Project Steg0saur
/[The spelling of the title and throughout this post is so this phrase doesn’t come back to this site on a google search.]
Last month, I posted an idea called the PsychCrypt Imp. That was followed up by this idea in a mailbag post.
Pete “I wish people called me Petey Mac” McCabe sent along the following version of the concept/plot which has the benefit of being impromptu.
You don’t need to remember much of anything to perform this. So it’s a little performance piece you could always have on hand when you have time to kill. Thanks to Pete for sharing it.
In his words, here is the idea…
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The hook
Spies have always used secret codes to send messages in public. One version used personal ads in the newspaper, looking for a housekeeper, say, but the phone number actually coded the name of the target.
Not many personal ads in the newspaper anymore. Nowadays they use youtube. And they are always working on new ways to code the information.
The latest experiment is called Project Steg0saur, where the message is coded in a way that you can only receive it if you have a certain amount of psychic ability. Not a lot — you might have this ability and not even know it. But if you watch the video, you can tell what target it’s telling you to eliminate.
They made assessment videos to find agents who have the gift, and a couple of them are on youtube. I tried it and did okay. Want to try?
[Your friend goes to youtube and does a search for Project Steg0saur (spelled normally, with an o, not a 0, of course) Assessment/Training Video. There are two videos that I posted, with identifiers DDL-3 and DDL-7. I plan to post a couple more in the near future with similar names.]
Because it’s spy stuff, the video doesn’t give you a name—there’s a number hidden in the video, and the list of targets is separate. Normally a spy would memorize the list, but I have it on my phone.
[The spectator watches the video. They see nothing. Then they say the first number that came into their head. Let’s say it’s 17. You go to the list of targets, and the 17th name is Alex Dobbens.]
You say, That’s great! You did it! They say, I did what? You refer them to the description on the video, which ends with “If you read the steganography correctly, the target is Alex Dobbens.”
Method
Digital Force Bag. This is the concept that made me buy DFB, and it’s perfect for this presentation.
I’ve posted two videos to Youtube, both about 10 seconds long.
Project Steg0saur Assessment/Training Video DDL-3, which has Alex Dobbens as the target at the end of the description.
Project Steg0saur Assessment/Training Video DDL-7, which has Chris Park.
There are two lists in DFB, identified by the DDL number. If you have DFB you know more about this than I do.
I’ll tell you one thing I’ve learned—it’s a pain in the ass to type 100 random names into your phone. Much easier to have ChatGPT create a list of 100 common first and last names from around the world. I pasted that into a google Keep doc, which I then opened on my phone so I could copy and paste into DFB.
You can obviously make and post your own videos, with the title and description customized to your presentation. The videos can be literally anything. I made my own to avoid copyright issues.
By the way
It doesn’t matter how much you prime people that they won’t see the numbers, some of them will expect to see numbers in the video.
This is not their fault. Please don’t make fun of them for this. It’s just that seeing the numbers is the only possible thing they can expect to happen.
So maybe you say “You didn’t see an actual number, right?” They say no. Then you ask what’s the first number to pop into your head?
You might want to have multiple people watch the video. None of them see any numbers. But one of them gets it right. And you control which of them it is. So this routine can easily be the precursor to a different routine, after you see which of the three people has the gift.
Other ideas
You could point out Alex Dobbens as the target from the start, when the video loads. But I don’t like the idea that the trick ends with them finding the name in the list on your phone. I want it to end with them finding the name in the comment on the youtube video.
My first idea was that the video is coding the target of an assassination. That’s a bit dark, so in the description of the Youtube video I wrote “operational assignment” so you can choose how dark to go.
You could make a video that has something that goes unnoticed the first time but makes a post-trick convincer or something.
BTW Stegosaur is the project name because steganography is the technique of hiding a message in something else so no one knows the message is even there. This specific (fake) version of steganography bypasses your visual system and goes directly into your reptilian brain (the Latin root for reptile is saur). You do not need to explain this.
The original Psychcrypt Imp presentation was based on the idea that the information is only readable if you are on LSD, and you can certainly add that element to this hook.
Andy recommended telling people you laced their food with a chemical that has the same effect.
Here are two alternate approaches.
There’s a product called a “nano beauty spray device” which you can get for 10 bucks on Amazon. It basically emits a thin stream of mist, which you can spray in someone’s face as an imp if you fill it with water, or add a scent that does whatever your presentation requires. This was discussed in Dustings #85 on 5/5/23. If you use this, or any other imp like this, you can do an instant repeat for two people. Spray one of them, then they both watch the video, and name the first number that comes into their head. The one who was sprayed is right. Now you spray the other person and repeat with the second video, and the other person is right.
This is my favorite: Ask your audience if any of them have ever taken LSD before. If one has, that’s great. You know how people sometimes have an LSD flashback? This video will trigger that. You can also trigger that by drinking orange juice. Have a sip. If no one has ever taken LSD, switch to the nano beauty spray device.
The Carbonaro Effect
Michael Carbonaro is the master at deflecting questions his assisting spectators have about his tricks. This is the kind of thing that can happen in this kind of presentation. I noticed a pattern to his answers that is pretty handy.
Basically, if someone asks “How do they hide the numbers?” you reply, “They have to, otherwise it would reveal confidential information to the enemy.” The basic pattern is that if the spectator asks a question about how, you give an answer about why, which is what you want the spectator to think about.