as above.

with the lhird oplion the eflect is prett]' much identical, but the presentätion would have tobe trveaked a bit to work out- [n tiis case you'll have about 60 blank iace cards with the wordswdtten on them, one \.! ord per card. If you also ivanted to usc the colo. scheme from the firstversion i_ou could have differenr colored poker chips or markers of some other solt.

Have the \lords selected, either randomly or have yoLrr spectator's e)iacUy which $ords theywant, and then ha\re the markeas malched up to dre words. You could then proceed pretty muche\actly as in the original version of this effect.

Regardless of \a hich version you choose. do lry this out. The preDise is firn. the mettlod iseas) aod sureli.e. and the props make things ioteresting and visually arresting. It's a greatcombination and Dakes for easy and l ight (and verv commercial) mental ism that can playpractically arywhcre. Enjoy!

SynchraniciWBy Mark Strivings

Strap yourselves in for a wild ride. The following will seem a bit daunting at first, but theoverali effect ald end result is really qujte clear. This is a teature routine and car easily be thehighlight of your program. The effect builds to a mind-boggling conclusion in a way that no one isexpecting. Enjoyl

Effect -

The performer alnounces that it's time to play everyone's favorite psycbic game,'Synchronicity'. He points out a securely locked cash box that has been in plain sight since beforethe program began. He explains that inside is a valuable prize ("over six-hundred grand") that oneol our lucky audierce members will have a chance to wiq but fißt we need conrestants.

Five people are selected to come on stage and panicipate, plus one more who will act as a'facilitator'. The perfomrer then brings out a few keys and shows that each fiß the lock and turns,

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Mental Mix

but only one actually opeos the lock. l t is re-locked and the kels are lhoroughLy mixed it a goblet.Each of the fi\'e contestants is allowed to seiect a key at mndom arld each is gii,en a small key tagro attach to their key.

The facilitator norv eliminates the contestanls one bv one untii onl) one remains. Let s saythis is a qoman who is tal l lvi th blonde hair pul led back with a blue ribbon, has on a low cut bluevelvet golvn llith black shoes and diamond earrings. This lucky person gets to try their key in thelock. l t opens! Have they wofl the big prizc? Thel could win ovcr six hundred grandl

Upon opening the locked box no money is seeo in the coiD tray in the box which covers theentire opening, but thcre is an envelope which is labeled 'Stn.iri) nici'}' - Ereryone'J FavoritePsl'c1ri, Oorr". OJlicial Rules - Keep in a secure ktcatictn' . Whal could be more secure than thelocked box that conlains the prize? The eovelope is opened ard inside is a single sheet that containsall the rules of lhe game. It says:

S\nchronicit\Everyone's Favorile Pslchic GamerxOfJicial Ru les atu! Elt Bi b iLit! Requirements

Ddte af Getfie:

l. There musl be lhe lame number o-fcontestants as there are kejJ.

2. There nlust be kel tdgs avaiktble .for each kel' used.

3. Contestabts mus( h.lve Jree choice ofa !- kel theJwish.

4. Cantestants must have Jree choice of any key tag the! wish.

5. Potentidl winning contes,dnt musl be selected cü rlthdom Jiom all conleslants

6, The potenlial witning contestant's ke! must be the era.t ker- thal opens the lock to the box.

7. If fue abow key successfully opens the lock to the box, the number on the ke! lag müst be

8. AII ke! tags must contain dillerent numbers.

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Now let's back up a bit. Compare all of these facrs \rith üc list youjust read. There are fiveke)s and five contesta[Is- There are key tags available aod each spectator gets a free choice ofwhich key and key tag thcy $,anl. ln fact the] can change their milcl and even trade if they sodesire. The poten{ial lvinning contesrant is choscn at riurdonr. really I l_heir key is the exact key thatopens the lock. All of the key tags have snlal l st ickers on them $hich. wher peeled off reveal anunber lrrinen very boldly on each tag. All of rhc numbers rre dilTcrcnr and rhe key thar thepolential winning contestant has. has the number.l written boldly on it! All of the other key tagnumbers are different. So far the rules match what has happenedA'I RANDOM before the rulesu ere ever opened. But !rait, there's mo!€,

The rules slip goes on to say:

tl i nni ng Conte s tctnt Qualücatians

If there is a certifable reinning contestant, it is pL)ssible that ther na.,, be needecl Jorinlerriews vtith members of the r'ess. Since newspaper pictures arkl Iele|ision braadcasts of thepotentiatl vinning conte;tctnt refle<t an evemone in|olved with the game, the patential winning. nt(\taIt mu\r m(ct rhe fal lauing apyearan c . I i tef id:

This must be o wotrttn who is taII with bl.)nde hair pulted bcttk o-ith a blue ribbon, fuü on alo\r cut blüe wlvel gown with black thoes aürl diananlj earrings!

Assuming all of the abave conditions have been met, the contestant taiLl be deemed as awinner and qualifes for lha Grand Priae. Infact, all o.f the ahave really has happened, everyonedesen'es a prize. C ongrat u lalions !

I don't know if you were just paying aüention, not or y did the randomly sel€ctedspectatorJs key open the lock, but it had the number 4 on the key tag AND the official ,ules justdescribed tfu e:xact pel.son who was randomly selected to 1ry their key! This description can be asdetailed as you can possibly imagine. This is a mitrd-blowing moment!

Upon lifting the coin tray of the cash box, there are found seven .100 Grand' candy bars.Each of the cortestants as well as th€ facilitator gets a caJrdy bal and thc perfomrer gets to keep onefor himself, bringing this whole routine to a smashirg cljmax! The winning contestaDt also gets tokeep the copy of the Official Rules as a lrremento.

Mental Mix

9. Il the ubave ke\ succetslull\' .)pens the lack t.) the box, ütu1 contains the number q. thepolenliarl ,rinning contestnt nxurt meet the foLLox,ing qualifcutions. which will tary witheven game.

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Mental Mix

Mdhod -

Believe me w hen I tel l you that this absoiurely slays laymen as well as nag;cians. - l

here areso many dead-or rratchcs in the prediction (the Ofäcial Rules') and they are carried out in such astrict and inpossible fashion that lhere are no explanations and it all comes crash;ng down on theaudience at once. Plus the llnal blow off of the cand)' bars (a l.arry Becker idea) makes for a nicetic up to the whole routine.

A few points to keep jn nlind here before I tip my hand. There arc no forces ol any kindanywhere in the routine. ALL selections (the ke), üe key tag, the wioling contestan!) arecompletely free with no restrictiots of any kind. There are no stooges of any kind. This is strictly aone man routine $ilh no on or off-stage help. There is no secret writing of any kind (rhankgoodness, who wouid want to write al l that stuff under pressure?) and no inpression devices. Thecash box can be mailed to thc event producer weeks before the show and vou never have to goa ywhere near the box before thc routine happens on stage. The box can be complelely examined atany time. Are you curious yet? This uses a combinatiol of prirciples thar come together to make äkiller effect. You're going to love this!

You'll be glad to know that this routine is very easy io do, very lo\r' tech (which nreans jt

will actually work every time) and you can put togethcr 90% oi it yoursell-*,ith materials you'llfind mostly at your local office supply store.

Tbe one thing you will Deed that you cannot makc yourself or buy at rhe office supply is thelock and key effect. lt used to be knolvn as Key-R-Rect. You may already have one of thesemar\elous iocks. It was unavailable for some time but as of this writing it is being rnanufacturedagain under the rame 'CoFect Key' and may be available tlrough your local dealer This is theonly part of this roütine that ,voü'll need to go to the magic slore for. You zay be thinking ofsubstituting another rnethod for the key effect, but candidly 'Cor.ect Key' is by far rhc besl productand nelrod to do this overall effect. As you wili see, there's a bit more to the lock and key eifectthal meets the eye, and that's true even if you al.eady have the effect.

Since 'Conect Key'is a marketed effect I cannot divulge the workirgs here. Sufhce to say,whoever gets chosen as the potential winnjng contestant, that persons key rill op€n the lock. Allkeys will be clearly shown to fit the lock beforehand, but orl) one will actually open it. There is noforce of any kind. lt's an extremely clever piece of workmanship and well worth having. You willuse the lock and five of the keys, including /ft" ls). Get the effect aDd you'll know what I mean.

From your local office supply store you will need the following:

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Mental Mix

A locking Cash Box - I use one made by Swinton Ave. Trading. It is cal led ,,Cash Box wjthLocking Latch'. It measures J 7i 8" X 11" X 7 5i 8'' and features a renoveablc piastic tray.

Key' lhgs I usc a prod cl bt AveryC,, #11025, Ke)'tags, Splir Ring. The) come in apackage of 5O tags. These afe t l /4 inches in diameter. They a.e white cardboard wirh meral edgesand have a spli t r ing on each tag.

Colored l-abels I use a product by Aver)'@, #0-1469, Color Coding l-rbe1s. l)ark Bluc.Reorovable. These are 3/4 inch round and come l0OO to a package. Be sure to get the remoyabiestickers because lhey wil l need to be able to come off easi ly. Also the dark blue color is important.

Manila Coin Envelopes I use #5 l/2 coin envelopes. These nreasure 3 l /8" x 5 1/2". Youcan use other size envelopes, but ivi l l have to adjust some dimensions of other things Iäter on. Getthe heaviest stock you can f ind.

Yoü will also need to replace the splil rjngs on the key tags. I got abag of 50 jewelry latches at my local Michaels@. 'l hese are the same typeof gizmo that is used to attach the two ends of a necklace(pictured here) andis also freqüently used in various models of Riog Flight.

You will also need a hasp that \rill be auached to the box. I use ouemade by Stanley@, model #81-91O5. Fixed Staple Double Hunge Safety Hasp. The hasp comeswith wood screws (since it is assumed that i t $i l l be screwed into wood, duh), so you wil l need toget replacement nuts and bolts of lhe proper size. I used lock Iashers with the nuts and bolts thatare about 3/8 inch long. If you use exactly rvhat I use you will teed a total of seven nuts and bolts.

Apan from the above you'll need:

an Exacto@ knife,scrssots,a glue stick,some plain paper for your computer's printer (or photocopy the artwork 1 supply),a screwdriver and small wrench.an electric drill and appropriate size bit to match the bols for the hasp,a Sharpie@ pen,a couple of large paper clips,a couple 3 X 5 file cards anda ready supply of'100 Grand'candy bars. These are made by Nestle@. You'll need 6 7 ofthem per show. I get them at my local supe.market. I recommend getting a fresh batchbefore each show. There's nothing worse than a stale candy bar, and you don't want to giveyour volunte€rs anlthing stale. Enough said!

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Mentsl Mix

Noß ir's rime to do a couple of small constntction projects that are ve.y easy. First, the boxitselt.

me Box -

There's onll one alteration you'll need to do !o the box, and tha! is to add the hasp Ior thelock. l f you \ e obtained the same type of hasp that I use on my box. you' l l know that i t is actuallydouble hinged, meanjng it is hinged in two diffeient places. This al lows the hasp to work over (oraround) a corner. See lhc pics of m), set up to get ar idea of what \r'e're talking about here. I haveplaced the hasp on ml box very specilically. While it has nothing to do with the workings of theeffect. it has everything to do \rith the hasp making the box very secu.e, while not geüing in the\r ay of anything.

Here are a 1e!\ ' things to consider whenplacing the hasp. Make sure thal the lid will close allthe way easily. The bolts in the top of the lid mustnot hit any portion of the coin lray that sits inside therop of the box. My hasp is placed just over än rnch tothe right of the clasp that is buil t into the box. If youuse a different box than what I use, be sure (oexperiment a bit before drilling the holes and makingyour final decision about lhe hasp.

Once you have decided whe.e to place the hasp, drill the holes and atlach it wirh the boltsand nuts. Do this with both parts of the hasp. Tighten all bolts and nuts very securcly. Once thisis done, beiieve it or not, the box is now ready to go!

ne Envelope -

You now need to comstruct a special envelope. You'llneed two of the manila coin envelopes. scissors. aDExacto@ knife, a glue stick atd photocopies of theexamples I will supply. Wlile this is not the least bitdifficult, there are several steps you'll need to do- Fißt ofall, use the scissors and cut off the entire solid back panel

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Example #2

Rules andEligibility

RequirementsOff icial Documents

Keep in a.ö.t tra ^lt^6

Example f3

Step I - Copy example #1, cut outjust outside thebox pictured here and glue to the back (solid side,not glued) ofa#5 l/2manila coin envelopc. Centerit on the envelope as exactJy as possible. Usc arExacto@ knife and cut out rhe poftion inside thesquare, be as exact and straight as possible with thiscut. Use a playing card on the inside of the envelop€ to avoid cutting all tle way through-

Step 2 - Copy exarnple #2, cut ourjust inside rhebox pictured here and glue to the single sheet(made by cutting the entire back off of another #5i/2 manila coin envelope) you made earlier Inplacing this cut out on tie single sheet, be sure thatit will show through the window you cut in Step l.The final product should look like Example #3above.

Example # I

Synchronicity Synchronicity

Rules andEl igibi l i ty

RequirementsOfticial Documents

Keep in aca^' 'ra ^1.^a

Evervone's Favorite trvervone s ravoflrcPsychic Game'M Psychic Game'*

Mefttal Mix

oi onc of the en'elopes, f lap included. This $ i l l leave you with a sol id sheet oi paper. Place this toone sidc.

Now you $ ill need to either photocopy the exaüples of the artwo.k that you see pictrred onthe previous page (p. 27). or use your computer and pinter to makc up your own. I actually useful l-page sized )abeis (available at off ice supplv stores) to make thcse.

These eranlples are exactly what I use and are ade ior use with the #-5 l/2 ntanilaenveiopes- Either nlake your own or copy erample the sanples on page 27. You wil l then glue itonto the back (solid side) of another #5 l/2 coin cnvelope. Center it on the back as best you can.You'll notice thal there is a largc square that fills most ol rhe paper Take the Exacto@ krife and cutexactly (no pun intended) along the iDner edge of the square. Place an old playing card inside theenvelope to prevent cutting all the wa)' throUgb. When _roir are done. \'ou have a large. perfectlvsquare hole in the solid side of the envelope. This is a really weird windorv envelope. But we re notdone yet.

Now either copy examplc #2 (pictured previously) or create your own on your computer.Again, I prirt this on a full sheet label. Cut it to the size sho\a n. This latlel $ ill go on the singlesheet that yoll created a ferv II)omcnts ago by cuttiDg the back olf of another envelopc. You'll haveto experimenl a bit to get this riglrt. Slide rhis single shcct (from the other envelope) into thewjndo\,r' envelope youJust created. You'li need ro attach the label (example #2) on this inner slip ofpaper in such a ß ay lhat it shows through the hole in the *indow envelopc. It rnust be centered inthe hole. Once you've got this label attached to the sl ip. sl ide the whole thing into the windowenvelope with the message showing lhrough the window-

The result ing envelope js cal led a'window doublc envelope' (see'Love.'s Voodoo'ioranolher example of this envelope), and now looksjusr like a prioted envelope with all of theprinting showing properly. The trindo$ becomes completely invisible when it's dooe this way. Youcan openly handle the envelope and show it freely from all sides and it looks right from everyangle.

The envelope is now ready to use. We're getting closer but not there yet. Hang on, the end isnear.

Now you need to create the proper key tags- Aren't you glad that you only have to do allthis prepaütiol] once aBd not every show??

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Mefttal Mix

The Key Tags -

This is pretty easy. Take five of the melal rimmed key tags and renove the srrings that areattached to them. Replace each of these strings with one of the jewelry latches. Now look closely atthe tags themselves. You'i l notjce that one side oI rhe tag has a f lat, round metal r im. We'11 call thisside A'. ' l 'he other side of the tag has a metal r im that is nrf iower and has sl ight crimps in j t . l hisis side 'B'. Take {our of these lags and. usjng a SharpieG,, wrile the foilowing nunbe.s on the tagson s ide 'A ' - 17 .23 .49 . 12 .

Take one othe. tag amd I\rite the nunlber 4 on side 'B'. The writing should be centered onthe face ofthe tag and should not fill the entire side of the tag. lt will need tobe able to be covered completely by one of the Blue Avery@ Spots, so watchyour size.

Once you have the tags f i l led in with the numbers. you' l l need tocover cach nunber t\ ith one of the Aver!@ spots. BLIT. belore you do, tale afold over a very small 'flap' on the edge of each spot. Fold this {lap back overso that the sticky adhesive sides attach to each other. This flap is no more thao I116 of an inch. Thismakes a 'flat spot' on the edge of lhe label. lt also creates a small tag that can be gripped once thespot is in placc. I-ater on in the routine, you're goiDg to remove each of the spots from the key tags-These smali flaps $ili make that much easie. to do.

I orient the flat spot so that it is toward lhejewelry latch. Itjust looks better that way. Onceyou've got the spols in place over the numbers, the key tags are ready to go.

You'll end up replacing these labels between every show.

Now if you'll notice, because of the very small discreparcy involving the metal rims of thetags, you can easily identify which tag has the number 4 on it. The rim itself becomes a markirgdevice. lt's the tag with the na.rower rim which isn't so flat. Experiment a bit with this by mixingthe tags up and ;dentifying the #zl tag. lt's rcally easy once you get the hang of it. You'll see howthis comes into play when we get into the handling and routin€.

By the way. the reason for the dark blue color of the Avery@ spots is because lhey willcompletely cover and mask the numbers wdtteD with the Sharpie@ on tlre key tags. ltjust wouldn'tdo if you can easily see the Dumbcrs through the labels.

The really good news is that, with the exception of having to replace the Avery@ labels afterevery show, all of the work you've done so far will only have to be dor.e one time.you might $eed

o

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Mental Mix

to .eplace the envelope e!entually, but not until after,?r4l1\r per{ornatces. l m still on m) originalenvelope. Sounds great doesn't i t? But we're not done vet!Almost, but rot quite.

me Index -

The INDEX!? Oh, did I forger to ntcntion that there's an index? Well. there is. And it ,sincredibl] easy to make. This is exacrly what I use. Tale a 3 X -5 file citrd and fold it in half so thalit is 2 l/2 X 3 inches. Take tlvo largc pape.clips and attach thel]l lo the card on the fold, each aboutl/2 inch io from lhe sides, one oa each side. That's i t ! We'l l put things into this incredibly fancyindex right before the sholv.

The Set Up -

Are you sti l l with me? I hope sol l-hc end is in sight. l t wii l be worth i t , trust me.

On the nexl two pages (p. 32-33) you'll see two exaniples of two different 'Rüles' slips thatI use.lfyou want to use lhese exact sl ips in your performances, l 've supplied masLers to makecopies from at the end of this wdte-up. You'l l need one sl ip'A' andr4rc sl ip B'foreachshow.

Take a copy of slip 'A' and fill in the (hrec blanks on it. First is the date of the show aod theorher hro blanks wili need a number'4' in them. Fold this slip inlo l6ths (fold it in half, then ihalf dre other way, then in half again the other way, and finally in half one more time the otherrl a) ), and place it into the solid side of the *indow double envelope i4'e constucted earljer. Try tosomewhat center the folded slip inside the cnvelope. It will c.eate a slight bulge in the envelope andhelp hold the {lap iüside closed against the open window.l'his allows you to ha[dle the envelopellith complete freedom.

Place seven ' l0O Grand' candy bars into the bottom of the cash box. Place the coin tray inplace and set the 'Rules' envelope on top of the coin tray with the writing facing up. Close the boKand set the 'Correct Key' Iock so it is ready to perform. Consult the instructions that came withyour lock so as to properly set it. Lock the box with the lock. The box is oow 10070 ready to go.

Have the four 'regular' keys for the lock effect in a goblet or other container and have Lheley separatcd from the others somewhere else, perhaps on your täble. Have the key tags on yourtable. From the audience's point of view, you're ready to go, but there is one small but incrediblyimportant piece of work yet to do.

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8.

9 .

SynchronicityEveryone's Favorite Psychic G ame'"o l l i f l " L R u l e d , ' d L l r g i b r { r l , R € g u r r e m ( n l

Datc of Came:

1. Theremust be the same number of{oniestants äs there are keys.

2. There nust be kev tags available for each key used.

3. Contestants must have a free choice of any Ley the_l 1|ish.

4. Contestants mucl have a free choice of any key täg {hey \!ish.

5. Potential I\inJ|in8 conlestanl musl be s€lecled at random fromal l conteslants.

6- The potentiäl r,!iming Conlestant's kev musl bc the e\aci kevthat opens tie lock to t}|. bor.

7. If t]re abov€ key sucressfully opens the lo€k lo the box, thenumber on the key tag musl be #

A1l key iags must contain different numbers.

ls the abovo key successtully opens the lo.k to the bo\ andcontains the number- the potential winning contestantmust meel th€ qualiticalions as lisled inthe fine printi

Fin€ Print s*d, q.r.dL,

Assuning all of tlre above conditions have been met. thecontestant ivill be deemed as a rvinner and qualifies for the Grand?rjze.In fact, if all oI th€ abor,€ rcally has happened, everyonedeserves a prize.

Contratulationsl

SliP 'A

You will need one of these for every performance

CoD'right O MDS Enterprises

SynchronicityEveryane s Favarite Psychlc GameuCtftiaa! Rul6 and EliSibrl,rv Rcqui.ements

l ) a t . o t L c m e _

1. There must be the same number of contesranrs as rhe.e are keys.2. There musl be ke), i.rEs available for each kev used.l . , o n r r , r J n l . m u i h J v c a l l * . h . , i c e o r , r D \ r e ! t h e r r i , h .

4. Contestants muct have a free choice of an1. ke! tag lhev !! ish.5. Pol€ntiäi la,inninS (ontestant must be selecied at random from

6. The potential s'iruring Contestanls key musi be the exacl keythat ope s the lock to lhc box.

7. lf üe abovc key successfully opens the ]ock to t]e bo\, rh€numbcr on ihe kev tag rnust be t

L All key taEs musl coniain differ€'nt numbers.9. Is the abole le) successfuUy opens the iock to tle bo\ and

coniairls lhe number - the potential winning contestantmust meel the qualiJications, $'l"dch wi)l !ary with every tame.

Wihning Conlestsht OualiticationsIf there ls a c€rtitiable winning contestant, it is possible that the],

mäy be needed for inten iews siih members of tne press- Sincene{'spaper pictures and televisjon broadcasts of the potentialn-inning contestant reflect on everyone invoh,ed w.iih the gärn€, thepotential winning co testänt must metel the folloiring appearancecriteria:

Assuming all oflhe above conditions have beenmet, thecontestanl will b€ deemed as a winner and qualifies for the CrandPrize. ln fact, iJ all of the above reallv has happened, ev€ryone

Con$atulations!

(signed)Cop'.right O MDS Enterprises

S I i p ' B 'You will needree of these for every performance

Mefttal Mix

Ihe Presnow set up (the 'B' sheets) -

You have to do a small amount ol preshow work to perform this little miracle. I l's vea]coven and easy lo do. For this you wil l need the f ive sl ip 'B' Rules sheets.

If .you examine the'B' sheets you' l lsee the same bla i places for the t iate of the show andfor the ke)' lag #4. Fi l l in these blanks on al l f ir 'e sl ips. You'l l also see four l ines towards the bouomof the slip. This is where you aJe going to write in the exact physicnl description of five differenlpeople from your audience. Here js \!hat you're looking for in these five very special pcople.

I look for people that are dressed very distinctivcl). I don't want three of m] five people toall be wearing jeans and a t shjrt. I want five different looks, if possible not only diflirenr fromecrh other,büt diffeteDt from eren,or? el.!e in the roon! As distinctive as possible, that's rhat youwant. Plus it's also good to have both men aod women r€presented in your line up. All five of theseindjviduals q ill end up on stage tvith you later, so pick carefully-

You will need to be able to remember which spectator is which. There are several ways todo this. My personal favodte is to use a formula I leamed in elementary school an class forremembering the color spectrum - .oy ge€ biv. lf you're not familiar with these three syllables,ROY stands for Red, Orange, Ycllow. Gee, stands for Green. BIV stands for Blue, Indigo andViolet. Most of the time I only nced ROY.GDE-B for this effect. I look for a distincrive Red,Orange, Yellow, Green aDd Blue outht (or significart pa.t of the outfit) ifl the audience. This rvay Ican remember exaa11-y who I did my preshow rvork on aod make sure they end up on the stage wiahme- These are the live people who I will select later o .

Wlatever technique you use to .emember which spectator is ivhich, collcct thc inlormationand $rite it on your five slips.

Be discreet about lhis collection of data during preshow. You don't \{,ant to appear as thoughyou're lurking or paying undo attention to anyone in particular in the audjence. I will usually carrya small pocket size notepad and just wander through the c.owd looking for likely suspects, makingDotes as I go- I notice where they are seated and make sure I get some small details (iewelry, rvatchcolor and style, accessories, show color, etc.). be as specific in the details as you possibly can whenyou fill in each one of these five slips. Believe me, it will pay huge dividends later in the show.

By the way, ifyou would like more information about this incredibly powerful technique(speaking of preshow work, here), I would recommend my book "Before The Curtain fuses",which the only book in existence dealing entirely witlr the subject of preshow work. It is a veritableencyclopedia of this powerful technique ard is the best source of iDformation yoü will findanywhere. (Shameless plug!)

- 34-

Mental Mix

Once )ou'!e got the l lve sl ips written oul. you l l need to placc them into the simple index) ou made out of the folded 3 X 5 flle card. Fold the five slips just as rou did lvith the other sljp inthe envelope (folded into 16ü's) and sl ip four of then under each side of t l ie papercl ips in a knownorder, whatever order *orks for you- This is $'hy it's so inportant to klow which slip goes withwhich spectalor You ll also notice that the.c is essentially a pockct that ;s fomred in between tlrefolds of the file card. Slide slip #5 into this center pocket. Thc *'hole index gocs into )our pocketand. believe it or not. \ 'ou're f inal ly ready to go!

One more small note before \&e iartnch into the handling here. I cannot stress enough thenecessity of thoroügh pmctice and rehearsai with dris simple index you havejust constructed. lf)ou can come up with a conllguration that rvorks better for you, do it! You must be able to get toany of the five slips easily ald effortlessiy during the show. This is critical.

The Hanclling -

Believe it or else, all of this work ) oü've beeo doing is about to pay off. T[re actual workthat you have to do in the show itsell is child s play.'l-hanks for hanging in there with me. Here wego-

Posilion check here the index is in your pocket with five slips in a klown order Four ofthe keys are in a goblet, lfre l€-}' is on the table along with the five kcy tags. The box is locked withthe 'Correct Key' lock. The box contains seven ' 10O Grand' candy bars uDder tie a:oin tray andyour rvindo* double envelope on top of the coin tray, the solid side of which conrains slip 'A'

folded into 16'h's. Got it? Good. lt's sho\a'Lrme:

Please keep in mind that I'm only going to give cursory stage instructioos hete. You'11 needto work out your own presentation and exact blocking for all lhat follows. Of course feel free toalter an1 of rhis to suit l our ou n nceds.

The box is in full view and has been on display the entire show- The performer brings up thefive people who be did the preshow work on earlier, and whose slips are indexed in his pocket.

(Q. What if one or more of the preshow people left the building, or are in the bathroom,or died of boredom before this part of the show?

A. We'll answer that momentariiy. Suffice to say, at this poiDt you really don't care. lf oneor more of them is missing in actiol1,just pull up someone else from lhe audience.You'l l see how this al l plays out in a bit.)

- 5 J -

You will also need one more person from lhe audience to act as a faciritator, a totar of sixpeople from the audience. Line up the five conrestants to the perfomrers Iefr and the facilitator tothe right. The table should be behind the pe.former.

Have the facilitator try the four keys rhat will oot open the lock ro 'erif). that they fit but donot open it. Then have them try ,fte l"_1,. the lock n ill open. AII of the keys are then mixed in rhegoblet and the lock is closed agaio.

Have the iacilitator take the glass and allow the fivc contestants a free choice of any ke),they wish as weli as any key tag they \rant. we now come to the first important item of the,outine.wthout being obviousr try to note which spectator has the key tag that has rhe number four on it(hereafter known as the f4 key). Remenber the narrow rim? Try to spot it. .ll.lis

is purely to saveyou some time atd thinking in a lew ooments. Try to mal(e note of \\'ho has it_ If by chancc youmiss and don't see the marked tag. no problem. you,ll have orher opportunities. Suilice to sav. I'romthis point forv\ard, do your best to find that marked key tag and note who has it.

Have each of the contestants Äfiach their key tag to their selected key. This is easy due to thejewelry clip. Now have your facilitator eliminate the contestaDts one by one until a sirglecontestarr remains. Ilach corteslant stays on stage even alter they are eliminated. I usually makesome coürment about them being potential runner up,s for Miss Congeniality. As this happens youcollect the keys. In this stage of the routine one of two things lvill happen. Either the rcmainingspectator will havc the #4 key, or you will have that key in your hand from collecting them.

If the final remaining correstant has the #4 key, you don't need ro do an).rhing. If howeveryou have the #4 key in your hand, you'll need to do a switch in a lerv momenls. .I'here,s

no heat onthis slvitch and it's done at a good time in the haodling, so don't be concemed. Here's the way itplays out.

First of all, you'll need to get control of the #4 key. I casually toss the keys from hand rohand apparently paying no real attention to them. At some point I get the #4 key ilrto a palm in myleft hand. Thumb palnr, finger palm, whatever is easiest for you. yoü'll have to experiment a bit.Do this while the final contestant is trying *leir key in the lock. of course tie loch opens! At thatexact moment, table the remaining keys in your hand and retaiD the #4 key. Take the .winnjng,key

from the final spectator and do a simple shuttle pass, apparently placing it into the left hand, reallyretainitrg it in tle right hand. B.ing the #4 key itrto view at the same time as you conceal theswitched oul key. ReDember there is no heat at this point, so don't make a big deal out of this.Simply switch tle key. After the shuttle pass, immediately grab all of the keys from the tableadding the switched out key. Hold the #4 key high ard keep it in view while loosely holding tbe

Mental Mix

- 3 6 -

Mefttal Mix

other ke-"-s. ll ) ou walt you can aclüali! hand the #.1 key back to the final contesrant if you wish,and I do more ofter than nol-

No matter what. the final conlestant rnusa eod up $,ith the #4 key for the first revelation to$ ork out. By far the best tinle !o slr,itch that key is right after it is used, bur if you have anothert imc and melhod for making the swjtch (please don't intoducc some swilching device at rhis poinr.there's no need). by all nlearls go fo. it. l'he above is basically ho$ I handle it.

This stvitch is someq'hat impro\ ' ;sational iD nalure. Since you never kno\r,who might l tavethe #4 key or if they tvill bc eliminated or not, youjust have to llow with it. Practice and rehea.seelery scenario you can ilnagine. because they rvili all happen eventually. You've got to be ready for!rhatever happens.

Ok, so hcre s the deal. The final contestant has opeoed the lock with Lheir freely selectedkey and either by pure luck or by a sllr:rll bit of sleight of band, the key they now hoid is rhe #4 key.Are we all on tbe same page?

The box is opened and the'Off icial Rules'envelope sitting right on top. Your work is nearlydone. While the box is beiDg opened, you have onemore small picce of work to do. Since you nowknow who the winniDg contestant is, )ou need toobtain their malching slip from your pocket index.Simply palrn it out into your right hand. Pick up theeDvelope ard display it openly, commenting on theprinting on it- Now ali you need to do is place theenvelope directly over the palmed slip with thewindow side facing down. This action is much thesame as lhe shuttle pass you probably had to doearlier with the key.

Assume the palmed slip is in your right hand and the envelope is being displayed with yourleft hand. This is purely a timing thing, but tlere is a tiny bit of heat at this poirt. Simply place theenvelope io your right hand, turning the ight hand palm up at the last possible moment before tleelvelope is placed- This conceals the palmcd slip. I usually do this as I'm recapping what hashappened so far. I want the events of the routine fresh in the audiences mind because it's all goingto be predicted shortly.

So the palmed slip is now undemeaih the envelope. Open the envelope with your leftfingers and simply feed the palmed slip through the window ald pull it straight out of the envelope

- 3 7 -

Mental Mix

as if i! wefe there the whole time. The envelope is now pocketed and iorgotten about as all attentionis on lhat sl ip.

The trick is no\\. effectively over. Sirnply read the slip right dowr and point our al1 of thepcninent infonnation, confirming it for the audience. I generaliy rcad the slip myself allowing thefinal contestant to read it with me over my shoulder Believc me. when you get to the part of iheslip rvhere rhe person standing right next to you is t'eing described in minute detaii. this brings lhehouse dorvnl

Finally remove the coin tray tiom the cash box to reveai the '100 Grand' candy bars. Passone out to each of your heipers and keep the final one yourself, while you acknouledge your welldesened round of applause. Finis!

There are a few more things we should discuss before I leave this topic behind aDd they areall pretty much directlv connected. You're probably rhioking, "what if one or more of my preshowpeople gets up and leaves before I get to the routine?"

This is a very valid question and one rbat normally demands critical attention for the vastma.jority of preshow applications, however in this case yoü're more than amply covered.Rernember thal one extra slip that is in tie solid compartment of the window double envelopewhich we never even touched in the above description? Go back and look at slip 'A' (page 32)again.

You'll notice that there is no blank space for the description of the final contestant. There isonly tbe prediction of the key tag number and a mighty fine gag. After readiflg down all of the nineitems on the list, I then mention, "and there's some fine pdnt down here, something about bikers. lsthat right?" and I show it to the final contestatrt. They will invariably smile and agree. ln case youreyes dor't read fine prjnt, it says, "Something about bikers. Something about bikers", o\.er and

It's entirely possible that one ot mo.e of your preshow people might leave or be in thebathroom when this segmeot of the show cones up. No problem- Bring up all of your otherpreshow people just as described, plus anotber X person to fil] the empty space. If one of yourpreshow people ends up bejng the final cortestant, great! Just pull up their slip from the index andfi sh as above.

lf the X person ends up being the final contestant simply bypass the index entirely aadreveal the extra slip already in the envelope! You're still covered, Gmnted, it's not as strong of a

- 3 8 -

Mental Mix

f ioish. but i t st i l l ! \ .orks very lr icely. Nobod) but \ou wii i ever knoq what happeted, or didn'thappen as the case Inay be.

Likewise, this extia slip mea0s you can perl_orm this predictior chest routine uoder a ]circumstances, even when ihere is no opportunitv to do the preshow workl Just bring up aandonpeople (thro$ a brick into lhe audie8ce and select people at randon,jusl bc sure i t 's a foam brick)and do thc entire roLrt ine using the sl ip alrcadl in the envelope as (he f inale. Sti l l u'orks l ike acnarm:

This one feature allows tremcndous flexibilit) and frecdon in performing this routine.IVIanv dmes I have or ] had a chaoce to preshou one or two people frcn\ the audience. Noproblem! I go ahead and have the propcr sl ips ready to go in my index. l f one of them h;ts' thenI m good to go. II nol. then I use the alternate ending. No ftatter what happens youlve got a great( r rd ins to a i un and h igh l l commerc ia l rou t i n t .

I ivant to congratulate you for bearing with nre through all of this. l've tried to be asthorough as I possibly could so you would completely understand the in's and out's mof thisroutinc. When you get right down to il, this is extremely easy and fun to do. lt's just got a lol ofpans !o put together.

Remcmber. before even show you'll need to replace all of the slips, get new candy bars.detach thc key tags from the keys, reset the lock aod so on. The really nice part of all this is thatyou can prelty much set this effect and forget it. lf you have it compielely set and don't use it forthree months there's no problem. All you need to do is the small amount of preshow work when

)ou get to the venue and you're ready to go. Simple! This is a worker

I have a couple more pieces of advice to give. Ifyou're going to do this routine a lot, I$ould recommend putting together two or three complete sets of the paops and always have themready to go. The reason is that way you can mail a locked box ahead to one of your shows and stillhave another set up rcady for shows in between before you get that box back. I have three boxesconstantly ready to go ard can pick up any one of them and walk out tle door to the show without acare in the world. Plus I can have another box mailed ahead to another show. This is a sreat wav to\fork.

You're also going to want to have a bunch of the slips printed up. Take the masters priütedon the next couple of pages and get a ton of copies of each made. Cut each sheet in half to maketu,o slips per page. Remember, you'll usc one copy of slip'A'per performance and five copies ofslip 'B'. so plan appropriateiy. You can then have them tound together in gumaed pads. This is avery corvenienl way to carr)' them around. Your local quick print shop can do this entire operationfor you very inexpensively.

- 3 9 -

Once again, congratulations on 1'our persisteoce in making it al l the wa]. through thislengtiy discourse. Chances are that ve^ lclr who read this rvill acrüally go to the relatively sm.l1effort it takes to make this up. \r'hich means if r,.Il do it, you'11 have ar exclusive oI youl hards thalno one else wil l be doing. Enjoyl

Coptright .9200-) btMdrkD. Stririrys. All rights rcsened. Cat njcrcial ?rcduction uruldis tri bLn i o n ri Bht s stri ct l\ re s et'\'ed -

Mental Mk

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Mental Mix

Final MixWell we've reached the end ol lhjs l i t t le compilal ion ol nental isnr. I sircerely hope you

have found somelhing that you can use. I use all of tlris stuff and it works likes a charrn. Some of itivill require some basic gathering of materials and putring a few things together, but there,s reallynothing terribly jnvolv€d here. Certainly nothing that should keep you from putt ing this malerialjnto your o\\ n performances.

There hale also been some open,ended idea stafters for thos€ of you who like to go on andblaze your own trail. If you find a variation on some of this material that works for you, please dome the small favor of letting me kno!l,what you've discove.ed. I love to see what other performersdo 1() put their own special twist on my material. Ir 's l ike secing my children go oif ou their ownand stan a whole new l j le. So please keep me postcd on anlthing lhat you might come up wjth.

Thank you again for laking the time ro consider m) little creations aod variations. I hope wecan lrleet sometime aDd talk shop. Until that dey comes, here's good thoughts to you!

- + J -

Want more?For conrplete inlbrmation on thc entire range of publicarions,

video and audiotapes, effccts and accessories for the professionalpsychic entertainer available through Mark Strivings, please contact:

Mark Strivinss8631 N. Lowell Blvd.

Westminster. CO 80031303-650-6992 phone & faxemail MarkyApril @aol.com

Mark is also the orvner of the largest source for exclusir,e all-mentalism products of all rypes in the rvorld , operating under thename 'Mental Connections' . Feel free to contact Mark to be placedon his email and regular mail list (at no cost or obligation) as rvell asto request a free catalog.

Thank you !