Luke Jermay - The 8Th Maneuver.pdf - L - animga

The 8th Maneuver

Luke Jermay’s

The 8th Maneuver

Written by

Luke Jermay

Design by

Andy Leviss

Published in the U.S. by

A² Productions

35 Harbor Point Boulevard, Suite 405

Dorchester, MA 02125-3207

http://www.asquaredproductions.com

Luke Jermay

First U.S. edition, June, 2002

Originally published in the U.K. by Merla, Inc.

any form without the explicit written permission of both the author

and the publisher.

The 8th Maneuver

Let us first scrutinize exactly how The 8th Maneuver appears to your

audience:

A bystander is invited to join the performer at his table. The per-

former explains that he will attempt to transmit information to the

particpant. He removes a pack of cards from his pocket and explains

that he is going to mentally transmit the name of three separate cards

to her. The performer then removes one card from the deck, shows it

to no one, and places it face down onto the table.

He then asks the participant to close her eyes and allow her mind to

construct a playing card, starting at the corner and building out. He

asks her if she has done this, and she replies, “Yes, I am getting the

Three of Hearts”

The performer turns the tabled card over and, sure enough, it is the

Three of Hearts. He offers another attempt; this time, he removes a

card and shows it to everyone in the room except for the participant.

Once again, he asks her to gently close her eyes and construct an

image of a card. She does so, and then names it out loud. Sure

enough, it is the very same card placed onto the table moments

before.

Finally, the performer shuffles the pack of cards and asks another

spectator to remove one and, without looking at it’s face, place it onto

the table top. The participant is asked to construct one last image in

her mind. She names her card, and sure enough it proves to be the

tabled card.”

•

This effect makes use of something that Richard Busch, in his land-

mark book Peek Performances termed, the “participant peek”.

So what exactly is a participant peek?

Good question, and here is an even better answer from Richard:

Luke Jermay

“[A participant peek is] what only a participant, an assistant or even a

stooge is allowed to see.”

In the effect we are dealing with, no pre-arranged stooges are neces-

sary; you will actually use an instant stooge technique. Through a

series of covert maneuvers, you will make clear to a participant what

she is to do in order for the effect to succeed.

Let us discuss the somewhat daunting notion of an instant stooge. I

enjoy the employment of instant stooging techniques in many of my

effects. I feel that, when combined with further layers of deception,

they can make for an enchanting and bold deception.

Many performers are worrisome of such techniques. It would seem

those people are afraid that either the audience will see that some-

thing is not quite as it should be, or the participant will not play their

role out correctly. These worries can cause many to brush these

techniques aside as unpractical or unreliable.

This is in no way the case. One of the finest examples of the instant

stooge concept can be found in my good friend Kenton Knepper’s

fantastic effect, “Southwest Miracle”, which is described in great

detail on Kenton’s priceless Wonder Words audio tapes, and can be

seen in action on the Desert Brainstorm, Volume One video.

The reason it is such a magnificent effect is the coupling of the

Instant Stooge Technique with some wonderfully ambiguous double

talk that makes for some powerful deceit.

The same notions have been applied to The 8th Maneuver in order to

safeguard the instant stooge technique, and to enhance the effect in

the eyes of the rest of the audience.

Let us now look at the methods in which the participant is induced to

assist in producing a graceful and audacious deception.

The 8th Maneuver

For ease of learning, I have broken the effect into three separate

stages:

1. The Methods of Instant Stooging

2. The Presentation

3. The Script

•

The Methods of Instant Stooging

In order for the effect to succeed, we need to allow the assisting

spectator to become aware of which cards have been placed onto the

table without the rest of the audience becoming aware of how or

when this knowledge is passed on.

I began working on this effect after using something for many years

in which it appeared as though one spectator read another’s mind by

naming a selected card. This standard effect involves controlling a

card to the bottom of the deck, which is then reverse fanned in front

of a spectator, who is told, “Please name the one card that is very clear

to you.”

The spectator has no choice but to name the card on the face, as no

others are visible due to the nature of the reversed fan.

When designing this effect, I wished to achieve a similarly bold and

striking deception, but to remove the clutter of the deck and only

have one card on the tabletop at any time.

I then decided that the most practical and deceptive method of

stooging the spectator would be as follows:

Take two different coloured cards, for example the six of clubs and

the three of hearts. With a sharp knife, cut from both cards one index

corner. Make each index corner roughly equal. I also round off the

sharp corners. Now adhere the two index corners back to back with a

glue stick.

Luke Jermay - The 8Th Maneuver.pdf

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