UNLIMITED

THE BANACHEK APPROACH TO POCKET WRITING

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
I Will Never Forget It������������������������������������������������1 How Big Does A Prediction Need To Be?������������16
The Tools of the Trade�����������������������������������������������3 Routines���������������������������������������������������������������������17
Pencil It In�������������������������������������������������������������3 The PW Add-A-Number�����������������������������������17
Writing Tools���������������������������������������������������������3 The Trade Show Incapacitator����������������������������19
Writing Tablets�����������������������������������������������������������4 Cell Phone Ring Saver����������������������������������������20
Hotel Key Post-It tm Writing Tablet���������������������4 Chair Prediction��������������������������������������������������21
Business Card Writing-Tablet������������������������������4 All in a Name�������������������������������������������������������22
Tablet Placement���������������������������������������������������5 Garage Talk����������������������������������������������������������23
The Setup����������������������������������������������������������������5 Room Service������������������������������������������������������25
The Pencil Is Mightier Than the Pen����������������������6 The Photograph���������������������������������������������������27
Magician’s Thinking���������������������������������������������������7 Al Baker’s Chicken Feed������������������������������������27
Clothes��������������������������������������������������������������������8 The Al Baker Switch�������������������������������������������28
Subtleties Of The Trade��������������������������������������������9 Watch This�����������������������������������������������������������29
Congruency�����������������������������������������������������������9 In Case of Mistakes������������������������������������������������30
Concealment�������������������������������������������������������10 The Challenge������������������������������������������������������30
ConJacketment����������������������������������������������������10 I’m a PHD������������������������������������������������������������30
Blocking���������������������������������������������������������������11 Closing Bits and Pieces�������������������������������������������31
Directing��������������������������������������������������������������11
Pliant���������������������������������������������������������������������12
Writing Subtleties Shortcuts������������������������������12
Entschuldigung���������������������������������������������������12
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia���������13
Locality�����������������������������������������������������������������������14
Shirt Pocket����������������������������������������������������������14
Wallet��������������������������������������������������������������������14
Envelope Slit��������������������������������������������������������15
The Ostin Clip�����������������������������������������������������15
The Mason Jar with Ostin Clip��������������������������15
Billet Switches������������������������������������������������������15
I WILL NEVER
FORGET IT
D
occ Hilford’s Weerd Weekend in 1994.
I had attended Tony Andruzzi’s events
before, but it had been a little while
since I had attended any such group of
bizarre of mentalist get together. It was
at this event that I lectured on my PK Touches, show-
ing different ways to create the time and space effect
that has since become a classic in almost all mental-
ist and magicians staple of go-to-effects to perform
impromptu, on stage or during walk around events.
I had believed, (not hanging around most magicians
or mentalists) that this tool I am going to teach here
was already just such a tool, something that all men-
talists and magicians used. Boy was I in for a shock.
It was at this same convention that I taught Rich-
ard Webster and Docc Hilford some of my metal
bending techniques. Then I tried one more thing
for them. I performed what developed into what I
believe to be the first ever invisible book tests. At
the time, it utilized what was currently the newest
computer gizmo, the Electronic Pocket Rolodex.
This was a handy dandy new tool that allowed you
to enter all your phone numbers and contact’s infor-
mation. It was wonderful and we did not care that it
did not have a flash drive. When the batteries went
dead, you removed them, replaced them and re-en-
tered all of your contact’s information again. And
you were happy to, all for the comfort of knowing
you could take your phone numbers with you when
you left home. How life has changed. Shortly after,
Pocket Electronic Dictionaries came on the market,
now known as PED’s. My routine fell into place. The
same routine I performed for Docc and a few other
top name mentalists on that eventful day.
I pretended to remove something from my pocket
with great care. I asked Docc to hold out his hand
palm up. I gently placed this item on his open hand.
“Be careful, it’s invisible and very rare. Do you
know what it is?”
Docc had no idea, and why should he?
“It’s an invisible Palm-top Computer.”
*NOTE: At the time I referred to it as an elec-
tronic dictionary. Later, as well as now, we have
palm computers.
I made a motion with my left index finger into
my right hand as I asked him to: “Please turn it on.”
I knew that by miming the action Docc would
imitate exactly what I had just pantomimed. He did
as requested, pretending to hit a button.
“Oh, sorry you have to open it up first.”
I made an opening motion with my hands
encouraging Docc to copy my actions again. Docc
and the others in attendance chuckled nervously.
Docc opened the invisible dictionary and again pre-
tended to hit the button.
“Now down on the bottom there is a button
that says DIC,” a chuckle from the boys for some
unknown reason, “It is short for dictionary. Please hit
that.”
Docc did just as requested.
“I took all the original words out of that dictio-
nary and put my own favorite words, all seven letters
or less, there are 300 words, all seven letters or less. I
have names, places, things and even a few words that
are not so nice. Name a number from one to nine.”
Docc named two.
“Name another number from zero to nine.”
Docc named six.
1
 “Punch that in please...and finally, name another
number from zero to nine.”
This time Doc named seven.
“So you entered two hundred and sixty-seven.
Please hit the enter button and a word will come up,
it will be seven letters or less. Let me know when you
see it.”
Docc played along and told me he saw a word.
I asked for the word and he stated it was “Damien”
“Ah, yes, one of my favorite names. Do me a favor,
would you please show it to Richard.”
Docc carefully handed the invisible contraption
it to Richard.
“Richard, do you see the word Damien?”
Richard being the good guy he is played along as
well, “Yes I do,” he stated.
“You’re just as crazy as Docc.”
This brought a good laugh from the few present.
“Docc, please close the computer. I will get it from
you later. Earlier today I wrote something down upon
a piece of paper, I was not looking as I was doing it, in
fact I was doodling.
Doodling is when you let your subconscious take
over and you scribble as you relax. Sometimes you
draw a picture, sometimes you shade or scribble
words. When I was doing this I was thinking about
what word you would choose from my invisible palm-
top. In fact here it is.”
At that point I reached into my top shirt pocket,
I removed a few items that where in there, reaching
into the bottom of my pocket with my very empty
hand. Between my index finger and ring finger I
removed a folded business card and handed it to
Doc. You could cut the tension in the room with a
knife.
“As said, I was doodling and scribbling, not sure
how neat it is but surely you can make it out, go ahead
open it up.”
Docc, being the performer he is, kept his com-
posure enough to open the folded card with antic-
ipation and showmanship. When he saw what was
written upon it he broke out into laughter. Richard
and others clamored in to see what was on the card.
DAMIEN
Those present floored me as much as I had floored
them with the utterance of one word, a question if
you will: “HOW???”
I assumed that everyone in attendance would
know “HOW???” But they did not. The tool I had
assumed every mentalist used was overlooked by
most. They all knew about it but had simply over-
looked it for other tools. When I revealed how, they
all smiled. Not one of them had caught it and not
one had really thought this tool worthy of time and
effort until that moment. After I left Weerd Week-
end I started to ponder upon why so few mentalists
ever used this tool
A few people from that meeting called to ask for
pointers. A few other people I had shown the method
to do told me that the few times they had tried to
use this tool they had a hard time getting away with
it and had been caught. This made me think more
about exactly what it was that I was doing differ-
ent, what gave me confidence to use this tool all the
time? Over time I realized many of the simple things
that came instinctively to me, all the little subtleties
(there is that word again) that gave me an advantage
and allowed me to use this old tool on stage, close
up, on radio and TV and in almost every situation
except when I was naked. I am going to share that
information with you here. You will benefit from my
years of experience and I think you will find this tool
far outweighs most secret writing tools that are out
there. Plus you can find the necessary items for this
tool almost anywhere anytime.
So what is this tool?
First let me state that I like this tool for one other
reason, the name of it is what it is. In a day and age
of creative titles that sound like a song named by
the Goo Goo Dolls (Iris being an example of a song
that has nothing to do with an eye or flower or cam-
era), in a day and age where people name tricks and
methods after hotel room numbers, old girlfriends,
unusual words or mental conditions, this tool is
named exactly what it is..... POCKET-WRITING!
Yes, you write in your pocket. Sounds simple
enough right? But therein lies the rub. If you just
simply write in your pocket, you will probably get
caught. You need to understand the tools, the sub-
tleties and how to present the tool correctly, and
more importantly, when you Pocket-Write, you
need NOT to think like a magician.
2
THE TOOLS
OF THE TRADE
PENCIL IT IN
A simple way to explain it would be to tell you
that you need a writing surface and a writing tool
you can use in your pocket. That would oversimplify
it, but it is the truth. The size of the writing tool, the
size and access of the paper used will all make your
experience a wonderful one and successful. But that
is not to say that in a pinch you cannot use any piece
of paper and find the right writing tool you need.
But the proper way to use these items this will come
with experience using the proper tools up front.
WRITING TOOLS
First thing you will need is a writing
tool. Now I like to recycle items I use in my
show. I use golf pencils for most of my per-
formances, so they are easily accessible but
any pencil will work. Some are better than
others. The perfect pencil is a golf pencil
that does not have a long sharp point. Use
one that has a shorter rounder point.
IMPORTANT: You will want to make
sure you dull the point. If it is too sharp the
point could break off when you are writ-
ing. This will also allow for smooth writing
which will be the same result when point
or any side of the pencil makes contact as it
writes. Carrying a good dual pencil sharp-
ener will help. But still dull the point after.
It is also possible to use a cut down crayon. A
black crayon can look like a sharpie.
Now as to the size of the pencil. I simply take a
golf pencil and break it. Make sure the broken end
feels different from the point end. Sometimes I will
take the time to cut the pencil to size. But the most
important thing is to have it comfortable to hold in
my pocket. Small enough so it does not look as if I
am doing something in my pocket someone should
not be doing in public. Now usually people will
often say bigger is better, but in this instance it is
not. I have played with various size pencils through
the years, and I find that about a centimeter or two
in size is perfect. This is just big enough to hold yet
small enough to not take space in my pocket when I
write. Now I usually make two or three of these just
in case one ever breaks; however, I have never had a
point break due to the fact I smooth the points down
ahead of time by writing till they wear down. I can-
not stress this tip (pun intended) enough.
Now before you get ahead of yourself and say,
“Wow, I would like to write in pen,” let me warn
you, you are not the first to think of this and I will
cover why you should not do this later. If you still
insist pen would be nice, I will let you know what
you can do instead to make it seem it is written in
pen. But for now, stay with the tools I am describing.
3
WRITING TABLETS
HOTEL KEY
POST-IT TM
WRITING TABLET
Inside your pocket you will need a writing sur-
face. This is not the actual item you will be writing
upon but the surface that the papers, cards or such
will be set upon. I will describe two.
This first one I use all the time. It consists of a
hotel key. You only need one. Next you will need
something to write upon. I use Post-it™ Note pads.
Now, the perfect size for a hotel key is the 656 100
sheets that are 51mm by 76mm. These seem recently rare
to come by in the USA, but you can see in the picture
how well they fit. I remove the back cover and use
a Post-it™ note glue stick or reposi-
tionable glue stick (same thing dif-
ferent brands) and cover the back
sheet with glue. I only use a half of
the stack at a time. I then press it
firmly to the hotel key with the open
end towards the edge of the key.
Once in place I fold the top piece in half once and
open it back out to create a crease. Do not be influ-
enced to fold more than once; I will cover that later.
The reason I use Post-it™ note glue or reposition-
able glue, or removable glue stick rather than regu-
lar glue is so I can remove it later when I get down to
the last sheet and stick a new stack of sheets or cards
in place. The small amount on the back of the sheets
will not hold it firmly in place for a long period of
time. This is why you cover the entire back. It is pos-
sible in a pinch to simply use a stack of Post-it™ notes.
The issue comes when you get down to the last few
pages/cards as the backing is not sturdy enough for
you to write upon. The great thing about Post-It™
notes, is that when folded, they seal themselves.
BUSINESS CARD
WRITING-TABLET
This is the first writing tablet I used for many years
prior to inventing a few others. In fact, it was my
first attempt at a permanent board in my pocket and
I still use it when working walk around mentalism at
corporate functions, trade shows, or restaurants as it
allows me to hand out my business cards. One word
of caution, you do not want to use glossy cards for
Pocket-Writing as pencils often do not write well on
them. A good card stock or linen finish works well
but double check before you get a bunch of cards
made up for your business card writing tablet.
As said, I like to recycle items I use in a show, so
I keep the cardboard backing of my 3 by 5 sheets of
paper used in my Q&A routine. I cut them down to
a size about 4 millimeters or so wider than the width
of the business cards and about two inches longer.
Then I place a business card on the cardboard and
cut two slots just before the end of the business card.
In fact you can get closer to the end of the card than
4

Cards placed
Cardboard upon backing,
backing 2 rubberbands
with slots hold in place.
Stack of approx.
12 business cards
pre-folded in half
you see in the picture. The closer the rubber bands
are to the end of the cards, the easier it will be to
remove the card later. Next I take a stack of about
12 business cards, prefold them in half and open
them up. I then arrange them in a stack and I place
them on the cardboard. Now I put two rubber bands
around the stack and the cardboard tablet between
the slots holding the cards in place. Two bands in
case one breaks over time. Again, do not be influ-
enced into folding more than once. I will explain later.
Also make sure the bands are not too tight. This
set up will go into your pocket with the extra two
inches at the bottom of the pocket. The idea is that
the extra two inches of card will help keep the busi-
ness cards up higher in your pocket for you and
make it easier to position the tablet for writing.
TABLET
PLACEMENT
Writing on either of these ‘tablets’ is pretty much
going to be set up the same way, they just sit in
your pocket waiting to be used. As stated, the busi-
ness card tablet goes in your pocket with the extra
extended piece toward the bottom of your pocket.
In both instances, you will be folding the Post-It™
Note down towards the bottom of your pocket and
pulling out up towards the opening of your pocket.
THE SETUP
Prior to placing the tablet in your pocket, you will
want to drop a few Pocket- Writing pencils in your
pocket, two or three will be fine. These simply sit in
the bottom of your pocket waiting for the moment
you need them.
When ready to write, you reach in your pocket
and pick up a pencil between your thumb and fore-
finger. You pull the tablet up to a comfortable posi-
tion in your pocket and hold in place with your mid-
dle, ring and the digitus minimus (more commonly
known as the pinky) fingers. When ready to write,
simply write the info on the papers/cards. When
done, drop the pencil, grab the top sheet, fold down,
pull off or out of the bands and fold again the other
way. Once you have removed the sheet and shown
your prediction you are ready to go again. I will often
fold the second Post-It™ Note in half in my pocket as
I move to the next table resetting it all again. I warn
once more, do not prefold twice.
5
THE PENCIL IS
MIGHTIER THAN
THE PEN
I
n 1965, engineer Paul C. Fisher patented a
new pen design that changed the way Astro-
nauts write in outer space. His Fisher Pen
Company reportedly spent one million dol-
lars of its own money to develop what was
first called the “Anti-Gravity” Space Pen, and later
simply the “Space Pen.” Fisher happened to per-
fect his invention around the time that NASA had
its $128 pencil problem, so Fisher capitalized on
that bad press and publicized his
heavy-duty pen as the obvious
solution. And it worked.
Now what was that $128.00
problem? Well urban legend states
that the US spent millions of dol-
lars developing a space pen while
the Soviets used a pencil. The
problem being that without grav-
ity, a regular pen does not want
to write due to no pressure on the
ink. If you have ever tried to write upside down
with a pen, you quickly find that it will stop writ-
ing after a short period of time. Anyway, this story is
not exactly true. As you can see, the US Space pro-
gram did not spend money developing a pen, it was
done privately by the Fisher company and they used
the fact it could write in outer space to sell the pen
and still later a “Space Pen” was used on the Russian
space station Mir in the mid-1990s for a promo-
tion on QVC, as the first product “sold from space.”)
Smart advertising.
In fact, both the US and the Soviets ended up
using the pen, but prior, both started out using a
pencil, however, there was a problem. Pencil points
tend to break, so the Soviets started to use grease
pencils (same type I use in my Banachek Bandwrit-
ers) and the US started to use mechanical pencils
and they were paying $128 per
pencil. Now you might ask your-
self what is the problem with a
pencil breaking off? Well if you
are in outer space, that little bit of
graphite floating around the craft
can get into any of the machinery
or electronics or even in some-
one’s eye. On top of that, there is
an issue with anything flammable,
especially after the fire on Apollo
1. The US decided to cut down on anything flam-
mable and that included every pencil, lead or grease.
So they went to the Fisher Space Pen. A pen with a
pressurized nitrogen cartridge that forced the ink to
flow and an ink flash-point of around 200° C. NASA
paid just $2.39 per pen with an order of 400 pens in
1968 and the Soviets purchased 100 pens and Fisher
6
got to use the “Used in Outer Space for their add
campaign.
Now you may be asking yourself, what does this
have to do with Pocket-Writing? The answer is
everything.
There is not a single wide eyed mentalist that
has not hit upon the idea of, “Oh, I will make the
first Pen-Pocket-Writer.” Trust me, if you think this
at any point you are not the first. Many have been
made, and still others have sought to market them
only to find out quickly that people return them.
Money and time is lost. You see, if you write in your
pocket, you tend to write with the point up and the
end of the pen at an angle down. Gravity is not your
friend. On top of that, due to the pen being much
shorter to enable writing in your pocket, after a
much shorter period of time the pen runs out of ink.
MAGICIAN’S
THINKING
A
nother idea, usually brought up by
magicians who start to do mentalism
and who start to do Pocket-Writing,
is the thought that the writing should
match in style and ink/pencil-type
as the other writing instruments used in the actual
show. I disagree.
Don’t misunderstand me, if it matches, great, but
really YOU the entertainer will be the ONLY ONE
thinking about this. As magicians and even mental-
ists we often over-think our effects, sometimes to
There is nothing worse than bringing a prediction
out, opening it and you have a blank piece of paper.
“Oops, in my excitement I forgot to write my predic-
tion, I promise it was correct!”
If you insist on writing in ink, then I suggest you
use a dark blue pencil. Since your spectators have
nothing to compare the writing to,
it will look as if it was written
in ink. Which brings me to
Magician’s-Thinking...
the detriment of the power the effect could have had
on the audience members.
Let me give an example. Heidemarie is sitting
with a group of friends. I approach:
“Hi, my name is Banachek and what I do is read
minds, let me take about two minutes of your time
and show you.” Now Heidemarie and her friends
are intrigued, plus I am only going to, “Take a few
minutes,” so what is there to lose? This could be
interesting...
7
 “Do you know what this is? It is your future, there
is no money inside but it is your immediate future and
soon it will be something completely different. Hold
out your hand.”
I place a wallet upon her hand.
“Don’t open it. I am going to ask you a few personal
questions, but not too personal. What is your favorite
ice-cream?”
She answers “Rum Raisin”.
“Anything on it or just plain?”
Again she answers. At this point I am simply get-
ting her to relax, I ask one or two more innocent
questions then go in for the kill.
“Okay, this one is important. What was the name
of the first person you ever kissed?”
“Shemar,” she responds.
I ask if anyone else there knew that. Usually the
response would be “No.” If “Yes,” I ask that person if
we ever spoke before and if anyone else knew that. I
want to make it clear, yet in a subtle way that there
is no way I could have known that without saying
those words yet. This also gives me time to start to
pocket write the name and do it while all attention
is on the people I am asking these questions to. All
eyes are on them as they respond so all eyes are off
me.
Next I ask: “What month were you born in?”
She responds with, “April.”
I state, “April, that is the fourth month right?”
This allows me to write a 4 as she responds (again
attention is on them) and gives me time to do so.
“When in April?”
“April the 22nd,” She replies.
I then ask, “Did anyone else here know that?”
Again if someone responds I point out that they and
I have never spoken. If no one then I might quip,
“So now you know and have no reason not to buy her
a gift on April, 22nd.” This again puts the attention
upon the people, gives me time to write and gives
me time to fold and remove the prediction. At this
time I also point out I was doodling earlier or some
other excuse for why the writing may be bad (See
Cacography) as I was looking over at them and the
fact that the wallet was her future but is now her
past. Oh and did you notice because I repeat the
date, everyone remembers it again?
Now lets jump ahead as I will cover a lot of this
again later.
When I remove the prediction from the wallet, as
they open the folded paper and see that written upon
the paper that has been sitting in view the whole
time (at least they think so), there is not a single per-
son there who is wondering, “Wait, I have seen him
writing in pen all night as he walked around, but this
is written in pencil.” Not a single person. They are
all so blown away by what is on the paper that the
type of writing instrument used is the last thing on
their mind. Trust me, I have been Pocket-Writing
since 1976 and this is July 2014. Thirty-eight years
of Pocket-Writing and not a single person has ever
pointed out the discrepancy. There was a point I was
working six restaurants a week, sometimes two a
night, hitting table after table. I have Pocket-Writ-
ten at trade shows, five shows an hour. I have Pock-
et-Written on stage, close up, in parlor situations
and not once has anybody ever pointed out this pre-
diction was written in something other than what I
was using in the show. And why should they? Num-
ber one: they are focused on the how the heck could
I have know what they were going to say, and num-
ber two: in most instances the prediction was made
earlier so why would I not have used a different writ-
ing instrument. To think otherwise would be magi-
cian’s guilt. Lose the guilt if in the moment you want
your presentation to look as real as possible. (Let
me be clear for those who will nit pick, this is not
a statement saying you should or should not use a
disclaimer, I am talking about in the moment of the
performance piece).
But again, for those who insist it should be so, use
a colored pencil to simulate pen or a black crayon to
simulate a marker.
CLOTHES
It should go without saying, loose pants are better
than tight. One can do it in jeans but they need to
be loose fitting especially around the pocket. I have
written in tighter jeans but it is not easy and I would
not recommend it.
It is also possible to write in your coat pocket. I
have also pinned a pad under my arms and writ-
ten with my arms crossed but this was for a specific
routine and with my back turned to the audience
members.
8
SUBTLETIES OF
THE TRADE
S
o now you know the tools. Look at the
picture below and tell me who is using
the proper technique for Pocket-Writing
and who will get caught? It is definitely
not number six. But who else and why.
Can you pick them? Yes I said them? There are a few
here who would get away with it and for different
reasons.
CONGRUENCY
The first and most important thing is that your
body language must have a state of consistency for
Pocket-Writing. If your hands go to your pocket
when you Pocket-Write and only go to your pocket
when you do so, then you will be sending a clear and
bright signal beacon that something is going on in
your pocket.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates would be a great pocket
writer. In almost every picture you see of him, his
hands are in his pocket. Even to the detriment of
good grace. In fact in 2008 Mr. Gates hit all the
newspapers when he shook hands with South
Korea’s 8th President and 2001 Noble Peace prize
recipient Kim Dae-jung using two hands but gave
what was reported as a “disrespectful handshake” to
10th President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea, and
again in May 2013 a “disrespectful” hand in pocket
handshake to South Korea’s 11th President Guen-
Hye... and they felt it was done on purpose. A one-
hand shake is often seen as disrespectful in South
Korea and parts of Asia, and is normally reserved
for someone younger or a good friend. Doing it with
your other hand in your pocket is even worse. Now,
Bill Gates should have realized or been told that
there is an appropriate way to meet leaders of State.
9
 The report that he did it on purpose is not true.
In fact, I suspect it was the reverse since in almost
all of Bill’s pictures online he can be seen giving this
hands in pocket handshake to many people he liked.
Bill Gates is a powerful yet casual person, and as
time went by I am sure he simply felt relaxed.
Customs are customs but it is important that
when it comes to Pocket-Writing, you have to set up
a standard for your Pocket-Writing body language.
When I perform a center tear, if you watch my
PSI series of DVD’s you will see I set up the idea I
stand with my hands behind my back long before I
need to do so in order to tear up the “evidence” even
smaller. If my hands went behind my back only in
the moment I was tearing up the evidence, then it
would seem suspicious. The same when it comes to
Pocket-Writing. Before as well as after Pocket-Writ-
ing, I have my hands in my pocket.
Once in France, I was teaching Pocket-Writing.
At the end I asked if anyone had any questions. One
good looking gentleman stated, “In our country, it
is rude to have your hands in your pockets.” I simply
stood, smiled and waited, slowly the room started
to chuckle, then they all started to turn to the gen-
tleman who had just made that statement and grins
took over their faces. All eyes were on him, finally
and everyone in the room started to laugh. He had
his hands in his pockets as he was making the state-
ment. I was able to point out that in this day and
age, people have become much more casual, and yes
there are certain situations that it can be appear to
be rude, as in the Bill Gates fiasco, but overall it is
accepted in our society, especially if you have set it
up as part of your usual body language. Congruency
in body language is the key.
CONJACKETMENT
Correct Incorrect
I like to wear a suit jacket when performing
Pocket-Writing. Wearing a suit allows me to use the
jacket for cover when writing. The front area of my
jacket conceals that there is any movement in my
pocket. Bill Gates is definitely going to telegraph he
is writing in that picture due to the fact his writing
hand is facing the audience. President bush might
get away with it if he is writing with his left hand
due to the fact his body is hiding that hand and the
fact that both hands are in the pockets, on the other
hand I like to write with one hand in my pocket but
for setting up Pocket-Writing, I will often put both
hands in my pockets, and remove one, gesture with
it, place it back in my pocket and remove the other
and gesture. Switching between hands from time
to time and sometimes leaving just one hand in my
pocket as I speak. Finally settling upon one hand in
my pocket to write.
So of the presidents pictured, who would be the
best pocket writer? If you picked President Obama,
you are correct.

CONCEALMENT
To the right are three US Presidents:
Bush Senior, Barack Obama and Presi-
dent/CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates. Look
carefully and tell me who would get away
with Pocket-Writing more often if they
were Pocket-Writing?

President Bush SR President Obama Bill Gates

10
BLOCKING
Another point to take from the above is if writing
on stage and if Pocket-Writing in your right pocket,
you will want to face to your right using your body
to block the writing (do the opposite if left handed).
I will also often have the person on stage point
to an audience member seated to stage right and we
speak and get info from them. This way I can use
the positioning of my body on stage and also the use
the person on stage to block my right hand in my
pocket (for more clarity see the add-a-number effect
herein.) On top of that, all eyes go to the person in
the audience especially if that person is standing and
responding to questions.
DIRECTING
As already mentioned, but can never be empha-
sized enough direct the gaze of your audience away
from yourself as you write. As much as you can, do
the writing in the off moments; you do not have
to write right away. Ask a simple question to place
all the attention on the person answering. This is
when you write. Again, do not feel you have to write
immediately, take your time, divide the information
up. As in my example earlier, I asked for the month
of the person’s birth. I then point out and state in
such a way they have to answer that it is the fourth
month; “April is the fourth month, right?” That put
the attention on the person and gave me time to
write four and a line. Next I ask for the date in the
month. I then ask if anyone else knew that. That gave
me time to write in the date and remove and fold the
paper. All while the attention is on the other people,
and if no one piped up and answered “No”, I would
ask another question like, “Is there any way I could
have known that? Did we speak prior to now?”
A side note, I hate it when I see mentalists and
magicians ask, “Now why did you choose that?” It
screams of a performer who has never thought about
what he or she is going to say in that most crucial of
moments when they are secretly writing, whether
it be in the pocket, nail writing or double writing.
Come up with something better. Trust me, I know, I
have asked the exact same question when trying to
get out of an awkward moment, it is probably why I
hate it so. Rather ask, “Now does that number have
any personal meaning to you?” Or make a simple
silly statement; “Oh, the number of a squirrel clothes
designer,” or “That reminds me, did you ever wonder
where people in hell tell each other to go? I did just yes-
terday and it was while thinking about...” But do not
say, “Is there any reason you chose that?” You leave
them open to mumbling about something totally off
track. You may be thinking that the sentence, “Now
why did you choose that?” and “Now does that num-
ber have any personal meaning to you?” are the same,
but they are not. One is an open-ended sentence and
the other is a simple yes or no answer. By adding
the word, “Personal” you have limited the replies to
yes, no or a specific personal answer. Plus I would
only ask that question with anything that deals with
a number or date.
Okay, lets get back on track. So we have directed
by putting attention on people but lets talk about
our own body language again. If you lean towards
the pocket you are writing in, you will telegraph
exactly what you are doing. If you think too much
about what you are doing, again you may well tele-
graph what you are doing. It is important that the
top half of your body, the part that is communicat-
ing with people, is separate from your bottom half.
People are looking at your face and if all your body
language is towards your hand in your pocket, it will
telegraph like a shining beacon.
Learn to be casual. Don’t lean towards that pocket
either to the side or down towards it. That is why
in the previous picture, President Bush Sr. is doing
a good job writing in his pocket even with a short
11
jacket on. If President Obama or Bill Gates lowers
their mic when they write, they will telegraph some-
thing is going on. Rather move the bottom of the mic
up and sideways and slightly away from the mouth if
you have to move it while waiting for the response.
This will signal the audience to look at the person
in the audience without telegraphing anything at all.
When working close up, use your eyes to direct
attention to people. Look away from the person you
are working with and turn to someone else and ask a
question. All eyes will go to that new person.
PLIANT
Okay so what is Pliant? Well it is simply the French
word for fold. Figured I owed the French something
after mentioning that other story.
I have emphasized time and time again that you
should only fold your card once prior to writing
upon it. There is a good reason for this. If you fold
the card, or paper, into quarters, you will find that
you have created deep valleys in the writing surface
and often when you Pocket-Write, a piece of cru-
cial information will not write in that crease like the
number one, a line or some such. You are much bet-
ter to fold it a second time, in your pocket after you
have removed the paper from the tablet. It might
seem like a minor thing, but it can be the difference
between convincing a skeptical person that the right
thing is indeed written upon the paper and that can
be the difference between an impressed person and
creating more skepticism.
WRITING
SUBTLETIES
SHORTCUTS
When writing in your pocket you will probably
be like most people, your handwriting will be sub
par. Especially if your regular hand writing is pretty
bad. You need to make sure that the person looking
at it during the reveal can actually read it.
Whenever writing any letter or number that has a
circle in it, matching up the ends can be hard to do.
Numbers like 8, 9, 0. I have a few ways to fix this.
If given say a number or word with a 0 (Zero or
O), or a letter with a Q in it, I will write the 0 or
Q over and over as if scribbling it many times over
itself. I will do the same with the rest of the number
so it all looks written in bold. This way it is very clear
what number is that is written and the ends do not
have to match up.
If writing an 81, I will write the 8 as a cursive cap-
ital S.
If writing a 9, I will write it as an upside down 6
instead of a line with a circle on top.
Often if a month with and 8 or 9 or such I will
write out the abbreviation of the month rather than
the numerical status.
Which brings me to my next point; some people
may write better in cursive normally but find when
they Pocket-Write, printing is easier. Some people
will do the exact opposite and find that they writer
better in cursive in their pocket despite the fact they
always print letters when the write. Experiment both
ways and find out what works best for you. Find
short cuts that work for you. Use abbreviations.
ENTSCHULDIGUNG
Since I gave the French a tip to the hat earlier, I
thought I would do it for the Germans. Entschuld-
igung means excuses, and in this case an excuse is
a good thing. My hand writing is so bad that I can’t
read it and having my wife come up, stick her hand
in my pocket and secretly write is not an option
and would look, well strange to say the least. Pock-
et-Writing does not make it any better so I have
many excuses for why it is so bad. Here are some
tips to make your writing more acceptable.
Excuse Number One
You heard this in an earlier example.“I was doo-
dling; do you know what doodling is? It is when you
scribble without looking. You write or draw subcon-
sciously. I was looking over here and thinking about
what you might say. I did not look at it, but doodled
12
something on this piece of paper. I am not sure if you
can read it or not, but look and see if it says 4/22 and
Shemar.”
Excuse Number Two
“On the way here, I was doing something you should
never do when you drive. No not that,” (use this line
in the right situation only).
“I was trying to write while I was driving. There
are a few reasons you should never do that. One is
because you can almost hit people. I almost hit a post-
man. And two, if you have ever done it, you know it is
almost impossible to read later (everyone can relate
to that). I did not really look at it, not sure if it is read-
able but I folded it up and placed it in....”
I would love to know what excuses you come up
with if any are needed!
HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPEDALIOPHOBIA
Okay, you’re probably thinking what
is that title and is it a real word? It is! So
now you’re probably thinking it means
a fear of monstrous looking Hippos, if
you thought that you would be incor-
rect. Well sort of. It means the fear of
long words. With Pocket-Writing that
fear is always prevalent. So we need to
control the length of long words and
find ways to get around them.
The easiest way for me is set in the
example I gave at the beginning of this
manuscript on Pocket-Writing, The Invisible Book
Test. I simply told them the dictionary contained all
words seven letters or less. I will often tell someone
to think of a simple word, seven letters or less. This
solves most problems.
Another way is to ask questions you know the
abbreviation for. Things like months of the year or
states.
The other thing is if someone gives you an extra
long word, simply write the first part of it. For
Excuse Number Three
“I am often asked if anyone in my family can do
these things Well until recently I would have told you
no, however my granddaughter, who is just starting to
read and write has shown some promise. When I told
her I was coming to New York she ran into my office
and fetched a piece of paper and began to write some-
thing and folded it up. Well I placed it in this envelope
and it has been here since that time. Now remember
she is only four and is just learning to write so I am
not sure how neat she wrote it.”
This last is one of my favorites as it takes all the
responsibility for the bad writing off me. If the spec-
tator was to mention how bad the writing is, he is
not insulting me but he is insulting a small child. No
one wants to do that. A simple, “What do you expect,
she is only four,” will hurry them to figure out what
it says. But I have never had that happen due to the
fact I point out her age just prior to them opening
it up.
instance, if someone says, “supercali-
fragilisticexpialidocious” when asked to
give a word seven letters or less I can
do one of two things; remind them that
I said a short word of seven letters or
less, or point out that despite the fact I
asked them to say a short word of seven
letters or less, they chose a large word,
then pull out my prediction and show
them I am correct. And no, I did not
write out that 32 letter word. I simply
write...“Supercal.” They know what it
means. And depending on the person I might say
something like, “Now I had a word in mind, I knew it
was not the whole word as it did not make sense, but
now I understand.” A hit in anyone’s book.
*SIDE NOTE: The word hippopotomonstroses-
quipedaliophobia is indeed taken from a misspell-
ing of Hippopotamus and the word Monstrum
(meaning monster) is used to exaggerate the length
of words, put together with the word phobia that
means fear.
13
LOCALITY
S
o where do we make it appear we are pull-
ing the prediction out from? We certainly
do not want to bring it out from our pocket
where we are writing. That might point to
the method, so what do we do?
SHIRT POCKET
My favorite thing to do is to simply act as if I am
removing it from my shirt pocket or my side jacket
pocket. Think about it, if you were making a predic-
tion when you were driving on the way to the show,
would you really take the time to place it in a wallet,
an envelope or some other device? If you were doing
walk around, would you really be taking the time to
place it in any other place. No you would not, you
might fold it but you would dump it in your pocket
for later. As I will explain in a bit, there are times a
wallet is the way to go, there are times you will want
to isolate the prediction from people in an envelope.
But for me, removing it from a shirt pocket makes
perfect sense, especially if I can leave them with
impression my hand was empty when it went into
the pocket.
The way I do this is very simple. After I Pock-
et-Write, I either fold the paper or card up further
or scrunch it up into a ball. My hand comes out and
as I mention I placed it in my pocket earlier, the
hand comes to the top of the pocket, touches the top
and drops the paper in. At that moment I remove a
pen, glasses or some other object from the pocket.
As I place that object in my other hand or on the
table my hand is now seen to be empty as it reaches
back up to my pocket and removes one or two other
things. Finally when all has been removed the index
finger and middle finger grip the Pocket-Written
paper and brings it out slowly. It is in this way that
I reach out to a spectator and have them remove it
from between those two fingers. Since it is folded,
they open it. If a Post-It™ note, it will appear to be
sealed. Further proof you could not have just writ-
ten it.
WALLET
As said, there is indeed a time and place for using
a wallet. In the trade show example of effects I will
use the wallet to keep a spectator in place. While
holding it they cannot go anywhere. It also gives a
great visual to other spectators.
The wallet I tend to use is the
Mark Strivings Sight Unseen Wal-
let. This wallet is a business size
wallet and has a hidden slit that
allows you to secretly place some-
thing inside from the outside. The
Peter Nardi Stealth Assassin Wal-
let has also borrowed (with per-
mission) this feature.
You are looking at the slit in
the picture, it is along the stitched
seam.
What I like about this is when
working on stage or close up, I
can open the wallet to “check and
make sure I placed my prediction
inside”. They see the prediction.
It is a duplicate and as I close the
wallet I secretly push that dupli-
cate back up onto the wallet so later when I open it
they will not see it. Now when I am ready to reveal,
I pick up the wallet, at the same time removing the
secretly written paper from my pocket and simply
place the wallet onto the prediction hiding it. If I am
using the Sight Unseen Case, I can even push the
prediction into the wallet so I can handle it freely.
One has to be careful not to reveal the prediction
underneath the wallet while doing so, especially if
working on stage. Usually I see no reason to do this.
14
I will simply open the wallet, reach under the com-
partment with the slit and pull the prediction out
into the open and vary openly and carefully hand it
to someone else.
If you do not have access to a fancy wallet, any
wallet with a slit through it into a compartment will
work just fine.
ENVELOPE SLIT
If you want, a simple envelope
can be used. Use a coin envelope and
about an inch or less from the flap,
cut a very fine straight line, large
enough for your folded card or paper
to go through. Do this on the face/
flap side of the envelope.
When ready, place the envelope
on the prediction, open the flap and
reach in with your index and middle
finger, pulling the prediction through
the slit. It will look as if the predic-
tion is coming out of the envelope.
To hide the slit, you might want to draw a dark
square on the flap, placing it in such a way that the
slit is against the line. Then write the word predic-
tion in the square. I would not show this side but it
should pass a quick subtle flash.
You can also hide the slit by placing a sticker on
the face side of the coin envelope. If you want to get
real creative, you can seal off a section at one end of
the sticker so it does not stick to the slit but sticks to
the rest of the envelope just hiding the slit.
If using an envelope you should place a dummy
in the envelope for looks and feel. This can be per-
manently planted or loose in the envelope depend-
ing upon how you are going to use it.
THE OSTIN CLIP
This consist of a Bulldog clip that appears to have
a billet protruding from its metal lips. When this
clip is opened, the billet retracts into the clip. This
allows you to palm a billet, keep it hidden, reach up
to the clip as if you are about to remove the billet,
open the clip, and bring your secretly palmed billet
in to view. It should look as if you are removing the
billet from the clip.
This gimmick was invented by
Bob Ostin and marketed by Dav-
enports as “Bob Ostin’s Dice Pre-
diction,” 1953. An ad appeared in
Pentagram, Vol. 8 No. 2, Nov. 1953,
p. 16. Tony Corinda also mentions
Ostin’s clip in Thirteen Steps to Mentalism, 1958, p.
186.Ostin’s clip was made with a rubber band or
elastic. The model with a metal spring was devel-
oped and marketed in 1959 by Robert Nelson (shar-
ing credit with Syd Bergson) under the name “Nel-
son’s Mental-Gimic”; see The Linking Ring, Vol. 38
No. 12, Feb. 1959, p. 11.
THE MASON JAR
WITH OSTIN CLIP
This is the same as the Ostin clip but the clip
hangs from a string attached to the inside of the cap
of a mason jar. This is screwed on to the mason jar
and remains in full view the entire show. When it
comes time to reveal the prediction the spectator
is asked to remove the cap. Since his hands are full
with the jar and the cap, he cannot remove the billet.
You remove the billet and hand it to him taking the
lid with the clip.
The mason jar idea was contributed to Bascom
Jones’ Magick Magazine, by Robert Swartz.
BILLET SWITCHES
Any billet switch can be utilized in order to allow
the prediction to be seen in full view. You can use a
simple switch, the Jay Sankey “Paperclipped”or the
double-capped pen switch, the tin box switch or any
of the gimmicks that allow to see the prediction out
in the open. See the Al Baker effect, “Chicken Feed”
for the Al Baker Switch and a routine.
15
HOW BIG DOES A
PREDICTION NEED
TO BE?
I
love presenting Pocket-Writing in lectures
for magic meetings and conventions. It
allows me to prove a few things to the magi- ”...THEY REACT.
cians and mentalists in attendance. One of
THAT IS ALL
YOU NEED.”“
those things is that small things can play
big. Think about it, Uri Geller used to perform for
thousands and bend a key. The audience loved it,
they could not see the bent key way in the back but
they lived vicariously through the person who was
holding the key when it bent. Plus the fact the per-
son was allowed to take the key with them. Further
proof that it was not a trick key and proof that it was
indeed bent. The same goes for when you pull the
little piece of paper from a small wallet. The reaction
of the person you are doing it for sells the fact that
what THEY are looking at is the right information
written on the paper.
Do not listen to magicians who are used to per-
forming large visual magic on stage when they insist
a prediction has to be large for everyone to see. There
is nothing wrong with that, but I assure you it does
not HAVE to be that way. They open the prediction,
they see it, they get to take it with them to show
everyone else who wants to see it, and they react.
That is all you need. The Add-A-Number routine
that follows is a perfect example of one such routine.

16
ROUTINES
S
o far you have been given a few basic rou-
tines as examples. Mostly for the subtle-
ties involved. You certainly can use as is,
but I would suggest you read on and pick
and use subtleties spread out among these
routines and adapt to your own custom routines. I
mean, who wants to be performing the exact same
routine someone else is performing.
THE PW
ADD-A-NUMBER
I stand on stage, hands in my pockets. On my
table is a small wallet. I pick it up and open it quickly
and flash a yellow piece of paper inside. As I close it I
nod and say, “Oh, good, I was so busy before the show
I was not sure I placed that inside.”
I continue with, “Is there anyone good with num-
bers? Please make your way to the stage.”
A person is selected. Let’s say his name is Joe, and
Joe makes his way to the stage I pick up a marker
board and a marker. I draw three lines on the board,
hand the maker board and marker to Joe and tell
Joe, “In a minute we are going to get three two digit
numbers from three people in the audience, you will
write them one at a time on each line below each other
nice and large so the audience can see them. I will tell
you what we are going to do with those numbers when
we are done. Again, nice and large.”
As I do this, I am placing my hands in my pock-
ets, at times I gesture with one hand, at other times I
gesture with the other hand.
To the first person on my left I hold out my right
hand, I ask them if we have ever spoke or met before
and them I ask them to, “Stare at my right hand, keep
staring... Okay get a two-digit number in your head.
Do you have one?”
They state they do.
I tell them, “That is exactly the number I wanted
you to choose.” This elicits a few titters from the
audience.
I then ask them to tell everyone what their num-
ber is so Joe can hear and write it on the board.
Joe writes it on the board. As he starts, I turn to
the second person who is situated in the middle of
the audience, “Have we ever met before?”
As they respond in the negative I react as if the
way they spoke tells me something about them.
“Ah, you are going to be more difficult. Stare at my
hand.”
This time I hold up my right hand, part way
through I stop and hold up my other hand for a sec-
ond. “Keep staring at my hand. Call out your number.”
They do so. Again Joe writes it on the board. As
Joe does so I turn to that person and state, “Ah, you
are a little off from what I was trying to make you
think of, but I have one more person to try to fix it
with. I knew you were going to be more difficult, but
that is a good thing and now it becomes more of a
challenge for me.”
(If at any point they go off script, have a hard time
focusing on a number). I point out that I did say they
would be more difficult to work with. Often I get
people only giving a one-digit number at this point
despite the fact I am asking for a two-digit number.
I turn to the third person standing that is in the
audience to my right. I ask them if we have ever met
or spoken before. Then I ask them to look at my left
hand as I hold it up and my right hand goes to my
right pocket.
“Please stare at my palm, keep staring, get a two
digit number in your head but don’t say anything....
do you have one?”
They state that they do, and I stare at my palm
then back at them and ask, “Please subtract two from
your number... Okay call it out for Joe.”
(I have them subtract two rather than add in case
their number was 99 or 98. It would not be good
17
for me to ask for a two digit number and then force fetched a piece of paper and began to write something
them into a three digit number.) and folded it up. Well I kept it in my suitcase and
They call out their number. placed it in this wallet just before the show and it has
“Perfect, that is perfect.” been here since that time. Now remember she is only
I turn to Joe, both hands go into my pockets as I four and is just learning to write so I am not sure how
ask Joe to total the numbers. As he starts to I talk. neat she wrote it.”
“Now Joe, I know I am putting you on the spot, ask- I remove the folded paper from the wallet, and
ing you to total numbers in front of all of these people, very openly hand it to someone in the front row
plus the fact I am speaking is probably making you whom I also have asked to stand. I ask them to open
nervous so I will shut up.” it and read what number she wrote. It matches Joe’s
It is during this moment that I move in close total.
to Joe, using Joe and the fact my writing pocket is Joe is dismissed and the person in the audience
upstage to write in my pocket. keeps the paper.
As I speak, once I see what Joe has totaled I I can’t tell you how strong this plays to a large the-
Pocket-Write it on the tablet in my pocket. I do not ater audience. You will hear gasps and people emit-
remove the card or paper just yet. I do call out Joe’s ting statements like, “No freaking way,” or “How?”
total once he is done. Because I am dyslexic I do not And yes, people will not credit your granddaugh-
trust my own totaling, so I let Joe do it for me. But I ter. As the show progresses they realize it is all you
also cannot fully trust Joe since he is in a very nerve doing these amazing things. Your four year old is
racking situation. So I ask Joe to show his addition quickly forgotten. And before you point it out, yes
to the audience because, I know that the total in the graphic is incorrect, but
“Joe, although I asked the audience members who now you know what to do if that happens don’t you.
gave us the numbers if we had ever met before and
they said no, I could ask you, you could just pretend
to add the numbers up and pretend to give a total that
I wanted you to give. So show it to them and double
check your addition while you do so, point the board
towards the audience so they can see it please.”
By doing this, you can be sure that if Joe totaled
the number wrong either he or someone else will
point the error out for me at some point.
I recap that we had three people stand and give us
three completely freely selected numbers. That Joe
27
has totaled them and his total is 102 or whatever it
is. At that point Joe has had time to check his total. If
he made a mistake I will have time to write the new
total below the first. This way I have not only pre-
dicted the wrong total that Joe gave, but he correct
32
total as well. This will rarely if ever happen.
If no one says anything I can turn to Joe and state,
“So no mistakes and your total is 102!”
It is at this moment I remove the paper from
43
the tablet and fold it, and secretly remove from my
pocket. As I do so I place the wallet on my palm
directly over the hidden prediction and say, “I am
often asked if anyone in my family can do these things,
104
well until recently I would have told you no, however
my granddaughter, who is just starting to read and
write, has shown some promise. When I told her I
was coming to New York, she ran into my office and

18

THE TRADE SHOW
INCAPACITATOR
Wikipedia describes Attention as, “The behav-
ioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrat-
ing on one aspect of the environment while ignoring
other things. Attention has also been referred to as
the allocation of processing resources”.
A good trade show performer is able to get
attendees to do just that. Allocate their attention to
the product or item he or she wants them to place
their attention upon. That usually starts out with the
booth or stand the performer is standing behind.
Getting people into that space is the hardest thing
for any trade show presenter. Using a wallet and
pocket writing will allow you to gather the first few
people.
I was very, very successful on the trade show
floor. During slow times I could still draw a crowd.
I would walk into the aisle with my little wallet and
stop approach someone.
“Hi, is this yours? No! Actually it is, it’s your imme-
diate future... please hold out your hand palm up.”
Since I was so abrupt, they did not even think
about it, they simply held their hand open. Plus the
fact I had the wallet out as if to give it to them made
them even more willing to comply. I immediately
placed the wallet in their open hand. Now they were
stuck, they could not go anywhere.
“Don’t open it. Keep your hand palm out. Do you
know what this is?”
They may make some guesses but no matter what
I told them...
“It is your future, there is no money inside but it is
your immediate future and soon it will be something
completely different. Let me show, you step into my
office.”
I point at my stand. I had gathered the first per-
son or two. They were intrigued but I needed more
people.
“You see, earlier I was doodling, not looking at
what I was writing, then I saw you coming down the
aisle. You may have seen me fold a business card and
place it inside. Before we get to that card, I am going
to ask you a few personal questions but nothing too
personal, what was the first pet you ever had.”
While doing this, I would look for anyone else
who I could make eye contact with as they passed
by. Once I did this I quickly asked that new person,
“Hi, would you mind helping this person please? It
will only take a few seconds.”
Since I was asking them to help someone else
they would comply. If I would have asked them to
help me, they would have seen me as a salesperson
and refused, but they almost always complied when
I asked them to help a fellow attendee.
As they walked over I would tell them that, “Inside
that wallet is his future, but it is your future as well.”
I always made sure they were willing to partici-
pate before I spoke those words though.
Now I was set. The fact I had a crowd of three
or four or more people allowed me to draw in an
even larger crowd, especially in the end when these
people saw that I had predicted their birthday and
a short word. But once again, I get ahead of myself.
This second person was asked to provide a piece
of information like, “Call out any small word seven
letters or less.”
One other tip, once they called out a word I
always asked if they had another word prior to that
one. Often they did. If the word was better than the
final word, I felt free to go with it. “Sugar” is better
than “Love” in just such a situation. A simple, “So
your first instinct was to go with sugar. Let’s go with
that, it is much more interesting than the word love
and you will see why in a second,” worked.
Sometimes if they gave two words I would write
both words. Sometimes I simply pointed out that
they almost went with one word but change their
mind and settled upon whatever the word it was
they settled upon. All gave me time to write in my
pocket behind the trade show stand.
I never forgot to involve the person holding the
wallet, I always ended by getting some information
from them if I had not already done so, something
19
like their birthday. I may throw in something about
the product the booth was selling and the fact it
would provide months or even years of service, then
I would say, “Speaking of months, what month were
you born in, ah the fourth month, what date in that
month.” I wrote this information as I pointed out that
the strangers did not even know that date. If I had
gotten their birthday prior to other people coming
up, and wrote it already, I would pick up the wallet
and place it on the hidden paper and I would state,
“By the way, tell all these people what your birthday
is.” This way it would seem that this was the first time
they had revealed it and the wallet was already into
play.
It is in just such a situation that a wallet is the per-
fect tool for drawing people in. If people think they
are going to get something for free. They will indeed
step up to your booth.
Oh, and as for the prediction turning into some-
thing different, well “A minute ago I told you that
inside here was your future, it is now your past. Open
up the paper and read what is inside it.”
It is for this reason it was important to always have
some Pocket-Written information from that first
person. So THEIR future had changed and become
the past as I had foretold when I first met them.
I would then head into a book-test or spoon
bending. Something visual that could performed
above their heads so passerby would wonder what
was going on and step up to the booth, to the point
I would have to ask everyone to step up closer and
out of the aisles.
The technique of asking people to help other peo-
ple in a trade show situation is a valuable one and
can be used with many types of effects, a book test
for example. While doing a book-test, you can draw
in a few people to help each other. Placing books
into a few people’s hands stops them from being able
to go anywhere. Handing a prediction to someone
at the beginning of your performance does the exact
same thing. But once again I digress. This is not a
book on working trade shows.
CELL PHONE
RING SAVER
How many shows does the dreaded spectators
cell phone go off during a crucial part of an effect?
We tend to get upset at the spectator. Heck, we asked
at the beginning of the show that all cell phones be
turned either off or on vibrate yet this inconsider-
ate person who does not seem to realize they are
already occupied, left their phone on, how selfish.
I have seen comedians berate a spectator because of
this. I on the other hand love it when this happens.
It allows me to produce a miracle.
Look, we cannot assume this spectator was a
selfish human being. Okay, more than likely they
are, but we cannot assume that. I have left my own
cell phone on, sitting on my table on stage. At that
moment, I could not ignore it. I picked up my phone,
answered it. It was the wife. I told everyone and had
them say hi to my wife. What they could not hear
was her telling me off for embarrassing her like that.
Really... no one there knew her or could see her, but
you know wives. Since it happened at the beginning
of my show, I was able to use it as a reminder for
everyone to turn their cell phones off. As if I had
planned it that way.
My point is, if I can do it to myself, I can’t assume
that another person is doing it on purpose. Peo-
ple are human and do forget things during conver-
sations and such. So how do I handle it when this
happens?
Well I will often have my Pocket-Writer appara-
tus just sitting in my pocket waiting in case a mis-
take happens so I can use it for an out or just this
perfect moment.
A phone rings during my show...
“Whose phone is that? No don’t be embarrassed it
is okay, in fact it is perfect...really.
“Have we ever met before? Is there any way I could
have known you were going to get a call right now? In
fact, you did not even know you were going to get a
call, did you?
“All I need to know is who called you?
“Oh, one more thing...what time is it? So they called
you about a minute ago now.
“Before the show began, I had a premonition that
despite telling everyone to turn their cell phones off,
someone would forget. I wrote something down and
20
placed it in my shirt pocket just in case. Now it is not
neat because I was driving when I wrote it. Have you
ever tried to write and drive, you look at it later and
say, what the heck was that, but I think you can make
it out.”
I hand it to a person in the front row and it has
the name of the person who called and the exact
time it happened. This is so organic looking that it
brings down the house. I have saved a bad moment
and made it starring moment in my show. On top of
that I can now remind the audience to turn their cell
phones off as, “I do not have any other premonitions
in my pocket.”
I have also used this when there is a rude person
in the audience who is on their cell during the show.
It happens, especially at colleges. Kids these days
just do not have manners. I will ask them who they
are talking to, ask them to ask that person for any
word. I will ask them for the word, tell them to tell
the person they will call them back after the show
because they are sitting in a room full of people try-
ing to watch a show. I then reveal the word in my
pocket. They are slightly embarrassed yet impressed
at the same time and it prevents anyone else from
interrupting my show with rudeness.
CHAIR
PREDICTION
You point out a mason jar that has a bulldog clip
sealed inside and hanging freely. They can see a slip
of paper hanging from its jaws. You mention that
jar will become very important in a little while. You
can even hand the jar to someone in the audience
for safekeeping if you like. Next you point out three
chairs, numbered one two and three.
Three people are brought up on stage, a lady, a
man in a white shirt and a man in a black shirt. They
are brought up one at a time and take a seat in any
chair.
“In a second I am going to ask you to walk around
the chairs. During that time I will be playing some
music. I want you all to walk around the chairs in
a clockwise fashion. The moment the music stops, I
want you to take a seat in any chair other than the
one you are sitting in. In other words, when the music
stops, you cannot be seated in the seat you are in now.
Please stand.”
The music starts. After an appropriate amount of
time the music stops. At this time they all take seats.
Now two things will happen. Either they will all have
different seats or two people will have different seats
and one person will be by the same chair they had
earlier. If this happens you can make a big thing out
of it and tell him he can take the seat of either of the
two people. He does so.
Next you hand each person a piece of cardboard.
You ask the first person to write single-digit num-
ber on the board and show it to the audience. You
ask the second person to do the same, and finally the
third. Now you ask them to switch cards. They have
created a three-digit number.
Now you point out the mason jar with a bulldog
clip hanging inside. You bring up the spectator who
has been keeping the jar safe, they open the jar. Now
they are left holding the lid and the Jar so you kindly
and remove the paper from the clip and exchange it
for the jar and lid, which you seal and put back on
the table.
You point out that the three people could sit in
any seat they wanted to, in any order they wanted to.
You have the person holding the slip to open it hid-
ing the writing on it from the audience from now.
Point out it is written upon on both sides.
You ask them to turn to the side written in red.
You point out the order of the people, white shirt,
lady, black shirt.
The man is asked to read off what is written in red
but to keep the back of the paper from the audience
for now. He reads:
“The man with white shirt will be seated in the first chair.
“The lady will have decided to take the middle seat.
‘The man in the black shirt will be in the third and last chair.”
“Ah, but it is better than that. They each got to
choose any number. Then all three of them decided
what three-digit number to create with those num-
bers. I had nothing to do with it at all. They could
have chosen any numbers at all and rearrange them
in any way they wanted. They decided to create the
number three hundred and fifteen, please turn the
paper over and read off the number on the other side.”
He reads, “315”.
This is a very strong effect and plays huge.
21
How
Seat the lady in the first chair, the man in black in
the second chair and finally the man in white in the
third chair. When they rearrange themselves so they
are not seated in the same chairs, there are only two
ways they can end up:
1) Man in black, Man in white, Lady
2) Man in white, Lady, Man in black
So you need two predictions in your pocket.
Write those predictions in red. Place both predic-
tions in your business card tablet (see mine) each
on opposite sides so the predictions are against the
cardboard with the blank side out. Now make sure
the prediction that says man in white will be in the
first chair is facing out towards the outside of your
pants. Keep the Man in black to the inside so you
remember man in black is in the dark area against
your leg and man in white is facing the light.
You will also need a black piece of crayon in your
pocket to Pocket-Write the number.
Hand them a marker and poster board. You will
have plenty of time to turn the tablet over in your
pocket if needed. Now all you have to do is have
them create a three-digit number and pocket write.
As you recap, you have plenty of time to write this
number on the correct card in your pocket, remove
and palm so you can switch it in the clip hanging
from the Ostin Clip in the Mason jar.
ALL IN A NAME
The first version of this was published March
1939 in Anneman’s The Jinx, issue 54, page 383, by
Orville Meyer. In 1944, Theodore Anneman again
published the routine by Orville Meyer in Practical
Metal Effects. I have seen it written that this is a vari-
ation of Anneman’s Dead Man Divination but can’t
seem to find the effect. Another version was pub-
lished in Lewis Ganson’s Magic Of the Mind, page 5
as “The 100% prediction” by Punx. Still later in 1990,
Punx published his version in Fourth Dimensional
Mysteries, page 84 titled “The Punx Prediction”. In
1951, Bob Somerfeld had a version his book Mind
Readers Digest, page 9, titled “Threediction”.
Below is a stream-lined version using Pock-
et-Writing to clean up the effect in the end.
The performer hands a spectator a business card.
He asks them to write the name of someone they
know personally, someone the performer could not
know and to initial it. They are to fold it in half when
done.
The performer takes the card and hands it to
someone else for safekeeping. The performer then
takes out another business card, he writes some-
thing, initials it and hands it to someone else.
Performer takes back the first piece of paper and
opens it and reads off what is upon it and the person’s
initials. He closes it, turns to the spectator holding
his piece of paper and has him read off what is writ-
ten upon it. It matches. Both papers are handed out
to the audience.
How
When the performer takes back the first specta-
tors card, he switches it for his own blank piece of
business card or a card with just any name written
upon it. He palms the spectator’s card and pretends
to remove it from his pocket, opens it and pretends
to write something upon it, but actually reading the
spectators name. This card he hands to a completely
separate spectator.
Reaching for the first card the performer opens
it and pretends to read off the spectator’s name (a
small subtlety here is to open, then turn the card
around, as if it is upside down). He then turns to
the spectator he handed the other card to, they open
it and read off the name and initials thinking it is
the one written by the performer. In actuality it is
the one written by the first spectator. During this the
performer has all the time in the world to write the
same name and the same initials on the card in his
pocket, remove it and switch it for the blank one.
To clean up, all the performer has to do is switch
the card in the pocket for the one in his hand, dump
the dummy in his pocket, now he retrieves the spec-
tator’s billet. Both billets now have the same name
and these can be given to the first spectator to keep.
As with the original effects, one can use more
than just a name and initials. Feel free to have a city
and a number or wherever you want written down.
22

GARAGE TALK
This is my version of a Leslie Anderson classic
The Children’s Yard Sale, which is based upon a Gene
Grant idea called “The vision of the Future” in his
Phantini’s Incredible Mental Secrets. The method is
the same as Gene Grant’s and Leslie’s, and the story
was influenced by Leslie’s buying the cards at a chil-
dren’s yard sale. I added one of Harry Anderson’s
lines, “You, if that is your real name,” but the rest
of the story is all mine. The method of locating the
card is the same as Anderson’s I just rearrange them
a bit to make it easier to figure it out as my math is
terrible.
“A deck of playing cards! It is not coincidence that
causes there to be four suits in a deck, and fifty-two
cards in a deck whose values add up to three hundred
and sixty-five... same as four seasons, fifty-two weeks
in a year and three hundred and sixty-five days in a
year.
“Not coincidence, NO, it is fate. And so it is fate
that will play a part in this first experiment....
“YOU, if that is your real name, call out aloud the
name of any playing card in a deck of fifty two cards...
the Seven of Hearts; please do not forget that card.
“It was fate that led me to that very moment that
this story begins.
“I was at a garage sale. I was passing the many
tables of wonderful antique and some so not antique
junk.
“It was at the end of the longest ornate table that I
noticed the blond hair and the pair of wide blue eyes
gazing inquisitively above the remnants of a battered
old ‘Nike’ shoe box.
“My gaze followed these eyes and revealed the won-
ders that held their attention...
“A worn, used, shark’s tooth, no longer white but a
lifeless gray. A green smiling dinosaur, only three feet
left protruding from its scratched and dented plas-
tic torso. A red yo-yo, no string, and...AND THESE
PLAYING CARDS!”
Performer removes a deck of cards from his
pocket.
“I closed the distance between me and those eyes
and saw that they belonged to a young angelic fea-
tured boy, no older than four or five.
“His line of vision finally left the contents of the box
and shifted to my unshaven face.
‘How much for the cards’? I asked.
“I immediately saw a piercing, pleading sadness
in those eyes that revealed to me that these treasures
belonged to this young man, whose parents had forced
him to sell some of his most prized possessions to teach
him not to become too attached to the material world.
They had probably even watched as he meticulously
put the price on each and every one of the artifacts.
‘How much for the cards?’ I queried for the second
time, knowing that the price marked is not always the
price asked!
“Still no reply, ‘Maybe he’s a mute,’ I thought.
“I reached for the cards, but, as quickly as a chame-
leon’s tongue snatches a fly off a plant, he snatched the
cards from my clenched hand.
‘I WANT TO BUY THEM!’ I said in a loud voice
as I removed the change from my pocket to pay the
twenty-six cents marked on the box.”
Performer shows the audience the “26c” marked
on the box in large black letters upon a name tag
size sticker stuck on the back of the deck of cards.
He continues...
“Still no reply. ‘Must indeed be a mute’ I thought.
23
 “But I realized he wasn’t as he let out a tremendous
howl. You see, I had kicked him in the shin, grabbed
the cards and quickly made my way out to the front
of the driveway. I handed the old lady there the twen-
ty-six cents as I informed her that her grandson had
stubbed his toe. I hopped into my car and sped off.
“Here, catch.”
The performer throws out the cards to the person
who earlier named a card. And asks them to come
up on stage.
“See the twenty-six cents on the box. Please remove
the cards carefully and hold them face down.
“Is it possible that these cards that the angelic snot
nosed brat had possibly laid out in a row and gathered
up thousands of times could have a link with which to
cause a coincidence of fate?
“Please deal the cards face down one at a time and
hand me the twenty-sixth card. Twenty-Six being the
number chosen at random by the child as the price to
reluctantly (wink) sell the cards.
“Remember you named the seven of hearts before
I told this tale.”
The performer shows the card the audience, it
matches.
“Definitely a demonstration of forced fate!”
The performer scales the named card into the
audience.
“And so I leave you with a deck of fifty-one cards
to remind you that when things sometimes go wrong,
there is usually a reason; in this case, it’s because you
are not playing with a full deck!”

How The above set up is easy to find cards. You know

that Clubs you add ten and subtract one from its
value. Diamonds you add twenty and subtract one,
A preset deck so you know the numerical posi-
Hearts you add thirty and subtract one and finally
tion of any card in the deck. You could use a system,
Diamonds you add forty and subtract one from its
a cue sheet, mnemonics or the system below.
value. The first nine cards are the picture cards of the
Instead of a nail -writer as used in the original
H, S and D. The last three cards of the deck are the
version. You use a child’s crayon to write the correct
picture cards of the clubs.
price on the deck of cards prior to bringing it out of
Since no one sees the faces, since it does not mat-
your pocket.
ter if it is a shuffled deck, since the child could have
put them in some sort of order. The fact the cards are
in some sort of order does not really matter.
For a mnemonic of the order of the suits think:
He Sold a Deck of Cards. Hearts, Spades, Diamonds
Clubs.

24
ROOM SERVICE for that. Now you have never been to my hotel room
have you?”
The spectator is asked to come up on stage and
Pocket-Writing lends itself to this effect. as she does so the performer openly reaches into
As in the original Jonathon Neal Brown’s trick his inside jacket pocket and removes an envelope.
Room Service, have the person step into the elevator He then removes the key, places it upon the enve-
and hit a button from one to nine. lope and asks the spectator to reveal to everyone else
“You said nine, so nine it is, you hear the eleva- what the room number is. It matches.
tor music, finally the elevator stops. You step out on
the ninth floor. To your right are the numbers one to
forty-nine, to your left are the numbers fifty to nine-
How
ty-nine. Which way do you go, to your right to the
Well, back in February of 1997 I posted an effect
lower numbers or to your right to the higher?
to the Magic Grimoire called “Electronic Room Ser-
“Fantastic, so you go to your right.
vice”. At the time I used double writing. As time went
“Those are rooms fifty, to ninety-nine... Imagine
by, when in a pinch, I used pocket writing instead.
you walk up to a room, you look up and see the room
Here is that post and it explains the details. Just
number, it is 9 hundred and ..... Keep in mind you have
adapt double writing to writing on the small enve-
selected to choose a number from fifty to ninety-nine.”
lope in your pocket and it is even easier and cleaner.
Let’s say they say, forty-nine.
“So you chose to go to the ninth floor and walk and
*Note: Shortly after this post a version much like
enter room nine hundred and forty-nine. Now just as
it appeared in Lee Earle’s “Syzygy”.
when I checked into my hotel, you would need a key

Date: 21 Feb 97 23:42:21 EST

From: BANACHEK <76242.1320@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Electronic room service

For the last two years I have been performing some version of Koran’s Medallion
in my stage show. I have a back up coin in my case just in case anything happens to
the first. Well, somehow, both coins were left at home while I was putting my show
together. I was doing that yearly (if I am lucky) cleaning everything out of my case.

I arrived in Florida to showcase for some colleges via their Junior Student Govern-
ment Seminar. Then I hit upon a novel impromptu idea. I had been working on a rou-
tine for Room Service to take the place of my Medallion routine for certain venues.
At the desk they handed me the usual electronic (magnetic) key, with the little enve-
lope with the room number written upon the envelope. I asked for an extra key with
an envelope and told her not to write the number upon it (most are ahead of me now).
Since most of the routine is build up, the presentation was easy. I simply had the enve-
lope upon the pad, double-wrote the room number upon the envelope and pad. Now
I palmed the small envelope and performed the empty hand card to pocket. This is a
fairly new sleight, and very clean. It enables you to hold your jacket open and reach in
with an empty hand and remove the card (in this case an envelope) from your pocket.

25
I do not know who invented this as it was shown to me by a magician friend who had
it shown to him by someone else and it seems there are different versions from Gary
Kurtz to a host of others, including Dai Vernon’s Inner Card Trilogy Page 28, part 3. And
he got it from Teddy Victor.

Anyway, the basic slight goes as follows. If you are right handed you will palm the
envelope in the right hand. This hand, with the envelope, goes to your right lapel and
holds the lapel open, away from your chest. In actuality the fingers go behind the lapel
and thumb in front. While doing this you will find it easy to let the envelope come to
the fingers and out from the palm against the inside lining of the coat. In other words
the envelope is held against the inside of the jacket by the fingers on the inside and
the thumb on the outside. Now with a non-obvious ( a subtle, no ‘look see’ my hands
are empty!) gesture such as pointing to your inside pocket as you say, “In my pocket!”
your left hand is shown empty. Then it goes inside the jacket, taking the envelope by
the left thumb and index finger, and pretends to remove it from the inside pocket.
Keep the number side (number should be written small in the top left hand side below
the flap) away from the view of the audience. Remove and show the key to the audi-
ence as you patter, then lay the key on top of the envelope so it is horizontal and the
envelope is vertical and point at the key, actually pointing at the number on the enve-
lope as you ask the spectator on stage to “read off the room number!”

Anyone who has stayed at a hotel will realize that the number on the envelope is the
one to the room, especially since the number says RM# before the number. The mem-
bers of the audience do not realize the number is not written on the key.

Now I only wish I had one of those keys that works with the light (the kind with the
holes) with me. I could have written directly on the key with an erase wipe marker
and done away with the envelope–in fact this type of key is even smaller. I have one
around here somewhere and will let you know what transpires.

(I have since used the plastic keys with the holes and simply filled in the number with a
china band writer).

All rights reserved by Banachek 2002 (in case I want to add it to a book later).

26
THE PHOTOGRAPH
Performer hands a picture of a man to an audi-
ence member.
“That is a picture of my brother. It’s a blown up
copy. I want you to look at it. You have never met my
brother have you?”
They of course answer in the negative. You then
ask them to look the picture over, look at the back if
they want. Ask them if there is anything there that
gives your brother’s name away.
They will answer no.
“Now I need you to use your imagination. Hold
the picture up to your ear and imagine my brother is
whispering to you his name.
“What is the name?
“Now imagine he tells you the date that picture was
taken, what month and what date in that month?”
They again respond with a name and a date.
“The original of that picture is in my wallet.”
Performer removes his wallet. He opens the zip-
pered compartment and removes a picture. Very
openly he hands that wallet size picture to the spec-
tator. He asks them to turn it over and written on the
back is the exact name and date the spectator imag-
ined the man in the picture whispered to him.
How
Pocket writing and a card to wallet style wallet.
I prefer a La-Paul style wallet. But even the Stealth
Assassin wallet mentioned earlier will work fine. You
will need to write on the back of the picture in your
pocket, use a crayon for this as it will write better for
you on a glossy stock picture. A gray one would look
more worn and older.
As you work with Pocket-Writing you will come
across times you will want the prediction in full view
prior to getting the information from the spectator.
Logically this is impossible, unless you are making a
switch. Many methods have been around and I will
mention a few in bit. But for now, here is an exam-
ple routine that first appeared in Al Baker’s Mental
Magic published November, 1949, page 50 under the
title, “Chicken Feed”.
AL BAKER’S
CHICKEN FEED
Some time ago an effect was produced, I do
not know who originated it, in which the mental-
ist divines the exact amount of loose change that a
spectator has in his pocket. He writes the amount on
a slip of paper and when the money is brought out
and counted, its sum corresponds exactly with the
amount written by the mentalist.
My method for producing this intriguing effect
will be found to be simple, straight forward and
convincing.
Needed
Two small slips of paper.
An office spike file.
A stub of black crayon.
A piece of cardboard about 4 by 3 inches.
A trombone paper clip.
Preparation
Have the paper clip sewn in
your right hand trousers pocket
near the top. Slip the cardboard
into it. This is to form a rest on
which you can write with your
hand in your pocket (Fig.1).
Fold one of the paper slips
in half and in halves again.
Thrust it onto the spike file, then
remove it and open it out again.
The holes are necessary since
27
you are going to switch this slip for another which
will be spiked on the file. Place the open slip and the
crayon stub in your right trousers pocket. Have the
file on your table. You are ready.
Procedure
Casually ask a spectator if he
has some chicken feed in his pock-
ets (*AUTHORS NOTE: Al Baker
is using the slang term “Chicken
Feed” for money). Then ask him if
he knows the exact amount. Natu-
rally he doesn’t know.
“Well,” you say, “If you don’t
know then nobody else can possi-
bly know. Suppose I try to guess just
how much loose change you have
there.”
Take the stub of the black crayon
from your right trousers pocket
and with it write some figures on
the other slip of paper, openly but
don’t let anyone see what you have
written. Fold the paper in half and
in halves again and thrust it onto
the spike file (Fig 2). Put the crayon
stub in your trousers pocket again.
“Now,” you say to the spec-
tator, “Will you take out your
chicken feed, count it and let us
all know exactly how much you
have?”
As he announces the total
sum, let us say seventy-nine
cents you place both hands in your trousers pockets
casually.
“Well now,” you say, “If I wrote seventy-four cents,
that would have been a pretty good guess, wouldn’t
it?” As you say this, keeping your whole attention on
the spectator, draw the slip of paper up against the
cardboard in your pocket, write “79c” boldly on it,
fold it in half upwards and then in halves again side-
wise, then finger palm the folded slip.
As you continue to speak to the spectator, “You
couldn’t have made as close a guess yourself, could
you?” Place your left hand on the base of he spike file
to steady it and with an upward movement of your
right hand, remove the paper slip from it taking it in
such a way that its corner overlaps the corner of the
finger palmed slip in readiness for the Baker Switch.
Turn to a spectator on your left and as you say to
him, “Will you open this paper and read out what I
have written?” Make the Baker Switch in placing the
folded paper in your left hand and give him the slip
on which you have just secretly written, 79c, leaving
the paper just removed from the file in your right
hand, finger palmed.
This person opens the paper and reads, “Seven-
ty-nine cents.”
The reason for spiking the paper on which you
do the secret writing will now be obvious. There is
also a very good reason for using a black crayon with
rather blunt point and making bold figures (Fig 3).
As soon as the paper is opened out and shown it can
be seen by practically everyone and this enhances
the effect greatly. Too often in tricks such as this one
the writing is done in faint lead pencil. I have seen
the effect ruined because the person who opened the
paper could hardly read the writing himself, much
less anyone else.
THE AL BAKER SWITCH
For full disclosure, I have included the Al Baker
switch that appeared on page 2 of the same book.
WRITTEN IN BAKER’S WORDS:
First you must have a clear understanding of what
you must appear to do, namely to transfer a folded
bill from one hand to the other. To do this fold a
dollar bill in halves lengthwise and again in halves
the same way, then once the opposite way (Figs 2,
3, 4, 5). Take it at the tips of the thumbs and forefin-
ger of your right hand (Fig 5). Move your right hand
towards your left hand, turning it over in the action
and thus reversing the bill. Grasp the free end of the
bill between the left thumb and forefinger (Fig 8).
Repeat this simple move over and over and study
the action carefully for this is what you must appear
to do when the switch is actually made. When you
understand the action thoroughly, practice the fol-
lowing moves until they do simulate exactly the pas-
sage of the bill from one hand to the other.
28
 Take the two dollar bills and fold each of them
1
in the following way - first in halves with the backs
on the outside (Fig 2). Fold again in halves the same
way (Fig 3). Fold in halves the opposite way (Fig 4).
This process will give you two little packets about 1
1/2 inches by 1 1/8 in size.
Place one of the folded bills, which we call B, and
2
which will represent your own bill to be switched for
a borrowed bill, in the finger palm position in your
right hand.
Take the second folded bill, which
3
we will call A, and which will repre-
sent a borrowed bill, between the tips
of your left thumb and index finger
in such a way that its lower right cor-
ner overlaps the upper left corner of B
(Figs 5+6). Hold both hands in front
of your body, your arms half bent,
hands about nine inches apart and the
left hand a little higher than your right
hand.
As if merely to place A in your right
4 hand, move your left hand towards the
right at the same time turning it back
upwards, thus turning A over, end for
end (Fig 6). As the hands meet again,
place A in the finger palm position in your left hand,
drop the tip of the right thumb on B, gripping it
against the tip of the right index finger (Fig 7), and
draw the right hand away, the tips of its thumb and
fingers sliding over B (Fig 8). Hold this position, the
tips of the right thumb and fingers at the top of B a
few moments before removing the right hand alto-
gether (Figs. 9+10), holding the spectators bill B in
plain sight.
I must repeat that the action must simulate the
actual placing of A in the right hand. Practice the
moves in slow motion until they become familiar,
then, and only then, increase to a pace to that with
which you would actually place the bill in your left
hand in ordinary circumstances.
Timing
Timing may defined as the seizing of a favorable
moment of the execution of a sleight as, for example,
when the spectators are relaxed or have their atten-
tion directed elsewhere.
We will suppose that a spectator has folded a dol-
lar bill in the manner already described and that you
have a duplicate dollar bill finger palmed in your
right hand. Follow these moves:
Take the bill from the spectator with your left
1
hand, then put it in your right hand in the position
shown in Fig 6. Keeping the greater part of folded
bill in full view, hold it against your forehead for a
moment or two. Drop your right hand to body level
as you say, “I get a 3” (or whatever
may be the first figure in the number
of your palmed bill which you have
memorized).
Again put the bill deliberately to
2
your forehead, pause for a moment,
then drop your right hand again to a
point a little above and a few inches
away from your left hand, and say,
“There’s a 9 next” (or whatever the sec-
ond figure of the memorized bill num-
ber may be). Say this with your whole
attention directed towards the specta-
tor and at the same time place the bill
in your left hand, really executing the
switch.
Note particularly that the switch is
never made in moving the right hand from the fore-
head directly to the left hand. First you put the bill
deliberately to your forehead, then drop your hand,
again put the bill to your forehead and again drop
your right hand. Pause a moment and then make the
switch as you engage the attention of the spectator
by making a remark and gazing directly at him.
WATCH THIS
I have used the face of a pocket-watch as a writ-
ing surface. I told the audience that I have made a
prediction. When I show it to the person on stage I
pointed out what is written with a crayon on the face
and ask them to read off the time on the face of the
watch. Everything seems fair to them since I said,
“On the face of the watch,” and the fact I said I had
“Made a prediction.” To everyone else it appeared I
had set that time on the watch.
29
IN CASE OF MISTAKES
I carry a Pocket-Writer with me all the time in
case of mistakes. For example, let’s say you are prac-
ticing a new classic force. You are good at it but once
in a while the person takes the wrong card, maybe
you do not even realize they took the wrong card.
So you start to reveal the card, you are wrong, you
ask what their card is. They tell you it is the Seven of
Clubs. Oh dear, what do you do. Well instead of fail-
ing, you can turn it into a very impressive hit.
“Really, the Seven of Clubs! Wow, this is really
impressive... I knew... You’re not going to believe this...
In fact even I am having a hard time. On the way
here I had a premonition that tonight I would get this
wrong one time. Really I did. I wrote the name of the
card down that I would get wrong, I placed it some-
where in this pocket. Here it is... Open it up and read
it.”
It says: “7C”. You have taken a fail and turned it
into a huge hit.
THE CHALLENGE
As mentalists, we always get challenged. How
often do you get people telling you to tell them what
they are thinking? Or you ask them for a piece of
information and they say, “You’re the mind-reader,
you tell me.”
I rarely get that last line, because I ask people for
information prior to telling them why I need it. But
sometimes I will get it like when asking for a birth-
day or some personal information. In this situation I
tell them, “Please, just trust me, if you tell me, I think
you are going to be very, very impressed with what
is about to happen.” At this point they are intrigued
and because I said “trust me,” they give in. They tell
me the information.
After a show, as mentalists, we always get peo-
ple coming up and challenging us to tell them
some information we could not have known. The
very nature of our shows whets their appetites for
a personal experience. As mentalist we all have our
excuses, “I’m too tired after a show, that is why I saved
the predictions till the end of the show so I would not
have to think,” or “I’m sorry, I have to get out of here
and get to my next gig or I am going to be late,” or “I
would love to, but they need me out of here so they
can clean up,” or “My wife is having a baby!” We have
a host of excuses, but what if you did not have to
have an excuse? What if you could do that one last
thing that is just as strong as anything else in your
show and you have impressed them so much they
want to hire you and you could leave them with your
business card with your information upon it and a
permanent, personal reminder of what you did for
them. Well, with pocket writing you do.
I’M A PHD
Years ago I was at a show. After the show, as usual,
a man came up to me and asked me to tell him some-
thing, well he actually demanded:
“Tell me what I do for a living?”
Now I could tell he was well dressed and success-
ful, a possible client. I could have made an excuse
and gone my way but I did not so...
I looked at him as if surprised. “What did you
say?”
“Tell me what I do for a living?”
“I thought you said that. You are not going to
believe this but on the way to the show tonight I had a
premonition that someone would come up to me and
ask me just that question...This is very strange... What
do you do for a living.”
“You tell me, you’re the mind-reader!” He
demanded.
“Trust me,” I said, “If this is what I think it is, you
are not going to believe this.”
“I’m a gynecologist,” he uttered.
Oh crap! I thought, how do you spell it and how
am I going to write that in my pocket?
So I pocket wrote as I pretended to be surprised.
“Really, a gynecologist? You are not going to believe
this.”
I removed a few things from my shirt pocket
and finally found the folded business card within. I
handed it to him. He opened it and the shock was all
over his face.
GYN
What had I written?
I had abbreviated it.
Now that man turned out to have a lot of money,
he has hired me on a yearly basis for over 25 years
and still tells that story. He pays a lot of money. All
because I had a folded business card and a broken
pencil in my pocket.
30
CLOSING BITS
AND PIECES
D
uring my lecture, after the session on open book of matches, a torn cover from a maga-
pocket writing I take a few questions. zine, a post card, a business card will all work well.
Invariably, at approximately every One time I even used a credit card receipt, the car-
other lecture someone will speak up bon type, and wrote upon it with my fingernail.
and suggest using a nail/band/boon I could go into detail about all the uses of Pock-
writer in your pocket for pocket writing. No, no, no! et-Writing, from predicting the pick three lotto to
This is missing the point. If you are going to use such the half time score of a football game, but I am pretty
a device, use it outside of your pocket. But to use sure at this point you can figure out how very valu-
such a device in your pocket defeats the purpose. able this tool is. To me the most impressive is a sim-
You will have to get the device on, you will have to ple direct reveal of a predicted piece of information,
remove it prior to folding your paper. Both of these the clever ones will use pocket writing to add a layer
things take time, and if you even try to use such a to an effect or method their routine is already using.
device you will find you will have to let go of your
tablet, remove the device and locate the tablet to Enjoy
fold your card or paper, all over again. It makes no Banachek July 2014
sense at all. Again, Magician Thinking. You can not
improve upon a small pencil or crayon for writing
with in your pocket.
I mentioned in the beginning that in a pinch you
could pretty much find the things you need in any
situation to pocket write. All you need is a pencil
and something to write upon in your pocket. An

31
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