Believe By Aaron DeLong INSPIRATION: First of all, let me say that the inspiration for this routine comes directly from Paul Harris’ effect called the Anything Deck. The Anything Deck is the original version of what is now known as Deep Astonishment. I prefer the former to the latter, but that is just my opinion. I believe the latter to have been created for a more commercial appeal. Paul’s effect is wonderful and if you haven’t given it a try, you most certainly should. It can be found in his “Art of Astonishment” books and in the Little Egypt Gazette, a free publication that is available online. Just google it. Enough about the inspiration. BELIEVE is any word, no matter the length of it, using any : deck that will appear on a card inside of a sealed envelope that matches the card they freely selected. No more gaffed decks, memorized indexes or special wallets or switches. All the misdirection needed, all the work, all the bits and parts move together to make one heck of an effect that will leave your spectators speechless (or as Paul Harris put it - “in a state of deep astonishment.”) Oh, and there isn’t any palming! NONE! THE EFFECT: 4A word is freely chosen by a spectator as a focal point through a series of feats of mind reading. A card is freely selected and returned to the pack. This is not a force at all. Any card can truly be chosen. The magi uses cold reading techniques to decipher the card selected and writes it down on a pad of paper. He folds the paper making the ultimate commitment to what he believes to be the card. The spectator reveals the name of the card and the magi has them open the paper to reveal he was correct. But then a sealed envelope is removed from the magi’s pocket. It is signed and dated from the day prior. It is torn open and revealed that a card is inside. It matches the spectator’s selection. But wait. As an afterthought, the magi says that he was compelled to write a word on the back of the card before he sealed it up. He turns the card over and reveals that it matches the word merely thought of by the spectator. It could have been any word at all. Successful, the magi politely returns all monies offered him and he carefully raises all those on the floor to their feet as he bows graciously and walks away. Sound impossible? It’s not anymore. Without any palming or difficult sleight of hand to focus on, this is a true performance piece that you will really enjoy performing as much as your audience will enjoy experiencing it. THANKS: Just a word of thanks to my dear friend Justin Miller. I showed this to Justin when I had it bare bones. He gave me the idea for revealing the final card in a sealed envelope and his work on the loading technique for the sealed envelope. Using a jumbo paper clip just made everything flow so much easier. Thanks again Justin! Thanks also to Larry Koebel, Jr. of the Be Amazing Magic Shop and my mother, Mara DeLong for editing and proofing this manual. Your input was invaluable as all of my readers will soon find out.THE GAFF: The Anything Pad is the gaff that is provided. It / has a portion cut out of the back and the last few pages that allows the magi to write on the selected card when it is opened to the gaffed section. The gaffed section is near the back of the pad. Four or five sheets have been glued together to provide a seemingly short stack of paper to write on. On the back of the pad, double stick tape has been added at five points; across the top and around all four sides of the cut out section. This is so the pad can secretly retrieve the selected card from the top of the deck. Tape is not applied to the bottom of the pad. This is so the card can easily be pulled free from it while in the pocket. See the routine section for a complete explanation of this point. MAKING YOUR OWN: Obviously, because this is a pad of paper, you are eventually going to run out. You might like this effect enough to keep on performing it after it has run out of paper. Just make your own. Get a few supplies: double stick tape, an X-acto knife and a steno pad (4”x6”). Tear off the cardboard back of the original pad and use it as a guide. Trace the cut out and place the tape in the same positions as the original pad. I would cut the pad and paper sheets before applying the tape. Then write “I KNEW THAT” on the first sheet and “I KNEW THAT TOO” on the second sheet. You need to fold the last sheet before the gaffed section in half towards the top. This is what you use for the cold reading prediction. You need to do this every time you are going to perform this effect. You are now set to perform. BONUS: The Jumbo Paperclip is provided as an extra because it makes the routine easier to perform. It is used as a guide to slide the card into the envelope. This way, the envelope doesn’t have to be inside the pocket. It eliminated fumbling inside the jacket pocket and also eliminated the need for a guide. The paperclip holds the envelope and guides the card right in. It is clipped to the left inner pocket with the shorter end on the inside of the pocket. Then the envelope gets loaded onto the clip. The longer end of the paperclip gets slid into the slit/opening of the sealed envelope acting as a guide. Now you are ready to go. The envelope requires some preparation, but that will be covered in the routine section of this manual. All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.THE ROUTINE: You offer your services to the spectator to” show a bit of mind reading. You explain that typically, there are several different types of mind readers. The simplest of which uses predetermined answers that cover a myriad of things. The second of which is a trained person who uses cold reading techniques, much like those that “psychics” use today. They gather bits and pieces of information from you by prodding you along with made up guesses or “guidance from the world beyond.” These types are very crafty. Instead of explaining the types of mind reading, you offer to show examples. First, you ask someone to select a card. Give them the deck and ‘ allow them to look at the faces. You may even tell them to find their favorite card in the deck. Simultaneously, while they are selecting the card, you turn to the person on your left and ask them to choose a word that means something to them only; like a friend, a favorite vacation spot or a pet. Once they have told you the word, turn your attention back to the person selecting a card. Having both selections done at the same time cuts down on actual performance time and makes the word feel like an afterthought. IDEA - Justin Miller suggested that the word not be spoken aloud, but that it is written down out of view of the magi. My original routine had the spectator name the word aloud so everyone at the table could hear it and then it would be used as the focal point. I would then make them use the word as a means to keeping a poker face during the cold reading. But writing it down makes it more powerful. 3 The use of a center tear or other type of peek method would keep the word hidden until the end of the routine. This causes the word to truly feel “thought of”. Then the word written down in secret matches the word on the back of the card from the sealed envelope. Try both out. See which one you like. I am doing it the way Justin does it. OK, let’s jump back into the routine. Now that the word has been obtained and the card has been selected, you take back the deck and have the spectator, who shall heretofore be known as Sally, to remember the card and return it to the deck. Sally does so and you secretly control it to the top of the deck. Use your favorite method, but I use the spread pass (LePaul’s version). Holding the deck in your left hand, reach into your left jacket pocket with your right hand to retrieve the pad of notebook paper so you can demonstrate the different kinds of mind readers. You also need your Sharpie, so the pad gets placed on top of the deck in the left hand so as to free up the right hand to reach back into the left inner pocket to get it. The pad is placed on top of the deck to cause the top card, which is their card, to stick to the back of the pad. Don’t worry if it isn’t aligned properly, you can adjust it once you open the pad to the gaffed section. Once the pen is retrieved, the pad can then be tabled casually as you place the cards back into the card box. Remove them from sight, as this will eliminate the spectator from grabbing at the box later to see if her card is still in the deck. Now you tell them about the cheesy mind reader. They use a All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.general statement that covers all kinds of things. As you state : this, you are turning the pad upright toward the spectators showing them the front of the pad. Two things happen here. You are ready to show them the “predictions” written on the first few pages of the pad and you are secretly now able to glimpse the chosen card. You will need to know this information later. See the picture to the right for what your view should be to glimpse the card. For now, we will assume the card is the QH. So you turn the pad upright and ask them a very simple question. I like to ask about their childhood. At any rate, whatever they answer, you are going to flip open the cover of the pad revealing the first “I KNEW THAT.” This gets a laugh and then you ask something general, like what is their favorite alcoholic beverage. Whatever they say, you then flip the second page over to reveal “I KNEW THAT TOO.” Believe it or not, this still gets a laugh. You then suggest.that we move along to the good stuff and begin to tell them a little about cold reading. How it works by feeding information to the participant and the magi reads into their responses to learn the information needed. You ask them to keep a poker face while you begin the reading. At this point, you are remembering their chosen card that was glimpsed only moments ago and are flipping the Anything Pad to the gaffed section with the pad turned towards yourself. Remember, the cover is now covering the selected card on the back of the pad and they won’t see it. Your reading should go something like this. “It was a red card. I mean the back is red. It’s black.” Continue in this vein, arriving at a completely incorrect card by the end of the reading. By the way, the entire time that you are doing this exercise of 4 guessing wrong, you are writing “Queen of Hearts” on the pre- folded paper in the gaffed section of the pad a little bit at a time like you’re taking notes. Also, because the back of the selected card is now exposed, write the secret word that you collected earlier on its back. We will assume the word was MAGIC. Queen Hearts: All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.Also, just a side note on the position of the card on the back of / the pad. If it isn’t on just right, it can be adjusted quite simply with the left hand thumb. The card is pinched between the front cover and back cover, so it is just a matter of. applying pressure to the card to move it around. Once the card is in perfect position, squeezing the pad will cause it to stick again. You may now proceed writing the word in the center of the card. OK, let’s recap. You are in the middle of the cold reading and have just named the incorrect card. Tear off the pre-folded sheet and refold it over and then again in quarters and hand it to the spectator on the right. They will at this point emphatically tell you that you’re incorrect. You then ask what the name of the card was that they selected. They tell you and 5 you show them the first page of the pad again that. says “I KNEW THAT” and you point to the piece of paper on the table telling them that is what you wrote. This action is two fold. It gets the pad closed so you can put it away and it gives you another gag. You have just created a major moment of misdirection here. While you are being told that you were wrong, flip the pad closed being careful not to reveal the card on the back of the pad. Since you have shown them the first sheet for the gag, just close the cover now. This leaves the card facing you. Once its closed, replace it in your left inner jacket pocket. However, place it in upside down. That is, you put the end with the binding in first with the gaffed side facing your body. NOTE: It will be facing your body when the jacket is closed. See the picture below for exactly how it should go into the pocket. All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.Now a word about the Anything Pad. The sticky substance, be it double stick tape or glue is not placed on the bottom section of the pad. This is so the card can freely be pulled from the pad at the lower most section. Although, as you have loaded the pad in upside down, the lowermost is now the uppermost. Have I confused you yet? Do a self-check at this point to make sure you have been following along correctly. You should be able to pull the card off of the pad and out of the pocket with ease. OK, self check done. Back on track, we have a trick to do here and an eager audience waiting. You have just created that moment of misdirection that is just amazing. The audience is now unfolding the piece of paper to see if you actually did get 6 the prediction correct. All eyes will be there. While they are distracted by your amazing timing and misdirection, you the magi reach into your left pocket with your right hand removing the card from the pad and sliding it into the envelope using the paperclip as a guide. (For setup on this, see the gaff description at the beginning of this manual.) This can be done separately or at the same time you put the pad away. You choose. OK, you are almost ready for your final climax. As they are singing your praises and asking how you did that, you look Sally right in the eyes and say, “There is a third type of mind reading. It’s not really mind reading per se; it’s more of clairvoyance. You see, last night I took a card and sealed it in All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.an envelope.” Making your actions match your words, you now / remove the envelope, carefully sliding it off the paperclip in your jacket. Sally is none the wiser that it is clipped in your jacket. She thinks it came from your pocket. You continue, “I signed and dated the envelope so that if this happened, you would know I did this and when I did it.” You allow them to see the envelope sealed on the back and they can see the front where you signed and dated the envelope. NOTE: The work on the envelope should have been discussed prior to this. Oh how embarrassing for you if you are in the middle of performing this and have no idea what I mean. Sorry for that old chap. The envelope is prepared with a tiny slit across the front side of the envelope. (Opposite the side it seals.) The slit should be about a % of an inch wider than a playing card and is placed about % of an inch from either end of the envelope. If you look at the picture on page 6, you can see where I have placed my slit. I have drawn a thick black line over the slit to make sure it is completely covered. The justification for doing this is to have a signature line as shown in the previous picture. I then sign and date it for the day or week prior to the actual date of performance. I prepare about 10 or 15 of these prior to any strolling performance writing the date of choice and signing each one. * Cough * Cough * Now where were we? Oh yes, you are about to reveal that you are Supermagi. You then tear the envelope just below where the signature and date are, completely removing it from the envelope. This torn piece is placed in the right hand jacket pocket as you lean forward to dump out the card. You tear this much off so that the dirty 7 work, AKA the slit, is removed and no one will ever be the wiser. Most of the time, you will find the envelope tears right along the slit and this is fine too. You now dump out the card from the envelope, but do this with the signature side of the envelope face up. Do you remember loading the card in? See the picture from page 6. The card was loaded face up into the signature side of the envelope. OK, that was harder to write than I thought, but if you had just looked at the picture, we wouldn’t have had this awkward moment of grammar. So dump the card out with the signature side of the envelope facing up. You do this to save the final climax of the written word on the back of the card for last. Doing it early just ruins the fun. All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.You tell them that the card you sealed in the envelope matched their free selection from the deck. This goes over great and it makes you a hero. Then you patter, “I know what you’re thinking. Mr. Magic, you have 52 different envelopes in your pocket and you just pull out the one that matches my selection. How do I know you meant that card just for me?” You then tell them, “To make sure this one was meant just for you, before I sealed the envelope, I removed the card and was compelled to write a word on the back of the card. Does MAGIC mean anything to you??” Now show them the word on the back of the card. You have to think about what you have just done. If you chose to have this word written down instead of spoken aloud at the table, you have just turned their entire world upside down. “How did you...? I mean... I didn’t even... Uh... I only wrote that down.” Yeah, that feels good, doesn’t it? Offer them a napkin as they are now drooling on themselves from being utterly dumbfounded. I must say that if you opted to have them speak the word aloud, it doesn’t cheapen it as much as you would think. They still cannot restructure the moment you obtained the word and wrote it on the back of the card. They would have to know how the Anything Pad works. Since they don’t, you can assume your secret is safe and they will still be impressed. So that’s it. BELIEVE. Have fun and add what you would like to it. I love feedback on any effect ] am performing. So if you have a great idea, please pass it along. 8 BONUS ROUTINE: The Anything Pad is a utility item. Believe is just one of the routines possible with such a powerful tool. It is only limited by your imagination. Other ideas include a routine where I obtain their SIGNED card in the same fashion using the Anything Pad. I write down a prediction for what I think their card is and at the same time I _write the word CASH CARD on the back of their selection. Then, once I put the pad in my pocket, I load it into my Balducci-Kaps-Mullica wallet. I say my prediction will be correct, or I will give them my cash card. They look at my prediction. It is incorrect. So I pull out my wallet and reveal inside the zippered compartment is my CASH CARD. I turn it over and it is their signed selected card. This is a fun routine and it is a little quicker than BELIEVE. It is perfect for walk around. Have fun with this item and go out and make some magic!! All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.ABOUT THE CREATOR: Aaron DeLong lives in Columbus, OH with his beautiful wife Shanda and his three children, twin boys Tyler and Trent and his daughter Kesiah. WARNING: SHAMELESS PROMOTION! One of the greatest magic camps available, Sorcerers Safari is where Aaron spends one week every year teaching kids how to perform the art of magic. More info can be found about Sorcerers Safari at www.sorcererssafari.ca. A Tru Magic Production 9 All rights reserved. Duplication of this manual in part or in whole is strictly prohibited. All violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Copyright 2006 Tru Magic.