Magic?

[Mark]

At a magic stage show, the performer selects a member of the audience, blindfolds them and leads them to a table. On it there is a genuine copy of War and Peace. The magician tells the volunteer to select a page near the middle and open it to that page. The volunteer is then handed a red pen and from the other side of the stage the magician tells them to, on the page nearest their left hand, draw a cross from corner to corner. The magician cannot see this being done. Then they are told to close the book and take the blindfold off. The magician goes and gets the pen and writes a prediction on a flip chart, on the stage but at an angle so no-one could see. The volunteer is told to flick through and find their cross and state what word it intersects at the cross eg bravery. The flip chart is flipped and it has on it the same word. How is this done?

[One Skunk Todd]

Well since the volunteer is blindfolded he can't see what page he opens the book to or the mark he makes. The pen could be rigged to leave no mark at all and the book could be pre-marked at a specific point. I would imagine you run the risk of the audience noticing the mark if the volunteer was careless with the book.

[the.cynic]

If the volunteer was paying attention they would notice that the new page they stopped at was nearer the front of the book than the one they had originally selected. And if they were really smart they would have checked the page number of the selected page, which is a higher number than the second viewing.

Of course they wouldn't have a microphone and would be wisked off stage before they could say anything.

[Chuck]

Perhaps the ink from the audience member's pen is the disappearing variety.

[The Sapient]

Cynic, remember that the audience member can't see through the whole procedure, so he can't take note of the page number.

[the.cynic]

Ok right, they can't see. Anyway, a page before the middle has already been marked.

[Mr. President]

It's a little known fact that War and Peace is nothing more than the repetition of the word 'privy'. But is looks so thick, people just assume that it must be a clasic. So therefore you can predict that the work will be privy, and be right every time unless they cross the cover, in which case you pick 'war', 'and', or 'peace', and have a one in three shot of being right.

My favorite quote from war and peace:

"privy privy privy privy privy privy privy privy privy privy privy"

It's the only place where a word is in bold. It's on page 385

[mathgrant]

You liar, Mr. President! Actually, it's a repetition of Pikachu throughout the whole book. My favorite quote is:

[Mark]

One Skunk Todd got it fairly spot on so how about this one:

The audience watch as the magician puts a yellow mug on a table and pours into it around 1/8 pint of water. He then turns it over and all that comes out is a block of ice. It is shaken whilst it is inverted and the inside is briefly shown and it appears to hide nothing.

[Chuck]

The mug is made of frozen nitrogen?

I guess not, but it could be very cold.

[groza528]

I've seen how this one's done so I won't say anything.
However, I have a question about the first. Considering the volunteer could choose any page, what would the magician do with a clever volunteer who figured it out and quite blatantly opened to, say, the last page in the book?
[edit]never mind, it says 'near the middle'[/edit]

[This message has been edited by groza528 (edited 03-30-2002 09:53 AM).]

[Suspence]

I agree. What magician would say "pick a page near the middle"? What kind of magician is that? His "magic" only works on the middle of books? I would boo this magician off the stage!!!

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 03-30-2002 10:03 AM).]

[Chuck]

Since the magician isn't watching the audience member draw the X, the audience member could fake it. Then the audience member confesses after the trick.

Or the audience member rips off the blindfold and searches the book for the existing X, and then shows it to the audience.

[robichelli]

I've got it! It's uh.....um.........yeah.........um..........what was the question?

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Totally unreleated quote from You Only Live Twice:
"Goodbye Mr. Bond!"

[Suspence]

For even better effect, Chuck, the audience memeber could just write "This magician is a hoax" on the page he opens to.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[Mark]

But the pen doesn't write so nobody would see it!

[robichelli]

No wait! If the pen doesn't write, the person just writes a cross and nothing marks the page. Because the contestant is "marking" it in the middle of the book, he/she really wouldn't know what page they were on. So when he goes back to find the mark he made he finds a mark that the magician has made prior to the performance intersecting a word he already knows.

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"Goodbye Mr. Bond"

[This message has been edited by robichelli (edited 03-30-2002 10:53 AM).]

[Chuck]

Can the magician be sure that no one else in the audience will see the blindfolded audience member making an X? I think it would ruin the trick if no one could see anything.

[Suspence]

The trick was already ruined when he said to make the mark in the middle of the book. Have you ever heard a magician say "Pick a card, any card, as long as it's in the middle of the deck?"...

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[Mark]

No but often they will offer them with their hands covering the two sides of the deck forcing the picker to go for a card nearer to the middle.

Also I dont think that the audience would be surprised to learn that he was a hoax concidering that there is no such thing as magic- just a thought.

[This message has been edited by Mark (edited 03-30-2002 12:43 PM).]

[Suspence]

Exactly my point, it is the magician's job to get the person to do the trick according to how he needs them to do it without giving them specific instructions. Holding your hand over the top and bottom card is a lot less obvious then "hey, pick a card in the middle". Just like with a sleight of hand trick, the magician's job is to distract the onlooker's attetion away from what he is actually doing momentarily . No magician says "Can you look away for a second?"
Hey, as long as the audience knows there's not really magic and that it is all a hoax, why don't I become a magician. I've got a great trick planned. I will make a rock dissapear. I will have a big pile of rocks on the stage, and I will ask an audience member to pick me one of the rocks, but not one that's too big or too small. Then I will take the rock and ask the audience to close their eyes for 2 seconds. Then I will throw the rock offstage and tell everyone to look again. What a magician!!!


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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 03-30-2002 12:53 PM).]

[Mark]

They know that it's a hoax but they don't always know how it is done. Making something look impossible will baffle people because they often don't know the mundane explanation behind it. Throwing a rock away would not cause the same bafflement- they would hear it land etc. Spectators don't think that it's magic but they don't know how it's done so they are intrigued.

[Suspence]

You are again making my point. Quote "They know that it's a hoax but they don't always know how it is done. Making something look impossible will baffle people because they often don't know the mundane explanation behind it"

Of course. What I'm saying is that by telling the audience member to pick a page in the middle of the book, the magician has made this trick less baffling. Notice it was solved correctly on the very first post. While this "magic" trick might amuse kindergartner's, a normal thinking adult human would say "This magician is crappy. I know how he did that." That is generally not the response a magician is aiming for.

That's why everyone (except magicians) loves that masked magician guy. Cuz he tells you how they do all the tricks that you can't figure out. If all magicians did tricks like the one in this thread, the masked magician would be unemployed.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[Mark]

If this is correct then you will obviously know the answer to the second trick that you have so far not mentioned.

[Chuck]

How about the water goes through a hole in the ice and into a compartment in the bottom of the glass? A valve closes when then mug is turned over so the water can't get back out.

[Lepton]

I know of chemicals that produce quantities of heat when mixed with water. Perhaps there are some that engage in an endothemic reation when hydrated?

[ralphmerridew]

Instead of a valve, how about a sponge?

[groza528]

ding!

[Suspence]

I never said the second trick was stupid.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[mathgrant]

This bar trick comes out of a book by Martin Gardner:

A man takes a $10 bill from an audience member and asks them to write down the bill's serial number. He puts the bill in an envelope, seals it, and puts the envelope in a burning ashtray. The aucience watches the envelope burn to a crisp. 30 minutes later, the magician tells a bartender to look in the cash register of another bartender to find the bill. They find it, see the matching serial number, and are amazed.

HOW WAS IT DONE?

[groza528]

Easy, he never really put it in the envelope, and he payed for his drink with it. Nobody noticed, because they were all drunk.

[Chuck]

Did the envelope have an inner, fireproof lining that crumpled when heated but kept the bill from burning? Then the bill could be slipped out later.

[ralphmerridew]

What is the exact sequence of events when they write down the number? I could see it working like this:

1) Magician memorizes serial number on his own $10 bill.
2) Buys drink with that bill.
3) He pretends to read the serial number off the borrowed bill, but instead recites the number he memorized.

[Ghost Post]

No book on bar bets or magic would give you a trick where you actually burnt the $10 note - the whole point of bar bets is to win the money.
Anyway, by the time they got back from the police station because they were arrested for burning money by the undercover cop, nobody would've remembered the serial number or which barman or which ashtray.

[robichelli]

There also has to be a reason he waits 30 minutes to ask the bartender to look in the cash register, or else it wouldn't be in the trick.

[ctrlaltdel]

...during the 30 mins the magician concentrates really hard. through his immense mental powers he manages to materialize a $ 10 bill in the bartenders shirt pocket. the trick is how to make it seem to be pulled out of the cash register...

[robichelli]

Or not.

[mathgrant]

groza got it. Good job. Here's a trick I made up based on one in a book.

Three red cards are face up on a table: an ace, 2, and 3 of diamonds. The rest of the pack lies face down. The magician turns the 3 cards face down and puts the top card (the ace) in the middle of the pack. He shuffles the pack a few times and slaps his hand on top of the deck. After uttering the spell, our illusionist take the top card of the 50 deck and puts it on top of the deck of 2. He turns the three cards over: The ace of diamonds, the 2 of diamonds, and 3 of diamonds are revealed! The ace came back! How?

[Ghost Post]

It is relatively easy, even for a non-Magician to shuffle a card from the top to the bottom of a deck, even several times. You just need another ace of diamonds prepared in the deck.

[Mark]

Another ace is in his hand when he 'slaps' it, which is then put on top.