Arthur Ray - Toxiccity

TOXIC+city By Arthur Ray

INTRODUCTION: Hello. I’m Arthur Ray. Firstly, I’d like to thank you for picking this up. I have used the ingenious TOXIC Force for hundreds of times like many magicians and mentalists have. A lot of performers have their spin on it like Richard Osterlind, Richard Busch, Bob King, Nick Einhorn and many others. There’s also one called the Non-TOXIC by Geraint Clarke where you can force a number on android phones as well. And then there’s also an app called Cipher. These are undoubtedly amazing but I wanted the whole audience to be a part of it instead of just carrying out the calculation on one phone calculator. I wished if the whole audience could follow along with the calculation on their calculators as well. Surprising, I happened to see a friend of mine perform iThump/TOXIC+ and it exactly did what I wished. The limitation it has is that it only works on iPhone and back then I was using an Android one. So, I started thinking how the same could be accomplished without any compromises on an Android phone and that gave birth to TOXICcity. I have been performing TOXICcity for my stage shows for well over two years now and now I have started using it in my online shows as well. It has been refined over two years now. Now, TOXICcity can not only be performed on both Android phones and iPhones but can also be performed on any borrowed iPhone. I would highly recommend you to check out iThump/TOXIC+ because the app has various features like peeking the inputs to thumping the information to your apple watch. So, TOXICcity is my approach to forcing any number to the whole audience without any gimmicked app on both Android and iPhone.

EFFECT (ONSTAGE PERFROMANCE): You ask a member from the audience to join you up on stage. You ask him and the rest of the audience to bring out their smartphones. You too bring out your smartphone. Then you ask all of them to open up their calculator on the phone. Now, you ask the whole audience to follow along with whatever calculation the selected member is doing on their phone and they are requested to carry out the same calculation on their phones. You too do the same on your phone. You ask him to put in a three-digit number (or the time when he was born). Then you ask him to multiply that by another three-digit number. Then you ask him to add a four-digit number to it. You ask everyone to hit addition for one last time. At this point, you ask everyone to make sure they are having the same outcome as the selected member. You show that even you are having the same outcome. You then delete everything from your phone and ask him to tap the screen around sixseven times while you hold the phone face down so that he doesn't see what he is putting in to ensure that the typed in number is as random as possible. He does so and you turn the phone towards him. You then ask him to add that number to the ongoing calculation and you request the whole audience to do the same. Finally, you ask him to call out the whole number digit by digit so the audience can make sure that even they are having the same result. Now, you walk towards the envelope that was kept on the table in full view from the very beginning and you bring out the prediction from it and show it at large. And voila! The prediction is a perfect match of the number that the selected member has come up with and the whole audience is having the number up on their cellphone.

This can be performed in a close-up situation, parlour, and stage and even online. And the best part is you don't need any special app for this! Also, you can perform this on a borrowed iPhone.

ONLINE PERFORMANCE: It’s the same as the one performed on stage. But instead of asking one spectator for the numbers you can bring in more people and ask them for the pieces of random information. But you have to type that six-seven digit number in turning the phone face down and you look away. You can justify that (if you need to) by saying that since it’s an online show and you don’t have anyone there physically with you and since if you ask anyone else to do this on their calculator the ongoing calculation can get disrupted if they press any other button by mistake and they can fall behind others. Anyhow, I find this to be overkill. The most I justify is that since it’s an online show and nobody’s here I will have to do this with my face turned away keeping it as fair and random.

METHOD: (You are given a video supplement explaining the whole thing. Still, I would highly recommend you to read the PDF before for a better understanding.) If you’re on an iPhone you are all set. But if you are using android you need to download an iOS Calculator from Play Store. Its name is Calculator-IOS Calculator. Anyhow, I will attach the APK for your convenience. iOS Calculator apk: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11ZK6foBb8VSOOHzgHUVQjnjtl-vBpgRv?usp=sharing

Now, open up the calculator and put in the 'force number - (0' For example, your force number is 123456789. Then the input would be: 123456789-(0

So, in brief, this is how it works. The calculation goes on pretty fair till the point when you ask him to generate a random number by tapping a few digits in without looking. That is actually an adjusted number which the calculator calculates automatically because of the input that has been given. So an adjusted number is a number which when added to the random numbers given the spectator brings the force number. It basically adjusts the calculation. Now, when this adjusted number is added to the selected member's ongoing calculation it brings him to the force number.

You should have a screen like this with zero on it. Notice how the AC has now turned to C. Now you're all set to perform the effect.

PERFORMANCE: You ask the selected member to input a three-digit number on their phone. Now, as all the other audience members are following along you're doing the same. Now, that number is asked to be multiplied by another three-digit number and then added with a four-digit number. And you ask them to hit addition one last time. Till this, you’re following along with him. Now, you say that you want a random big number to be generated. So, you apparently clear the screen. All you do is press 0 instead of C. This makes it look as if everything has been cleared off but in reality, the calculation is still on. Now, you turn the phone face down and ask him to tap the screen six to seven times (if performing online you do this part) so that a random number is formed. Here's the sneaky thing that you do. While turning the phone face down you keep your pinky finger pressed on the equals to (=) button, what this does is it doesn't let anything to be typed in on the calculator. Now, when you're turning it towards him to show him the 'random' number that he has generated, you simply release the equals to button and you have the ADJUSTED NUMBER on the screen. Now, you ask him and the audience to add this 'random' number to their ongoing calculation. That's it! You've forced the number on the whole audience and it couldn't have been fairer than this because every numbers and step is done by him and is followed by the whole audience.

Locking the calculator input on iPhone X and iPhone 11: For iPhone X and iPhone 11, just the input locking part is a bit different otherwise it’s all the same. After showing the screen to be apparently cleared off after you have hit zero you turn the phone towards you for a second and hit equals to (=) with your pinky and then place and press your pinky on the space below the equals to button. So what happens is that it tries to open the task manager but partially which makes the input lock. Then in the same motion, you turn it facedown and ask the audience to type in six or seven digits (or you do it by yourself on their behalf if performing online).

FACEDOWN INPUT VARIATION/NO INPUT LOCK VARIATION (WORKS ON BOTH ANDROID AND ANY iPhone): I performed the effect for a magician friend of mine and he happened to be blown away by it and asked for the secret. So, initially, it was restricted to Android and iPhone X and iPhone 11 only since the calculator input locking can only be done on those. He called me up the next afternoon and told me that he was playing around with it and came up with a number input variation where you need not to lock the calculator at all. Because of this variation of the facedown input now this effect can be performed on any iPhone. This brilliant input variation is shared to us by Torque Magician. So, once you have reached the position where you have asked for a four-digit number you hit addition (+). Till this point, it’s all same. Now, instead of just hitting zero (0) you hit the 0 then times (X) then 0 again. Now, the screen apparently looks clear. And the best part is when you turn the phone facedown the participant can actually type in a random six seven-digit number but the moment you hit equals to (=) the adjusted number comes up. Since the participant’s inputted number is multiplied by zero it gets cancelled and so you get the adjusted number on hitting the equals to. In detail, after you have inputted 0 X 0 anything you put after that will turn zero hence will be cancelled. So whatever the participant enters turns zero and the adjusted number just shows up. And adding this adjusted number to the audience’s ongoing calculation we arrive at our force number.

If you have any suggestions or queries you can connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arthurraymagic/