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Combined, these two steps will make most people feel like they have checked the bill enough for it not to have been a specially-prepared prop. Don't make a big deal out of this step — the tone you're going for is nonchalant, like it's oh-so-obvious that the bill is normal and that both you and your victim just want to move on already to the trick proper.
Crush the bill into a ball, being careful to keep the text hidden on the inside so you don't give the trick away. Place the three cups mouths down on the table in a row, and hand your victim the crushed paper bill. Tell them to hide it under any of the cups and move the cups around however they please while you look away, but don't make any promises about what you're about to do. This leaves you open to either impress them no matter what happens. Don't worry about your lack of a preamble. People are used to magic tricks having lots of instructions, and they will be willing to wait a while to find out what exactly it is you're planning to pull off — by which time you will have distracted them by completing the trick and amazing them.
Now look away, and get ready to act your heart out! Check under the cup farthest away from you, but make a big show of it! The more convincingly you can sell this portion, the more distracted your audience will be. You can hover your hand over each of the three cups like Chris does, or make it look like you're thinking really intensely about how your victim's mind works and where they must have hidden the bill.
They will be less likely to ask questions during the trick or at the end about whether or not they saw both sides of the bill, or about how you cheated, if they're too busy trying to keep track of whether you're "getting vibes" from a cup, or how you possibly be using logic to deduce where they hid the bill.
Try to go for what comes naturally to you. If you can play at being either a mystic or a standup, then test the vibes from the cups and play it trance-like or silly respectively. If you're the serious sort, then maybe pretend like you're thinking out loud as you work out where your victim hid the bill. If the bill is under the first cup, then react with pride, basking in every last bit of your newfound mind-reading glory.
You want to make it seem as if you had told the audience that you would find the bill on your first attempt if you've been following this how-to, you should have told them no such thing. But, if the bill isn't there, you can't afford to break your stride — you need to make it seem like you knew that all along. You can either move right on to the next step, unfazed, or you can sarcastically exaggerate how surprised you are that the bill wasn't there. This is one of the most important steps in the trick. Move the cup you just checked past the other two cups, such that it's now the cup nearest to you.
Make sure all three are still arranged in a clear line. You need to do this subtly as if there's nothing attention-worthy or intentional about the fact that you just moved the cup to where it is. You need it to seem like you were just trying to get it out of the way because it was empty.
Pick up the cup that's now furthest away from you. If the dollar bill is underneath it, pick up the cup that you just moved and put it back in its same spot from before. This will emphasize to your audience that the bill was under the middle cup. You can ask your victim to open up the dollar bill and examine it, and your audience will think the message that you wrote on the bill magically appeared during the course of the trick.
They should also be amazed that the writing on the text is accurate, but feel free to remind them — you have supernatural powers, no need to be shy! But, if the bill wasn't under the second cup you checked, again, make it seem like you planned that.
As before, exaggerate your disbelief that it wasn't there, or move on nonplussed. This time, however, leave the cup where it is after checking it. All that should be left to do now is reveal the prophecy-laden bill hidden under the last cup to your audience, which hasn't registered that you've moved the original first cup to the opposite end — if you've played your cards right so far mixing your metaphors will definitely help you misdirect your audience.
That cup should, by now, be the middle cup, and therefore fulfill everything you've written on the dollar bill. If you've made it this far and slipped the cup-switch past your audience, then congratulations, and take a bow. If you want a quick reference to see all those steps in action, Chris has helpfully provided a sped-up run-through of the whole trick! If you need to go over any steps in more detail, or if you just want to borrow some ideas from Chris about how to carry yourself during the trick, make sure to check out his video tutorial below.
To keep your audience from figuring out your modus operandi , diversify! Now that you've got a mentalist's trick up your sleeve, why not follow it up with some sleight-of-hand and learn how to perform the "ordinary plastic bag" card trick?
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How the Trick Goes To start off, you'll need a market, normal dollar bill, and three different-looking opaque cups it's not going to be very exciting for your audience when you pick the cup hiding the bill if you can see it through the cup. When you turn back around, you amaze your audience in one of three ways: You pick the cup hiding the bill on your first try.
If it's not there You then pick up the second cup to reveal the bill on try two, only to see that the paper money now has writing on it that says, "I'm under the middle cup," which is where the cup should be. Let's say your spectators tell you that there are six heads-up coins in the pile. All you need to do is grab that number of coins and flip them. Just any six random coins. Take the ones you flipped and move them to their own pile, which we'll call Pile 1. The remaining coins are Pile 2. Both piles will contain the same number of heads. Why does this work? Because math, that's why. Say you have 12 coins total.
Your friend tells you six are heads, so you flip and separate six random ones -- if two are heads and four are tails, you're still left with four heads in each group. Here, we made a chart:. Don't live in one of those weird countries with coins that have heads on both sides. Go on, take a hammer to your swear jar and try this.
If you're accused of feeling the coins as you go, just repeat it with cards or driver's licenses. And if they still think your super-sensitive fingers can distinguish the images you're touching Your friend orders a bottle of beer, but you realize there's something horribly wrong with it: You're not the one holding it. So, you propose a deal: You ask your friend to find the bottle's bar code and read you all the digits except the last, and if you can guess what the last digit is, the sweet elixir is yours for free.
Tell him he can grab any package with a bar code, or just go around and look at them -- they're all different, even among the same products. So your friend says yes, obviously, because you only have a 1 in 10 chance of picking the right number. Then you do exactly that, and he's so shocked that he empties the bottle on your face. Hey, free beer is free beer.
The last digit of a bar code, or the check digit , is pretty easy to figure out because that's exactly what it's there for: It's actually the answer to a simple math problem based on all the other numbers. Scanners use this to check whether they read the numbers correctly and make sure you're not accidentally paying for a flat-screen TV instead of that bottle of detergent. Computers usually do the work, but running the math in your head isn't that complicated if you're sufficiently motivated read: Suppose you started with this:.
Bar Code Robot Because this is a dystopian world where all beers are forced to wear labels. First, add up all the digits that aren't obscured by an MS Paint-made squiggly line. Then, starting from the right, add the first, third, fifth, and so on to your total. Then repeat that step. By now you've added every odd digit three times and every even digit once you can just skip to that if it sounds simpler for you.
Finally, subtract the last digit of your total from 10, like the handy chart below says -- and voila, that's your check digit. Cue incredulous, slightly terrified looks. Bar Code Robot Drink math responsibly. And if you're still not done messing with everyone's minds, a similar but slightly more complicated calculation can be used to figure out the last number of any credit card.
It's trickier to work out mentally if you're already half past drunk, but do it right and your friends will start wearing tin foil hats around you to protect them from your obvious psychic powers. At your local bookstore, you spot an attractive somebody carrying the exact same book as you, because it's the only book they sell it's a bad bookstore. He or she seems a little skeptical when you say this means you must be soul mates, so you offer to prove it with a magical gesture worthy of a John Cusack rom-com.
Pick a starting page, and each of you secretly choose any word from the first line. Silently spell it out and move one word forward for each letter. So if you start with the word "throbbing," move nine words forward; if you land on "moaned," move six words.
Place the three cups mouths down on the table in a row, and hand your victim the crushed paper bill. Then ask your friend to:. Audible Download Audio Books. Get a spectator to point to any card. Then ask your friend to: This unusual book, containing an impressive variety of crazy card tricks, is sure to delight young and old alike. How to write a great review Do Say what you liked best and least Describe the author's style Explain the rating you gave Don't Use rude and profane language Include any personal information Mention spoilers or the book's price Recap the plot.
Do that until you reach the end of the page. At the end, announce the word you landed on: It must be destiny! Or, you know, just simple arithmetic. The secret is based on the Kruskal count , which isn't the name of a magic-wielding vampire, but of a mathematical parlor trick discovered by physicist Martin Kruskal.
Scientists have been using this for decades to hit up chicks, while others use it for the slightly different purpose of proving the existence of God. Essentially, no matter which word you started from, if the text on the page is long enough don't do this with a Dr. Seuss book , you'll both hit the same word at some point, and from then on the paths will be the same.
Magicians use this all the time. Here's the Kruskal method illustrated with cards -- yellow and blue start separately but inevitably meet up on the four of clubs:. Princeton Alumni Weekly "So maybe you and I should inevitably meet, at four, at the club, eh? So really, your amazing connection was based less on some mystical love voodoo and more on cold, mathematical certainty.
It's just like using OKCupid. Somehow, you learn the birth date of someone you want to impress. Maybe you're carding her at a 7-Eleven, or getting her license and registration for speeding. Either way, you read the date and absent-mindedly add, "Ah, a Saturday. Please, you must tell no one. I can't go back to the laboratory. We're assuming you're also devastatingly attractive. You don't have to be very smart to calculate the day of the week for any date -- not when eminent mathematician John Conway already devised a clever shortcut for that, which he somewhat overdramatically named the doomsday rule.