Pastiches
/This is a follow-up to the In Search Of Lost Time presentation from last Friday.
It perhaps goes without mentioning, but you can use this same structure for a variety of tricks. It may be potentially more surreal and bizarre with other tricks, and that may be good or bad depending on what you're going for, but it's worth thinking about.
I'll describe a quick variation on Version 1 and you can extrapolate from there.
You have your two friends, Bonnie and Stoogey O'Stoogeson. One of them is a stooge. In this case it's Bonnie, oddly enough. No. That will be too confusing. Okay, Stoogey is your stooge.
You go through the process of "hypnotizing" Stoogey and you say that when he awakes and you say some trigger word he will see the dollar bill on the table start to float, and that he will remember nothing of this hypnotism process.
You "awaken" your friend and say the trigger word. The dollar bill doesn't move, but he reacts as if it's floating. (Tell him not to go too crazy. That will come off as fake.)
Then you offer to do it with your other spectator. You do the fake induction, lost time, reawakening bit, i.e. "As I count back from three you're going to fall into a deep state of sleep: three, two, one.... Two. Three. Open your eyes. You are now fully awake,"
You then say a sentence with some random trigger word in it like, "So, Bonnie, how was it being hypnotized? Did it make you hungry for... cantaloupe?" And after you say that, the dollar bill starts floating for real, but you and your other friend act as if you're not seeing it.
This may come across as more jokey than the original version. I don't know. I haven't done it. But I think it, or any other variation will definitely be interesting.
And it would be funny if, three months later, you're out getting dinner with Bonnie and another friend, say Laura. And you've pulled Laura aside to give her some instructions. And at the end of the meal Laura says, "That was good. You know what I'm really in the mood for? Cantaloupe." And one of the bills from the tip on the table starts floating but you and Laura act as if nothings happening.
After the book release when things have settled down a little, I will be recording a video to use with Version Two of the effect and I will be putting it up online for anyone to use.
That way you'll always be prepared to do it, as long as you have an invisible deck.
In this case you'll just say you saw this trick online and you'll watch the video with your spectator. Then you'll ask if you can try it on them.
And finally, you can flip In Search of Lost Time around and it will play as something of an awful joke. This idea is courtesy of The Other Brothers, Darryl Davis and Daryl Williams.
You do this one on one with a girl. And you do the second part first. That is to say, you offer to hypnotize her, do the immediate countdown and back up. Ask her what she remembers from the time she was hypnotized. She'll have no idea what you're talking about. She'll think no time has passed (because it hasn't, of course). You ask her to name the first card that comes to mind, then you show her that card reversed in the deck. "I hypnotized you to name that card," you say.
She will be skeptical at best.
You insist you did. You tell her she was hypnotized for almost ten minutes. She won't believe you.
"Dammit. I should have recorded it like I did the last time," you say.
"I swear that's how the trick is done. A hypnotic suggestion. Look, I'll show you a video of me doing it yesterday."
She watches the video on your phone. This time you are sitting across from a different woman, giving the same induction you gave your friend. But when this woman is "asleep" you instruct her to name the four of hearts when she awakes. You also instruct her that when she awakes she will remember nothing of what happened while she was under. You repeat over and over, "You won't remember any of this. You won't remember any of this." And you shift your chair over to hers, slide your hand down her pants, and finger-bang her to a rousing orgasm. After that you wake her up and reveal the card.
When your spectator looks up from the video, wondering if she has been the latest victim of your hypnotic fingerfuck-fest, she sees you inhaling the aroma deeply from your fingertips.
