Rough Draft: Something Or Other
/Here’s a dumb idea I had for a trick. It relies on dual reality and an audience of some size, so it’s not anything I would use. Or anyone would use, most likely. But I find the method a little funny.
A member of the audience is brought on stage, you ask for someone with a wide knowledge of popular music from the last several decades.
A deck of blank-faced playing cards is introduced. On the blank side of each card is the name of a famous song and the artist who performed it. The deck is given out to be shuffled by a couple members of the audience, who each shuffle half. Those two halves are then mixed together.
This complete deck can be examined by someone in the audience, and it is exactly what it appears to be. The person examining the deck will confirm that all the songs are different and there are various artists represented.
You hand the deck to the on-stage participant.
They cut the cards so they’re starting at a random spot and deal cards on the table, stopping anywhere they like. You ask them to take the card they stopped at and put it in their pocket.
You tell them to show the cards before and after the one they stopped at. One card has Y.M.C.A. by the Village People on it, the other has Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega on it.
You ask them to look at the card they chose and concentrate on it. This happens while your back is to them. You have them focus on the song.
You think for a bit. “It’s a love song,” you say. Correct.
You’re struggling.
“Actually, just focus on the artist for me, okay?” They do.
“Oh!” it hits you. You pick up your pad and scribble something on it. As you write, you say. “I couldn’t get it at first. But then I saw George Harrison in my mind. Does that make sense? I thought so.” You hold up your pad to the audience to show your guess. “Is the song you’re thinking of, in fact, ‘Something,’ by The Beatles?”
You are correct.
No stooges.
The cards are genuinely shuffled.
The spectator is free to stop on any card.
You do not know where they stopped or what card they are holding until the end of the trick.
Method
The primary method comes down to this.
The audience hears, “Is the song you’re thinking of, in fact, ‘Something,’ by The Beatles?”
The person onstage hears, “Is the song you’re thinking of, in fact, something by The Beatles?”
You’re priming the audience by showing them what you wrote down, which is:
“Something”
The Beatles
The person onstage has been told that you’re “just going to focus on the artist.” So when you ask if it’s “something by the Beatles,” that doesn’t seem odd. It might seem odd to them that you end the trick there. But so be it.
The rest of the method…
26 cards with random songs on them.
26 cards with Beatles love songs on them and a mark on the back so you know they’re the Beatles songs.
Allow those separate groups to be shuffled. Then, when they’re returned to you, faro shuffle them together.
You can let someone other than the primary participant look at the deck and confirm the songs are all different and many artists are represented. They may notice a lot of Beatles, but from their P.O.V., you’ll nail the exact song at the end.
Let the onstage person cut the cards and deal through the deck. When they stop, look for the marking to know if you should tell them to put the last card they dealt or the one on top of the deck in their pocket.
When you say that you envisioned George Harrison, the audience will interpret that as a specific reference to Something—perhaps his most famous song.
Whereas the onstage person will—knowing he’s thinking about the Beatles—just assume you’re saying that was the first member that popped into your head. So that works even if he’s not holding a George Harrison song.
Again, I wouldn’t call this a good trick. There are better ways to achieve a similar effect.
But I do sometimes feel like there’s something to be gained by trying to build a trick around a sliver of a method, just as an exercise. Here, the sliver of a method is the idea that if you hear the phrase “something by the beatles” it has two different meanings.