I like to announce the release of "Day One", my approach to the classic "day for any date" feat.

I developed with the goal of making the presentation appear as fast as possible, as well as simplifying the math and mnemonics involved.

You ask a spectator for the year and month of their birth, and instantly create a calendar for that month, as in this video. As soon as they finish giving you the information, you immediately start creating the calendar, with no delays!

Entire centuries are covered with less than a third of the mnemonics required by other approaches (with no previous mnemonic experience required). The only math used is a single subtraction, and even that isn't always needed.

"Day One" comes with the notes in PDF form, as well as the mnemonics animated on 4 videos, and two browser-based quizzes. You can use these quizzes in a regular browser, or even in your mobile device! As bonuses, I even include a PDF template for the calendar used, and several relevant and helpful links.

It's available now, at Lybrary.com.

If you know the e-book "Secret Files" by Vlad, could you please compare this method with yours? I´m using the math from "Secret Files", and think that is a good method, but I am always open for new and improved ways to accomplish this.

In Vlad's method in "Secret Files", as in many other day/date methods, the year, month, and date are all turned into representational numbers. In "Day One", this isn't the case - the months are dealt with as months, and the days of the week are dealt with as days of the week, and the year is only briefly dealt with as a number. Also, "Day One" leans more towards the use of mnemonics than does the "Secret Files" approach.

Also, from the standpoint of a spectator, you start instantly creating their birthday calendar after they give you the details, instead of watching you stop and think while you do your mental calculations.

I apologize if that sounds vague, but it's the best I can say without giving away too much about either method.

I was able to proof the initial drafts of Day One, and at the time I saw it, I was greatly impressed with it for various reasons. The first was that it actually adds something new to the Day For Any Day feat- it is not just a new method for the standard feat. Instead of producing the single day, you produce the entire month, along with a calendar that you can hand out and give away. The second part is the presentation speed. You actually have the entire month already in front of you on the calendar before you even need to know the specific date... and it is very quick to produce.

Likewise, if you already perform the standard feat, you typically probably do not give anything away other than just telling the person the day. With this, you actually have something such that the spectator can take it and check, or show it around.

As for learning, all you need to know are a few mnemonics and very little math, actually, there are many instances where no calculating is necessary. Also, as with other things Scott has produced, this has several tools that aid in learning the feat. First, if you have an iPhone or iPad (or any brand or platform I suppose), you can view videos that help learn what you need to know for Day One. Second, there are apps that quiz you during your process of learning. Third, Day One should feature a pdf with the calendar blank that you'll need in performances (you can thank me for that one).

The truth: I know Scott and proofed the initial drafts... so you could say that I was "given" a copy. I already know the standard feat and therefore may have a slight jump on the learning curve for this. However, by the time I was around p. 11 or 12, I had a solid understanding of how to perform the feat... although, I honestly believe the material is EXTREMELY well written and clear to understand, even with no prior experience with this type of feat. Furthermore, I understood the basics of what I needed to know within the first few pages, but again, I know Scott and am already familiar with his writing and teaching style.

I have not performed Day One with a wide audience yet... I have only test run with a few people. However, I will most likely use this instead of the standard feat now. It offers something new and different in that you produce an entire month and calendar you can give away. So I would reasonably assert that if you have any interest in this type of feat, Day One is probably the most accessible and easy method to get into this. I honestly believe the entire concept, approach, and delivery of Day One is brilliant.

Scott was kind enough to let me have an advance copy of Day One. This is a very interesting approach to DFAD. I especially like Scott's brilliant idea of filling in the month calendars as a presentational ploy. This not only allows a very fast start to the effect but also gives something to hand the spectator at the end - especially useful if you print these calendars on the back of your business card. Of course this presentation can easily be adapted for other DFAD methods and I will certainly use this with my own Speed Dating system.

Scott's computational procedure is a variation on the Doomsday method. I have never been a great fan of this method because although it is mathematically clever, it isn't intuitive or neat in my opinion. But Scott has done a very good job of simplifying the steps, especially through the effective use of mnemonics.

Scott's instructions are very thorough and the ebook comes with an extremely impressive set of learning tools. These are a great boon to those who want to learn the Day One system.

Mike

I find this effect not anyone in particular but the day date in and of itself puzzling.

How many people really know what day they were born on? How would they know you are correct?

John, while there are some people who happen to know the day of the week they're born on, you're right that most don't.

For verification, you should either carry a perpetual calendar book with you, or at least an app on your mobile device that allows you to look up past years (I include links to several such resources in Day One). The mobile app approach makes this feat especially convenient.

I've seen several good angles on this over the years. Some performers limit their presentations to just the past 10 years or so, which can easily be checked on any calendar app. I've even seen on who keeps it just to dates for the past, current, and next years.

If you don't want to limit the years, the are other ploys. Anyone who has Paul Brook's Chrysalis of a Polymath will know about Paul's way of delaying verification in such a way that keeps them thinking about your performance long after it is over.

John:

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I often ask a birthdate when doing a numerology reading and then say, "oh, it's on a Friday this year, are you taking a long weekend?" or some other comment on the day it falls on. although I don't use the methods discussed here or I the other threads, they cold be used.

Tony

You could also tie the request for a date into something inherently meaningful, such as the DOB of a child; I imagine most parents would remember what day of the week that was.

Let's say I have years of college education... How long does it take to learn something like this?

Depending on your interest and the time you have to put into it, I'd say you could get proficient enough to start routining it for your act in less than a month.

Last week Scott was so kind to send me his "Day One" package(!). Yes, this is not a single pdf file like everybody else produces nowadays, it´s a whole package containing the main ebook as pdf, a calendar template, a handful of videos and a few web-apps.

I can second everything what Jim said in his post above: the teaching is very clear and in a very screen-friendly format, the idea of producing a full month instead of only the given day is a really fresh idea and massively speeds up the calculation/thinking process. Not only you will get teached the basic method in the pdf, you also get a few web-apps (running in every webbrowser) which are quizzes to train the single steps! How nice is that?!

Because many people will ask about the difference of Scott´s method to Vlad´s (ottoEmezzo) method explained in his Secret Files - both are completely different in method AND the idea of presentation. Scott´s method is based almost completely on (easy) mnemonics and visualisation exercises rather than calculations.

One important thing to add: "Day One" is targeted to english speaking performers, but that doesn´t mean foreigners (like me) can´t use this work. The visualisations and mnemonics are based on english words, but with a bit of thinking you can "translate" these things into your own language and make up your own image/word/number links. Of course the videos then will not make any sense for us.

What stands out most for me is that this is not just another "show off" effect, but it connects with people because they will get a present at the end of the routine. It reminds me of my own creation "Stigma Square". They would make a perfect couple! Imagine you have a piece of thick paper, you ask for the birthday of a spectator, then you produce the calendar month of his birth, and then on the back of this paper you create the matching Stigma Square. A complete little act of a math genius, fitting inside your pocket!

BUT there is one really annoying part of "Day One": in my opinion it´s way too cheap! For this extensive work I would have taken at least the double price!

Nico

DFAD is one of those effects that people can really relate to. Not only is it an incredibly impressive feat in its own right (when done fast!) but, in my experience, people not only love testing you out, but also do want to know what day they were born (if they don't already know this) or on what day their birthday will fall next year. DFAD is brilliant for casual, intimate work (completely impromptu and prop-free), but can also be turned into a big stage production if that's your bag.

A month is about right for how long it can take to learn any DFAD method well enough to start performing. I recommend not performing the standard DFAD effect until you can consistently get the day in less than 10 sec, but really you should aim for 5 sec. Scott's Day One idea of filling in the month calendar as you are still determining the actual day is a great way to eliminate any waiting time.

Mike

This sounds very cool.

It really does...

When learning DFAD (Scott's system, or my own, or any other) you may find my free online training and testing tool useful - this will generate random dates and record your errors and average times.

http://www.mindmagician.org/daydate.aspx


Mike

Wow! Thanks for all the great reviews and comments, everyone!

Handy Tip: For those who have bought it, and would like to use the web apps in your mobile device, even while offline, I use iSaveWeb to store the web apps. This is an iOS 5 app, but there are similar programs available for Android, as well. For older iOS versions (4.2.1 and before), I've found iLunascape works well.

To save it there, just store the quiz web apps into any publicly accessible web server space, such as your ISP might offer, or your Dropbox public folder, making sure to get the web address (URL) of each web app. Then, use that URL to access the quiz web apps in iSaveWeb (or whichever app you're using to store them), and make sure to save them as a file (not as a page, or the web apps won't function properly).

I've moved the demo video to YouTube now, too.

A few more handy tips for "Day One":

* Besides using the included apps, you can also use a Wolfram Alpha Random Date Generator Widget I've just developed, and even modify it and post it on your site if you like! If you need to check your work, I've developed a Calendar Month Generator Widget just for that, as well.

* Hans-Christian Solka, who posts on the Café as hcs, sells a nice perpetual calendar booklet that is perfect for using in this performance. You can use it for verification, and even tell them the page number on which they can find the year! This adds an extra "Rain Man"-type moment to the presentation. As a bonus, the method to determine the page number uses a step you already performed in the "Day One" method, so you can give the page number that much quicker!

For example, if someone gives you the year 1960, and says they were born in October, you quickly create your October 1960 calendar, and then hand them the perpetual calendar booklet, saying, "If you look on page 16, you'll note that there is a full year's calendar, as well as the years to which it applies. Do you see 1960 listed at the top of page 16? Great! Now, if you look at October, what day does your birthday fall on? Great! Just as in the calendar I created for you earlier!"

This makes the verification entertaining, too.

Will this being a leap year have a variance on a FEB. date?

~G

Assuming you've practiced properly, "Day One" handles leap years just fine.

The only time you need to deal with them is when given January or February as the month. The whole approach to the months, in fact, is built around February, so that month is handled almost automatically (again, as long as you remember you're dealing with a leap year). January is handled almost as easily (it's only a minor change, too).