Hi,

First of all, sorry for my english but I'm a french magician (and it's my first post !)

Could you give some advices to present progressive anagram.
Do you spell each letters and when the spectator says "no" you reveal the word or do you continue by spelling the others letters of the word ?

Thank you very much for your answer.
Laurent

As soon as I've received enough information to know what the word is I always continue with the effect rather than do the revelation. The reasons being..

1) You can now present some powerful letter revelations along the lines of " Think of the last letter for me..thats a whatever isn't it" - and hopefully by the time you've done a few like that they'll have forgotten you got a couple of letters wrong earlier and..

2) I've always found it's good to double check they really do have the word you think they should - I've occasionally had people that misunderstand the instructions or just can't spell. Doing a few more letters will let you know if they definetly have it or if the effects screwed up

If it hasnt worked then I end the effect with a line such as " I don't think this is going to work with you" or whatever, rather than a big build up, revealing what word they're thinking of and it being wrong.

Paul,

I was going to post that I just revealed the word after I received enough information, but after reading your post, I may not be doing it that way anymore. You bring up a valid point of the spectator not being able to spell, or them misunderstanding your instructions. As hard as we try to make our instructions specific and simple, there are factors that could hinder their understanding (Culture, use of colloquialisms, words they may not be familiar with, Murphy's Law, etc).

Thanks for the post!

Thanks for the great advices..

Do you usually read a sentence, pick somme words and tell the spectator to remind one..

I found some examples in leo Boudreau' Skullduggery.
Do you know where I can find some more ?

Laurent

I've written (and sell) a monograph on the correct presentation of......nagrams". I use Zodiac signs as an example, but the methodology applies to all such effects. And Laurent will be pleased to learn that a version of the branching pattern is also provided in French!

... Doug

Doug's booklet is wholeheartedly reccomended, it's the best publication there is on PA effects.

Doug was too fast in "promoting" his monograph, because if he hadn't done it, I would have.

When I stumbled the first time on a PA, I understood the concept but I was stuck with presentation. Now I know what to do.

Doug's advices are sound and they really make the PA method invisible to a non initiated.

The booklet is in english, but you have then acess to a french version of the branching pattern in french.

One of my best 15$ investments. Doug, thank you very much.

Matt

I've found that forcing the catergory of word from a large selection for a Prog.An rather than just saying to them something along the lines of "think of errmm, lets see..a star sign.." makes for a much more powerful effect.

I know from experience that the effect is then remembered as the spectator being able to merely think of ANY word - the trade off I suppose is you require some sort of prop to force the catergory, but it's worth it in my opinion

Thanks,

Doug, a new order is coming soon..

I usually use Max Mavens PA on his Videomind series. The category (Any country in Europe or Scandinavia) is broad enough to be spectacular.

Be careful! European politics and name changes/additions have made that effect somewhat dated!

Max also eliminates the Eastern European countries (due to difficulty in spelling and frequent name changes).

I also recommend Doug Dyment's booklet, laurent. Regardless of what the words being used are (French or English), Doug offers excellent advice on how to react to body language, etc. so that participants have less of a chance to deduce your technique ("fishing", etc.).
The booklet is an improvement to WHAT'S YOUR SIGN (I believe).

Kaylan

...and mr. Maven has forgotten some countries which are well known in Europe and haven't changed names since prehistoric days, so to speak... See previous postings on this topic.

Point of pride -- I created the French version. Doug credits me on the page where it's published, so this isn't a slam against him, but I did want to brag a bit.

I tried to create a similar progression for Spanish, but don't know enough of the language to build in the techniques that make the routine so convincing.

Mystery, Which countries are those that Max did not include? I'm just curious....

Mystery, After a search on this, I have found what I was looking for. Also I found the solution for this specific routine.

Thanks for pointing out the "flaws".

One person I played with once thought I was trying to spell the word out sequentially even though I thought I was clear this was not the clase. I make extra special care not to repeat that.
Having used a few there is non better in my mind as Banachecks star sign technique, think it is in his book pyschophysicoligical thought reading.