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Jrock · 02-09-2005, 11:58 AM

It's hard to choose where this question should go. Knowledge and How-To seem equally good, or even paranoia if you believe this sort of thing is done with supernatural powers... If the mods think it would get a better response elsewhere, feel free to move it.

Tonight my school is having an illusionist perform. In the cafeteria at lunch time he did a few tricks to build interest. I've always been interested in magic, and figuring out how it's really done. As a kid, I had a store bought magic kit that I enjoyed playing with. One trick he did, bending a cafeteria spoon, I know how to do without resorting to the super natural. However, the other one had me completely stumped.

He first pulled a person from the audience. I wanted to volunteer, but had a plate of food in my hand when he was asking for someone. Had my hands been free, I would have been the first to volunteer. The person he did choose was a member of the student govornment, who hired him to perform, which increses the likelyhood that this person was a plant and who whole thing was a setup, in which case I would be very disapointed. However, his full show is supposed to have quite a bit of audience participation, so I don't think the volunteer was a plant.

Anyway, for his trick, he first had the volunteer check his equipment to make sure it wasn't trick gear. Then he taped a half doller over each eye with duct tape (or did he? he did it pretty quick), then wrapped a blindfold over his eyes and had the volunteer secure it. He then had the volunteer write a word on the top half of a white board and show it to the audience, instructing the audience not to say the word, so he didn't overhear. The word was MAGIC. He then quickly moved his hand over the front of the board, without touching the letters. "Your word has five letters, all capitalised... except the I, you didn't cross the I. And your G's kind of funny..." Then he wrote the word on the bottom half of the white board. MAGIC.

Anyone know how a trick like this could be done? I can think of a few ways something like this could be done. First would be the volunteer was a plant, but this is unlikely if his real show has as much audience participation as claimed. Maybey he really could see. He did cover his eyes with the coins pretty quick, so it may have been slight of hand, but I wasn't in a good position to see for sure. The tape covering them did look solid, though, and so did the blindfold. Or it could have been a trick board that somehow revealed the word by touch, but I have no idea physicly how something like that would work.

So does anybody know how this could be done, or have any links I could check out for more information?

02-09-2005, 11:58 AM	#1 (permalink)
Jrock Upright	Illusionist It's hard to choose where this question should go. Knowledge and How-To seem equally good, or even paranoia if you believe this sort of thing is done with supernatural powers... If the mods think it would get a better response elsewhere, feel free to move it. Tonight my school is having an illusionist perform. In the cafeteria at lunch time he did a few tricks to build interest. I've always been interested in magic, and figuring out how it's really done. As a kid, I had a store bought magic kit that I enjoyed playing with. One trick he did, bending a cafeteria spoon, I know how to do without resorting to the super natural. However, the other one had me completely stumped. He first pulled a person from the audience. I wanted to volunteer, but had a plate of food in my hand when he was asking for someone. Had my hands been free, I would have been the first to volunteer. The person he did choose was a member of the student govornment, who hired him to perform, which increses the likelyhood that this person was a plant and who whole thing was a setup, in which case I would be very disapointed. However, his full show is supposed to have quite a bit of audience participation, so I don't think the volunteer was a plant. Anyway, for his trick, he first had the volunteer check his equipment to make sure it wasn't trick gear. Then he taped a half doller over each eye with duct tape (or did he? he did it pretty quick), then wrapped a blindfold over his eyes and had the volunteer secure it. He then had the volunteer write a word on the top half of a white board and show it to the audience, instructing the audience not to say the word, so he didn't overhear. The word was MAGIC. He then quickly moved his hand over the front of the board, without touching the letters. "Your word has five letters, all capitalised... except the I, you didn't cross the I. And your G's kind of funny..." Then he wrote the word on the bottom half of the white board. MAGIC. Anyone know how a trick like this could be done? I can think of a few ways something like this could be done. First would be the volunteer was a plant, but this is unlikely if his real show has as much audience participation as claimed. Maybey he really could see. He did cover his eyes with the coins pretty quick, so it may have been slight of hand, but I wasn't in a good position to see for sure. The tape covering them did look solid, though, and so did the blindfold. Or it could have been a trick board that somehow revealed the word by touch, but I have no idea physicly how something like that would work. So does anybody know how this could be done, or have any links I could check out for more information?