h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First some silly ones..

Find a friend who smokes.
Challenge them to make a cigarette lighter. (Not just produce one they might already have).
Wait till they give up.

Now, Either a) Take a cigarette from them and break off the end. It's now 'lighter'.
Or b) Take one cigarette from their pack. The pack is now
'a cigarette lighter'...

Bet a friend that you can make them open their hands just through the hypnotic power of your influence.
Ask them to ball both their hands into fists. As soon as they do, if they've put their thumbs inside the fists say 'No, thumbs outside' or vice versa, if they're already outside. They should now open their fists to move their thumbs and you've already won!
Try not to gloat too much...

Now a less silly one.

Props: A wine bottle with cork
A silk headscarf/hankerchief

Get hold of an empty bottle of wine, complete with cork. Better still, get a full bottle of wine and drink it first.
Get a willing volunteer from the audience and get then to sign the cork to make it identifiable. Now push the cork completely into the bottle. The challange for the evening is now to remove the cork, without breaking the bottle.

Let people try for as long as they like before you agree to devote your deep psychic powers to the problem. Explain that to properly commune with the spirits you have to have to be alone with the spirits (the ancient guru who taught you the secret was most insistant on this point). Remove yourself and the bottle to somewhere private.

Take your scarf and hold onto two diagionally opposite corners, working the centre loop into the bottle. Do not let go of the corners! Hold the bottle horizontally and jiggle the cork into the loop of the scarf. Now, pull firmly and the scarf, complete with cork, should come out of the bottle again.
Pocket the scarf and return in triumph.

And finally one which I've actually seen David Blaine do (so don't tell him I told you how to do it!).

Props: a cigarette (or, for the more health conscious, you actually just need some ash.
a lot of cheek.
a volunteer.

Preperation: Before the trick, place a little ash on the middle finger of your right hand. Running it round an ashtray (yuk) should do the trick.

Explain to your volunteer that you have recently returned from Haiti, where a local witchdoctor initiated you into the mysteries of voodoo, where actions which happen to one person or thing can be magically transferred to another. Offer to demontrate.

Ask them to hold out their hands, palms down in front of them. When they comply, say 'No, slightly higher/lower', taking hold of their hands with your fingers underneath and moving them up or down. Remember the ash on your middle finger? As you move their hands, rub a little onto their palm. Now ask them to close their fists, rubbing off any excess ash from your finger surrepticiously.

Take a match/cigarette, light it and blow it out, making sure it's burned enough to generate some ash, but is cold enough so you don't burn yourself! Rub some of the ash onto the palm of your other (non-ashed) hand. Explain that you've established a unique spirit bond with them, transferring the impression of the ash from your hand to theirs.

Ask them if they can feel anything inside their palm. (You never know! Imagination is a powerful thing..). Now ask them to open their hands...

...and 'really' finally, I shall now attempt to read your mind, using only the power of the Internet. I'm not perfect tho, so try and put down your first thoughts, they tend to get through best. (Packet loss affects us all.. )

Get a piece of paper..

I'd like you first to think of two different geometric shapes. No, don't think of a square, that's too easy. Now quickly draw them on your piece of paper, in some relationship to each other.

Now, quickly think of a number between 1 and 10. Right, write that down too.

Finally think of a two digit number between 1 and 50. Make the digits different and odd. Write it down.









Ok. You drew a picture of a triangle inside a circle and wrote the numbers 7 and 37.
How'd I do?

Close...

Circle inside a triangle.

Numbers 9 and 17.

Ah, obviously the psychic waves got a touch mis-directed there...
Still, close enough to demonstrate some sort of psychic connection

Ok, while we're mind-reading, here's a slightly more complicated one (as there's some maths involved!)

Pick a number between 1 and 10
Multiply it by 9
If it's a 2 digit number, add them together
Now subtract 5

Right, now map the result to a letter of the alphabet, where A=1, B=2 etc.
Think of a country which begins with that letter.
Take the second letter of the country and think of an animal which begins with that letter.
Think of the colour of that animal...









You're thinking of a grey elephant from Denmark, right?

Yes, exactly right, a Danish Grey Elephant. When I did this I got a bit spooked about matters of behavioural predictability, the illusion of free will and all that milarky,,,, that was untill I started messing about with the maths in your question and realised that the answer is allways 4 which gives the letters of D and E. From there on in it is a simple matter of the fact that the brain commonly throws up the most familiar solutions to you first. I'm not familiar with any countries other than Denmark begining with a D, and Elephant was the first animal to spring to mind (Eagle might have been a close second).
A good trick, I shall be trying it out on a few people myself.

But it works only if you're thinking in english

yes, it has no bearing whatsoever on people who think in shades of the colour blue...

I managed to get Ostriches in the Dominican Republic, but then, what the hell, everyone knows I'm on a different planet.

Right, now a proper trick:

Knocking the Chalk Marks through the table.
For this you will need
* One piece of white chalk (possibly from a pub dartboard)
* A pub table
* one or more credulous onlookers.

Tell the onlookers that with a thump, you can knock two chalk marks through the pub table. When they are looking, show them, Doubting-Thomas style, your hands to show that they are not already marked with chalk. When they are not looking, or with your hands under the table why you are giving the introductory spiel, 'colour in' the nails of your index and middle finger on your left hand with the chalk. Ask them to inspect the underside of the table.
Now, put two chalk marks on top of the table about a centimetre apart. Press your left hand flat under the table, give a look of extreme concentration and bang your right fist violently, Kruschev-style on top of the table onto the marks. As you do this, make a fist of your left hand thereby transferring the chalk marks to its palm. Show your audience both your palms, and your newly acquired chalk stigma. Remove the chalk from your fingernails by rubbing when no one is looking.
This one can have them going for ages.

What color were the Ostriches?

I heard of a similar trick, except it used the last letter i.e do the maths; think of a country; take the last letter and think of an animal; take it's last letter and think of a fruit. 98% of people will get a kangaroo eating an orange in Denmark. Personally I got stumped as I couldn't think of a fruit beginning with I that a kiwi in Denmark would be eating. It was a slow day in the office and we started coming up with cats eating tangerines in the Domican Republic, and my favourite - iguanas eating apricots in Djibouti!

If anyone is still interested in this entry after so long, go to my space and loook at my journal entry "Four fingered lift"

Yes, it does work, but I don't know how.

quote

"I'd like you first to think of two different geometric shapes. No, don't think of a square, that's too easy. Now quickly draw them on your piece of paper, in some relationship to each other.

Now, quickly think of a number between 1 and 10. Right, write that down too.

Finally think of a two digit number between 1 and 50. Make the digits different and odd. Write it down.

Ok. You drew a picture of a triangle inside a circle and wrote the numbers 7 and 37.
How'd I do?

End quote


Erm....Sorry...I wrote down the numbers 4 and 17 and had a hexagon inside a star?....Not even close..