I have an idea that I want an effect for or to illustrate it (I am sure you all know what I mean). I have a lot of it worked out but I want your guys thoughts or suggestions or maybe what I have in mind is too involved for one effect, whatever.
Ok, here is the thought or message: What if I were to have access to or even managed to transport your personal or office computer right here right now? And moreover hook it up to a projector and flash on a screen, right here in front of this entire audience? What if your mom or dad or boss or spouse was here? Then I continue to scroll through all of your files including internet favorites, history, cookies and all those deep hidden files that nobody ever sees or knows about??

Imagine having a notebook or desktop computer linked to a projector and displaying "stuff", could get as direct and to the point as you want regarding what is up on screen as you are saying the above threat if you will.

Ater that sinks in... then you reach into the computer and pull out the hard drive, displaying it as you explain how would'nt it be wonderful to have an emergency delete button that would just wipe out all the bad stuff with one keystroke?

Explain the sin problem however you wish and using any verses you feel fit and of course how God forgives and completely cleanses us and gives us a fresh start when we repent and receive His gift, etc.

Then plug the hard drive back in and display that it is either all clean and ready for fresh input or maybe positive messages/actions (fruit of the spirit) could be displayed.

I know it sounds like a lot (and I tried to keep it brief) but I really think this message would hit home even more powerfully with the proliferation of sinful computer/internet activities!

What do you think?

I am really serious about this and want to incorporate something like this into a new stage act I am developing.

Thanks in advance...

P.S- Oh, I just had a mental moment: if someone is already doing something like this please PM me and let me know reactions, tips, etc!

GlenD

I'm not too familiar with card magic, but it seems like some card effects could be combined with this sort of patter.

You start by showing all the cards with a certain face(could hand draw on blank cards) then show them all blank, then show them with some Christian symbol.

some gaffed decks that do similar effects include: Deck that Shuffles Itself; Mental Photography Deck.

If you are good w/card slight of hand, I would think you could take the principles from Color Monte and the likes, to develope your own routine

Very true, John. I just wanted the imagery of an actual computer to make it more real and meaningful to the audience.
I have used the mental photography deck with a gospel message when I went on a trip to China last year. It can be used effectively in that manner.

I am looking for something a bit different and more directly related. See I don't want to have to symbolize the prop as well as a message to go with the prop, if you know what I mean. I would prefer to be able to keep the focus on the message and hit it hard. I even have a name for the routine, I was thinking of "Hard drive crash".

Maybe this is over the top? Then I think if it is a bit close for comfort, maybe even makes a few folks squirm or hopefully realize some sin in their lives then they might be more receptive to a follow-up evangelistic type of effect. Which is what I was going for. This is only suitable, obviously, for a gospel venue.

Well, if nobody feels like commenting or sharing thoughts, thanks anyways, I will sort it out on my own.

The Café still rocks and God rocks even more!

GlenD

Glen -
OUTSTANDING idea! I really like the thought and direction you are going with this.
Some initial thoughts I have (which may or may not be what you are looking for) is to use a discarded computer "case" (the box part) as a receptacle to hold different props ie: cards, silks etc. etc.
Another thought is to have the CD drive open and allow you to take out and display one side of a CD, put it back in and have it "change" (by flipping it over as you take it out and show the "change" (the opposite side)and then switch it in some "clever" manner to leave you clean (magically speaking, not sanctified) and maybe use the CD as a give-away to a volunteer.
Also another thought may be to use card through glass for the monitor? I am not familiar with the workings of that effect, but it seems like it could be used as a variation.
Keep us up to date on how things go with this really great project.


peace,
phill

Not to be negative but I see a couple problems with this routine.
First, it would be the reverse of Clarke's Axiom of "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic". what you have here is "Any Magic involving computers is indistinguishable from technology". You really don't have a trick here but a demonstration of computer maintenance and diagnostic program.

Second, I am in computer desktop support and can tell you that the average person has no idea what any files or folders do on their computer. They know little of cookies or cache. Showing them the contents of a directory would just be so much gobbldy gook. Trying to show them the difference between good or bad files would be like trying to explain the difference between Chinese and Japanese pictograms to an audience of the blind.

While the analogy is good I think the impact this would have on a regular audience would be small due to the confusing nature of computers to most people.

Also unless your drives are hot swapable how do you plan on taking a hard drive out of a working computer? You'd have to power it down, pop the case, remove the drive, do your mojo on it, reinstall it, power the pc back up and then show them that the internet cache is now clean.
Do you really think and audience is going to sit through the ten minutes of time that this is going to take?

Have you thought about a Square Circle with a computer on the front. You could take out all the garbage (GIGO) and then thru God's mercy and grace, pull out the good stuff? You might even pull out a "cardboard" Hard Drive and pull out the bad stuff, put it back in the SC and then pull it back out again and produce the fruits of the spirit.

I suppose you could have a production box of a hard drive, with a phony plug. As to the advances in technology, you will find those that know about powering down, hot swapping, back-ups,etc., but most will overlook that and see the message you are trying to convey. You might pare down the part about cookies, hidden files, history, deep files, registry, etc. and talk about the files no one sees (except God).

If you were going to go the symbolic route then you could use something along the lines of colour changing records. You'd have black platters full of sinful data that were cleansed clean and white through god's grace.
You could build it around the old 5 1/4 floppy disks as theycame in a flexible sleeve that would stand in for the traditional 45 record cover.

Thanks for the good word, Phill. Although I don't know how elaborate I want it to end up being. But some of your ideas are very interesting and could be put to use.

Lefty, your advice is well taken also. If I cannot get the actual computer portion to end up working like I want it to, then I might have to look for something less techno to fall back on. I appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks for your input as well Payne. I totally agree with you about the magic of the routine. It would'nt really be all that magical but the message being effectively communicated might possibly be worth it. I am still in the very early stages of this whole idea. I think a simple power point type of "presentation" could be employed. It would not even have to be an exact explorer type of look to it either. Although there could be a little of that and just some large print words to get the point across, like "XXX rated sites", "cheaters chat rooms", "under-age predators anonymous", whatever (you get the idea). There does not have to be an emphasis on some of the terms such as cookies etc. Maybe it would be better not to even use some of them, that's very possible too.

The point would simply be that when on the computer or internet, we can choose to be whoever we want. We can lie, cheat and allow ourselves to indulge in behavior that we never would in "real life". But, the imprint or evidence of all our activities is recorded! It's all on that little hard drive and just how badly could that condemn us if it were uncovered. That's the message I am going for and to compare that to the guilt that all of us have as a result of sin, etc.
So I don't think there would be confusion regarding the message.

As far as the swapping out and removal process of the drive etc., obviously it has to be able to happen rather quickly and easily. Hopefully a loose case that could just slide off to allow quick access could be incorporated.
I was wondering if two drives could be inside, one just a dummy that gets unplugged and removed and the other, hidden or not easily visible, running the entire time. But it would have to be, or appear to be, shut down for a few moments while dialoguing with the fake drive being held out and displayed to the audience.

I have a few friends that are more computer savvy than myself that I will be talking this over with. Until I hit a major roadblock I am definitely going to continue to follow up on this. I wish a notebook could be used but that doesn't seem possible.

Anyways, thanks again to everyone who put up a reply and of course I am still very open to more feedback, questions or suggestions.

GlenD

You could easily put a second hard drive into a PC, at least if it's a tower case. A lot of new desktops haven't the room or even an empty bay. You could just set it in and not connect it to anything so that you could slide it out without having to power off the PC. You sould put it into sleep mode so that it looked like you powered it off but so it would reboot rather quickly.

Perform Psychic Surgery on the computer, ripping out the bad innards. That would be pretty funny! And would take it back out of the realm of "technology trick", to say the least.

Years ago for a Bring your Daughter to Work Day I did a presentation where I pulled things like Gremlins and Flaming Video cards out of an old computer to show the girls a typical work day for a desktop technician.

Gut an old computer, insert a laptop, have a defunct harddrive--with wires hanging out--inside the shell of the old computer. Then, just run the hidden laptop hooked up to your digital projector.

Have your discussion with the semblance of a cluttered desktop on screen--which is really just a screenshot saved as a .jpg in Paint of a cluttered desktop (when the real desktop is perfectly clean with even a Christian symbol in the background). So when they think they are looking at a desktop, they are really looking at an image in, say, Microsoft Word--with the screen expanded to full.

When you "pull out" the hard drive, hit alt+f4 to get out of Word. But have another instance of Word behind this one, with the image of a totally black screen, expanded to full. When you "put in" a new hard drive, hit alt+f4 again to end that instance of Word, displaying the actual, cleaned up desktop that was always behind both Word windows.

That's how I would do it.

Thank you Edwin.
I really appreciate your well thought out post. It sounds like it could work, just have to figure out the functioning laptop in a desk top configuration