A.w.a.p. A.w.a.p.: Any Word Any Word Any Page Any Page David Bui David Bui

A.W.A.P. Any word Any page David Bui

Copyright ©2007 David Bui

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 A delication delication to Trung Trung Kien and Dang Dang Hieu, who's creativeness is an endless source for my inspiration.  I could never make make it without you guys.

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David Bui - AWAP BOOK TEST Any Word From Any Page Anytime... Anywhere!

The Effect:

The spectator takes a book and freely opens to any an y random  page. Then she she chooses a random word in that page. The  performer takes takes a few moments and then gradually gradually reveals reveals the word which is exactly the one that the spectator chose.

The Idea:

Why a book? book? Because you you can easily find them everywhere: on the street, in the restaurant, at your office… So if you can do an impromptu book test well, you can amaze people anywhere you go instantly. Basically, there are 2 ways to accomplish a mind-reading effect: 1. You force the audience to think of or select something. 2. The audience could have their free choice. Then by some technique you obtain obtain the information. For my m y Any Word Word From F rom Any Page Book Test, I choose choo se the th e second method.

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Presentation:

What you need -

A book book with with lots lots of word wordss in in it it (it (it can can be be bor borro rowe wed) d).. A pen or sharpie. A piece of paper.

You hand out a book for the spectator to examine. It can either be your book, the spectator’s book or you can  borrow from someone someone else. It doesn’t doesn’t really matter as long as it is a book full of words and not the comic type. You then ask her (the spectator): “I’d like to try something really really cool with you. We We will do a little test about some kind of connection between  people’s  people’s minds.  It is basically a way to get get an impression impression of someone's someone's thoughts. I've achieved this ability only after years of training and it does work about 90% of the time with me. So it is quite important that you really go all the way with me instead of trying to make me look ridiculous.” She nods. Take the book, hold it in your hands and say: “Next I will be facing away from you. Now, Now, after you’ve had a quick glance at this book you’ll see that there are are many pages in it. Page 4 of 23

 Just open any page that you like as long as it is a page full of words, words, not one with drawings or charts on it. When  you’ve got one, I will will turn back. So it is important important that when you open the book to the selected page, you’ll hold the book up to your eye level because I don’t don’t want to accidentally know either the page page you are looking looking at, the words words in that page, or any kind of reflections from from your eyes. That would be cheating.  If you understand understand what I’m saying, please please say yes.” She says yes. Tell her: “Okay, now do as I just told you. Please let me know when you're finished.” Turn way from the spectator. spectator. She opens the book to a  page and does what you you have instructed. Then she says “yes” and you turn back.

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Fig. 1 Position Check: The spectator is holding the book at her eye level. Her hands are gripping the upper corners of the  pages. If she doesn't, doesn't, just adjust her hands to this position. position.

 Now tell her, her, “Thank you. Now, Now, I can not see which page you open to can I?” She says: No. says: No.

You say: “Now please take a look at the page on your left side. You You can see a lot of words, can't you ?” She says: Yes. Page 6 of 23

Now here comes the dirty work 

While you are asking her to look at the page, casually  bring your hands hands to your mouth as as shown in Fig. 2. Do it while you are saying to make the move look natural. It's like your hands just happen to move around.

Fig. 2

When you come to position in Fig.2, wet your right index finger with your tongue.  The wet area is right at the top of your index finger, finger, about a half to a quarter of an inch below the nail. It's important that your tongue now is wet enough. So you may want to prepare it from the beginning. How much moisture applied to your finger will depend on the situation and your practice.

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The page-marking:

 Now as you've done done the "licking procedure", procedure", reach out your hand and hold the lower corners of the book which the spectator is holding on to as in Fig. 3. Your right index finger must not touch the paper or you will give the moisture away. The spectator is still holding on to the upper corners of the book but to get a clearer view we removed her hands in the picture.

Ask the spectator to have a quick read at the page on her left side.

Fig. 3

As she is reading the left page, you will mark the right  page (from spectator spectator point of view) with with your left hand. The move is illustrated below. Do it in the action of adjusting your grip. Page 8 of 23

Step 1

Touch the lower most corner of the page with the first crease of your pinkie finger as in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

Step 2

Move your pinkie up so that the page gets folded as in Fig. 5 and 6. Don't worry if a couple of pages get folded.

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Fig. 5

Fig. 6

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Step 3.

Move your left hand down so it can cover the folded page as in Fig. 7

Fig. 7

At this point the spectator s pectator pays no attention to your move. She thinks you are adjusting the grip to get a little comfortable. All her attention is now on her left page. You'll end up in the position shown in Fig. 8.

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Fig. 8

The word marking

After you have done the page marking, tell the spectator: “Now I will ask you to select a word from from the page you are looking looking at. As you you can see, there there are a lot of words words on that page so they may confuse you. So, I will use my finger to help you get you some kind of concentration. I'm I'm going to move my finger around around the words words on the the page. Just  follow it and when you want me to stop, stop, just say stop.” You move your right index finger around the page. At this point, your right inder finger does not touch the paper, it moves close to the page. The spectator says "Stop." Ask her if she want to change her mind. She confirms that she will not change her mind. Alternatively you can instruct the spectator to hold your Page 12 of 23

wrist and lightly guide your hand across the paper to a word. This may make the selection selectio n seem even more fair. Just be careful not to let them push your finger to the page until you are ready. Now, stick your finger to the page and say:

“Now you will notice that my finger is pointing to a word word in the line right above it. If it stops at some empty space,  just look right up a little until until you see a word. word. If it points between 2 words, words, just remember remember the longest one so the test can be harder to me but that's fine. By the way, way, you may also want to remember remember the page number so we can check it later. Do you see the word and the number yet?” You are in position illustrated in Fig. 9. The spectator is looking at the word your finger is pointing to.  Remember to keep your finger as straight up as you can.

Fig. 9

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She says: "Yes" says: "Yes"

If she can't see the page number just move your hand out of the way a little but still stick your finger in the page. Close the book and lay it on the table or in a chair or something like it. Ask her: “Are you happy with your choice?” She says yes. Pick up the book with bind side facing the spectator so she can not see the marked page. Open the book at the very end, look for the page number and say, “This book has about more more than 300 pages, and on each  page we have a few hundreds hundreds words. words. So this book literally contains a few hundred thousands thousands of words. words. That's a lot of words.” Open to a page somewhere after the marked page, tilt the  book down and away a little so the spectator can can not see the marking. Point your finger around this page as you say (Fig. 10 & 11): “For example if you choose this page, I could stop at anywhere anywhere and you could select the word word "develop", "house", "green" "green" or just any words words here. Do you agree with me?” She agrees. Page 14 of 23

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

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Open to another page and say the same thing again with words from that page  Now,  Now, you tilt the book back back a little more so that the spectator cannot see what is inside the page. Flip through until you get to the selected page. (Fig. 12) Say: Or in this page, you may choose the word word "begins" or "various" or "doing" (just make up any any word that that comes to your mind, or just call out some random words words in that  page). Yes. Yes. The spectator will not suspect anything. It is like you're  just building up the impossibility impossibility and showing showing that she could choose between hundreds of words. What you actually do is looking for the water mark on the selected page (Fig. 13)

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Fig. 12

Fig. 13

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When you see the water mark, look right above it 1 or 2 lines and you'll see some words ( Fig. 14). The chosen word will be located somewhere among those words in the circle area. They are right up above the water mark. In this case, it is the word "submarine". If you are not sure whether it's correct or not you can remember few more words:"invented", "the" and "fantastically" (because it depends also on the licking position, you will know about it with practice and sometimes you can't be sure s ure about the spectator's understanding understanding so it's better be safe ). One of those words must be the selection.

Fig. 14

If you find it difficult to catch the water mark, just have some light shine on the page and you can see it. The water mark here is quite bold for the explanatory  purpose. In real life, it is not necessary necessary to do such a huge huge stain like this.

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 Now you get some words words in mind. Close the book, book, lay it on the table with bind side facing the spectator so she can't see the mark and we'll go to the next step: fishing. The fishing

Get the pen and the piece of paper. Write down all the 4 words that you remember: Submarine. The.  Fantastically.  Fantastically.  Invented. The principle is: We will state out the odd words of the group so that every time you get a "No" you'll immediately know what the selection is. From the spectator point of view it seems like you know part of and then the whole word just by reading her mind.

For example in this case you may start first with the number of letters. Turn to the spectator and say: “Please close your eyes. Imagine you can see the word word  printed big, bold and vividly in your mind. Every Every letters are shinning, shinning, the word is floating right in front of you. I  sense that it quite a long wor word, d, it has more more than 3 letters, doesn't it?” If she says "No" says "No" you will know that the word is "Th is  "The". e".  Look at her and smile "I knew knew it". Page 19 of 23

If she says "Yes"  says "Yes"  we  we now continue with the odd letter. Tell her: Very good. Now please concentrate more more on details, details , would you. Spell out the word in your head only, only, letter by letter. letter. Don't give out any smallest clues to me what the word is. Just do it in your your mind only please. please. Hmm..... I think I get an impression impression of the letter "S" Am I correct correct ? If you get a " No"  so  so you know that it must be the word "Invented". Look at her in the eyes and say: s ay: "W "Well, I think  I have mistaken it to something something else, but no problem. problem.  Please concentrate more more on your your word word please. I think we're going to make it."  If she say "Yes" "Yes" then continue: “Good. We have been going well so far, thank you for  your co-ordination. co-ordination. Now we'll move along along the way." way." Pause for a few seconds and say: " I'm not quite sure sure about this one but does the word begin with the letter S?” A "No"  means  means "fantastically"  and  and a "Yes"  means  means "Submarine". If you get a "No"  then  then say: "Oh really? So it is not at the beginning of the word but I mean it is not at the end also, right?"  At this point she will nod. So you kind of turn a miss into a hit. Say Sa y thanks to her and take another piece of paper, paper, Page 20 of 23

write the word " fantastically" down.  Now if she says "Yes"  says "Yes"   Now you know the the selection you can reveal reveal some more letters in any manner you like or you just take another  piece of paper and writing down the selected selected word. After you write down the word "Submarine" in the paper, paper, fold it up and let the spectator keep it. Here comes the clean up step.

The clean up

Hold the book in your hand and tell her:  I don't know if I'm correct correct this time. It It works about 90% with me, depending on how I can retrieve retrieve the information that you send me in you mind. If it fails, it's my fault so don't worry about it. By the way, way, do you still remember remember the page number? What is it? She says: 143 You act as if you're finding the page and flipping thru the  book. When When you get to the selected selected page, you check check if the water mark is gone. If it's still there, use your finger to wipe it off under the cover of checking the page. If you do enough practice with the water marking thing you will know how much moisture to add to your finger from the  beginning. The fishing process process above is also a way to delay the reveal so that the water has enough time to Page 21 of 23

evaporate. Pretend to fold the opposite page up with your right hand while in fact you just do nothing. Then show the fold to the spectator (Fig. 15) and tell her:  Here we go. I marked the page. page.

Fig. 15

Lay the book back on the table ask her: “Now let me make it clear. You opened your book to any  page you liked, chose chose any word word from from that page, right? It was absolutely your free free choice, wasn't it? I didn't influence you in any way. You just sent the word to me in  you mind only, only, right? Now please say say out loud the word word that you are thinking of.” Page 22 of 23

She says: says: "submarine"  Tell her to open the paper to freak out. Then you pick up the book, open to the marked page,  pretend to scan through through the page and found the word "submarine". Point to the word and cover any trace left (if there is any), show the page to her and say:  Here it is! Submarine Submarine at page 143. 143. I'm so glad we did did it. Thank you very much. Tilt back the book, unbend the folded page. Close the  book and move on on to another routine routine or just give it back to the spectator.

End.

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