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POST OFF IC E BOX 144 • FREEHOLD, NEW J ERSEY 07128

POST OFFiCE BOX 1404 • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 01121

MAGIC CASTLE, HOLLYWOODSunday, January 14th, 1979

LECTURE by Al Mann

MINDBLOW

Mexico City, July 14th, 1978 , in the magic den ofCaaige Snader Jr. of "Sounds of Magic" fame.

"AI, I want you to listen to this David Berglas tape.It contains an effect that will blow your mind." Craige.

I did liaten to the tape and the card effect in itreally puzzled me since apparently, discounting stooges andprearrangement. it had no magical solution to the listeningaudience. The effect is one of the top mysteries of the day .I had been told about this amazing card effect before back inNew York and I had heard that some of the top names in Europewere doing it .

In Ef f ec t , A deck of cards is placed in front of thespectator and the deck is never touched again by the performerexcept for taking it out of the case and placing it on the table .

Spectator is asked to callout the name of any playingcard . Next he is told to choose any number from 1 to 52. Lastlyhe is given a choice of counting from the top down in the deckor trom the bottom up. When the spectator. with the deck in hisown hands counts to his chosen number he finds his chosen cardtheret

That is the effect as seen by the spectator and by manymagicians and it is a fabulous effect to say the least.

I asked Craige to play the tape over again. He played ita second time and then a third time . On the third play I caughtsomething that Mr. Berglas said that seemed to be out of context.It puzzled me but I had no solution for the mystery . But thatnight as I rested in bed I recalled the words that Mr Berglashad said that'let the cat out of the bag. '

In the taped presentation, the spectator chose to countfrom the top down. So Mr. Berglas told him, "Very well, pleasetake the deck, and of course you must turn the deck over tocount from the top down. "

In order for Mr . Berglas to have said that, he had toplace the deck face-up on the table, unknown to the listeningaudience. So the sp~ctator's choice of counting either fromthe top down or from the bottom up wae strictly a magisian'schoicel If the spectator had chosen to count from the bottomup, the magician would have told him to take the deck in handface-up and deal the cards from bottom up, which in essence

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MI NDBLOWMAGIC CASTLE LECTURE 1/14/79 by Al Mann

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he would actually be counting fro m the top down.So that part was solved . But what about the rest of it.

Here was indeed a taxing puzzle since the deck was apparentlynot handled by the magician ex cept for taking it out of the caseto place it in front of the s pe ct a t or , in a most natural way.

Back in New J ersey , John Sme t ana , Bobby Hughes and Iput our heads together and ca me out with a met hod of our own.Si nc e we do not know the method used by Mr. Berglas we can onlysay that our method is very close to his if not the same.

METHOD,1. As suggested by John Sme t ana , the deck placed in

front of the spectator at the beginning is just an empty cardcasel The spectator is cautioned not t o touch it . The c a s e maybe placed in front of the performer for the time being. Theimportant thing is that the deck is apparently in sight at alltimes.

2. The magician must s i t acr os s the table from the spec­tator, with his hands and par t of hi s ar ms under the table .This is a natural thing when the magician i s en t er t a i ni ngcasually in a r elaxed f a shion . Please bear in mind that someof the greatest magic in history has been done under the table.That type of magic brought world fame t o Home , Malini, Sladeand Keeler just to name a f ew .

J. The magic ian ha s a deck of cards on his lap arrangeda s per Jinx #115 , "The Ins t an t o Deck" or any other arrangementso that any card called f or can be brought to the top of thedeck without looking at his hands, i ns t a ntly .

With just a little practi oe and study , the reader willdiscover that bringing any card to t he top of t he deck isquite easy.

4. Af ter the card i s named , the magi c i an while patteringbrings that card t o the t op of the dec k.

5. Next t he spec tator i s g i ven a choi ce of any numberfrom 1 to 52. When the nu mber i s called, magician s imply cuts

*** that many cards to the t op minus one . This is all done whilepattering. Magi c i an t he n plac es t he deck on his lap and,

6. Br i ngs his hands above t he table and t ak es thecard case (Which is empty) and goes t hrough the moves ofopeni ng the cas e and taking ou t t he cards. Thi s is donej us t below the edge of the t able whil e pa t ter i ng and lookinga t the spectator in the eye . The cards are then plac ed i n frontof the spectator fac e-up! Thi s move i s most natural and nosuspi c i on should be directed at it. The s pec t a t or a ssumesthat the empt y ca s e did contain the cards and that the cardshave been in s ight a t all t i mes. However the next bit ofpsychological business will a dd the finishing touches to themystery.

7 . The spec ta t or i s given a choice of ei t her countingf r om t he top down i n the deck or from t he bottom up!

*** s ecr~ tly t hu mb or f i n g e r counti n ~ the cards

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MINDBLOW MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE

J

by Al Mann

The rest is quit simple. The spectator is forced t ocount from the top down in the deck no matter what his choicei s. If the chosen car d is t he f i ve of spades and the numberchosen is 22, the f i ve of spades will turn up in position 22from the top down.

In the end the magician i s clean . There is only onedeck in use!

THE SHATTh~ED LINK

It _ David Berglas, Engl and ' s prominent mental performer ,wowed a BBG audi enc e using welded s t eel chain ( whichhowever had been carefully inspected before) andbreaking it at the specific link called for."

from The Magi c of Ur i Gellerpage 220 by Randi .

It has been said many times that it is not wha t you dot hat baffles your audi ence but what they think you do .

I say to you that if you want t o become world famo us,it i s not what the audienc e in front of you think but what theworld reads in the papers a bout you, t hat will give you famel

Th e above statement by Randi i s a good example.Af ter r eading the ef fec t i n Randi 's book or in the pa­

pers , the r eader will imagine a very str ong cha i n with t hickoval links of welded ste el breaking quite eas i l y at any linkchosen by the audienc e . Such is t he power of the printed wordand the enchantment of a magical effe c t well pres ented .

How did magician Berglas pe r f orm thi s amazing mirac le?From a magician's poi nt of vi ew, we know that i t wa s

done by clever trickery. We a lso know that some known magicalprinciple was us ed that escapes us a t t he momen t . But we lookf or a s ol u t i on .

Af ter much thought we come t o t he conclusion that onlytwo avenues ar e op en.

1. First , the chain althou gh 'inspected ' contained awea k l ink ready to break a pa r t by a slight pull. and the num­ber of the link chosen by the au di ence was ei t he r forced ora stooge was used. A chain c omposed of steel welded l inkswhich may be only 1/2 inch long or a trifle longer, can be'inspected' and even though one of the links is gimmicked, i twill not be seen even if gi ven a visual inspection . The chainmay contain 100 l i nks . The spectators can examined most of t hemand be satisfied but missing the gimmicked link since t hey donot know whi ch one it is. The chain can even be tested bypulling it f rom the ungimmicked end , sinc e the prepared link isamong the first 15 links which the magician ho lds in his hand.

Or the chain can eas i l y be switched after an ungimmickedone i s i n spec ted. That solu t i on takes ca re of the welded-steelchai n l

MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE

The Shattered Link

1/14/79

. ...... . cant.

by Al Mann

4

Let's proceed a bit further and do the effect so thatit can be repeated and the audience is given a free choice ofany link . Sounds like a tall order bu t is quite easy to do.

The principle suggested here is "The Gypsy Necklace."This effect, using a weakened link , is quite well known . I tsells for about $3.00 and is sometimes cal led "The MillionDollar Necklace,"

To appl y the principle to a metal chain, we need ametal chain (can be soft metal ) with links shaped like afigure 8. These are obtainabl e in any hardwar e store and areinexpensive . About four f eet of chain is sufficient.

To Pr epar e l One of the links is weakened by bendingit back and force with a pair of pliers to a near-breakingpoint . To avoid marking the link with tooth marks, a clothis used . This weakened link must be the fifte enth link fromone end of the chain . If ~he link breaks, it will be necessaryto discard it and try another.

The other four t een links a t the end of the chain arenext opened just enough so that the chain can be broken at anyone of the links . The chain is t hen connected into a continuousloop or circle . The magician can t ell by looking or fe elingjust where the weak link is. Wha t you now have is a length ofchain about four f eet l ong formed i nto a continuous loop withall the links tight and s ound excep t f or one wea k link and 14opened l i nks.

The Presentaionl The magician passes the ungimmickedend of the chain out to some one and the chain is tugged totest it. The spectator may be asked to exami ne the links, theungimmicked ones. The gi mmi cked links are held in the perfor ­mer's hand. Then the performer secretly links the chain intoa l oop and holds it so tha t the s event h opened link from thewea kened link i s held between the tips of his first and middlefingers of his right hand. Now anyon e is asked to callouta number f rom one to fifteen, OR the magician may have some­one write down a number secretly and then get knowledge of itvia t he center tear or any other means .

I f the number called is a seven, the magician partsthe chain where he held i~ between the finger tips . If anyother number i s called themagician counts extra links to theleft or r i gh t of the held link a ccordingly. The gi mmi cked endof the cha i n is then gi ven to the spectat or and the chain pulleduntil it breaks . The s pe ctat or i s left holding the same numberof links as the number called by the audience !

The effect is the same as the "Gyps ey Neckl a ce " butthe r esulting publicity should be gr ea t er .

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MAGI C CASTLE LECTUR E 1/14/79 by Al Mann

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The Sha t ter ed Link cant .

ADDENDA I Using a welded steel chain, the link can bebroken completely and then cemented together with glue so thati t will come apart when the chain is tugged. If the link isto be minutely examined then it has to be switched for anotherbroken link.

BOOK-T EAR

This effect appeared in Bascom Jane's magazine Maglckunder the title "Test Conditions. "

Mental i s t Jerry Fulton f rom Canada wrote in to saythat the effect was superb and that he had immediately i ncor­por a t ed it into his program as the closing item. Jerry sentin his own improvements which will be dealt with later .

In Ef f ec t l A spectator is given a paper-back book andt ol d t o tear it down the spine at about the center of the book.

J He is then gi ven a fre e choice as to what half to throwaway!He is n ext told to open the remaining half at about the middleagain and t ear that section off and discard it. The same thi ngis repe a ted with the r emaining quarter of the boo k and finallya l l the pages are thrown away except one. Magi c i an then divinesor ha s predicted the chosen page!

That is the effect on the audience . It is strong. Theaudi ence assumes that there i s no way in which the mentalistcan con t r ol t he actions of the s pe c t a t or when in reality theopposi te is true. The mentalist is in complete control of t hesituation although the spectator se ems to have a fre e choiceof what pages to discard!

Ev en more amazing is the fact that no matter how s lop­pily the spectator tears the book, the force page wi l l be t hesame on e .

PR EPARATION. Get a paper-back novel that has about200 pages or a little less andl

1. t ear off the front and back covers and discardthem

2 . tear off all pa ges in the front of the book up tobut not including page 1.

3. tear off all pages in the back of the book back topage 190 .

You now have a book without covers showing page 1 inf ron t and page 190 at the back.

4. Next make a prompter list for the first few wordsof pages 1 5 a nd 16 and also pages 175 and 176 .

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MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE 1/14/79 by Al Mann

BOOK- TEAR cont.

Jerry Fulton writes his prompter list on the 5th pagedown on his scratch pad. Then he uses the top 4 pages to de­monstrate to the spectator how to hold the book and open itand tear it. The top four pages of the scratch pad are dis­carded thereby exposing the prompter lis~ to the mentalistl

awayto throwof him.

but thethat ittime he

pageawayThis

THE PRESENTATION, Ask a muscle bound young man up onstage to assist and give him the book. Then tell him to openit at about the center and to tear the book down the spine andthen to discard either half. Performer should emphasize thefact that the spectator has a free choice as to what half tothrowaway. A waste paper basket should be handy.

That is the last free choice that the spectator haspresentation can be varied in a number of ways soappears that the spectator has a free choice everytears the book as to what part to throwaway.The following routine is recommended.Let us assume that the spectator is right handed and

that he threw away the last half of the book, keeping the firsthalf with page 1 showing . The performer must pretend that hedoes not know and does not care what pages remain! But in facthe must know what half was retained . In this case the forcepage will be 15 and 16, due to the fact that the first halfof the book was retained by the spectator. The s pec tat or isnow holding in his hands about 96 numbered pages or about48 sheets numbered on both sides .

The reader should follow these instructions with abook in hand.

Next, spectator is told to part the r emaining pagesat about the middl e again and to tear them down the spine asbefore. Performer then asks the spectator to hand one sectionto him, in which case the performer tears up the pages givento him IF spectator handed him the right hand pages . IF thespectator handed him the left hand pages then performer tellsspectator to please tear up the pages he is holding and throwthem away.

In any case the spectator is left holding about 46" or- 48 numbered pages from 1 to 48 for exampl e . This makes apackage of 24 sheets numbered on both sides.

The same proceedur e is r ep eated a th1~d time leavingthe spectator holding sheets f r om page 1 to 24 or less . Thespectator is holding about 12 s he e t s or less .

Next he is told to el i mi na te pages by throwing1-2 and placing page 3-4 on the table. Next he ispage 5-6 and place page 7-8 on the table i n frontis r epeated until all the pages ar e dealt.

The pages on the t abl e must now be turned over so thatpage 4 is showing uppermost.

MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE

BOOK-TEAR cant.

1/14/79 by Al Mann

7

The same proceedure i s repeated. The t op page iscrum Pled and thrown away . That was page ) -4 . Page 7-8 whichi s the next page is placed on th e table. Same i s repeateduntil all pages are dealt. Remaining i n front of spectatorshould be about J sheets appr ox . These sheets must be turnedover again so that page 7 is showing uppermost .

Af ter the next elimination the spectator wi l l be l eftwith either one or two she ets, whatever. But the f inal s heetl eft in his hands will be pages 15-16 , the for c e pages!

I t i s very important that the pages placed on t het able must be turned over every t ime before continuing t heelimination process.

FORCE PAGES 175-176

Now l et's assume that at the beginning the spectat orthrew away the f ront half of the book and kept the last hal fwhich contains page 190. The performer must make su re thatthe s pec t a t or keeps the highest numbered pages to the l as tso that at the end th e spectator will be holding about 10or 12 sheets the l ast being pages 189-190 with page 190showing uppermost .

For the elimination process, page 190 must be at t hetop of the heap and it is t he first page that is discardedwhile the next page 187-1 88 is placed on the table . When a l lthe pages are dealt in the first dealing, the pages must beturned over so that page 187 is uppermost .

The spectator in this case must deal the pages f romthe highest numbered pag e to the lowest. in r everse of thefirst example above when working with the front half of thebook.

In the end the spectator will be ho lding the for cepage 175- 1761

Amazingly enough, it matters l i t t l e how many sheetst he s pec tat or is holding before the elimination process i s

_~ tarted , t he spectator could be holding as l ittle as 8sheets (number ed on both sides, 16 pages) or as many as 1 5(30 pages) provided the force page is among the sheets andprovided t here are no more than 15 sheets in the bunch.

However the best presentation is one where t he s pe c­tator only has to eliminate from the f ewest pages, say about10 sheets or 20 numbered pages .

I t is very i mpor tant that the book used has onl y190 number ed pages or a bit l ess. If the t es t is done wi tha book of many pages then the final page will be one of t woposs ibilities . That will l engthen the presentation and willbore you r audience.

MAGI C CASTLE LECTURE

Book-Tear cant.

1/1 4/ 79 by Al Mann

8

Jerry Fulton's Pres entation. Jerry us es three dif­f ernt books and prepar es three prompter lists on three se­parate scratch pads and simply pi cks up the correct pad fromhi s t abl e after the book i s chosen by the audiencel

J err y writes out his pr omp t er l i st in light pencil onthe f i f th pa ge from top of scrat ch pa d . Then in demonstratingwha t i s t o be done the top four bl ank s heets are crumpled anddiscar ded expos i ng the 5th s heet with the prompt er list . J errythen uses thi s s hee t to make notes with bol d ink pen and thent ears that shee t up and t hrows i t away. The divined words aret hen writt en on a clean shee t !

TIPS l As stated be for e, the pres entation has room formany va r ia t i ons . PLEASE NOTE t hat a f ter t he spec ta t or startsthe el i mi nati on proc es s of throwing away the t op s hee t andpla cing t he next on t he table, the f our th sheet plac ed on thetable will be t he forc e shee t ! Tha t means t hat you can just tellthe s pe c ta t or t o t hrow the res t away after t ear ing them tobits. This will shorten t he spec tat or ' s task and keep t he ef f ec tfrom becom i ng boring.

The elimi na t i on proc es s should be d isguised as mu cha s possi ble. That can be done by tel l ing the specta t or to si­l ently r ead the page number but t o no t te l l you what it i s . Hejus t concentrates on it. Then you say, tiNa t hat page i s nogood. Please t eari t up and discard i t . " For t he next page s ay ,"Tha t one is a l right . Please place it on the t able."

After t he f ourth page is dealt on the table a sk thes pectator i f he wish es to s t op t her e or go on . No matter whathi s ans wer i s, tell him to tear t he r ema i ni ng pages up andthrow th em away. The force pa ge is now facing him on top ofthe pages on t he table. So the performer can proceed as hewishes. I f the spectator stated that he wishes t o con t inue ,then the el imination process i s continued wi th t he four pages.If not then t ell t he s pec ta t or to concentrate on the top pageof the pileI It i s page 15t And there is no need to turn thepages overl

I f you are par t i al to self f l agelation , you can us e·~he other three pa ges also to do some mindreading simply bypr e pari ng a promp ter list fo r pages )/4, 7/8 and 11/1 2

NOTE, The f or ce pa ge f or the l a s t half of t he bo ok willa l ways be 175-1 76 if the book ha s 190 pages. For any ot hernumber of pages you mus t sub t ract 15 from the las t page toa r r i ve at the forc e page .

The forc e page for t he f r ont half of the book willalways be 15-1 6 When t he book ha s 200 pages or a bi t l ess .

MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE 1/14/79 by Al Mann

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THE CHAIN-OF-THOUGHT

HER E AGAIN IS A MOST UNIQUE BOOK TEST. This book t est wastouched on lightly in my book "Of Wor ds and Wizards ." It i soffered here in a truly dynamic dres s .

Here are the condi t i ons l1. Three unglmmicked books are used.2. The audience has a free and secret choice of page

number unknown t o the performerJJ. Spectators choos e any l ine on the page and any word on

t he line.4 . Yet, the performer ean divine the thre e words chosen

and even predict the words bef or e the page is chosen!

Read the above again and you will Bee what a profound mys­tery it is to anyone in the audience.

THE SECRET. Thi s uncanny display of ESP is a ccompl ishedby a combi nation of principles .

Firs t , the three books used are totally ungimmicked and arediffer en t in size and col or BUT have the s ame contents I

Shoppi ng around the second-hand book stores, your authorlocated a book that fitted the requirements. The book is, "TheBr oken Wi ngs ," by Kahlil Gibran . This book was pUblished in fourdi f f er en t sizes and colors . Three of the sizes were hardbound, 4iby 7i. 5i by 8i and 6 by 91 . The four th book was a pocket editioni n soft covers. The books look radically different from just a fewfe e t away. Books by Gibran are very popul ar t oday and can be f oundi n almost any 'Poe t ry' or Religious s ec t ions of stores.

These books wer e printed with the s ame plates, but justreduc ed to the requiered size . Each page i s the exact duplicateof its counterpart in each bookS

THE CHAIN-OF-THOUGHT READING

Ef f ec t and Pr esentation. Performer displays the three hard­bound books in his hand in a fan. He states that for this test hewill use three books . He then passes out one book to anyone on theright s ide of t he audience, a second book to anyone in the centerof the audience and the third book to someone on the left. Spec­tators are told t o please hold on to the books .

Another person is gi v en a pad of paper and penc i l and is toldto secretly write down a page number. 1 to 100 and then to show itto t he thr ee persons holding the books, but to no one el s e. Personsholding the books are asked to please turn to that page . If the pageis blank they are t old to go to the next one , etc .

Anot he r person is told to please callout a line, say 1 to 10and some one el s e to callout the number for a word on the line, say1 to 8 . (Unknown t o the audience all three persons sre looking at

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MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE

THE CHAIN-OF-THOUGHT READING

1/14/79

cant.

by Al Mann

the same wor d . ) Each person i s now t old t o write down their wordon a piec e of paper an d t o f ol d i t twic e .

Performer next approaches anyone of the three persons and takesthe f olded billet from him and tears it up and throws the piec esinto the air and tells the other two persons t o do likewi se.

Performer has of course stolen the center piece with the oneword on it.

Performer then reveals any two words plus the chosen word.All three persons concede that their word has indeed been divined!

THE GOLD-BUG PREDICTIONS

In this prediction effect , we will use the three books mentionedabove (or any three books all alike but under different dust jackets )plus three slates (or art boards) and just about the same worki ng.

Most experts on cryptography (see the Gold-Bug by Poe) agreethat the following words appear most frequ ently in any Englishtext. the, and. of, to, i n and that in that order .

For our purpose we will use the words "t he ," "that" and "t her e ."We do not know ahead of time what word will be chosen but i f anyone of the three words is chosen you will have a miracle !

The reader can us e any three words he wishes as it makes l i ttledifference. The words "the," "and" and "of " are just as g ood .

Ef fec t and Pres entat i on . Performer passes out three bo oksand cautions the spectators not to open t he books yet as he i sgoing to attempt a prediction.

Performer takes up the three slates and writes on the t op halfof the s lates. one word on each . The slates are then placed ondisplay wri t i ng side down.

Since the performer has already committed himself by makingpredictions, it matters not if he knows what page has been chosen.So anyone in the audience is asked to callout a page number. 1 to100. The three persons holding the books are then told to turn tothat page . Two more persons are asked to callout a line number .1- to 10 and a word number, 1 to 8 . All three spectators hol dingthe bo oks now concentrate on the chosen word .

Performer must now get the chosen word either by t he useof the center-tear or the use of a prompter.

Performer next picks up the three slates together and se­cretly draws a line through one of the wor ds and writes i n thecorrect word in the act of talking maki ng believe that he i s jus ttracing the wordl The three slates are then displayed and a l lthree spectators see their chosen word chalked on them'

If, by chance, any of the three words chalked on the slateare chosen then you indeed have a mir ac l e and make the most ofi tl

MAGIC CASTLE LECTURE 1/14/79

THE GOLD-BUG PREDICTIONS •.....•• cont. ....

. ,.11

by Al Mann

Getting the Word. While hunting for the books to be usedwith this effect care should be taken to choose books that aresmall and with about 100 pages. More than three books should bebought. One of the books can be used to cut out the first 10lines from each page and paste them on a paper back book to beused in the act of demonstrating how to get to the chosen word.The performer then gets the one word instantly while the spec­tators are still looking for their wordl

In writing the words on the slates at the beginning, theperformer can make believe that he changed his mind on one word,wrote a line through it and then write another word. That waywhen the slates are shown they will look normal.

Instead of using the center-tear with these effects, abillet switch may be used (see Acidus) and the billet (1" isgiven back to the spectator and all three are asked to tear uptheir papers and +.hrow them away.

If the three Gibran books mentioned before are used, then thepaper-back edition can be used as the prompter after removing itscover and replacing it with the cover from another paper-back ofthe same size.

At this writing efforts are in motion to hunt down some of thesebooks and make them readily available to the profession.

Best Wishes,

NOTE. The method used in Chain-of-Thought Reading and theGold-Bug Predictions is known as "Impact . " All threespectators have chosen the same word but do not know it.Since all three persons see their word revealed allthree acknowledge that thier word has been divined .