#7 Think of a Colour

Looking for a “self working” Psychic effect? Here it is! A volunteer thinks of a colour and then you prove you knew which colour they would be thinking of before you even got here today.

Like many psychic effects, it is the showmanship that you put into your presentation that will make it seem impossible and impressive. This little trick takes very little physical skill to perform. If you can pull on a pipe cleaner, you can perform the mechanics of this trick. So what will make it stand out is the patter (the words and story) that you create.

In the video, I am very straightforward, but you could use a box that looks like a trunk and your patter could be about Davy Jones’ Locker and pirates or you could cover the box in gold or crystals and talk about Oz or Atlantis. See what I mean.

One other thing: really young children, say younger than 6 or 7 years old, don’t really get mind reading. Young kids prefer a lot of colour and vanishes and appearances. But as we get older, mysteries of the mind begin to intrigue us, so keep this one for the above 7 crowd.

But the trade off in this one is that the time you save not practicing intricate moves you will use building the trick. You will need a box, which is capable of having holes put through it…so don’t use your mom’s jewelry box!! Dollar stores have great sections where you can get cardboard boxes of all sizes (like the one I used in the video) as well as light wooden boxes in many shapes and sizes (if you can use a drill gun or get someone who can) that can easily have holes drilled into them.

Next, you need a way to prove that you knew which object the volunteer would choose. The idea of something with a knot in it is good, because a knot cannot be undone. No one would think that you could actually have a fake knot on a pipe cleaner. The fake knot looks just like a real knot – try it yourself. Make a real knot in a pipe cleaner and then make the fake knot and put it on a second pipe cleaner and look at them both. They should look the same.

So you have a box with holes in it and pipe cleaners with fake knots sticking out through the holes. You are ready!

Another fun aspect of many psychic tricks is that you can perform them in two different ways. You can do as I did in the video, where “I” am the psychic and say: “Before I got here today I put a knot in one of these pipe cleaners because I know which one you will choose.” But you can also be play it the other way around, where “your volunteer” is the psychic, like this. “Before I got here today I put a knot in one of these pipe cleaners and I want you to use your psychic powers and tell us which one it is.”

In both cases after the volunteer names a colour, you remove all the other colours and save their colour for last. You pull on it, then pretend that it is stuck because of the knot, open the box being careful not to expose the secret inside, then take out their pipe cleaner and show the knot to prove that you are or they are psychic.

So finally, the practice part of this trick is not learning the physical dexterity of secret moves, but it is a creative exercise where you make up a great story!

And as always…practice your story over and over and maybe one more time and then it will be an impressive, impossible experience for your audience of para-psychological (another word for psychic) MAGIC!
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Steve Baker is a magician located in the GTA residing North of Orangeville, near Primrose, Ontario.

Since 1997, Steve has entertained adults and children at private functions and large public venues to amaze them with sleight of hand, strolling magic tricks, mentalism and fun characters from Gananoque to Goderich and from Port Dover to Port Carling, Ontario.