Ken Dyne - Daydreamer(1)

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Daydreamer

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w Ken Dyne

Daydreamer

REMINDER: Rights to perform this routine, any element of it, the script or revelations on television, YouTube, in any form of video or on cruise ships are strictly withheld as per the advertising for Daydreamer clearly stated. If you do wish to use any of this as above, just contact me. I’m friendly as hell.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

If you use without permission I will send a man in a mask to point a bow and arrow at you and the last words you’ll hear will be ‘You have failed this city’.

Seriously. Let’s not overexpose this by putting it on YouTube or on any kind of video at all. Since I perform this on a small number of cruise ships each year I’d rather not risk either of us following each other with the same routine - and thus making it look like ‘anyone’ can do it. Let’s keep it special, eh?

This whole work, it content and ideas are subject to International Copyright Law and may not be copied, reproduced, stored or distributed without the express written permission of the author. Measures have been taken to identify each of these books to identify each purchaser and should anyone infringe copyright their name will be publicly posted, passed on to other creators and stores, and passed onto the authorities.

© Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

Contents

4

The History Of This Routine

6

Problems I Wanted To Solve

10

The Connection With The Right Person

13

Setting Up The Dream

22

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w ww .su w ww w

What is mind reading?

The Dream

32

The Place

34

The Time

36

The Sound

37

The Dismissed Celebrity

39

The Country

39

The Celebrity Finale

40

Who’s Card

41

The Climax

41

The Truth

43

Credits

59

3 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

What is mind reading? Have you ever taken the time to come up with your answer to that question?

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

While most people download the latest lecture or buy the latest over­ priced e-book from ‘that guy’ in search for a great new piece for their shows, I think a much more effective way to create our performances is through stepping back and imagining an act that your audience wants to see. To create Daydreamer I sat in the stalls of a theatre I was working in and asked myself, ‘What does the audience expect to see?’. It’s fine doing your fabulous book test and figuring our someone’s pin number using the latest method you’ve read about.

However, take a moment to step back and ask - what is it all supposed to look like? I did this.

I imagined; I’m 30-something years old, I’ve come to the theatre to see a mind reading show which promises to be interactive and funny. I come through the doors, show my tickets and have my bag checked by security.

After buying some overpriced confectionary and a glass of wine served in a plastic cup, I take my seat. What do I see? What am I facing? Is the curtain up?

© Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

What is on stage? What does a mind reading show look like? What does mind reading look like? My answers will be different to yours. And they should be.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

In this special release I am going to share with you what I believe is the definitive routine as to what mind reading looks like. For almost a decade, I have been performing this routine that I call Daydreamer and I am really excited to share everything I’ve learned about it over the years.

You will see, like a lot of the mentalism you find in the working repertoires of other professionals, that the methods here are not new. However, the structure, scripting, the nuances and the revelations come together in Daydreamer to create what I believe to be one of the most incredible pieces of mind reading audiences will ever witness.

5 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The History Of This Routine When I first got into mentalism I remember getting incredibly excited about spending hours on end listening to Kenton Knepper’s smooth and hypnotic voice on his Wonder Words tapes. I remember I was on the bus listening to one of the tapes on my Walkman when he talked about a particular routine (which I don’t think has a name on the sets)

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Although I loved the idea of having a single person think of multiple things I wasn’t so taken by Kenton’s method for the way I work. A number of years later I, like so many, saw Derren Brown’s International Magic lecture where he performed his version of Kenton’s routine that’s known as Reminiscence. Many mentalists played around with this routine - most probably inspired by Derren’s captivating performance. For me though it was joining the dots into something that has continued to be a fascination of mine.

The first version of the routine I came up with was very similar in approach to Derren’s but with a different revelation:

I was performing for a teacher’s conference in Peebles on the Scottish borders. In a rather shoddy-looking hotel function room (after having eaten the worst Sweet & Sour Chicken known to man - in breadcrumbs for Christ’s sake, really?! I was to give a 45-minute performance and this version of Imagination Game was to be the central piece. At the front of the room (there was no stage, there was barely a carpet) I had a chair and above that chair, hanging from a tripod was a mysterious black cloth which covered ‘something’.

6 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

In the routine I had someone think of a random person and imagine how they looked, what colour their hair was and how they were feeling. They were described as female, pale skin with dark hair and they were feeling afraid. When I pulled the cloth away the audience could see a large gothicstyle photo frame (that I’d found in Ikea) containing a large print of a woman who exactly matched the description.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w The reaction? Silence.

Not stunned silence.

More like confused silence.

Then muttering.

Now people nodding to one another.

I couldn’t take the awkwardness any longer, so I pressed on with my next routine.

This was the only time I performed the effect this way, but I learned a lot of lessons from it. First of all, I learned that I didn’t like the method much. We’ll talk about why I don’t find it appropriate for where and how I work later as we get into Daydreamer. However, I learned a really important theatrical lesson when it comes to revealing predictions. I call it Overload. 7 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

On the drive home my friend Alex and I deconstructed the whole show and spent a lot of time working on this specific effect from the show, looking at why it didn’t work. We came to an almighty conclusion, one which I hope will help you in your own work: Think about what happened; The person on stage tells us that the person they’re imagining is female, pale, dark haired and afraid.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Then you whip off the cloth and the audience are faced with a single image which they then have to cross-reference with the list of characteristics that were called out. In their minds they are looking through the list thinking ‘female’, then looking at the image, ‘yep’. ‘Pale,’ looking at the image, ‘yep’. ‘Dark hair, yep’ ‘Afraid? Yes!’

Each of those ‘checks’ they have to make to see if you got it right dissolves any theatrical tension you may have built.

You’d have gotten a much bigger reaction from just having her say the person was afraid or terrified and then whisking the cloth off. At least that’s just one piece of information to process. This is a big lesson. Don’t make your revelations something that your audience has to work out, and don’t reveal more than one big thing at a time.

8 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

One solution I came up with for this was for another routine of mine where I reveal what someone is wearing by having a large roll of wallpaper on which I have drawn a life-size image of the person. To avoid the issue I had in Peebles, I slowly unroll the prediction, so the audience can appreciate each stage of the revelation.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

For example, if you were predicting what colour hat someone would wear, their spectacles, the colour of their shirt, their trousers and their shoes - you can easily unroll the paper to show the hat and stop. “A blue hat!”

Then continue to unroll the paper to show the spectacles, “Glasses!” ...and so on and so forth.

This breaks up the revelation rather than overloading people with all the prediction at once. Big important lesson there for me - I hope you find it useful.

9 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Problems I Wanted To Solve I don’t know about you, but I often create stuff to solve a problem. When I created Primal Prediction I wanted to solve the issue of having to take back the envelope someone had chosen in order to reveal the prediction.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

With Passed Out Deck I wanted to solve the fact that in other Tossed Out Deck routines the people cannot talk to each other afterwards.

In Ostimposter I showed you how to do an Ostin Clip prediction routine totally impromptu without a clip or anything other than some pieces of card. And so on and so forth.

I’m sure your repertoire is made up of things that you feel solve the problems of other routines.

That’s what we do, right?

Daydreamer is a solution to many problems I had with various routines. I wanted an effect that is the absolute epitome of mind reading.

There should be no doubt at all that what this guy does is read people’s minds. However, I wasn’t a fan of the methods being used in the previous routines.

The main thing I have an issue with, not only in this routine but in many mentalism routines, is where someone is going to think of something that you’re going to pick up on, but the thing they are going to think of is one of a bunch of things supplied by you. 10 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

That’s a big thing for me. I know it’s a tiny thing for most people. I get that. And I know it contradicts things like telling someone which playing card they are thinking of or word they are thinking of from a book both of which I do in every show.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

That said, I have never liked the idea that someone is going to think of a word from one that I’ve written on each of these cards, or from a page in this notebook. Why do I have such an issue with that?

Maybe it’s just me (and I’m totally happy if it’s just my own mental state that drives this thinking) but I think it’s far less impressive if you’re picking up on one of a small number of thoughts that you yourself created. To a modern, logical audience it stands to reason that you might make things easy on yourself to (at very least) write down thoughts that were easy for you to pick up on. That is, if you do read minds. If you’re actually just cheating all of us and using some kind of dirty rotten conjuring trick then hell, perhaps there’s something special about the thoughts you wrote down that help you know which one they’re thinking of. Above all, I think supplying someone with a list that you created is not nearly close enough to what mentalism could look like if we just thought about it some more. That was the first thing I wanted to ‘solve’. I wanted the thoughts that were read to not come from me, but from the person on stage and/or the audience. 11 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The second issue I had with the routine is that it doesn’t really have an ending. You have someone sitting in a chair, they close their eyes and start imagining stuff. You write each of those things on a pad and they call out what they’re imagining - and hopefully they match. That’s great. It’s really bloody great.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

However, when does it end?

Why does it end?

And as you can probably guess if you know my work, I was also looking for a surprise to add in there too - to take the routine away from being so linear. What we have here in Daydreamer is a combination of ideas that sat on separate pages of my notebook for years. I had no idea they were related or could ever be used together. I’m really excited to share with you the inner workings of; Daydreamer.

© Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

The Connection With The Right Person In this, the first phase of my Daydreamer routine I make sure I can connect with the person I’ve chosen. It’s quite amazing how mind readers tend to pluck the right person from the group whom they can connect with almost every time, isn’t it?

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I remember talking to a client of mine who is in a high position in the oil industry about how they find oil.

Shocker alert: they don’t just pick a spot and then move millions of pounds worth of machinery to that area to start drilling. Of course they don’t right?

That’s what us mentalists do most of the time though, right?

We pick someone, have them think of something and then we spend a whole bunch of everyone’s time apparently divining the information. When it comes to building believability, or at least supporting the audiences’ suspension of disbelief, there is perhaps something missing.

That is testing.

Before you invest all that time drilling the hole there’s a ton of testing and research that goes on.

Without the testing you could be mining for something that won’t work.

Since Daydreamer was always designed to be my personal definition of what Mind Reading would look like, it only goes to say that it needs the correct frame.

13 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Here’s a frame that I quite like. It uses a number of classic physiological feats to demonstrate how you can apparently communicate with someone’s subconscious mind. In the routine I talk about the use of a projector or screens - if you’re not able to work with screens then I’d probably leave this piece of the routine out or find an alternative solution such as a sign or something as the words bring an essential element to the audience’s understanding of what you’re ‘doing’.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w Picture the scene:

You’ve just identified which one of 4 participants is holding the only gold ball from a bag of coloured balls and you’re standing centre stage receiving your applause.

The applause dies down:

“Since I was very young I’ve had an obsession with dreams.”

You begin.

“You see, when I was really young I went under a sleep study because they suspected I wasn’t dreaming.

In case you don’t know what a sleep study is, it’s where you lie in a room with people watching you, wired up to all kinds of machines and told to ‘just sleep normally’.

Not dreaming is extremely dangerous, and probably explains the psychological mess you see before you” The audience giggles a little.

“So, and by the way please do not get excited, if you raise your hand for this next bit it does not mean you’ll be in the show - please give me a little wave if you are the kind of person who DOES tend to remember your dreams?” 14 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

You walk among the audience, holding your breath to save yourself from the stench of their mere mortality. Some hands go up. “Please would you just stand up where you are? Yes and you too madam, and you sir, and you madam” Several people are standing up in their seats in the audience now.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Approaching an attractive lady you say “Madam, what is your name?” “Thea” comes her reply.

“Thea, I am so sorry that I won’t be able to use you for this as you’re just too attractive and I find that quite intimidating.” Immediately turning to the others who are still standing, “The rest of you have nothing to worry about”. Gaspter fills the room (that’s a word I just made up for that sound which is half gasp - half laughter. Gasper, I think that’ll stick.)

You now approach each of the people who are standing and ask them interesting personal questions such as: Favourite flavour of ice cream Where they live If they have pets

The idea of this to appear that you are apparently finding the type of person you can work with best. After a few minutes of this, you find her. She’s a 50-something lady from Utah. She’s called Merry-Lee and she has terrible dental hygiene.

15 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

"Please give Merry-Lee a huge round of applause as you come and join me up on stage!” The audience goes mild with applause - that’s not a typo ;) “Merry-Lee, before we go into this, I want to see if you’re the kind of person who can work with me, who I can work with on some kind of deeper level to some incredible things.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I’m going to ask you to stand here next to this chair and put your right hand out in front of you." Merry-Lee does as she’s asked. Her arm is extended.

“Please would you make your arm strong and firm, and resist me pushing it down, now”

You try to push her arm back down to her side, but Merry-Lee is a tough ol’ girl and she resists perfectly. "My goodness, you’re a strong lady, aren’t you? Now what we’re going to be doing here is using your imagination. So let’s put that imagination of yours to the test. Imagine that arm of yours getting weaker, imagine you’ve been pushing your grandchildren on the swing for an hour now and you need a rest, imagine you’ve been holding that arm out for hours rather than a few moments and it’s starting to get weaker and weaker. Now try to resist me pushing your arm down. Really try”

This time you are able to push her arm right down without any real effort at all.

You big strong animal you!

"Great! You can really feel it can’t you? It’s really important that you don’t play along at all, you really felt a lot weaker, didn’t you? Let’s try another one...” You sit in the chair and place your right hand on top of your head. 16 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

“Just lift my hand off my head for a moment.” She reaches over and picks your hand off the top of your head. No surprise there. “Okay, let's engage someone else’s imagination too.” You invite a second lady, Lucy, up to replace you in the chair.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w “Lucy, would you please place your hand on top of your head?” Lucy does that

“Lucy as you sit there I want you to imagine that your hand is getting stuck, glued...”

As you continue to give Lucy ‘suggestions’ about her hand being stuck to her head - on the screen behind you, the following words appear:

Shhhh...

The suggestions I am giving the lady in the chair are not really affecting her. These are indirect suggestions...

The lady standing up is hearing them all... Believing them all... Causing her to become weak again... Without her knowing it.

17 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Shhhh.

These words all appear on the same slide of the Keynote/Powerpoint presentation, I have them appear one line at a time giving the audience time to read each line.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

This principle of letting the audience apparently ‘in’ on something is something I’ve been working on for years. I’ve been looking for a way to do a mentalism version of ‘paper balls over the head’ - and this is one of my solutions I’ve created for it.

There is something really dramatic, interesting and ‘magical’ about the audience seeing something that is ‘going on’ which the people on stage cannot. This brings the audience closer to you as a performer by making them feel part of the deception. A quick note on the staging - you can now see why I had to introduce the chair in order to allow the words on the screen to be able to refer to each of the women separately.

Another idea I had was to have the second person I brought up be a man so that the words on screen could refer to ‘His’ and ‘Her’ but it doesn’t give the right impression to show a woman isn’t able to lift the hand of a man. It’s wrong on many levels so I avoid it and so introduced the chair which means we can refer to one as the woman sitting and the other as standing. That solves the problem, for me at least. While these words are coming up on the screen it’s important that you keep the attention and focus of the 2 lady participants on stage. You do 18 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

not want them getting suspicious that something is going on behind them. This can be trickier than you might at first think - mainly because the audience will not be looking at them anymore, but at something behind them (or off to the sides or wherever the screen happens to be). Not only that but I’ve found that the audience members tend to nudge each other and point to the screen.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

If either of these ladies turn around - well, it sucks doesn’t it?

The solution I am most confident about is to have them both close their eyes. Now the audience can look up at the screen without giving the game away. Note on the screens. If I have a gig where there is no screen I have a few options/alternatives:

You can get quite low-cost projectors these days so if you’re able to carry one then do. A great way of using a projector I discovered is to put it on the floor at an angle facing up toward the background and use it apparently as a theatrical light for your show. Then later when you come to this piece you click to the next slide on your Keynote/Powerpoint presentation and the words appear on the wall behind you. It’s possible that for the audience it is more dramatic the words suddenly appear that way, rather than on a projector screen. Another option I used in my show I performed in The Castle Keep in Newcastle a number of years ago was to get one of those scrolling LCD screens. You know the red ones that you see for ‘Keys Cut Here’ and that kind of thing?

19 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

It looks really weird and strange if during the routine you just click that thing on and it starts scrolling a message. I’ve used these things for a number of routines and they have a really strange, creepy analogue feel to them that I really like. So back to the routine itself. While the words appear on the screen behind you continue with suggestions about the lady sitting down (Lucy) becoming stronger and her hand sticking to her head.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Once all the text has been shown and the slide cleared you stop your suggestions and have both ladies open their eyes. “Merry-Lee, please try to remove Lucy’s hand from her head”.

Merry-Lee tries as hard as she likes yet she cannot.

“Great. Relax, both of you. Lucy thank you for your assistance.

Merry-Lee, you are perfect for this. Although it might not have seemed that way, all of this was about you. And it looks like your mind is in the perfect place to make this work. Please take a seat. ” She does.

This is the whole set up for the Daydreamer effect, but as you can see this is a really nice framing for just about any effect.

What I’m particularly happy with is this faux ‘indirect suggestion’ angle that allows you to bring the audience in closer to you. In case you’re not familiar, the two effects that happen in this routine are ‘body magic’ effects which are often credited to Annie May Abbott, from her Magnetic Girl act,1. They use physiology and physics.

1

The Georgia Wonder, Barry Wiley. 20 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

For the strong and weak arm effect you simple have her extend her arm and make it strong. You push but you don’t push too hard. Don’t go too easy on her as you want her to feel that she is resisting. Then when you have her relax and do it again her arm will have fatigued and become tired so will be much weaker. The second effect of not being able to remove the hand from the top of someone’s head is an act that due to physics is just not possible.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

The first time she tries it with you and is able to remove your hand from your head - that is the trick. By ‘trick’ I mean, you literally let her lift your hand off your head. You don’t resist at all. However, when you get the woman from the audience to sit in the chair (Lucy) you actually give Lucy a suggestion of being strong and having her hand glued to her head.

What’s interesting about this is that rather than this looking like an effect on Lucy and making her stronger, you actually perform a double­ bluff on the audience. They think it’s about Merry-Lee’s indirect suggestion getting weak, when in reality you are basically telling Lucy to resist Merry-Lee’s pull and thus forcing the effect to work. If you resist someone, they will not be able to remove your hand from the top of your head. Again, it’s physics. This double-bluffing with the audience and the presentational frame of them somehow being ‘in on your mind games’ is something that gives me a great amount of delight when performing it.

© Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Setting Up The Dream This is the main setup for the core of Daydreamer. However I think it’s important to look at the smaller effects I shared with you in the previous chapter to make sure you create a believable frame for the main effect.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

That said, it is not strictly necessary as for around 8 years I performed Daydreamer without that initial phase and have only recently been performing it at some events and a few magic conventions around the world. I think I have, however, so far been able to keep that introductory phase away from magicians. So yes, you lucky duck, you’re the first to see that. The effect of The Dream is quite simple.

The lady sits in a chair, eyes closed and is asked to create a scene in her mind. You ask her to focus on particular areas of that scene, you openly write what you believe she is imagining and when she calls out her answers, they match exactly. That’s the basic premise I started with.

However, as I mentioned earlier there are a few problems I wanted to solve with my approach in order to make it practical for the kinds of gigs I do and therefore confound most of the sceptics and smart people who see it. I’ve performed this phase of Daydreamer at a small number of magic conventions and because of the layers involved in the routine it is extremely puzzling.

22 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

The beauty of a routine like this, I think at least, is in making them deceptive, entertaining and also extremely simple. (After all, there’s plenty of clever mentalism that makes you work hard to get a reaction, right?) Daydreamer solves:

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

- What the participant says after the show (preserving the mystery not only for the people she tells but also for herself; something I ’ m very passionate about). - The stimulus for the ‘dream’ being rational.

■ The things she focuses on in the ‘dream’ not just being things written on a piece of card but genuinely things she is imagining. ■ A theatrical arc that keeps the audience engaged in what would otherwise be the same effect over and over.

■ A variety of revelation ‘styles’ which are interesting, dramatic and again make this much more than the same thing happening over and over. ■ A surprising, uplifting climax which makes this the single most talkedabout thing in my shows (more than my big finale). These were a lot of issues I wanted to solve. And each of them is solved by a small nuance that I’m going to completely unpack for you in detail. The idea of sharing this is not just so you can go out and perform Daydreamer, but to share with you my thinking behind why certain things happen. Also how you can critically examine your own work and make it better and more impenetrable, how to build theatrical arcs into a piece and, of course as ever with my material - how to make your mentalism less predictable. Alright, that’s enough of me telling you how fabulous I think I am. Let’s crack on. To explain this we are going to have to take things a little out of order.

23 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The very first phase actually happens 1 minute before I walk on stage (so before I do the Connection With The Right Person. The first thing I had to solve to make this a viable piece for me was that in both previous versions of any similar routines the stimulus for what the person imagines (dreams) is taken from a card they randomly select from a pile of cards with different ideas on them.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I didn’t like the idea that the audience could think that the solution to all of this was just that every answer was on the card. I also didn’t want the effect to be broken if the truth /s that everything is on the card. So even if everything I reveal was on the card, I want that to still be an amazing effect not only for the lady I involve in this but for everyone she tells. And because this is such a strong effect, she will probably tell a lot of people. The answer: I don’t supply the cards.

Before I go on stage we play a pre-recorded announcement of me asking the audience to fill in pieces of card with personal information. My announcement is:

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It’s Kennedy.

First of all thank you so much for coming to the show.

The more observant of you will have noticed that at the front of the stage I’ve placed a basket and some pieces of card. I’d like you to think of three facts about yourself that I could not possibly know. Once you have thought of your three facts I’d like you to write them down on one of the pieces of card, and place your card face down into the basket. 24 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

One more thing - there are not enough cards and pens for everyone and it is strictly first come-first served. Since we want to get this show started soon, you have 60-seconds to do it, starting...now.” At this point the screen are filled with a 60-second countdown timer and some loud tension music plays, counting down.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

The script there is carefully structured to build anticipation and compel people to participate. The first few times I tried this I had trouble getting people to come forward and fill in the cards.

With this script if you unpick it with your knowledge of psychology and suggestion, you’ll see why it is so powerful and has people climbing over seats to fill in a card. The countdown music plays quite loudly as I want to make it difficult for anyone to talk during that time. Why?

One of the things we want to do before we walk on stage is to get everyone’s attention and have them quiet and facing the front.

With this intro I’ve found people are not still having conversations or chatting when I walk on. That’s all dealt with through this introduction.

So, at this point I have the audience’s attention, I’ve got them involved and thus ‘bought in’ to the show and I’ve also trained them somewhat to do what I say. All of these are lovely ways to start a show. I then go on and perform my opening effects. 25 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Now I go into the Connection with the Right Person phase. By this time the audience have somewhat forgotten about the basket of thoughts. It’s an extremely strong thing to remind people of something that they did or saw earlier as it reminds them you have a plan, it lets them know this is calculated and...it looks cool.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

They do this all the time in TV shows and movies.

Our state of play is now that we have tested our connection with Merry-Lee and she’s a perfect subject for this routine. Merry-Lee is sitting in the chair with her eyes open

‘‘Merry-Lee, have you ever been hypnotised before?" No.

‘‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to be tonight".

As you know, this creates some doubt in the audience’s mind and now they start to wonder if you will hypnotise her. If you hadn’t mentioned it then they’re unlikely to have thought about it. “Have you ever had a palm-reading? Was it accurate or inaccurate?’’ She replies.

“Okay. Merry-Lee give me the weight of your right arm. Let it go loose, limp and heavy. ” Standing to her right you are holding her right arm in your right hand, shaking it slightly to encourage her to allow it to go limp.

26 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

"Merry-Lee take a look at the lines on the palm of your hand” You say this as you turn her right palm towards her. On that line some music starts to play and the lights change to look more mysterious, leaving only you, Merry-Lee and the flip chart behind you illuminated. Everything else is in darkness. 'Merry-Lee, as you look at those lines on the palm of your hand you’ll notice as your hand comes closer to your face the lines go in and out of focus. And they start to look a little deeper than before2”

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

pause just before the word ‘deeper’ here to add more effect there.

'Now the moment your hand touches your face I want you to lock your eyes down tight. ” Because of the framing of the effect it sounds like this might be some kind of hypnotic suggestion. It’s not really. I mean, it has worked that way a few times, but in reality it’s just an instruction that when she touches her own face she is to close her eyes. That’s all. But due to the framing and the dramatic feel to this, it looks like a lot more is going on. You bring her hand slowly towards her face and after a moment or so, gently place her hand onto her face with the words: “Leave your hand stuck to your face for now”. Again, this sounds like a hypnotic suggestion that her hand is actually stuck to her face. It isn’t. It’s just an instruction to leave her hand there. You continue, “In a moment I’ll click my fingers and your hand will unstick from your face and begin to slowly float down to your lap. As it does you’ll see that as an indication just to relax and sink down more deeply”.

2

The idea for this scripting I’m sure was formed from Luke Jermay’s effect A Twisted Palm from his book Building Blocks where he causes the lines on someone’s hand to move. 27 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

You snap your fingers and the hand starts to move. You will often hear an audible gasp from the audience as it looks like ‘something’ is happening. When it’s not. She’s just following instructions, but it looks really amazing. “That’s amazing, Merry-Lee. Now keep my voice in the centre of your mind as I talk with the audience. Every word that I say simply washes over you and relaxes you more completely. Just nod your head if you understand... ’’ She nods her head.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

You’ll notice that because of the mood and how relaxed she is, her head will nod in a sleepy sort of way. Again, this further sells the fact that ‘something’ is happening here. You now walk to the front of the audience where the basket of cards is and point to someone in the front row. Since I’ve used 2 women for the whole routine so far I tend to try and find a man just to give some variety. Or if there’s any kids near there I have them do this bit as it’s one of the few times I feel happy involving kids in my show. “Sir, would you step forward, you don’t need to come on stage, just take the basket and mix the cards so we don’t know where the newest cards are or where the first people’s cards are. Then once you’re happy they are mixed please take out 2 or 3 cards. But please, in case people think you and I might be in cahoots (we know we’re not) please take the cards out face down, don’t read any of them at all. He mixes the cards and removes 3 cards.

As you can see now, we will be using one of the cards from the audience as the stimulus for the ‘dream’. This solves the problem about her talking afterwards and saying all the information you revealed was simply on the card because the effect is still a really impressive one - you figured out what was on an audience members card.

28 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

r Ken Dyne

This is what many mentalists do as the main effect. So as the back-up effect I’ll take it:) At this point you are going to switch the 3 cards that have been selected by the gentleman for 3 of your own. There are several possibilities for how you might do this. There’s nothing fancy here, we must keep it practical.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

In my shows I perform an effect I shared in my book Bairn called El Predictagram3 in which I use a folio to switch some pieces of card.

When I am performing El and Daydreamer I use the late (and bloody awesome) Wayne Rogers’ Force 4 - the full-size version. This allows you to make 2 switches. That’s what I do most often. If you only need to do one switch then Banachek’s Folio will do the job. And here’s a neat little subtlety I’m especially proud of -1 switch in 3 of my cards each with the same fact on. However, I’ve not always done it that way and I often use other methods of switching in my cards. The simplest is to have one extra card palmed in your right hand.

However, when I use this palming method I add an extra line which was very much inspired by my friend Asi Wind. So when they have selected their 3 cards and have placed the basket back I say, “...or 4 cards or whatever. Are you happy?” This line is for one person and one person only: Merry-Lee who has her eyes closed.

31

also released this as a stand alone effect called E1 and performed and explained it on my Penguin Live lecture too. 29 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

It’s a little bit of double-speak that to the audience and the guy choosing the cards seems like you’re saying ‘take as many cards as you like’, whereas to Merry-Lee she heard that he is taking 4 cards. Thus when you add in your extra palmed card in a moment, should she get a glimpse and notice there are 4 cards, she won’t be alerted to anything being untoward. The gentleman has taken out 3 pieces of card from the basket following your instructions ‘Take out 2 or 3 cards’. This is a small thing but these words always result in 3 cards. I think that’s for a couple of reasons:

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

1. They want to challenge you so 3 cards may seem harder (even though they don’t know what you’re going to do yet). 2. 2 cards seem like hardly any choice at all, so it seems better to go with 3.

Again, more Asi Wind inspiration here - don’t be tempted to slap your palmed extra card onto the pile just yet. Wait.

The gentleman places the 3 cards onto your palm-up left hand and you very fairly stand up and start turning around and walking towards Merry-Lee. To make things look really natural, keep your fingers of your left hand spread and your right hand away from them. As you walk you say “Merry-Lee, the gentleman placed these cards on my hand”. At that moment you gesture toward your left hand with your right and drop the palmed card on top of the pile of cards. What’s really lovely about this moment is that since your back is to the audience, the only person who could see you add that card in is Merry-Lee, who has her eyes closed! Lovely, ey? Thank you, thank you! “Merry-Lee we may need a number of these cards so please take the first one and we’ll go on from there” 30 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

This is a nice way to say, ‘take the top card and don’t question it’. As far as she knows you might be about to use all of them. She takes the top one and you immediately drop the others onto your table as you say, “They are our backups in case someone wrote something inappropriate. I know this is not the kind of crowd to do that but I did a gig in Vegas last month and...well it was embarrassing so now I always have some pack-ups. ”

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Again, we’ve taken the others out of the equation by addressing why we have them before the thought can cross someone’s mind. The best way to make routines bulletproof is to pre-empt something and overcome it, rather than try and excuse it later.

if you’ve chosen to use a switching pad/folio like I often do I switch the three cards the guy selects for 3 of my own each with the same facts on. Then when she comes to taking a card I say “Merry-Lee, you don’t have to take the top card but please only take one - the others are for backup...” and then I go on to talk about ‘Vegas’ as above. There are many ways to switch in the card and you might not like the ways that I do it. Although I find they work really well for me and my style you may have something which suits you much better. The point of Daydreamer isn’t to share with you a cool new switch (Elliott Brestler already has more than any of us could ever use in his seminal work about switches ‘Switchcraft’ which if you don’t own you should go grab). The card is switched. Your lady participant is now holding a piece of card that you wrote and this is where the main Daydreamer effect really gets going.

31 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The Dream Status check: The lady, Merry-Lee has her eyes open, she is sat in the chair holding a piece of card that she has taken from a pile of cards apparently selected by the gentleman sitting near the front of the audience, but in reality the card she is holding is one you wrote and have switched in.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“Merry-Lee, in a moment I’m going to ask you to take a look at what this person wrote. Please read it carefully in your mind and remember any facts, figures, names or places - every detail of what they wrote. It might be that they wrote a lot of things, or not many at all so please once you have read it through once, read it again repeatedly to commit their facts to memory - does that make sense?” She agrees.

“I will move over here and talk to the audience again while you do that. You can look at the card now. ” By which time you have walked away from her and are standing downstage centre and you address the audience. “So far this evening we have dealt with things which already exist. Words, pictures, symbols and numbers. However, we are about to deal with something that does not yet exist. A journey into Merry-Lee’s imagination. What’s more, I don’t know where this journey will begin. That’s why I had you all write down some information about yourselves, to give us a random place to start that I could not know about. I don’t know where we are starting and what’s more I have no idea where we are about to go....” Still facing the audience and with you back to her, you address Merry-Lee, “Merry-Lee have you finished reading what they wrote?” “Yes" comes the answer.

32 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

"Great. In a moment when I turn around I don’t want to see what’s on the card so please put it somewhere safe. Sit on it. Because if I get to that.. .you will certainly notice”. This gets a nice little laugh which breaks the tension. Turning to face Merry-Lee now, “I need to just check a few things, first of all we need to use your imagination and not your memory, so you didn’t get your own card did you?”

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Of course she didn’t, she got your card because you switched it in - you handsome devil, you! But it does sound good, doesn’t it?

"Lovely. Now is there anything on this card that would embarrass either the person who wrote it or us up here tonight?” Again, this is not for the same reason as before but having 2 questions of this type really seem to sell the fact that you don’t know what is on that card. Which is critical to the effect here. "Okay, I am hoping there are some kinds of facts or something on the card?” Yes there are.

"Okay, let’s go with this one then, and if we need to swap it for one of the others we will do. Here’s what we’re going to do. In a moment I’ll ask you to close your eyes again and when you do I’d like you to think about all the information this person put on their card and to help you remember it I’d like you to put it into a scene, like a movie. Then I am going to ask you some questions about the scene you’re imagining and I’m going to try and write your answers on this flipchart before you say them and see if we get a match. Does that make sense? Before we start, some rules. 33 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Sometimes the answers to my questions will be something this person wrote on their card. When that is the case, please use their answers - don’t go changing someone’s past, you wouldn’t like that yourself - would you? However, most of the time the answers to my questions will not be something the person wrote on the card. When that is the case I want you to imagine what the answer WOULD be. Make sense?” She confirms it does.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“Great, then please close your eyes and start imagining a scene that contains the facts or information you read. Really see it. ” You stand for a moment as if ‘tuning in’ to her thoughts.

The Place

‘To begin with let’s bring this scene in a little bit. Just tell me yes or no; could you put this scene you’re imagining inside a building for me please? Or some kind of location?” She says she can.

‘To make this easier for me, in your mind summarise that location into a single word. For example, if it’s a cruise ship, just think ‘ship’ - of course if it is cruise ship please don’t give me any clues. ” Pause

“Focus on that word, but only in your mind. Oh, Merry-Lee, the word you are thinking of is this something the person wrote on their card?” “No” she says. “So you’re just imagining it, yes?” “Yes” 34 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

This is a critical piece of this routine. They are merely imagining the information. They’re not merely transmitting information they’ve read off a card. For me this is a real leap into a much higher level of mentalism. Back to the routine... Suddenly, your eyes light up with excitement - you ‘got it’ and you turn straight to the flip chart behind you and for all the audience to see you write the word ‘Church’.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“Madame, what is the word you are thinking of?”

“Church...?” she sounds nervous but the audience ease those nerves with their applause and gasps. You notice that her eyes open and she turns around to look at the flip chart. “You’re amazing. Look rather than me keep bringing you away from focusing on this scene, let’s keep your eyes closed and you’ll know if we got it right, because you’ll hear THIS SOUND!” As you say this you gesture to the audience to applaud. Which they do.

However, we’re going to use this opportunity to train the audience to applaud even louder than that. Here’s how I do it:

As soon as the applause dies down, I say, “and if you get it exactly right you’ll hear THIS SOUND” and I say ‘THIS SOUND’ in a deeper, louder tone. All of this causes the audience to applaud even louder. I realise that this actually doesn’t make any sense at all because there’s no difference, as far as the audience is concerned, between ‘getting it right’ and ‘getting it exactly right’. But it serves a great purpose of training the audience and I’ve been doing this for more than a decade with great results so thought I’d share it here with you. 35 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Back to the routine: You have Merry-Lee close her eyes again and start to re-imagine the scene.

The Time “I noticed on the way up here that you wear a really beautiful wristwatch. Without opening your eyes are you able to imagine the face of that wristwatch?”

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

‘Yes’

“Can you please imagine a specific time for this event happening at this Church. Imagine the hands of your wristwatch pointing at this specific time. Can I just check you’re just imagining your watch, yes?” ‘Yes’.

“Let’s just focus on the hour hand for a moment. Allow the minute hand to fade away just the for the time being and focus on the hour hand. Hmm okay”

Hesitantly you write the number 12 under the word Church on the flip chart. You wait a moment and then, carefully choosing your words you say to the audience, “Audience, ladies and gents, errm. I’m not 100% on this one. I think it’s this," you point to the 12 you’ve written, “but it might be this”. In the air you indicate the 6 position on a clock face. “So I think it’s this" this time you indicate in the air where a 12 would be on a large imaginary clock face between you and the audience, “but I might be this" and indicate the 6 position on the imaginary clock-face. “Does that make sense?”

36 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

The audience will mutter ’yes’. “Okay. So Merry-Lee, just the hour hand, where is it pointing in your mind?" '12 O’clock’ The audience erupts with applause. “Now let’s look at that minute hand. Oh okay, you’ve gone for something quite specific, haven’t you?’’

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

She smiles.

“Thanks for that Merry-Lee”

Next to the 12 you write: ':43’ then you put a line through the 3 and under it write a ‘2’. Pointing to the 4 and 2 saying ‘This not...this” you point to the 3. “How many minutes past 12 is it?" ’43’.

The crowd groans. You just missed it. You shouldn’t have changed your mind.

The Sound

“Okay let’s go for something more unusual. I’d like you to imagine something you can hear in this scene. Not the church organ because that would be obvious. But could be an instrument or it could be just an ordinary everyday sound like kids playing or something. Can you focus on something for me?” ‘Yes’ “Picking up on actual sounds is not something I can do so imagine spelling that sound out in your mind. See the first letter. ”

37 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

You turn the page on the flip chart and write a large 'S’ which takes up a third of the width of the page. “I’ve got an ’S’ does that make sense?” She confirms it does. “Okay, the second letter statistically speaking is most likely to be a vowel. Doesn’t have to be but statistically speaking so let’s skip to the third letter, just think of it. ”

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

You leave a one-letter gap and then write a large X on the flip chart so now it look like this: S _ X. “What is that third letter?” ‘X’

“And this is something you can hear going on?” ‘Yes'

You look a little perturbed. After all, she’s thinking about hearing sex-noises, right? "Is this a sound you enjoy?” ‘Yes’

"Is it something you hear often?” ‘No’

The audience are laughing quite hard by now. You now stand in front of the flip chart, your body completely blocking as you write something on it. Still standing facing the flip chart you ask her, “What is the sound you’re hearing?” 38 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

"The saxophone’ The moment she says it you step away showing you’ve added an A in the middle of the S and X, making it read SAX.4 Applause.

The Dismissed Celebrity

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w ww .su w ww w

"Let's try this. Can you imagine a celebrity in this scene for me please?" She says she can.

You take a moment and appear to change your mind as if it might be a little tricky for you.

The Country

’Okay let’s try going totally off-piste.

We’re in a church, you can hear the saxophone, now I want you to imagine where we are in the world. Really use your imagination here. ” You turn the page of the flip chart and write GERMANY across the top of the page. “Where in the world are we?” ‘France’

Without missing a beat you say ‘Amazing!’ and gesture for the audience to applaud anyway. And they do.

4

The idea for this came from a trick from Wayne Dobson - however Wayne didn’t turn the naughty word into an innocent word, it was simply a gag for him. I came up with the idea of sex/sax and think it suits better. 39 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The Celebrity Finale “Okay, this celebrity. Please focus on them again. This is a singer!” ‘No’ You look confused (imagine you missed your peek or something). “Definitely not a singer?”

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

‘No, that’s not what they’re famous for” “This is a man, though yes?” ‘No’

A long pause. Your shoulders drop. Your eyes start darting around the room. You look up at the tech booth and off into the wings of the theatre. You’re in trouble. You’ve screwed it up. One last chance: “An actress?” ‘Yes’

Oh, you've pulled it around! “A television actress?” ‘No’

Now you’ve really blown it. It's awkward. It’s awful.

The audience who wanted to see you get it wrong so badly before are regretting that because what they’re seeing is someone they’ve now grown to like on stage really getting everything wrong now. You’ve lost your powers. 40 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

Embarrassed, you admit defeat “I’m so sorry. It happens. It’s not her fault. Please, everyone she got everything else so right. It’s not her fault. I’m so sorry. You can open your eyes. ” The tense music stops and the normal stage lights come back on.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“So sorry about that. This sometimes happens. I’m not going to be able to get it. I know you got everything else right but...I dunno. By the way - who were you thinking of?" ‘Meg Ryan’

"0/7 Meg Ryan, really? Yeah I...I...I dunno. Sorry. Ladies and gentlemen. Please give Merry-Lee a big round of applause. ” You usher her off the stage.

Who’s Card

Going back to the chair on stage, you pick up Merry-Lee’s card that’s still on there and ask, “Who’s card is this?” You look at the card, reading it, “The initials JY, where are you tonight?”

From somewhere in the darkness a lady waves to indicate it’s her thoughts and you thank her.

The Climax

You take a slow moment to walk back upstage toward the flip chart. After a moment you realise something about the flip chart. Your walk changes from a sulk to someone driven. 41 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

You take out the pen again and cross of the M in GERMANY and write it below. Then the E. Followed by the G And so on as the audience slowly realises that GERMANY is an anagram of MEG RYAN and they finally erupt!

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I must tell you that this moment of small pockets of the audience slowly realising the anagram of your big ‘failure’ is right there is one of the most up­ lifting, powerful roars I have ever heard. It’s like a jet taking off.

So that is the full performance of Daydreamer fully explained for you.

Before we go into the explanation of what on earth is going on, why I do what I do and all of that important stuff I want to just bring your attention to some important things that I hope we can all learn from this routine. This routine has been my baby for so long and it’s the keystone to my act right now because it looks like what I think mind reading should look like. It builds, the revelations get more interesting with each phase, it has near misses built-in and it has a huge surprising success after a really, truly awkward failure. The key to that last phase is that it can NOT look like a magician doing a ‘oh I screwed it up’ trick. You must slow it right down and really live that moment and make it horrible. I imagine that the name I was forcing on her was Tom Jones and that she’s just not playing ball. So I feel embarrassed, I feel awful and I panic. I don’t act it. I relive times that kind of awful shit happens. 42 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

It's much easier to relive something than to learn to act it

I mean, sheesh, that’s one of the pillars of Stanislavskian Method Acting, right?

If you downgrade this climax to a mere ‘magician in trouble’ triviality you’ll feck this up.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Sorry for the language there but I needed to say something to really drive home how important that is. No one believes the magician in trouble thing, ever.

That’s because it’s always done terribly, and you don’t really want the audience to believe you’ve screwed up.

For this to work they must believe it. It’s not an act. It really messed up.

And when they believe that, the climax hits them so hard and that’s the key to Daydreamer. Shall we move on to the silly little methods then?

The Truth

Let’s break down each piece to show you not only how it’s done - because it’s all pretty much done the same way, but also how each bit builds and how we use the script to make it sound like so much more than it really is. 1. The Place On the card the first thing that is written is the phrase ‘We was married...’ There’s a few things that are important about this. First of all, I am fairly 43 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

well spoken and so it stands to reason that I would not write such bad ‘English’. (Martin, my editor, might disagree about my use of English and after reading his corrections I’m doubting it too!) This little added deception adds doubt into the participating lady’s mind that I might have penned this card myself. I want a lot of doubt like that. Because if she thinks I wrote it then the whole game is up.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

By having ‘married’ and then later on the card the phrase ‘we walked down the aisle’ we are basically depicting a church in their mind.

When I started working on Daydreamer one of my main goals was to create the illusion that rather than the woman participant simply recalling things that were on the card she looked at, she would be using the ideas on the card as a springboard to imagine stuff that was not written down. Making the whole effect about her imagination rather than what was written. After all, that's a much more genuinely 'mental' effect. There are a few points that make the ‘church’ revelation seem all the more impossible. Let’s pick apart the script:

“To begin with let’s narrow this scene in a little bit. Just tell me yes or no, could you put this scene you’re imagining inside of a building for me please? Or some kind of location?’’ Saying ‘inside a building’ first leads her to think of ‘church’ straight away, but you then go on to dilute how direct that was and make it seem like there are many more options by adding in ‘or some kind of location’. Now the audience feel like this could just as easily be a beach, a specific country, or of course a building. The chance of you merely guessing seems crazy. Once she says she can imagine the ‘location’ you go on to say:

44 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

"To make this easier for me, in your mind summarise that location into a single word. For example, if it’s a cruise ship, just think ‘ship’ - of course if it is cruise ship please don’t give me any clues. ” This means we don’t get her picturing a specific church or thinking of ‘St Andrews’ for example, we just want the word ‘church’. 'Focus on that word, but only in your mind. Oh, Merry-Lee, the word you are thinking of is this something the person wrote on their card?”

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

She has to say “No” because the word ‘church’ that you’ve now narrowed her down to is not written on the card. "So you’re just imagining it, yes?”

Since you asked her to focus on the word, she is now only imagining the word. So, she has to answer in the affirmative. I think it’s really important that in this first phase of the routine you immediately distance the revelations and thoughts from the card. This first phase does exactly that by having her confirm that what she’s imagining was indeed not on the card and she is merely imagining it. Pretty strong stuff, right?

But also extremely simple!

2. The Time In this section we want to show your imperfection.

Dude, you nailed the first one. You wrote Church, she was thinking of Church. All praise you! But in this section we want to show you as flawed.

On the card was written ‘We was married at exactly 12:43pm. We walked down the isle... 45 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

We’re going to present this as her just making up a time. We’re going to use this by misusing the word ‘imagine’ and most people’s assumption that when we say ‘imagine’ we mean ‘make up’. This ‘misunderstanding’ is helped by the previous phase of course. To begin we ask her about her wristwatch:

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“I noticed on the way up here that you wear a really beautiful wristwatch. Without opening your eyes are you able to imagine the face of that wristwatch?” The purpose of this is to again remind everyone that this is about her imagination. She is imagining the face of her watch with her eyes closed. “Can you please imagine a specific time for this event happening at this Church. Imagine the hands of your wristwatch pointing at this specific time. I use the word ‘Imagine’ a lot here. What the audience thinks I am asking her to do is make up a time and imagine it on her wristwatch. In reality, and as far as the lady on stage is concerned, she is being asked to think of the specific time that was on the card she read and to imagine it on her own wristwatch. We then have her confirm this by asking:

Can I just check you’re just imagining your watch, yes?” To which of course she is going to say ‘Yes’.

This ‘yes’ to her is confirming that she is no longer focusing on the church or anything else in the scene, just the wristwatch. However, to the audience she is telling them that she is just imagining a time. 46 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

I then go on to break the revelation up by going for the hour and then the minutes. I think the second revelation in a routine is still too early to ‘miss’ so I get this one dead on: "Let’s just focus on the hour hand for a moment. Allow the minute hand to fade away just for the time being and focus on the hour hand.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Hmm okay”

Hesitantly you write the number 12 under the word Church on the flip chart. You wait a moment and then, carefully choosing your words you say to the audience, “Audience, ladies and gents, errm. I’m not 100% on this one. I think it's this,” you point to the 12 you’ve written, “but it might be this”. In the air you indicate the 6 position on a clock face. “So I think it’s this” this time you indicate in the air where a 12 would be on a large imaginary clock face between you and the audience, “but I might be this” and indicate the 6 position on the imaginary clock-face. “Does that make sense?”

The audience will mutter ‘yes’.

This element, although you are correct in the end shows a little bit of hesitation which makes the next phase much more believable.

“Okay. So Merry-Lee, just the hour hand, where is it pointing in your mind?” ’12 O’clock’ The audience erupts with applause.

47 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

We move onto the minute hand and I want to reinforce that she is personally making this up herself and so came up with this phrase which, despite being quite flawed in logic for the lady, works really well. I ask her: “Now let’s look at that minute hand. Oh okay, you’ve gone for something quite specific, haven’t you?” She smiles.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

“Thanks for that Merry-Lee”

Without being able to actually probe, I think the reason she smiles here is because the time is SO specific. This little smile serves as confirmation as far as the audience is concerned. Now, next to the 12 you write: *:43’ then you put a line through the 3 and under it write a ‘2’. Pointing to the 4 and 2 saying ‘This not...this” you point to the 3. “How many minutes past 12 is it?” ’43’.

The crowd groans. You just missed it. You shouldn’t have changed your mind. There are a few reasons I do this.

The first is to show a close miss, you don’t completely get it wrong, but the idea of you having changed your mind shows the audience that you ‘had it’ right, but you’re not perfect. The other reason this is so important to include in the routine is something I discovered by accident. 48 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

On the board I write it out like this:

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Written in this way you’re also prepared for an interesting ‘out’ that I came up with on the spur of the moment - like so many do, right? I’ve had it a few times where the lady in the chair has misremembered (or misread, I don’t know) the time as 12:45. If that happens to you the out that allows you to ‘get away with it’ is that you add a line under the 3 and 2 and write a 5 under it, as if it’s a sum, like this:

Again, it looks like a near miss, which is what this phase is aiming to be. 3. The Sound

I don’t always use this one. It is always on the card in my case to do because it feels right, or as an opportunity for another hit if the lady forgets one of the previous ones. It’s basically my back-up but it’s a good one. 49 £ Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

The card reads: We was married at exactly 12:43pm. We walked down the isle to someone playing the saxophone...

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

The language on this one is such that it expands the apparent ‘set’ of thoughts from just instruments to any sound at all - which as well as making it more impressive, also allows for the ‘sex sounds’ joke. “I’d like you to imagine something you can hear in this scene. Not the church organ because that would be obvious. But could be an instrument or it could be just an everyday sound like kids playing or something. Can you focus on something for me?” The script purposefully removes the idea of a church organ right away because I don’t want the audience thinking they can get ahead of me, and I want to keep that flow that’s been set up so far that she could literally think of anything. During this phase I change the order in which things are revealed. For the previous phases I’ve written something and then had the lady call out what she’s thinking of. However, if I do include this phase I am aware that it’s an added extra so do want to mix things up. So here you’ll notice in the performance script, what I do is I write the big ’S’ and then ask, “I’ve got an S does that make sense?” and the revelation moment comes from a simple ‘yes’ from the lady. Like I said when I set out to create this routine, it really is about the variety instead of the same reveal repeatedly. The main purpose of this is the sex/sax joke which you can get from the script which you read earlier. 4. The Dismissed Celebrity 50 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

You’ll notice that in the performance it’s at this point I ask the lady to think of a celebrity and then dismiss it and move right along to The Country phase.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I didn’t use to do this until chatting with Michael Weber at a mentalism convention we were both performing at in Germany a few years ago. He suggested that it would make a little more sense to have the lady think of the celebrity first, then move on to the country - otherwise it doesn’t figure that I'd have been able to know the celebrity’s name and then encode it into an anagram of the country. Like most things Michael says, I listened.

Doing this I also realised that this also allows you to show you’re finding the celebrity difficult so you move past it onto the country. Then when you struggle later with the celebrity again it makes more sense. 5. The Country

This phase may seem like a big old miss at first glance, but actually there’s a much bigger reason to this and it’s something again I don’t think I realised for the first 2-3 years of performing. To begin this phase I recap what’s happened as I want the lady and the audience to remember just how much we got right, before we go and get something ‘wrong’. "We’re in a church, you can hear the saxophone, I want you to imagine where in the world we are? Really use your imagination here.” This scripting expands and further cements the idea that ‘imagination’ is the same as making things up by actually using it in that context for this phase. This is when you turn the page of the flip chart and write GERMANY across the top of the page.

51 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Make sure everyone can see this. If you have the option of a live camera feed focused on the flip chart, this is the time to use it (I actually use it for the whole of this routine from the moment I start writing Church on the flip chart). Proceed to ask, “Where in the world are we?” And the lady will say something like ‘France’.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

There is a chance that she will say Germany.

It’s a small chance and in all these years it’s only happened once but I’ll take it. This is a huge deal if it happens because it confirms to the lady on stage that this is about her mind and imagination not the stuff written on her card. However, for all the other performances of this there’s another little deception we are going to toy with here. Once she announces the country, I stand right in front of the flip chart and gesture the audience to applaud while I say ‘Amazing!’. The audience will applaud as if they are ‘in on it’ and just encouraging her. At the same time I make a face like ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about’. That’s all happening for the audience but let’s take a moment to think about what’s happening for the lady with her eyes closed. She just named any country in the world and the audience is applauding. She thinks you got it right! This is HUGE. Yes, this will easily be broken when she talks to her friends and they’ll tell her it was just a joke, but then they will tell her that everything else was 100% legit. It’s a fantastic moment that you shouldn’t throw away. 52 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

Now we move on to... 6. The Celebrity Finale This whole routine is built on the shoulders of this one revelation that I’ve had in my notebook from my early days.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

I was looking for a great way to include an anagram so I wrote GERMANY MEG RYAN in my notebook and thought I’d use that for something, someday. I have a bit of an obsession with celebrity anagrams and have shared a few interesting ones with some close friends, one being my pal David Meade who used one as his finale to his theatre tour a few years ago. This is powerful stuff!

I mentioned in the performance section how critical it is that this phase does not appear to be your classic, corny ‘magician in trouble’ thing. Since the whole effect relies on the big, unexpected finale we want to make sure the lady says Meg Ryan at the end. One of the ways of checking that’s what she’s going to say is through the questions you ask when you’re apparently getting it wrong. It’s yet another double bluff for her and the audience because while you’re getting the answers ‘wrong’, you are actually confirming that she has the answer correct. The first question is that they are ‘a singer?’. If the lady answers ‘yes’ you know she’s not thinking of Meg Ryan. So, you can start to figure that out at this point when the heat is not turned up so high as when it comes to the final revelation.

53 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Now if the lady says ‘no’ to you saying it’s a singer, you know you’ve got a good chance that she’s thinking of the right person. But as you know, I like to be sure. The next question, which looks like a guess at something about the celebrity, while it will miss, will also tell you whether she’s thinking of the right person. ‘This is a man’.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Nope.

Good! So now we know she’s thinking of a female who is not famous for singing. All of this is accurate for your intended outcome of Meg Ryan, right?

I then go on to ask if they’re an actor famous for TV acting - I’m insinuating a soap opera here. Again you get a ‘no’ so you have confirmed that it’s a female who’s an actor famous for movies. I am happy to take my chances at this point that she’s thinking of the right person. It’s not a case of making this as awkward and nauseous as possible. You want everyone in that room to feel simply awful. You finally admit defeat and ever so apologetically, almost trying to upstage the miss with all the hits she got, blaming the woman a little bit by saying ‘it’s not her fault she did so well’ and other indirect ways of saying ‘I blame her, not me’, you dismiss her back to her seat. Just before you do, as if trying to say ‘you thought of someone stupid didn’t you’ - but not actually saying that, ask who she thought of. 54 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

She’ll say Meg Ryan and you say “Oh, Meg Ryan as in Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan?” She’ll say ‘yes’, and you help her back to her seat. You’ll notice that the audience has now heard ‘Meg Ryan’ three times at this point. The first when the lady says it, and then you say it twice. So there is no doubt that they heard Meg Ryan.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

The full text on the card is:

(JY) We was married at exactly 12:43pm We walked down the isle to someone playing the saxophone and actress Meg Ryan was there (really!!)

This (really!!) makes this seem like someone actually wrote that card and added that in because they didn’t think we would believe them. It’s the kind of small detail that knits things together in the mind of the lady on stage and pushes her right away from the idea that I might have actually written it. 7. Who’s Card

Before I go into the climax/finale reveal of this I want to dismiss one more possible explanation that the audience might have. The audience might think that somehow you switched or swapped the cards or maybe even added your own card in and that the lady wasn’t really reading one of the cards filled out by the audience - right? Of course, that is the case and so all the more reason we need to eliminate that thought as soon as possible. This is possible using an old theatre technique that actors and comedians have used for decades. 55 C Copynght 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Maybe you’ve seen a comedian do a joke where he apparently hears someone from the audience say something and then goes off on a tangent telling jokes about that thing? Yes, that’s the technique I’m talking about I call it...’pretending’.

m co k. om ic .c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

There is no woman waving at the back when I ask who’s card it is and call out the initials. At the top of the card I write some initials, in this case JY.

When I pick up the card I look at the initials, I read them (so I don’t need to act) and say “Where is JY? Where are you?” I look into the darkness and then between 2 people near the middle of the room I imagine I can see the silhouette of a lady waving at me furiously trying to get my attention. With that in my imagination I deliver the line much more believably when I thank her. We’ve now removed the actual method from the effect, which means the audience (hopefully) has nowhere to go in terms of explaining it. Now all the loose ends are tied up, there’s only one thing to do, that is make the big reveal of Meg Ryan being an anagram of Germany. 8. The Climax

Slowly walk to the flip chart, disappointed in yourself and a little embarrassed. Then you notice something.

56 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

Your head should tilt. You’ll hear the first round of people muttering *Ohh’. Then pick up pace, take your pen and cross out the M in Germany with a single stroke (so they can still see the M). Then directly under Germany write the M.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Then do the same with the E.

Then you’ll start to hear the audience start to put it all together.

You get faster and faster until you write a big scribbly ’N’ on the end of Meg Ryan and you turn to where the lady is sitting in the audience and exclaim “WE DID IT!”

57 ® Copyngfr; 2018 by Ker Dyne Ai rights reserved.

Daydreamer

Important Closing Points: • The lady’s card ends up on stage with you, so no one sees what was written on there - this bolsters the illusion more than if everyone gathers around the card and the damn thing ends up on Instagram for the world to drool over.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

• At no point is the lady a confederate or in any kind of cahoots with you. After every show it is this lady who comes up to me and is the most amazed. This is the power of this routine. As you can see, Daydreamer is a complete performance piece that not only layers methods to make it impenetrable, but also builds in drama and creates a complete theatrical experience for the audience. To me, this is a routine that is the definition of mind reading and what it would look like if we could really do it.

58 © Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.

Ken Dyne

Credits Kenton Knepper - The original routine from Wonder Words is what started me thinking about this in the first place. Derren Brown - Derren’s work expanding on Kenton’s original is obviously a huge contribution to mentalism.

m co k. om ic . c m tr k o ic ric k.c ag ict ric rm ag ict pe rm ag .su pe m w u er w .s p w w .su w w ww w

Luke Jermay - The Twisted Palm element of this routine was one of the first things I added when I was first cracking this open in front of audiences. Martin Duffy - Proofing and editing my work is hard going to say the least. The amount of work Martin has put into this is absolutely incredible. Thank you for that, and of course for your friendship.

© Copyright 2018 by Ken Dyne. All rights reserved.