VANITY

By Dee Christopher

Some random letters are chosen to make up the initials of a fictional character out of the performer’s sight. A name could be thought of from these letters, this will never be written down; it’s

in the mind of the spectator.

The spectator is asked to grip the performer’s wrist and scream the initials in their mind – Slowly and visually the performer’s

veins shift and morph into the selected initials.

Basic Workings This is a great effect, I discovered it some time ago, but never really developed it beyond an idea. I recently found it again, so here it is. The key is that you will use your LEFT hand. The veins may be a little bit visible anyway, depending on your skin tone and thickness. I’d like you to take your left wrist and squeeze, now hold your left hand in a fist and begin a kind of Mexican wave motion with your curled fingers, this will cause your veins to rise slightly, if you roll your wrist upward, so the veins face your body, this will cause the veins to pop out a little more. You may notice straight away that upon inspection, the most prominent veins have a distinct pattern; they look like a letter “V” and a letter “H.”

This is the basic working; it’s a biological quirk, which we can use to our advantage! So how do we force the correct letters?

The Forcing Stack You are going to do a simple card sleight. I’m sorry mentalists of the world, but it’s ok, we can use index or business cards! You will need to prepare a packet of 26 cards, a letter of the alphabet written on each one. I use the Hindu shuffle force for this, this can be found explained in many sources, but I’ll cover it briefly here. Your force cards (V and H) are on the bottom of the pack, you should falsely mix them if you feel comfortable doing so and show all the cards as different. You should begin by taking the cards in your left hand at the fingertips, as below. You then just need to break the top ¾ away with the right fingers and strip off a few cards from the top several times while inviting the spectator to call stop.

When they do call stop, you just need to tip the bottom of the right hand packet up toward them to show the card (this was the bottom card all along!) and them thumb it off for them. The final force card is now on bottom and we will just repeat the motions, replace the bottom packet on the bottom and do the force again to another spectator if possible! The rest of the cards are NOT looked at and put away. You don’t want people to suspect a peek when there isn’t one!

The Reveal The reveal is really easy to do; you just need to follow the instructions I outlined in the ‘basic workings’ section. The effect came into being when I was just seeing how far I could make my veins pop out. That’s the kind of thing we do here for fun in merry old England! The idea of letters made me think of Jermay’s ‘Twisted Palm’ from Skullduggery and Ben Earl’s date subtlety from the ‘Skin’ DVD, which are both worth looking into! Both of these methods do rely on suggestions, which I’ve had great success with, but I always like to have a physical to base my suggestion on. I like to really take my time with the reveal and I’ve included a full script below, which you can use, and change as you wish.

The Scr ipt Do you believe that if you feel very close to someone, they can almost get into your blood? I’d like to try a little something; can we use you and you? Perfect. I have a small packet of index cards here, each one has a letter of the alphabet, you can see that they are all unique. I’ll mix them up a little. Please sir, call out stop for me! (Hindu Shuffle) There? Great. Take a look and show the others. Now you miss, the same again, call stop! Perfect. So, we have two letters selected. I’ll put the rest away. Don’t let me see the letters, but make sure everyone else can see. These letters are to represent a fictional person I want you all to make up in your mind. The gentleman’s letter will be the first initial of this person and the young lady’s letter will make the surname. Sir, I’d like you to also think of the first name that pops into your head with your letter, ok? Miss, Please grab my wrist tightly. Perfect. Something very strange is about to happen. You are going to watch this imaginary person enter my blood. My veins will twist and morph and they will form the letters that you are thinking of, ok? Watch. (Letters appear) The letter ‘V.’ You can see that? And the letter ‘H?’ Are those the initials you are thinking of? And sir, you just thought of a name – Look at me. It’s not a female name? Right now I’m getting Victor? Correct? Thank you very much.

The Name Reveal You’ll notice that I added an extra phase to the end of the routine. This is such a simple piece, but adds another dimension to the effect! There are very few common names (in English) that begin with a ‘V.’ The main one’s are: Male: Victor, Vincent Female: Victoria, Vanessa, Valerie All these names can easily fit in your wallet on cards or slips of paper hidden behind credit cards. I use the line: “It’s not a female name?” As while it appears as a question here, it can be just as easily taken as a statement. Whether they say yes or no, you’ve hit and narrowed down the names. I’ll then just guess at the name, use your intuition. But the way to say it is like this: “Right Now I got the feeling that the name you’re thinking of is Vincent, that’s not correct is it?” If they say that it is, great! If not, continue: “I didn’t think that was the case, you see, I wrote a prediction earlier placed it in my wallet, (take out wallet) Sir, what was the name?” Upon finding the name, you can simply remove the correct card and slowly turn it over to reveal!

F inal Thoughts For the strongest psychological impact with this routine, you’ll want to use it later on in the set once you’ve built a foundation. People need to know and believe that you are able to do the things you are claiming to before busting out something like this. The same would go for Banachek and Houchin’s ‘Stigmata’ or B. Smith’s ‘Stigmatisms.’ If you have difficulty getting the veins to be so visible, I suggest just practicing on your own, moving your hands in different ways, while almost everyone’s veins will be of the same configuration, some people may find that an alternate approach for pushing out the veins is more effective. I look forward to hearing your thoughts via email or one the forums, I’m sure you’ll get great use out of the routine! d.