Dustings #31
/Since last summer, my friend has had an envelope taped to the wall behind him in the area where he does Zoom calls for work. On the envelope it says:
WYWAAT
He never mentioned the envelope. It just sat there in the background. It was somewhat conspicuous, but it wasn’t the sort of thing that demanded anyone comment on it.
After eight months of work Zoom calls, someone finally said, “What is the deal with that sign behind you? I’ve been trying to decipher it for months.”
“Oh,” my friend said, “that’s not a sign, it’s an envelope.” He got up, pulled the envelope off the wall and brought it over to his computer and held it up to his webcam. “You wanted to know what this means?” he said, pointing to the letters on the envelope.
WYWAAT
His co-worker said, “Yeah. Is it an acronym? If it’s something personal….”
“No, it’s not. It stands for When You Will Ask About This,” he said, pointing out each letter. “Inside is something I wrote for when you asked about this.”
He opened the envelope and removed a piece of paper from inside and held it up to the camera:
You will ask about this on
February 8th at 11:16 A.M.
Which, of course, matched the exact date and time this interaction took place.
The method he used was simply an envelope with a slit in one side that he fed the prediction in when that slit was below the frame of the webcam. You could really do the same trick with any sort of prediction envelope or box that works will with an online prediction that you write off-camera. My friend would pre-write everything up to and including the month and have that off-screen with a marker nearby ready to finish the prediction. Every time the calendar turned he would write up a new prediction with the current month.
That’s the basic method. The magic comes in having the patience to wait 8 months for someone to comment on something and letting the moment come to you, rather than you trying to force the moment.
This is a good all-purpose endorsement because if the magician saying it is stupid enough, it could apply to any trick.