Hardin's Magic Brain

Firstly let
let me start by saying thank
thank you to
to all the people that have
have followed this course.
It really is crazy how time flies – This is the 6 th volume in the series and this month we
will be looking at ‘Numbers’.
I am writing the introduction to this volume from within a tiny coffee shop in Dusseldorf
(Germany) and was hit with a moment of overwhelming feelings at how far I have come on
my journey. I was reading through an old notebook of mine (of which I have many, s temming
back to scribbles from the first week I became interested in mentalism) and I read a
paragraph that has inspired this introduction.
-
“I really wish I knew more about the grandfathers of mentalism, I know their material
(which is incredible, inspiring and life changing) but I really wish I knew more about
them as people. What they felt
felt like when they were writing,
writing, what inspired them, what was
their interests/ hobbies outside of mentalism
mentalism and what would it be like to sit and have a
conversation
conversation with them”.
I wrote that sentiment 4 years ago. It dawned on me just now, even though I never expect
to be as well-known
well-known as the greats in mentalism
mentalism or even
even spoken of with the same respect,
respect, I
may not ever meet you the reader in person. I may not ever get to sit and have a
conversation with you in person (which is a shame as I wish we could all connect) and I
realized that after all of these years that is what my writing is missing… ME
During this volume (and this volume alone) I am going to share my feelings whilst writing.
You will get to know
k now how I am feeling at the time of writing certain sections and I will
be open and honest about
about me as a person
person as to give you an insight into
into my world.
At the time of writing this introduction I am content, I started my journey in magic and
mentalism roughly 23 years ago and cannot believe all of the amazing opportunities and
doors it has opened up for me and I am thankful more than you guys will ever know.
I was a strange child, a little bit distant and had a crazily vivid imagination.
I was bitten by the magic bug the day after my mother abandoned me and my younger brother
‘Sam’
Sam’ on my Nans doorstep. I remember seeing Lance Burton on television on Xmas day (we
were ditched Xmas eve) and being in awe as I watched him make doves appear and disappear,
candles turn into handkerchiefs and range of other unworldly things. I knew in my heart
from that very moment what I wanted from life… To be a magician.
I was an unruly child, wild and carefree and very, very independent. I think upon
reflection that my Mum leaving was probably the best and worst thing that has ever
happened to me. The best in the sense it changed time and space and opened up this world
of opportunity the worst because psychologically it makes it very difficult for me to
sustain a meaningful relationship with people (as a whole).
I learnt my first series of magic tricks from a supply teacher that came into the school,
I had been making drawings of me performing magic tricks and had told him that when I
grew up that’s what
what I was going to be… Not what I wanted to be, what
what I was going to be.
Armed with an array of effects – I wanted to show anyone who would give me the time of
day my skills.
The problem was that no one really
really cared for my magic asas a child, it really fucking hurt
every time I tried to show someone a trick and they never took me seriously or dismissed
d ismissed
me. The only person that ever did was my Granddad and I saw him in-frequently. I started
to become withdrawn and more wild, it seemed the
the only time people paid attention
attention to me was
when I did something dangerous like jumping out of trees or climbing shed roofs. I became
a fighter, where I grew up you had to learn to defend yourself and this made me more
unruly. It was really strange because my circle of friends were the sort that attracted
bullies, my best friend had (and still has) no hair as he had lost it to alopecia, another
friend of mine was Mark Pearson, was obsessed with Freddy Kruger and used to draw him
all the time and then there was Robert Greenwood who stuck wax crayons in his ears and
ate them (why I don’t know). The only thing that could ever really hurt us? Words – If
anyone even
even came close to trying to physically
physically attack
attack me or my friends (and
(and they tried on
numerous occasions) I would battle them.
That part of my world
world was manic.
Magic was the exact opposite - it brought balance and order to my life and it gave me
something to look forward to. Creating effects, sitting and refining my skills, having
something that was just mine that no one could take away from me and it made me feel
alive.
I stayed friends with my small group throughout the entirety of my school life and the
only thing that really changed was the way that magic was perceived. David Blaine came
onto the scene, I was in high school at the time (we call it upper school in England) and
when his special hit T.V suddenly magic was cool. I was constantly flocked at high school
to perform effects.
It was really strange because our little group had shifted from being outcasts to in-
betweeners. We were accepted by the popular kids and even managed to stop a lot of the
bullying that occurred in our year at school. It really was strange because the line
between popular and outcast really became blurred, towards the end of high there really
wasn’t much of a difference anymore. I am not saying I was the sole reason for this
happening but I know the magic certainly helped.
Because I always
always did my own thing and
and never cared about anyone
anyone else’s
else’s opinion, when girls
suddenly ‘appeared’ I was very popular because of my way of life. I used to walk down the
corridors with a guitar on my back twiddling cards around… In hindsight I probably looked
like a complete penis. I never shared with the ladies what I did on a Saturday afternoon
– Each Saturday I worked on a market stall pitching magic products wearing a purple
velvet suit… I can assure you I looked more or a penis than the guitar toting card twiddler
I was Monday through Friday.
I remember being on the stall and picking up a book that was all the way from America
(for the life in me I can’t remember what it was) and closing my eyes and imagining that
someone on the other sside
ide of the world would read my creations. It gave me a really strange
warm feeling. I continued creating effects and performing them at school, moving from one
girlfriend to the next (not real relationships,
relationships, the teenage kind)
kind) and was very happy with
the way things were going, life was running smoothly for the first time in what seemed
an eternity.
My school life came to an end at 14 – I never finished upper school.
-
This is a fact a lot of people do not know about me, I started at first skiving (skipping)
school and going round to a friend’s house to build cars and play the guitar. For the
record he never led in anyway, I made my own decisions. This went on for about a year
and then my Nan found
f ound out, she took the news surprisingly well
we ll but my uncle (My Nan’s
son) who also lived with us went psycho. My uncle was a hot head and was very corporal
with his punishments (too extreme at times) and after a good beating he threw me down the
front steps of the house and told me not to come back.
Things were about to change massively. I had just turned 15 and I was stubborn, if I had
returned home a couple of days later and begged for their forgiveness I would have been
allowed back, I know that in my heart of hearts.
hearts. At the time
time I took it as a personal attack
and after remember how my mum had treated me couldn’t help but feel that I was getting
the same treatment. I vowed to punish them by not returning. It was autumn (fall) going
into winter and I had no covers
covers a very small amount of clothing and
and nowhere to go as my
Nan was the only family that I had that lived in the area.
The first couple of weeks I went to a nearby allotment and made a little shack out of
broken bits of wood, twigs and debris and during the day did
d id the same as I always did
(never telling anyone my situation as I was too proud) and at night when all my friends
had gone in from playing out I returned to my shack.
I got caught living there by one of the residents that lived near the allotments and I
was forced to flee… I needed to change my tactics. I headed for the city center in the day
time and busked using magic to make money get food and sustain myself and the nighttime
I would find a phone box to stay in for warmth.
One day quite by chance my friend Tom (the chap who had
h ad lost his hair due to alopecia)
was off of school and I was on my way down towards his house and met a local business
owner John Creber who saw me messing around with the old pasteboards (cards). He asked me
to show him a trick and after showing him a few of my pet effects he asked me what I was
doing off of school. I don’t know what compelled me but I told him I had left school (I
never mentioned the fact that I was living
living on the streets).
streets).
He told me to come see him when I was 16 and he would give me a joinery (carpentry)
apprenticeship, I remember jokingly telling
telling him to pick a card and if I could guess it he
was to give me the apprenticeship early.
early.
Cut a long story short the next day I was working for ‘Accommodate U.K’!
I was finally earning money, I rented a little bed sit on my own at 15 and had a full
time job in a position
pos ition that most people would have had to finish school with good grades
to get… All because
because of magic. It was around about this time sat in my bed sit I turned the
television on and saw Derren
Derren Brown. My interest
interest in mentalism
mentalism had started
started I was hooked
hooked and
the rest is as they say – History.
I will save the rest of the story for another time as I feel by now
no w that you are itching
to get into the content.
content. But
But I wanted to share with you
you just how much of a consistent thing
magic/ mentalism has been in my life. It is the only thing that has truly stayed with me
through everything, relationships have come and gone as have friendships but the things
I am sharing with you in these volumes come from my heart and soul.
so ul.
If I went back to having nothing again tomorrow (in the materialistic sense) - I would
still be smiling as I would still have this.
Through thick and thin…
thin…

P.s – My friend stopped
s topped eating wax crayon… Well at least I think he did.
Seems like a crazy
crazy question right?
right?
Think about it,
it, numbers are something that appear
appear in every single aspect
aspect of our life from
pin codes, telephone numbers, addresses, age/ d.o.b to the # code of the hue scripting of a
colour! It makes complete sense to focus on numbers when performing mentalism. There are
so many interesting routines that are created based around number mentalism that it really
would be a shame to not take a look at some of the things that can be created around these
abstract units. I am going to start by sharing the re-workings
re -workings of an idea of mine
m ine from
my very first release ‘Devious realities’ it is strange for me to look back at that work,
it really was a pivotal
pivotal point in defining who
who I am now. I look at it and sometimes shake
shake
my head at how naïve I was, the methods and plots were cool but some of my thinking back
then was out there. Kenton really
really seemed to
to enjoy this routine,
routine, it was
was my take on ‘Gumball
guessing’ at a fair ground except with Lego blocks?!?
blocks?!? Why Lego blocks I do not know but I
got some great mileage out of this
this routine look how different
different I look here
here ha!
The main reason I want to share this routine is that within it there is an interesting
principle that takes place towards the back end of the routine (or at least how I would do
it now) after reading this I am going to share a close up variation straight out of my
close up set. The method for this is very, very simple and enables so much in terms of
performance.
I am going to start this routine in an unusual fashion, by sharing the method first!
The method we are going to be employing during this routine is the old ‘Toxic force’ –
Here is the outlined method for the Toxic force.

This principle goes all the way back to the 70’s and as far as I am aware is credited to
Bob King. John Cornelius is credited
credited in other literature
literature that I have read on this subject
but I believe
believe it pre-dates
pre-dates him.
This principle enables you to turn some scientific calculators and mobile (cell) phone
calculators into calculators that will force any total you want – Without having to rewire
them or tamper with them. I personally
personally use an IPhone
IPhone to perform this
this principle.
I always borrow the participant’s phone, I never use my own. Ensure the phone you use is
an ‘IPhone
‘ IPhone’’ – This will not work on an android. If you have an IPhone you can try this
now, if you do not ask someone who does (that you know) if you can try this.
Type in any total you want to force on your calculator,
calculator, then press

To punch in the Parenthesis
Parenthesis (open bracket)
bracket) on the IPhone you
you have to rotate the phone on
its side and the calculator
calculator on an IPhone
IPhone will turn into
into a scientific calculator.
calculator. Ensure
you press the buttons in that order and if you have done it right the times key will be
highlighted. Simply press the number zero and you are ready to test the phone.
Type in any sum you want, make a few additions, subtractions, and
and when you are done
press equals and the look at what happens… The total you want to force will be the total
of all the sums you typed in!!
Just like that, you have an Add-A-Number force calculator.
The reason this is called the TOXIC principle should be apparent but even people in the
know sometimes miss this – toxic is the mnemonic used to remember the buttons to press.
T O X I C
+ 0 X |(
It’s a quick way to remember, should you forget the order to press the b uttons in.
I will explain how I punch this into the participant’s phone in the second variant of this
effect.
“A wisdom of crowds was a theory used
used to guess the weight of an ox. Many people have seen
contests in which they win a prize if a single person can guess the number of items in a
barrel or jar. This is because guessing on your own can deceive you. Working with an
average of many
many minds often gets you closer
closer to the truth.”
A jar is displayed that is filled with Lego toy pieces (or sweets). Eight people call out
their guesses of the amount of Legos in the jar. A subject acting as judge writes
writes down the
guesses called out. The judging spectator adds up all the numbers called out and gets a
large sum, such as 984. The judge then divides this large sum by the number of people who
called out numbers and gets to the average number of the group. In this example, 123. The
judge then opens the jar (or someone else may do so). Inside the jar, on top of the Legos is
a paper with the true amount
amount of Legos in
in the jar written
written on it. Amazingly
Amazingly the total is 123!
The calculations help
help both to bury and excuse the use
use of the calculator.
calculator.
I took the amount of Legos (123 pieces) and decided I was going to have eight people call
out their guesses from the audience, so I punched in this equation on an unprepared
calculator:
123 x 8
This totaled 984, 984 is going to be the
the number I force.
force.
When I am performing this effect I always use this line –
Performer: “Inside this jar there are a number of Lego blocks, I think it is obvious by
looking there is more than one piece and just so you are aware there isn’t over three
hundred pieces. I want you all to think of how many blocks there are
are inside this jar”.
I would then ask eight people to shout numbers out, as the numbers are being shouted out I
have a judge on the stage who punches the number into the calculator.
Of course this is when the person
person uses the IPhone and the total
total is already predetermined.
predetermined.
They add in all the numbers and hit the = button, thus arriving at the total 984. I then
proceed to address the audience,
Performer: “I did say earlier that there is less than 300 hundred pieces and therefore I
think it is obvious that there is not 984 pieces, but if we take that total and divide it
by the number of people that took a guess we will arrive at the average number of the
group as a whole.
whole. This is known as ‘The wisdom of crowds’.”
crowds’.”
This is the beautiful part of the routine and the bit that I think completely kills any
notion of the method existing.
existing.
I would then ask a member of the audience to remove their phone and go to their calculator
–
While they are doing this I ask the participants that made a guess to raise their hand and
I count them asking each one to drop their hand as I do so. This gives the person getting
the phone out time to access the calculator
calculator and kills
kills the dead time.
I then tell the person who has the calculator to punch in the total 984 and divide it by
8 as that is the number
number of players
players and then press
press equals and call out the total.
The total of course is
is going to be 123 –
This is such a strong routine
routine - it hits hard! I also love
love the fact that the last section of
the routine ends in the spectators hands.
hands.
There is one subtlety that I highly recommend, when applying the toxic force it’s
understandable to be worried about letting the participant punch the numbers into the
phone as they could accidentally
accidentally punch in the wrong digits or clear the toxic force when
they make a mistake
mistake by pressing the clear button.
button.
I had this happen on several occasions when first putting this type of routine into my
close up act.
Whenever you hit a snag like this, it’s very easy to over think the situation and decide
you are going to punch the digits into the phone to save this happening.
This totally detracts from the overall power
power of the routine, it kills the reaction on the
end and leaves people with theories as to how the effect is achieved such as ‘maybe he
didn’t
didn’t punch in the right digits’ or ‘maybe he did something sneaky that we didn’t see’.
There is a simple
simple remedy – think about the choreography
choreography of the routine and the way it is
constructed.
Sometimes something as simple as one sentence can completely control the entire way a
participant acts.
In this situation the sentence I found worked the most seamlessly.
Performer: “I want you to do your best to punch in the numbers exactly as they are called
out, but if you make a mistake don’t worry just keep moving forwards,
forwards, don’t try to rectify
the mistake, as the mistake
mistake will just add to
to the randomness of the outcome of the total”.
total”.
One thing I focus on extensively
extensively that I feel trumps
trumps every
every other principle in mentalism
mentalism is
‘Reframing’.
There are a lot of times when I feel a routine has a moment or phase that detracts from
the overall performance
performance and the logical thing is to try and hide that moment or make it
as invisible as possible.
possible.
I think that the exact opposite logic should be applied sometimes. The process of taking
that moment and making it stand out the greats of mentalism ‘Banachek’ and ‘Ned Rutledge’
Rutledge’
call ‘Painting it red’. When I read about this principle I instantly fell in love with it
and it inspired me to think about how I could apply this logic
logic to my performances. After
a while I got so used to
to taking the negative moments in performance
performance and changing them so
that they made
made the overall
overall performance
performance seem
seem impossible that
that I started
started to call this process
‘Reframing’.
I was asked last week why I name every subtlety or principle and give it a label, this is
something that I feel is a good question, you may have even wondered that yourself and
the honest answer is once I have named a subtlety or a principle its easy when I am
creating an effect to quickly jump to the reference of the principle or subtlety if it has
a name.
Sometimes I create principles and have no place to put them as they don’t naturally fit
the context of the premise or method I am working with at the time and I am never one to to
use a method or a principle for the sake of it. So I give it a name, which makes it findable
later when I am going through my notes.
Not only that, when someone asks me questions later it quickly enables me to know exactly
which detail they are talking about.
Anyway back to reframing, in this routine you will notice that the worry is that the
participant may clear the toxic force out of the calculator. We take this moment and we
make it an integral part of the routine and claim that if it happens it is something that
none of us could have pre-empted and it only makes the entire routine as a whole more
impossible.
This from the participant’s perspective
perspective seems to be logically true and therefore it is
something that is not questioned because it coincides with their logic.
Rapport building is massively important in mentalism, the only time one should ever try
to go against the grain,
grain, is if it completely
completely integral to the routine (in terms
terms of that’s how
the method works or it entails going against the grain in order to re-frame the
performance)… Let me try to give an example that is not relevant to this situation (very
quickly I promise).
Peek Wallets – I fucking hate them, no offence to anyone that has created one or anyone
that utilizes
utilizes them they just don’t work for me it doesn’t fit my character. A few years ago
ago
I was consulting for a performer who adored them and no matter how much I tried to
persuade him to convert to a good billet
billet peek he wasn’t
wasn’t swaying.
I asked him what his justification was – he told me he didn’t need one
on e and that may be
true (for you the reader) but the amount of times I saw people ask to look at the wallet
after a routine was startling.
startling. He asked if I could
could help create
create a routine that utilized
utilized the
peek wallet.
The long and short of the
the justification was this –
You find the biggest skeptic in the group, point out that you would like to play a game
where they have the chance to win everything and lose nothing, by everything you mean
all the money that
that is in the wallet.
wallet.
This is
is the point you would open the wallet and show 20/ 30 pounds, and bring out a business
card with a blank side on it.
Explain that the skeptic
skeptic is to make a drawing
drawing on the card – This ensures that they cannot
lie later on or change their mind… Why wouldn’t they if the temptation of mone y is
involved?
While the skeptic is making the drawing nominate a judge who is going to be the mediator,
it is explained that the card is going to be placed inside the wallet with the money and
they are to hold onto it. This ensures that the skeptic cannot
cannot switch the card and that the
money is on display at all times.
I think you can work the rest out.
It is integral to this routine to rub against the grain and create a game type scenario to
justify the need to put the card into the wallet. The logic that
tha t was created sits with the
participants understand of what is logical and we have reframed the weakest part in the
routine to be the fairest. This is I feel the only time you should go against the grain –
playfully.
The rest
rest of the time
time it should be about creating
creating a positive
positive rapport – I have literally seen
performers ask people if they believe in psychics and then tear into the participant for
their beliefs and that is not cool, nor does it make people want to remember you or pay
an interest in what
what it is you have to show them.
When you reframe the parts of a routine that are the ‘compromise’ - reframe them to fit
the participant’s beliefs and create
create a logic from their perspective.
perspective.
Note to the reader*** to stick in line with the way I set out to write this volume (as
mentioned in the introduction) I thought I would share my feelings at this point.
Whenever I am writing I feel one of two ways, excited inspired and raring to go or
irritated, poorly (ill) and the words start to become a blur and I wish the world
wo rld would
just swallow me so I get away from the same sentence that I keep messing up over and over
again.
It is currently 5.45am I have not slept for two days, I have just finished consulting for
the night and time has ran away with me. This happened yesterday
yesterday I had not eaten
eaten all
all day
and by the time I had finished around this sort of time,
time, left to get something to eat
eat and
then replied
replied to my mail over breakfast,
breakfast, it was 9am. After breakfast
breakfast I was asked to go into
into
a meeting with
with a magic company – which lasted an hour and a half. I then opened my mail
on Facebook and forgot that I had booked to have a meeting with a graphic designer, after
the meeting
meeting I talked with
with Ben Seward via
via whatsapp
whatsapp about his new book and wrote a forward
for him and then Skype began to ring and Mijrin was calling me – After an hour on Skype
with Mijrin, a shower and a little bit of writing for
fo r myself (this volume) I was consulting
again and today I was filming the introduction to this series and editing it whilst
multitasking and I was supposed to be going on a date this evening but cancelled it as I
was needed for a consultation… Don’t think I will be seeing her again.
Anyway I have ‘Making a murderer’ on in the background and I am now writing again, I
feel dehydrated but no amount of liquid is helping hydrate me. My eyes are burning in the
sockets but I have too many ideas going around in my head right now to sleep.
Mijrin joined me during part of my tour in Holland and he asked me after witnessing it
firsthand how I cope – The honest answer is sometimes
sometimes I don’t!
What I am about to share is straight out of my working set. I love this routine… It kills
– When you read this, it is going to seem simple and you might dismiss it, try it because
I promise you the reactions you get when performing this routine are crazy. I have
h ave shared
this routine with one other performer and he was dubious when he read it, he saw me
performing this routine, added it into his close up set and he now uses this at every
performance he does.
Let me outline the full performance first then break it down piece by piece.
There are a couple
couple of really
really beautiful moments
moments of psychology in this routine.
I have never given this routine a title – Staying consistent to the type of documentary
that is on in the background
background I am going to call this routine
routine –

The performer is sat at a table after performing several feats of mind reading with a
small group of participants.
One of the participants
participants addresses the performer –
Participant: “Can anyone do what you do or is it something that you were born with”.
Performer: “Anyone can do it, it just takes time, and with the right guidance
guidance you wouldn’t
believe the things that are possible.
possible. Do you have a bank note?”
note?”
The participant reaches
reaches into their bag and produces
produces a bank note.
The performer hands the note to another participant at the table whist addressing the
group,
Performer: “I am so confident in your ability to do this, I am willing to bet ten pounds
of Sam’s money on the outcome”.
The performer
performer asks to borrow
borrow the participant’s phone and accesses their calculator and lays
the phone face up on the table. He then looks at the participant to his far left.
Performer: “I was asked if anyone can do this, they really can but you need to trust
yourself. I live at a property that has a two digit number on the door, tell me what number
house do I live at?”
at ?”
Participant: “17”
The performer punches
punches 17 into the phone and then continues,
continues,
Performer: “As you walk into my house there are a series of paintings
painting s I painted, one is a
triangle with the word freedom under it, what three digits
digits are surround
surround the triangle?”
Participant: “363”.
The performer punches those digits into the calculator, then looks at the second participant.
Performer: “I am going to add whatever digits you say to XXX’s.
XXX’s. I have a year in mind, a
year that is special to me. Tell me when you have a year in your head don’t say it out
loud”.
Participant: “I have one”.
Performer: “You second questioned yourself, that’s not the year . Change your
your mind and tell
tell
everyone
everyone what year you feel is important to me”.
Participant: “2008”.
Performer: “Looking at me what singular digit is coming into your mind?”
Participant: “6”.
The performer punches the numbers
numbers into the calculator
calculator and then quickly
quickly addresses a third
participant,
Performer: “Name the first number that pops into your head?”
Participant “9”.
The performer
performer presses the plus key very openly and presses
presses the number nine and then stops
stops
– He readdresses the third participant.
Performer: “In-fact
“In-fact take the phone, punch in a random digit (the participant does)… Another
(the participant does)… another two (the
(th e participant does). Place the phone face up on the
table”.
The performer looks
looks at the group for a second and then
then addresses them,
them,
Performer: “I asked you to tell me the exact address I lived at, I live at 17 Thornton rd.
and the painting inside my house has a triangle with the numbers 363 surrounding it.
Anyone in your position would have gone for the exact same numbers”.
He looks towards participant number 2,
Performer: “2008 was the year that my son was born and the number 6 was the very first
digit I learnt to transmit from mind to mind and started me upon the very journey that
has led me to this table right now and anyone in your position would have gone for the
same numbers also”.
also”.
He then looks towards the third participant,
Performer: “The numbers you punched in were seemingly random, had this of been anyone
else these digits would have been different but fate decided you would punch in these
numbers. Fate decided you would be here tonight, out of anywhere else in the world that
you could have been and fate decided that we would meet.
Press the equal’s button”.
Does this total mean anything to anyone here?”
The group proclaim
proclaim that it doesn’t.
The performer then
then reaches for his wallet
wallet whist saying
saying –
Performer: “Would you believe
believe me if I told you that before I left the house tonight I took
a pen and on a receipt
receipt in my wallet I wrote
wrote this number down and brought it with
with me?”
The group look in disbelief as the performer casually shows his hands empty and slowly
reaches for his wallet, the group lean in intently waiting to see the receipt the performer
slowly opens his wallet and says –
Performer: “No I haven’t”
The group breathe
breathe a sigh of relief.
relief.
The performer then
then addresses the group,
group,
Performer: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if this total was the serial number on the bank note
that you have been holding the entire time?”
The group look at the
the serial number…
number… It matches
matches and the group go crazy!
Trust me, when
when I tell
tell you
you how amazing the reactions are when performing this routine… It
kills
Hence calling it Serial Killer.
I am going to break this routine down into steps, the first step is stealing the serial
number from the participant’s
participant’s bank note
note – This is incredibly easy

When you ask the participant for a bank note, try to ensure that it comes from the
participant’s purse or wallet. The reason being that the note will be in the note section
of the wallet and it will come out flat as opposed to folded. If it does come out folded
don’t worry, just simply open it.
You are looking for the serial number, on the English notes it is on the width edge of
the note. Remember the last six digits, on an English note they
they are
are grouped
grouped together. There
is no real technique to remembering
remembering the 6 digits
digits - let’s say the number was 873456, I just
say it to myself in my head a couple of times. You can break it up into two, three digit
numbers but honestly
honestly you are only remember the
the digits for a few seconds.
On an American note, remember the
the first 6.
The way that this section of the routine is framed is that you are using this as part of
gag/ prize, there is no heat on the note as that is all it seemingly there for. No one is
watching out for you to be looking at the serial number, just take your time there is no
rush, in performance trust me this flies by.
The mechanics are simple you take the note whilst
whilst saying –
Performer: “I am so confident in your ability to do this… (This is where you take your
peek) I am willin g to bet (Double check
check the serial
serial number) 20 pounds of XXX’s money on the
outcome”.
It gets a laugh and you hand the note to someone in the group. You are literally
literally holding
the note for the briefest
briefest period of time
time and handing it
it on.
When you come to the kicker of the routine the participants will swear you didn’t touch
the note and you didn’t ever
ever know/ see the serial number. The amount of times people
people will
swear that they handed the note to whoever is holding it is startling.
The next section is loading
loading the total into the participant’s phone.
phone.

This is my favourite section because
because it is the boldest little
little moment in the entire
entire routine
but flies by beautifully.
beautifully.
When you get to the calculator hold it towards yourself and look at the participant who
gave you bank note, punch in the serial number on the calculator and apply the toxic
force.
Then proclaim to yourself,
yourself,
Performer: “In fact, let’s do it this way”.
[The aim here is to make it seem like you were going to get them to do something and then
at the last second changed your mind. I would suggest
s uggest putting the phone face down for a
few seconds and then picking it up and stating
s tating the line above.
After stating the above line hit the number 0 and BOOM! You are ready to rock and roll,
the rest is
is all presentation
presentation from
from this point. There are a couple of moments in the routine
I want to talk about that make this routine special (at least to me). This first is to pay
attention to what numbers the participant calls out. This routine you will find makes it
incredible easy for you to remember the numbers that are called out as each one you are
connecting to something visual. The numbers are also broke down into sections, so it’s not
like remembering a huge total but a series of broken down numbers.
There is 2 digit
digit address, a 3 digit number around
around a painting,
painting, a year and a random digit –
remembering them like this you will have all the time in the world to commit them to
memory.
You don’t need to remember the last 5 digits that
t hat the participant punches in.
When you call out the digits back to the participant in a confident manner (just before
they press the equal’s button) it will be as though the participant’s genuinely guessed
numbers that are tied to your life. When the reveal hits at the end of the routine it
confirms that they genuinely did guess things from your life (giving themselves credit
for doing something that can only be described as inexplicable).
Another little subtlety is when the second participant
participant thinks of
o f a year. It really doesn’t
matter what number the participant thinks of as the total is predetermined so I take
advantage of this tiny moment – I tell the participant the first year they are thinking
of is wrong and to change their mind, without them ever saying the year they are thinking
of out loud. Think of this from a psychological point of view, it suggests that you can
read whatever
whatever numbers come into the participant’s head when they were thinking of them
(in a very indirect sense). This is again confirmed when the reveal comes to fruition.
There is one
one more area I have
have found gets a great reaction even though I have done nothing,
the wallet.
wallet. This moment
moment plays
plays a huge part in the routine from a construction
construction point
point of view
as it releases some of the pressure that has been built up and kills a lot
lot of the participant’s
expectations. When the numbers are revealed to be the serial number of the bank note it
totally takes the participant out of the left field and knocks them for six. I love the
idea of diverting
diverting the attention of the
the aud
audience
ience after creating an expectation,
expectation, killing that
expectation and then reinstating it with a bang. This routine is one of those routines that
is ultra-simple
ultra-simple in terms of mechanics and the big moment doesn’t take a long time to get
to. Try this routine at least once I guarantee
guarantee you
you will love the
the way it plays
plays out.

This routine is a routine that I have mass amounts of fun playing around with, the more
you do this the faster you will get at it and the cleaner it will appear.
This is a variant of something that I released in the past that 90% of you wont of seen
or had the chance to play with and this is a variation you most certainly have not seen
as I have been selfish with it for some time.
I am so shocked
s hocked that no one has come across this before, it is not only clever but fun to
perform and impossible to back track.

The performer proposes to try an experiment with a couple of participant’s, before he
attempts the experiment he looks at the two participants
participants and tries to work out how each of
them thinks. He proclaims that one of them he believes sees things analytically and the
other aesthetically but he might be wrong.
He asks the first participant to take out their mobile phone and punch in a series of
random digits, whilst the first participant is doing that the second participant is asked
to think of the name of someone that means something to them but not to go for a
ridiculously long name for reasons that they will understand in a moment.
The first participant
participant adds more digits to the digits he has already
already punched in and whilst
the first participant is punching numbers in the second participant is asked to look at
their dial pad on their
their phone and under the numbers they will see letters.
letters. They are
are asked
to convert the letters
letters to numbers so for example the name ‘Rose’ would convert to the
numbers ‘7673’ as the letter R appears with the number 7 above it the letter O with the
number 6 above it
it and so on and so forth.
The participant
participant is advised
advised to not choose a name that is longer
longer than 6 letters
letters as they
they have
to remember the digits
digits and the entire outcome
outcome of the experiment is based
based on their ability
to do so.
The first participant at this point has finished creating a random pin code, the second
participant is handed the phone and is asked to add their private code to the first
participants and press equals. The performer directs the second participant to not worry
about the total as it will confuse things the total is there merely
merely to obscure the two pin
codes and that if he (the performer)
p erformer) was to look at the total he couldn’t differentiate
between the first pin code punched into
into the phone and the second.
The participant agrees that is so, just before the phone is handed to the performer, the
performer notices that the first participant is looking dubious so he asks for the total
to be erased entirely.
entirely.
The performer then looks at the first participant and guesses their pin code confirming
that the participant
participant does think analyticall
analytically.
y.
He looks at the second participant and starts to struggle, he claims that his suspicions
were true the second participant focuses on things aesthetically and he would like to try
things differently as
as he is struggling
struggling with the number.
number.
The performer takes his mobile
mobile phone out and asks the participant to think about the name
of the person he is thinking of.
He takes a photo of the participant and starts to point out things from within the
photograph that are giving him clues and finishes by correctly guessing the name that the
second participant is thinking of!!

This routine was something that was created by accident, I was sat on hold when calling
Virgin media (which is an internet provider in the U.K.) and then an automated voice came
on and said “To help speed things up, use your keypad to punch in the first digit of your
accounts passcode”.
passcode”. Normally
Normally I am pissed off at the lack
lack of human interaction during these
these
phone calls, but this one was different I put the phone down before even connecting with
an actual human to
to talk about my account.
I ran straight to my note pad and thought about all the different applications, I thought
if I could get hold of the
the numbers somehow I could
could convert them back
back to letters and know
what the participant was thinking of.
The first idea I had was way off base and
a nd I was struggling to convert the numbers back
into letters as the time it took was far too long. Disappointed I made my call to Virgin
Media and put the idea to bed.
A few months later I was going back through my notebooks and I saw this idea and thought
I would give it another go. I once read a quote (I don’t know where from) that suggested
if there is ever anything you want
want to know just Google it.
I Google’d and google’d and after about an hour of searching I came across this –
www.Aer.org
This will convert the
the numbers back
back to a word in an instance.
instance.
You may be thinking to yourself – Why not just have someone write it down on a billet
and then reveal it. Valid
Valid point, put I think it is counter intuitive
intuitive to have someone
someone create
a passcode on a mobile phone to then have someone else write
write on a billet
billet – Doesn’t it make
sense to have both participants entering their information on the same platform?
Not only that, as they are changing the letters to numbers they assume you are going to
reveal the numbers making the reveal of the word/ name incredibly impressive as they
never expected
expected it.
Another positive is that it instantly makes the plot credible, claiming that you find one
participant analytical and the other aesthetic based in their thinking and then proving
it in the end by reveali
revealing
ng the information the way you first called
called it.
I believe whole heartedly if the participant is alone and you have a billet to hand
UTILIZE THE BILLET but if you don’t have a billet and you want to reveal words or names
this will work perfectly and is often more impressive as it’s a less direct line to backtrack
than writing on a billet.
Let’s first take a look at the dodge (motivation) to put the numbers into your phone to
convert them back to a word. I am going to describe this in the only way I can (from the
perspective of an IPhone owner) – If you own an android you can do this, I just don’t know
the buttons… Sorry.
Sorry.
On your IPhone visit –
The aforementioned website
website – www.Aer.org
Note to the reader*** Just to show you how good this website below is a picture of a dial
pad, create a long word and punch the numbers into the website – Here is an example of
how to create a code.

Let’s say you were thinking of the word ‘damage’ look at the numbers that create that word
The first one would be a 3 (as the letter ‘d’ is in the box with the number 3) the second
would be a 2 (as that’s where ‘a’ is) and you would do this for the rest of the letters.
Note on the IPhone the letters are underneath the dial pad.
The numbers that would
would be used to represent
represent the word damage
damage would be – 326243
If I copy these letters into the website this is what I get

You will notice looking at the photo, there is only one word – The rest are broken in
half, all you need to do is quickly look down through the center of the breaks to the one
whole word (connected) and you know what the participant is thinking of.
The question that should be on your mind
m ind right now is how in the middle of performance
do you access the website and punch in the numbers?
Test this out –
Leave the website open, press the home button on the IPhone. The phone will go back to the
main menu, go into your gallery on your phone and look at a photograph (you will understand
why in a moment).
Double tap the home button twice and a quick access menu should appear, swipe up on
anything other than the photo you are looking at and the internet page (www.aer.com). It
will close the rest of the applications and just leave them to open.
In performance you won’t have to set this up again as long as you remember to close all
other application

peter turner volume 6 numbers