46. Psychic Matchbooks
class: tweener | impressiveness: 3/5 | factors: completely impromptu, surprisingly powerful | requires: 3 matchbooks | watch full episode
This is just about the simplest, most impromptu mind-reading effect I know. You just need 3 simple matchbooks for a mental miracle to earn yourself an easy free drink. I’ll be giving you the basic mechanics of the trick here, but it’s up to you to add character and story to the presentation. Of course, you can check out the Scam School episode to see the performance I threw together for this scam, but I encourage you to discover your own take on it.
How It Looks: Three matchbooks are set in front of the mark. While you turn around (or even leave the room), he’s invited to grab any matchbook and sneakily remove one match from anywhere, hide the match, and replace the matchbook in the exact same place.
Once you turn back around, you pick up each matchbook and weigh it in the palm of your hand. After holding up each one in turn, you boldly (and correctly) reveal which matchbook is missing a match.
How It’s Done: I’m sure you can guess that the weight of the matchbooks has nothing to do with it. Before the trick begins, pretend to feel each matchbook for a “baseline” weight. As you fuss over each one, push each matchbook cover super-tightly into the flap at the base. Once all three covers are firmly pushed in, you’re set.
They’ve picked out a match and you’ve turned back around to “weigh” them again, but this time, apply slight movement with your thumb on the matchbook cover and you’ll discover that two of them are still firmly pressed in, but one will be loose from the sucker opening it.
Remember that you’ll need to be subtle about this… that’s why I like the idea of “weighing” the matchbooks. It’s a sensible reason to get your hands on them, and it provides good cover for surreptitiously thumbing the covers.
Watch Demonstration (External link)
Remember, any time you perform a trick that requires someone to follow instructions while you’re not looking, it’s important you make your instructions dead simple, and totally clear. After all, if they pick up multiple matchbooks, they’ll almost certainly dislodge one of the covers, and your trick will flop.