Closed Circle

Today I’m going to describe a trick for you and tomorrow I’m going to give you the method. To set expectations, not everyone will be able to do this. Well, technically everyone can do this, they just might not have the “thing” necessary in order to do it.

Originally, this was a presentation I had in mind for a Craig Petty trick. I reached out to Craig to get some information but never heard back from him, so I started thinking about other potential methods and hit on one that is incredibly clean.

As I describe the trick, I will be leaving out a certain element (that relates to the method), but everything that follows is true.

Imagine

I’m getting dinner with a few friends. We’re talking about the movies we’ve watched lately and what we liked and what we didn’t like. We all dug “X.” “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” was okay, but not a stunner. “Missing” was a fun found-footage mystery. “Glass Onion,” was alright at best.

“I was hoping that would be better,” I say. “I’ve been sort of obsessed with these mysteries that take place in an isolated location with a small group of suspects.

“I’ve actually been working on something related to it. I might write it as a story or a comic someday. It’s based on an old party-game I used to be pretty good at. Where a ‘detective’ would have to identify a ‘murderer.’ I got to the point where I could ‘solve’ the murder before it was even committed. That gave me the idea for this detective character who could do something like that.”

This is not the most clear concept in the world. My friend Justin says, “Solve it before it happens?”

“Uhm, like… here, I’ll demonstrate it. I’ll play the part of the detective. You four are going to be four characters in the story. Here are the characters you can choose from. Hmm… okay. So one of you will be a stupid billionaire. Like, you have a ton of money, but you’re also super stupid. There will be a drunken duchess. Very high status, but also very drunk. Uhm… an angry chef. One of the world’s greatest chefs, but everything sets him off. And finally, one of you will be a brilliant robot, who also loves sex.”

The group chooses their characters, one is the stupid billionaire, one is the drunken duchess, one is the angry chef, and one is the sex-fiend robot. These choices are made freely, whoever wants to choose a character gets to.

“Okay,” I say. “Three of you are going to die tonight. The other person will be the murderer. I—being the detective—am going to interview you before the crimes take place. I’m going to ask you two questions. ‘Are you the murder,’ to which you’ll all say no, because no one has yet been killed. And I’ll also ask you what you’re going to do tonight. And you just tell me what it is your character’s plans are for the night. Okay?’

I go around asking each character if they’re the murderer. They all respond, “No.”

“Hmmm… interesting,” I say.

I then ask each person what their plans are for the night. We’re staying at a secluded country house, and it’s just the five of us, so their options are limited.

The stupid billionaire is going to play checkers. “By yourself?” I ask. Turns out he sets the checkers on their edge and lines them up and pushed them over like dominos.

The drunken duchess is going to do body shots off her own body.

The angry chef is going to prepare tomorrow’s breakfast, assuming his dumb fucking sous chef remembered to get the goddamn eggs.

And the horny robot is going to watch Porky’s and jack off.

“Okay,” I say, “Now I shall look for clues.” I lick my index finger and hold it up in the air. “Ah! A strong northwest wind.” I take a deep inhale. “What is that? Almonds? Yes! I think I have all the information I need to solve these murders!”

I take a minute or so to write down a prediction. That prediction is placed in a coffee mug and never touched by me again. Remember that.

I take four packets of sugar substitute, three blue packets and one pink, and crinkle them up into four ball-like shapes. I tell my friend next to me to take them under the table and mix them up and then pass them along to the next person who should also mix them up blindly. All four people mix the packets without looking. And, also under the table, each person takes a sugar packet for themselves.

“Hold your packet tight in your fist. In a second I want you to look in your fist to see what color sugar packet you have. If you have the pink one, you’re the killer. But don’t say anything. If you have a blue one, you’re one of the victims. Don’t let anybody else see what you have. I’ll also cover my eyes just to be extra fair.”

I cover my eyes and they all look in their hand. I tell them they can now put the sugar packets in their pocket or under their ass or something.

I uncover my eyes. “Now, one of you knows that you’re the murderer. But no one else here knows who it is.” This statement is completely true. “In a moment I’m going to cover my eyes again and I want the murderer to point to any of the other people here. That will be the first victim. If you get pointed to, you’re dead.”

I cover my eyes. My palms are flat against my eyes. There’s no peeking going on. I genuinely can’t see anything and that’s clear to everyone.

“Okay, I’m going to open my eyes in a couple of seconds. And when I do, one of you should be dead.”

When I uncover my eyes, the duchess is slumped back in her chair dead.

“What a tragedy,” I say. Then I let my friend know she doesn’t have to play dead the whole time.

I cover my eyes again, and when I uncover them the next person—the robot—is dead.

“Sweet Jesus. He was gone too soon.”

I look over the remaining characters. The killer is either the chef or the billionaire. But which???

I cover my eyes a final time. When I uncover them, the billionaire is dead.

“Damn,” I say. “Maybe money can buy happiness. But it certainly can’t buy… being not-murdered-ness!” I put on a pair of invisible sunglasses after this clever quip.

“Okay, so let’s put the pieces together. The first to get killed was the duchess. Why? She’s small, female, and drunk. Perhaps the easiest prey for our killer. The next to go was the robot. Probably killed while he was watching Porky’s and his attention was divided between the boobies on screen and his robot genitals. And finally the billionaire. Choked to death on his own checkers. It’s a difficult puzzle, but I believe the murderer was… The CHEF!!!” I point an accusing finger at my friend Amber, the angry chef.

“Well, I’m the only one still alive,” she says.

“Okay. Fair point,” I say. “But remember, I said that I solved the case before the murders even happened. You’ll remember I wrote a note before the murderers happened. In fact, I wrote it before you had even settled on who would be the murderer.

“Amber, please read what I wrote.” I slide the mug over to Amber and she pulls out the prediction and reads it. It says:

NW ➡ 41.2
almonds

”Yes, the strong northwest wind. And that smell of almonds,” I say. She continues reading my notes.

Killer is
CHEF
__________
Killed
Duchess
then
Robot
then
Billionaire

My notes, which were written before the killer was known to anyone, predict who the killer was and the order in which they’d kill their victims.

Consider these facts:

• Once you’ve learned the trick, it can be done on the spur of the moment with no setup.

• The prediction is written before any of the decisions are made.

• After the prediction is written, the magician doesn’t touch it again.

• The choices are all genuinely free.

• There are no stooges or secret assistants.

• The choice of who the murderer is (which I did with sugar packets in the performance I wrote up above) can be done in any manner at all. It can be done blindly and randomly. Or the characters can all go to the other side of the room and determine who the killer will be.

• You don’t do any secret writing during the effect.

• The prediction can be worded however you like.

• It’s easy.

• It works 100% of the time.

As I said, I left something out of the description, but it’s not a secret action or anything like that.

Come back tomorrow for the method.