OCTOBER: HAUNTED DECEPTIONS

By Dee Christopher

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 FOREWORD
Strangely for a book on Bizarre Magic(k) there is a distinct
lack of boxes, nor even a whiff of Patchouli!

I have to be honest here – Dee Christopher is a friend. We are

similar on a number of levels, any time we spend together
usually involves a discussion at the table to refine some
principle or glitch in an effect. It has been known for “others”
at the table to set us a time limit for getting all the “magic
talk”out the way!

I'd read Dee's works before I actually met him, but I recognised
that there was something more palpable to his routines and
effects. And that's what you hold in your hands here,
knowledge distilled into wisdom. When we did finally meet –
at a lovely little goth/rock/alternative pub, naturally – I realised
that he was someone with his head screwed on right, with a
grasp of the principles of mentalism, magic(k) and bizarre none
of the usual pretentious “gother-than-thou” posturing.

Luckily Dee is not just a pretty face (with a nice line in hats).
These are workable, and indeed often worked, effects - not just
rehashes of an Annemann piece or a reworking of something
from Tarbell!

I predict that Dee is going to ask you to pour a glass of

whiskey at the end of his intro, so I'm going to suggest you nip
to the cupboard to grab a bottle and a glass in mine.

Jon Randall
Night of the Super-Blood-Full-Moon Eclipse 2015.

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 CONTENTS
Introduction……………………………………………Page 4
Arts & Crafts…………………………………………..Page 5
Broken Wings………………………………………….Page 5
The Subtle Switch Book……………………………….Page 10
Legion………………………………………………….Page 12
Intensifying Performances………………….…………Page 24
The Magician Who Doth Not Understand…………….Page 25
The Mentalist Who Crosses Wires…………………….Page 27
The Bizarrist Without A Climax……………………….Page 28
The Professor Of Procedures…………………..………Page 30
Urban Shamanism…………………………….………..Page 32
One Miracle A Night………………………….………..Page 33
Thoughts On Ageing Props…………………………….Page 35
Effects & Presentations…………………….…………..Page 36
Burnt Oak…..…………………………………….…….Page 36
Scar……………………………………………………..Page 40
Silence……………………………………………….…Page 48
The Devil’s Key………………………………………..Page 49
Tarot Hallucination…………………………………….Page 53
The Stone Woman……………………………………..Page 55
Kill Scene…………………………………….………..Page 59
The Touch………………………………….…………..Page 63
Teeth…………………………………….……………..Page 69
Building The Act…….…..……….………..……..……Page 73

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INTRODUCTION

Hallowe’en is here.

Regardless of what time of year you find yourself leafing

through these pages, Hallowe’en is every day in my world.
Since an early age I became enthralled by stories of the
supernatural. I began subscribing to constant searches in
second hand bookshops to try and locate the missing copies of
“The Unexplained” magazine to complete my collection and
gradually desaturating the colours in my wardrobe to greyscale;
eventually ending with looking into an abyss of black when I
open the doors today. I imagine this evolution when growing
up lead to my obsession with magic and especially the mental
and bizarre chapters of the art.

I’ve written various spooky acts throughout my years in magic

so far, from close up pieces, to stage acts and I even managed
to bring my brand of bizarre and horror-fuelled magic to
national TV on my show “Killer Magic.”

This book is an exposé of a variety of my more ‘haunting’

pieces, including new presentations for some gimmicks I’ve
designed like “Broken Wings” (originally discovered by John
Riggs) and “Legion” alongside some classic and lost effects I
published many years ago and finally some brand new routines
that have never seen print before this.
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Pour yourself a glass of blood (whiskey will do - That’s what
runs through my veins anyway) draw the curtains and delve
in…

ARTS & CRAFTS

I thought it best to start with building a triad of gimmicks to get

that out of the way so that we can get on with the important
stuff. If you’ve read my book “Deep Shadows” or seen me
lecture, you will have seen the first two tools before, but a
refresher class is good for the soul all the same.

BROKEN WINGS

Broken Wings is a gimmick that has had many incarnations

over the years; the add-a-number pad. From out to lunch style
pads to mechanical pads, small pads to large pads.

I perform primarily in nightclubs and on cabaret stages, so I

don’t tend to use large pads for this kind of effect. My standard
choice is a ‘reporter style’ spiral bound note pad, these are
easily gimmicked in the way outlined below to make a pad
perfect to solve the add-a-number problem.

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I’ve found the broken wings pad provides a solution for many
other effects; this is far from limited to add-a-number. The pad
is very, very clean and where some pads are limited to going
from one ‘leaf’ to another, the broken wings pad will allow a
transition to either side within the same routine, meaning that
throughout a single effect, two parties can see totally different
things. Many incredible dual-realities can be created.

Not only that, but the pad can be used to switch items, make
writing appear or disappear, you can peek information and
much more! I’ve outlined my favourite effects with the broken
wings pad, but you’re really only limited by your imagination
as to it’s uses.
Note: After the initial release of the Broken Wings device
several years ago, Jheff (Marketplace Of The Mind) mentioned
to me that he had seen something similar in a John Riggs
booklet years before. I got in touch with Riggs and sure
enough, he had developed the same idea in his book: “The
Psychic Agenda.” As both our work on this device branched in
different directions, the Broken Wings pad still remains in print
with John’s blessing.

The Gimmick

All you need to create the Broken Wings pad is two normal
spiral bound pads, you can use smaller or larger pads than the
one I use, but I wouldn’t recommend going too large as it’ll
make the move difficult to hide. The notepads I use are slightly
bigger than two playing cards lain side by side.

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Once you’ve chosen your size of pad, make sure you buy two
of the same pad exactly; otherwise you’ll end up with a
gimmick that looks far from legit!

Your pads must be spiral bound – This is essential.

The construction is very simple. All you need to do is carefully

remove the cover from one pad and put it under the back cover
of the other. This creates a floating back cover which
depending on which side of the pad it’s on creates 2 possible
front pages. This is the base concept for the broken wings pad.
The easiest way to do this is to completely ‘un-thread one of the
pads. You will need to use pliers to bend on of the ends of the
spiral straight so that it can easily un-screw through all of the
holes.

Once you’ve removed the spiral from one of the pads, you’ll be
left with a pile of loose pages. Take the printed front cover off
the top of the pile and put the rest of the pad away. It’s a good
idea to keep the inner pages of the pad to use as a refill for your
broken wings pad.

Now, you have one regular pad and a spare front cover. You
now need to un-thread the other pad, remove the spiral just as
before.

Once you’ve taken off the spiral, take the pad and put the spare
front cover underneath the back cover, facing outwards. The
images above show how your pad should be set up.

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To put it simply, it goes; front cover, pad, extra front cover,
(facing the opposite way) back cover.

Now, re-thread the spiral onto this pad, bending the ends to fix
it in place. You have now created your first broken wings pad.

The operation of the pad is a little knacky, but you’ll have the
move down in a matter of minutes – It’s easy with a little
practice and becomes second nature.

The move is done in the action of picking the pad up and

passing it to your other hand. You allow the back to ‘pop’ off
your thumb, and twist the wrist so it swings around the spiral.

You will be, in the motion of handing the pad from one person
to another or taking it off a spectator and placing it on the table,
flicking the back cover around so that the extra front cover is
visible, thus switching the front page.

This move is all in the wrist, as shown in the following

images.

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9
THE SUBTLE SWITCH BOOK

Recently I have been experimenting with a different switching

notebook. I still prefer the original Broken Wings notebook,
though this idea may appeal to some performers with less
nimble fingers.

You should set some time aside to explore some stationary

stores to find the correct notebook for this, you will require a
notebook that has blank, single colour covers. The binding is
not important, just the lack of logos or writing. If there is a
sticker barcode, that’s perfect as it can be peeled off easily. If
there is a printed bar code, buy two of the same notebook. All
will become clear in a moment.

The key to this is the subtle differences between the front and
back covers of the book. Sometimes, the only difference is that
there is a barcode on the back of the notebook to be scanned in
the store. If you could secretly move the barcode from the back
cover to the front cover in the same position, the notebook
would appear to run the other way.

If you struggle to find the correct kind of notebook, you could

simply buy a hole punch and some black card to make your
own.

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If you have a blank covered notebook with a sticker barcode,
you can carefully peel off the sticker and mount it on a small
bit of playing card, trimmed to size. Put a small amount of
reposition-able glue on the back and you will be able to pull it
off with your finger nail and reposition it on the reverse side of
the notebook casually during your handling.

If you have bought a notebook with barcodes printed on, you

should take the notebook apart, as you did with Broken Wings
and replace the front cover with the back cover of the second
notebook. So now you have a single notebook with two back
covers. You’ll notice that the barcode is at the top of the cover
on the front and on the bottom of the back cover. This allows us
to mount a label on a piece of playing card or thin plastic (a
normal label that you would use to write the title of the
contents of a notebook on) and put some reposition-able glue
on the back. This label should have the words “Notebook 1,
27/09/15” or something similar written upon it. It will be used
to cover the barcode on the front cover, which is conveniently
positioned exactly where one would usually position a label on
a notebook. Again, it’s very easy to pull this label off with your
finger nail and reposition it on the opposite cover to achieve the
switch.

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This isn’t quite as instant as the Broken Wings switch, however,
the label can be palmed off and kept in the performer’s
possession until the opportunity arises to reposition it. For a
really clear and quick alternative, you could stick some small,
thin, neodymium magnets in the inside of the covers and on the
back of the barcode/label so that it quickly snaps into the
correct place without the necessity of sight to reposition it
correctly.

LEGION

The legion device is something I’ve kept under wraps for some
time, some of my closer friends have seen me work with this,
but I didn’t tend to perform it around magicians up until
recently when I decided that it was time to unleash the beast...
So to speak. The legion device can create some quite bizarre
and unbelievable effects.

- With this device in hand, you’ll be able to have several

people see the face of a single card, isolated from the deck,
to have several different values. Each person sees a different
card. You could then show this single card as blank if you
wanted.

- You can also easily force a card with unparalleled freedom

from a completely shuffled deck. This is immediately
repeatable with another card of a different or of the same
value.

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- A card is shown as indifferent, then transforms in to a
selection instantly or in the spectator’s hand.

- You could even take this concept and apply it to effects

outside of the card magic/mentalism genre.

- You could take a stack of photographs and perform all of the

above effects/utilities with those to force a particular image
or person.

Once you learn the concept behind legion, I’m sure you’ll come
up with a multitude of interesting things to hide in its
folds. I’ve described only the ways that I’ve used the device in
my time and it’s evolution.

HISTORY

Legion is based on an old book test gimmick of mine called

Testify. If you haven’t seen the testify gimmick, it allowed you
to force a word in a book by showing a different page as
opposed to the selected page through use of the gimmick.

It turns out that Nick Einhorn also came up with an almost

identical gimmick, which he published in some lecture notes. It
was Mark Elsdon that brought that to my attention.

13
Juan Tamariz also had a gimmick, which was slightly similar,
while mine and Nick’s used portions of a page, his used a full
page. I’ll not go into the workings here so as not to impose on
the gents’ work.

Though the gimmicks were a bit different and the handlings

were drastically different, I ceased production. Occasionally I’ll
let a few of my remaining stock surface as a free gift with
another purchase or during lecture sales.

I found that the concept used in these gimmicks was too

strong not to delve into further.

So I began applying the concept in different ways to different

items. I had the idea of putting a testify style gimmick into a
card box, thus the first incarnation of legion was born.

I removed the back from a card box, I then stuck this to a

playing card, and trimmed it to size. This was then stuck to a
regular card box, rendering the gimmick quite invisible unless
the box was examined.

I left the bottom left corner of the gimmick unstuck, so it could

be peeled up to reveal the index and a portion of the hidden
card. When an indifferent card is placed on the box, one could
peel up the legion gimmick in a ‘double-lift’ form to show the
hidden index as the index of the indifferent card.

The following images illustrate the look of the original

gimmick.

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I had a lot of success with this gimmick and enjoyed using it.
However, I wanted to expand on just the single card. I wanted
to find a way to have multiple cards inside the gimmick so that
I could create a multitude of other effects from this single
device.

I began developing the device further. I cut two cards in half

and stuck a half of each card to the extra back of the box. I left
the top right and bottom left corners unstuck so that it could be
peeled up at either end to show two different cards.
Now, from one card and the legion gimmick, I could give a
poker peek of 3 different cards (the two cards in the gimmick
and the actual index of the chosen card) to 3 different
spectators and create a hallucinations style effect.
But I didn’t stop there.

I couldn’t really add any more corners to that side of the box, it
would come unstuck, but I could add further layers. So I added
another layer to the gimmick. So now I was able to show a total
of 5 different cards. I then found that I could apply a gimmick
to the front of the box too. This would give me another 4 cards
in my poker peek index of cards. So, in total, I was able to
show 9 different cards from the supposed face of one card.
With all the effects I performed with legion, I found that I
didn’t really require any more than 5 cards. So I only make my
legion gimmicks one sided.

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I’ll teach you here how to make a one sided, dual layered legion
gimmick, from there, if you wish, you can expand your
gimmick to add further layers or to make it double sided. I will
also show you my legion envelope. It’s essentially the same
gimmick, but if you wish to only use a small packet of cards
rather than a full deck or you want to perform legion with
photos, this is the way to do it.

I’ll be using some gimmick specific terminology throughout the

book, here’s the key:

Depth: The amount of playing card layers the gimmick has.

Single/Dual: whether there is a legion gimmick present on just

the back, or both the front and the back of the card box/
envelope.

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!
17
THE GIMMICK

I’ve gone through the basic workings above, but for clarity,
here’s the step by step on making a dual layered, single sided
Legion gimmick.

First we’ll look at the card box, then we’ll attack the envelope
so that you can see the full work.

First, you’ll need to get the materials required.

• 2 identical card boxes

• 4 playing cards (the 4 cards you want inside your legion
gimmick)
• Double stick tape or glue
• Scissors or a knife and ruler

Now you’re ready to begin.

First take one of your card boxes apart as show in the previous
images. You can destroy the rest of the card box, you just need
to cut out and keep the back panel intact.

Once you have removed the back panel, place it aside and we
will prepare the cards. You will need to cut each of the cards in
half width ways. Keep one half of each card and discard the
other. You’ll notice that the back panel in the image above has a
semi-circle cut out of it, where the seal sticker is. You will need
to trace this semi-circle onto TWO of the half cards. (the
picture only shows a single index Legion gimmick, just follow
these instructions to make a deeper gimmick)
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We’re going to pair up these two half cards to fit on the top of
our gimmick and pair up the other two half cards to sit at the
bottom. You’ll need to take some glue or double stick tape and
stick each of these pairs together.
It’s important that each pair is stuck together by the ends that
DO NOT have the indexes printed on them, so they’re free to
be peeled apart as above. You may want to shave the corner of
the lower card (the queen in the image above) if you want to
easily separate the cards in performance, but this isn’t really
necessary, just an optional extra depending on how easy you
find the handling!

Once you’ve created your two paired up gimmicks, you need to

stick them to the non-printed side of the card box back panel
you set aside before. Your final gimmick before you apply it to
the ordinary card box is below. You just need to trim all the
edges to make sure everything is perfect and you’re ready to
stick it to the normal card box that your deck is inside of.
Once you’ve trimmed up your gimmick, you must stick it to the
normal card box. To do this, simply apply a strip of the double
stick tape to the centre of the gimmick lengthways and to the
stuck together quarters of the gimmick. This will allow you to
peel up each index corner, but the other corners will stay flush
to the box.

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When you use this gimmick as much as I have, the corners will
begin to naturally bend up. To remedy this, you can put the
entire box (with the deck inside) under some heavy books over
night. This will flatten the gimmick again. Eventually you will
have to replace the gimmicks, but as you’ve seen it doesn’t take
much effort to make a new one!

LEGION ENVELOPE

The same gimmick could be made with an envelope. Envelopes

are quite thin, so the darker the colour, the better. To create the
envelope, follow the steps above, but use the side of the
envelope that doesn’t have the flap.

If you wish to build layers in and increase the depth, you will
need to put a layer of envelope in between the card layers, as
the card back is different from the surface of the envelope.
Because of the angle of the peek, it’s not likely a spectator will
see this, but it’s worth covering your back.

You can also build a legion gimmick into a notebook. Just get
an extra front cover and follow the steps above. This notebook
could be one that you use for another effect or to write a
prediction.

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PHOTO OR INDEX CARDS

For photo-based gimmicks, you’ll need to have more of the

photo visible than just the corner. You can still make use of
layers, but you’ll have to have a half of the photo available to
be peeled back, rather than just the corner for a poker peek.
You’ll want to peel from the top (opening side) of the envelope
and the bottom.
This doesn’t limit you as far as the gimmick goes, as the
corners are usually stuck down on the ‘quarter’ gimmicks, but it
does mean that you’ll have to handle the gimmicks more
carefully, so an not to flash the secret layers.
The beauty of using an envelope is that the flap can be folded
over the exposed edge and hold it in place.
If you wish to make index card gimmicks, with words on, you
just need to hold the card in a portrait aspect and write the
words making sure that they are only in the top half. This
means the whole word will be visible to the spectator with a
half card peek.

MULTIPLE GIMMICKS

If you are working with an effect that you need many

outcomes, for instance you have one spectator think of any
value of card. You need 13 outcomes. To build all those in to
one card box, envelope or notebook could make it a bit too
bulky, depending on the thickness of cards, etc.

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If you use a notebook and the card box, you could build half of
your outcomes into one, half into the other, allowing you the
full scope. I’ll teach a routine below like this so you can see the
handling.

The handling is quite simple. I’ll explain fully in the routine,

but in essence:

1. You will have a card selected and not looked at.

2. You’ll put the deck back in the box and sit the box on the
table.
3. You’ll take the selection and put it on top of the box. You’ll
lift up the box with the selection upon it, turn your head away
and bend up the gimmick to allow the spectator to get a poker
peek of legion as opposed to the card they think they’re seeing.
4. You’ll then push the card back into the deck so it’s out of the
picture.
When peeling up the card, it should not be aligned perfectly
with the legion gimmick; you’ll need to have it a fraction of a
mm back so that there isn’t multiple edges seen by the spectator
when they peek the index. This allows for a much cleaner
illusion.

When I peel up the corner, I’m also applying pressure with my

thumb to keep the ‘double’ together. This is an important
key point to the handling is not to have the card lined up
note, as without that pressure, you’ll see a gap and the illusion
will be destroyed.

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WRAP UP

With those two gimmicks, in various incarnations, a variety of

effects can be produced. The concept that will work with both
devices and that we will be playing with in the following
routines is that you can show one thing, and then show a
different thing as the same thing; or in grown up words, it can
secretly switch images or words. This means that we can have
spirit writing appear, or we can have a photo mysteriously
mutilate it’s self in some way, or make someone vanish from an
image.

The Legion gimmick is slightly more limited in what it can do,

however, I’m never without a deck of cards. You could
substitute playing cards for tarot and have the gimmick peel up
from the top/bottom, rather than the corner, of the box. If
you’re using Rider Waite or similar, you’ll have the title of the
card at the bottom of each card, perfect for the Legion
gimmick.
With the Broken Wings gimmick, the uses are really limitless
as you can switch something written on a page of the pad,
multiple pages of the pad, or something that’s just sitting in the
front of the pad, like a card or a photo.

I’m going to move onto some presentations after a few words

about how to look at performing a ‘spooky’ show and bizarre/
haunted magic in general. When an effect calls for the use of
either of the above devices, I’ll be concise but brief in my
explanation as you have all the info you need really in this first
chapter. Don’t be afraid to re-read the working/building
explanations where you need to.
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INTESIFYING PERFORMANCES

I’ve known a lot of people over the years who have tried to
touch on the bizarre and failed dramatically. I’ve done my best
to learn lessons from their mistakes and its helped me to figure
out the key elements to a solid performance of the weird. There
are generally four types of bad bizarre performance, these are
noted below, so we can analyse them one by one and find the
good points to amalgamate into one beautifully chilling and
powerful performance.

1. The Magician Who Doth Not Understand.

2. The Mentalist Who Crosses Wires.
3. The Bizarrist Without A Climax.
4. The Professor Of Procedures.

Before I continue, I must mention that there are a few

performers who’s charisma carries them through some of the
‘fail points’ I mention and make them work. This is rare and I
feel that everyone benefits from looking at their performance
styles and evolving to create a better experience for their
audiences. I’m constantly evolving and deeply thinking about
everything that I do on a daily basis; no one’s perfect, but if my
writing brings you even marginally closer to that impossible
goal, it’s been worth my time.

I should also mention that I have blown this wildly out of

proportion to exaggerate the characters to create a humorous
approach; it’ll make the important parts sink in easier and
hopefully will make reading the next few pages more fun. As
Ru Paul would say: “The library is open.”
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THE MAGICIAN WHO DOTH NOT UNDERSTAND

A plastic skull and a stuffed raven with one of it’s wings broken
sit upon a golden fringed, criss-cross ribboned table with a
badly made black art well (which is never used) hidden from
view. The screen of his iPad is tapped to unleash a 79p
halloween soundtrack to which the magician picks up a deck of
shiny new bicycle cards, removing the shrink wrap, (because
without the film wrapping the deck the audience will no doubt
see through his charade) in time with the subtle whispers and
reverberated screams that fill the half empty room with a stench
of matured cheese. The performer goes on to remove six cards
and begins to “weave a tale,” which is told like a stand up
comedy script that involves the first magic shop he ever visited
and a trick in which no matter how many cards were tossed
from the hand, there would always be six cards remaining. The
audience is entertained, the magic is good, but there is no
atmosphere and this is certainly not a bizarre performance for
Hallowe’en; even if the shop keeper is now six feet under. In
fact, he’s probably spinning in his grave.

The Bad: Trying to create artificial atmosphere with out of the

box props and music, using standard routines with no real
feeling or emotion.
The Good: Magic that is strong and routined. A story based
routine that with a few alterations could become powerful.

25
In this case, my recommendation would be to ditch the plastic
props and music and focus on using your personality to build
the atmosphere. You have an advantage over other performers,
your light-hearted and comedic approach to your magic offers
you a distinct change in feeling when it comes to performing
spookier routines. If the introduction to your show includes
elements of your personality and friendly approach, you’ll
appear honest and warm. When it come down to business and
your tone lowers and the feeling of unease seeps from your
pores, you’re guaranteed to bring your audience along for the
ride. This is not to say that you should go from circus clown to
exorcist in one fell swoop, subtlety is far more powerful. Less
is generally more. Be a person, over a caricature of half the cast
of the “Scary Movie” franchise.

If you are this magician; ditch the playing cards and build your
six card repeat from vintage cinema tickets. That’s a perfect
base for an intriguing routine as the usher at a haunted cinema
lures in victims to it’s smallest screen, three at a time to feed
the evil entity fresh, artistic minds and sate it’s hunger. This is
just an example in an effort to lead you to think outside the box
a little more and build your act in theme, rather than fooling
yourself into believing that performing normal, commercial
tricks while wearing a cape is going to work.

26
THE MENTALIST WHO CROSSES WIRES

This performer has projected pixelated images of what Google

spits out when you type “Occultist” in the search bar of the
image search page on his stage. He leads with a drawn out
script explaining his fascination with all things dark, sometimes
he’ll bring an amethyst pendulum from the top pocket of his
black, fitted suit to casually swing about as he makes
uncomfortable eye contact with a number of people in the
audience, one by one. He puts his pendulum away and takes
out a shiny silk bag alongside what could only be described as
mini pool balls, four of which are white, one of which is black.
He uses his lie-detection skills to determine which of five
participants holds the black ball while adding a casual tick in a
less-than flattering homage to Derren.

The Bad: Again, I’m trying to stress that trying to falsely

create an atmosphere is very likely to fail; projecting images is
great. It allows the performance to easily fill a large stage, but
choose your projections wisely. The routine here is about lie-
detection, it doesn’t make sense in the context of the show
you’re trying to create. Also, stop pretending you’re Derren
Brown.

The Good: Black, fitted suits are always good. That aside,
using simple and direct routines with lots of interaction, like
“Kurotsuke,” is a great idea. Draw people in by stepping off the
pedestal and making the show more about them; you’re much
more likely to create hooks and show your personality.

27
I actually perform a variation of Max Maven’s “Kurotsuke” in
my show. I don’t use one of the many marketed versions with
those weird little balls; I simple walked to my local “witchy”
shop and picked up some beautiful little crystals, four of which
are white and one of which is black. I also picked up a large
velvet tarot bag while there and I was ready to perform the
original (with a few touches) version of “Kurotsuke” just by
wandering around the room feeling the energy from the stones.
Using the fact that everything vibrates as a back story and
being tapped into recognising these invisible forces is a
wonderful way to perform a very strong effect and as you
discuss vibration, there’s nothing stopping you from using that
pendulum as a visual representation of the movement and an
introduction to your use of crystals in performance.

THE BIZARRIST WITHOUT A CLIMAX

Everyone is seated in a beautiful manor house; the silence

allows for the ticking of the old grandfather clock in the corner
to come to the forefront of everyone’s experience as the tension
builds so thickly that even the ceremonial dagger on the seated
performer’s belt would struggle to cut through… That could be
because it’s dull blade was bought from the wall of a shop
which also specialised in selling hemp products and BB guns
though. The deep, crackling voice of the performer bounces off
the walls as his crafts a haunting tale, which keeps the audience
on the edges of their respective seats. He builds up to a
crescendo as he picks up a small pot from his table and
triumphantly pours out a glass of red wine, expecting applause.
He quickly moves on as he remembers that he forgot to show
the vase empty in the first place.
28
The Bad: I’ve seen a few bizarre shows that left me feeling like
this. The atmosphere was amazing, the performer was
charismatic and disturbing in equal amounts, but the magic just
wasn’t there. There were no climaxes, or each trick followed a
similar formula of some self working mathematical routine
using an aged prop. My friend Jon Randall rather indelicately
describes this style of bizarre magic as “A long and rambling
camp fire story culmination with a shit self-working packet
trick” . It’s a real shame to see such things as so many of the
elements are there to create an amazing show, especially in the
Hallowe’en season.

The Good: You have the most powerful thing down; creating
feeling and telling a strong story. The technical side is the easy
part, it just takes a little time to master the tricks.

If you’re not a magician, there’s really nothing wrong with

telling stories, I’d sit down and watch that kind of dark
Jackanory-esque theatre if the stories were good! If you are a
magician and want to perform magical things with haunting
themes, then do it. Work as hard on your choreography as you
do on your stories; the magic needs to be as clear and direct as
the characters you’re creating. Subtlety can be great in bizarre
performances, but spend some time learning solid thread work
and have a feather gently float up to your fingertips rather than
using unnatural “hot rod” counting techniques on aged cards to
reach the one with blood on the back that the people at the back
can’t see anyway.

29
THE PROFESSOR OF PROCEDURES

Each line of this performer’s script is accompanied by a

decision to be made, or the cutting of a packet of cards. The
“tricks” that he’s performing drag on and on and on and on,
even longer than this sentence. The content is unoriginal and
the old man snoozing at the back of the room is rather off
putting. He may have the right idea though.

The Bad: The “21 Card Trick” is reserved for use by people in
bars and kids in school. It’s great to learn early on, but it’s more
exciting for the person performing it than the audience. Anyone
watching that effect (bar the kids in school, they have many
more performances of this particular ‘magic’ trick to endure in
their years to come… Poor things.) has likely seen it
approximately a thousand times in the past and dressing it up
with a fancy script will not remove that fact. You should aim to
keep your magic direct, clear, concise and compelling in any
scenario, especially if you’re performing for more than one
person.

30
The Good: Similarly to the bizarrist I mention above, (there’s a
lot of cross over with these final two cases) I’ve seen
performances of this nature that have the potential to be really
good, if only the magic was less drawn out, procedural and
weird. The only drawn out tricks that work are story decks, like
“Sam The Bellhop” and similar effects. It’s very difficult to
keep the entire audiences attention (even if there’s only five of
them!) when there is so much drawn out and boring interaction.
If you want to include a trick like this, make sure it’s just one in
an entire show; people switch off and unless you’re an
incredibly charismatic performer with a completely
otherworldly script with twists and turns that also makes such a
procedural performance completely logical and justified, you
should probably just stick to things that are a lot more effective
so that your audience won’t get bored and you’ll get to
concentrate on building the mood and receiving your applause.

IN CONCLUSION

Now that I’ve finished poking fun at these caricatures that I

built to emphasise some of the points I’m trying to get across, I
want you to take the time to think about the show that you’ve
written on the things you’re planning to perform - Do any of
them feel too drawn out? Is there anything way to cheesy to
work? Is there anywhere you can open up a little to your
audience with some casual light-heartedness to make the
spook-factor stronger when you drop into serious mode?

31
Take the time to make your performances truly brilliant. You’re
making art, not just entertaining. Your show is not artistic
unless it provokes the kind of emotion or thoughts that you’re
trying to get across and to me, that seems a real shame. Analyse
everything you do, think deeply. Be the best that you can be.

URBAN SHAMANISM

This is a modern movement that I’ve wanted to write about for

some time. Contrary to some people’s beliefs, It’s not just guys
with tattoos who own “13 steps…”

The way I see urban shamanism is essentially a more

contemporary form of bizarre magic, generally incorporating
less storytelling, but similar themes.

When they use props, the urban shamans use the kinds of props
that a witch-doctor or an occultist might in their
demonstrations. These props don’t necessarily need to be aged,
depending on your angle. The urban shaman has knowledge of
lots of esoteric and intriguing subjects and will demonstrate
amazing things in a direct way, while imparting some of this
information. There’s a cross-over with standard mentalism, but
of the mysterious kind as opposed to the psychological kind.
While the urban shaman understands things about the people he
is with, it’s not through studying their psychophysiological
tells, it’s about feeling the energy they project, or recognising
the tones within their aura.

32
To me, this area of haunted magic is fascinating and I find it an
exciting evolution. If you’re interested in learning more, there
is a group on Facebook that is very easy to locate. If you wish
to read more on the subject, Jerome Finley and Craig
Browning’s works are both going to be of interest.

Lewis Lé Val and I are currently writing up a lot of our work

along these lines, but you’ll notice several pieces in this
collection that happily fall within the walls of the urban
shamanist’s potential demonstrations.

The most promising thing about this movement is that it allows

bizarre magic to become a walk-around ready style of
performance. It’s been very difficult in the past to find the
correct material or demonstrations to move from a parlour or
stage setting to something genuinely portable that can be
performed in a looser, more casual environment. We’re all
carving this style by bringing in elements of the spookier and
more spiritual things that we love, but keeping it modern and
direct.

ONE MIRACLE A NIGHT

This is a great point from my friend Jon Randall. Jon primarily

performs séances, however, he has several routines that can be
performed in a more close-up and casual environment. Jon’s
technique creates buzz in a social environment, brings people
together and ensures that an ample crowd is there to witness
whatever demonstration he wishes to perform that evening.

33
The technique is simple, (and holds some similarities to Mark
Elsdon’s “Meridian Technique” while remaining quite different)
when it comes up in conversation that Jon does some unusual
things and people want to see such things, he simply says: “I'm
sorry, I only perform one miracle a night…”

This is never followed by an instruction on when said miracle

might happen or what the content of the demonstration might
be, but it makes people aware that something is going to
happen and he chooses his moment wisely so that he can create
a genuine performance, rather than just showing a couple of
people a trick.

If you follow Kenton’s method of thinking, what this statement

would also suggest is that whatever this is that is coming, it
takes a lot of energy and is very difficult to do, otherwise why
wouldn't you do it lots of times in one night?

While this isn’t the perfect technique for paid walk around gigs,
it is perfect for casual situations.

34
THOUGHTS ON AGEING PROPS

I am by no means an authority on ageing props, however, I

thought it wise to include a couple of quick notes.

If I need to handle a prop that should look old, I’ll tend to trawl
antique shops and eBay for something that is genuine and will
do the job. Old keys, picture frames and jewellery are all very
easy to come by. Vintage photos are also quite easy to get hold
of. It seems a simple thought, but many people don’t put in the
leg-work. I find that genuine antique props are far superior to
props made to look antique; the only advantage to having an
effect in which the props are specially made is if there is
something ‘special’ about the prop that would be impossible to
replicate with real items.

If you are putting together an effect with vintage items that you
need to make specially, you can look up tutorials on ageing
props - Generally they’re aimed towards those in the movie
business, but they’ll apply to your magic just the same.

A key place to look initially is www.dirtydown.co.uk as they

are one of the leading manufacturers of ageing sprays and
liquids - They have a couple of demonstration videos and some
before and after shots so that you can make sure you’re picking
up the correct tools to age your items.

If you are ageing photographs, try and avoid printing them on

photographic paper that has the manufacturers logo all over the
back. The devil is in the details.

35
EFFECTS & PRESENTATIONS

In the following pages, you’ll find some interesting concepts

and presentations for haunted magic effects.

Remember, you should of course make these effects your own

and the key to creating the correct atmosphere is creating
intriguing and just-about-believable stories correctly paced.
Rushing through the lines of a story will appear quite bizarre,
and not in the good way!

BURNT OAK

The performer throws a notebook on the table and then

carefully unwraps an antique cigarette lighter from a velvet
cloth. He talks about his acquisition of this beautiful, if
damaged curio. The lighter was supposedly owned by a psychic
medium who used it to light the candles in the back room of his
shop; where he would advise people on their troubles using the
guidance the spirits would provide him with. As he progressed
through his career, he began to question whether these
messages were just his intuition, or whether they really is life
after death.

36
Towards the end of his life, the psychic was stricken with stress
and guilt, the neighbourhood in which his shop was located
had gradually declined in popularity over the years as the
crime rate rose. Struggling to pay his rent, he gradually moved
himself into the shop, living and working out of the single
space. The back room had fewer and fewer visitors and became
littered with empty bottles of oaky bourbon, with rings on the
table to match the footprint of his favourite whiskey glass. One
evening as his drifted off to sleep, one of the candles
mysteriously caught a draft, blowing the flame to gently lick the
lace curtain-trim. It caught alight. The psychic opened his eyes
to see the room filled with smoke, just in time to recognise his
fate. He clutched his lighter and uttered a few words before
dropping it onto the floor as he closed his eyes that final time.

They say that when someone dies in a state of intense emotion,

in this case disappointment and depression, that energy can be
transferred to items or even locations. This is especially true
when the person is as spiritually connected as the psychic that
owned this item…

A page is ripped out of the notebook, showing a blank page

underneath. The notebook is closed and left on the table while
the performer scribbles a message on to the ripped out page,
asking: “Is there life after death?”

37
The participant is asked to hold the notebook above the lighter,
it’s flint is struck and the flame is allowed to touch the writing
on the ripped out page. The words begin to fade, as if they are
being sucked into the fire. The participant is asked if they
notice the notebook becoming heavier, as if someone is writing
upon it. Regardless of their answer, they open the front page to
see the words “You tell me…” burnt onto the page,
accompanied by a ring shaped stain from a whiskey tumbler.

The book is closed. In both senses.

This is a presentation that makes use of the Broken Wings or

Subtle Switch Book. You will also need to grab an old lighter,
plus a Frixion pen.

First, let us look at creating the message on the notebook. The

ring of whiskey is easy, just take a glass and rub any liquid
around its base, then put it on top of the page. Leave it there for
a few seconds, then leave the page to dry. The writing is a little
more difficult, so I’ll offer two methods.

The first method is simply to write the message with an old

fountain pen, then take a candle and allow some burn marks to
appear on the page by holding the page above the flame and
letting it burn a tiny bit. These should be surface burns and
candles will work considerably better than lighters for this, I’m
assuming it’s due to the wick and wax actually burning and
rising.

38
If you wish to genuinely have the message burned in (it looks a
lot better!) you should take some thick card and a craft knife.
You will need to cut out a stencil, with the letters as holes. This
idea originally came from my friend Daniel Madison’s book
“Burn” in which he burned the images of playing cards on to
other playing cards. If you can find that eBook, I’d recommend
it highly as it can create some very eerie effects using the
various methods he explains. You can also find some of the
work in his book “Anthology.” You just need to hold (or gently
stick) the stencil to the page and allow a candle’s flame to lick
the holes in the card. This will create a beautiful burnt image of
the message on the page.

The handling is straight forward, you simply switch the pad

after you remove the page during the presentation. I tend to
open the book on the table and tear out the page, fold it in half
and then close the cover of the book, so the image of a blank
page in the book is casually noticed. I then place the page
down, take out my Frixion pen and then I move the notebook
closer to the participant, doing the switch in that motion. You
may find a better interval for your style, but that sequence
works for me.

I write the message with the Frixion pen, so when the flame
touches the page it vanishes eerily. That’s not a necessary step,
but a nice visual. Alternatively, you could simply burn the page
and let the smoke hit the notebook as the participant holds it.

39
I mention the notebook feeling heavier in the presentation, as
long as you take your time in writing the message and lighting
the flame, the participant’s arm will begin to tire, creating the
natural feeling of the notebook being heavier. If you can
attribute a natural occurrence to something supernatural, I’d
advise doing it at every possible occasion!

This is a technically simple routine that’s reminiscent of the

spirit slates we all know and love. I think the visual of the
writing being burnt on to a page looks much spookier than
chalk on a board though, chalk is meant to go on blackboards,
it’s seemingly impossible to write in smoke or fire, so it must
have appeared supernaturally.

SCAR

The performer shows the audience a scar on his hand, slowly

and visually he heals the scar supposedly using his
psychokinetic powers.

The presentation of this effect can be very simple and direct, or

it can be story based. The actual healing of the scar takes a
little time as it genuinely disappears visually; this effect,
therefore, is the perfect exercise in holding silence.

40
I simply present this effect as a casual piece in between more
elaborate demonstrations; I will ask if anyone here has any
scars and ask how they came about. This allows me to interact
with the people and learn a little more about them, they also
learn a bit about each other, which creates a much nicer
atmosphere and breaks the ice somewhat. I will then go on to
explain how I got my most visible scar…

“I know you won’t have noticed it, but I see it all the time, it’s
always the way with our imperfections. If you look here on my
hand, you can see it. Are you familiar with psychic healing? I’d
like to show you something, it won’t heal me forever, but I will
appear to be healed… For a time.”

I’m a huge fan of effects that seem to be completely unplanned.

Picking up a spoon in a coffee shop and bending it, for
instance. Since putting more of a focus on psychokinesis the
last few years, I’ve researched everything that could fit under
the vast umbrella of the subject; metal bending, pyrokinesis,
cryokinesis, affecting chance, influencing falling items, matter
through matter and much more. One of the most interesting
concepts I discovered that could be presented, as PK is
regeneration. The ability to heal one’s self. Wolverine was one
of the coolest X-men by far, seeing the CGI effects in the
movies of his cuts healing visually looked so amazing that I
had to find a way to do it in real life.

I tried the obvious methods of buying fake wounds from

costume shops and the like, but never got the desired effect or
organic feeling that I was looking for. I then stumbled across
what I’ve been using ever since.

41
I’ll first introduce you to the basic concept and then we’ll look
at ways that you can set up on the fly and how you might want
to introduce the effect.

THE BASIC CONCEPT

The basic method of this effect is not new, but I’ve not seen it
used in this way before. You’ll be essentially using a shaped
blister on your skin to give the impression of a scar.

HISTORY

The original blister effect was published in Tarbell’s Course

Book 7 in 1972. Jack Tillar who used pressing his finger onto
the hole in a key to create a round blister on his skin originated
the concept.

Since then, many magicians have taken the concept of the

blister and shaped it to create magic effects. Brent Walske
created Pyro-Perception, in which card shaped blisters
appeared on your fingers, Tim Trono also released a fantastic
method of card blistering called Branded. Jason Palter has an
rd
effect called 3 Degree Burn, in which any named card can be
burnt onto your fingers, he also has an ESP blister effect called
Psionic which is very effective. Daniel Madison also released a
blister effect using just a deck of cards in one of his books.

42
I’m sure there are many other blister effects, I know of one in
particular by a close friend of mine from Greece that uses a
blister to create something completely different, but I’ll not
mention the effect so as not to reveal the method to his trick!

There are two ways to create the mark in your skin for Scar;
you can either have a protruding scar or a depressed scar.
Looking at many different people’s scars, you’ll notice that no
single scar is identical, which works to our advantage, to keep
it very organic and completely impromptu, I like to do this
unprepared by using things around me or things that I always
have on me anyway.

CREATING THE SCAR

The key is to create a long thin ‘blister’ in the skin below the
thumb. This ‘pad’ style area is perfect to apply a blister as it’s
very easy to press onto something out of the spectator’s vision
and the skin and muscle in this area holds the impression well.
My preferred method creates a protruding scar, but I’ll explain
how to also create a depressed scar.

Look around you at the surfaces in whatever room you’re in.

Find the nearest surface with a sharp 90 degree edge and push
this pad of skin onto it for 3-5 seconds, lift your hand and look
as the mark you’ve made – It should be around 2 inches long
and quite thin, it looks kind of like recessed scar tissue. We’ll
call this a depressed scar.

43
Now, take the nearest DVD or CD case and open it half a
millimeter. Push the pad below your thumb into the ‘crack’
you’ve made for 3-5 seconds, lift your hand up and look at the
blister, it should be around the same length and width, but
sticking out instead of going in. We’ll call this a protruding
scar.

Now that you know what your impression should look like, you
can find ways to apply it easily with the things you carry in
your pockets everyday. I’ll also teach you how to make a
gimmick that will create the perfect protruding scar.

DEPRESSED SCAR

1. The method I’ve used the most is simply to lean

on the edge of a table. Its organic and completely impromptu, it
means that I can perform this effect at any time. If the table
near you has a rounded edge you can use one of the following
to push into your skin and create the scar.

2. An older iPhone or similar handset, these have

fairly sharp edges and can be used to create a fine depression in
your skin.

3. Glue a block of 4 or 5 playing cards together,

(depending on the card stock) you can trim off most of the
cards leaving a sharp rectangular block that’s about 3 inches by
1 inch. This will be sturdy enough to push
against in your pocket.

44
 4. The back of a knife blade. Be careful not to put
pressure on the sharp side, you want to push down on the back
of the blade of the knife to create the depression in your skin.

5. The back of a key. A mortis key won’t usually

work, but the key to a Yale style lock will work great, just push
the back of the key into the pad of flesh under your thumb with
your fingers.

PROTRUDING SCAR

1. Depending on the type of Yale/padlock style

keys you have, you may find one with a ridge that’s deep
enough to push against your skin and create an effective
protruding scar.

2. To create a more interesting shape of scar, you

could take a playing card and cut a half millimetre wide slit out
of it in the exact shape you want. Repeat the process with 5 or
6 more cards, using the first one as a guide and glue them all
together. This will create a gimmick that you can press against
your skin to create the scar impression. You can of course trim
off the excess card to create a small pocket-friendly gimmick.
You can add as many cards as required to make it sturdy
enough to survive your pockets and multiple uses. I use glue
that dries hard, so 6 cards is easily enough for me.

3. If you use a deck of cards in your act, you could

use them to achieve a scar blister, if you hold a thin break in the
cards with the flesh of the pad under your thumb and push hard
into it, you can create a perfect scar blister shape.

45
HEALING THE SCAR

There are two ways that I’ve found to heal the scar, one is to
leave it for an amount of time and the impression slowly fades,

the other is the ‘knead’ or massage the impression in the

fingertips of your other hand as if you’re slowly healing the
scar from one end to the other.

I sometimes use the latter method as it’s a lot quicker, however,

if you do decide to use the visual healing method, my
suggestion would be to practice putting in the impression and
seeing how long it takes to heal. Let’s say it takes a minute and
thirty seconds from having a strong impression to it fading
completely. You will want to put in your scar impression
approximately a minute before you intend to show the
spectators so that when you do, it still looks like a scar, but
doesn’t have much life left in it, as long as the edges are still
visible, that’s all that matters. When the scar heals visually,
you’ll notice that it seems to fade back, turn to red and then
vanish. (On Caucasian skin, the effect will vary depending on
your ethnicity.)

With the right presentation this can be incredibly powerful.

With both of these healing methods, you can immediately show
your hands to the spectators and let them feel that your skin is
normal and that you’re not hiding anything.

46
I mention in the presentation that this will only heal me for a
short time, suggesting that the scar will return to my skin. This
line solved the only real problem I had with this effect, the
reason for you still to have the scar in the first place! If you
could heal yourself, you wouldn’t save a scar just to show this
one demonstration to this single group of people. If the healing
only lasted a little while though, it’s a bit more believable.

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

Not all of these effects use blisters, but are all in a similar vein
of body tricks.

• The Moving Tan Line – Nate Kranzo

• Titan’s Finger – Titanas
• Freak – Will Houston
• Stigmata – Banachek and Wayne Houchin

You should take this effect and try it out on your own skin, in
different parts of your skin, pressing hard or soft to see what
creates the most convincing illusion for you. You’ll find that the
more you create an impression on a certain area of skin, the
better it will look, the skin begins to become more attuned to
what you’re doing, so it will get the impression quicker and
hold it better. This is a close up effect, but is not to be taken
lightly!

47
SILENCE

Silence is one of the most important tools that a performer can

harness. I see a lot of magicians trying to fill every tiny gap in
their performance with words, this is not necessary and is
actually detrimental to your act. I’ve written about silence in
the past, but I’d like to reiterate my thoughts here, in a brief few
notes, with some more up to date thoughts.

I used to have the issue of saying “ermmm…” in between

almost every sentence, this was generally due to lack of
preparation and scripting as I thought that just casually ad-
libbing my presentations would create a more natural look and
feel. In actuality, this was not the case. When you have a solid
script in place that has room for movement if somebody says a
line you can reply to, or if you can call back to something
earlier in your conversations and performance with this group
of people, you will find that your presentation appears much
more natural as you’re not having to think about what you’re
saying. The way that I learnt to overcome my “ermmm…” issue
was to lock my mouth shut after every line. It felt very strange
at first, but became natural after not too long. It meant that I
would look like I was pacing myself, as opposed to not
knowing what I was going to say next; which resulted in the
audience being much more interested in what I had to say and
paying more attention. They were now able to process my
words in the gaps and I was only giving them the clear and
concise information that they needed.

48
This exercise in scripting led to me further exploring the art of
silence and through that my entire performance style evolved
and became considerably more powerful.

When you’re doing something magical, just close your mouth

and put all focus on the visual. When you’re reading someone’s
mind, look them in the eyes and become silent, as if you were
staring into their soul and reading the words burnt onto the
back of their retina.

Silence is everything. Explore it and use it to put focus onto the

things you’re doing. You’ll find your reactions intensify
dramatically, your presentation will improve and you will
appear much more confident and well spoken.

THE DEVIL’S KEY

The Devil’s Key is something that I originally concocted

several years ago through phone conversations with the late
Jim Trainer, he told me a lot about different magnets and what
you can achieve. We did initially intend on releasing this as a
little video freebie for buyers of the wizard PK blocks, but we
never ended up doing so, so here it is for your reading pleasure.

The performer brings from his pocket an old, fairly large

skeleton key. He begins to tell a story;

49
“I love trawling antique shops for unusual items. Regardless of
where you are in the world, there’s always a small counter with
a pile of old keys sat there. It fascinates me. How does someone
acquire so many old keys from so many different locks, what
does each key open?

Well, regardless, I stepped into an old antique shop in Glasgow

city a few years ago and I found this. There was the usual pile
of keys, but this particular key was sat in a glass cabinet at the
front desk, wrapped in an old slip of paper and next to
expensive jewellery, I clearly remember a golden Christian
Dior Broach I was very close to buying before I realised that I
only ever wear silver.

I asked the price of the key and why it was in such a safe place.
Even with my skills, I couldn’t have predicted her answer: This
key is £50, it apparently belonged to the devil himself; you can
read about it on the attached note.

She put on a white glove, unwrapped the key from it’s aged
paper jacket and placed it carefully down on the table. I read
the note and sure enough, it attributed the key as having been
donated by a ‘Lucifer’, who wouldn’t take a penny for it and
just asked that they include the details of the donor and that
whoever bought it would be warned of the energy it holds
within. It’s not a key to a door or a cabinet, it’s the key to
something much more ethereal. It will allow the holder to act
as a catalyst for supernatural power…

50
It was completely fascinating and perhaps an elaborate con,
but I couldn’t resist and had to buy it. I was recently back in
Glasgow and the shop had unfortunately shut it’s doors since, I
must have been very lucky to catch it when I did.

I’d like to try something with this key, the most interesting
things happen if the right kinds of spirits are present. They key
sometimes heats up, or becomes freezing cold, sometimes it
even moves. Please, hold out your hand, I’ll place the key here.
Just stare at the metal and begin to become completely aware
of the space around the key, where it contacts your skin and let
me know if you feel any changes.”

Regardless of the participant’s reactions to holding the key, it

will begin to move and even turn over in their hand! This is a
truly impactful effect as long as the story is built effectively.

51
The methodology is very straight forward with this; I’m sure
from the introductory statement you’ll know that it uses
magnets, it’s quite interesting however. If you find a large key
that is attracted to a magnet and lay it flat on your palm, as with
the regular haunted key effect, then move a large block magnet
(like the M5 or Wizard PK Block) underneath your hand,
nothing will happen along most of the key. If you hold the
magnet under your hand, under the teeth of the key (the part
that goes into the lock) you’ll find that you can control the
movement of the key and it can turn over. This is due to the
extra piece of metal and the way it reacts to the magnetic field.
It will take a bit of experimentation to get the correct
movement down, but I find that just turning your wrist (upon
which the magnet is attached) just a bit, you can get quite a bit
of movement out of the key. Depending on the size of the key
and the magnet, you may have to move the magnet back and
forth, or bring it closer to the hand, but you’ll be able to get the
key to turn over with just a little practice.

If you don’t want to carry a magnet around, you could simply

use the story and see how the participant feels when they hold
the key, then get them to hold their hand over the key as it sits
in your hand and you perform the standard haunted key effect.

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TAROT HALLUCINATION

The performer brings out a deck of tarot cards. He explains

some interesting things about people who are handling cards
for the first time:

“Who here hasn’t touched a deck of tarot cards before? Here,

take these and mix them up for me. They say that it’s bad luck
to touch someone else’s deck of tarot cards… You don’t believe
in that though, do you?

Don’t worry, I gave you permission, so you’ll be fine… I’d like

to show you something interesting with the tarot. All I need you
to do is deal the cards face down onto the table and whenever
you feel comfortable I want you to deal a single card onto the
box here to separate it from the bunch.

Some people that are new to tarot can see all sorts of meanings
in the cards they deal themselves; sometimes they can see
different images even to those printed on the cards if there is
something that’s really affecting them that needs to be resolved,
we call it a ‘tarot hallucination’.

Ah, so you’ve now dealt a single card onto the box. Are you
happy with that choice? Now, just so you can see the card and
no one else, I’m just going to peel up the end so that you can
read the title. Have you got it? Perfect. I don’t want to touch
anything, so please hold that card under your hands and think
about the imagery it conjures in your mind.

I’m going to write a couple of impressions down.

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OK, I have written my feelings. Would you like to turn over the
card and show everyone what you dealt? That’s very strange -
When I was reading you, I was picking up on some very distinct
feelings, you didn’t seem to be thinking about that card. What
was the card that you had in mind? That makes a lot more
sense, and that applies to you in this period of your life, the
death card is all about transition and moving from one state to
another. What’s the main decision or transition that you have in
mind? As you can see, I wrote down my thoughts based on the
card you believed you saw, (turn over prediction) which is
fascinating - Perhaps tarot hallucination is real, but regardless,
you now know not to let your thoughts and emotions cloud
what’s right in front of your eyes. I’ve no doubt that your
journey is about to transition to an even more amazing
experience.”

This presentation is something quite unusual in terms of

reactions, it resonates in quite a deep manner with the person
that’s participating and that is echoed with the rest of the group.
It’s quite chilling when you give someone proof of either
supernatural power or that their physical senses are in some
way affected; in this case, they’re seeing something incorrectly,
they believe they saw something that they did not.

The workings are extremely simple, I just have a single card

“Legion” device set up on the card box. There’s hardly a
method at all! It doesn’t really matter what card they chose, but
if you are experienced in the art of tarot reading or could place
a relevant meaning on a card based on the imagery, you could
explain how the card they actually drew applies to them and
you have an extra rounded reading during the effect.
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I’ve used the ‘death’ card here on my ‘Legion’ device as it’s one
of the only cards that the public knows in a tarot deck, it’s often
misinterpreted and it also applies to everyone. Who isn’t going
through some kind of transition at any point in their life, we’re
constantly evolving!

THE STONE WOMAN

“Inside this bag I have a couple of items that are intrinsically

linked to one another. There is a black stone and a picture,
sitting in this wallet to keep it safe. The picture is of a woman,
Take a moment to look into her eyes, what do you feel from
her? Well, her story is fuzzy in my mind as it’s been a long time
since it was told to me, but what I can tell you is that this
woman was a very powerful force in her time. She was a mystic
who set out to abolish some of the evil rulers of where ever it
was she came from… No matter how many warriors they sent
to kill her, she would always emerge the triumphant party. She
seemed invincible, but she held a secret, one that would be
eventually found out by her enemies.

When she was young and learning her craft, she experimented
with natural magick and transferring energy into inanimate
objects. She accidentally managed to transfer her essence, her
soul, into the rock that this fragment came from. It’s said that
her body was almost that of a zombie, but she could control it
through astrally projecting from her onyx prison. This meant
that no matter what happened to her body, it could never die.

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One of her many enemies discovered her home one night. The
body had been put to rest, laying on a pile of straw on the
rocky, uneven ground. The warrior barged into the cottage and
drove his sword through the woman’s heart. This of course did
nothing. The mystic projected into the body and the eyes
opened. The warrior backed off and in turn stumbled against
the rock which contained her soul. From the light of the moon
he saw a reflection of the mystic in the rock; all became clear
and he knew what he had to do. He took a mallet and shattered
the rock into a thousand pieces, the mystic’s soul was torn
among the fragments and the body fell to it’s knees, finally
expired.

They say that every photograph takes a small part of our soul,
so I’d like to try something with these two items.” (The wallet
is closed and a lighter is brought into play.)

The performer picks up the stone and begins to heat it up with

the lighter. After a moment of silent focus, he asks the audience
to look at what’s happened. He gently flips open the wallet and
pulls out the picture. It is now horribly mutilated by fire, as if it
were burnt by an open flame.

“This teaches us that in everything that is linked, when one

fragment is attacked, the others will fall with it. In life, we
should keep each fragment of our life in balance and make sure
that we don’t allow anyone to fall down, as it could be the start
of our own demise…”

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‘The Stone Woman’ is an interesting story that I penned when
thinking about the effect. I wanted some kind of story that
related to the connection between two items. I’ve always liked
the thought that a photograph steals a part of your soul, so I
played on that.

The workings involve a two-way wallet (If you do not have

one, you could place the photos in either side of your Broken
Wings notebook) and a piece of stone. You should print off two
copies of a photo of a mystic or gypsy character. You can easily
get a nice quality one from Getty Images or similar sites,
unfortunately I’m not allowed to supply the ones that I use due
to licensing, but they’re very easy to get hold of. You should
age both photos if you can, one of the images you should then
take a flame to, you don’t want to completely destroy the photo,
but hold a candles flame to the image for 30 seconds and it’ll
bubble and burn, looking suitably nasty.

One of these images goes in each side of the wallet (or

notebook) and this goes into a velvet tarot bag along with the
stone and a lighter.

Now you’re all set you can run through the presentation, being
sure to show the normal photo, then the mutilated photo.

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ALTERNATE METHODS

This trick could also be achieved by using the Sansminds

‘photoshop’ effect, available at all good magic dealers. This
will allow you to place the photo into the participant’s hands
and you could work on using some suggestive phrases to have
them feel it heat up in their hands.

If you are booked for a private party, for added spook factor,
try finding the booker or a guest on Facebook and take one of
their pictures, or alternatively ask them to send a photo of the
guest of honour as you’d like to put together a special routine
for them. This will add a real personal chill to the effect and
leaves them with a freaky souvenir.

Finally, as a last idea for this effect, why not utilise a smoke
device like Pure Smoke of Vapr. You can hold the photo or
wallet in your hands and when the participant burns the stone,
activate the smoke and you’ll have a visual burning of the
image. I worked a similar effect on ‘Killer Magic’ and the
reactions we got during filming we incredible!

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KILL SCENE

“Who here loves horror movies? I’m a huge fan of them myself.
What’s your favourite movie sir? Ah, that’s a great one! I’d like
to borrow someone for this to come and join me on stage, how
about you miss?

Tonight, you’re going to get the opportunity to star in your very

own horror movie. We’re not going to worry too much about
the other characters though, or the story line really… We’re
just going to focus on the one thing that all real horror movie
fans care about. The kill Scene.”

The performer brings out a few props; some cards, a bag of

paper slips and draws attention to an envelope that’s on
display.

“In this envelope is a page from a film treatment I once threw

together, this will prove important later on.

There are a few elements that build up a kill scene, we have our
victim, so now we need to find a killer. I have created a stack of
cards with my fifty-two favourite horror movie villains as
options; we have Angela Baker from Sleepaway Camp, Jason
Vorhees from Friday the 13th, Chucky from Child’s Play… The
list goes on. I just need you to select one at random.

Perfect, who have you got? Freddy Krueger! One of my all

time favourites! Let’s move on, we have a villain, so now we
need a weapon…

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I spent most of the night on wikipedia searching for weapons to
fill up all these slips; there’s about a hundred in there; would
you like to turn your head away, reach in and grab a couple -
Kind of like a ‘what you could have won’ round. Open them up;
so we have a lawn-mower, like that scene in Braindead, some
garden shears… I see we have a theme… A staple gun? I’m not
sure how effective that would be, but alas. OK, throw those
back in, this time, I want you to turn your head, reach in and
grab just one slip of paper for me! A knife? Perfect!

Now all we need is a location; I’ve got a map here, I want you
to just take this pen and draw a small circle somewhere on the
surface for me - That’s how we’ll choose a location. OK, where
did you get? Islington?

This is becoming the weirdest game of Cluedo (Clue for the

USA) I’ve ever seen… We have Freddy Krueger with a knife in,
errrm; Islington. I have seen this before though, it’s almost like
deja vu. Please walk over to the envelope and pull out that
sheet from the treatment I mentioned before any of this began.
In your loudest, clearest, radio voice - I’d like you to read to
everyone what it says!”

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The prediction of course matches. This routine was built very
quickly before a last minute show in front of an audience that
had seen my working set before, I wanted to give them a show
they hadn’t seen, but still keep it in theme with their event. (It’s
an industrial/gothic nightclub I do a few times a year in
London) So I needed something simple and easy to follow,
something with a build, I didn’t want any chance of failure and
I wanted it to be in theme. I built ‘Kill Scene’ and for the last
few years I’ve been performing, tweaking and teaching it.

It’s simply three forces and a good, solid presentation. It does

help if you know about horror movies - I’d recommend
spending a couple of days watching lots, then build the set out
of the movies you saw. Never perform anything you know
nothing about; always do your research!

The first force is simply a Koran deck, so the first half of the
face down deck is twenty-six duplicate Freddy cards. The
second half of the deck is twenty-six random horror villains. I
only noted three in the script, but I’d recommend going through
about fifteen of them in your script so the audience feels like
they want you to shut up and get on with it; the suggestion
there is that you could basically go on all night, stressing the
freedom of choice. You of course only spread the top half of the
deck and ask them to choose at random; the wording is
important, you don’t want to say “Pick any card you like” in
case they go searching, you want random, thoughtless choices.

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The next force is simply a two way clear forcing bag. Duplicate
slips of ‘Knife’ in one side and as many weapons as you can
find in the other side, throw in some funny ones too - There’s
nothing wrong with a little humour in this routine. The two way
force bag I use is Jason Palter’s “UFB” as it’s the strongest and
best force bag on the market. Mine has lasted years so far!

The final force is with a map - I considered making a proper

horror map for a while, it would work and you’re welcome to
do so, but I quite like using a map of London as it’s quite a
humorous recap then. I already have the circle drawn on the
map and I dip the tip of the pen in glue so that it cannot write.
Another classic method. If you have any other methods you
like, for instance; Nefesch has a wonderful method called
“Newz” that would work for this final force, you’re welcome to
use that.

It’s a very easy routine, I love the structure of confabulations,

but when working nightclubs at midnight, you need to be quick
and direct, forcing the selections is the best solution. Especially
when you’re doing your best to suppress the public’s right to
draw phallic objects here, there and everywhere.

62
THE TOUCH

The touch is a two person code. You can use it in the light, in
the dark, in silence, while talking, even if you don’t speak the
same language. It’s a very simple and easy to remember
method that can apply to many things.

I only use The Touch in its simplest form in the real world,
however, I’ve detailed methodology to create essentially an
infinite amount of coded items.

The Touch, as promised, will work in loud environments; dark

environments and one of you could be blindfolded. The sight
and hearing senses are ignored in this manner of coding. All
you need is the sense of touch.

THE SYSTEM
The system requires next to no memory, especially if you use it
in the way I will describe it. I’ll go over the basic system and
the way I use it, then I’ll offer methodology to expand the
system.

The key to this system is of course a sense of touch. This is

what allows it to work blindfolded and in the noisiest of clubs.
It works just as well without either of these circumstances
though.

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I first got the idea for this touch system when I saw a movie
called ‘Seconds Apart’ which has now been released on the
After Dark film label – It’s very good! The premise is that there
is a pair of twins, who have psychokinetic powers. They use
these powers to kill people in search for a particular feeling. I’ll
not ruin the plot in case you wish to go grab it from your local
DVD store!

The big thing is that throughout the majority of the movie as

they’re building up these powers, they have to hold hands to
make things happen. I thought this was a beautifully theatrical
moment, it allows you to see when something’s about to
happen.

Like this PK power in the movie, I thought it would be great to

have the same look to a mind reading demonstration. I’ve seen
that Yigal Mesika does similar with his electric touch device
and Luke Jermay does with his Burst Bubble technique. Both
Jermay and Mesika use a spectator for these demonstrations to
give a theatrical moment when the thought apparently transfers
over. I thought it’d be great to have this same look, but to have
it happen between two magicians, as if they’d trained to
perform this kind of demonstration. I thought that it’d be even
better if the thought really did transfer over at this point. So, I
figured that there had to be a way to differentiate between the
ways the sender of the info touches your hand each time.
Almost all of us have five fingers on each hand. The routine
that I use involves ESP symbols.

64
I match each of these symbols to a finger. I use my left hand to
‘send’ the info to my partner. The ESP symbols are mapped as
so:

Circle = 1 = little finger

Cross = 2 = ring finger

Wavy Lines = 3 = middle finger

Square = 4 = index finger

Star = 5 = thumb

So if you hold your left hand in front of you, you’ll see that I’ve
simply numbered them left to right, as if the five symbols were
written out in front. This means that the receiver simply has to
number their fingers anticlockwise (right to left). It’s very easy!

When you come to touch hands in a slow motion high five

style manoeuvre, you as the sender just need to gently push
forward whatever finger you’ve mapped the selected symbol to.
Imagine that you’re gently pressing a doorbell.

No one will notice this tiny motion, even if they do they won’t
put any thought into it – They can stare right at your hands if
they like, why would you hide the method out in plain sight
like that?

65
The routine as I perform it relies on my talking about the
synchronicity between certain people’s thoughts, lovers and
twins, etc. I then move on to have my partner close their eyes
or wrap a bandana around their eyes (depending on if one of
our outfits contains something that can be used as a blind fold!
You could also have a spectator put their hands over your
assistant’s eyes) and pull back my sleeve to show the esp
symbols tattooed on my arm and have a spectator just touch
one so that everyone (minus my partner) gets to see which
symbol they’ve selected.

As I’m assuming you don’t have the same ink I do, you could
draw the symbols on the back of a napkin, or if you have ESP
cards on you, you could line those out and create the selection
procedure that way.

I then ask my friend to raise his hand, or I’ll tap him on the
shoulder if it’s in a noisy club.

I slowly bring my hand to his, take a deep breath and as our

hands touch I do the move so that he feels which is the selected
symbol. He then says the symbol in question.

It blows people away completely as there doesn’t have to be

any speech in the entire routine; there is genuinely no way he
could know! So that’s the basic concept and how I use it. So
let’s look at ways to expand the system.

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MULTI-TOUCH

The multi-touch system is one that can be used to any amount

of numbers and can be laid out in several different ways.

Simply put, you’re going to push two fingers one after another.
You can use both hands to touch if you wish for larger systems,
you just number the fingers one-ten, left to right as described
before.

The first touch represents the first digit; the second touch
represents the second digit, so on and so forth. We’ve done this
for thought of numbers, 1-1000!

TAP BANK

The second system for expanding the touch system is what I

call the tap bank system.

Lets imagine that you want to code a thought of card. We’ll

have to ‘bank’ the system into four suits. Clubs, hearts, spades
and diamonds. You’ll remember that I mentioned that
sometimes in noisier clubs I will tap my partner on the arm to
have them raise their hand. This tap can also tell the assistant
which bank we are using.

Single tap – Upper arm = Clubs

Double tap – Upper arm = Hearts

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Single tap – Lower arm = Spades

Double tap – Lower arm = Diamonds

I’ve just laid out the suits in CHaSeD order.

Now when you move on to touch hands, you will bring both
hands up, you have the values one to ten in front of you, for the
court cards, you’ll have to multi-tap, just use fingers 1, 2 and 3
for jack, queen and king.

So, if the coded card were to be the 7 of diamonds, I’d do the

following.

Have a card thought of, tap my assistant twice on the lower arm
(diamonds – bank 4) to have him raise his hands. As our hands
touch, I will put a small amount of pressure on my right index
finger (finger 7) and in that he knows that the card is the seven
of diamonds!

For the king of clubs, I’d give him a single tap on the upper arm
and then as our hands touch I’d press my left little finger (finger
1) then my left middle finger. (Finger 3 to make it 13)

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The Touch system is limitless, it can be used in victorian
mediumistic demonstrations, casual situations and even in
seance style situations with a bit of editing. Use this power
wisely, not many people use coding methods these days, so
they’re incredibly powerful. When Alan Rorrison and I
demonstrated some coding at the Blackpool convention one
year, magicians were checking us for electronics, making sure
there was no secret peeking and in reality it was just a simple
visual code of a playing card… Maybe we’ll release that one
day.

TEETH

A few months ago I was gifted with a lovely “Sea Of Skulls”

chop cup from Mike Busby at “Dude That’s Cool Magic”.

This chop cup is extremely well made and suits Hallowe’en

performances perfectly; so I’d like to write my routine here. If
you’d like to check out the gothic chop cups and wands Mike
has in store, check out the following link:

http://www.dudethatscoolmagic.co.uk/acatalog/Sea-of-Skulls-
Chop-Cup-and-Balls-Large-by-Mike-Busby-Trick-54852.html

69
I was trying hard to come up with a routine that made sense to
me and still had a weird gothic edge. Usually chop cup routines
simply involve you challenging a spectator to guess whether
the ball is in your pocket or the cup, if you’re not familiar, a
youtube search will bring up lots of great performances. It’s not
my place to teach chop cup methodology, that’s a book in it’s
self and there’s plenty of material out there, my place is to give
you a solid presentation that’s eerie and will work for your
haunted magic shows.

“I recently heard what one might consider an ‘urban legend’ as

it was told to me by a friend about one of his friends. I found it
to be quite unique though, so I’d like to relay it here for you,
visually.

My friend’s daughter recently started losing her baby teeth to

make way for new ones, so of course it was time to stock up on
shiny dollar (they’re in the states) coins and prepare for the
constant worry that she’s going to choke in her sleep on the
micro-molars as they drop from overly slobbery gums.

The first tooth wobbled and came out, so it was placed under
the little girl’s pillow as she slept and of course the parental
duty of trying not to wake the child as the tooth was exchanged
for money began. Round one: complete. I don’t have any teeth,
or a pillow to demonstrate this, so I’m going to have to make
do with this cup and a small ball made of bandages that looks
kind of ‘toothy’. (The ball is taken out from under the cup,
placed in the pocket and a dollar coin is brought into play.)

70
The parents slept through the night and were awoken in the
morning by an upset child. “Mother, the tooth fairy didn’t
come. There’s still a tooth under my pillow!” she exclaimed.
(The dollar coin is vanished using a french drop as it’s ‘thrown’
towards the cup. The cup is lifted and the ball has reappeared.)

The parents naturally were awfully confused and said that just
this once, they would exchange the tooth for a dollar and that
the tooth fairy is bound to come next time.

When the little girl went to school, mother asked father why he
switched the coin and the tooth back - What a horrid thing to
do. “I didn’t do it! I was about to ask you the same thing!” He
said in an awfully confused manner. “How bizarre… Alas,
maybe one of us switched it back in our sleep…”

Neither parent felt convinced, there was something much more

sinister at play.

a few days later, the little girl had another wobbly tooth, which
she wobbled as much as she could to pull it out sooner, in
anticipation for that shiny dollar that would be waiting under
her pillow… History was repeated as the tooth was once again
put under the pillow, removed by the parents and switched for a
dollar coin. (Repeat the process for a second time)

Sure enough, the next morning the little girl came running,
“Mother he still hasn't come! I still have a tooth under my
pillow!” The coin had vanished (shuttle pass vanish the coin)
again, leaving just an old tooth… The parents once again
delved into their secret stash of dollar coins and swapped the
girl’s tooth.
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“What in the world is happening?” Said the mother to the
father, “is this you playing one of your ridiculous jokes? It’s
bad enough when you leave the salt shaken unscrewed for me,
but it’s not fair bringing her into your games - She’s only a
child!”

“It wasn’t me.” He said solemnly, “but I think I have a

solution.”

His suggestion was that she would save up all her old teeth as
they fell in a money box, on the bedside table. Then, when she’s
collected ten teeth, the tooth fairy will come and replace them
all with a ten dollar bill. They concluded that it must have been
one of them sleepwalking and swapping the coins; so they
would just wait until there was ten teeth, swap them for a ten
dollar bill and one of them would stay up all night to make sure
that all is well. It’s a pain, but they just wanted to make their
little girl happy. After all, they young lass was a red head -
They didn’t want her to unleash her little fiery temper on the
kids at school because of something happening at home!

Sure enough, ten teeth were eventually saved and placed in the
jar on the girl’s bedside table. When she was asleep, they
mother swapped the teeth for a ten dollar bill and then sat in
front of Netflix as the father slept to ensure that neither of them
went walkies and swapped the teeth and the ten-spot back!
(The ball is taken from the cup and placed aside.)

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It came to the morning and there wasn’t a peep from the little
girl… The mother went to go and check. To her horror; she
found no little girl, just a jar full of teeth, a lock of red hair and
a note that read:

“That’s for making me wait so long for the next instalment.

Regards, The Tooth Fairy.” (The cup is lifted and out fall a lock
of red hair, an extra ball and the note. For extra impact, you
could load some fake teeth, you can buy them on ebay, but I’m
not sure how easy it would be to load a handful!)

So there you have it; a camp fire style, child-snatcher themed

chop cup routine with various moments of magic with cups,
balls, coins, hair and teeth.

BUILDING THE ACT

The structure of the act is of great importance with a haunted

magic performance, you need to look at your allotted time slot
and figure out how you can bring your audience on a journey
from there. I would always recommend trying to stick to one
style of performance and show different sides of the same
character. It’s OK to be dark and creepy, but there’s also
nothing wrong with lightening the mood with some dark
humour for a few reasons. Primarily, this shows you as a
human. It will make your character much more believable if its
three-dimensional. Secondarily, having a lighter point will only
make the darker stuff seem even darker. As long as the humour
remains in theme and in character, it’s fine.

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I personally play an extension of myself, I have things I can do
and things I can not, I set myself limits to appear more
believable and also try to include as much of my own
personality as possible. I’m just a normal guy with an interest
in weird things and I’ve trained myself to be able to
demonstrate some incredible powers. I’m a modern performer,
so I use shiny and nice pendulums and dowsing rods, but if
there’s a routine that’s about power and energy within ancient
props, I make damn sure that the props I bring to the table are
ancient, or at least look that way.

Balance in any performance is key, so start simple, establish

who you are, lead them to the dark side, refresh with a little
humour, then kill them at the end with something outstanding!

The power is now in your hands. Happy Hallowe’en.

74
 Routines by Dee Christopher.
Edited & Proof-Read by Jon Randall.

www.DeeChristopher.com

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