Ben Cardall – Smug Guesswork

I have purposely designed these forthcoming effects (as a pdf download) so that they will combine method with technique. By that I mean that the mechanics of the effect itself will work to create a powerful performance piece but when peppered with deduction, muscle/cold reading or trance technique will take the desired effect a transform it into a completely different animal. As I am a huge fan performing effects that just use 100% technique like the cold reading or muscle reading or even a simple game of rock paper scissors, my hope for you when looking at these effects is that you will see the power of learning these skills and how they can be put to use in your current act.



FLIPPED OFF: A predicted coin toss experiment. The spectator tosses the borrowed coin 5 times, and you have accurately predicted beforehand how many times you will guess correctly! The spectator now has a chance to play as you toss the coin and you can accurately predict how many times they will correctly guess which side up the coin will land. Different results every time!





MUSICAL INFLUENCE: 3 different spectators think of 3 different songs from your musical library/deck. The first time you are able to get the song the first spectator is thinking of. The second you can guess the song and exactly what they are seeing in their heads. The 3rd time one of the other spectators correctly reads the 3rd spectators mind in order to name the song they are thinking of.





Sensory Perception : Guess what material someone is thinking of by watching how they react to it. Then have a spectator think of a drink whilst a different spectator closes their eyes and not only guesse what the other is thinking of but tastes it as well.





Psy- Do; PSY-DO: In short this is a psychic game of cluedo! As a bonus you can even tell who chose what part of the mystery, and if you desire have them imagine the face of the killer and give them a photo of who they were merely imagining.





Mobiles communicate : Divine details about your spectators and their phones, by hearing only the ringtone and even guess what their number is!





Divine Post : A spectator manages to divine incredible detail about a postcard that is in an envelope on the table throughout.



The Shoosting : My updated, modern twist on the ESP match up game. Done between a goalkeeper and a striker in a penalty shootout setting



Sherlockian 2.0 : Contained in this section are my thoughts on using deduction as part of your act and how to do it. Also included are ideas on how to tell cat and dog people apart and what they might own as well as what people’s shoes say about them including hints on personality traits and possible job role inferences as well as many more ideas.







Reviews : Ray Doetjes – Professional Mentalist from the netherlands:



Woooh, where do i need to start, well first by saying, your mind is a goldmine. You keep crunching AWESOME ideas out!



I like the minimalist approach to props. Id definitely give several effects a try starting with : PSY-DO itll fit great in walkaround. SENSORY PERCEPTION is one that i love a lot too and definitley will work it.



This is a very good manuscript, theres enough to creat 2 or 3 quality manuscripts from it.



KUDOS! All i can say is KUDOS!



Mark Elsdon (creator of ibalance and Rubik remembered) – “Smart, modern mentalism dealing with chance, music, perception, board games, intution and football. For me, the pick of the bunch is Ben’s bang up-to-date psychometry routine using mobile phones – great thinking, powerful routine. Highly recommended.”