Easy Stooging
/[Note: Because of a scheduling issue earlier this month, this is not the final post of the month. The final post for November will come out next week.]
Here’s a simple way to incorporate a friend as a stooge. And it works in a kind of interesting way.
First, it doesn’t require your friend to learn anything. Often I have people who would like to be “in” on the trick in some way, but they’re not the sort of person who is going to learn even a simple two-person code or something like that. They just don’t have that level of commitment. But if you say, “Hey, do you want to help me fool Ted?” They would 100% be interested in that. This sort of stooging works well for them.
The second interesting thing about this type of stooging is that the person helping you out will still be fooled. And they won’t just be a little fooled (as in some tricks that use a stooge), but they will be almost as fooled as the person who isn’t in on it. They’ll just be fooled in a different way.
Here’s how it works.
Let’s say you’re meeting up with Ted and Arlene for dinner. At some point, before Ted gets there or when he’s in the bathroom, you say to Arlene, “Hey, do you want to help me fool Ted?”
You then indicate to Arlene that at some point you’re going to show Ted a trick, and all she has to do is pretend that she doesn’t see what’s happening.
Later on, you perform a trick.
The trick should have these two qualities:
It should be primarily a trick for the eyes. Something levitates. Something changes. Something disappears.
There should be some sort of Imp that is applied to Ted and not Arlene.
So you claim to do something to Ted that’s going to change his perception in some way. You put him in a semi-hypnotic trance. You have him inhale a mild-hallucinogen. You have him listen to a sound at a vibration that stimulates the suggestibility portion of his brain. Or whatever your story is.
After that, you do something. Vanish a coin, or whatever.
“Now Ted, if this works, you shouldn’t be able to see the coin. Can you see it?”
He can’t, of course, because it’s not there.
“But Arlene, you still see the coin, yes?”
“Of course. Wait… you can’t see it, Ted?”
And so on.
Now, the truth is, Arlene is still seeing a coin vanish. So she is still as fooled as you would expect. But now she gets to be in on the deception of the premise.
This allows her to have the fun of fooling someone without having to really put in any effort. (Putting in effort = the least fun part of magic to laypeople).