Luke Jermay's Version

Luke Jermay “On Cody Fisher’s Comedy Confabulation”

© 2013 Cody S. Fisher www.CodyFisher.com

Note To The Reader: The following text was taken from an e-mail that Luke sent to me after the release of my original Comedy Confabulation manuscript. I have taken the original e-mail and “cut and pasted” it together in order to give the reader a good overview of Luke’s handling and thoughts on my routine. One of his main concerns was that while the ’gags’ may work for regular gigs and American audiences, he wasn’t sure they would work for the types of audiences he was currently performing for. What you have here is a slightly more serious (yet playful) routine that still holds true to the basic concepts that I developed for my comedy confabulation. Enjoy! Introduction: (By Luke Jermay) Cody Fisher, a working popular American magician recently released his version of the enduring Confabulation premise. It has been met with seemingly universal praise, and rightly so. The routine pays close attention to areas that have long been seen as being weakness by most performers chasing the holy grail of such routines. What is well thought out in Mr. Fisher’s routine is the gathering of information under the guise of an apparently unrelated open process. He also pays attention to another thing that I have long disliked--the closeness in size of the prediction and pad used to record the information as well as the same color ink in use. Cody cleverly distances the likeness of these by ending with a prediction that is of both a different size and written in a different color ink to the openly used pad. Cody’s method for this is good - however I have been using a method from my friend John Lovick, who also shared this concern and solved it in a way I think is great for some time. I will not detail either of these gentlemen's ideas in this write up as this is intended to share a concept in adjusting the work already presented by Fisher as a supplement and not as a stand-alone offering. If you do not have the original routine then this will be somewhat of a mystery no matter how many times it is read! Performance: “Right from childhood we begin to develop cognitive links between things. Sometimes these serve us well; we learn that touching something hot burns us. Other times the purpose of those connections is less clear. It is especially interesting with linguistics. For example...” The performer picks up a large pad and writes something on it. He then continues:

“When I show you the word written on this pad, respond with the first word that comes to your mind...” The pad is turned around to reveal the word love. The audience responds with the word hate. The performer continues: “That link is so strong that no thought is required. One instantly leads to the other. Just like if I said ʻupʼ you say...” The audience once again responds aloud this time with the word ʻdownʼ the performer continues: “Or maybe the word hot...” The audience again responds with the word cold. The performer smiles and continues: “Well this level of connection is really interesting to me. You see if someone where able to trigger one of those deeply rooted connections without being obvious about it. It could look like they were literally controlling your mind. In lots of senses they are, they are thinking about how your mind would react and what choice you would make. It seems pretty close to mind control to me! We are going to play an interesting mind game. A game not based on connections but based on aversions. Kind of a reverse association test. I am going to write a word on this pad and then have one of you read the word in your head, and then out loud say a word that you think is literally the furthest from it. A word with no logical connection and word literally that comes from nowhere but your own free will.” The performer has a spectator selected at random by throwing a stuffed toy into the audience. The closest spectator upon the second throw within the audience is asked to stand. While this happens the performer writes a word on the pad and then continues with the standing spectator. “Ok ready? I am going to show you the word read it silently to yourself, then take a second or two and announce a word that comes to your mind. Interestingly everyone can play along with this. Just make your decisions in your head. 3....2...1.”

The performer turns the pad around and the word BANANA is seen. Often this elicits a chuckle as it is a funny word to see after a serious introduction. The spectator takes a few seconds and then announces a word. Let’s imagine the word is ʻcameraʼ the performer continues: “Good job. That felt like a free choice correct? I mean the concepts linked with banana are many and varied. Yellow, slippery, monkey…but camera? There is no way I could have controlled that choice? No way. Please remember your word and take your seat you did perfectly.” The performer leads in a round of applause for the spectator and continues: “We are going to play the game again. This time it won’t be a word I write down. This time I am going to write a number on the pad. Whoever catches the stuffed animal will stand up and read the number to themselves. Then they will name any country in the world. However do not make it somewhere you want to visit or perhaps where your family is from but just a country chosen at random. Try to make it something forming in your own mind not in your preferences or history. Please throw the animal.” The animal is thrown and a spectator stands. The performer turns the pad around and the number 223 is seen. The spectator reads it to themselves and then the performer has then aloud name the country. He comments on the free choice and the fairness of the situation and then continues: “OK, last round of the game. Whoever catches the animal will stand and look at the image I make on this pad. The image I think will trigger a certain reaction. The first will be laughter at my artistic skills but then after that something interesting will happen. An animal will come to mind. Clearly and strongly. Please throw the stuffed toy and if you catch it stand up.” The toy is thrown and the performer sketches on the pad. The image is shown to the spectator; this image is little more than 4 straight intersecting lines. No logical reference to any animal is possible from its design. The spectator names an animal and the performer has the spectator bring the animal and themselves to the stage as he states: “You did great please give her a round of applause to welcome her up here.”

The performer signs his artwork and tears it from the page. When the spectator arrives onstage he continues handing the art work to the spectator: “As a reward for that long walk I have signed my art work so you can sell it on eBay.” The performer hands the artwork to the spectator. The performer now reveals he has a prediction inside of his wallet / inside an inflated balloon / locked box / block of ice / whatever to reveal that he has indeed controlled the minds of each randomly selected audience member. Notes: The core and brilliant concept from Mr. Fisher of distancing what is written on the pad from the information gathered is clearly retained. All that I have done is change the manner in which we present this dodge. As an addition - the use of the animal being thrown around the room creates MASSIVE cover in performance to make your entry on the prediction as you apparently write / draw the next item for the mind game. I set my pad by having the top sheet blank, followed by the second seen pre-written and the final sheet pre-drawn and signed. In performance I then openly write the word love in the introduction of the routine and then working one behind fill in the prediction elements finally adding the third and final choice as I apparently sign my drawing. Structuring the ‘dirty work’ to happen under not only an apparently logical action, Cody’s brilliant idea but also to happen when something larger and ʻfunʻ is happening - having the animal thrown about and a spectator joining us while the remainder of the audience applause gives more than enough time and directed attention for the performer to not feel he is being ʻburnedʻ during the secret writing. Aside from that, there is not much to say about my handling. The real secrets are all in taking Cody’s idea and finding a fresh way that suits me to apply his thinking. I like this routine a lot and wanted to share it not as an improvement or even as a alternative but rather to show the multi-purpose aspect of Cody’s concept which I fear might get lost with performers only presenting the routine as Cody has written overlooking the real value in it.

I currently reveal my prediction inside of a balloon which has been floating in the air tied to my case from the early stages of the act. I like this as when I walk on this balloon is inside my case (A Doctor’s Bag) and when I open the case it floats upward and remains in view. It’s a pretty looking thing and is totally self-contained. Walk on with the case set it onto the stage or an awaiting chair and yet it adds a little to the look of things as well as provides a perfect place to isolate the prediction.

© 2013 Cody S. Fisher www.CodyFisher.com